1st Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials to provide explicit instruction to print and to practice the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

The materials provide explicit instruction and opportunities for printing all 26 upper and lowercase letters. The teacher has explicit wording to use when modeling and reviewing letter formation. Students finger write on their desk and utilize pages from the Activity Book to practice forming letters. The program states that most of this is reviewed for students, and in Skills 1, students review the sound, the letter name, the lowercase letter, and the uppercase letter.

Materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, the teacher provides clear directions forming the letters Aa, Pp, Nn, Cc, and Gg. Examples of explicit instruction for Aa include, lowercase a, “Start between the dotted line and the bottom of the line. 1. Circle to the left. 2. Short line down” and for the uppercase A, “Start on the top line. Diagonal left (lift) 2. Diagonal right (lift) 3. Line across.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 2, there are clear directions for the letters, Ii, Oo, Tt, and Dd. Explicit directions for the lowercase t include, “Start between the dotted line and the top line. 1. Long line down (lift) 2. Line across. For uppercase T, “Start on the top line. 1. Line down (lift) 2. Line across.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 13, the letters Ee, Ww, and Uu are reviewed in regards to letter formation.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 15, Jj and Yy are reviewed.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 20, there are formation directions for the letters qu. The Teacher Guide states, “Start between the dotted line and the bottom line. 1. Circle to the left. 2. Line down ending below the bottom line (lift). Start on the dotted line. 1. Cup. 2. Short line down.”

Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters. In Skills 1, Lessons 1, 2, 4, and 5 letter formation is reviewed, and students trace letters on the activity pages and then practice the letter formations on their own. Students practice letter formation through spelling activities. Some examples include:

• In Skills 1, Activity Page 13.1, students practice forming the letters Ww, Ee, and Uu.
• In Skills 1, Activity Page 15.1 students practice forming the letters Jj and Yy.
• In Skills 1, Activity Page 20.1 students practice forming the letters ng and qu.

Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multisensory methods. During review spellings, found in Skills 1, Lessons 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 15, and 16, students trace the letter on their desk with their pointer finger. They student move to their activity page and practice tracing the letter with a pencil, and then work to form the letter on their own. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, the teacher reminds students that every letter can be written as an uppercase or lowercase letter. The teacher writes a lowercase letter and describes the steps. Students trace the same letter on their desk with a pointed finger. The students move into Activity Page 1.1. where they trace the letter and say the sound of the letter. The letters practiced are Aa, Pp, Nn, Cc, and Gg.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 18, the teacher models the letters and sound of /th/. Students trace the letter on their desk, before completing an activity page for the letters.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1).

Materials include sufficient and explicit instruction for students about the organization of print concepts. The materials physical books such as Big Books that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts. Students engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books. Big Books are used for Skills 1-3, and student readers (decodables) are available in all Skills units.

Materials include sufficient and explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts. Specific examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 18, the teacher is to, “Tell students that a sentence is a complete thought. The first letter in the first word of a sentence is capitalized. Point to the first sentence on the board/chart paper and point out the spaces between the words... Point out the period at the end of the sentence. Explain that the little dot at the end of a sentence is called a period. It indicates that it is time to make a full stop and take a breath when reading.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 19, the teacher is to, “Remind the class that stories are made up of sentences. A sentence is a complete thought. The first letter in the first word of a sentence is capitalized, and it ends with a little dot called a period. The period indicates that it is time to make a full stop and take a breath when reading.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 21, the teacher stops on page 20 of the text and points to the exclamation point in the second sentence. The teacher explains “that many sentences end in a period, but sometimes they end in something else.” The teacher asks, “Does anyone recognize what this is? It is called an exclamation point, and it means that we should read the sentence with excitement.”

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

• In Skills 1, Lesson 18, in the Practice Reader, the teacher utilizes a page of phrases and sentences to model spaces between words, uppercase letters, and punctuation. The teacher models reading the sentence and has the students participate.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 3, students distinguish between questions and statements by identifying periods and question marks at the end of sentences.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 5, students read sentences on the board without punctuation, and students add the correct punctuation mark.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 9, students review punctuation and tell the teacher which words to capitalize and where to add punctuation, so that the two sentences are written correctly.

Materials contain periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade- level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation. The Teacher Guide provides connections to previously learned concepts. Student activity pages give students the opportunity to practice letter formation in regards to spelling of words. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Activity Page 5.2, students practice lowercase o as students are learning about vowel digraph oo.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 17, the teacher points out that sentence starts with a uppercase letter and ends with correct punctuation.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials to have daily opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities through Kindergarten and early Grade 1.

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 done orally, utilizing different materials and routines. The majority of the activities include routines such as tapping fingers or pushing objects in sound boxes.

