1st Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for anchor texts (including read aloud texts in K-2 and shared reading texts in Grade 2 used to build knowledge and vocabulary) are of publishable quality, worthy of especially careful reading/listening, and consider a range of student interests.

Many of the anchor texts are written by celebrated and award-winning authors. Texts include a variety of genres and consider a range of students’ interest including: poems, biographies, realistic fiction, mysteries, science and social studies texts, chapter books, and stories that are culturally diverse. The texts are relevant and relatable and include enriching academic vocabulary and quality illustrations that help build student knowledge.

Examples of high-quality, publishable texts in Shared Reading include:

• In Week 8, students listen to Barn Storm by Charles Ghigna and Debra Ghinga, which is a humorous fictional story introducing cause and effect. The illustrations are bold and the rhyming text helps students read this text.
• In Weeks 16-18, students listen to Morris Goes to School by Bernard Wiseman, which is part of the popular series Morris the Moose, in which Morris and his pal Boris the Bear have a lot of fun adventures that children can relate to. The language of this text includes puns, which helps makes the text engaging for students.
• In Week 23, students listen to Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel. In this well-known fiction series, students learn about friendship despite obstacles. This book is a silver Newbery Medal Winner and a Caldecott Honor Book.
• In Weeks 28-29, students listen to Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize by Marjorie W. Sharmat, which is a well-known fiction mystery series by an award-winning author. The story includes problem-solving and popular characters.

Examples of high-quality, publishable texts in ELA include:

• In Week 6, students listen to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, which is a popular ALA Notable Children’s Book. It has also won a George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit Award, a Georgia Children’s Book Award, and it is a Reading Rainbow book.
• In Week 11, students listen to Stone Soup by Ann McGovern, which was first told by Aesop in Greece. It is retold by Ann McGovern, who has written more than 55 children’s books, and she has sold over three million copies of this book.
  
• In Week 27, students listen to Stand Tall, Molly Lou Lemon, by Patty Lovell and illustrated by David Catrow, which is a realistic fiction story that covers the themes of courage, confidence, self-esteem, and family. The content is beneficial for inferring and has rich vocabulary.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level.

In ELA, students listen to both literary and informational texts. Throughout the entire year, students listen to and read: biographies, fables, fairy tales, folktales, graphic novels, historical fiction, legends, mysteries, poems, and science fiction.

In ELA, where students listen to the text, they are exposed to both literary and informational texts.

Examples of read-aloud literary texts include:

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
• When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic
• Metal Man by Aaron Reynolds
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
• Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet S. Wong

Examples of informational texts include:

• How do Apples Grow by Messy Maestro
• Why do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro
• The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
• Now and Ben by Gene Barretta
• The Bald Eagle by Lloyd G. Douglass
• From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons

Shared Reading in Grade 1 involves choral and partner reading. Examples of student-read texts include:

• Hooray for Snail by John Stader and Little Critter Sleeps Over by Mercer Mayer
• The Horse in Harry’s Room by Syd Hoff and Morris the Moose by Bernard Wiseman
• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel and Young Cam Jansen and the Pizza Shop Mystery by David A. Adler
• Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize by Marjorie W. Sharmat and The Paint Brush Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that texts (including read-aloud texts and some shared reading texts used to build knowledge and vocabulary) have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade level according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and a relationship to their associated student task. Read-aloud texts at K-2 are above the complexity levels of what most students can read independently.

Within both the ELA and Shared Reading components of the materials, the students listen to grade-appropriate read-alouds with an appropriate level of complexity according to the quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and the relationship to their associated student task. Students also participate in choral and partner reading of texts that have been read aloud by the teacher. The majority of the texts have a Lexile that are in the Grade 2 and 3 band or above and are qualitatively complex for Grade 1 students.

Specific examples include:

• In Week 7, students listen to The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola, which has a Lexile of 650 and is appropriate because it is a read aloud. The Teacher Guide provides explicit instructions on how to engage students in the reading so they can make inferences and connections in this moderate to very complex text.
• In Week 8, students listen to Why do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro, which has a Lexile of 580. The vocabulary is very complex, but taught explicitly, with teacher modeling.
• In Week 13, students listen to Now and Ben by Gene Barretta, which has a Lexile of 640. The text is moderately complex due to the now and then text structure, challenging syntax, and science vocabulary.
• In Week 26, students listen to From Seed to Plant with a Lexile of 660. It is exceedingly complex as it connects the processes of photosynthesis, pollination, and reproduction, as well as the water cycle. The text features and graphics are essential for student understanding. The language is also complex with complex sentences and sophisticated vocabulary. The purpose is also exceedingly complex due to the abstract elements.
• In Week 28, students listen to Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow. This text has a Lexile of 560, and while it has a straightforward storyline, the language features are moderately complex. The text contains personification and similes as well as more complex phrasing.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ literacy skills (comprehension) over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills (leveled readers and series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels).

In both English Language Arts and Shared Reading, the texts and tasks increase in complexity to develop independence of grade level skills. While the majority of the texts in Grade 1 are read to the students, the complexity and/or tasks increase within each text, as well as throughout the year. Students also reread texts chorally or with a partner that the teacher first reads aloud in Shared Reading. These texts have much lower complexity than the texts that are just read aloud in English Language Arts.

In English Language Arts, texts and skills increase over the course of the year. For example, the discussion questions in the first nine weeks ask students questions such as, "If you were the art teacher, how would you make decisions about supplies?" Then, by the third nine weeks, students compare the four presidents in the book and summarize the story. In the last nine weeks, students learn about pollution and are asked what are some ways the main character can help his neighborhood be a more pleasant place to live. Students also learn how to compare and contrast. In Week 8, students orally discuss how How do Apples Grow and Why do Leaves Change Color are similar. Then, in Week 16, students are introduced to the compare and contrast graphic organizer.

