Program Information
- Copyright Type
- Proprietary
SLAR
Grade 3Publisher: Savvas Learning
Copyright: 2020
The quality review is the result of extensive evidence gathering and analysis by Texas educators of how well instructional materials satisfy the criteria for quality in the subject-specific rubric. Follow the links below to view the scores and read the evidence used to determine quality.
Section 1. Spanish Language Arts and Reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) Alignment
Grade |
TEKS Student % |
TEKS Teacher % |
ELPS Student % |
ELPS Teacher % |
Grade 3 |
100.00% |
100.00% |
N/A |
N/A |
Grade 4 |
100.00% |
100.00% |
N/A |
N/A |
Grade 5 |
100.00% |
100.00% |
N/A |
N/A |
Section 2. Texts
Section 3. Literacy Practices and Text Interactions
Section 4. Developing and Sustaining Foundational Literacy Skills
Section 5. Progress Monitoring
Section 6. Supports for All Learners
Section 7. Implementation
Section 8. Bilingual Program Model Considerations
Section 9. Additional Information
Grade | TEKS Student % | TEKS Teacher % | ELPS Student % | ELPS Teacher % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Grade 3 | 100% | 100% | N/A | N/A |
The materials provide a wide variety and range of high-quality literary and informational texts that are appropriately challenging for the grade level. The texts are well crafted and cover a wide range of student interests. The diverse texts include traditional, contemporary, and classical texts and represent expert writing across various disciplines.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include a wide variety of high-quality texts for SLAR instruction. The materials provide consideration for the range of student interests. Several selections of texts are provided for the various components of the weekly lesson cycle. These options for texts provide the readers with choices based on their interests. In every weekly plan, the materials provide leveled readers. The leveled readers connect to the themes and genres for each unit. If the teacher needs access to a leveled text that is either above or below the levels provided for that unit, the teacher has complete online access to the “Leveled Reader Library” in addition to the “Leveled Reader App." The latter provides teachers with access to over 4,500 additional leveled readers and texts. This app helps teachers to search for texts based on student interests, maximizing student engagement in reading.
In every Unit, the materials provide a Book Club or “Club del Libro." The book club plan provides students with suggested titles to choose from, including literary and nonfiction texts. The suggested titles allow students to read and discuss books based on their groups’ interests. The texts cover a wide range of student interests about sports, natural disasters, weather, natural resources, animals, school, and friendships. Many of the texts are written by well-known Latino authors like Alma Flor Ada and Pam Muñoz Ryan.
The materials provide another source of well-crafted texts in the Mentor Stacks or “Textos mentores.” The students are presented with short passages from various different texts of the same genre in these mini-selections. These texts provide quality content, language, and writing produced by experts. The students go over these mentor texts and the work of experts in order to understand the craft of the author; then, they apply what they learn to their own writing.
The materials include examples of well-crafted texts at the appropriate readability level for students in that specific grade. For example, Unit 2, “Interacciones,” includes the text, Isla de Lobos. It is a fiction story with short paragraphs containing simple sentences and accessible vocabulary for third grade. Unit 3, “Heroes,” includes the text, Huir Hacia La Libertad, a historical fiction story that has an appropriate amount of text and visuals that supports third-grade reading.
In Unit 5, “Soluciones," the texts contain quality content, language, and writing appropriate to third grade. This unit includes the text, Terremotos, erupciones y otros sucesos que cambian la Tierra. This non-fiction text describes how earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other forces of nature change the Earth's surface. Since this text is in Unit 5, the text is more complex than the nonfiction texts in Unit 1 and appropriate for an end-of-year third grader.
The materials provide texts with which the students can identify. The texts provided help students see themselves and their family structures reflected. For example, the materials include a wide variety of folktales that are representative of various Latino cultures. The final page of each folktale includes a “Historical Background” section that explains the legend or myth in terms of what people believed and where it originated from. For example, La flor dorada is a Puerto Rican Taino myth on how the island was formed. It ends like this: “Y así es como, según los taínos, entre el Sol y el mar azul brillante, nació su hogar, la isla Boriquén.." Once the myth has been told, the lesson contains an explanation, “Los taínos cuentan este mito originario sobre la isla que es su hogar para explicar cómo nacieron sus flores, los bosques, el agua y las criaturas marinas.”
The materials include increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, and multiculturally diverse texts. The materials include texts that are not only accurate about the cultures they represent but also contain characters from various under-represented groups (race, ethnicity, religion, culture, societal groups, people with disabilities). Through these texts, students learn about the lives of these underrepresented groups. Examples include but are not limited to:
The materials include appropriately challenging texts at an appropriate level of complexity to support third-grade students. The materials provide teachers with a “Text Complexity Chart” that explains the quantitative and qualitative measures for the core lesson, Tier 1 instruction, and central texts. The materials use the Lexile leveling system to describe the complexity of read-aloud texts, independent reading texts, guided reading texts, mentor texts, book club texts, and leveled nonfiction passages used for inquiry and research.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide a Lexile level for all texts included in the materials. As the year progresses, the texts provided for each unit grow in complexity according to Lexile Levels. The materials include a chart for teachers that provides the reading level in several measures (Lexile level, DRA level, guided reading level) for all texts that are used throughout the various components of the lesson cycle (guided reading, whole group, independent reading, book club, mentor texts, research). For example, the Unit 2 Leveled Readers include the text “Un hogar para una gallina,” with a Lexile level of 560, EDL level 24, guided reading level L, and a 1,559 word count.
The materials provide “Text Complexity Charts” for the central texts from each unit. The charts provide the quantitative and qualitative measures as well as reader and task considerations. Quantitative measures include Lexile level, average sentence length, word frequency, and word count. Qualitative measures include levels of meaning/purpose, text structure, language conventionality, and knowledge demands. Reader and task considerations are included for students on grade level, students who may need intervention, and English language learners.
Unit 1 includes the text, “La flor dorada: Uni mito taíno de Puerto Rico,” with a Lexile level of 560L and a word count of 756. The story is chronologically told in the third person, but the events are mythical rather than realistic, making the plot difficult to predict. The quantitative measures place this text in the grade 2–3 complexity band. This text’s qualitative measures suggest that students may need additional support with understanding that Puerto Rico is an island and following unusual plot events. For English Learners, the “Reader and Task Considerations” suggest that teachers build students’ knowledge on the location of Puerto Rico and the definition of an island.
Unit 3 includes the text, El turno del abuelito: Un camino hacia las urnas, with a Lexile level of 650L and a 923 word count. The quantitative measures place this text in the grade 2–3 complexity band. This story’s qualitative measures suggest that students might need additional support with idiomatic and figurative phrases and understanding voting rights. This historical fiction tells the story of the narrator’s relationship with his grandfather inside the particular historical context of the civil rights movement and voting rights. Since the text’s knowledge demands require that students understand voting rights, the materials provide questions to assess the prior knowledge of students on the history of voting rights. For English Learners, the “Reader and Task Considerations” suggest teachers pre-teach phrases (idioms) found in the text and have them use the phrases in a sentence. The materials provide sentence stems for the teacher to use with students.
Unit 5 contains “En lo profundo y otros lugares extremos donde vivir,” with a Lexile of 730L and 1,099 word count. The quantitative measure places this text on the grades 2–3 complexity band. This non-fiction text describes how individuals have to adapt to different environments. The qualitative measures for this text suggest students might need additional support with knowledge demands such as places around the world and cultures included. For English Learners, the “Reader and Task Considerations” suggest that teachers build on the connections between the daily life experiences in the extreme places described in the book to the daily life experiences of the students. For students who may struggle to understand the geographical locations, the materials suggest that teachers share maps of the text’s locations.
The materials include a variety of text types and genres across content areas that meet the TEKS requirements for each grade level. The materials include literary texts, such as realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, short stories, poetry, and drama. The materials include informational texts, such as expository, argumentative, persuasive, and procedural. The materials contain a variety of print and graphical features. The materials include opportunities for students to recognize and analyze the characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.
Examples of literary texts outlined by TEKS for third grade include but are not limited to:
In every unit, the materials provide an opportunity for teachers to plan for cross-curricular connections. In the “Teachers Edition” for each unit, there is a section, “Perspectivas Intercurriculares.” This section provides teachers with information on how to connect the unit to science or social studies content and provides the science or social studies TEKS to which the unit aligns.
Examples of informational texts that are connected to science and social studies topics outlined by the TEKS for third grade include but are not limited to:
The materials provide students with multiple opportunities to interact with graphical features during the lesson’s section, “Interacción con las Fuentes.” Examples of print and graphical features include but are not limited to:
In Unit 1, “Entornos,” the materials provide a map for students to see how environments affect how people live and move, “¿Cómo viajan las personas en diferentes lugares?” Students use a map as they discuss this guiding question in groups. The teacher guides students to the map in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” The teacher explains how the map illustrates four different environments in India, and students discuss how it affects travel. Additionally, Unit 1 includes the nonfiction text, “Vivir en el desierto.” This text includes headings, subheadings, bold words, sidebars, photographs, captions, maps, and a glossary.
In Unit 3, “Heróes," the materials provide the primary source of photographs of Apollo 11’s landing on the moon in 1969. Students use the photographs to inquire into the characteristics of heroes. “Observa las fotos del alunizaje Apollo 11. Comenta con un compañero cómo describirías a los astronautas y a los demás participantes de la misión. ¿Por qué actuaron como héroes?” In Unit 3, Week 4, the materials provide a timeline for students to inquire into how heroes have impacted our history. Students interact with a timeline provided in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” Students discuss how the heroes included in the timeline made a positive impact at different moments in history. Unit 3 includes the book club text, “Huir hacia la libertad.” This text includes features such as an index, photographs, and bolded words.
In Unit 5, “Soluciones," the materials provide an infographic for students to inquire into how people can prepare for an emergency. Students read over the infographic provided in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” and discuss how different organizations help us prepare for emergencies: “Indique a los estudiantes que lean la infografía y conversen sobre las distintas organizaciones que nos ayudan a prepararnos para las emergencias.” Additionally, Unit 5 includes the text, Terremotos, erupciones, y otros sucesos que cambian la tierra. This nonfiction text includes headings, subheadings, bold words, photographs, diagrams, and maps.
The materials provide opportunities for students to recognize and analyze the characteristics of multimodal and digital texts. All materials are available in the MiVisión online platform. Every unit in the materials is presented in a digital format. Students can read, listen to the story, or both. The digital version of the materials offers students the possibility of taking online assessments, watching videos, and doing activities related to the lessons’ content.
The materials require students to practice careful reading to provide text evidence to support answers, claims, and inferences. Across texts of varying genres, students make text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections. Additionally, the questions in the materials are text-dependent and look at complex ideas. Questions and tasks support students in building conceptual knowledge and making connections related to the themes and big ideas. In addition, the materials integrate multiple standards within and throughout the lessons.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials use a reading workshop structure to facilitate the instruction of six-week, multi-genre units. Although various genres are addressed in each unit, there is a focus or a “Spotlight Genre” that is the unit’s main focus. The first three weeks of the unit are dedicated to in-depth teaching of the elements and reading skills required for students to understand the focus genre. The next two weeks of the unit are a multi-genre unit in which multiple standards are addressed. Each unit has a theme and an essential question. Each unit starts with the “Essential Question,” and, as the weeks progress, students reflect and respond to the “Weekly Question” that connects to the essential question. Through questioning, the knowledge around the unit theme and essential question builds, culminating in a research and inquiry project at the end of the unit, Week 6. Through collaboration, students work together to solve a real-world problem connected to the unit theme and essential question. The inquiry project embeds the unit theme, essential question, and multiple TEKS in a creative, rigorous, and authentic way.
In Unit 1, the goal of the unit theme is to determine how the environment affects us, “Determinar cómo afecta el entorno a las personas.” The Essential Question for the unit is: “Cómo nos afecta el entorno?" In the unit, students answer five weekly questions, “Pregunta de la semana,” that help build an understanding of the theme and the essential question. In Week 1, students answer: “¿Cómo viajan las personas en diferentes lugares?” The question in Week 2, students answer: ¿Cómo conviven las plantas y los animales?” In Week 3, students answer: “¿Cómo se forma un héroe?” In Week 4, students answer: “¿Cómo cambian las comunidades a través del tiempo?” In Week 5, students answer: “¿Qué dificultades nos presenta el medioambiente?” Each week, these questions are accompanied by pictures, various texts, questions to guide a group discussion, and a task related to the question. Students read a diagram to learn more about the rainforest, “Explorando un entorno de Selva,” in Week 4, to explore the focus question: “How can an environment affect lives and relationships?” As they read the diagram, they use the following guiding questions to discuss how a rainforest environment might affect how people live: “¿Qué datos les sorprendieron sobre este entorno? ¿Por qué creen que las personas que viven en diferentes entornos tienen diferentes tipos de casas, alimentos, y ropa? ¿Qué les sugieren estos datos sobre la importancia de adaptarse al entorno donde vivimos?” The guiding questions provided by the materials are well-crafted. Through discussion, they lead students to new insights about the unit theme of environments.
Throughout the units, the questions and tasks support students drawing on textual evidence to support their learning of explicit facts and inferences in a text. In the Unit 2 section, “Conferenciar," the teachers ask guiding questions that help them determine whether students can apply the skill being taught to their own text. During independent reading, teachers have a one-to-one conference with students and ask the following questions connected to the skill of character analysis: “¿Qué palabras usa el autor para describir el personaje? ¿Qué les dicen esas palabras sobre los personajes? ¿Aprende los personajes una lección importante?” Students provide text evidence as they respond.
In Unit 3, during the “Model and Practice” section of the mini-lesson, the materials provide guiding questions in the sidebar of the Teacher’s Edition. Students reflect on the current text being read and connect to other texts, the unit theme, and the essential question using these questions. The teacher asks, “¿Qué debe lograr una persona o personaje para que lo consideren un héroe? ¿Los textos le alentaron a actuar heroicamente o ser valientes en situaciones.” After reading the text selection, in which the teacher models how to support opinions with text evidence, students “Reflect and Share.” Using the “Libro interactivo del estudiante,” students use evidence from the text to respond to the weekly question. Students support their opinion about whether the characters in the text display the characteristics of a hero.
In Unit 4, the section “Lectura Atenta” provides guiding questions in the sidebar of the Teacher’s Edition that integrate the standards. Teachers use these questions to guide students in analyzing the author’s craft. Students are prompted to think like writers and analyze the author's craft by answering questions such as: “¿Qué detalle de éste párrafo los ayuda a reconocer que este biografía tiene una estructura del texto de orden cronológico? ¿Por qué creen que la autora terminó la página con una pregunta? ¿Qué efecto tiene eso sobre el lector?”
In the Unit 5 section “Evaluación y Diferenciación,” teachers choose texts that meet the needs of the varying reading levels and instructional needs of small groups. The materials provide guiding questions for small group lessons that help students work on the various third-grade standards. Each unit focuses on different skills guided by the genre focus of that unit. Small group lesson options provided include: “identifying a procedural text, developing vocabulary, analyzing the text structure, monitoring comprehension, comparing across texts, and word study.” The materials provide guiding questions for the teacher to use to teach each different skill. For example, to work on making connections and comparing across texts, the materials provide the question: “¿Qué conexiones puedes hacer con otros libros?”
