Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

The materials include explicit instruction of all 26 letters. This occurs in Skills 6 after students learn sounds. Students learn lowercase letters before uppercase letters. While letters are explicitly taught, the program assumes that some students will come in with letter name knowledge. The materials state, “You may find that some or all of your students already know the letter names. Letter names are widely taught in homes and preschools, on educational television, and by educational toys and games.”

There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. The program states in Skills 3 that in early lessons the teacher is encouraged to avoid using letter names because students can become confused by the names. The program provides guidance and phrasing that helps the teacher introduce the sound without saying the name. The program states that by Skills 6, students develop a solid command of letter-sound correspondences and blending skills, which is why this is the point where letter names are introduced. Lowercase letters are introduced first one at a time, while uppercase letters are introduced in groups.

• The Scope and Sequence, Skills Strand identifies that Alphabet/Letter names begin in Lesson 1 of Skills 6. The sequence for uppercase letters, which begins in Skills 9 include:
• In Lesson 1, A, B, C, D are taught.
• In Lesson 3, E, F, G, H are taught.
• In Lesson 6, I, J, K, L, M are taught.
• In Lesson 7, N, O, P, Q, R are taught.
• In Lesson 10 S, T, U, V, W are taught
• In Lesson 12 X, Y, Z are taught

Materials contain isolated, systematic, and explicit instruction for all 26 letters, including both uppercase and lowercase letters. Lowercase letters are taught first because according to the program, “They were chosen as a starting point since they are much more widely used in reading written text than uppercase letters.” Examples include:

• In Skills 6, Lesson 1, students see the word cat, and the teacher says that the word has three letters and tells students that letters have sounds and names.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 7, students review the alphabet using the lowercase alphabet on display and sing the “Alphabet Song.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 7, lowercase q is taught as qu.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 16, students complete the letter naming routine. This routine takes place on most days, using the Large Letter Cards.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 1, the primary focus of the lesson is to provide the sound and letter names of the letters, a, i, o, ch, sh, th, ng, qu, and fifteen other single-consonant spellings.
• In Skills 9, the introduction says that students are introduced to the remaining uppercase letters, many of which differ from the lowercase equivalents.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification.

Materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). The letter names are initially taught in Skills 6 because the program states that “some students become confused by letter names.” Students practice through activity pages and games.

Students have frequent opportunities to engage in practicing all 26 letters. Beginning in Skills 6, students practice identifying letters by names. Some examples of these frequent opportunities include:

• In Skills 3, the activity book gives students multiple opportunities to identify the beginning letter of pictured items.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 14, students review letter names playing the game, Alphabet Soup. The teacher places all 26 lowercase letters in a container. Students select a card, show it to the class, and say the name of the letter printed on the card and the sound or sounds the letter represents.
• In Skills 6, Activity 7.1, students have a chart of lowercase letters and practice singing the letter names using the chart.
• In Skills 6, Skills 11.2, students sing the "ABC Song," and write the missing letters as they sing.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 3, students play the game, More Help, with uppercase letters. One student faces the board while the other student has their back to the board. The teacher writes a letter on the board. One student writes a letter on the other student's back while the student works to identify the letter being written on their back.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 4, during the review activity, students play Uppercase Letter Sprints. The teacher makes “three sets of uppercase letter cards for the first eight letters of the alphabet” and places “them at the far end of the classroom, the gym, or the playground.” After the teacher places students into three teams, the teacher holds up a Large Letter Card for one of the eight letters taught in the unit, and one student from each team says the name and sound of the letter. Students then “race to grab a corresponding uppercase letter card and bring it back.”
• In Skills 9, Activity 1.1, students practice matching uppercase A, B, C, D, with their lowercase counterpart. The teacher asks students to name the letter and if it is uppercase or lowercase.
• In Skills 9, Activity 3.1, students practice matching uppercase A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H with their lowercase counterpart. The teacher asks students to name the letter and if it is uppercase or lowercase.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide explicit instruction to print and to practice the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

Throughout the program, students receive explicit instruction to print and practice the 26 letters. The teacher models the process of drawing sounds and uses explicit instruction in their directions for letter/sound formation. Students practice this skill of letter/sound formation in the air and also on paper, going from the tracing of letters/sounds to forming the letters/sounds on their own.

