Kindergarten - Gateway 2

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence (K-1).

The Puzzle Piece Phonics Kindergarten Level Teacher’s Guide provides an overview of phonemic awareness and a list of outcomes for students. There is a clear hierarchy of phonemic awareness noted on page I-15 of the Teacher’s Guide. A more in-depth description of the skills to be taught and a rationale for their inclusion is presented in the article, “Puzzle Piece Phonics Research Base Alignment,” published on the companion website. The program provides a detailed scope and sequence chart for the introduction of letter-sound correspondences but does not delineate, in a similar fashion, the scope and sequence for phonemic awareness skills to be taught. Phonemic awareness skills are briefly referenced in the list of outcomes with no other delineation of the sequence of skill introduction or amount of review and practice provided. 

Materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-15, a definition of phonemic awareness, the purpose of phonemic awareness, the learning outcomes, and a basic routine for teaching phonemic awareness is provided.
• Kindergarten Learning Outcomes for Phonemic Awareness include:
• Listen for rhyming words.
• Isolate initial sounds in words.
• Segment words into sounds.
• Orally break words into syllables.
• Change initial, medial, and final sounds in words.
• Compare and contrast spoken words.
• Identify short vowels and long vowels.
• On the Companion Website an article entitled “Puzzle Piece Phonics Research Base Alignment,” provides a clear definition of phonemic awareness (page 3) and a detailed description of the research-base supporting the routines (pages 9-11) used in the Puzzle Piece Phonics program to teach phonemic awareness.

Materials contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice based on the expected hierarchy. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-15, while the “learning outcomes” listed on pg. I-15 correspond to the level of tasks for phonemic awareness, there is no actual scope and sequence chart provided for the introduction of the different phonemic awareness tasks, e.g., rhyme, sound comparison, phoneme segmentation, phoneme manipulation. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-61 and I-62, the program contains a scope and sequence chart that delineates 36 weeks of instruction, organized under ten concepts, with each week focusing on specific letter-sound correspondences. However, the scope and sequence does not reference the sequence of phonemic awareness skills. 

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 77, students complete a Supported Blending Routine explained on page I-16 of the Teacher’s Guide. The teacher displays the following words on the board one line at a time: winter, nest, iguana. The teacher shows students how to blend the sounds. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 361, students conduct a word search of the short phonic sounds - ap, -ep, -ip, -op, and -up. Students are instructed to search other texts in the classroom for the words with these short vowels. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 420, the teacher says the word and the students tell the teacher what sound they hear in the word. Students are asked whether they hear a short or long vowel and to complete the motion of the sound they hear.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1). 

The materials offer frequent assessment for letter formation. The teacher indicates which letter the student cannot form correctly, but little guidance is provided for how teachers should reteach or reassess as students continue to work towards mastery. Weekly handwriting checks are used as a formal assessment of the weekly letters, and there is one pre-assessment that teachers are to administer during Concept 1, Weeks 1 and 2. Assessment results do not include instructional suggestions to help students to progress toward mastery in letter formation. The materials do not include assessments for the directionality, reading print left to right, opening and closing a book, sequence, or spacing within or between words. 

Materials provide a limited variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of letter recognition.  Examples include:

• In Teacher’s Guide, pg. I-13, the first pre-assessment is administered during Concept 1. This is an initial check to determine students’ knowledge of letter identification, sound, and formation.
• In Teacher’s Guide, page 3, there is an initial check to evaluate students on their recognition of upper- and lowercase letters and identification of letter sounds. 
• In the Learner’s Notebook, page 3, Initial Check, the teacher checks the letters the student recalls and circles the letters that the student cannot recall. Students are evaluated on the identification of uppercase and lowercase letters and the sounds of all 26 letters.  

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of letter recognition.

• No evidence found

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in letter recognition.

• No evidence found

Materials provide a limited variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in letter formation.  Examples include:

• There is one pre-assessment in Kindergarten Puzzle Piece, in Concept 1, page 3, in which students write uppercase and lowercase letters, and the teacher assesses letter formation. 
• In the Learner’s Notebook, Concept 1, pages 4-5, the teacher asks students to form each uppercase and lowercase letter and circles the letters that the students cannot form correctly
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 91, Handwriting Check, the teacher models the formation of uppercase and lowercase Qq, Ff, and Rr. Then, students write these letters in their Learner’s Notebook.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning  students’ current skills/level of understanding in letter formation.

• No evidence found 

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2) 

The Teacher’s Guide provides five pre-assessments and five post-assessments throughout the 36-week instructional program. Assessments measure letter-sound relationships and word recognition skills. Assessments do not provide immediate information on when concepts need to be retaught or reviewed and do not provide any direct measures of decoding skills. 

Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• There are five pre-assessments that the teacher can administer at any time within the first week that a concept is assigned. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 3, the materials provide Pre-Assessment 1 which is given at the beginning of the program and measures whether the student knows the correct letter-sound correspondence for the initial sound they hear in a word, letter identification formation skills for upper- and lower case letters, and letter-sound correspondences for upper- and lowercase letters.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 129 the teacher post-assesses students'  knowledge of the correct letter-sound correspondence for the initial sound they hear in a word, letter identification formation skills for upper- and lower case letters, and letter-sound correspondences for upper- and lowercase letters. This assessment allows the teacher to initially test for prior knowledge of letter/sound patterns and to post-test after 12 weeks of instruction.
• There are five post-assessments that the teacher administers at the end of the concept. The first post-assessment after Concept 1, assesses consonant and short vowel sounds, the second one assesses short vowels, the third one assesses word families, the fourth assesses mixed short vowels and consonants, and the final one is a summative assessment.    
  
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 164, students complete the Dictation Routine, in which the teacher reads a word, and students write the word by changing a sound. 

Materials offer assessment opportunities to determine students’ progress in phonics that are implemented systematically. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• The five pre-assessments are given at any time during the first week of the concept in order to give teachers an idea of where students are.
• Pre-assessment Concept 3 is a word family spelling check. The teacher says three words in the word family. Only one of the three words will have a picture in the box. The students write the word family that matches the three words they hear in the box. 
• Within each Concept, Day 5 lessons include a quick spelling assessment.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, the material provide a spelling check in which the teacher says a sound, and students writes the corresponding letter.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 315, provides a spelling check in which the teacher dictates and students spell words containing the week's focus letter-sound correspondences. 

Limited assessment opportunities are provided for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. Examples include:

• There are 10 total formal pre- and post-assessments that focus on a specific phonics pattern. 
• In the Learner's Notebook, page 151, Concept 3, post-assessment, the teacher says the word, and students write the sounds they hear.
• While each of the lessons contains word blending exercises, there is no corresponding assessment on Day 5 lessons in which students orally read and teachers record accuracy and fluency data. The assessment provided on Day 5 is an encoding spelling assessment on the words practiced during the week. 
• No assessments for generalization are provided to determine whether the student can apply the newly learned phonetic elements to words they have not practiced in the daily lessons.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with limited information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics. Examples include:

• The Teacher’s Guide, Concept 1, includes a pre-assessment in which the teacher says the word, and the student writes the sound they hear. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 299, students complete a spelling check in which the teacher says the word with the spelling pattern they have been working on, and students write the word.

Materials provide limited opportunities to measure students’ progress to support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include:

• In the Teacher's Guide, page 1-14, the post-assessment explanation states that the teacher can use the results for a one-on-one conference with students to set goals with students, to guide the students’ writing, or to recommend books that would be a good fit for them. Directions further state that teachers use the data for follow-up instruction; they can re-teach students using the extension or remediation activities.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2) 

Assessments measure letter-sound relationships and word recognition skills with limited applicability. Assessments do not provide immediate information on when concepts need to be retaught or reviewed and do not provide any direct measures concerning decoding skills. There is a pre- and post-assessment to evaluate word recognition skills; however, assessments are not systematic. The high frequency assessment that is completed during the Spelling Check Routine checks students’ recall of spelling but does not test reading accuracy. For those students who do not pass the pre-assessment, the materials guide the teacher to use different words with the student throughout the week. No other methods or instructions for remediation are given.