The materials contain questions and tasks designed to support student analysis of the literary and textual elements of a text to develop deep understandings of text and apply the knowledge to their writing. The materials contain a variety of tasks and questions where students can analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts. Students make inferences and draw conclusions about the author's purpose and craft and analyze literary choices to understand the text.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
During the shared reading lesson in every unit, the materials include a section, “Leer como un escritor” (Read Like a Writer). This section provides instructional support for rereading every text to make inferences and draw conclusions about the author's purpose, craft, and structure. This section provides guidance for the teacher to ask discussion questions that guide students to analyze the author’s craft and develop the skills to read like a writer. Additionally, the materials provide teachers with the excerpt from a mentor text for teachers to display for analysis and discussion.
In Unit 1, the “Leer como un escritor” section provides instructions for teachers to guide students to develop an understanding of figurative language, or specifically, personification. The teacher displays the text for students to analyze the author’s choice of language, “Pero el cielo estaba enojado porque hombres y mujeres derrochaban demasiado.” The teacher asks students to identify the human-like characteristics the author gives to the sky. Once students discuss their responses, the teacher explains that personification is giving human-like characteristics to something that is not human, like the sky. The teacher further explains that authors use figurative language, like personification, to help readers relate to the ideas and convey meaning more effectively.
Additionally, every unit contains a “Reading and Writing Bridge." The Reading and Writing Bridge offers teaching points to help students make meaningful connections, bringing together and illustrating the union between reading and writing. The pillars of the Reading and Writing Bridge are “Read Like a Writer” and “Write for a Reader." In this section and the “Writer’s Workshop” section, students apply the connections that they have learned about the genre through their reading workshop lessons to their own writing.
In Unit 2, in the reading and writing workshop bridge section, “Escribir para un lector," students study the text to analyze the author's choice to use graphic features to achieve specific purposes. In the “Model and Practice” section of the lesson, the teacher shows students how to use this strategy and provides additional practice in the Student Interactive Book. Students apply this technique to their own writing, “Pida a los estudiantes que usen ilustraciones en su escritura durante el Taller de escritura.” During writing conferences, the teacher differentiates instruction by providing more modeling, practice, and guidance to those who may need it, “Durante las conferencias, apoye la escritura de los estudiantes ayudándolos a incluir ilustraciones en su escritura de manera significativa.”
In every unit, the materials include questions that can be answered only by referring explicitly to the text. Questions or activities call for the students to linger on a specific sentence or phrase to analyze the author’s craft and structure. Activities support students as they make inferences, draw conclusions, and analyze grade-appropriate text. The materials include questions and tasks that require readers to identify elements of the author’s craft and support the author’s purpose using textual evidence. In Unit 5, “Soluciones,” students may choose to read from several Leveled Readers, including “Las edades de hielo.” The materials provide the guidance for teachers to make predictions and analyze the author’s craft when reading the book in small groups with students, “Pida a los estudiantes que hojeen el libro y que identifiquen diferentes elementos del texto y gráficos, como encabezados, leyendas, fotografías y diagramas. Diga: ¿De qué manera creen que estos elementos les ayudarán a aprender sobre las edades de hielo?” This question requires students to make predictions about and analyze the author’s purpose for including graphic elements to achieve her purpose.
The materials provide opportunities for students to analyze and discuss how the author uses language to explain a topic in an informational text. In Unit 5, in the section “Conferenciar," teachers ask students, “What words did the author use to accurately explain the topic?” This question guides students to draw conclusions and analyze the author’s use of language to explain the topic.
The materials include a year-long plan for building academic vocabulary. The materials provide a variety of tools and techniques to make the building of academic vocabulary and vocabulary instruction engaging, individualized, and relevant to all learners. Each unit contains an academic vocabulary lesson. Students practice and apply their understanding of academic vocabulary and build key academic vocabulary both within and across texts.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials are structured so that the academic vocabulary connects to the unit theme, essential question, and specific central topics or ideas, and it repeats in a variety of genres across the year. Within the “Program Overview,” the materials provide teachers with an “Academic Vocabulary Word List.” This list provides teachers with the academic word list for every unit for the scope of the year.
Within each unit, academic vocabulary is taught using the same structure. At the beginning of the unit, the materials guide teachers in introducing the academic vocabulary. Throughout the five-week units, the materials provide instruction and practice that guide students to generate more words connected to Academic Vocabulary. Words are generated by meaning, word parts, and context clues. At the end of the unit, students practice and apply the academic vocabulary and the list generated throughout the unit, in their writing, and in the Project-Based Inquiry.
The materials provide vocabulary activities embedded into the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” as well as oral routines that guide students to use academic vocabulary through group discussions and turn-talk-share opportunities. In Unit 1, Academic Vocabulary, the materials discuss ideas related to the unit theme, “Environments," using the words “competir, resolver, costumbre, occasion, organización." The teacher models the oral routine using these words by saying, “Me anote para competir en una carrera.” The teacher asks, “Qué requisitos son necesarios para competir en las actividades que organiza la escuela?” Students follow the routine and complete the “tabla de la p.13 del Libro del estudiante,” using the academic vocabulary word list. During the section “Desarrollo del lenguaje en espanol," the teacher reinforces academic vocabulary by providing students with sentence frames to use as they practice using the words from the list, “A juan le gusta______." After using the sentence frames to practice using the academic vocabulary in context, the teacher asks students to share their own definitions of each word aloud. For the second activity, students generate a list of more words connected to the unit academic vocabulary. Students use the list of words to write sentences to describe “environments.”
The materials provide teacher guidance for vocabulary instruction within small groups with the use of leveled readers. The materials include a list of vocabulary words, for each leveled reader, at the beginning of each story. Within the small group lesson, the materials offer scaffolds and support opportunities for students to learn, practice, apply, and transfer words into familiar and new contexts. In Unit 1, for the level N text, “La gran aventura,” the list of academic vocabulary words to teach are: “aventura, descubierto, diario, eternidad, recursos” and “registro.” These words appear within the text. The teacher introduces these words before reading so that students better understand the text. The materials guide the teacher to introduce vocabulary in contexts through the use of context clues, “Pregúnteles qué significa la palabra eternidad. Explique que podemos usar claves en la oración y en la página para descifrar o confirmar el significado. Guíalos a usar claves de la oración.”
The materials provide teacher guidance for vocabulary instruction within Book Clubs, “Club del Libro." In Unit 2, in the plan for the book club text, “Ahí viene el lobo gris,” the materials provide the focus vocabulary words for that text: “pelaje, montículo, erizan, ahuyentan, artimañas, solitaria.” Within this unit, the materials also guide the teacher to introduce vocabulary in contexts through the use of context clues, “Explique que las claves del contexto ayudan a los lectores a averiguar el significado de las palabras desconocidas. Señale la palabra manadas de la página 5, y explique que la definición está en esa misma oración.” The teacher models and guides students on how to use clues from within the sentence to figure out the definition of unknown words.
Within each unit’s shared reading section, the materials provide vocabulary instruction before and after the text is read in sections”Preview Vocabulary” and “Respond and Analyze.” In Unit 4, before reading the text, “La casa que construyó Jane," the teacher introduces the vocabulary “comunidad, donar, convencer, generosa, y transformó,” and provides a definition in the section “Primer vistazo al vocabulario.” The teacher explains that these words are bolded in the text, and they can refer to them as they read, “A medida que leen, presta atención estas palabras de vocabulario.” During the “lectura compartida,” students review the highlighted academic vocabulary words in the text. After they have read the text, students apply their understanding of the vocabulary in the section, “Desarrollar el vocabulario.” Within their student interactive book, students complete sentences using the vocabulary words: “comunidad, donar, generosas,” and “transformó.”
The materials include a plan to support and hold students accountable as they engage in independent reading. Generally, the procedures and protocols, along with adequate support for teachers, are provided to foster independent reading. The materials provide a plan for students to self-select texts and read independently for a sustained period of time, including planning and accountability for achieving independent reading goals.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The “Student Interactive Book” in each unit includes a section specific to independent reading. Each unit focuses on a different strategy to guide students in self-selecting a text. Unit 1 focuses on teaching students how to select a text that fits their purpose and reading level. The materials provide steps that guide the students in using the strategy, “Los siguientes pasos te ayudarán a seleccionar por ti mismo un texto que disfrutarás leyendo por tu cuenta.” Students think about the purpose of reading by asking themselves if they want to read a book to learn something new, for enjoyment, or to read more books from a favorite author. The Student Interactive Book provides the students with the following guiding questions to guide them in establishing a purpose to selecting a text, “¿ Quiero leer solo para aprender algo nuevo? ¿Quiero leer solo para divertirme? ¿Quiero leer más libros de mi autor favorito?” The materials then guide students to read a couple of pages from the text they have chosen and ask themselves if they can read the words and understand the text. If it is too hard for them, they are encouraged to choose another book.
Within each unit, independent Reading is an option that students consider together with other possibilities across each week. In Unit 1, the section “Evaluación y Diferenciación” includes a section that guides the teacher to offer students different options to choose from for Independent Reading. The options offered are: “leer un libro autoseleccionado, leer el texto del Club del libro , leer o escuchar un libro por nivel, leer un eText previamente leído.” These options make independent reading a choice that students may or may not take.
Additionally, the student interactive book provides a “Reading Log” for students to log the books they read and hold students accountable for achieving independent reading goals. For example, in Unit 2, the students interactive book provides recommendations to use text features during independent reading, “Para seleccionar tu mismo un texto informativo, sigue los siguientes pasos.” Students choose a nonfiction text by thinking about topics they want to know more about. Once they decide on a topic, they look through books and use the text features to preview the text and decide if it is a text that interests them. Along with steps, the Student Interactive book provides questions that guide students through selecting a text: “¿De cuál tema quiero aprender? ¿Qué es lo que ya sé sobre este tema? ¿Qué es lo que quiero saber sobre este tema?”
Through book clubs, the materials foster independent reading. Within each unit, the materials present a variety of suggested titles that “provide choice to increase student engagement.” Book Club consists of a set-aside time when students meet in small groups to discuss the unit’s trade book. It is a time for students to talk about what they are reading. Students have the agency to choose a book for Book Club. The teacher presents a list of several books that connect to the unit theme for students to choose. Based on the texts they have chosen, students are placed in clubs. For example, for Unit 4, the teacher presents the titles: Conoce a Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Conoce a Cristóbal Colón, Mujeres en la política, Plantando árboles en Kenia, 16 escritores muy muy importantes. The materials advise the teacher to make sure that the books are at the appropriate reading level for the students that have selected them, “De un vistazo previo a las selecciones para determinar si son apropiados para los estudiantes y verificar su disponibilidad.” The students meet as a group to determine how they want to divide up the book to finish it within the time frame, “Ayude al club decidir cómo dividir el libro a lo largo de diez días y defina expectativas claras de lectura.” To hold students accountable for their independent reading, students fill out a Discussion Chart with the details they notice, connections they make, and things they wonder about. The materials guide students to use evidence from the text to support their Book Club conversations. As they read independently, students fill out the discussion chart to prepare for their Book Club conversations, “Tenga una idea clara de lo que ocurre en el libro, para que pueda participar de las conversaciones de los grupos.” After they read and fill out the discussion chart, the group comes together to discuss the text.
The materials provide support for students to develop composition skills across text types, purposes, and audiences. Students write a variety of literary, informational, and argumentative texts. The materials provide example texts to read within each genre and opportunities to compose narratives to express personal feelings, beliefs, and ideas. The materials provide limited opportunities to compose correspondence.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide guidance for teaching all the elements of the writing process throughout the school year, as well as scaffolding the process. Each Unit is composed of a five-week writing process cycle. They are organized in a way that allows the teacher and student to understand and develop the genre. Each unit focuses on a different genre, allowing students to develop composition skills across multiple text types for various purposes and audiences. The materials are organized so that the focus genre is the same for both the reading and writing workshop. The materials help students make meaningful connections, bringing together and illustrating the union between reading and writing.
Materials provide support for students to develop composition skills. The Writing Workshop always includes mentor texts and a Minilesson Bank. The materials provide a variety of mini-lessons for every unit. The materials provide mini-lessons that develop craft, structure, genre elements, and the writing process. The materials guide teachers to analyze student writing to differentiate and choose the writing mini-lessons that support the needs of the class.
In Unit 1, the weeks within the writing workshop, “Taller de escritura,” are organized as follows: Week 1 introduces and immerses the students in the genre of literary texts in order to understand the elements of a personal narrative. The materials guide students in reading a variety of personal narratives to see how authors develop a story around a special memory: “Explique a los estudiantes que en los próximos dos días van a leer muchas narraciones personales como preparación para escribir su propia narración.” In Week 2, students learn about specific elements of a personal narrative and develop engaging ideas for personal narratives. Students begin to draft and revise their drafts based on the elements learned. In Week 3, students begin to compose an introduction for their personal narratives. Students learn how to add dialogue, actions, thoughts, and feelings into their personal narratives. In Week 4, students edit their drafts for grammar. In Week 5, students publish, celebrate, and assess.
The materials have a focus genre for every writing unit. Throughout the five-week cycle, the students build a strong understanding of the elements of that genre by studying mentor texts and through the practice of creating their own pieces within that genre. The genre of correspondence was the only genre that did not have a specific unit dedicated to its understanding and practice. However, the materials provide some opportunities to write correspondence in the “Project-Based Inquiry” week. In Unit 1, Week 6, students research what could be done to improve a local park or playground. Then materials guide students to write an opinion letter to the town mayor or park official telling them what could be done to improve safety at a local park or playground: “En la carta explicaran que puede hacerse para mejorar la seguridad en el parque o área de juegos local.” Additionally, as part of this project, students are then guided to write thank-you notes to the mayor or park official to thank them for their time and for listening to their argument.
In Unit 2, the materials provide opportunities for students to write an informational text through How-To articles. In Week 1 of “Taller de escritura,” the teacher introduces and immerses the students in the procedural text genre. Students learn the characteristics of how-to articles, read multiple how-to articles to deepen their understanding of the genre, and plan their own how-to articles. In Week 2, students develop and engage in selecting a how-to article topic based on their interests, “Recuérdales que si escogen un tema que los apasiona, no solo disfrutarán la escritura del artículo, sino que otros también disfrutarán de leerlo.” Then, students research important facts and details to include in their article. In Week 3, students learn how to write a strong introduction and conclusion. Students learn how to organize the steps in their how-to process and begin drafting their how-to structure. In Week 4, students edit to improve coherence, clarity, and correct usage of grammar. In Week 5, students continue to edit, publish, and present their how-to articles.