Materials include clear directions for the teacher for explaining and modeling how to correctly form each of the 26 letters. Students begin by learning lowercase letters. Uppercase letters that look like their lowercase counterpart are taught in Skills 8, and all other uppercase letters are taught in Skills 9. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form the letter m. The materials state, “Draw a large lowercase ‘m’ on the board and describe what you are doing using the phrases provided. (Start on... 1. Short line down. 2. Hump 3. Hump). Then say the sound /m/.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 3, the teacher explains and models how to form the letter t. The teacher says, “Start between the dotted line and the bottom line. 1 Long line down (lift). 2. Short line across.”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 7, the teacher introduces how to write the letter v. The teacher shows the students how to draw the picture of the /v/ sound. The teacher draws a large lowercase v on the board and describes what they are doing by saying, “Start on the dotted line. 1 Diagonal down. 2. Diagonal up.” The teacher tells students to use their “entire arm to draw a very large letter in the air.” The teacher models this with their back to the students and then students follow.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 3, students learn the uppercase letters of E, F, G, and H. The lesson begins by the teacher modeling the lowercase letters and uppercase letters and then discussing the similarities and differences in each letter. For example, the Teacher Guide says, “Point out that lowercase ‘e’ is written below the dotted line. Write an uppercase ‘E’ next to the lowercase ‘e’, describing what you are doing...”

Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all 26 letters. Examples include but are not limited to:

• In Skills 3, Activity page 5.1, students practice forming m, a, t, d.
• In Skills 4, Activity Page 7.1, students practice forming z, o, c, a, d, g.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 6, students complete the Meet the Spelling Activity Page, where they practice drawing the picture of the /w/ sound together by using the black dots as the starting point and tracing the gray dotted letters.
• In Skills 5, Activity Page 8.1 students practice forming y, e, s.
• In Skills 6, Activity page 6.6, students practice forming i, l, r, j, k, o, a, d, b, p, g.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 1, students begin practicing forming uppercase letters. Students trace the dotted letters to learn how to write capital A, B, C, and D.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 7, the teacher introduces the letter formations for N, O, P, Q, R, and students write both the uppercase and lowercase letter in the air while saying whether it is an uppercase or lowercase letter.
• In Skills 9, Activity Page 7.1, students practice forming the capital letters N, O, P, Q, R.

Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multisensory methods. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Activity Page 10.3, students trace each lowercase letter using a different colored crayon each time.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 1, the teacher models and discusses how students will use their entire arm to draw the letter in the air. The teacher models and encourages students to copy the motions.
• In Skills 4, Activity Page 12.1, students trace each lowercase letter using a different colored crayon each time.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 7, students stand by their desk and use their index finger to write N, O, P, Q, R in the air. In the Activity Book, students trace the gray dotted letters and write the letters in their book.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide a cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1).

Materials include explicit and systematic instruction of print concepts beginning in Skills 1. Materials include frequent lessons, tasks, and questions about the organization of print concepts. The teaching of print concepts includes periodic cumulative review opportunities as well. There are a variety of physical books that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts. Skills 4-8 utilize Big Books and Skills 6-10 have a personal student book (i.e. decodable book). Students engage in authentic practice of print concepts in the context of their student books. They use the Student Reader, Big Book, Activity Book pages, and digital components to practice print concepts.

Materials include sufficient and explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts. The materials also include sufficient and explicit instruction about recognizing that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters and that words are separated by spaces in print. Specific examples include:

• In Skills 4, Lesson 10, the teacher is to “Explain that words can be combined to make ideas called phrases. Tell students when we write a phrase we put spaces between the words in that phrase.” The teacher shows the phrase tan dog and points out the space between the two words. In Lesson 12, as the teacher reads the Big Book, Pet Fun aloud, students track the print from left to right. The teacher asks one student at a time to read the phrase on each page, standing close to the Big Book and pointing a finger under each word.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 13, as the teacher reads Ox and Man aloud, students track print from left to right. Students read some of the sentences aloud. In Lesson 14, the teacher reminds the students that a story has a title and is made up of sentences. The teacher says, “Sentences begin with an uppercase letter and end with a period. The words in a sentence are separated by spaces.”
• In Skills 8, Lesson 9, as the teacher reads, Max in the Mud students follow along in their own reader. The teacher runs their finger beneath the words while reading.