In English Language Arts, students hear a variety of texts of different quantitative and qualitative complexities to help them develop independence of grade-level skills. For example:

• In the first nine weeks, students listen to seven texts, two of which are non-fiction. Lexiles range from 420 to 730.
• In the second nine weeks, students listen to nine texts, which are mostly non-fiction texts. The Lexile range from 440 to 910.
• In the third nine weeks, students listen to fourteen texts, many of which are very complex due to their knowledge demands. The Lexiles range from 470 to 940, with the majority of the Lexiles in the 500s and 600s.
• In the final nine weeks, students only work with four texts because they spend the majority of their time writing mysteries. They read the four books with Lexiles ranging from 420 to 730 as models of their own mystery story.

In Shared Reading, students both listen to and hear the texts, which helps students gain grade-level skills. After the first six weeks, all questions during discussions are inferential, though follow-up questions are provided for students who need help. In the beginning of the year discussion questions include, “Who is Biscuit’s new friend,” but by the end of the year, there are questions like, “Why are paint smudges an important clue to look for?” The Lexile range increases throughout the year, as well as the complexity of questions. For example, in the first nine weeks, Lexile ranges are from 80 to 220, but in the last nine weeks, Lexile ranges are from 270 to 440.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that support materials for the core text(s) provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to support their reading at grade level by the end of the school year.

Within the program, there are three designated forty-five minute periods of literacy instruction. Shared reading instruction is comprised of 5-10 minutes of word study, 25-30 minutes of shared reading, and 10 minutes to discuss the text. The ELA instruction is comprised of 45 minutes of a read-aloud and process writing. The final block is designated for differentiated instruction. Throughout the year, students read a range and volume of fiction and non-fiction texts.

In Grade 1, the program includes sets of texts with repeated characters including Syd Hoff books and Else Holmelund Minarik books. The program also has mysteries, including the Cam Jansen and Nate the Great series. Students are presented with predictable text to help with concepts about print in the first four weeks and decodable texts for students who continue to need decoding practice.

The Shared Reading materials include word study, choral or echo reading, and rereading with a partner. Every day in Shared Reading, the whole class reads that day’s selection aloud twice. In Shared Reading, students will spend 165 school days interacting with texts. Some specific examples include:

• In Week 8, students read Barn Stories by Charles Ghigna and Debra Ghigna, which is about a tornado on a farm. Students chorally read and then partner read on each of the five days they interact with this text.
• In Week 14, students read Oliver by Syd Hoff, which is a fantasy book. Students have read previous books by Syd Hoff in previous weeks. Over the course of five days, students chorally read and partner read each day.
• In Week 24, students read Cam Jansen and the Library Mystery by David A. Adler and spend five days chorally reading and partner reading.
• In Week 34, students read The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla and also spend five days chorally and partner reading.

During the English Language Arts block, students listen to a read-aloud about half of the days during the week and collectively discuss the book. The books are typically above grade-level in order to expose students to rich language, expand their vocabulary, and build knowledge. For each text, the teacher begins by developing and/or activating background knowledge, asks questions while reading, models comprehension strategies, and discusses the text with the students after reading. Examples include:

• In Week 8, students hear How do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro, which is a non-fiction book. Students spend two days learning how apples grow and the text structure of chronological order.
• In Week 11, students hear Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, which is a well-known book based on an old folktale in Italy.
• In Week 21, students hear Presidents’ Day by Anne Rockwell, which is a fiction book about children who dress up as presidents for a celebration.
• In Week 33, students hear Max’s Words by Kate Banks, which is a fictional story with words that are carefully placed on the page to tell the story.

During the Differentiated Instruction block, students work with the teacher for small group instruction.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based, 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).

Most lessons have text-dependent and text-specific questions, which offer multiple opportunities for students to engage in discussion about the texts with their classmates. Questions and tasks occur both during the reading, as well as after the reading on each day that the students interact with the text.

During the first six weeks of shared reading, comprehension questions take place during the reading of the text and are explicit in nature. The questions evolve from simple questions to more implicit questions over the course of the week. After the first six weeks, the majority of the questions are inferential questions. Examples include:

• In Week 6, after reading Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, students are asked, "Where does Biscuit follow the girl to?" "What does Biscuit want?" and "Who likes Biscuit?"
• In Week 11, after chorally reading the story Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff, students reread the story and then are asked what things the dinosaurs see that are unfamiliar, why the policeman stares at the dinosaur, and why Danny shouts “Look Out”.
• In Week 21, after reading with a partner, Little Bear’s Visit by Elise Holmelund Minarik, students are asked why Little Bear likes to visit his grandparents.
• In Week 32 after chorally reading The Paint Brush Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla, students reread the story and are then asked why Uncle Pancho paints his house by himself, why Uncle Pancho stops worrying about his house, and how does Uncle Pancho lose his son Jose.

During the ELA interactive read-alouds, the teacher asks questions during reading and while modeling comprehension strategies. Following the interactive read-aloud, the teacher leads a brief text-based discussion. Examples include:

• In Week 7, after hearing The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola, students are asked how Tommy’s family feels about his drawings.
• In Week 12, after hearing Eleanor by Barbara Cooney, students are asked questions such as: "Why does Eleanor's mother want her to be beautiful? Do you think Eleanor likes Oak Terrace better than the house in town? and Why did Eleanor take her father’s letters?
• In Week 19, after hearing A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams, students are asked: "Why does the mother worry on some days? How many people put money in the jar? and Why do they think people put money in the jar?"
• In Week 31, after hearing Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet S. Wong, students are asked what lesson the girl in the story learns as well as, "What was the problem in the story and how it was solved?"