In Unit 4, the materials provide opportunities for students to write an argumentative text through an opinion essay. In Week 1 of “Taller de escritura,” the teacher introduces and immerses the students in the genre of an argumentative text. Students explore the genre of opinion essays by reading multiple opinion essays to deepen their understanding of the genre. As they study the genre’s structure, they identify topics and points of view and brainstorm topics for their own essay. In Week 2, students develop a topic and opinion statement, learn to differentiate between fact and opinion, and research facts and reasons to support their opinion statement. In Week 3, students learn how to write a strong introduction and conclusion, organize supporting reasons and facts in their essay, and draft their essay. In Week 4, students revise their essays using peer suggestions and edit to improve correct usage of grammar and punctuation, “Revisar incluye leer las sugerencias de los compañeros y los maestros y aplicarlos a la versión final.” In Week 5, students continue to edit, prepare to publish, and present their opinion essays.
Written tasks require students to use clear and concise information and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate the knowledge gained through analysis and synthesis of texts. Students must support their understanding with textual evidence and provide thoughtful responses that include text evidence to support their claim, opinion, or position.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
During the shared reading lesson, the materials provide an opportunity for students to use evidence from texts to support their opinions and claims. As the teacher reads along, students follow. The teacher pauses throughout the lesson to ask comprehension questions. Students respond to questions orally and provide evidence from the text to support their responses. The materials provide teachers with an example response, “Respuesta possible,” to guide student thinking and discussion. For example, during “Lectura Compartida,” in Unit 1, students and teacher read the text, “Abuela y la gran calabaza.” The teacher asks students, “¿Disfrutó abuela su visita?” Students search through the text to scan and highlight evidence before responding to the question, “Pida a los estudiantes que lean la nota de lectura atenta. Pídales que busquen y resalten detalles en los párrafos 25 y 26 que ofrezcan evidencia de las experiencias placenteras de Abuela en la casa de su hija.”
To support the instruction in the small group mini-lessons, in the section, “Usar evidencia del texto,” the materials provide the teacher with prompts to ask students open-ended questions that guide them in providing evidence from the text. In the Unit 1 section, “Grupos Pequeños,” the materials provide the teacher guidance with the following prompts for small group reading: “¿Qué les indican los sucesos del cuento sobre el tipo de cuento tradicional que leyeron? ¿Qué evidencia brinda el autor sobre el resultado del cuento? ¿Qué ocurre en el cuento? Muestran los sucesos del texto que hacen que el argumento avance.” Through the lesson, the teacher supports students in how to provide text evidence to support their responses.
In Unit 3, during the shared reading, students learn to confirm or correct predictions during and after reading the selection. Students read the text, “Bajo cubierta: una historia del Titanic.” In the section “Confirmar o predecir las predicciones,” the teacher asks students to highlight and annotate details in the text that confirm or correct their predictions, “Pida a los estudiantes que den un vistazo a los párrafos 1–3. Pida a los estudiantes que resalten los detalles que confirman o corrigen su predicción.” For additional practice, students confirm or correct their predictions using text evidence from their annotations to complete the activity in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” The materials provide the following example response to guide student understanding: Prediction: “El titanic fue un barco grande y famoso”; text evidence related: “El mundo entero parecía estar hablando de su tamaño y velocidad y de cómo nunca se hundirá”; Correct or confirm prediction: “Yo tenía razón. El titanic fue un barco famoso, pero yo no sabía que la gente pensaba que nunca se hundiría.”
Materials provide opportunities for students to demonstrate, in writing, what they have learned through reading and listening to texts. In Unit 5, writing tasks require students to use details from the text to demonstrate knowledge gained. The writing task supports students’ practice of analysis and synthesis of the text “En el profundo y otros lugares extremos donde vivir." The materials provide the teacher with the suggestion: “Comenta las estrategias para la primera lectura. Pida a los estudiantes que den un primer vistazo al texto y registren sus predicciones sobre el tema en la tabla de la p. 455 del Libro interactivo del estudiante.” Students write their predictions in the student book and confirm or correct them with the information they found in the passage. After reading the passage, students answer comprehension questions that require them to refer back to the text. Examples of the open-ended questions include: “¿Qué elementos o características del texto te ayudan a identificar a En Lo profundo como un texto informativo? ¿Qué datos del texto apoyan la idea de que los sami dependen de los renos para sobrevivir?"
The materials include opportunities for students to study the writing genre, plan, write, edit, revise, publish, and share texts in increasingly complex ways. Grammar usage and mechanics are taught throughout the units. Each unit provides opportunities for students to practice grammar and conventions. The resources contain online and student book assignments to practice grammar and conventions, as well as opportunities for students to apply these skills to their writing. The Grammar unit follows a pacing guide, providing systematic instruction that applies to increasingly rigorous texts and student writing throughout the year. The materials include mentor texts, scoring rubrics, conferencing rubrics, conference notes templates, graphic organizers, and editing and revision checklists.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials facilitate students’ coherent use of the writing process elements. Every week of the writing workshop, “Taller de escritura,” is organized with the same structure: Week 1 introduces and immerses the students in the genre of literary texts; Week 2 develops the students’ understanding of the elements of the genre; Week 3 develops the students’ understanding of the structure; Week 4 works on the author’s craft; Week 5 has students publish, celebrate, and assess. Throughout the weeks, students craft and write several pieces within the genre. However, in Week 5, students choose their favorite piece to publish in the final format and then celebrate by presenting their favorite piece to the class. Alongside each lesson, the student refers to the student edition to practice the writing skill from the mini-lesson.
In Week 4 of every Writing Workshop unit, students learn specific grammatical skills, understand why these skills are important to the author's craft and structure, and edit to apply these skills to their writing. Through reading student writing, conferences, and assessments, the materials guide teachers to which lessons to choose. In Unit 1, teachers choose from the “Minilesson Bank“ to teach the grammar skills of coordinating conjunctions, comparative and superlative adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, and subject-verb agreement. Additionally, students edit drafts using standard English conventions, including coordinating conjunctions to form compound subjects, predicates, and sentences. The teacher uses a mentor text to identify and model why the author used a coordinating conjunction to combine certain sentences, “Lea las narraciones personales de los textos mentores. Con los estudiantes, localice los conjunciones coordinantes en las narraciones.” For shared practice, the teacher and students create compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions. Students revise their writing to find places where they can add variety to their sentences with coordinating conjunctions. If students need additional practice before applying coordinating conjunctions to their writing, they complete the additional practice in the “Student Interactive Book.” In this practice, the materials provide a paragraph that students rewrite by adding conjunctions to form compound subjects, compound predicates, and compound sentences, “Vuelve a escribir el párrafo agregando conjunciones para formar sujetos compuestos, predicados compuestos, y una oración compuesta.” The teacher materials provide teachers with the exemplar responses to help guide student understanding. In the section “Conferencias,” the materials provide guidance for teachers to support students that need additional support with coordinating conjunctions, “Si los estudiantes necesitan apoyo adicional con las conjunciones coordinantes, entonces repase las maneras en que las conjunciones coordinantes pueden unir palabras.”
Materials provide lessons on Spanish accent rules. In Unit 3, in the section “Estudio de palabras,” students learn accentuation of words with stress on the last and penultimate syllables. The teacher explains that when one word has two or more syllables, one of them is pronounced with greater intensity or force. That is, it has a syllable that carries the graphic accent on the word. The teacher models how words that carry the stress in the last syllable are called “palabras agudas,” and words stressed on the penultimate syllable are called “palabras graves.” The teacher demonstrates how to identify a word with stress on the last or penultimate syllable by writing the words “cafe y zapato” on the board. The teacher says “¿Qué sílaba lleva el acento en la palabra café? Entonces, ¿es una palabra aguda o grave?” As a shared practice, the teacher provides three more words “hambre, canción y repaso." Students read these words and identify the words as having the accent on the last syllable or the penultimate syllable. For additional practice, the materials provide an activity in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” to decode the words “con acento prosódico u ortográfico,” then underline “palabras agudas” and highlight “palabras graves.”
In every writing workshop unit, the materials dedicate lessons to teaching punctuation. In Unit 5, students edit their drafts for punctuation marks, including apostrophes in contractions, apostrophes in possessives, commas in compound sentences, and commas in a series, “Las comas se usan para separar elementos de una enumeración, aclaraciones dentro de un texto, lugar y fecha y las partes de una oración compuesta.” For the mini-lesson, the teacher models how to use commas after clauses, phrases, and words. During the shared practice, the materials allow students to practice using punctuation marks and then edit a poem that lacks punctuation. Teachers ask students to work in pairs to practice correct use of commas, “Trabajen en parejas y escriban una oración compuesta que use correctamente una coma.” Students edit the poem together. Students look for places where pauses are needed and add commas and apostrophes to the poem. If students need additional practice before applying coordinating conjunctions to their writing, they complete the additional practice in the “Student Interactive Book.” Students review the rules for punctuation marks and then edit the poem by correcting the punctuation errors. Students edit their writing for correct punctuation. At the end of the lesson, the teacher invites a few students to share the edits they made to their writing.
Materials fulfill the TEKS requirement for the grade level even though there is no formal procedure for assessing the students' handwriting. The materials provide some suggested practice for students to write in cursive.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide some suggested practice for students to write in cursive. Within the units, teachers ask students to write in cursive if they choose to do so for independent activities. The materials include practice for students to write legibly in cursive during publishing and editing sections. For example, in the publication phase of the writing process, the teacher gives the students the following instructions, “Publica tu narración para tu público. Luego, responde a las preguntas sobre tu experiencia. Escribe en letra cursiva legible dejando los espacios correspondientes entre las palabras.”
Within the “Program Overview” section of the teacher materials, there is a supplemental document titled “Práctica de caligrafía para todos” containing worksheet practice for cursive writing. The materials do not include instructions for teachers to teach cursive writing within the worksheets; it is for student practice only.
The writing process, along with the cursive worksheet practice, fulfills the TEKS requirement to have students write complete words, thoughts, and answers legibly in cursive, leaving appropriate spaces between words. Additionally, the materials do provide explicit instruction in cursive writing in grades K–2.
The materials provide opportunities to listen to and talk about texts before, during, and after reading. The materials include guiding questions and response starters to facilitate discussions that show students’ comprehension of texts. Throughout the materials, lessons guide teachers and students through various activities that promote speaking and listening through a balance of independent work, partner and team activities, and whole-group discussions of primary class texts. Most oral tasks require students to use information gathered through reading and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate knowledge through various activities.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Throughout the materials, within every week of each unit, the materials guide students through a Book Club. The materials provide step-by-step supports for students to launch text-supported conversations about the texts they read. For example, the materials provide students with a discussion chart. The chart has three sections: “Observaciones, Conexiones, y Dudas.” This chart guides students to organize their thoughts as they think about their reading and prepare for their group conversations, “Explique que mientras leen completarán sus tablas con observaciones que notan, conexiones que hagan, y dudas que tengan sobre lo que leen para prepararse para sus conversaciones del Club del libro.” When the book club discusses their text, students refer to this chart to defend their claims and demonstrate their comprehension of the text. Since Book Club is a time for students to get their own enjoyment out of reading, the teacher’s role is to be an occasional facilitator, helping to start conversations or direct the group to understand each others’ thinking. An important part of Book Club is the students’ ability to share their ideas and build on those of others effectively. When groups come together for their conversations, the materials provide students with response starters that offer examples of how to phrase ideas productively and respectfully, “Entiendo tu punto de vista pero pienso que ___. ¿Por qué dices eso? ¿Puedes repetir lo que dijiste? ¿Podrías explicar a qué te refieres cuando dices ___?” In addition to the response starters, the materials guide teachers to teach students to listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information, make pertinent comments, and build on others’ ideas.
Throughout the units, after the shared reading, students reflect on the week’s question in the “Reflect and Share” section of the unit. In Unit 1, Week 1, “Reflexionar y Comentar," students reflect and discuss the unit question, “¿Cómo viajan las personas en diferentes lugares?” In the mini-lesson for this section, the materials guide the teacher to model strategies on listening actively and asking relevant questions if students do not understand something from the discussion. The teacher explains that it is important to ask questions to find out what the other person means and thinks. To practice this strategy, the “Student Interactive Book” guides students to use evidence from the text “Abuela y la gran calabaza" to discuss other forms of travel that were used in the story. The teacher encourages students to ask their group members clarifying questions if any ideas are unclear. Questions include, “En tus palabras, piensa en las distintas maneras de viajar sobre las que leíste esta semana. ¿De qué otra manera podría haber viajado Abuela para volver a su casa? Usa ejemplos del texto para apoyar tu respuesta.”
At the beginning of each unit, in the section “Interact with Sources,” the materials provide a text to introduce the unit theme and question. Through this text and the questions provided, students discuss the weekly question. In Unit 3, section “Interacción con las fuentes,” the materials provide the poem, “La Libertad.” Students read the poem and discuss the effects that that heroes have on a community along with actions that make a person a hero, “Pida a los estudiantes que lean y comenten los efectos que pueden tener los héroes en una comunidad y qué tipo de acciones convierten a una persona en héroe.” Teachers provide students with the following questions to guide their discussions: “¿Qué cualidades tiene un héroe que ustedes consideran importante? ¿Qué persona conocen en la vida real que tenga las cualidades de las que se habla en el poema? ¿Cómo insinúa este poema que las personas comunes se convierten en héroes?” These questions create the opportunity for students to engage in a meaningful discussion.
In Week 6 of every unit, students work on an inquiry project. In the planning phase of this project, students work in their groups to identify their topic and set research goals. In Unit 4, “Explorar y planificar,” section “Desarrollo del Lenguaje en espanol,” students collaborate on their research and develop their topic by finding and evaluating evidence to support their topic. Students work in pairs evaluating information about the article “El Yankee Stadium: antes y ahora” and make a chart with two headings, “Antes” and “Ahora.” Students complete each column with details describing how the stadium was then and how it has changed. The teacher asks questions to help students evaluate the details and find supporting evidence: “¿De qué tamaño era antes el estadio Cuantas, ¿cuántas personas podían asistir a ver un partido?, ¿cómo cambió después su estructura?” ¿Qué detalles describen como era antes y después el estadio?” After students finish evaluating the information and completing the chart, they share their answers.
The materials engage students in productive teamwork and student-led discussions in both formal and informal settings. The materials provide multiple opportunities for students to engage in whole group, partner, and group discussions. The materials provide guidance and opportunities to practice with grade-level protocols for discussion to express their own thinking. Additionally, the materials provide opportunities for students to give organized presentations or performances and speak clearly and concisely, using the conventions of language. The materials provide sentence and discussion stems and guiding questions throughout the lesson activities. These protocols encourage students to give feedback and express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas with their peers during classroom learning and discussion.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
During Book Club, the materials guide students to engage in student-led discussions in an informal setting to express their thinking. Book Club is a time for students to share their ideas and opinions about texts as they listen to those of others. The materials provide discussion stems to help students phrase their ideas productively and respectfully. In Unit 1, the materials provide the following discussion stems to guide the Book Club conversation: “Noto que____. No estoy de acuerdo con ___ porque ____. ¿Por qué dices eso? ¿En que podemos estar de acuerdo?” For each Book Club text, the materials provide a more detailed plan with questions specific to the text to guide teachers and students to discuss their thoughts about the text. For example, in Unit 1, the materials provide a lesson plan guide for the Book Club text, “El gran libro de los mitos Griegos.” The materials provide the following instructions: “Use las siguientes preguntas para guiar la discusión.” Examples of the questions used to guide student discussion include: “¿Por qué los dioses y los titanes pelearon en una feroz batalla? ¿Qué pasó con los dioses y los titanes después de la batalla?”