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

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, the teacher says sounds for the students to blend into words.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 11, students discriminate between sounds that are similar in words that they hear. The sounds are /s/, /z/, /f/, and /v/.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, the teacher provides instructions for students to repeat words with the /ae/ sound. Then students share words with the /ae/ sound with a neighbor.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 9, students have manipulatives and after hearing a word stated, students pull the manipulative apart to represent each sound in the word.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 7, the Warm-Up includes segmenting and blending. The teacher says the word, then the syllables, and then blends the word back together. The students repeat the activity modeled by the teacher.

There are frequent opportunities, especially in the beginning of first grade, for students to practice phonological awareness. For example:

• In Skills 1, the Teacher Guide provides lesson overviews, showing Lessons 1, 3, 11, 12, 14-18, 21, 22, and 27-32 all contain oral blending and oral segmenting Warm-Up activities.
• In Skills 6, Lessons 7, 13, 14, and 23 provide Warm-Up activities for segmenting and blending two syllable words.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.

Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction for students in phonological awareness throughout all lessons. The Teacher Guide contains information for the teacher to utilize when providing instruction, as well as explicit modeling for each newly taught sound and spelling patterns. Materials include specific instructions, illustrations for blending and segmenting activities, and consistent routines.

Materials provide the teacher with systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds, and spoken words. Examples include:

• Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, students are introduced to the digraph a_e during digraph dictation. The teacher models words including mad, made, can, cane. Other words include: tap, tape, fat, fate, rat, rate, plan, plane.
• Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, students orally blend single-syllable words with up to three phonemes. The Teacher Guide tells the teacher to “explain that you will say sounds for students to blend into words. Say at in a segmented fashion, marking each sound with a thumb-finger tap. Start with a thumb-forefinger tap. Blend the sounds to produce the word at, making a fist with your hand. Have students take and blend the sounds in the word.”
• Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the medial sound /ee/. The teacher says the word feet as an example. The teacher says the words, greet, meat, peace, heat, and students repeat. The teacher orally says a group of words, students close their eyes and raise their hands when they hear /ee/ in the middle of a word.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 6, the teacher introduces the sound /ie/. The teacher orally says words that contain /ie/ at the beginning, middle, and end of words, and students repeat the words. Words include: ice, item, idea, island, bike, nice, sign, time, fly, tie, try. The teacher says a list of words, and students raise their hand if they hear the /ie/ sound in the middle.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 9, the teacher introduces the sound /ou/. The teacher orally says words that contain /ou/ at the beginning, middle, and end of words ,and students repeat the words. Words include: ouch, out, owl, shout, loud, round, couch, hound, how, now, cow.
• Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, students segment single-syllable words with up to three phonemes. The teacher is told to hold up two fingers and say the word at and then have students repeat the word. The teacher wiggles the index finger for the first sound in the word and then wiggles the middle finger for the second sound before students repeat. In Lesson 18, the teacher is provided with an illustration and instructions to follow in Lesson 1.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 13, students segment and blend two syllable compound words, one syllable at a time. The teacher models this concept using the word sunset. The teacher says the entire word first, then repeats the word, pausing slightly between the syllables. The teacher then models segmenting the first syllable using a thumb-finger tap beginning with the forefinger for each sound in sun. The teacher segments the word set in the same way. The teacher blends while making a first. Four additional words (bookbag, cupcake, hornets, hanger) are provided for practice.

Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in syllables, sounds, and spoken words called for in grade level standards.

• In Skills 4, Lesson 9, Advanced Preparation, the teacher is informed that words that have double consonants are divided into syllables after the double consonant to maintain consistency, as students are taught since Kindergarten that double letter spellings are considered single spelling units.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 2, Foundational Skills, the teacher is provided with directions and illustrations for how to segment and blend two-syllable words, one syllable at a time. Modeling is provided using the word classroom.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials to provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.

Materials provide ample opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness skills throughout the lessons. The Teacher Guide contains lists of words for further practice in each lesson. Many lessons include multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness.

Materials provide ample opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern. Examples include:

• Students have opportunities to distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 4, students are presented with a short vowel word, and then change the word using a long vowel. Words presented for practice include: can/cane, plan/plane, mad/made, rat/rate, hat/hate, cap/cape.
• Students have opportunities to orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, students orally blend single-syllable words with up to three phonemes. Students tap and blend the sounds in the words. Words provided for practice include at, it, on, bee, sip, big, cub, tap.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 3, students use thumb-finger taps to represent sounds in a word and when they blend the word, they use a fist. Eight words are provided for practice.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 11, students use hand motions to blend and segment words such as flea, soap, rail, nap, task, brag, climb, and stone.
• Students have opportunities to isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in a spoken single-syllable word.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 4, students segment words, utilizing a finger motion to demonstrate the initial, medial, and final sounds of words. Words provided for student practice include: sip, bin, cub, tap, flip, drop, hips, mats.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 6, the teacher says a number of words and some of them have the /ie/ sound as their middle sound. Students raise their hand when they hear a word that has the /ie/ sound.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 12, students learn the /oi/ sound. The teacher says words with the /oi/ sound in the beginning of the word, and students repeat. The teacher says a number of words with the /oi/ sound in the middle of the word, and the students repeat.
• Students have opportunities to segment spoken syllable words into a complete sequence of individual sounds.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 7, students segment and blend two-syllable words by breaking the words into two-syllables and segmenting each syllable. Practice words provided include toothpaste and mailbox.

Materials include a variety of multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness. Activities include hand motions and mirrors to help students see what the mouth is doing during the activities. Students continue to use thumb-finger tapping for each sound in a word and close their hand or clap when they blend the entire word together.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 as well as additional supports for students throughout phonics lessons. Phonics instruction includes oral and written practice with both encoding and decoding opportunities.

Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeat teacher modeling of all grade-level standards. This includes:

• Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. Examples include:
• In Skills 1, Lesson 17, students learn that the sound /ch/ is spelled ch and the sound /sh/ is spelled sh. In order to teach the concept, the teacher draws a triangle and a square and says when they are by themselves they are just a triangle and just a square, but when they come together it is a house. The teacher shows the letter c and the letter h and gives the sound for the individual letter, but explains that when we put it together it says /ch/.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 6, students learn the spelling alternative for /ch/. The teacher uses the Consonant Code Flip Book page 7 and reviews spelling /ch/ as in chin. The teacher tells students that they will learn another spelling for consonant sound /ch/ and writes /tch/ and writes the letters on the board. The teacher explains that these letters work together to stand for the /ch/ sound. The teacher displays the Spelling Card /tch/ as in itch and has students practice saying words.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 10, students learn that an alternative spelling for /n/ is /kn/. The teacher uses the Consonant Code Flip Book page 16 to review the basic code spelling for /n/. The teacher writes /n/ on the board with the words nut, cent. The teacher tells students they will learn another spelling for the /n/ sound. The teacher displays Spelling Card /kn/ as in knock. The teacher writes /kn/ on the board and the sample words of knot, knit.
• Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. Examples include:
• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, the teacher models how to read regularly spelled one-syllable word. After spelling the word cap, the teacher says, “If I want to read the word, I need to start at the left, look at the first letter, and then remember and say the sound it stands for. Then I need to look at the next letter and last letter and say the sounds they stand for. Then I blend the sounds together to read and say the word /c/.../a/../p/... cap.”
• In Skills 1, Lesson 4, the teacher explains that students will combine spellings to make words. Using letter cards, the teacher moves the f, o, and g cards to the center of the pocket chart to spell fog and asks the class to read the word. The teacher removes the o card and add the i card and say, “If that is fog, what is this?” A student decodes the word fig, and provides which sound or letter was changed in the word fog to get the word fig. If the student need prompting, the teacher may ask them whether they changed the first, middle, or last sound or letter. Students continue to decode: fog > fig > fit > fat > vat > mat > pat > pot > cot > cat; vat > van > fan > fin > tin > tan > man > pan > pin > din
• In Skills 3, Lesson 1, students learn how to read words with oo. The teacher writes f and ff on the board and explains that it is pronounced the same way but that o and oo are not. The teacher explains that when they see oo, they should say the oo as in soon.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 4, the teacher introduces the ar spelling for /ar/. The teacher explains that the sound /ar/ is not the same as the sound /a/ followed by the sound /r/. The teacher says one-syllable words such as tap, tar, cat, car, bad, bar, fat, far to model.
• Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. Examples include:
• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, the teacher introduces the spelling a_e. The teacher explains that the letter a and the letter e work together to stand for one sound, /ae/.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 8, the teacher introduces the spelling o_e. The teacher explains that the letter o and the letter e work together to stand for one sound, /oe/.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the spelling ai and ay for the /ae/ sound. The teacher explains that while they previously learned how a and e work together to stand for one sound /ae/, they now have additional ways to spell the /ae/ sound.
• Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word. Examples include:
• In Skills 4, Lesson 7, students are introduced to two-syllable words. The Teacher Guide states, “Explain that you can count how many syllables are in a word if you know how many vowel sounds are in the word: a word has the same number of syllables as it has vowel sounds.” Words for practice include: cake, cupcake, drop, gumdrop, pack, backpack, day, birthday.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 7, students are reminded that every syllable has a vowel sound before segmenting and blending two syllable words.
• Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables. Examples include:
• In Skills 4, Lesson 8, students learn the Three Step Chunking method to segment and blend two-syllable words. In this method, students place a dot between the syllables. Students learn that in addition to compound words, root words with suffixes are also two-syllable words. The lesson begins by the teacher saying several two-syllable words, and the students clap the syllables. The teacher explains that these words are separated into syllables by root word and suffix. Students practice with additional words including jumping, mixing, and skipping.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 10, before students complete a chaining activity with two-syllable words, the teacher asks students how many vowel sounds each syllable has and models by clapping out the syllables in the words basket and picnic. The teacher reviews why a dot is placed between syllables and explains that it “makes it easy to sound out each part using the three-step chunking method.”
• In Skills 6, Lesson 6, before reading the story “Mister Spencer and the Rabbits,” the teacher tells students that multisyllabic words will no longer appear with a dot between them. Materials state that teachers may wish to review strategies students should use when encountering a multisyllabic word.
• Read words with inflectional endings. Examples include:
• In Skills 5, Lesson 1, the teacher writes the words cat, dog, and chick on the board, and then explains when they count more than one animal the words become cats, dogs, and chicks.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 15, students read plural nouns ending in -s and -es. The teacher reminds students that “the sound of the -s can either be /s/ or /z/, depending on the last consonant of the word.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 8, the teacher points out that when the root word has a short vowel sound and ends in a single consonant, the students double the consonant before adding the suffix.

Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. In each lesson, when a new sound is taught, students have the opportunity to review previously learned sound/spellings during warm up. For example:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 5, the teacher introduces the vowel sound /oo/. The teacher explains that “the two letters work together as a team to stand for the /oo/ sound.” The teacher models writing the phonics pattern two or three times. Students trace the spelling on their desks with their finger while saying the sound. The students use their Vowel Code Flip Book and practice reading the example word. Students complete Activity 5.2, where students decode /oo/ words and write them under the matching picture.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 14, the teacher asks students what two-syllable words are made up of and asks for examples. Students complete an activity using the three-step chunking method to segment syllables by placing dots in between the syllables to read and write words. Words for practice include: brook, foot, book, hook, hood, cook.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 1, the teacher leads students through the identification of a single-syllable, short vowel root word. The teacher tells students that because stop is a one-syllable word with a short vowel sound and a single consonant ending, the final consonant is doubled when adding -ing or -ed. Students complete Activity Page 1.1, adding endings to single-syllable words.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials include 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 using phonemes and/or syllables. Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills, while providing review opportunities for previously taught phonics skills. The program utilizes 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 texts.

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

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, students decode CVC words with /a/ in a pocket chart chaining activity. The chain of words includes, cap, nap, nag, gag, gap, cap, can, and pan.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 13, students practice reading two-syllable words by blending sounds in the first syllable, and then the sounds in the last syllable, and finally putting the word together. Practice words include basket and catfish.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 11, students complete a chain activity where they read words by segmenting them and then practice blending the words. Students identify which sound changed in the word. Words include poof, pool, cool, tool, and fool.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 13, students use magic e strips to read CVC words and then CVCe words. For example, students read man and then mane and pan and then pane.
• In Skills 5, Pausing Point, the students engage in a chaining activity with two-syllable words. The teacher writes the word kitchen on the board and inserts a dot divider in the middle of the word to segment it into two syllables.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Lesson 2, students read “The Pet” and read words such as when, what, pet, dog, big, is, this, and has.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 4, before reading the book, “Things that Swim,” students review and read words with ar and ou. Words include mark, mouth, because, shark, trout, here, and smart. The whole class reads the chapter together, and then students take turns reading aloud again.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 14, students practice reading two-syllable words, which include /er/ spellings that were taught in Lesson 1. Practice words include shorter and sharper.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 21, students complete Activity Page 21.1 where they are given sentences with a blank and two word choices. Students read the sentence and choose the word that makes the most sense.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 2, students read “Meet Vern” and read words such as Vern, Fern, green, and creep.

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

• In Skills 2, Lesson 5, students review the magic e in a large letter card activity where students make CVC words and then the student holding the magic e joins the word. The students read the word.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 4, the teacher tells students they will be working again with the different spellings for the /s/ sound. Students read several words with the different /s/ spellings including sun, prince, and rinse.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 11, students review spellings for /n/ including kn, n, nn and for /s/ including ce and se. Students use Activity Page 11.1 and 11.2 to sort words based on the spelling pattern. Students read the words and write the words under the correct picture.

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

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, students read Wiggle Cards and perform the action on each card. Wiggle cards include the phrases: Sit down, Take a step to the left, and Do a rain dance.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 7, students practice reading words that review previously taught sound/spellings and tricky words in a word baseball activity, where students take turns reading words to earn points. Words include: have, no, so, and here.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials that promote frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.