Materials include frequent and adequate lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts. Specific examples include:

• All lessons that include a story that includes information under the Primary Focus of the Lesson that says, “As the teacher reads (selected text) aloud, students will track print from top to bottom and left to right.”
• In Skills 2, Activity Page 1.1, students practice reading left to write and top to bottom by pointing to pictures going in that order.
• In Skills 4, Activity Page 11.2, the teacher reminds students that words can be combined to make phrases and that there are spaces between the words in a phrase. Students read the first phrase and identify which picture matches the phrase.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 8, as the teacher reads, “Kit’s Mom” aloud, students track print from top to bottom and left to right.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 6, the Teacher Guide states, “As the teacher reads ‘Tasks’ aloud, students will track print from top to bottom, and left to right; recognize that apostrophes indicate possession; identify periods at the end of sentences…”

Materials contain periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about the previously learned grade-level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation. Students practice these skills periodically throughout the program. This is found throughout the Teacher Guide. Examples include:

• In Unit 4, Lesson 10, students review that phrases are separated by spaces between the words in the phrase.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 5, students engage in a letter review. Students point and say names of letters on an alphabet strip and then the teacher holds up a letter card one at a time for students to say the name of the letter.

Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness, providing students with ample opportunities to engage with phonological awareness activities daily. Phonological Awareness activities are found throughout the day-to-day activities as well as in additional supports in the Remediation Guide. The program identifies that “when we write a word, we essentially write one symbol for each sound in a word. For this reason, it is important to begin to increase students' awareness of the sounds they hear.“

Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness. For example:

• In Skills 1, students engage in a variety of activities such as counting phonemes with fingers, listening to words in phrases and sentences, and echoing what the teacher says. For instance, in Lesson 5, students use cubes and mats to listen for and identify the words in phrases/sentences. In Lesson 7, the teacher says a phrase or sentence, claps for each word, and then signals the number of claps with fingers. Students repeat the same activity that was modeled by the teacher.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, students do a warm-up activity using their hands to show segmenting and blending of two syllable words such as bathtub, pencil, and sister.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 9, in the additional supports, students are given another way of practicing the skill in addition to the finger tapping in the main lesson. Students are provided with manipulatives and are told the manipulatives are individual sounds in words before being blended together. Students can segment them or put them together as they blend the word orally.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 1, the teacher holds up five fingers and says the word skips, and then wiggles each finger from thumb to pinky as the teacher segments each sound in the word.

There are frequent opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness. Most lessons include a warm-up, which is a phonological awareness activity. Phonological awareness skills are reviewed and repeated throughout the year. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, the teacher models and students practice sound blending. This skill continues in Skills 3 before sound segmenting is taught in Skills 4. In Skills 5 and 6, both skills are reviewed and practiced.
• In Skills 3, the Table of Contents provides lesson overviews, showing Lessons 1-14 contain oral blending Warm-Up activities.
• In Skills 10, Lessons 1 and 3, provide Warm-Up activities for segmenting and blending two-syllable words.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.

Materials include consistent systematic and explicit instruction in phonics skills with repeated teacher modeling across all Skills in the Teacher Guide. The program includes scripted information and examples for the teacher and additional supports for students throughout phonics instruction. Phonics instruction includes oral and written practice with both encoding and decoding opportunities.

Materials contain explicit instruction for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level standards. Examples include:

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. This includes but is not limited to:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 1, students learn that the sound /m/ is spelled m. The teacher introduces this sound through the Mirror, Mirror activity and explains “that we make sounds by putting parts of our mouth like our lips and tongue into special positions while breathing out air.” The teacher distributes mirrors so students can watch the formation of the letter. The teacher asks students if their mouths are open or closed when they make the sound and what their lips do when they say the /m/ sound.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 7, students learn that the sound /z/ is spelled z. The teacher introduces the sound and has the students repeat it several times. The students repeat words with the /z/ sound. During Introduce the Spelling, the teacher models how to write the letter z for the sound /z/.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 3, students learn that the sound /r/ is spelled r. The program reminds teachers the importance of clipping the sound to avoid making it say /er/. The teacher introduces the sound and asks questions like if the sound is a consonant or vowel sound. During Introduce the Spelling, the teacher models how to write the letter r for the sound /r/.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 3, students learn that the sound /z/ can also be spelled s. The teacher writes the letter s on the board and asks students to recall the letter name. Students give the sound of the letter. The teacher explains that the letter is usually pronounced /s/, but sometimes it is pronounced /z/.

Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. This includes, but is not limited to:

• In Skills 3, students learn short vowel a (Lesson 2), short vowel o (Lesson 6), and short vowel i (Lesson 9). In Lesson 3, the teacher begins by showing how to draw the sound /a/. Students repeat several times by sky writing and saying the sound of the vowel each time. This method is used to teach all vowel sounds.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, students learn the short vowel u. The teacher begins teaching this by drawing the lowercase u on the board and repeats the steps to do this several times and then, together the students sky write the letter and say the sound.
• In Skills 10, students learn long vowels such as /ee/ spelled ee in Lesson 1, /ae/ spelled a_e in Lesson 7, /ie/ spelled i_e in Lesson 11, /oe/ spelled o_e in Lesson 17, and /ue/ spelled u_e in Lesson 22. In Lesson 21, the teacher distributes large letter cards. The teacher says a word such as hop and students, holding the letters, go to the front of the class. The student holding the letter e is holding the magic e and if the teacher says ‘Alakazam’, the student with the letter e card is added to the end, and the students say the new word. The long vowels are taught in one lesson and then reviewed in the following lesson.

Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ. This includes, but is not limited to:

• In Skills 4, Lesson 1, the teacher explains that it can be difficult to tell the difference between the /n/ sound and the /m/ sound. Both sounds are made by challenging air throughout your nose. The teacher hands out Activity Pages 1.2 and 1.3. The teacher says various words with /m/ and /n/ and students hold up the letter m if they hear the /m/ sound and the letter n if they hear the /n/ sound.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, the teacher explains that it can be difficult to tell the difference between /u/ and /o/ sound. The teacher has the students make a gesture for the vowel sound /o/ or /u/ as they say various words.
• Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade level phonics pattern. Examples include:
• In Skills 8, Lesson 7, the teacher says a word, students repeat each sound, and then spell the words on their paper. For example, the teacher says the word job, and the class raises a finger for each sound. The students say how many sounds are in the word. Students say each sound and write the word. This is repeated with the words win, pest, plum, and chin.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 7, the teacher introduces the sound/spelling for /ae/ by saying the sound and having students stretch it out and say it several times. The teacher shares words with /ae/, and students repeat. Students trace the spelling in the air of these words while repeating the word before reading it.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.

The materials provide frequent opportunities for students to decode phonetically spelled words. Students read words by individual phonemes and are provided the opportunity to read the entire word using newly taught phonics skills. The materials utilize a variety of methods and resources for students to practice phonics skills. Pocket chaining gives the students the opportunity to decode words in isolation. Decodable readers give students the ability to apply phonics in continuous text. Student activity pages give students the opportunity to practice both in isolation and in continuous text.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode (phonemes and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 7, students read words in a pocket chart chaining activity with the letters m, t, d, c, and o. Students read mad, dad and cat, cot.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 4, the teacher creates the word if in a pocket chart and asks students to read the word. The teacher replaces the f card with the t card, and students read the word. Students complete this chaining activity with the following chain: if, it, sit, fit, fin, fig, fog, dog, hog, hot.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 8, students blend and then read the words mom, gets, pets, six, dad before reading the story “Kit’s Mom.”

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. Beginning in Unit 6, students read decodable readers, with the newly taught phonics patterns in bold throughout the text. Examples include:

• In Skills 4, Lesson 9, students read the words hen, ten, net, and pen, then select which pictures match the word and write the word under the picture after learning that e says /ĕ/.
• In Skills 4, Activity 14.3, students read a list of words aloud and match the word to the corresponding image.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 9, the teacher uses a Big Book, and students first read the title. The teacher reviews some of the spelling patterns that the students will read such as digraphs. Students read the book aloud.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 21, the decodable story is introduced and the spelling patterns and newly taught words with the spelling pattern are reviewed. As a class, students read aloud, seems, waved, likes, home, cube, free, take, hope, cute, see, stares, zone, and tune.
• In Skills 10, Activity 5.3, students read “Scott and Lee” and are told to use their finger to point to each word as they read it.

Materials contain opportunities for students to review previously learned grade-level phonics. Examples include:

• In Skills 7, Lesson 1, students complete a Warm-Up of previously taught sounds and spellings. Students segment words containing up to five sounds with consonant clusters at the beginning or the end of the word.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 13, students review single syllable short vowel words. The teacher distributes large letter cards. The teacher says a word and if students are holding a letter that spells that word, students go to the front of the room. The class reads the word.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 15, students complete a tap and spell activity to review previously learned vowel and consonant sound spellings by tapping on the letters and saying the sound. One student reads the word and the other student spells it by tapping out the appropriate sound. In this activity, students review all short vowels and some consonant digraphs such as ch and sh and some consonants such as qu and p.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 11, students review sounds and letter names for letters in the warm-up activity. Letters included are: a, e, i, o, ch, sh, th, ng, qu, ck, ff, and ll.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 18, students choose a previously read story from their Reader and read it with a partner.