At multiple times during the reading and writing lessons, the materials invite students to share their thinking with the group in the section, “Comentemos.” In Unit 2, during “Taller de Escritura,” the lesson guides students to understand the importance of a headline and a lede when writing an article. After students work on writing their headlines, they share with the group for feedback, “Pida a la clase que señale las fortalezas de los encabezados alternativos de los estudiantes.” The materials provide guidance for students to develop social communication skills appropriate to their grade level. “Comparte tus ideas con el Club de Escritura. Escucha a los demás. Haz y responde a las preguntas sobre la organización. Intercambia comentarios.”
In every unit, in the section “Celebrar y Reflexionar,” students complete a group project and present it to the class at the end of the unit. In Unit 3, Week 6, “Projecto de Indagacion” section “Celebrar y Reflexionar,” student pairs plan and practice their speech presentations using media. The teacher uses the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” model to show students how to present an opinion speech orally. After modeling, the teacher identifies the traits of an effective speech, “Al presentar mi discurso, establecí contacto visual con el público y no miraba todo el tiempo hacia abajo para leer el papel que sostenía en las manos. Al hablar, controle que el volumen de mi voz sonara más alto para que todos pudieran escuchar lo que decía. Pronuncie todas las palabras en forma correcta y clara.” After observing the teacher model, students work with their partners as they plan and present their opinion speeches. Students monitor their conventions and tone during this time, pretending or role-playing that they are an important figure from the past or present as they deliver the speech.
In Unit 4, in the section, “Evaluación y Diferenciación,” the materials provide opportunities to give organized presentations while speaking clearly and concisely, using the conventions of language. After reading the text, “Ciudad verde: Como una ciudad sobrevivió a un tornado y fue reconstruida para un futuro sostenible,” teachers form small mixed-ability groups and ask them to give a short presentation on how the tornado affected people and their thoughts on the effects. Students must include their opinions: “Forme grupos pequeños de estudiantes con distintos niveles del idioma. Pídales que hagan una presentación corta. Proponga que incluyan sus propias opiniones sobre los efectos del tornado.”
Each unit within the materials engages students in the inquiry process through a Project-Based Inquiry project. The project combines the use of inquiry and research skills. The materials support the identification of high-quality primary and secondary sources and engage students in inquiry processes using relevant sources. The materials provide research articles where students can obtain relevant information for their research. The materials provide guidance to use an appropriate mode of delivery to present research. The materials guide teachers in supporting students by providing them with different ways to present their research.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials support the identification and summary of high-quality primary and secondary sources. In Unit 1, Week 6, (T380) section “Proyecto de Indagación,” students learn that primary sources are sources of information that provide direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, or person. The teacher explains that researchers conduct field research when they visit a location to make observations and collect data involving collecting first-hand data. Teachers help students understand that the information collected during field research is firsthand evidence because it was gathered directly from the source. The teacher models how field research can be conducted using the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” and says, “Sam y su papá necesitan hacer una investigación en un terreno vacío para apoyar su postulado de convertirlo en un jardín comunitario. Hacen su investigación de campo yendo al terreno para estudiar el área y recopilar información…” Students discuss their ideas for additional information, such as taking measurements of the lot or collecting and testing soil samples. Then the teacher explains that students can conduct their own field research to gather facts and details about their research topic. In the collaborative activity, the teacher encourages students to visit a park or playground with their parents after school to identify and gather relevant information and evidence. Then she asks them to record their field research in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante,” “Envié una nota a las familias de los estudiantes explicando el proyecto de investigación y animando a los padres y tutores a visitar un parque o área de juegos con ellos.”
In Unit 3, the materials support the identification and summary of high-quality primary and secondary resources. For example, the materials explain the difference between primary and secondary sources and provide websites and places where students can obtain high-quality resources. The teacher explains what primary sources are: “Explique que las fuentes primarias nos ayudan a aprender sobre las personas, los lugares, y los sucesos del pasado. Además aportan un relato de primera mano sobre lo que sucedió durante un periodo de tiempo o suceso en particular.” The materials support students in differentiating to choose the most qualified and relevant sources. For example, the materials include checklists or questions for students to consider as they review sources to identify quality sources. The materials include an activity in which students have to conduct an informal inquiry by asking questions about a topic. Students conduct an informal inquiry, take notes, and discuss: “Genera o haz preguntas sobre la misión del Apolo XI para una indagación formal. Comenta con un compañero cómo describirías a los astronautas. Toma notas de las ideas compàrtidas.” The materials provide questions for teachers to guide the conversation: “¿Qué información nueva o sorprendente aprendieron sobre el alunizaje del Apollo XI al mirar las fotografías? ¿Qué sugieren estos datos y detalles sobre las cualidades necesarias para ser un astronauta? ¿Dónde pueden encontrar las respuestas a estas preguntas?” These questions help students identify quality sources.
The materials support student practice in organizing and presenting their ideas and information following the purpose of the research and the appropriate grade-level audience. In Unit 4, Week 6, section “Proyecto de Indagación,” students present their posters orally to another group of classmates before the final publication. The teacher uses the student model in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” to model how to effectively present a poster by making eye contact with the audience, “Al leer en voz alta el texto y explicar las imágenes, establecí contacto visual con el público…,” by not rushing and using a natural voice, “No me apuré durante la presentación, y no hablé tan despacio que sonara poco natural…,” and covering all the information in the presentation and pronouncing words clearly and correctly, “No olvidé decir ninguna palabra y pronuncié todas las palabras en forma correcta y clara.” Students practice their presentations, make adjustments based on their peers’ reactions, and write down suggestions from their classmates in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” They publish their work by using an appropriate mode of delivery, such as an oral presentation.
The materials provide opportunities for students to learn, practice, apply, and transfer skills into familiar and new topics. For example, in Unit 4, students learn about the features of opinion writing by reading a variety of opinion essays and writing their own. In Unit 5, Week 6, they apply their previously learned skills from Unit 4 to write a brochure that persuades readers to visit, or not visit, a place likely to be affected by a natural disaster: “Crea un cartel informativo acerca de cómo cambió parte de una ciudad o un pueblo.” Students research evidence that supports their claim and persuades their audience, transferring what they have learned about opinion essays from Unit 4 and applying it to their own writing.
Throughout the materials, high-quality, text-dependent questions and tasks help students build knowledge and skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and language. Text-dependent questions are integrated within a text and across multiple texts. Throughout the materials, students complete tasks that are interconnected and apply knowledge and skills consistently. Concepts are introduced at the beginning of each unit and are spiraled in subsequent lessons.
The materials provide tasks and questions within the units that integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking; they include components of vocabulary, syntax, and fluency, as needed; and they provide opportunities for increased independence.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Throughout each unit, the materials provide lessons that include opportunities for students to read, write, speak, listen, think, and apply the daily objectives. In the Unit 1 section “Presentar la Unidad,” the teacher introduces the unit and Essential Question, “¿Cómo nos afecta el entorno?” The teacher directs students to read several texts to learn about how different cultures adapt to and appreciate their environments. Students read a variety of genres because each text provides a unique perspective about the theme. The lesson begins with students watching a video. Before watching “Video de la unidad uno,” the teacher explains that a video is a multimodal text because it combines sound and pictures. The teacher directs students to pay attention to the sound and pictures in the video as they watch. After watching the video, students “Turn Talk and Share” to discuss what they learn about the video. The materials suggest, “Pida a las parejas que comenten lo que aprendieron sobre los diferentes entornos al ver el video.” The materials provide students with the following questions to help guide discussion: “¿Qué aprendieron acerca de los diferentes entornos y su efecto en las formas de vida? ¿Qué aprendieron de las imágenes?” To introduce the unit’s focus genre, “Cuentos tradicionales,” the teacher has students listen attentively as she reads the traditional tale, “El consejo del niño.” Before reading, the teacher reviews the expectations for listening to texts read aloud, “Rutina de lectura en voz alta.” On the first read, the teacher reads the text aloud; students listen to the expression and intonation. Materials guide the teacher to, “Anime a los estudiantes a escuchar atentamente y prestar atención a los elementos del ambiente y del argumento.” On the second read, the teacher reads, makes intentional pauses to model think-aloud reading strategies for the genre, and asks the students to find “preguntas relevantes para aclarar información y hacer comentarios pertinentes.” After reading and discussing the text, students complete a cause and effect graphic organizer to understand the consequences of the characters’ actions for guided practice. The material provides teacher guidance, “Use el organizador gráfico de causa y efecto para ayudar a los estudiantes a entender los consecuencias del hombre.”
The materials provide questions and tasks designed to help students build and apply knowledge and skills in listening, reading, thinking, and speaking. In Unit 4, “Grupos pequeños,” using the leveled reader book “Las personas que cambiaron la historia de Estados Unidos,” the teacher launches the biography genre. The teacher states, “Las biografías comparten información verdadera de la vida de una persona escrita por alguien más.” Teachers show students the photographs and illustrations and ask, “¿Cómo crees que las fotografías e ilustraciones nos ayudarán a comprender el texto?” Students softly read the text to themselves as the teacher observes and monitors their fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. During “Lectura guiada," students “Turn Talk and Share” their thoughts about people who have changed U.S. history. The materials provide the following questions to guide the discussion: “¿Por qué creen que es difícil hacerlo? ¿Qué fracasos creen que pudo haber enfrentado al tratar de unir las colonias en su independencia? ¿De qué maneras podrían Franklin y sus partidarios hacer llegar su mensaje?”
The materials provide tasks that integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and vocabulary components. In Unit 4, during “Vocabulario académico,” the teacher explains that related words share roots or word parts but have different meanings. The materials provide strategies for students to recognize related words to help determine the meaning of unknown words. Some strategies include, “Cuando vean una palabra poco común durante la lectura, observen su raíz o si tiene afijo. Piensan en el significado de la raíz y si la vieron en palabras que ya conocen.” To model and practice, the teacher shows the student a root word, and they practice adding to the word to make it a different word with the same root or word parts, “Estas palabras relacionadas contienen la raíz benefic-. Piensa en otro afijo que podría agregar a benefic-.” Students use this same strategy to complete an activity in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” The student materials provide a table that contains a word. Students look in resources like dictionaries or texts to find related words with the same root or word parts and use the correct form of the word to complete a given sentence. The materials provide the following exemplar response for teachers, “Palabra: beneficio; Palabras relacionadas: beneficiar, benefico, beneficioso; oracion: Un beneficio de vivir frente al parque es la cancha de beisbol.”
In Unit 5, teachers ask students to read a timeline and talk about how each event is an example of how nature changes people 's lives. The materials guide teacher with, “Pida a los estudiantes que lean la línea cronológica y que comenten la manera en que cada acontecimiento es un ejemplo de cómo la naturaleza cambia la vida de las personas.” After their comments, students underline parts in the number line that answer the question of the week, “¿Cómo puede la naturaleza cambiar la vida de las personas?” and do a free writing on the answer. Teachers ask students, “que hagan una escritura libre en respuesta a la instrucción del Libro interactivo del estudiante, y que luego comenten sus respuestas con la clase." This activity integrates all four skills; giving students opportunities to read, write, speak, listen, think and apply the daily objectives.
The materials support distributed practice over the course of the year. The materials include scaffolded practice at increasing levels of complexity. Students demonstrate the integration of literacy skills as information and activities spiral across the school year.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include a scope and sequence that describes when the standard is first taught and when it is spiraled for continued practice and review. In Unit 1, Week 5, section “Leer como un escritor," the lesson’s objective is for students to identify and explain the author's purpose of a given text. In the mini-lesson, the teacher explains that authors have a purpose or reason for writing the things they write. The materials guide the teacher to offer a strategy to figure out a writer's purpose with, “Para deducir el propósito de un escritor, un lector puede pensar en el efecto que el texto tiene en el público.” The teacher explains that a writer’s purpose may be to persuade, inform, entertain, or evoke certain feelings in the reader. To model analyzing the author’s purpose, the teacher directs the students to an excerpt of text in the “Libro Interactivo del Estudiante.” The text is an example of how authors use colorful and descriptive vocabulary to entertain and interest a reader. Students apply this strategy to the shared reading text, “La flor dorada.” As they read, students find words that evoke vivid images in the passage.
Unit 2, Week 5 revisits the skill of the author's purpose. In this unit, the lesson’s objective is for students to understand and be able to explain the message of a text, identify what the author wants the reader to know, and be able to explain the author's purpose or reason for writing. Teachers use the Close Read note in the “Libro Interactivo del Estudiante” to model how to annotate the text to figure out the author’s purpose. Students think about this detail and suggest ideas about what the author’s purpose might be. Students use the knowledge they learned about the author's purpose in Unit 1 to apply to their understanding of identifying the author’s message in Unit 2. The tasks included in each unit increase in complexity and rigor to demonstrate additional mastery opportunities for students.
In Units 3 and 4, standards are repeatedly addressed within and across units to ensure students master the full intent of the standard. For example, in the section “Vocabulario academico” in Unit 3, Week 1, students learn about “Las palabras relacionadas.” These are words that share roots or word parts and have different meanings based on how the word is used. The teacher models this strategy using the example in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” They read the word “alentar” and say, “Algunas palabras relacionadas con alentar son aliento y alentaremos. Estas palabras relacionadas se forman manteniendo la raíz al y añadiendo iento en aliento.” This skill is repeated and addressed in Unit 4, Week 1, section “Vocabulario academico." In this lesson, students learn that related words share roots or word parts but have different meanings. The teacher explains that adding an affix to a base word changes its part of speech and tells students that recognizing related words can help readers determine a word's meaning. The teacher models this strategy using the example in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante,” reading the word “beneficio” and its related words “beneficioso” and “benéfico.” The teacher states, “Estas palabras relacionadas contienen la raíz benefic-. Pensaré en otro afijo que podría agregar a benefic- o beneficio.” The section “Desarrollo del lenguaje en español” provides extra support to the students by providing a list of roots in the first column and affixes in the second. Students make related words and write them in the third column.
The materials support distributed practice over the course of the year. In Unit 5, in section “Puente entre los talleres de lectura y escritura,” students revisit familiar content such as “Escribir las palabras con y, ll.” This content is presented previously in Units 1 and 4. For that reason, the first activity suggests assessing the prior knowledge of the students on the topic: “Use las oraciones de ortografía del Día 5 para evaluar los conocimientos previos de los estudiantes sobre las palabras con y, ll.” For those students who already have a good command of the concept, the materials offer an extension, “Para los estudiantes que comprenden cómo escribir las palabras con y y ll, incluya las siguientes palabras difíciles en la lista de palabras de ortografía. Palabras difíciles: haya, valla, arrollo.” In Unit 5, the content is taught in more depth than in previous units by providing examples of words that sometimes can be spelled either with y or ll. The materials guide the teacher to “Explique a los estudiantes que a veces, la misma palabra se puede escribir tanto con y como con ll, pero dependiendo cuál de las dos se use, el significado será diferente.” The teacher shows the words “halla, baya” and “tallito” and says them aloud. The students repeat them and complete an activity in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante”: “Mi turno—Completa las siguientes palabras con las letras que correspondan: y o ll.” Students then pick two of the words and make a sentence with each of them: “Mi turno—Escoge dos palabras del ejercicio anterior y escribe una oración con cada una.” This task reviews a concept already taught in previous units, with increased complexity.