The materials provide systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence through the decodable readers and activity pages that align with the phonics skill for the lesson. In Skills 1-3, the teacher utilizes the Big Books and in Skills 1-7, decodable readers are used to help students practice decoding phonetically regular words in sentences.

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

• In Skills 2, the Introduction states that the Reader is called “Gran” and the teacher presents the stories in the Reader as demonstration stories to model the process of reading the sentences.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 4, the teacher discusses the words found in the decodable reader that have ee or a_e in them. The teacher has students go to page 16, and then models how to read some of the words such as, “Point to the word takes and cover the ‘e’ and ‘s’ with your hand. If I remove the ‘e’ and ‘s’ from the word, how would we say this word? If I add magic ‘e’ to ‘tak’, how do we now say the word?” The teacher does this with several of the words before reading the decodable.

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

• In Skills 1, Lesson 18, students practice reading sentences such as “This is fun. Beth had some chips. I have one big moth in that box.”
• In Skills 2, Lesson 2, students read the decodable text “The Pet.” The text includes sentences such as, “I got a pet.”
• In Skills 5, Activity Page 4.1, students read decodable questions and answer choices, all written in sentences. Examples include, “What is the land Kate sees out in the West like? It is green. It has lots of trees. It has hills and red rocks.”
• In Skills 6, Activity 19.1, students are asked to read sentences such as, “I’m hot. Can I have something to drink?” in an activity identifying which /n/ sound words make.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 13, students engage in partner reading of the decodable text.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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.

The Grade 1 materials have daily student practice beginning for building, manipulating, and spelling grade-level appropriate words. Materials include explicit instructions, as well as background information for the teacher to utilize. Students are provided with opportunities to build, manipulate, spell, and encode common and newly-taught grade level phonics through activities through chaining activities, dictation activities, letter cards, digital components, and Student Activity pages.

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. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 1, the teacher shows students how to write the vowel sound /oo/. The teacher begins by writing oo and describing what they are doing. The teacher tells the students that the /oo/ sound is a vowel team, and the teacher models writing and saying the spelling two or three times.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 15, in a Teacher Chaining activity, the teacher reminds students what compound words are and writes bath/room on the board with a dot divider between the syllables. The teacher removes the syllable bath and adds bed to make bedroom. The teacher asks, “If that is bathroom, what is this?” The teacher asks students if the first or second syllable changed and is to continue the process with the remaining words provided in the activity. In the lesson, the teacher reviews the concepts of root words and suffixes -er, -est, and -ing. The teacher creates another chain using the same syllable routine with root words adding suffixes -er and -ing. Words include: buzzer, buzzing, shouting.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 2, the teacher models a chaining activity for sounds /ee/ to /ay/ and /in/ to /ain/. Words include: see > say > hay > day > way > pay > pray > ray > tray > tree; grin > grain > gain > pain > main > chain >rain > train > drain > drains.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 8, the teacher models adding inflectional endings -ed and -ing to roots words and tells students that, “that because stop is a one-syllable word with a short vowel sound and a single consonant ending, the final consonant is doubled when adding a suffix.” The teacher uses the word, peep, and explains that “because peep has a long vowel sound, the ending consonant is not doubled when adding a suffix.” Words include: stop, stopped, stopping, peep, peeping, tag, tagged, tagging.

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 1, Lesson 1 students read and write one-syllable words spelled with vowel digraph /ee/ spelled ee using the Vowel Code Flip Book and Activity Page 1.1. Students copy the spellings and words on the front page of the activity. Words include feet, green, keep, and need.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 5, in a Large Card Chaining activity, the students form words provided by the teacher with Large Letter Cards. Students with letter cards create the word zap. Students without cards identify if the word looks correct by giving a thumbs up or down. Once the students spell the word correctly students with letter cards create the word zip. Students identify what letter or sound changed. Students continue the process with all the words provided by the teacher in the activity.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, students engage in a Digraph Dictation activity where students write words that are dictated by the teacher on Activity Page 3.1. The teacher dictates a CVC word and writes the CVCV word dictated by adding a silent e.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 11, the teacher shows images or objects for words winner, dinner, cent, scent, knee, knot, fence, and students repeat the words after they are introduced. Students work on Activity Page 11.2 where they read words with alternatives for /s/ and /n/. The the students write the correct word under the correct picture.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 8, students complete Activity page 8.1 where they add inflectional endings -ed and -ing to long and short vowel words, noting when to double the consonant.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials that 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 1, Lesson 20, the students write eight words which contain double letter spellings with consonant sounds. The teacher models with the word will. The teacher holds up a finger for each sound, the students count the sounds, and the teacher draws a line for each sound they hear before the teacher writes the word.
• In Skills 2, Activity Page 3.1, the teacher explains that each of the thick black lines on the page stands for one sound/spelling. The teacher says the word mad, holds up three fingers and segments the word. The teacher points out that the word mad contains three sounds and is spelled with three letters. The teacher says the word made and repeats the modeling. The lines for the word made have a v under it, and the teacher explains that this mark shows that these letters are working together. The teacher dictates more words.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 5, the students write words with er and ar. The teacher tells students to count the sounds in each word, then draws a line for each sound in the word before writing the word.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 22, students practice writing words with vowel digraphs. The teacher says a word and tells students to hold up a finger for each sound. The students count the sounds in the word and draw a line for each individual sound in the word. The teacher reminds students that many of the vowel sounds are spelled with two letters and they work together and should be written on one line. The teacher models with the word bake.