Materials provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition (high-frequency words or irregularly spelled words) and analysis. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• The Spelling Check is completed throughout the Concepts (example: Concept 2, Week 6, Day 5). This is the only assessment that evaluates students’ mastery of high-frequency words. It assesses whether students have knowledge of how to spell the word not whether they can read the word. 
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 3, provides Pre-Assessment 1 which measures whether the student knows the correct letter-sound correspondence for the initial sound they hear in a word, letter identification formation skills for upper- and lowercase letters, and letter-sound correspondences for upper- and lowercase letters.  The assessment is given again as Post-Test 1 on Teacher’s Guide, page 129.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 104, materials provide Pre-Assessment 2 in which the student is provided a picture prompt and the first and last letters of a word. Students are asked to write the medial vowel sound they hear in the word. The assessment is given again as Post-Test 2 on Teacher Guide, page 199.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 169, materials provide Pre-Assessment 3, which is labeled Word Families Spelling Check. The test provides the student with a picture prompt. The teacher orally presents three words that belong in the same word family and asks students to write the word family under the picture. This pre-test measures whether the student knows the correct letter-sound correspondences for the word families taught in the program. When given again as Post-Test 3 (Teacher Guide, page 331), it provides information on mastery of letter-sound relationships taught.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 301, materials provide Pre-Assessment 4, which is labeled Mixed Vowels and Consonants Spelling Check. The test provides student with a picture prompt. The teacher orally presents a word, and students write the sounds they hear and spell the word under the picture prompt. This pre-test measures whether the student knows the correct letter-sound correspondences for the words. When given again as Post-Test 4 (Teacher’s Guide, page 387), it provides a measure of letter-sound relationships taught in the program.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 363, materials provide Pre-Assessment 5, which is labeled Short Vowel and Vowel-e Spelling Check. The test provides students with a picture prompt. The teacher says a word, and students write the word under the picture prompt. This pre-test measures whether the student knows the correct letter-sound correspondences for long vowels with the silent e spelling rule/pattern in the words. When given again as Post-Test 5 (Teacher’s Guide, page 449), it provides information on mastery of letter-sound relationships and the vowel_finel e spelling pattern.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with limited information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 363, during Concept 9, the teacher conducts the pre-assessment of short vowel and vowel e spelling. During the assessment, the teacher says a word, and the student writes down what word the teacher says for the short vowel and long vowel e sounds. 
• Within each Concept, Day 5 lessons include a quick spelling assessment, but the assessments are not testing decoding skills directly. Students do not read orally to the teacher.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, the materials provides a spelling check in which the teacher says a sound, and students write the corresponding letter.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 315, the materials provide a spelling check in which the teacher dictates and students spell words containing that week’s focus letter-sound correspondences.

Materials provide limited support to teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

• The recommendations for the teacher following  assessment consist of determining  which word list the student uses throughout the week. There are no other suggestions. 

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

There is a document on the companion website for Puzzle Piece Phonics that identifies the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, conventions of standard English, and vocabulary acquisition and use) that align with the Grade K level of Puzzle Piece Phonics in general.  However, there is no alignment to CCSS provided by the publisher to indicate which standards are being addressed by specific questions, tasks, or assessments. There is a publisher-produced alignment document for the concepts to be addressed during each week; however, there is no standards-alignment document which contains specific standards correlated to specific lessons. 

Alignment documentation is provided for tasks, questions, and assessment items.  Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 3, the materials contain a pre-assessment Initial Check. Below the assessment, the explanation tells the teacher which skills to look for during whole group The skills include initial sounds and final sounds, knowledge of consonants, and knowledge of short vowels. In the individual section, teachers are prompted to look for identification of upper- and lowercase letters and identification of consonant and short vowel sounds.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-61, there is a scope and sequence for the Word Study Pacing that tells teachers which concept is targeted in each week.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-63, there is a scope and sequence of the sight word pacing for each week.

Alignment documentation does not contain specific standards correlated to specific lessons.

• The alignment document provided on the companion website for Puzzle Piece Phonics lists the standards addressed. It does not connect the standards to a specific lesson, task, or instructional routine included in any of the lessons. 

Materials do not include denotations of the standards being assessed in the formative assessments. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher's Guide, page 4, the pre-assessment states that it assesses initial and final sound knowledge of /x/, knowledge of consonants, and knowledge of short vowels. The assessment also measures students’ understanding of upper- and lowercase letters and identification of short vowels and consonants.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-13, the materials delineate five pre-assessments used as formative assessments throughout the program. The Teacher's Guide states the information can help teachers form student groups for word sorting , etc., and helps determine the focus of lessons for each group. However, it does not clearly identify which standards are being addressed.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 3, the materials provide the first pre-assessment which covers upper- and lowercase letter formation, identification of initial sounds within short words, and whether students can identify all upper- and lowercase letters. The instructions tell teachers what to look for and provide tips for scoring. The materials do not link this assessment to any standards.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 105, the materials provide the second pre-assessment which covers one-to-one sound correspondence and knowledge of short vowels, but the pre-assessment is not correlated to any standards.
• Each of the remaining three pre-assessments follow the same format. They provide what to look for, tips for scoring, and suggestions on how students can be grouped based on the assessment, but do not specify correlation to standards. 

Materials do not include denotations of standards being assessed in the summative assessments. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-14, the materials delineate five post-assessments used as summative assessments throughout the program. The Teacher's Guide states that the information can help teachers determine whether students have mastered the spelling patterns that have been formally introduced. While the materials state that each post-assessment tests the kindergarten standards, materials do not clearly identify which standards are being addressed in any of the assessments.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 129, materials provide the first post-assessment which covers knowledge of consonants and short vowels. The instructions tell teachers what to look for and provides tips for scoring. The materials do not link this assessment to any standards.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 199, the materials provide the second post-assessment which covers one-to-one sound correspondence for consonants and knowledge of short vowels, but it does not correlate the post-assessment with any standards.
• Each of the remaining three post-assessments follow the same format. They provide what to look for, tips for scoring, and suggestions on how students can be grouped based on the assessment, but do not specify any correlation to specific standards.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards. 

