Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation that anchor texts (including read-aloud texts and some shared reading texts used to build knowledge and vocabulary) are of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading/listening and consider a range of interests. Many of the central texts are written by celebrated and award-winning authors. Central texts include a variety of genres and consider a range of students’ interests including, but not limited to animals, bugs, pets, family, transportation, cultural texts, traditional tales, folklores, and scientific non-fiction. Academic, rich vocabulary can also be found within selected texts.

The following are Kindergarten texts that represent how these materials meet the expectations for this indicator:

• The Snow Day by Ezra Jack Keats is a Caldecott Medal narrative text with colorful illustrations and rich vocabulary such as piled, crunch, and s-l-o-w-l-y.

• Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Janet Stevens is a humorous trickster tale. The character dialogue contains interesting, engaging conversation.

• Freight Train by Donald Crews is a Caldecott Honor book. The text contains information about different train cars. Because the illustrations contain specific colors, readers learn the names of colors.

• Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller is a rhyming text that provides information about animals that lay eggs. The illustrations are vibrant colors and detailed.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards. Each unit in Kindergarten provides students the opportunity to engage in above-level, complex read alouds as well as leveled readers, independent reading, and supplemental texts. The materials contain eight baskets of leveled readers and four baskets of read-aloud, “immersion” texts that are intended to engage all types of readers. Materials also provide thematic text sets centered around science and social studies themes as well as literary text sets aligned to material topics. These text sets, organized as baskets, are designed to accompany units in the form of research labs.

Anchor texts and supplemental texts include a mix of informational and literary texts reflecting the distribution of text types required by the standards (50% informational and 50% fiction). The texts include diverse topics and genres, such as realistic fiction, science and social studies informational text, traditional tales, personal narratives, classics, and historical fiction.

The following are examples of informational texts found within the instructional materials:

Unit 1:

• The Family Book, by Todd Parr
• Dim Sum for Everyone, by Grace Lin

Unit 2:

• Why Do Birds Have Beaks? By Miles Kelly
• Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones, by Ruth Heller

Unit 3:

• What Eats What? In An Ocean Food Chain, by Suzanne Slade,
• Why Living Things Need… Homes, by Daniel Nunn

Unit 4:

• How Bugs and Plants Live Together, by Yvonne Misztal,
• Ant Cities, by Arthur Dorros

The following are examples of literary texts found within the instructional materials:

Unit 1:

• There Is a Bird on Your Head, by Mo Willems
• Jamaica’s Find, by Juanita Havill

Unit 2

• Zoo, by Gail Gibbons
• George Flies South, by Simon James

Unit 3:

• Over in the Ocean In a Coral Reef, by Marianne Berkes
• The Moss-Covered Rock, by Eric A. Kimmel

Unit 4:

• Up, Up, and Away, by Ginger Wadsworth
• The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carl

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task.

The materials are designed with flexibility so that consumers can choose and interchange multiple texts sets based on the topics and levels desired. Some accompanying task and resource materials are not text-specific so that they apply across multiple text sets and grade bands. The instructional year begins with a literacy lab that is intended to capture readers' attention with engaging text. Though some of these texts fall qualitatively at the grade band as measured by Lexile, the materials include text complexity analyses and IRLA levels for these texts that show that in a more holistic assessment of qualitative and reader/task features, the texts meet the demand of the standards that all read alouds be above grade-level. Students have access to numerous texts at multiple reading levels that are read in small and whole-group settings as well as independently. The philosophy of the publishers is self-directed learning and reading through literacy and research labs.

Quantitative and qualitative information for anchor texts is provided in the Teacher’s Edition or online in SchoolPace, and the numerous text sets that accompany each unit are leveled according to the publishers framework--IRLA. The publishers state: “The Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA) is a unified standards-based framework for student assessment, text leveling, and curriculum and instruction. The IRLA includes every Common Core Standard for Reading, both in literature and informational text, as well as those Language Standards key to reading success for students in grades PreK through 12.”

Some examples of text-complexity measures indicated by the materials include the following:

• The read aloud, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker has an 820 Lexile. This text contains rhyming poetry with slightly to moderately complex academic language, but comprehension is supported through pictures and context.

• The read-aloud, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Voirst has a Lexile level of 970, however, qualitatively the text has one storyline and illustrations that support understanding. The language demands can be slightly to moderately complex, based on the run-on sentence structure to denote the narrator’s mood.