Materials provide systematic instruction and practice of foundational skills, including opportunities for phonics and word analysis skills. The materials include a research-based sequence of grade-level foundational skills instruction and ample student practice opportunities to achieve grade-level mastery. The materials provide regular practice for decoding and encoding words. The materials include systematic instruction of orthographic rules and patterns. The materials provide teacher guidance for students who need additional support or remediation with foundational skills.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide extension and additional practice activities in the form of digital resources and games. For example, in the digital game “Las islas de la palabras,” the instructions state “haz clic sobre la palabra que escuches.” Students listen to a word then select the correct word from the screen options to advance to the next island. Students practice selecting the words: “nino, para, la, el, un, mama, es, a, por, va.” When students find all the correct words, they can advance to the next level of practice. To practice phonics and word recognition in “La selva de los sonidos,” students classify sounds to feed a chameleon. Students classify sounds that “empiezan con la vocal /a/ como abeja, palabras que empiezan con la vocal /e/ como estante, palabras que empiezan con la vocal /o/ como oreja, palabras que empiezan con la vocal /i/ como iguana. etc.” In this game, students drag the correct words that begin with a letter to the correct box. To practice grade-level word recognition skills to promote automaticity, in the game “Mar de ortografia,” students spell words correctly to advance levels or “islas.” In level 1, students have to pop the correct bubble for the word “pequenos, karate, quechua, etc.” In level 2, students use an online keyboard to practice typing the words “karate, mosquito, koala, corazon, etc.” In the next “isla,” students keep practicing the words “envio, bosque, vez,” etc., popping the correct bubble or typing the word using the online keyboard provided. To practice identifying initial sounds in the game “La selva de los sonidos,” students have to classify sounds to feed a chameleon. Instructions state, “Arrastra las imágenes de las palabras que empiezan con el mismo sonido que kárate al recuadro con la imagen karate.” Students drag the words “kola, kiwi y kiosco.” Students drag the pictures that do not begin with the sound “karate” to the box beside. Students drag the words “fruta, tenedor y cadena.”
The materials include systematic instruction of orthographic rules and patterns using a three-part, explicit structure, ”Focus, Model, Practice, and Apply.” This same structure is repeated weekly with the introduction of a new orthographic focus. On day 1, the teacher introduces the orthographic focus. On day 2, students apply the skill or standard. On day 3, the materials provide students with additional practice on the skill. On day 4, students spiral review previously taught skills. On day 5, the teacher assesses understanding the focus pattern. For example, In Unit 3, section, “Ortografia," the focus of the week’s lessons is for students to understand the accentuation of words stressed on the last syllable, “palabras agudas,” and words stressed on the next to last syllable, “palabras graves.” On day 1, the teacher assesses the prior knowledge of students with the assessment provided by the materials. For the students that understand the accentuation rules, the materials provide them with the challenge words of “dólar, póster, ciudad” to add to their spelling list. On day 2, the teacher explains the rules that apply to the accentuation of words and provides an opportunity to practice and apply this rule, “Explique que las palabras agudas se escriben con tilde cuando terminan en vocal, n, o s. Las palabras graves se escriben con tilde cuando terminan en una consonante que no es n ni s.” On day 3, the materials provide students with additional practice. The teacher displays a set of words. Students identify if the words are stressed on the last or penultimate syllable and explain why they carry an accent or not. On day 4, the materials provide a spiral review. Students review the spelling rules from the previous week and are provided with additional practice to review, “Repasen que los prefijos son afijos que se agregan al principio de la raíz.” On day 5, the materials provide an assessment. Students use the focus spelling words from the week in a sentence. For example “El árbol se dibuja así.” The teacher reviews the assessment to evaluate whether or not students put the accent in the correct place.
The materials provide a scope and sequence for the instruction of Word Study, Language and conventions, and Spelling. The last pages of each Teacher Edition Unit include a vertically aligned scope and sequence. For example, the teacher’s guide includes the Scope and Sequence for “Puente entre los Talleres de Lectura y Escritura.” It includes systematic instruction of orthographic rules and patterns for third grade. Each unit provides the students several opportunities to practice each of these rules separately and apply them to their own writing. Unit 1 covers “las palabras con c, k, q, b, v, rr; los grupos consonánticos (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, tl, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl); y las palabras con g, j, x.” Unit 2 covers “los diptongos de vocales fuertes y débiles; Los diptongos de vocales débiles (iu, ui); palabras compuestas; los hiatos de vocales fuertes (a, e, o); y Los hiatos de vocales fuertes y débiles tónicas (ía, úa, ío, eí, aí, aú).” Unit 3 addresses “los prefijos pre-, dis-, des-, in-; la acentuación de las palabras agudas y graves; La acentuación de las palabras esdrújulas y sobreesdrújulas; las palabras con h; y los plurales terminados en -s, -es, -ces.” Unit 4 covers “la separación en sílabas; las palabras con g; los sufijos -ez, -eza, -oso, -ura, -dad; la acentuación de los verbos Conjugados; El acento diacrítico y las palabras homófonas.” Unit 5 addresses “las palabras con s, c, z;lLas palabras con mp, mb y nv; Las palabras con y, ll; y Los prefijos ante-, bi-, tri-, re-; Los sufijos -ando, -iendo, -mente.”
Across grades 3–5, the “Guía de intervención” provides teacher guidance for students who need additional support or remediation with foundational skills. This supplemental resource provides scaffolding activities, lesson extensions, and extra practice activities. It is divided into two sections. Section 1 provides lesson resources for foundational skills: phonics, morphology, spelling, vocabulary, and fluency. Section 2 provides lesson resources for reading, writing, and language: reading literature, reading informational and argumentative text, writing, language and conventions, and research and inquiry. The contents of this resource change from grade to grade to accommodate the developmental needs of the students of that specific grade level. In the “Guía de intervención,” the materials include building spelling knowledge. For example, the materials provide a lesson for students to identify and pronounce words with syllables ga, go, gu, gue, gui, güe, and güi. Students complete words with the correct syllable that contains the hard g sound. The teacher states, “Léelos en voz alta, segmentando y enfatizando las sílabas ga, go, and gu. Escuchen estas palabras: a-mi-ga, go-lo-si-na, gu-sa-no. Encierra en un círculo las sílabas ga, go, gu.” To teach the difference between the hard and soft g sounds, the teacher asks, “¿Cómo se pronuncia una g seguida de a, o y u?” To practice and apply what they have learned, students fill in the missing syllable to complete the word with the correct g syllable.
Materials include diagnostic tools and provide opportunities to assess student mastery of foundational skills, in and out of context, at regular intervals for teachers to make instructional adjustments. The materials include weekly checks for understanding and unit tests. The materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ literacy needs based on tools and assessments appropriate to the grade level. The materials provide teachers with reteaching strategies and lesson extension ideas to help students who require interventions.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include tools to support and direct teachers to assess students’ growth in and mastery of foundational skills. Each week, at the beginning of each word study lesson, students’ prior knowledge is assessed. Teachers use the student data in this assessment to guide instruction. At the end of the week, on day 5, teachers use “Práctica Semanal de los estándares: Estudio de Palabras” to assess student progress on the weekly focus spelling pattern. Teachers use this student data to determine which students need continued practice and intervention. For example, in Unit 1, Week 1, students learn how to read and write words with c, k, and q. The materials include a prior knowledge check to assess student understanding of words with c, k, and q. Students read the words and decide the correct spelling for them: “Lee las siguientes palabras: aqusar, cueso, kanguro, quilómetro. ¿Cuál es la forma correcta de escribir estas palabras?” For students who already understand how to utilize each letter to represent the /k/ sound pattern, the materials provide the following additional, more challenging words: “albaricoque, kermés, quincalla.” In this unit, the materials support the teacher in working with students to self-monitor. In Lesson 4, the teacher asks students to proofread their writing, reminding them to apply the appropriate spelling rules about using letters c, k, and q to represent the /k/ sound and previously learned skills.
The materials provide ideas for one-on-one interventions, small group interventions, and scaffolding activities for each lesson. In Unit 3, Week 1, section “Opciones guiadas por el maestro,” the materials provide teachers with reteaching strategies and lesson extensions to respond to individual student’s literacy needs. The quick check assessment on section “Ficcion historica” determines if students show understanding or require support. For students struggling with historical fiction, the teacher reviews the topic by saying “Pueden identificar un texto de ficción histórica fijándose con atención en el ambiente, los personajes y el argumento, e identificando sucesos o personas reales del pasado.” Teachers review historical fiction characteristics with students using the anchor chart in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” Section “desarrollo del lenguaje de espanol” provides teachers with reteaching strategies and lesson extensions that support Spanish language development. In this section, the teacher reminds students that historical fiction is based on actual places, people, and events in the past. The whole class creates a T-chart titled “ambiente” on the board or a piece of paper. On the left side, the teacher works with students to create a list of the different text elements that make up the setting of a historical fiction story. Students provide examples of each element. To support native Spanish speakers, the teacher forms groups and has them preview the text “Bajo cubierta: Una historia del Titanic” by looking at the cover, reading the title, and flipping through the illustrations. Together, they create a list of details that indicate that this story takes place in the past, is historically accurate, and is based on real-life events.
The “Guía de intervención” includes “Monitor Progress assessments” and “Checkpoint Assessments” (Punto de evaluación). For example, under the section Fluency, the guide contains three lessons on reading fluently. Lesson 17 is about reading accurately and at an appropriate rate. There are four practices in the lesson, and a Monitor Progress assessment follows each. The materials provide the following guidance for teachers: “Have students read aloud the third paragraph. Give corrective feedback as needed.” Students read the paragraphs while teachers use “pages T27–T29 to track students´ WCPM scores.” The teacher's guidance adds, “If students skip words, then have them move their finger along under the words as they read them to help them hit every word.” After the three lessons in the section, the materials offer the “Checkpoint Assessment.” Teachers administer the checkpoint, and students read the passage. The guide includes this guidance for teachers: “Have students begin to read the passage when you say -Comienza- and stop reading when you say -Detente-. Have them read for one minute. Keep track of the number of words they read, as well as any words they skip, mispronounce, or change. Subtract those words from the total words read.” Teachers annotate the number of words in the scoring rubric together with other pieces of anecdotal data, such as if students “pause briefly after a comma and after a period and read with appropriate expression and intonation.” The materials provide teacher guidance on how to proceed depending on the assessment data: “If students’ WCPM is not at the correct level, and if they are not reading with appropriate expression and intonation, then review those discrete fluency skills, going back to the lessons to reteach and scaffold as needed.” The Scoring Rubric contains the Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) and a checklist with items to assess: “1. Leer con precisión y al ritmo adecuado; Does not skip or repeat words; Sounds out words correctly; Pauses briefly after a comma or period; Uses appropriate phrasing when reading question marks and exclamation points; Reads with expression; Reads with intonation; Reads with expression and intonation when reading dialogue.”
The instructional materials provide opportunities to practice and develop oral and silent reading fluency. The materials provide students with opportunities to read grade-level texts to make meaning and build foundational skills. The materials include explicit instruction in fluency, including phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy through read-alouds, small groups, and independent reading. Materials provide progress monitoring assessments for teachers to regularly monitor and provide corrective feedback on phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
In the “Guía del maestro para la intervención,” the materials include a variety of texts to provide students opportunities to practice both oral and silent reading. This intervention guide provides opportunities to develop reading skills, make meaning of grade-level texts, and practice fluency components over the course of the year. In the “Guía del maestro para la intervención,” the teacher models how to read a passage containing interrogative and exclamatory sentences, with correct expression and accuracy, as students listen and follow along. The materials provide the following teacher guidance: “After reading, point out the periods at the ends of sentences and say, Cuando vemos un punto, debemos hacer una pausa antes de comenzar a leer la siguiente oración. Esto nos ayuda a leer a un ritmo adecuado.Voy a leer las primeras tres oraciones en voz alta. Quiero leer cada palabra con precisión, sin omitir ni cambiar palabras. Si hay un punto al final de una oración, voy a hacer una pausa antes de leer la siguiente oración. Read the first three sentences accurately as students follow along. Model pausing at the periods.” Materials provide progress monitoring assessments for teachers to regularly monitor and provide corrective feedback on phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy. As the students read a passage, the teacher marks errors and monitors their accuracy and error rate. The materials state, “Have the student read the passage aloud. Mark errors on your copy. Also, mark where the student is at the end of one minute. To calculate WCPM, subtract the number of mistakes from the number of words the student reads in one minute.”
The materials provide students opportunities to read grade-level texts as they make meaning and build foundational skills. The materials include the booklet “Lecturas independientes.” This supplemental booklet provides weekly opportunities for students to practice the comprehension focus and high-frequency words covered in “miVisión Lectura.” The book contains three “Lecturas independientes” tests for each week. Teachers use these independently from the reading workshop text selection in miVisión Lectura. Each test includes a “Lectura independiente” leveled selection and related comprehension items that assess the weekly comprehension focus, associated TEKS, and previously learned skills. Across each unit’s “Lecturas independientes” selections, high-frequency words are strategically placed within the text to give students an additional opportunity to practice reading these words in context for meaning and fluency.
The materials provide explicit instruction in fluency, including phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy. Each week includes a section called “Comprensión Auditiva.” In this section, the teacher provides specific instruction on fluency. For example, in Unit 1, Week 1, the materials provide the following teacher guidance for the fluency lesson: “Después de completar la Rutina de lectura en voz alta, presente ‘El consejo del niño.’ Lea los primeros tres párrafos y pida a los estudiantes que presten atención a su prosodia, o expresión y entonación, durante el diálogo. Explique a los estudiantes que al leer en voz alta se transmite el sentido mediante el énfasis en el fraseo y la puntuación. Invite a los estudiantes a que lean el diálogo en parejas.”
The materials provide guidance and routines for teachers to monitor student progress in oral reading fluency. In Unit 3, Week 4, the teacher reads aloud a short section of the story, “Probar cosas nuevas,” and models fluency. The teacher asks students to pay attention to prosody, or expression, and accuracy, “Layla suspiró al bajar del avión e ingresar oficialmente en Madrid, la capital de España. Layla no había querido hacer este viaje con su familia.” The teacher explains that fluency is about reading for meaning, not speed. Students invite partners to practice expressive reading using their favorite sentences from the story. The teacher listens and provides feedback as students read.