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions (small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class) that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

Throughout the Grade 1 Bookworms materials, there are frequent opportunities for students to participate in whole class, small group, and partner discussions about the texts they read and hear. Protocols are found throughout the program to support the discussions. Whole class discussions take place regularly during dialogic reading, which occurs during the Shared Reading block, as well as the interactive read-aloud, which occurs during the ELA block. Throughout the read aloud, teachers ask questions, use academic vocabulary, and model comprehension strategies. The teacher uses the Turn-and-Talk strategy to prompt students to participate in discussions while listening to the text. Additionally, there are opportunities for teachers to utilize Every Pupil Response technique such as voting, raising hands, providing signaled responses, thumbs up/down, etc. to engage students in a discussion about the text.

During Shared Reading, students are given opportunities for modeling, discussing, and sharing about the texts they read and hear. The teacher engages in a discussion about the text after reading and students answer questions about the text both individually and with partners. In the first six weeks of the program, students participate in Dialogic Reading, where there are a series of questions about the text over the course of the week from simple to more complex. After the first six weeks, the majority of the questions are inferential and the Teacher Guide suggests that after asking a question, the teacher should follow up with “how do you know?” in order to get students to use the text as a reference. During shared reading, students read with a partner regularly. The Teacher’s Guide instructs teachers on how to group their students for partner reading. Students are given roles of reader and coach and this protocol is directly taught. When students finish reading, the partners engage in a discussion of the text using specific comprehension questions as a guide. Specific examples include:

• In Week 17, students read Morris Goes to School by Bernard Wiseman with a partner. The teacher tells students to switch reading every two pages and that everyone's eyes should be on the paper in case one needs help with a word. After partner reading, students work with their partner to explain how they would feel if they did not know that B and C were letters and why Morris opened the wrong door for the bathroom.
• In Week 25, students read Young Cam Jansen and the Pizza Shop Mystery. After listening to the teacher read and model how to make inferences, students reread with a partner and discuss questions such as: "Why does Mr. Jansen tell Mel about the jacket? and Where does Mel think he will find the jacket with a partner?"

During ELA, while listening to the text in the read-aloud, the teacher pauses and frequently models a comprehension strategy and poses inferential questions to the students. The teacher employs the Every Pupil Response techniques to ensure engagement which includes talking to a partner and polling the class. Most of the discussion occurs during the read-aloud, at key points indicated in each plan. During reading, the teacher asks comprehension questions and after reading, the teacher leads a discussion and updates the anchor chart with the students. Specific examples include:

• In Week 12, while listening to A Lincoln and Me by Louise Borden, sentence frames are provided throughout the the text to help guide students through finding text-based evidence. Sentence frames are also provided for vocabulary work. For example, when learning about the word adore, sentence frames include "I adore my __________ and my best friend adores _______."
• In Week 21, while listening to President’s Day by Anne Rockwell, student are asked questions such as: "Why did people clap for a long time? and Why did they use a box to vote during the whole class discussion?" After reading the text, students have a whole group discussion to compare and contrast the four presidents in the book.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading (or read aloud) and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

Throughout the Grade 1 materials, students are given multiple opportunities to practice their speaking and listening skills about the texts they hear and read in both the ELA and the Shared Reading components of the program. These opportunities come in the form of recalling information through comprehension questions and peer discussions with a selected portion of the text.

In Shared Reading, students consistently listen to the teacher read aloud and then reread the texts and discuss them with a partner. Students reread the texts following the teachers initial read-aloud with different focus each time. Following each reading, the students are asked text-based questions to discuss with a partner. Students review and share their previous day’s text-based written response with a partner as well. Specific examples include:

• In Week 8, after students reread the text Barn Storm by Charles Ghigna and Debra Ghigna, students discuss the text with a partner by answering questions such as who are the characters, what is the setting, and what happens at the end of the story.
• In Week 16 students write with a partner about the story Morris the Moose, by Bernard Wiseman, which they heard the teacher read aloud. They write about how Morris, the cow, and the deer are like. They share their response the following day with a partner.
• In Week 21, students read Little Bear’s Visit by Else Holmelund Minarik with a partner and then they discuss why they think the author chose to write fantasies instead of non-fiction.
• In Week 30, students listen to the text The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla and then reread it with a partner. The partners then discuss the text and respond to questions including, "Why did Gregory want to go with his parents to move into the new house? How does Gregory feel about the new house and why it was the best birthday ever for Gregory."

During the ELA Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher utilizes the Every Pupil Response techniques to elicit students’ listening and speaking about the texts. Additionally, following the read-aloud, the lesson plan includes guiding questions and/or prompts for a post read-aloud discussion of the text. Specific examples include:

• In Week 6, during the read aloud of Pepper’s Journal by Stuart J. Murphy, the teacher stops during the read aloud to ask students how the family will decide which kitten to keep. After reading, students help the teacher summarize what they heard.
• In Week 12, students hear the stories Eleanor by Barbara Cooney and A. Lincoln and Me by Louise Borden and discuss a series of comprehension questions such as, "Why did her mother want a boy? and Why does the boy call Abraham Lincoln by his first initial?"
• In Week 19, after listening to A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams, students turn and talk to discuss what they think the characters will do now that the jar is full. Then, in a whole group, they discuss why the author wrote the story.
• In Week 28, students listen to Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Level. While listening to the story, the teacher has students stop and discuss with a partner if they believe the character’s grandmother. Other questions during the read aloud that students discuss include, "Why did Ronald feel foolish? and Why did Ronald smile?" Other questions students are asked to discuss include would they want to be friends with Molly Lou and/or Ronald Durkin, which they discuss with a partner.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing grade-appropriate writing (e.g., grade-appropriate revision and editing) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

Throughout the year, weekly lessons conclude with an on-demand written response to a text-based prompt for each interactive read-aloud. These writing prompts increase in difficulty over the course of the year. Bookworms includes process writing instruction periodically throughout the year. Students use a writing checklist to guide their revision and editing efforts. Instructional material suggestions include having students use word processing when publishing and to use the internet for research projects.