During the Fluency Routine, the teacher is prompted to pull a small group of students if they notice they are struggling, but there are no other directions concerning this. There are routines in which the teacher circulates and “coaches,” as needed. There are some additional tips placed at the beginning of each concept for students who are struggling in certain routines. Some scaffolding occurs within a lesson and across the weeks’ lessons from sounds first being introduced in the phonemic awareness section of the lesson, moving into Supported Blending and Formation: Writing of Letters,  followed by sorting activities, and finishing in Fluency Notebook readings. There is a letter to teachers that says they can switch up the routines if needed and there are additional resources. However, the website listed could not be accessed to determine which other resources are provided. There is little attention given to providing extensive opportunities for reteaching that might address the needs of students performing below grade-level and their need for additional practice on skills. 

Materials provide some opportunities for small group reteaching.  Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, pg. I-40, in the Make a New Category Routine, the directions state that teachers can complete this activity with students in whole or small group. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 63, when students are completing the fluency section, the teacher is prompted to walk around and listen to students or gather a small group of students who need additional support. 
• At the beginning of each week’s lesson plan, the Teacher Guide provides a section called Tips for Management and Differentiation. These tips provide broad guidelines for accommodating students who might need additional practice:
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 94, the materials provide a section called Tips for Phonemic Awareness which instructs the teacher, “If you notice your students need additional practice, extend the activity with additional words.” However, those extension words are not provided or suggested.
• Throughout the lessons for Days 1-5, there is no further mention of modifications, extended practice, extended modeling, or remediation for students who are experiencing difficulties and/or performing below grade-level standards. 
• There is no criterion for student performance specified with any section or routine included in the lessons that would indicate when a teacher needs to provide reteaching or additional practice on skills. 

Materials provide some guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 239, in Tips for Management & Differentiation, the materials state that for students who are struggling with the Dictation and Quick Switch Routine, the teacher can have the students write the rime on each line. It states, “when they hear the word, they will only need to focus on the initial sound.”
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 336, in Tips for Phonemic Awareness, the materials state that if the teacher notices students are struggling to change the initial sound of a word to make two words, extend the activity and have the students make more words.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 336, during Tips for Puzzle Piece Review, the materials state “students who have not yet mastered the -ub, -un, and -ut families from last week will sort using last week’s words.” Students who have mastered those words will move on to the -uff, -uck, and -unk families. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 453, in Tips for Practice Pieces, the materials state that students who are struggling can make a magic e flip book by writing CVC words on one side and the e on the edge of the backside. Then, they turn the word from a cvc word into a magic e word.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level. 

Students who read, write, and speak or listen above grade-level have extension activities that are embedded in the routines section of the materials. Students complete the same word sorts and other sort activities as their peers using different words. However, the routines for phonemic awareness, or dictation, include the same words for the whole class. Therefore,  a student who already knows a pattern is engaged in sitting through lessons or activities in which they already know the material. While there are some pre-assessments incorporated into the Puzzle Piece Phonics Kindergarten Level Program, there are no recommendations for how that information can be used to accelerate students through the instructional program if the pre-assessment indicates they are performing above grade-level. All students are presented the same lesson, regardless of prior knowledge, and are assigned the same independent work activities. There are two sets of weekly sorts for each week but there is very little difference in difficulty level between the two sets.

Materials provide limited opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 233, students who are more advanced complete the spelling check with different words. The words they write are: land, ram, stand, fan, and can. The words the first group of students write are:  lap, nag, rat, sap, and lag. Group 1 writes the dictated sentence: “I pat the cat.” Group 2 writes the dictated sentence:  “The band is big.” 
• Materials include two different fluency passages for students to read each week. One passage is for students working and completing sorts with words in Group 1 and the other is for students completing sorts with Group 2 words. In Concept 10, Week 1, Day 3, students from Group 1 read the poem, “Magic E,” and students from Group 2, read “Poof! Magic E.” 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, Super Sentence activity, page I-40, an extension activity is to have students write a story using the words from the week. Students are encouraged to brainstorm a story line with the week's words. Then, students create a story that makes sense and has a beginning, middle, and end. Students are encouraged to work together with members of their sort group to co-write a story. 

There are some instances of advanced students simply doing more assignments than their classmates. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher's Guide, page 457, students take out the words they are working with which may be List 2 words and complete the same Words with Picture Sort as their peers who are working on Sort 1. 
• In the Teacher's Guide, page I-43, in the Highlighter Hunt Routine, the materials state that extensions are embedded within the differentiation of the sorts. Students in Group 2 will examine longer words in order to find the focus pattern.