The materials include a separate assessment guide that supports the teacher in understanding the informal assessment tools included. The materials provide guidance to monitor progress within the supplemental guides and ensure consistent and accurate administration of the diagnostic tools. The materials include formative and summative assessment measures designed to be ongoing, strategic, and purposeful. The materials include tools that support the teacher in gathering information in various settings and are designed to measure what students can do independently and what they can do with assistance from the teacher. The materials include opportunities for the students to track their own progress and growth.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide assessments and tools that support the teacher in gathering information in a variety of settings. The teacher can gather comprehensive assessment data to inform instructional pathways using these embedded daily routines and multiple digital/print assessment resources. The materials provide a variety of assessments throughout the lesson and unit cycle. Some examples include Quick Checks, Assess and Differentiate, Assess Understanding, Observational Assessments, Writing rubrics, Progress check-ups, Unit tests, Weekly Standards Practice, and Baseline: Beginning, Middle, and End of year assessments.
The materials provide various opportunities for teachers to assess using informal assessments. Throughout the daily lessons of the writing workshop, teachers confer with students about their writing. The materials provide “Conferring Checklists” so that teachers can assess student writing skills and determine where students need additional support. On day 5 of The Writing Workshop lesson structure, students take a writing assessment. Teachers use students' published pieces as the unit’s assessment and use the designated rubric to grade the writing. In Week 5 of the Writing Workshop, students write about an on-demand prompt to apply their cumulative learnings from the unit. This prompt requires them to synthesize their understanding of the genre, author’s purpose and craft, and writing conventions in one succinct piece of writing without a teacher’s support.
The materials provide a variety of diagnostic tools. The “Guia para grupos pequeños” provides teachers with various examples of how they can better manage their record-keeping of student data to assess and learn more about each student’s needs. The materials state, “Using recording sheets can help you avoid jotting notes on little scraps of paper that you then spend time transferring to another location. Select recording sheets that best match your needs and record the results digitally or keep the recording sheets together in a binder or on a clipboard that you keep handy.”
The material includes a diagnostic tool that measures students’ academic skills at the beginning, middle, and end of the school years in the areas of “fonetica,” “vocabulario,” and “comprension de lectura.” Each diagnostic tool contains 25 questions. When students complete each assessment, teachers obtain a summary report of the percentage of questions answered correctly. The report provides students with a list of skills they need practice with and skills successfully completed.
The questions and tasks included in the diagnostic are mirrored in practice opportunities with teacher guidance to ensure that students have sufficient practice to achieve the skill prior to being re-assessed. For example, in the “lecturas independientes,” the teacher has the option to assign students practice for “lecturas independientes” in three levels: “Desarrollo, al nivel y avanzado.” Every week in the unit, the teacher assigns a test for each level that provides student practice to achieve mastery of the skill prior to being reassessed at the end in the unit test.
The materials include tools for students to track their own progress and growth. At the beginning of each unit, in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante,” students have a rubric titled “Metas de la unidad.” This rubric contains the learning goals for that unit. The rubric indicates a goal for each literacy component: “Taller de lectura; Puente entre lectura y escritura; Taller de escritura; Tema de la unidad.” Students rate themselves on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest, for each indicator. The materials guide students with, “Rellena el círculo que indica cuán bien cumples con cada meta en este momento.”
The materials provide guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration of diagnostic tools. The materials provide a teacher’s manual for each supplemental assessment guide. This manual offers teacher guidance on when and how assessments should be administered. For example, at the beginning of the year, the materials suggest that teachers administer a beginning of the year assessment, “Examen inicial.” The teacher’s manual for this assessment provides the following teacher guidance: “You may wish to begin the school year with the Baseline Test. The Grade 3 Baseline Test is designed to help you determine students’ instructional needs at the beginning of the school year and to establish a ‘starting point’ for each student.” The materials provide the following administration instructions for the reading comprehension section of the beginning of the year assessment, “Explain to students that they will read two selections and answer questions about them. Tell students they should read each selection and answer the questions that follow before moving on to the next selection.”
The materials include guidance for teachers to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools. The materials include several separate supplemental assessment guides that support the teacher in understanding benchmark data and provide guidance in identifying areas of need for instructional focus and differentiation. The materials include additional small group resources to reinforce the development of literacy skills. The materials include guidance that supports the teacher in utilizing results from various assessments to support purposeful planning. Materials include guidance for administrators to support teachers in analyzing and responding to data.
Evidence includes but is not limited to
The materials include guidance that supports the teacher in utilizing various assessments to support purposeful planning. The material provides a progress monitoring resource, “Verificaciones del Progreso,” that includes a wide array of formal, multiple-choice classroom assessments that support instruction. These assessments are designed to measure students’ progress in vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and writing. Each week of instruction provides these check-ups. The resource includes recommendations to support teachers in adjusting or planning instruction to meet student needs based on literacy skills, or areas students scored low on for the weekly progress monitoring or check-ups. This supplemental assessment guide includes guidance that supports the teacher in understanding how to score the assessments: “When you have finished scoring a student’s Progress Check-Up, complete the appropriate row on the Student Progress Chart and the Class Progress Chart. Doing so allows you to keep track of students’ total scores as well as their scores on each of the individual sections of the assessment. The chart can also help you monitor students’ progress throughout the year.” The answer key provides the teacher with the standards that align with each assessment, allowing them to use this data to reteach content that students have not yet mastered. The materials state, “Refer to the Item Analysis charts that begin on page T9 to identify what each item assesses and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standard or standards aligned to each item.” When a student receives a low score or shows a lack of adequate progress during the “Verificaciones del Progreso,” the material guides teachers to select the appropriate level of intervention using “MiEnfoque de intervención,” and provide students with additional opportunities to practice and reinforce their vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and writing skills. The materials provide the following description of the supplemental “MiEnfoque de intervención”: “miEnfoque Intervención is designed to help teachers target and address students’ intervention needs; whether students require minor or intensive remediation.” The intervention teacher resource guide provides “targeted instruction that focuses on development of skills and strategies to help students achieve on-grade-level expectations. The lessons are tied to state Spanish Language Arts standards. Lessons can be used flexibly, based on students’ differing instructional needs and rates of mastery.”
The materials support teachers with guidance to respond to individual students’ needs in all domains, based on student progress measures appropriate to the developmental level. The materials provide a small group supplemental resource, “Guia para grupos pequeños,” which provides teachers with the foundational knowledge and understanding, stating, “These groups change and shift depending on diagnosed needs. The teacher makes the lessons relevant to what students are reading and writing. The instruction follows a predictable structure and teaches strategies explicitly.” Materials also explain why small groups are necessary, “Research shows that small group instruction helps students acquire and master skills, but just teaching students to read and write isn’t enough.” The small group intervention guide supports the teacher in how to use data to plan for small group instruction with, “By identifying a student’s strengths, you can use them to build on new skills. Identifying a challenging area will help you know what gaps you may need to fill.”
The materials provide a supplemental intervention guide that assesses fluency. “Cold Reads for Fluency and Comprehension is designed to provide differentiated reading comprehension practice using selections that students have not seen previously.” The materials provide leveled reading passages. Students read the passage, and the teacher listens and marks miscues. At the end of the reading, the teacher notes the time it took for the students to read the passage. These diagnostic tools yield meaningful information for teachers to use when planning instruction and differentiation. The materials provide the following teacher guidance: ”As the student reads orally, mark any miscues or errors he or she makes during the reading. Count the total number of words the student reads in a minute. Subtract any words he or she reads incorrectly. Record the words correct per minute score on the test. The formula is: total # of words read — # of errors = words correct per minute (wcpm).”
Through “Realize,” administrators can customize and differentiate their dashboard, focusing on teacher support. Among other things, these options allow educators to view standards mastery and usage across the classroom, create teacher professional development and training plans, and streamline school data analysis.
The materials include recommendations to support teachers in adjusting instruction to meet student needs based on data from developmentally appropriate literacy skills assessments. The “miEnfoque guía de intervención” provides comprehension intervention in two parts. Part one focuses on Foundational Skills, per national and state English Language Arts standards, and provides in-depth instruction, practice, and assessment in Print Concepts; Phonological Awareness; Phonics, Morphology, and Spelling; Fluency; and Vocabulary. The second part “focuses on national and state standards for Reading Literature, Reading Informational and Argumentative Text, Writing, and Language and Conventions.”
The materials provide frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress. The materials include suggested timelines for checking progress that align with the scope of the materials. The materials include teacher guidance for tracking progress throughout the units. Through reading and writing conferences, the materials provide embedded systematic observations to track progress and assess skills in authentic situations. The materials guide teachers to administer progress monitoring assessments at an appropriate frequency for age and skill development.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include suggested timelines for checking progress that align with the scope of the materials. The progress monitoring document “Verificaciones del progreso” offers this teacher guidance: “The Verificaciones del progreso should be administered at the end of the instruction for each week. These assessments are not intended to be timed. However, for the purposes of scheduling, planning, and practicing for timed-assessment situations, the Verificaciones del progreso can be administered in 45 minutes (approximately 15 minutes for the first two sections, 15 minutes for the Comprensión de lectura section, and 15 minutes for the Escritura section).”
The materials include teacher tips for tracking progress throughout the units for specific skills to monitor student growth. For example, the materials include reminders within lessons of activities that provide authentic opportunities for assessing student learning. In each unit, the materials provide teacher guidance on when and where they can measure student growth. In each grade, new content instruction is followed by informal assessment activities and guidance for teachers on what to do next depending on the students´ performance in the activity and assessment. For example, in Unit 1, “Comprobación rápida,” the materials provide a quick check to determine if students can identify the characteristics of traditional tales. The teacher determines this through their observations during partner discussions, reviewing their independent work, and during reading conferences as they read traditional tales. If students struggle, the materials offer the following guidance: “Repase los elementos de los cuentos tradicionales en grupos pequeños….” For students that show understanding, the materials offer the following guidance: “Pida a los estudiantes que siguen practicando las estrategias para leer cuentos tradicionales usando la sección de Lectura independiente y las Actividades de lectoescritura en Grupos pequeños.”
The materials recommend informal assessments that allow teachers to observe and document children’s learning and behaviors over time. The “Guía de evaluación“ addresses the importance of ongoing assessments and offers the following teacher guidance: “Assessment should be considered an ongoing activity. Teachers should also use a variety of other assessment tools each day to monitor student work. Formative assessment and instruction go hand-in-hand. Every observation you make, or each type of data you collect during instruction, can serve to inform your assessment. Formative assessment should not be seen as an entity separate from instruction, but rather as an output from instructional time in your classroom.” The materials provide multiple opportunities for students to get feedback from students on their progress.
The materials include various progress monitoring tools as informal and formal assessments and provide teacher guidance for teachers to determine the best frequency for assessing student progress. At the beginning of the year, the materials suggest that teachers administer the “Examen inicial,” “a diagnostic assessment that helps determine student areas of strength and need at the beginning of the school year.” The materials suggest that, to assess reading fluency, teachers administer “Lecturas independientes,” which are “formative fluency checks that will help determine each student’s word count per minute, vocabulary acquisition, and comfort with comprehension.” To provide teachers with a quick check of student understanding during weekly lessons, the materials suggest that teachers administer, “Práctica semanal de los estándares,...a formative assessment that provides a quick snapshot of student progress with the skills, concepts, and strategies that they have been taught during weekly lessons.” At the end of the units, the materials suggest that teachers administer, “Exámen de las unidad,...a summative assessment that provides data about how students perform with the skills, strategies, and concepts learned in each unit.” At the end of each unit, the materials provide a summative assessment in the form of an inquiry project, “Proyecto de indagación.” This assessment “requires students to apply skills, concepts, and strategies in complex and authentic situations.” During the middle of the year, the materials suggest that teachers administer the “Examen de medio año...a formative assessment that will assess the skills the students have learned during the first half of the year.” This test helps teachers recalibrate understanding of where students are and how to instruct them for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, the materials suggest that teachers administer the “Examen de fin de año,...a summative assessment that assesses the skills students have learned throughout the course of the year.” This data can serve as a baseline for students as they enter the next grade.
The materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential. Activities are provided for students who struggle to master grade-level content as well as for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of content. Additional enrichment activities for all levels of learners are provided in the material.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The instructional model used in the materials provides opportunities for teachers to address all levels of learners during various points within the instructional model, such as independent reading, guided reading, small group instruction, strategy groups, book clubs, and conferences. For each of the activities within the instructional model, materials provide guidance for teachers to meet each student’s individual needs as readers and writers. The Program Overview Guide describes a “Comprehensive and Ongoing System of Assessment.” Materials provide summative, formative, and project-based assessments. For example, in each lesson, throughout the year, the materials include a formative assessment, “Quick Check.” In this section, materials provide a guiding question and prompt the teacher to pause, “Notice and Assess.” Based on the responses from students to the guiding question, materials provide teachers with guidance on the next steps for “students that struggle” and “students that show understanding.” Additionally, materials provide “Progress Check-ups” to monitor student progress through “quick and easy weekly checks” as well as fluency passages that “Check students fluency and comprehension at a variety of levels.” This “multi-tiered system of intervention” provides teachers with guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential. The materials provide additional enrichment and extensions that maximize student learning potential: “Each unit culminates with Project-Based Inquiry. The project embeds the unit theme and TEKS in a creative, rigorous, and authentic way.”
In Unit 1, Week 1, in the section of the lesson, ”Desarrollar el vocabulario,” the teacher explains, “autores usan palabras vívidas para describir personas y sus acciones.” To model this, the teacher uses a mentor text to show students how the author uses vivid vocabulary to describe the actions of the animals in the story, “En el cuento, el Zorro exhibe sus dientes.” To help students understand the meaning of the word “exhibe,” the teacher asks students to visualize and show what the character is doing, “¿Cómo creen que se veía el Zorro al exhibir sus dientes?” The strategy of having students visualize and act out the meaning of the vocabulary word, “exhibe,” supports students who did not master the content.
In Unit 2, Week 3, the lesson’s focus teaches students to synthesize information by using the illustrations and the words to understand the text better. The teacher models this by showing students a strategy to annotate using text evidence and Close Read notes to synthesize information: “Combinan, o resumen, la información que obtienen de las palabras y las ilustraciones para comprender un concepto nuevo.” Students use the strategy for synthesizing information and use the text evidence from their annotations to complete the graphic organizer in “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” The graphic organizer in “Libro interactivo del estudiante,” states “Evidencia del texto”: “Lo que muestra la ilustración” and “Lo que aprendí resumiendo esta información.” This graphic organizer provides guidance for targeted instruction. After completing the graphic organizer, students who mastered the synthesizing skill apply it to an independent reading level text,”Pida a los estudiantes que usen notas adhesivas para marcar las ilustraciones y las claves del texto que que se correspondan con esas ilustraciones.” This extended practice of the skill to a grade-level text provides the opportunity of targeted practice for students who have mastered the content.
In Unit 5, Week 1, Section “Conferenciar,” the teacher assesses students’ understanding of the basic features of poetry through a one-on-one student-teacher conference. The materials provide a script with conference prompts for teachers with very helpful guidance questions and anticipated student responses. These questions assess and reinforce students' understanding of the characteristics of poetry, determine if students need additional support, and provide opportunities for conversations that extend and enrich student understanding. Teachers confer with students using an independent reading text. Materials provide the opportunity for the teacher to assess all levels of learners, with a text at their reading level.