• The book, This is the Way we Go to School by Laine Falk has a Lexile of 450. Qualitatively, the structure is slightly complex with illustrations to support understanding. The language demands are also slightly complex (with familiar vocabulary) for most readers. The knowledge demands present readers with different cultures, geography, and mapping that may be unfamiliar but are heavily supported with illustrations.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation for supporting students' ability to access texts with increasing text complexity across the year. The supplemental text baskets are leveled according to the publisher’s system, called the Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA). There are a topic and “immersion” baskets for teachers to select from for anchor read alouds, all leveled 2-3 years above the reading level of most Kindergarteners.

The CCSS text complexity Reading Standard for Kindergarten is to, “Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.” Text options are at differing levels of material. The materials provide text sets (baskets) that are leveled and expose students to a myriad of levels and complexity. Students are provided access to the texts that are both of interest and are at the appropriately challenging level, according to the IRLA.

Materials provide students with access to leveled texts which address a range of science, social studies, history, and literary topics across all grade bands. Scaffolding of the texts to ensure that students are supported to access and comprehend grade-level texts from the beginning to the end of the year require careful monitoring, using the IRLA and suggested instruction based upon the IRLA results. The rigor of text is appropriate in aggregate over the course of the school year. Students will engage with texts at varying levels, unit to unit, according to their skill levels.

Students have access to multiple texts that measure below, at, or above grade level. The teacher companion to the research lab contains general instruction outlines, speaking and listening strategies, and general comprehension questions. Scaffolding is not text-specific, but focuses on the skills needed to access texts in that genre (informational text, fantasy novels, argument essays, etc).

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation that anchor (core) texts and series of connected texts are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level. The American Reading Company's (ARC's) Comprehensive Core utilizes their own IRLA (Independent Reading Level Assessment Framework), drawing on the three measures of text complexity to level texts. “To determine reading level, every book is double-blind and hand-leveled using the three legs of text complexity and located on our developmental taxonomy of reading acquisition.” Any book found in the text boxes or thematic text sets has an identifying sticker on the cover to provide its IRLA placement.

An example of a text complexity analysis and purpose and placement for the core texts is as follows:

Title: This is the Way we Go to School, by Laine Falk

Text Complexity Level: Red (2th Grade)

Quantitative: 450L (2nd-3rd)

Qualitative: Lexile accurately reflects the difficulty of the text because:

• Purpose/Structure: Slightly Complex. The text is organized topically with each section introducing a different mode of transportation used by school children in various parts of the world. The photographs and text features aid in comprehending the text.

• Language: Slightly Complex. Simple sentence construction is seen throughout. Language use is familiar. There are opportunities to introduce domain-specific language related to world geography, cultures, and community transportation systems.

• Knowledge Demands: Slightly Complex. Some of the terms for both modes of transportation and world geography and cultures will be unfamiliar to readers. Photographs provide significant support for these concepts. A world map at the end offers an opportunity to introduce students to the concepts of countries and mapping.

• Reader and Task: The text is a suitable for an above-level Kindergarten read aloud that uses a common experience - traveling to school - to introduce children to the diversity of world cultures and experiences.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for supporting materials providing opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading. The instructional materials include opportunities for students to read daily across a volume of texts during various instructional segments including: Interactive Read Aloud, Readers' Workshop, and Read Aloud or Shared Reading.

Readers' Workshop includes a Read Aloud or Shared Reading segment in which:

• Teachers model the reading/thinking strategies expected from a proficient, grade-level reader (i.e., using clues in the book to figure out new words, reading Power Words, etc.) through a read aloud.

• Students then practice the modeled skills during independent reading from self-selected texts.

• Students share how they used the modeled strategies in an Accountable Talk segment of Readers' Workshop.

Reader’s Workshop includes a daily independent reading time for self-selected texts. In addition to Literacy Labs and Research Labs for core content, materials provide thematic text sets that can be chosen across content areas and grade levels. Text sets cover literary and informational topics in science, social studies, and culture. These text sets are organized by color-coded buckets and the IRLA levels indicated by the publishers. Students also have access to independent reading box sets in the 100 Book Challenge. The publisher describes the challenge as: “Students read 30 minutes in school and 30 minutes at home. Quantity practice targets are set, monitored, and rewarded, ensuring every student adopts the independent reading routines of academically successful students.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet expectations that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text). Materials for the literacy and research labs provide graphic organizers and instructional support tasks for students to engage with text as well as collect textual evidence that builds toward a research topic or literary theme.