Materials contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade level phonics. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 11, students play spelling hopscotch by stepping on letters as they sound out and blend words in order to read. Letters come from previously taught skills and include a, i, u, m, t, d, o, and g.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, students read the ‘Act Out Wiggle Cards’ which contain some previously taught spellings and the new sound /u/. Wiggle card prompts include act mad, sit, get up, and tug on leg.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 9, students begin the decodable text for the unit after having “ample time for instruction and practice of digraphs.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 13, students review the sounds th and sh through a letter chaining activity and reading the decodable.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for the materials to promote frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.

The materials provide regular practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence through the use of decodable readers and activity pages that align with the phonics skill for the lesson/unit. Students begin reading in Big Books in Skills 4 and the Decodale Reader in Skills 6.

Materials provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding regular words in a sentence. Examples include:

• In Skills 5, Lesson 14, the teacher displays the Big Book “Ox and Man” and models reading the story by running a finger beneath the words and pausing at the end of each sentence. The teacher repeats this with the students reading aloud with the teacher.
• In Skills 6, the Introduction provides information to the teacher regarding the transition from Big Books to Independent Reading. The stories are 100% decodable, and the first few stories are short and simple.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 13, students read “Mumps,” and the teacher reminds students to run their finger under each word as they read the story aloud and if students do not recognize the word, they should sound it out, letter by letter.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, students complete Activity Page 2.1, which provides students with three decodable words and three sentences with blanks. The teacher demonstrates reading the first sentence three times, once with the word feet, once with the word seems, and once with the word needs. The teacher continues demonstrating how to read the sentences, until the students are ready to work independently.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words in a sentence. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, Activity Page 3.1 students read decodable sentences and complete the sentence using a missing word from the box. Decodable sentences include, “Stan is mad at Fred. Jim has not met Tim. Ted is his dad. Jen is not as sad as Kim.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 9, the teacher and students use the Picture Reader to practice reading sentences. Students read each sentence aloud.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 2, students read the decodable text, “Sam and the Fish,” and students read sentences such as “Sam and his dad sit and sit.”
• In Skills 10, Lesson 3, students read the decodable text, “Red Ants,” which includes decodable sentences such as “Scott was mad at the ants.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to include daily practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and sound patterns.

Materials include daily student practice opportunities to build, manipulate, spell, and encode phonics beginning in Skills 3. Materials include explicit instruction, as well as background information for the teacher. Students are provided with opportunities to build, manipulate, spell, and encode common and newly-taught grade-level phonics through chaining activities, dictation activities, and Activity Page sheet practice.

The materials contain teacher-level instruction/modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly taught sound and spelling patterns of phonics beginning in Skills 3. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 1, the teacher models the spelling of the sound /m/. The teacher begins by drawing the sound /m/. The teacher states, “Start on... 1. short line down 2. Hump 3. Hump.” The teacher models writing the sound in the air with the students copying the motion.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 9, in a Chain and Copy activity, the teacher instructs students to take out Small Letter Cards l and m. The teacher reviews letter sound spellings from the Small Letter Cards, assigns student pairs, and provides words for students to create with Small Letter Cards. The teacher assigns a student to manipulate the letters to build the words; while the other student in the pair writes the words. During the lesson, the students in the pair will switch roles. The teacher directions state, “If that is dip, show me lip.” The teacher reviews spelling one-syllable, short vowel words with CVC, CVCC, and CCVC spelling patterns. Words provided for the activity include: lap, slap, slip, bump, pump, and plump.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 7, in a Dictation activity, the teacher has students take out paper and pencil and tells students they will say words for students to write. The teacher models segmenting the word job, holding up a finger for each sound in the word /j/, /o/, /b/ and asks students how many sounds are in the word. The teacher has the students write a line for each sound in the word, then has the students identify and write each letter sound on their paper one letter at time. The teacher models reading the word by blending the sounds as a strategy to check the spelling. The teacher reminds students in some of the words, digraphs are used and will contain more than one letter per sound spelling. Words provided for the activity include: win, pest, trips, and shrimp.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words in isolation based in common and newly-taught phonics patterns. Examples include:

• In Skills 5, Lesson 14, during Dictation Identification, students write the words they circled from dictation on the lines in Activity Page 14.1. Words include: fit, lip, pat, fin, yet, sit.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 2, students complete a Tap and Spell activity using Large Letter Cards. The cards are arranged on the ground, and a student uses a yardstick to tap the letters when the teacher says a word. Words include flag, trap, plus, stem, and plot.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 7, students take out their Chaining folders. The teacher begins by reviewing the sound/spelling correspondences. The students begin the spelling activity with the word chains such as quit, quilt, quint, squint, stint, tint, tin, thin.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 3, students complete a Pop-Out Chaining activity using the Large Letter Cards. Students each hold a card and move to spell the word the teacher says. Students change the word from a short vowel to a long vowel, using the ee card. Words include step-steep, ten-teen, and fed-feed.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to promote application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid K-Grade 2)

The materials include explicit, systematic teacher level instruction and modeling to demonstrate the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks through dictation work. The program provides students with frequent activities and tasks to promote application of phonics to encode words in phrases or sentences based on common and previously taught phonics patterns.

Materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, Lesson 10, the teacher tells students they will write a number of words and models with the word zip. The teacher segments the word by raising a finger for each sound and asks the students how many sounds they hear and draws a line for each sound. The teacher asks for each sound and writes it on the individual lines. The teacher models reading the complete word sound by sound to check for accuracy.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 7, the teacher says the word job and asks students to segment the sounds in job by holding up one finger for each sound and asking how many sounds they hear. The teacher draws a horizontal line for each sound and asks, line by line, what sound/letter is heard. The teacher models reading the word letter by letter as a strategy for double-checking its spelling. The teacher demonstrates this process with one or two more words before having students write the dictated words independently.

Lessons provide students with frequent activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught phonics patterns. Examples include:

• In Skills 8, Pausing Point, the teacher selects phrases from a list of phrases, students repeat them, and the teacher asks how many words in each phrase, and draws a line on the board for each word. The students write the phrase on the line.
• In Skills 9, Activity Page 4.1, students use their newly learned phonics patterns to write an answer as to why Ann’s dress was a mess.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, after a review lesson of /ee/ with ee spelling, students complete Activity Page 2.1 by filling in the blank in sentences provided with words feet, seem, and needs.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words through the Tricky Word instruction. Tricky words are taught explicitly, then practiced in isolation, and read in context. Students have the opportunity to practice reading these words and work towards automaticity through a variety of activities.

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 13, students are introduced to Tricky Words. The teacher explains that CVC words “play by the rules” and some words “do not play by the rules” and these are called Tricky Words. The teacher writes the word one on the board. The teacher writes the numeral one on the board and explains that the word one is how we write the number in words. The teacher asks the students if the word starts with the /o/ sound and explains that it is a Tricky Word because it does not follow the rules.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 1, the teacher writes the letter i on the board and asks students how they pronounce it. The teacher writes the uppercase I on the board and explains that when the uppercase I is written as a single letter, it is a Tricky Word and is pronounced /ie/.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 3, the teacher writes the Tricky Word down on the board and asks students how they might pronounce it. The teacher tells students how the word is actually pronounced. The teacher circles the letter d and explains that it is pronounced just as one would expect and does the same thing with the letter n. The teacher underlines the letters o and w and explains that this is the part of the tricky word. The teacher tells students that when reading down they have to remember to pronounce the letters as /ou/.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 13, the Tricky Word my is introduced. The teacher writes the word on the board and tells students it is pronounced /m/ /ie/ and provides a sample sentence to use. The teacher circles the m because it is pronounced as expected and underlines the y because that is part of the tricky word.

Materials include frequent opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of high-frequency words in isolation. Examples include:

• In Skills 4, Lesson 14, the teacher introduces the Tricky Word the and tells students that we pronounce this word /th/, /ŭ/. The teacher explains that the th makes one sound /th/ and the letter e in this word says /ŭ/. The teacher tells students that when writing, they have to remember to spell /th/ sound with the letters t and h and the /ŭ/ sound with the letter e.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 8, the teacher introduces the Tricky Word out. The teacher writes the word on the board and tells students how to pronounce it. The teacher explains that the ou work together to make the /ou/ sound. The teacher tells students to remember this when reading and spelling the word.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 16, the teacher models how to read and spell the word were. The teacher tells students the pronunciation and reminds students that when writing the word, they need to remember to spell the /er/ sound using letters e r and e.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 8, the teacher introduces the Tricky Words they and their. The teacher begins by writing they on the board and asking students how they would blend it. The teacher explains that it is a tricky word. The teacher underlines th and explains that they decode it normally. The teacher underlines the letters ey and explains that these letters make up the tricky part of the word and says /ae/. The teacher reminds students that when they read and spell this word they need to remember ey says /ae/.