According to the Teachers Manual, at the end of the ELA block each week, students are given an opportunity to react to the book and demonstrate their understanding in writing. The on-demand, text-based writing prompts often include sentence frames and other supports to make the writing task quick and targeted. It is suggested that in the beginning of the year the writing is done whole class, then transitions to partner writing, and then independent writing. In the beginning of the year, students can still draw about what they are writing, but are encouraged to write a sentence to explain their drawing. Examples include:

• In Week 8, after hearing Possum’s Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter, the teacher models how to write a detailed written response. Then students complete their own detailed written response individually or with a partner about the book Barn Storm.
• In Week 10, after listening to the text In November by Cynthia Rylant, students draw a picture of the thing they like best about November, using a provided sentence frame.
• In Week 21, after hearing Presidents’ Day by Anne Rockwell, students draw a picture showing the president they liked best. They then write it and provide one reason.
• In Week 33, students draw a picture that shows air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. Students then write about their pictures and explain if it’s a place they would want to live.

Students are given on-demand writing tasks in the Dialogic Shared Reading portion of the materials. Examples include:

• In Week 10, students read Danny the Dinosaur Goes to Camp by Syd Hoff and write a letter home to tell their family what they should send to them at camp.
• In Week 30, after reading The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla, students write a letter stating their opinion from the point of view of Gregory explaining how they feel about Max moving into their room.

For process writing, students begin by learning about the genre, evaluate good and poor examples of the genre, and then plan, draft, and revise. Students are provided with graphic organizers for planning and genre-specific checklists to evaluate their writing for structure and content as well as editing checklists to consider mechanics. Examples of process writing include:

• In Week 11, over three days, students evaluate a book by using a graphic organizer to plan their book review, draft, revise, and share their book review. They begin by evaluating a previously completed book review of Danny the Dinosaur before doing their own book review for Stone Soup or Strega Nona. The teacher models how to take the graphic organizer and write the book review. Students share when they are done.
• In Week 14, students write an autobiography. Students are given a descriptive writing checklist to help revise their work and a first grade editing checklist to help edit their work.
• In Week 22, students plan and write a personal narrative about a family adventure over the course of three days. Students complete a graphic organizer. Then students use the mentor text Blueberries for Sal before drafting their personal narrative as a model. Students then spend time editing and revising during the next week before sharing.
• In Week 30, students use a mystery writing graphic organizer to plan their mystery story and then after drafting, students work in small groups and use an editing checklist to edit their story.
• In Week 35, students complete their culminating task of writing a narrative that is a reflection on how they changed as readers and writers throughout year. They begin by planning on Day 1, and on Day 2 continue with planning as well as beginning their drafting. On Day 3, students continue drafting and begin revising as they draft, while on Day 4, they spend the day revising and editing. On Day 5, students illustrate their narratives and engage in a museum walk to read the other narratives.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing (year long) that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Throughout the ELA component of the materials, students have ample opportunities to practice narrative, opinion, and expository writing. Students complete seven opinion pieces, six narrative pieces, and six informative/explanatory pieces, which are often in the form of descriptive pieces. Students also write in response to the texts they read and hear in Shared Reading. Genre-based checklists are provided to help students with their writing development.

Throughout the ELA lessons, students practice narrative writing during weeks 17, 20, 22, and 29. Students write personal narratives and mystery writing. Examples include:

• In Week 17, students write a narrative about one of their days. They write about a day at school like the book character or a day where they did something fun.
• In Week 22, students write a personal narrative about a family adventure. They work on creating an ending that is close to the action within the story.
• In Week 35, students complete their culminating activity about narratives. Students write a personal narrative about how they have changed as a reader and writer over the course of the year.

Throughout the ELA lessons, students practice opinion writing during weeks 7, 11, 15, 23, 28, 32, and 34. Students write book reviews and opinion pieces. Students also share their opinion in writing about the books in Shared Reading. Specific examples include:

• In Week 12, after hearing and reading Danny the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff in Shared Reading, students write an opinion piece about what they would do if they saw a dinosaur walking down the street.
• In Week 23, students write a book review for a text they read called Newton and Me. Students use the Book Review Checklist as a guide and include an illustration.
• In Week 32, students write an opinion piece about whether it is better to be kind or whether it does not matter if they are kind or not.
• In Week 34, students complete a writing culminating activity, where they choose their favorite book from the year and complete a graphic organizer. They create a commercial that will help next year’s first graders be excited about the books they will read.