The evidence from Units 1-4 listed below demonstrates tasks and questions that require direct engagement with texts but do not call out or connect to specific texts. Most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-dependent and require students to engage with the text directly and draw on textual evidence to support what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text.

For example:

Unit 1:

• "Let’s compare and contrast _(character)_’s adventures in the two books we just read. Students share, first in pairs and then with the class: What is the same? What is different?" • Other Characters • Setting • Problem • Solution"

Unit 2:

• "What did you learn from this book about the life cycles of mammals? How do you know this is true?"

Unit 3:

• “Is ___ a plant or an animal? How do you know? Where is your evidence? What else did you learn? Who found any new information about ___? What is a topic of this book?" and "What key details can you find about this topic?”

Unit 4:

• Students are asked, “Let’s go back into this book to learn more about how the ___ hunts. What else is interesting about it? What else did you learn about ___? What did you learn from this book about what makes a spider a spider?" and "How do you know this is true?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to a culminating task that integrates skills to demonstrate understanding. Questions and tasks are organized for students to gather details or practice skills needed for the culminating task, which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding.

• Unit 1, Literacy Lab: "On this page/in this part, what are the words telling us? What are the pictures telling us? What can you tell us so far about the author/illustrator (e.g., the author writes funny stories, the stories are about animals, the stories have rhymes in them, the main character is always ___, etc)."

• Unit 2, Lesson 4, Day 3: Give students clipboards with writing paper. Have the students create their own life cycle diagrams for one reptile, drawing each stage and labeling it with the right term. It’s okay if this is simply copied from a book. Encourage, but don’t require students to be resourceful and use class charts, labels, etc., to help them with spelling. Any student work should be saved in his/her science folder to become part of that child’s book for this topic.

• Unit 3, Lesson 1, Day 1: “I am going to make a chart with two sections. I’ll draw a line down the middle. I will head one section Living and the other section Non-Living. Use Interactive Writing to add students’ examples of living organisms and non-living things to your T-chart: "What letter does ___ start with?” Lesson 2, Day 5: Present students with an opinion. Students work in teams to locate evidence to support this opinion. The team with the best/most evidence wins.

• Unit 4, Lesson 2, Day 1: Have students compare their diagram with the diagram that you started together earlier. Have them check to make sure that their diagram contains every defining part of their insects’ bodies (legs, three body sections, and antennae). Any student work should be saved in his/her Science Folder to become part of that child’s scientific research.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling of academic vocabulary and syntax.

There are many opportunities and protocols throughout modules and within lessons that support academic vocabulary and syntax. Units include practices that encourage the building and application of academic vocabulary and syntax, including accountable talk routines and think pair share. Teacher materials support implementation of these standards to grow students’ skills.

Examples include:

• In Unit 1: Accountable Talk, Partner Share. Students work in pairs to rehearse oral responses for their Independent Reading to the question: "What is your favorite part of the book? Why?" Partner A, hold up one book you read today. For that book, tell your partner, “My favorite part of the book was ____ because ____.”

• In Unit 2: Ask if any student read a great book she would like to share with the group. Select one student. Have all other students look at him/her. Ask him/her to hold up the book so everyone can see the cover. Ask him/her to tell one thing s/he liked about that book or to “read” one page s/he liked out loud.

• In Unit 3: Accountable Talk. When everyone is finished, have students work in pairs to look at each other’s animal drawings and talk about what they have learned.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Speaking and listening tasks require students to gather evidence from texts and sources. Opportunities to ask and answer questions of peers and teachers about research, strategies, and ideas are present throughout the year. The curriculum includes protocols and graphic organizers to promote and scaffold academic discussions.

The following are examples of materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what is read:

• Unit 1: Students work in pairs to rehearse oral responses for their Independent Reading to the question: What is your favorite part of the book? Why? Partner A, hold up one book you read today. For that book, tell your partner, “My favorite part of the book was ____ because ____.”

• Unit 2: The entire class works together to compare and contrast two texts about fish.

• Unit 3: Students are asked to share new learning in a whole-group setting.