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 2, Lesson 6, while reading the decodable story, “The Swim Meet” students write answers to questions about the story with the newly taught phonics pattern of i_e and a_e and previously taught phonics patterns.
• In Skills 3, Pausing Points, the teacher dictates sentences. The students repeat the sentence, count the number of words, and write lines on the paper for each word, before writing the sentence.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 11, students complete Activity Page 11.2 by writing words in blanks to complete sentences. Words in the word box at the top of the page include digraphs.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 3, students read the decodable story “Meet Vern” and answer questions about the story with answers that practice the phonics patterns of er, ou, oi, oo, and aw.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 6, students complete Activity Page 6.1 by writing words in blanks to complete sentences. The words include the /ch/ sound spelling.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 modeled and practiced in isolation and in the Reader stories.

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 13, the Tricky Word some is introduced. The teacher tells students how it is pronounced. Then the teacher tells students that the letter m is pronounced as expected. The teacher underlines the remaining letters, and then tells the students that it is the tricky part of the word.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 2, the teacher provides explicit instruction of the word how. The teacher explains that in this word the sound /ou/ is spelled ow instead of ou, just like in the Tricky Word down. The teacher circles the letter h and explains that it is pronounced as expected. The teacher underlines the letters o and w and explains that they are the tricky part of the word and stand for the /ou/ sound.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 7, the teacher discusses the word talk before students read their story. The teacher underlines the a and tells students that the al is pronounced /aw/ or /o/ depending on the region of the United States.

Materials include frequent opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of irregularly spelled words in isolation. Examples include:

• In Skils 1, Lesson 5, the teacher writes the word no on the board and tells students that the letter n is pronounced as expected, but that the letter o is not pronounced as expected in Grade 1. The teacher tells the students that when writing the word, they need to remember to spell the /oe/ sound with the letter o.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 5, students review the Tricky Word they. The teacher circles the letters th and explains that it is pronounced /th/ as expected. The teacher underlines the remaining letters and explains that it is the tricky part of the word. The teacher reminds students that when reading this word, they need to remember that the letters say /ae/ and when spelling, they need to remember the sound /ae/ is spelled ey.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 7, teacher modeling is provided for spelling and reading the high-frequency word should. The teacher circles the sh and d since they are pronounced as expected and underlines oul and tells students it says ool.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the days of the week as Tricky Words. The teacher writes the days of the week on the board and tells students that they d is pronounced as expected. The teacher underlines the ay and tells students they have not learned this spelling and it says /ae/. The teacher reads each word aloud, and the students repeat the word.

Students practice identifying and reading irregularly spelled words in isolation. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 5, students take out their Tricky Word cards that they made. When the teacher says a Tricky Word the students find the card with that word and hold it up. The teacher points to the correct Tricky Word on the word wall so students can check their work.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 24, students play Bingo with Tricky Words. The teacher reads a word, and if students have the word, they put their finger on it and read it back to the teacher.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, the teacher previews the Tricky Words with students that will be found in the decodable text “In the Cave.” The Tricky Words include where, once, and tomorrow.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 3, the teacher prepares word cards for each of the students with a Tricky Word on it. The teacher circulates the room, listening to each student read their word.