Throughout the ELA lessons, students practice expository writing during weeks 9, 11, 14, 16, 24, 27, and 31. Students write descriptive writing, autobiographies, and compare and contrast pieces. They also write in response to the books they read in Shared Reading. Examples include:

• In Week 9, students write a sentence describing their classroom. Then students write a descriptive paragraph about a season of the year using the Description Graphic Organizer as a guide.
• In Week 10, after listening to November by Cynthia Rylant, students write an informative letter based on the text pretending to be on the boat from the text and writing a letter to describe what the boat was like.
• In Week 14, students write an autobiography. They use the Description Graphic Organization to help them.
• In Week 24, students write a how-to description explaining how to eat Oreo cookies. On the next day, students use a storyboard to write how to pop popcorn, like Tomie dePaola did in The Popcorn Book.
• In Week 28, after hearing Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell, students pretend that they are Mary Lou’s grandmother and they just received Molly Lou’s letter and they have to write back to her.
• In Week 30 of Shared Reading, after reading The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla, students describe Gregory and his mother from the book.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials including regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level.

The materials in Grade 1 have evidence-based writing opportunities throughout both the ELA and Shared Reading components of the curriculum. Students complete one text-based response independently each day, connected to their Shared Reading and students complete a shared writing of a text-based response on the days when the teacher does the Interactive ELA read-aloud. The program includes sentence frames for students to help make the writing quick and targeted. Graphic organizers are also provided, which according to the publisher, is meant to help students organize text-based evidence.

Some examples of evidence-based writing in Shared Reading include:

• In Week 6, after reading Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, students write an opinion piece about what Biscuit would say if he could talk during specific pages and illustrations in the text.
• In Week 19, after reading Little Bear’s Friend by Else Holmelund Minarik, students write down the most important events in the story. Then students are given sentence frames to write a summary of the story and explain why they liked the story.
• In Week 32, after reading The Paint Brush Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla, students write a paragraph about the misunderstanding Pancho and Gringo had and what each character thought about to cause the misunderstanding.

The interactive read-aloud includes a brief writing prompt each day. Teachers use the prompts to model thinking and the composition process required for the brief, on-demand writing prompts. These writing prompts are meant to be completed as shared writing. Specific examples of evidence-based writing in ELA include:

• In Week 6, after listening to Alexander and the Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, students write their opinion about whether they think Alexander is having just the worst day ever. They are provided with a sentence frame and are told to use text-based evidence to support their opinion.
• In Week 18, after reading The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, students write, recounting two or more events from the story by drawing a picture of the people who live up north visiting the Virginia relatives, and then writing about their drawing.
• In Week 33, after listening to Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg, students learn about the different types of pollution and then draw a picture, which shows the three types of pollution and then write about it.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials including explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of context.

Materials integrate grammar into the writing process. The explicit grammar instruction takes place within four instructional activities: Combining, Unscrambling, Imitating, and Expanding. Additionally, the read-alouds provide the context for instruction of grammar and conventions. When there is not a read-aloud, students practice skills out-of-context through writing instruction and tasks.