• Unit 4: As a whole group, students discuss what they learned from the first reading of the connected text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused tasks. The Common Core standards for Kindergarten call for students to combine drawing, dictating, and writing to be able to compose complete sentences or short pieces in which they state an opinion, explain a topic, or write about a single event. Each writing workshop includes interactive writing, independent writing, and writing centers. Students perform tasks such as responses to literature, drawing, and writing about the topic.

Examples include:

Throughout all Units: Encourage students to express themselves in drawing/writing in whatever ways they can. They will probably draw first. Then, as they write, typical forms to expect are: • Scribble • Magic line (a blank line to represent a word or whole thought) • Random letters • Letters that match sounds (See the Kinsey Developmental Writing Scale.)

• In Unit 1: Students respond to writing prompts daily through drawing or writing. They fill out log sheets and begin to write (draw) responses about characters, events, and settings. They also engage in writing (drawing) stories. For example, “Each of you is going to draw a picture of you standing by your house and write, 'This is me and my family.' Model. Show students how you want them to set up their writing paper each day.”

• In Unit 2: Today, we will write about mammals and their life cycles. Encourage students to express themselves in drawing/writing in whatever way they can. They will probably draw first.

• In Unit 4: After modeling through an interactive writing lesson, students are asked to come up with their own writing topic. Teachers are guided to emphasize the use of: • Purposeful decisions about what to write. • Phonics-based spelling. • Initial consonant sounds. • Writing a word (or letter with a magic line) for each word spoken. • Known Power Words. "Who knows what information they are going to put in their report?" Give each student a dated sheet of writing paper as soon as s/he is able to say what s/he is going to write about.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that the materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing (year-long) that reflect the distribution required by the standards. The Common Core standards for Kindergarten call for students to combine drawing, dictating, and writing to be able to compose complete sentences or short pieces in which they state an opinion, explain a topic, or write about a single event. Each lesson consists of a daily writing component with a process of shared, guided, and independent practice in a mode of writing. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence.

The following are examples of the different text types of writing across the units:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, students focus on opinions using a book from the author study collection and write what s/he likes about a particular text. In Week 4 Story Elements, students write about a character, setting, or event from stories they have read, or they can make up one of their own.

• In Unit 2, Week 4, students create predictable charts with a reptile focus, and during independent writing, students write what they know about the topic.

• In Unit 3, Week 5, students select a desert animal to write about. The teacher models the entire process before students begin independent writing.

• In Unit 4, students are introduced the use of the “Wow” Fact Rubric, a tool students use to make sure their writing states what s/he has learned about a topic.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that the materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills over the course of the school year. Students are required to write daily with suggested writing prompts. Most writing prompts relate to text, but some do not require evidence-based writing.

• In Unit 1, Week 3, students are asked to write about an author/illustrator that they are learning about. Teachers are guided to reinforce students with models and sentence organizers as they write their opinion.

• In Unit 2, Week 6, Day 4, during Science Lab, students use text(s) to find pictures and read about different colored fish in order to write in Writer’s Workshop about these fish and how their colors help them survive.

• Unit 3, Week 2, Day 5: Have students look through the library for books with good illustrations of food webs. Give students clipboards with writing paper. Have students spot information/diagrams of food webs, study them, and draw them. Have them create their own food web diagrams on the savanna.

• Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1: Give students clipboards with blank paper and have them write at the top: What Makes an Insect an Insect? Have students look through the books in your collection and pick one insect photo/illustration to copy. Each student works to draw the defining parts of his/her insect’s body (legs, three body sections, and antennae).

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials, questions, and tasks provide explicit instruction for and regular practice to address the acquisition of print concepts, including alphabetic knowledge, directionality, and function (K-1), and structures and features of text (1-2).

Print concepts are taught in the Foundational Skills Toolkit starting in 1Y:

• In Lesson 1, students are taught to “read”: “You are going to be able to read Yellow-level books. All you need is the first sentence. Let me show you how they work. You remember the sentence that repeats and then use the pictures to read the book” (p. 25).
• In 2Y, Lesson 4, students learn one-to-one correspondence/tracking. In Lesson 5, students learn the concept of a word. In Lesson 6, students learn tracking.
• Additional opportunities to practice tracking

In Literacy Lab, Morning Meeting, the teacher is instructed to model the following in writing:

• “writing words from left to write (as cited on page 85), top to bottom”
• “putting spaces between words”

In Literacy Lab Readers’ Workshop: Identify Read-to-Me students, where the teacher models how to read Yellow books. “Select a Yellow book that is large enough for the students to clearly see the pictures and text. Read the first few pages aloud. Point to the words as you read. After the first page or two, most of the children will be able to read the book without you” (page 74).