Materials include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress. For example:

• In Skills 1, Appendix A, materials state, “By the end of Unit 10 in Kindergarten, 129 high frequency words (41 Tricky Words, plus 88 decodable words) from the Fry Instant Word List have been taught. Using the Dolch Sight Word List as criteria, by the end of Unit 10, 116 high frequency words (42 Tricky Words, plus 74 decodable words) from the Dolch List have been taught. Many of these Tricky Words are practiced and reviewed in Grade 1 Units 1 and 2.”
• In Skills 1, Appendix A, a list of all Tricky Words taught in Grade 1 are listed. It states that many of the Kindergarten Tricky Words are practiced and reviewed in Units 1 and 2 and no Tricky Words are taught in Units 6 and 7. The Scope and Sequence provided lists the 25 Tricky Words taught in Skills Units as follows:
• Unit 1: a, I, no, so, of, is, all, some, from, word, are, have, were, one, once, do, who, two, the, said, says, was, when, where, why, what, which, here, there
• Unit 2: he, she, we, be , me, they their, my, by, so, no, some, you, your
• Unit 3: should, would, because, could, down
• Unit 4: today, yesterday, tomorrow
• Unit 5: how, picture, coach

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 grade-level, high-frequency words in sentences and to write the words in tasks to promote automaticity. The materials are systematic and provide practice through activities such as reading the decodable reader and writing sentences in the activity pages.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read grade- level, irregularly spelled words in sentences. In each Student Reader, students are minded that the tricky parts of Tricky Words are underlined in the reader. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 11, students read the Tricky Words is and to aloud in sentences. Sentences include: “It is a cat.”; “Is it hot?”; “Sam went to bed.”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 8, students read the Tricky Words here, from, and two in the story “Chimp.”
• In Skills 5, Lesson 3, students read sentences with high-frequency words in Activity Page 5.3 such as, “Which book do you like best?”
• In Skills 7, Activity Page 5.4 is a take home story for students to read at home. The directions tell families that “the tricky parts in Tricky Words are underlined in gray.”

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to write grade-level irregularly spelled words in tasks such as sentences in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-level irregularly spelled words. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 13, students read Tricky Words in a box at the top of Activity Page 13.2 and use them to fill in the blank in sentences.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 9, the teacher copies sentences from the activity book onto pieces of paper and cuts the sentences into individual words. The students take the cut sentences and reconstruct them into complete sentences and copy the sentence on paper. Students underline the tricky part of the Tricky Words and read the sentences.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 2, students fill in the high-frequency word all in sentences and read the sentence.

Materials provide repeated, explicit instruction for using student friendly reference materials and resources on reading irregularly spelled words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries). Examples include:

• In Skills 1, the teacher guide states, “You might want to create a word wall with Tricky Words, adding to your wall each time a new word is introduced. Tricky Words printed on yellow cards remind students to use caution when reading them.”
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, students keep track of the different spellings for the /k/ sound. The students use a Spelling Tree to sort different words with the /k/ sound. The teacher explains that some of the words are odd ducks, and these Tricky Words will be written on yellow paper. The teacher reads several words and students tell the teacher which branch on the Spelling Tree the word belongs, including the odd ducks.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.

Materials include frequent and explicit instruction of word analysis strategies. Materials include frequent explicit instruction for decoding familiar words. Activities are varied throughout the year to provide adequate opportunities for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies.

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

• In Skills 2, Lesson 2, the teacher demonstrates word analysis strategies for short and long vowel words. The teacher begins by reminding students that when reading a word that has the letter e, one e is usually pronounced /e/ and two e’s side by side are usually pronounced /ee/. The teacher writes the word fed on the board and asks students to read the word in their mind, first in a segmented way and then blended. The teacher writes the word feed and says, “If this is fed, what is this?”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 8, the teacher reminds students that yesterday they learned about syllables. The teacher asks how many vowel sounds a syllable has. The teacher reminds students that a compound word is made up of two separate one-syllable words. The teacher says catfish and asks students how many vowel sounds they hear in the word. The Teacher Guide states “Students may place their hands underneath their chins while saying the word to detect how many vowel sounds are in catfish.”
• In Skills 5, Lesson 3, in a Root Word activity, the teacher says “Because nap is a one-syllable word that has a short vowel sound and ends in a single consonant sound, we add an extra ‘p’ before adding the suffix -ed or -ing to nap. Nap turns to napped or napping.” The teacher has the students circle double consonant spellings as well as underline the suffixes.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 13, students learn how to segment and blend two-syllable words. The teacher writes the word sunset with a dot to segment the syllables. The teacher models how to read it by using a thumb-finger tap to blend the first word and the second and then read the word together.

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

• In Skills 6, Lesson 19, students learn about the tricky spelling of n when it can stand for the /n/ sound or the /ng/ sound. The teacher explains “that students should try pronouncing it /n/ as in nap but if that does not sound right, or does not make sense in context, they should try pronouncing it /ng/ as in pink.”
• In Skills 6, Lesson 1, the teacher explains that the words on the page have a c in it that can say either /k/ or /s/. The teacher tells students that when they encounter the spelling c in a printed word they do not already know, they should try pronouncing it /k/ as in cat. If that does not sound right or does not make sense in context, they should try pronouncing it /s/ as in cent.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 5, the students read a story containing three-syllable words and are told to use the same chunking strategy they have learned for two-syllable words. The Chunking Strategy helps students decode multisyllabic words and words with suffixes. The directions state, “When students first encounter two -syllable words, a small dot is used as a visual prompt or cue between the syllables. The dot is intended to visually break the word into two chunks, each of which can then be sounded out separately.”