The materials provide guidance and support that help teachers meet the diverse learning needs of all students through instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs. The materials provide routines and activities designed specifically for large and small group instruction. The materials support multiple types of practices and provide guidance and structures to achieve effective implementation.
Evidence includes but is not limited to the following:
In each of the lessons, the lesson cycle moves from teacher-led instruction to students independently working on new concepts. Teachers support the learning of the whole group before offering collaborative and independent practice opportunities. Every unit introduces the literacy skill of the week with a mini-lesson and read-aloud, “Lectura en voz alta.” During the whole group mini-lesson, the teacher models or demonstrates a new skill or concept. The materials provide activities specifically designed to practice the use of literacy skills in large groups and independently. Large group activities include read alouds, literature circles, and book clubs. In every unit, the materials include recommendations for meaningful activities for students to independently practice literacy skills through independent reading, learning centers, or collaborative groups.
The materials guide teachers in selecting appropriate teaching strategies depending on individual students’ literacy learning goals and needs. For each reading selection, the Teacher’s Edition offers a detailed plan for teachers to guide think-alouds and prompt students with questions to guide conversations. The materials include clear guidance to support teacher understanding of developmentally appropriate multimodal instructional strategies throughout the units. This guidance is in the sidebars of the Teacher’s Edition as tips that support lesson delivery, including visual, kinesthetic, tactile, or auditory examples. Guidance is also included in an alternate guide for supporting all learners, “Guía para grupos pequeños,” which includes multiple ideas on appropriate multimodal instructional strategies to support all learners. In every unit, teachers implement small groups according to student needs and skills.
In every unit, the materials use multiple instructional approaches to engage students in the mastery of the content. These approaches vary between explicit, hands-on, or collaborative discovery approaches. In Unit 1, students use a collaborative approach, “turn and talk,” when discussing the travel methods they use most often. Afterward, students analyze the plot of El consejo del niño, using a hands-on approach when completing a cause-and-effect graphic organizer. Students choose from two student-led activities on how to demonstrate their knowledge: they work with a partner by orally telling them about their favorite tall tale using the Tall Tale characteristics chart, or they use the Tall Tale anchor chart with an independent text of their choice. Additionally, in the conferring section, students engage in indirect learning by identifying characteristics of traditional tales, sharing what they have learned about the plot in the independent book they are reading, and discussing how knowing the fictional elements of traditional tales can help them understand the story.
In Unit 3, teachers use multiple instructional approaches to engage students. In “Interacción con las fuentes,” students read “Primeros pasos sobre la Luna” to learn the qualities of heroes. Students engage in a collaborative approach by observing the pictures from the mission Apollo 11 and using their own words to describe the astronaut’s mission to a partner. During the mini-lesson on “Ficción histórica,” the teacher uses a “cartel de referencia” to support the direct instruction. While reading aloud the text, “Bajo cubierta: Una historia del Titanic,” the teacher asks questions to develop comprehension of the text. This collaborative instructional strategy allows students to share ideas with classmates and encourages student participation. After listening to the text read aloud, students identify characteristics of historical fiction. Students and the teacher create a list of these characteristics. To apply their knowledge, students explain how these story elements help them to identify the text as historical fiction. The variation of instructional approaches and activities provides opportunities for students to engage in indirect learning through discovery, with teachers observing, guiding, and conferring with students during direct instruction and guided practice.
In Unit 3, the materials include interactive activities that support the lesson delivery, including visuals, kinesthetic, tactile, or auditory examples. For example, Unit 3 includes an interactive activity in the “Libro del estudiante” where students have to move boxes with hero qualities to corresponding spaces. Additionally, this unit includes an interactive timeline where students learn more about the contributions of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.
In Unit 5, after the whole group instruction, the teacher uses a “Quick Check” to determine if students can identify the elements of an informational text. Depending on how students respond to the quick check, the materials provide the teacher with specific instructions to help tailor instruction to the students’ needs. The teacher uses the quick check to determine whether the students need a review, additional practice, or are ready for independent work. In this Unit, if students cannot identify the elements of an informational text, the teacher revisits these concepts in a small group lesson. The “Small Group” section of the teacher’s manual provides additional instructions for this lesson. For example, if students show understanding, the materials provide instructions on extending the instruction about identifying the features of an informational text. If students are ready to apply their knowledge, students can choose from an independent or collaborative activity. For the collaborative activity, the students read a nonfiction text together, identify the features of a nonfiction text, and discuss how these features help them understand the text. Both students record their responses in their Student Interactive Book. For the independent activity, as students independently read a text of their choosing, they record a tally mark for each nonfiction text feature they find.
The materials do not include supports for English Learners to meet grade-level learning expectations. The materials do not provide accommodations for English language learners with various levels of English language proficiency. The materials do not encourage strategic use of students’ primary language to develop linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic skills in the target language (e.g., to enhance vocabulary development).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials do not include linguistic accommodations for English learners with various levels of English language proficiency. The materials are Spanish, and there is no guidance or support for English instruction. Units 1–5 in the materials support the acquisition of reading comprehension skills through texts in Spanish and support Spanish language acquisition. There is no evidence that the materials provide accommodations for English learners with various levels of English proficiency. The materials do not encourage strategic use of students’ primary language to develop linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic skills in English.
The materials include a year-long plan with practice and review opportunities that support instruction. The year-long plan is cohesive and builds on students’ concept development. The materials vertically align instruction so that concepts build from unit to unit. The materials provide a spiral review and continuous practice of knowledge and skills throughout the curriculum.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include a plan that supports efficient planning for teachers by identifying learning goals and the content focus within each unit. Within each unit, the materials provide opportunities for the review and practice of skills taught in previous units. The activities provided are clearly connected to the focus strategies and content within each unit and build upon knowledge taught in previous units. The materials include guidance to support teacher understanding in concept development. For example, the daily lesson clearly identifies the “big idea” that will be explicitly taught to students with a definition and provides examples and non-examples to aid teacher and student understanding. In the ”Guía del maestro” at the beginning of every unit, the materials provide a section titled “Vistazo a la unidad.” This section introduces the unit goals and presents a clear content plan and how the concepts connect between reading, writing, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and reading/writing connections.
The “Guía del maestro” provides a unit plan, “Plan de destraezas,” at the beginning of each unit. This section provides teachers with the focus skill and standard for each content area for the five weeks within the unit. For Unit 1, in the “Taller de lectura,” students work on analyzing the plot and the setting. In Week 2, students learn to infer themes. In Week 3, students analyze characters. In Week 4, students analyze text features. In Week 5, students analyze descriptive language. In weeks 1–5 in writing, “Taller de escritura,” the materials vertically align instruction. Students use what they learn about character development, setting, plot, and theme from realistic fiction in reading to help them write a personal narrative.
The materials include activities that support repeated opportunities to learn and practice using foundational literacy skills. For example, the materials include recommendations for the review and practice of specific foundational literacy skills. The “TEKS Correlation Guide” within the program overview outlines when standards are introduced and when they are spiraled and reviewed across units. Activities included in the materials have various methods of review and practice embedded. For example, In Unit 3, Week 2, the “Guía del maestro” includes an activity on the orthographic stress on “palabras agudas and graves.” The teacher guides students to complete the activity on a page in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante.” Students decode words and write sentences with them: “Mi turno—Decodifica las siguientes palabras con acento prosódico u ortográfico. En una hoja aparte, escribe dos oraciones que tengan una o más palabras graves con una o más palabras agudas.”
The materials provide spiraled review and practice of knowledge and skills taught in previous units. In the word study and spelling sections of the units, the weekly structure of the lesson plan includes a spiraled review on day 4. For example, in Unit 5, day 4, section, “Estudio de palabras,” the materials provide a “Repaso en espiral.” Students review the strategies from the previous week about identifying and spelling homophones and using a diacritic accent. The teacher displays and writes similar sounding words with different spellings. Students read the words out loud. Students pay attention to the words that sound alike and identify the difference in spelling. Teacher guidance includes, “Escriba las siguientes palabras en el pizarrón: baya, vaya, valla. Comenten el significado de cada palabra y señale la ortografía correcta de cada una.”
The materials include implementation and support for teachers and administrators. The materials provide a TEKS-aligned scope and sequence outlining the essential knowledge and skills taught throughout the year of instruction. The materials include support to help teachers implement the materials as intended. The materials provide resources and guidance to help administrators support teachers in implementing the materials as intended.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
In the program overview titled “Introducción a miVisión,” the teachers have access to different documents that provide an outline of the essential knowledge and skills taught across the units and grade levels. The document “K–8 TEKS Vertical Alignment” provides teachers with an overview of the skills taught in each unit and includes the grade level where the skills are “Introduced, Continued, Mastered, and Maintained.” The materials include guidance that supports the teacher in understanding the progression of literacy skills across a specific grade level. This guidance supports teachers in designing instruction that fosters optimal development and learning. For example, the “Detailed scope and sequence” for each grade level provides the teacher with the Unit and Week breakdown, including focused questions, reading skills, word study, spelling, language, and norms, all divided by Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop, and Reading-Writing workshop bridge. At the end of every teacher’s guide is a section titled “Contenido y Secuencia.” This section provides a detailed breakdown of the Reading Workshop, Reading-Writing Bridge, Writing Workshop, Oral language, and Research project. This scope and sequence outlines the specific areas and skills included in the materials and how they build across grade levels.
The materials include supports to help teachers implement the materials as intended. They include an overview of how they provide support to teachers, describing the resources the materials contain. For example, in the program overview titled “Introducción a miVisión,” the materials present a “TE Getting Started Guide” to support teachers in the first steps of using the materials. This section includes an explanation of the structure of each unit and its components. This explanation helps make the materials easily accessible so that teachers can find what they need quickly and easily: “The myView Literacy Teacher’s Edition helps you find what you need quickly and easily. The pages are arranged in instructional chunks by the week: Foundational Skills; Text Comprehension; Language Arts; Writing.” The starting guide explains how the materials are organized, what can be found in each component, and how the pages are arranged for lesson planning. Additionally, in the preliminary pages of every teacher edition, there is a section titled “Workshop Resources” that provides an overview of the print and online materials to teach the Reading and Writing Workshops.
The materials include an overview at the beginning of each unit. This unit overview is titled “Vistazo a la unidad.” This section highlights the skills to be taught, the goals of the unit, the essential question, theme, and genre focus. For example, for Unit 1, the theme of the unit is, “Determinar cómo afecta el entorno a las personas.” The essential question is, “¿Cómo nos afecta el entorno?” The unit goal for “Taller de lectura” is “Conocer diferentes tipos de cuentos tradicionales y comprender sus elementos.” The unit goal for “Taller de escritura” is “Usar elementos del texto narrativo para escribir una narración personal.”
The materials include five units; each unit has six weeks of lessons and activities, providing the teacher with 30 weeks of classroom instruction. The materials provide resources that allow the teacher flexibility to move between resources, plan lessons, and engage learners. The Week-at-a-Glance provides a menu of instructional resources for the week. This planner can be used to “Plug resources into a district pacing guide; Match whole group instruction to student needs; Tailor the resources to meet your instructional framework.” The “Suggested Weekly Plan” provides a suggestion for how to sequence instruction, including: “Identifying optional content; Ensuring standards coverage; Allowing flexibility to spend time where it is needed.” The materials and activities directly connect to literacy instruction and allow the teacher to meet literacy skills learning goals through whole group instruction, scaffolded experiences, small groups, and one-on-one conferencing appropriate for each grade level.
The materials in the Guía de evaluación provide guidance that supports the teacher in understanding the progression of literacy skills across a specific grade level. The materials include baseline tests to determine the level of proficiency in concepts of print, letter recognition, listening comprehension, and phonological awareness. Each unit consists of a unit test to monitor skills and standards taught in the unit; skills and standards include high-frequency words, listening comprehension, phonics, phonological awareness, and writing. A middle-of-the-year test monitors skills and standards taught through Unit 3. The end-of-the-year test provides a final progress update for these same skills and standards. The materials offer a visual overview of skills as they are taught, supporting the teacher in planning for differentiated instruction for students who require support with a certain literacy skill through the TEKS-aligned scope and sequence, which outlines important details about the program. In addition, there are many supports to help teachers implement the materials as intended as well as additional supports to help administrators support teachers in this implementation. Also, the Plan de destrezas (Skills Overview) in the Teacher Edition provides a visual map of the skills throughout the week. The “End Matter” of the Teacher Edition and “myView Literacy Digital Resources” include a Contenido y secuencia (Scope and Sequence Chart), providing an outline of knowledge and skills taught in the program and the grade levels in which they are taught. The SavvasEasyBridge.com site provides support and tools specifically for administrators to manage teacher and student accounts for Savvas digital platforms. It provides user management and class roster synchronization tools to simplify learning platform setup tasks. The SavvasEasyBridge.com site also provides direct links to on-demand training, live webinars, best practices, and more.
The materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations. The materials are designed to allow the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations. The materials provide guidance for strategic implementation. The materials provide materials that guide the instruction so that content is taught in a specific order, following a developmental progression.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include guidance that supports teaching units when most appropriate to the classroom. The “Modelo pedagógico para el taller de lectura” includes “unidades de estudio” that include “pregunta esencial, tema y múltiples géneros.” The weekly plan and objectives include daily explicit and systematic instruction on foundational skills such as syllable patterns; prefixes and suffixes; Greek, Spanish, and Latin roots; and high-frequency words. The daily mini-lessons and read-think aloud activities teach essential TEKS-driven skills and elements of the unit genre. Lessons sections include: “Weekly question, theme, and genre that drives the instruction each week and leads up to the project-based Inquiry; Shared reading provides a time for guidance that fosters student engagement, participation, and collaboration; Close Reading gives students an opportunity to dive deeply into the text and annotate; Compare texts is an essential skill in which students draw connections across texts.”
The writing materials include strategic guidance for implementing the writing workshop, ensuring the sequence of the content taught is consistent with the developmental progression of the literacy skills specific to each grade level. The “Modelo pedagógico para el taller de escritura” contains “unidades de estudio: género y modo de escritura” with weekly mini-lesson focuses. Examples include: “Week 1—Immerse and Introduce; Week 2—Develop Elements; Week 3—Develop Structure; Week 4—Writer’s Craft; Week 5—Publish, Celebrate, Assess.”
Materials are designed to allow the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations. The daily instructional plan includes whole group instruction (5–15 minutes) that includes mini-lessons on word work, genre, theme, comprehension, reflect, and share. Small group (25–30 minutes) teacher actions include “guided reading, strategy groups, intervention, conferring, fluency and on-level and advanced activities.” Student independent and collaborative actions include: “partner reading, independent reading, book club, literacy activities, and word work and the whole group share back (5 minutes).”
The material supports teachers by identifying and supporting students' developmental progression of content skills by sectioning instruction into steps, fostering independent writing. These sections include: “modeled writing, shared writing, guided writing, and independent writing. The instructional writing workshop daily plan includes mini-lessons led by teachers (5–15 minutes), independent writing practice (30–40 minutes), conferring (3–5 minutes per student), and share back (5 minutes).”