The recognition and naming of letters is taught in the both the Foundational Skills Toolkit as well as within the Literacy Lab (Unit 1). The materials indicate that while some students may already come to school knowing the letters of the alphabet, there are learners who are not ready and are classified by ARC as "Read-to-Me students". “Some (or most) of your students don’t arrive with this literary experience from home. You must go into emergency mode. Immediately set up systems to ensure people read fun books to them, one-on-one, at least 10-20 books a day….Read-to-Me students must learn to name all the letters in the alphabet as soon as possible” (page 17), indicating that some students will need more intensive instruction to assure they acquire the knowledge of print concepts, including alphabetic knowledge, directionality, and function, and structures and features of text.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations that instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and gain decoding automaticity, sight-based recognition of high-frequency words, and reading fluency in oral reading once phonics instruction begins.

In Foundational Skills 3Y, Kindergarten students learn that letters represent speech sounds. In Lesson 7, students start to learn the consonant sounds. The teacher states: “We are going to learn the letter sounds. Let’s start with the consonants. Does anyone already know any of the sounds these letters tell us to make? Let’s say them. Does anyone have a name that begins with one of these letters?” In Lesson 8, students start to learn eight consonant sounds, which the materials refer to as "starter consonants." By learning the consonant sounds, students are able to start decoding words that begin with consonants. In Lesson 8, students read the “B” book together. With the Yellow books, the teacher can play, What Could it Say? The teacher is to cover up the new word on a Yellow book. “Have students supply possible words. Reveal the first letter. Now, what might it be?” During Independent Reading, students try to use the first letter sound for the new word they read in Yellow books.

In Lesson 9 in Foundational Skills 3Y, students learn /t/. By knowing /b/ and /t/, students can start to decode words in the song, Take Me Out to the Ball Game. After learning the consonants, students have opportunities to use their decoding skills to read Letter books and Yellow books.

In Foundational Skills 1G, Kindergarten students learn 60 high frequency words. For example, in Lessons 1-6, students learn 10 power words in order to read the text, I Love Basketball. To assist students in learning high-frequency words, the teacher is to post the words in prominent places. Each student gets a Power Word name. The teacher teaches a silent signal for students to show when they hear the Power Word used or written. To make Power Words meaningful, the teacher is to label parts of the room with the words or phrases with the words. Students collect words in their own Power Word Wall. During Power Word lessons, students have multi-sensory opportunities to learn the words. Students see and hear the word. Students say the word, trace the word, sky-write the word, write the word, and play word games.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials, questions, and tasks provide systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

In the Foundational Skills Toolkit for lessons in 3Y, students read alphabet books, letter books, and book titles to practice phonics skills in context. Students also practice phonemic awareness and phonics skills in context when they help build tongue twisters. For example, “Let’s see how many words you can string together that begin with /b/ and make sense. I’ll go first: "Big boys buy bicycles. Blue bugs bite billionaires.” Students also have the opportunity to build their own letter books. “Today, you will each make your own ___ book of things you like. On each page, draw a picture that starts with ___ and label it.”

In the Foundational Skills Toolkit lessons for 1G, students read high-frequency words in connected texts and isolated texts. When students are learning the first 60 high-frequency words (Power Words), they read those words in context. For example, in Lesson 2, students learn love, I, my. Then students read those words in a passage called My Pets. Then the teacher asks students to share something they love, so that information can be placed in sentence in the pocket chart. Students read and reread the sentences. In Lesson 7, students read the Power Words in a text called I Love to Sleep.

To make the high-frequency words more meaningful, the teacher is directed to make the words more meaningful. Instruction for the teacher includes: “Use phrases or sentences to label parts of the classroom. Underline the Power Words (e.g., my desk; the fish tank; back of the room). When possible, introduce new words with a concrete object (e.g., We have desks.).”

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials support ongoing and frequent assessment to determine student mastery and inform meaningful differentiation of foundational skills, including a clear and specific protocol as to how students performing below standard on these assessments will be supported.