Materials include explicit instruction of grammar and conventions standards for the grade-level, and materials include opportunities for students to demonstrate application of skills both in- and out-of-context. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to print all upper- and lowercase letters. For example:
• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 1, the teacher introduces letter formation. The lesson plan states, “Teach the capital letters first. Have the students sky write while you sky write and narrate how to form each letter a minimum of 5 times per letter.” A description of how to narrate each letter is provided. For example, capital B says, “Reach up high and draw a straight line down near your belly button. Reach up high and draw a curved line to right in front of you and then another curved line from right in front of you to your belly button.” Additionally, lower case b is described as, “Reach up high. Draw a long straight line down to your belly button. Reach out in front of you. Moving your finger to the right, draw a short, curved line down to your belly button.”
• In the Teacher Guide, Shared Reading, Word Study, handwriting is described as essential for Grade 1 teachers to ensure that children can form letters consistently and effortlessly. The Teacher Guide explains, “when you introduce letter formation, demonstrate with sky writing while you say the strokes necessary for the letter. Then have students sky write, and then write on whiteboards or paper. Save practice pages for seat work during small-group time.” In the Teacher Guide, it outlines how whole group handwriting instruction takes place Monday through Thursday. Handwriting practice occurs Monday through Thursday during a small-group rotation in differentiated instruction.
• In the How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction, on page 31, there is an assessment for uppercase and lowercase letter knowledge. Based on the results of this assessment support materials for instruction are included. On page 60, there is a Basic Alphabet Knowledge: Generic Lesson Plan. This lesson plan includes Alphabet Review which includes first singing the Alphabet Song, saying the Alphabet and then looking at the Alphabet. The teacher says the letter and points to the symbol. Next, the student says the letter and points to the letter.
• Students have opportunities to use common, proper, and possessive nouns. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher shares the sentence: The people were called Pilgrims. The teacher draws attention to the proper noun: Pilgrims and explains that it is a noun but since it is a name of specific noun the first letter is capitalized. The teacher and students create a list of proper nouns that can complete this sentence frame: The people were called ________.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher shares the following sentence from the book: Lincoln’s beard was black. The teacher points out the ‘s and explains that this tells us something belongs to someone. The teacher shows the following sentence frames for students to complete: __’s shirt was ____.' __’s lunch was ____., __’s homework was ____.
• Students have opportunities to use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate: the teacher shares the following sentence: I borrow some chalk. The teacher asks the students to change the subject and see what changes need to be made to the predicate. The teacher explains that sometimes when you change the subject you have to change the form of the verb in the predicate. The teacher directs students to say their sentences out loud before they write them to check for understanding.
• Students have opportunities to use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their, anyone, everything). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing portion of the lesson, the teacher shares a sentence from the book: They named it Plymouth. The teacher points out the words they and it and explain that these words stand for other words. The teacher and students work together to name the words they and it are standing for and replace the pronouns in the sentence with these words: The Pilgrims named the safe place Plymouth.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 11, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, students use a sentence from the text previously read and expand the sentence by adding to it. The sentence used in this lesson is from the story Strega Nona and says: She gave a fork to Big Anthony. The lesson states, “Let’s expand this a bit. The subject is she. Who could she be? What words could replace she? They would have to be nouns, like the lady, or names, like Strega Nona. Be creative. What other nouns could work?” The teacher further prompts by saying, “What if we wanted to replace Big Anthony? Could we use she? Could we use he? Could we use him? Which word could we use to replace Big Anthony? When you see words like she and him, you have to think about who the author is talking about.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 33, Day 4, Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, instruction is provided about combining two sentences and changing the subject in the second part to a pronoun so it does not sound repetitive. Example: “The fishermen did not hear him. The fishermen were singing and dancing. [combined to make] The fishermen did not hear him because the fishermen were singing and dancing. [revised to] The fishermen did not hear him because they were singing and dancing.”
• Students have opportunities to use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home). For example:
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 2, Sentence Composing, Imitate, students use a sentence from the text previously read and change the verb. The sentence used in this lesson is from the story The Relatives Came and says: We watched the relatives disappear down the road. The lesson states, “I see the word watched here. When I see the -ed at the end of a word, it usually means it is the past. What if it was happening right now? How would we change the word watched?” The teacher engages the students in a conversation on how the verb can convey the past, present, and future. The teacher guides students to the following sentences: We watch the relatives disappear down the road. We are watching the relatives disappear down the road. What if it will happen tomorrow? We will watch the relatives disappear down the road.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 21, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher shares the following sentence: We worked hard getting ready. The teacher points out that she can tell the activity happened in the past because the author wrote worked. The teacher adds Yesterday to the beginning of the sentence and explains that the sentence is still correct. The teacher provides some additional starters and asks the students to determine if any changes would need to happen with these starters: Today, Tomorrow. The teacher explains that the predicate can be changed to tell readers when things happened.
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring adjectives. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, the teacher shares the sentence: The Pilgrims were hungry and cold and weak. The teacher asks students to identify adjectives that could complete the following sentence frame: The Pilgrims were ____ and ______ and _______.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 4, during Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, a model of a descriptive sentence is provided and an explanation is provided that contains two words to describe hands. Additional practice is provided to follow the same pattern to describe hair, eyes and fingers.
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 13, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, instruction is provided on using the word ‘so’ to expand a sentence in order to explain why.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 28, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, students are asked to combine three sentences into a single sentence with more complex syntax. The sentences used in this lesson are from the text, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon: She was short. She had a bad voice. She had buck teeth. The teacher prompts: “These seem like they will be easy to combine. They are all descriptions of Molly Lou. The subjects are all the same, but the predicates start in two different ways. I’m going to combine the last two first.” The teacher guides the students to combine the last two sentences and create a new sentence: She had a bad voice and buck teeth. The class works together to combine the first sentence: She had a bad voice and buck teeth, and she was short. Or She was short, and she had a bad voice and buck teeth.