The materials include lesson preparation and internalization that is customizable for individual classroom needs. The online intervention guide contains a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts tied to Science and Social Studies that can be assigned to students individually. Examples include but not limited to: Una expedicion increible, Algo más que una mudanza, Soluciones de la naturaleza.” These texts come with a teacher guide for “Vocabulario academico” and lessons for teachers to guide instruction. The material allows for components of the content to be utilized based on district or school curriculum needs. Teachers can add materials to this section, rearrange the order of the lessons, and customize the scope and sequence to meet the needs of teacher planning and student skill levels. The digital resources include “Juegos de práctica,” which provide an additional option to reinforce and practice foundational skills. These games are “Mar de ortografía,” a spelling game designed to provide practice of spelling patterns and rules; “Las islas de las palabras,” a foundational skills practice game, and “La selva de los sonidos,” a game that provides practice in a variety of skills. These games are assigned and rearranged based on program designing and scheduling considerations. The digital resource “[Publisher] Realize” contains a program design that can be adjusted to align with district curriculum frameworks. The scope and sequence can be rearranged, units can be taught in a different order, and new materials can be uploaded and made available for students based on the LEA’s curriculum and instruction planning for the school year.
The materials provide some guidance on fostering connections between home and school. The materials provide minimal support for the development of strong relationships between teachers and families. Other than a few conversation starters, the materials do not provide specific activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide some opportunities to foster the development of strong relationships between teachers and families. Located in the Guia de Evaluacion, teachers have access to tools that are specific to home and school support. For example, teachers provide parents with a “Student Progress Chart” that tracks student growth toward mastery of grade-level skill development.
The materials provide few opportunities for activities to support students’ learning and development at home. The “miVision Lectura Conexión entre la escuela y el hogar” letters provide an overview directly to parents and guardians, including the unit topic, reading goals, writing goals, and how to help their student through conversation starters. However, the materials do not provide additional guidance or opportunities of activities for parents to apply at home to support student learning and development.
The visual design of the student and teacher materials is neither distracting nor chaotic. The materials include appropriate use of white space. The design, pictures, and graphics of the materials are supportive of student learning and facilitate engagement without being visually distracting.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Both the teacher's guides and the student´s materials adhere to the “User Interface Design Guidelines.” The student's materials are designed with clear, designated places for important information, containing support with information that is clearly stated and easily identified on the pages. All across levels, the different sections in it are color-coded so that students can easily locate the information and skill they are working on during that unit.
The materials provide quality picture support in lesson resources. Every unit in the “Libro interactivo del estudiante” contains quality illustrations or pictures that support the passages in which they are embedded. In Unit 1, the students read the passage, “Vida en el desierto.” In chapter 2 of this passage, the text describes the people who live in the desert: “Los nómadas que habitan el desierto de Gobi, en Asia, se trasladan de un lugar a otro en busca de recursos. Viven en estructuras similares a una tienda, llamadas yurtas, que pueden llevar consigo.” The picture located by this section shows the structure, “yurtas,” standing on a big plain with high mountains on the horizon. This picture supports the information from the text by showing what “yurtas” actually look like and showing how desolate and vast that region is. The images in the passage facilitate student understanding of the information in the text and increase the interest in the content.
The materials provide a “TE Getting Started Guide” to support teacher understanding and navigation of the materials. This guide is designed to give the teacher a quick overview of how the materials are organized, what is included in the materials, and the various components of the different sections of the materials. The Teacher Guide allows teachers to easily locate important information for lesson planning and implementation. The materials support the easy navigation of resources. The materials are color-coded: “Green—Reading workshop; Light blue or Teal—Foundational skills; Yellow—Small group; Blue—Reading-Writing Bridge; Purple—Writing Workshop; Orange—Project-Based Inquiry/Assessment.” In Unit 3, “Plan de destrezas,” the material is separated into sections by colors. The reading section, “Taller de lectura,” is colored green, “Taller de escritura” is colored purple, and “Puentes entre los talleres de lectura y escritura” are colored blue. “El plan de destrezas” divides content from weeks 1–5, facilitating lesson planning. Week 6 includes an integration of the skills covered during these weeks and is colored orange to allow easy identification in the planning guide.
The visuals included are clear and concise. The visual design allows teachers to easily locate important information for lesson planning. At the beginning of each unit is a section titled “Vistazo a la unidad,” with a more detailed explanation of the content covered each week. The materials provide a clear and concise visual of a chart that breaks down what students learn each week in each content area. The chart is color-coded to match the colors of each section in the teacher materials. Examples of the content include but are not limited to: “Reading workshop: género, vocabulario, lectura atenta dia 3,4 y comparar textos; Reading-writing workshop bridge: vocabulario académico, estudio de palabras y leer como escritor; Writing workshop: introducción e inmersión, desarrollar los elementos, desarrollar la estructura, etc; Inquiry and research: Investigación y escritura.”
The student workbooks are neither distracting nor chaotic. In Unit 5, “Libro Interactivo del Estudiante,” the student materials provide an anchor chart to facilitate student learning about the structures of an informational text. The chart is colorful, clear, concise, and easily readable by students. The materials provide quality picture support in lesson resources. In this unit, in the “Libro Interactivo del Estudiante,” students learn about “Terremotos, erupciones y otros sucesos que cambian la Tierra.” The materials provide a diagram of the different layers of Earth. This graphic supports student learning of the content about the planet Earth. For example, the students get to observe real examples of natural disasters. The materials provide real-life images of landslides, volcanoes, tsunamis, and volcanoes.
This item is not scored.
The materials provide guidance or recommendations on how they could be applied within a particular bilingual program model. The materials include an introduction with an overview and recommendations for implementation within a bilingual program model. The materials cite current, relevant research on Spanish literacy development and second language development and acquisition.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials provide recommendations on implementation that can be used within Texas-approved bilingual program models. The materials state that “regardless of the bilingual model used, the approach to literacy instruction generally falls into two categories: A sequential approach and an Integrated Approach.” In the “Sequential Approach,” literacy instruction is delivered in one language for an extended period of time, such as a week or two weeks, and then in the other language for the same period of time, before repeating the cycle. In an “Integrated Approach,” time is dedicated every day (or on alternate days) to literacy instruction in both languages. Many biliteracy program models also connect literacy instruction with the content-area curriculum in science, social studies, or math. The instructional design of miVisión allows for flexible use of both programs to fulfill a given school’s Spanish and English Language Arts curriculum needs within a range of program models, including ones that connect literacy with content-area instruction, regardless of whether the approach to Spanish and English literacy instruction is sequential or integrated.
The materials provide a ”Dual Language Program Planning Guide.” In this guide, the materials provide suggestions for selecting texts and mini-lessons from both programs to impart instruction for a 50/50 model. The guides offer suggested pacing for covering reading and writing workshop lessons in Spanish and English without repeating content in either language. The planning guides offer an at-a-glance view of all Spanish and English language arts and reading skills covered in two weeks (or ten days per selection per language). All planners call out skills that have cross-linguistic transfer into the partner language and may therefore be taught in either language. Also flagged are skills with limited or no cross-linguistic transfer and must therefore be taught explicitly in the given language to assure adequate student mastery. The materials suggest, “if you allocate 70%–90% of your instructional time to Spanish literacy, use some of that time to connect the myView unit themes and topics to specific content in your social studies, science, or math curriculum.”
The materials cite current, relevant research on Spanish literacy development and second language development and acquisition. The Professional Development Resources of the “Dual Language Educators’ Implementation Guide” includes an Articles section in Part I, where both program authors discuss the following topics: “Dual Language Instruction and Contrastive Analysis in the Elementary Grades by Richard Gómez Jr. and Using Concrete Materials to Create Engaging Early Childhood Environments for Dual Language Learners by María G. Arreguín-Anderson.” In these articles, the authors discuss the best strategies to assist native Spanish speakers in learning English as a second language. Part I of the “Dual Language Educators’ Implementation Guide” also includes “The Dual Language Toolkit” section, which offers additional background articles on time-tested and research-backed biliteracy development strategies that have been widely embraced by dual language teachers in a variety of instructional settings. Article topics include but are not limited to: “ Contrastive Analysis; Cognate Analysis; The Language Experience Approach; Developing Academic Vocabulary; Scaffolding Instruction for Diverse Learners.”
This item is not scored.
The materials guide and support teachers in understanding how to connect Spanish and English instruction. The materials provide opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections. The materials allow for equitable instruction in both languages in terms of quality and quantity of materials. The materials provide guidance for teachers to support second language acquisition by making connections between the languages.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials support teachers in understanding the connection between content presented in each language and provide guidance on how to help students understand this connection. The materials provide an “Expert’s View Box” embedded into the lessons that explains the benefits of the cross-linguistic connections and provides recommendations to teachers. For example, in Unit 1, Week 3, “Interacción con la fuente,” the expert María G. Arreguín-Anderson, Ed. D., from the University of Texas at San Antonio suggests that “En los salones de clase que tienen diversidad lingüística y cultural, el uso de las diversas variantes del español genera oportunidades cruciales para que los estudiantes amplíen y enriquezcan su aprendizaje.” She stresses the importance of building a bridge or providing cross-language connections by paraphrasing and extending students’ contributions through modeling of standard academic language.
The materials include detailed and explicit guidance for teachers to support second language acquisition by making connections between the languages. For example, in Unit 1, Week 4, “Puente entre los talleres de lectura y escritura,” students learn about “lenguaje figurado.” In the section “Desarrollo del lenguaje espanol,” the teacher encourages Spanish speakers to apply their knowledge of their native language as a strategy to help them deduce the English cognates of words from the academic vocabulary. Materials state: “Anima a los hablantes de Español a aplicar el conocimiento de su lengua nativa como una estrategia para ayudarlos a deducir los equivalencias en inglés de las palabras del vocabulario académico.” The teacher points to the following cognates: “competencia/competition, costumbre/custom, ocasión/occasion, organización/organization.”
The materials highlight opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections. The materials provide a Cross-Linguistic Connection in the lesson portion of the materials through a call-out box that shows teachers how to make the connection to both languages during vocabulary instruction by addressing words that are cognates. In Unit 3, Week 5, “Reflexionar y comentar,” the lesson contains an expert’s view box from Richard Gómez Jr., Ph.D., from the Gómez & Gómez Dual Language Consultants Institute. The expert says “El estudio de los cognados fomenta la transferencia interlingüística y la conciencia metalingüística en los estudiantes bilingües. Así también lo hace el estudio de los no cognados y los cognados falsos.” The expert provides recommendations to be opportunistic about flagging and discussing false cognates or non-cognates likely to trip up bilingual students in reading or writing routines. For example, some English and Spanish high-frequency words such as van, pan, and ten are spelled the same but have no resemblance in meaning. They need explanation in context for second-language learners.
The materials provide quality materials in both languages of instruction. The Spanish teacher's guide includes instructions for teachers, side-by-side, in both English and Spanish. The sidebars of all the pages in teacher materials provide English instruction. The lesson includes sections for “Desarrollo del lenguaje de Español.” This section provides recommendations specifically to develop Spanish language skills. For example, in Unit 5, “Comprension auditiva,” the Spanish language development section recommends the following: “Para ayudar a los estudiantes prepararse para la lectura de, “La asombrosa selva Amazónica," muestra una mapa física del América de Sur.” The teacher shows a map of South America and has students locate the Amazon rainforest. Building this foundational knowledge improves academic Spanish vocabulary and improves comprehension of the text.
The materials allow for equitable instruction in both languages. The materials that are provided in English are also available in Spanish. For example, the materials provide leveled readers in English and Spanish. The texts provided are written in authentic Spanish and not mere translations of English. The texts have authentically rich plot lines with diverse characters to which students can relate. Some genres and text examples include but are not limited to: “Realistic fiction text—A Home for a Chicken and the Spanish version, Un hogar para una gallina; Mystery text—The Letter and the Spanish version, La carta; Science fiction—The Weighting Game and the Spanish version, El peso del partido.”
This item is not scored.
The materials in Spanish are authentic and culturally relevant. Both teacher and student materials are presented in authentic and academic Spanish and are quality translations. The materials include some stories that specify the country of origin. The materials include cultural objectives aligned to each of the units. The materials represent the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Spanish language and Hispanic culture.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
The materials include various representations of Hispanic culture. Throughout the units, the materials include stories that specify the country of origin. Some examples of these stories include: “La flor dorada: Un mito taíno de Puerto Rico; Cocoliso: Ficción Realista basada en Cuba; Conoce a José Martí: Un biografía sobre un escritor Cubano; Quetzalcoatl y el maíz: Cuento tradicional de México.” Although the materials represent the cultural diversity of Latino culture, the materials do not include linguistic diversity in the teacher guidance sections by emphasizing words that may be used with different meanings in various Spanish dialects.
The materials include cultural objectives aligned to each unit’s goals that communicate and bridge cultural values and foster a bicultural identity. For example, some of the units’ cultural objectives include embracing one’s heritage, including cultural family traditions, beliefs, holidays, values, and how they fit into their communities and society. For example, in Unit 1, Week 2, the focus question for the week, “¿Cómo se relacionan las diferentes culturas con sus entornos?” asks students to reflect and think about how different cultures relate to their environments. Throughout the unit, students reflect and discuss the focus question: “Pida a los estudiantes que escriban libremente para responder a la pregunta y luego comentan sus respuestas.”
The materials represent the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. The materials address the importance of intercultural understanding and respect. In Unit 1, the teacher presents sentence frames. Students use them to discuss the specific aspects of the cultures they read about during the week. The students comment on the different cultures using the sentence frames provided: “Pida que comenten otros aspectos de las culturas sobre las que leyeron esta semana. Presente los siguientes marcos de oraciones para ayudar a los estudiantes a responder. Una de las culturas sobre las que leí es ___. En esa cultura, ___________, se diferencia de la cultura Nigeriana porque ________.” This practice fosters the students´ understanding of the importance of intercultural appreciation.
Both teacher and student materials are presented in authentic and academic Spanish. In both the English and Spanish materials, the translations and transadaptations provided are age-appropriate for student’s learning and interaction with content. The teacher materials include quality transadaptations from English to Spanish. In Unit 3, the “Guía interactiva del estudiante” includes the story, “A orillas del lago Silver” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This story is a transadaptation of the passage included on a page of the “Interactive Student Guide” for English learners. The Spanish version of the story does not deviate from the story´s meaning and maintains age-appropriate vocabulary. For example, in English, the original version states: “Her chest was smothering and her eyes were dizzy. She ran up a low slope. Nothing, nothing, not a spot of shadow was anywhere on the level prairie all around her.” The “Guía interactiva del estudiante” includes this transadaptation: “El pecho la ahogaba y se le nublaban los ojos. Corría hacia arriba por una pendiente baja. Nada. Nada. No había ni una pizca de sombra en ningún lugar de la pradera que la rodeaba.” The Spanish passage has the same dramatic appeal to emotion as the original version in English, presenting age-appropriate vocabulary for the students at this level.