Through the Independent Reading Level Assessment Framework (IRLA), a teacher can assess students’ progress toward the learning of foundational skills. These are the following steps to using IRLA:

• Identify IRLA Reading Level.
• Use the IRLA to diagnose specific instructional needs.
• Use corresponding Foundational Skills Toolkit Lessons to teach and model specific skills.
• Provide guided and independent practice differentiated to support students who learn at different paces.

IRLA helps provide the teacher with baseline data about each Kindergarten student’s reading proficiency. This gives teachers information about which foundational skills each student needs to learn, and the teacher can use the data to sort students into similar groupings for optimal learning. A teacher will assess a Kindergarten student for different stages of acquisition. The first grouping a teacher can assess for is Yellow 1, which is about sentence pattern and picture reading. The teacher also completes a running record. Based on the Yellow 1 entry data, the teacher can decide if the student is best placed in Yellow 1 or needs to be assessed for a different group. Yellow 1-3 is typically Kindergarten, First Half and 1-Green is typically Kindergarten, Second Half.

With IRLA, a teacher can assess students’ progress toward learning grade level standards. In IRLA, there are Coaching Records for teachers to document students’ learning. For example, for Coaching Record 1-3Y, for a student in 3Y, the teacher documents the student's ability to get his/her mouth ready to say the sound of each letter.

Coaching Tips are included in the Foundational Skills Toolkit lessons. For example, in 2Y, a teacher can assess students’ ability to track based on the following Coaching Tip: “You will know students get this when they stop on their own and start over to ensure a one-to-one voice/print match as they read on their own.”

Foundational Skills lessons include opportunities for students to progress quicker if students know the skills based on the Passing Lane: Assessment. This helps a teacher make instructional adjustments, so students can make progress in learning foundational skills. In 1Y, Lesson 2, there is a Passing Lane: Assessment: “2Y Students already have the ability to track each word as they read. 1G Students already know the high-frequency words in Yellow books.”

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations that materials, questions, and tasks provide high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills. Lessons include modeling, guided practice, games, and hands-on activities.

Instructional materials provide high-quality lessons for foundational skills for every student to reach mastery through the Foundational Skill Toolkit lessons and within the four Units (Literacy Lab, Zoology, Ecology, Entomology). After placing students into skill-based groupings based on assessment results from IRLA (Independent Reading Level Assessment), students are provided learning opportunities at their individual levels. For students in the Pre-Reading Stage, they are placed in the Yellow Level. These students know most of the letters of the alphabet. Students have access to Y Guided Reading Books and Alphabet Books. If students are not ready for the Yellow small group, the materials suggest those students have access to a one-on-one situation and be read 10-20 books a day. For students who place higher in foundational skills, they can start in the Green small group. These students learn high-frequency words.

During Literacy Lab Kindergarten lessons, all students have access to foundational skills lessons and participate in learning nursery rhymes, which helps students learn the sounds of words for rhyme. For example, in Days 2-5, students hold hands and walk in a circle while the teacher sings a rhyme called, Willaby Wallaby.

Opportunities for differentiated learning within a skill group are provided. In 2Y, there are Additional Practice Activities for Integrate/Coordinate: Think/Say/Move. For example, the teacher can have students play How many? or Mother May I? In 1G, there are multiple ways for a student to practice learning Power Words. A student can learn Power Words through association and multiple modality encoding. Students can practice learning Power Words through Speed Games.

In the Independent Reading Level Assessment, there are Action Plans for the teacher to provide additional practice. For example, for students in 1-3Y, the Action Plan says, “Have an older student come down at the same time every day to read with his 1-3Y book buddy. Consider using an older student who is seriously behind in reading, but is at least a 1B. Both students can afford to miss everything else for this activity.”

Foundational Skill Toolkit lessons provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons. Within the lessons, there are recommendations to the coaches (teachers). In Yellow, Lesson 8, the Coaching Tip is: “Coach students to notice HOW the sound is made.” This is referring to the consonant sounds and how the sound is made. In Yellow for Lessons 7-9+, the materials suggest a particular letter- sound learning sequence. The materials also provide alternative sequence options such as Familiar Names/Key Words, Continuous vs. Stop Letter Sounds, and Spanish Speakers.