• Students have opportunities to use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher uses a sentence from the book: Will you give me a stone? to make the sentence frame: Will you give me _____?  The teacher and students create a list of words that could fit in the sentence frame. When they substitute the words into the sentence, they determine which of the determiners will be needed to make the sentence correct: a, the, some.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 16, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students view: “Family members might spend their money on things. Things doesn’t tell us much. Let’s first make a list of items that we could buy. Now let’s take each item and plug it in instead of things. Sometimes if it is a single thing, we will add a or the.”
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Unscramble, the teacher shares these three sentence parts: had to make mattresses/for sleeping/they. The teacher and the students identify the subject and the predicate to create the sentence and then add the prepositional phrase to the sentence to add detail.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 19, Day 4, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, instruction is provided on using a preposition to expand a sentence in order to tell where or when. Example: “Everything is cool and comfy. Everything is cool and comfy during _____.”
• Students have opportunities to produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 11, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher shares the following sentence from the text: Don’t touch the pasta pot! The teacher points out the exclamation mark and explains that the writer wants us to know that this is really important. The teacher explains that sometimes these sentences do not have a subject, because the subject is all of us and gives the following examples: Stay off the lawn! Keep quiet! The teacher and students fill in the sentence frame: Don’t touch the _____!
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 33, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students are asked to use a simple sentence from the text. The teacher guides the students in adding to it by attaching words, phrases, and clauses, making the syntax more complex. The sentence used in this lesson is from the text, Just a Dream: He jumped out of bed. The teacher prompts, “We’ll use different starters and see where they lead us. He jumped out of bed, and; he jumped out of bed, but; He jumped out of bed because; He jumped out of bed so." The class works together to expand the sentence starters.
• Students have opportunities to capitalize dates and names of people. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, instruction is provided about using a capital letter to name a person or group of people. The example sentence is, “The people were called Pilgrims.” The materials prompt the teacher to explicitly state, “Pilgrims is a noun, but when we name a person or a group of people, we capitalize. That’s why your name is capitalized.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 14, Day 4, lesson plans consistently use a checklist called First Grade Editing Checklist. After students write autobiographies in previous lessons, the teacher now says, “Next, we are going to use what is called the Editing Checklist. This is sort of like the Sentence Checklist, but we will add more and more things to look for as we learn more and more about writing.” The teacher projects the editing checklist and says, “Let me show you how I use this checklist” and shows the students how to check for each thing in their writing and how to check them off of the checklist. The checklist includes: I capitalized the first word in each sentence; I capitalized names and dates; I used end punctuation for sentences; I used commas in a series and in dates; and I spell words I know correctly.
• Students have opportunities to use end punctuation for sentences. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 1 through Day 5, the teacher and students work to generate ideas for a sentence that include a subject and a predicate. While the Generating the Sentence Checklist includes a Check and Fix (Edit) there is no direct instruction of the use of end punctuation in these lessons.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Writing Sentences, Learning to Write Sentences, Week 3, Days 1-5, a checklist is introduced for students to use when determining if a sentence is good. The teacher models how to use the checklist each day and how to correct sentences that are missing on of the criteria. Students also are given practice checking provided sentences as well as generating their own and using the checklist to assess their work.
• Students have opportunities to use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, the teacher shows students how to combine the following three sentences using commas in between the list of things: On the ship were men and women., On the ship were children., On the ship were two dogs and a cat. The teacher crosses out the repeating words in the second two sentences and uses commas to create the following sentence: On the ship were men and women, children, two dogs and a cat.
• Students have opportunities to use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words. For example:
• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Days 1-4, Dictation, there is a dictation segment that directly connects to the spelling pattern presented in the word study and high-frequency word instruction.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, students interact with spelling patterns to assist with spelling untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions. The teacher introduces the patterns in Week 5 by saying “This week we will work on reading and spelling two vowel patterns.” The teacher introduces the /at/ and /an/ pattern. The teacher says, “I want you to listen to each word and think about which pattern you hear. The first word is hat. What word? hat/cat, hat/pan? hat/cat!" The teacher guides the students to sort the remaining words by sound, matching the words they hear to the pattern /at/ or /an/. Later in the lesson, students are expected to write a sentence in the procedure Dictated Sentences. The teacher says, “Our sentence is The hat is tan. Say that with me.” The students write the sentence in their workbook. Then, the teacher writes the sentence and has students check their work.
• In the How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction materials, on page 84, there is an R-Controlled Vowel: Generic Lesson Plan including a High-Frequency Words portion. In this portion of the lesson, the teacher says and spells the words while telling the students which letters are representing the sounds in the word. Students spell the word aloud that is given to them by the teacher.
• Students have opportunities to spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Writing Sentences, Week 1, Days 1-5, instruction is provided on writing sentences including a subject and a predicate. Through this content, the teacher is prompted to ‘think aloud’ how to stretch out the sounds in words in order to spell them. The materials also prompt the teacher to encourage invented spelling.
• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, and continuing each first day of each Shared Reading week, students interact with spelling patterns to assist with spelling untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions. The teacher introduces the patterns in Week 5 by saying, “This week we will work on reading and spelling two vowel patterns.” The teacher introduces the /at/ and /an/ pattern. Next, the teacher says, “I want you to listen to each word and think about which pattern you hear. The first word is hat. What word? hat/cat, hat/pan? hat/cat!" The teacher guides the students to sort the remaining words by sound, matching the words they hear to the pattern /at/ or /an/. Later in the lesson, students are expected to write a sentence in the procedure Dictated Sentences. The teacher says, “Our sentence is The hat is tan. Say that with me.” The students write the sentence in their workbook. The teacher writes the sentence and has students check their work.