Students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation. The teacher creates a Tricky Word Wall in Skills 5, Lesson 5 to help students begin reading the words in isolation. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Take Home Activities 13.2, 13.3, and 14.2, students create a Tricky Word book to practice the words at home.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 5, students practice identifying and reading words. The teacher points to the Tricky word blue on Activity page 5.1 and asks students to read the word aloud.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 17, students do a flash card review of the Tricky Words learned so far, using the words on the Tricky Word Wall.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 1, students practice reading previously learned Tricky Words using words from the Tricky Word Wall.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 7, the teacher reminds students that Tricky Words are words that do not follow the rules. They then read individual Tricky Words from the Word Wall such as blue, why, down, and look.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 7, students review previously taught Tricky Words using the Word Wall. Some words include three, were, yellow, little, said, and out. The teacher notes that the tricky part of each word is underlined.

Materials include a sufficient quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Appendix B, the Kindergarten Scope and Sequence for Tricky Words is provided and lists the 46 tricky Words taught in each unit. They are:
• Unit 3: one, two, three
• Unit 4: the, a
• Unit 5: blue, yellow look
• Unit 6: I, are, little
• Unit 7: down, out, of
• Unit 8: funny, all, from, was
• Unit 9: word, to, I, no, when, where, what, which, so, once, said, says, are, were, here, there
• Unit 10: he, she, we, be, me, they, their, my, by, you, your
• In Skills 3, Appendix B, it is stated that by the end of Kindergarten, students will have been taught 129 high-frequency words from the Fry Instant Word List and 116 of these words appear on the Dolch Sight Word list.
• In Skills 4, the Teacher Guide Introduction states, “As of the beginning of the unit, students should be able to read seven words from the Dolch Sight Word List and seven words from Fry’s Instant Word list.”
• In Skills 10, the Teacher Guide Introduction states, “As of the beginning of this unit, students should be able to read 90 words from the Dolch Sight Word List and 95 words from Fry’s Instant Word List.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).

Materials include the opportunity to read high-frequency words in sentences and to write the words in sentences automatically. Most of these opportunities are found in the later units of Kindergarten. These practices are found in the Teacher's Guide, the Activity Book, and the Student Reader.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words in a sentence. Examples include:

• In Skills 7, Lesson 14, students read the story, “Up in the Kit,” which includes sentences with high-frequency words such as “Kit helps Max get up.”
• In Skills 8, Lesson 3, the students read the Tricky Words a, all, and are in the story “Fun at the Pond.”
• In Skills 9, Lesson 15, in Activity Page 15.1, students read sentences and match the correct sentence from a choice of two sentences to the picture provided. The sentences contain high-frequency words such as “This is a dish.”
• In Skills 10, Lesson 6, students read the Tricky Words in the box at the top of Activity Page 6.3. The students put those words into sentences with blanks and the students read the completed sentence. The Tricky Words include are, me, he, and we.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to write high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing high-frequency words. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, Activity 6.1, students read a sentence and write the Tricky Word in the blank.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 3, one student reads a sentence and the rest of the students say and write the high-frequency word up or down in the blank to complete the sentence.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 5, students complete sentences on Activity Page 5.1 using the Tricky Words of, from, and all.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 5, students review and write the Tricky Words be and me and complete sentences with the best word choice.

Materials provide repeated, explicit instruction ion using student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading high-frequency words (e.g. word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries). Examples include:

• Beginning in Skills 4, students read texts from the Reader which helps them practice the sound spelling patterns and Tricky Words.
• In Skills 5, Teacher Guide Introduction, information is provided on adding the Tricky Words for this unit onto cards. It states, “For each new Tricky Word introduced, you should write the word on a yellow index card, which signals ‘proceed with caution’ and underline the tricky part(s) of the word. You may want to arrange the words in alphabetical order on the wall.”
• In Skills 6, students are given Tricky Words flash cards and a letter is provided to send home to families explaining what the Tricky Words are and the purpose, as well as how to use the flash cards at home.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, the teacher reviews previously taught Tricky Words using the Word Wall, following procedures already established in earlier units.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide frequent practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.