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 3, Lesson 1, students learn the sound spelling oo for /oo/. In one activity, students practice hearing the sound /oo/ in words by giving a thumbs up if they hear the /oo/ sound in the middle of both words. In the Activity Page 1.1, students read words with /oo/ spellings and match and write words to that correspond with the pictures.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 8, students learn about the rules for doubling consonants before adding suffixes -ed and -ing. In Activity Page 8.1, students practice adding suffixes -ed and -ing to words to fill out a chart, which includes words fish, dip, hatch, and flip.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity. Before reading decodable readers, students preview words using the Preview Spelling charts found in each text. The Grade 1 materials provide students with opportunities to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity through partner readings of decodable texts and activity page reading practice.

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

• In Skils 2, Lesson 3, students learn that a_e says /ae/ and then in Lesson 4, students read the story “Wong” which includes words such as crate, takes, snake, scared, and safe.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 15, the teacher reads aloud the text “King and Queen” from the Big Book/Decodable Reader and uses a finger or a pointer to model following the text while reading.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 6, the teacher introduces the story “Mister Spencer and the Rabbits” and writes the word “Spencer” on the board. The teacher points out the c spelling for /s/, which students just learned. The teacher previews additional words in the Sound Spelling chart that have the /s/ sound spelled c, ce, or se.

Materials provide opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Activity 12.3, students read the decodable reader “The Tape” aloud. Students are reminded that underlined parts of words signal that it contains a tricky part.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 8, students read sentences, name the action, then perform the action in the sentence. For example, one sentence in the activity is “Bloom like a rose.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 1, students read sentences and fill in the blanks with words from the word bank, which includes alternative spellings for /ae/ such as ie and ay.
• In Skills 7, Activity 5.4, students read the story “Martez, Martez, Martez” and words underlined in gray are tricky words and uncommon spelling patterns are in bold to help students with accuracy while reading.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for varied and frequent opportunities that are built into the materials for students to engage in supported practice to gain oral reading fluency beginning in mid-Grade 1 and through Grade 2 (once accuracy is secure).

The Grade 1 materials provide opportunities over the course of the year to help students gain fluency. Students participate in repeated readings of grade-level texts to practice oral reading fluency through partner reading and repeated readings using the decodable texts. The materials include guidance and feedback suggestions for the teacher to support gains in oral reading fluency.

Over the course of the year, varied and frequent opportunities are provided in core materials for students to gain oral reading fluency. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 22, students participate in a Silly Voices activity, where they choose a silly voice and read aloud a sentence using that voice.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 6, students read “The Swim Meet” with a partner.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 3, students partner read the decodable text, “The Two Dogs.” Students take turns reading aloud.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 7, students read aloud sentences before completing a grammar activity.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 7 and 8, students read “The Picnic by the River” with a small group and the teacher or a partner.

Materials contain opportunities for students to participate in repeated readings of a grade-level text to practice oral reading fluency. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Lesson 3, students reread the decodable text, “Gran’s Trip” or “The Pet.” Students can either reread the story with a partner or to the teacher.
• In Skills 4, Activity 5.3, there is a take-home activity for students to reread a decodable text aloud at home. The directions include “repeated oral reading is an important way to improve reading skills. It can be fun for your child to repeatedly read this story to a friend, relative, or even a pet.”
• In Skills 5, Lesson 20, students reread “Two Good Things and One Bad Thing” with a partner.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 19, students reread “Grace the Performer.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 3, students reread the text, “Martez, Martez, Martez” either with a partner or by themselves.

Materials include guidance and feedback suggestions to the teacher for supporting gains in oral reading fluency. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 22, students practice using Silly Voices for texts they have already read. The Teacher Guide states, “If students are not already reading the text with high accuracy, then rereading without silly voices to first establish ease with word recognition is appropriate.”
• In Skills 3, there is a Fluency and Comprehension Progress Monitoring assessment in the Assessment and Remediation Guide which helps teachers know which students need additional support. There is an Assessment and Remediation Guide II in Fluency and Comprehension, which provides explicit, guided, and independent fluency (and comprehension) exercises for remediation instruction.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 10, it states, “You may want to encourage students to practice reading the chapter several times normally to build fluency before using a silly voice.”
• In Skills 6, Lesson 19, the teacher is told to use an anecdotal reading record to monitor oral reading fluency. This will help the teacher determine who needs remediation using either the Additional Resources lessons or additional practice with Pausing Points.