Materials include frequent and explicit instruction of word analysis strategies through the use of pocket chart chaining activities during whole group classroom instruction. Throughout the year, multiple opportunities to learn, practice, and apply word analysis skills are provided. Students practice and apply varied word analysis strategies during lessons, Activity Page practice, and reading practice with the student readers.

Materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g. phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis). Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 10, the teacher says the word at and segments it into its two sounds /a/, /t/. The teacher asks the students for the first sound in the word and the letter and the second sound in the word and the letter. The students read the word. The teacher repeats the process with the word, mat.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 2, students complete a pocket chart chaining activity. The teacher says the word sip and says the individual sounds /s/.../i/.../p/ and then says each sound again and asks students for the letter before reading the word again. The teacher asks students how they can write the word sap. A student replaces the i with an a.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 10, the teacher reminds students that digraphs consist of two letters that represent one sound, and they will learn additional letter teams today. The teacher writes the letter g on the board and asks for the sound. The teacher writes gg on the board and explains that this is another way to write the sound /g/. The teacher writes the word egg on the board, and students read it.

Materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include:

• In Skills 5, Lesson 9, the teacher writes the word box on the board and asks students to read it by segmenting it and then blending the sounds. The teacher continues with a chaining activity, asking students to segment the word before blending it together.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 5, students read “Kit’s Cats.” The teacher reminds students to run their finger under each word as they read the story aloud. If they do not immediately recognize a word, they should sound it out letter by letter.

Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Lesson 4, students learn a strategy to read compound words. The students hold their fists in front of them and say one word as they flip over their right fist and open it and then do the same thing with the second word. The students clap their hands and say the entire word. Students practice with words such as cupcake.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 4, students are introduced to the spelling s for the /s/ or /z/ sound. The teacher begins by modeling with words, hats and kids. The students practice reading a list of words with /z/ or /s/ sound ending in Activity Page 4.1. The students identify if the words end with the /s/ or /z/ s spelling by sorting words. Finally students read “Kit’s Hats” and practice reading words with the various ending sounds.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 7, students are introduced to the spelling a_e for the sound /ae/. In one activity, students practice hearing the sound /ae/ in words by closing their eyes and raising their hands if they hear the/ae/ sound in the middle of words. In another activity, the students learn to spell the /ae/ sound. The teacher shows students how to read words make and same. The students practice reading tape, plane, and skate and circle the correct picture. Lastly, students read “Cake and Grapes” in the student reader.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.

The Kindergarten materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding. Students review new words prior to reading the Decodable Reader, which is listed in the Preview Spelling chart in the text. In addition, students engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity through partner readings of decodable readers, Wiggle Cards, and activity pages.

Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction as well as practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 13, the teacher does an overview of the pictures in the Picture Reader and has students read the text with silly voices. However, the materials state that if students are not already reading the text with high accuracy, then rereading without silly voices should be done first. The teacher is told to pre-teach the words for each picture first so students can fluently read the book.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 7, the teacher models reading fluently using the Big Book “Pet Fun.” The teacher reads it again and calls on students to read individual phrases.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 5, the teacher previews words that students will read in “Kit’s Cats.” The teacher writes the words on the board and has students blend and read the word. Students are asked to use the word in a sentence.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 10, students sit with partners and read the decodable text, “Seth.” The teacher introduces the story by reviewing the Preview Spelling chart. Students read the words aloud as a class, and the teacher circles the digraphs in each word prior to students reading the text.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 2, students reread the decodable reader “Sam and the Fish,” and the teacher works with a small group of students to review the Preview Spelling Chart, which has words that students will encounter in the text. The teacher has the students read and blend each word in a column of the chart, providing support as needed and pointing out spelling patterns in each column.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 5, the teacher introduces the story “The Bees” and reviews the Preview Spelling chart and has the class read all the words aloud together prior to reading the text.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 10, the teacher previews spellings prior to reading the story, “Skates.” Students practice decoding the words together by reading the words aloud as a class.

Materials provide opportunities for students in Kindergarten to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include:

• In Skills 9, Lesson 15, students are shown Wiggle Cards, and they read each card and perform the action listed on each card.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, students complete a Silly Voices Card activity using the decodable reader, “Scott and Lee.” Students take turns reading aloud using the silly voice and a partner echo reads.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 6, students read a series of questions and have to answer yes or no, such as “Can a tree sing a song?”, requiring students to read accurately.