Over the course of the year’s worth of materials, grammar/convention instruction is provided in increasingly sophisticated contexts. An example is included, but not limited to:

• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 21, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher and students use Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, that requires the change of two verbs in the following sentence: The person who got the most votes won the election.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks directly teach foundational skills to build reading acquisition by providing systematic and explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle, letter-sound relationships, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness (K-1), and phonics (K-2) that demonstrate a transparent and research-based progression for application both in and out of context.

Bookworms Grade 1 materials provide systematic and explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle, letter-sound relationships, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonics. Students have opportunities to learn foundational skills in both Shared Reading and Differentiated Instruction, where systematic and explicit instruction is embedded within the lessons and a transparent progression is in place.

Students have frequent opportunities to learn and understand phonemes (e.g., distinguish long and short vowels, blend sounds, pronounce vowels in single-syllable words, and segment single-syllable words). Examples include, but not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students engage in differentiating long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words during Teaching Letter Patterns. The teacher says “We are going to start by listening for vowel sounds. We are going to review words that have the short-vowel sounds in hat, pig, pot, and sun. We are going to review words that have the long-vowel sounds in cake, bike, bone, and cube. I’ll say a word and you point to the picture with the same vowel sound.” The teacher distributes cards (see visual below) and then says “I’ll say a word. I want you to think about the vowel sound, if the vowel says its name, look for a word with the final e. Touch the word, and then when I say “go,” spell it out loud.” Students point to the picture on their card with the short or long vowel sound each time the teacher says a word.
• Students have opportunities to orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, a sample script is provided for Using Letter Patterns instruction. During the oral segmenting and blending, a three-minute routine, the teacher says the sounds in a word and the students blend the sounds to say the word.
• In the word lists for the 14 lessons of Using Letter Patterns Instruction only cvc and cvcc (-ck and double consonant) words are provided. Consonant blends would have to be supplemented.
• Students have opportunities to isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, Word Study, this lesson routine requires students to listen to a word (cvc) and decide which vowel pattern it matches, /at/ or /an/. Example: students hear the word /man/ and have to decide if it sounds more like /cat/ or /pan/.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 27, Day 3, Word Study, the students and teacher participate Say It and Move It. The teacher says a word, and then says the word again slowly. Then the teacher demonstrates using the Elkonin boxes and marker to show each sound in the word. The teacher says the first word: fake. The students repeat the word. The teacher holds up a finger for each sound as the word is segmented. The teacher says each sound again and moves the marker through the Elkonin boxes. Students try it using their fingers or manipulatives. Students practice this with all of the week’s words.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students isolate and pronounce the initial, medial, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
• For the set of lessons called Letter Sounds, the lesson starts by saying “First we will work with sounds. I am going to say a word. Then I am going to say the word slowly. Then I am going to say it and move it. Then you are going to say it and move it.” The teacher goes through 15 words, first stating the word, such as cat, then segmenting the word c-a-t, and then moving manipulatives for each sound during the Say-it-and-Move-It activity. After the teacher models. The students demonstrate the same task.
• For the set of lessons called Letter Patterns, the lesson starts by saying “First we will work with sounds. I am going to say a words slowly and I want you to say it fast. Watch my fingers so we can stay together.” The teacher says the words slowly, for example, v-a-n, and then the students say van. The teacher goes through 15 words, saying each word slowly and the students blend the sounds together to provide the full word. Next, the teacher says “Now I am going to say a word quickly and I want you to say it slowly. Watch my fingers so we can stay together. The teacher first says the words, then segments the word, and finally students demonstrate this with each word. For example “Van. Say it slowly. Watch my fingers so we can stay together. Van /v/ /a/ /n/.”
• Students have opportunities to segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes). For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 3, Word Study, the students and teacher participate Say It and Move It. The teacher says a word, and then says the word again slowly. Then the teacher demonstrates using the Elkonin boxes and marker to show each sound in the word. The teacher says the first word: pat. The students repeat the word. The teacher holds up a finger for each sound as the word is segmented. The teacher says each sound again and moves the marker through the Elkonin boxes. Students try it using their fingers or manipulatives.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 26, Day 3, Word Study, the students and teacher participate Say It and Move It. The teacher says a word, and then says the word again slowly. Then the teacher demonstrates using the Elkonin boxes and marker to show each sound in the word. The teacher says the first word: clap. The students repeat the word. The teacher holds up a finger for each sound as the word is segmented. Then the teacher says each sound again and moves the marker through the Elkonin boxes. Students try it using their fingers or manipulatives.

Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g., spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, know final-e and long vowels, syllable and vowel relationship). Examples include, but not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 14, Day 1, Word Study, the students work with reading and spelling three vowel patterns: ack, ick, ock. The teacher introduces the header cards for -ack, -ick, -ock and explains the letters that make the sounds in each of the vowel patterns. Words are read to the students, and the students need to determine which of the three vowel patterns are used in the word. The teacher shows the word and puts it under the appropriate header. The activity is repeated with the follow words: sack, back, tack, sick, pick, lick, sock, lock, tock. The teacher and students read the words chorally.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the teacher says “sometimes two letters word together to represent one sound. S-h represents /sh/; c-h represents /ch/; t-h represents /th/. If you think of those letters working together to represent one sound, you can still sound and blend.” The teacher engages students in sounding and blending words with blends and digraphs and says “Now let’s work with our new words. I want you to sound and blend these words. The way that you do that is you look at each letter, make each sound out loud, and then say the sounds fast to make a word. I’ll sound and blend each one, and then you’ll do it.” Students sound and blend 15 words in each daily lesson. Students engage in whisper, partner, and choral reading of a text that includes words with blends and digraphs.
• Students have opportunities to decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 1, the lesson states “This week we will work on reading and spelling three vowel patterns. The /it/ pattern is at the end of the word pit and it is spelled i-t. The /ig/ pattern is at the end of the word pig and it is spelled i-g. The /ip/ pattern is at the end of the word lip and it is spelled i-p.” The teacher places each header card at the top of a pocket chart to form columns and asks students to listen to each word and think about which pattern they hear in order to sort the cards under one of the patterns.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 32, Day 1, Word Study, the students read and spell words with short o and long o sounds and short u and long u sounds. The teacher shows the header cards: /o/ chop and is spelled with o, /oa/ rope and is spelled with oCe, /u/ plug and is spelled with u, /ue/ tune and is spelled with uCe. The teacher reads words to the students that have either /o/, /oa/, /u/ or /ue/ and the students need to tell whether it will go under chop, rope, plug or tune by listening to the medial vowel sound with the following words: cost, slob, crop, spot, close, drove, froze, slope, snug, shut, plump, must, mute, mule, dune, rule. The teacher and students read the words under each header.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students engage in a set of lessons during the Differentiation block called “Letter Sounds” and “Letter Patterns.” During both sets of lessons, students decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
• Students have opportunities to know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 26, Day 1, Word Study, the students work on reading and spelling words that have short a and long a sounds. The teacher shows the two headers cards: clap /a/ and cake /ay/. The teacher reads words to the students that have either /a/ or /ay/ and the students need to tell whether it will go under clap or cake by listening to the medial vowel sound: slap, stamp, mad, stand, plant, hate, made, place, game, flame, fame. The teacher and students read the words under each header. The teacher explains that when you hear /a/ it is spelled with an a and that when you hear /ay/ it is spelled with the pattern aCe.
• Students have opportunities to use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, this lesson a strategy is suggested for students to place a dot underneath each vowel and then decide how to divide. The resource does not specifically state that each syllable must contain a vowel.
• Students have opportunities to decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the authors write, “This type of support, however, would not be appropriate for first- or second-grade readers. They are not yet encountering enough multisyllabic words, and they typically have not learned all the syllable types.” Decoding of multisyllabic words is taught during the small group Fluency and Comprehension, which Grade 1 students typically do not receive that instruction until later in the program.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the strategy of placing a dot underneath each vowel and then deciding how to divide the word into its syllables is reviewed. “Remember: In an open syllable the vowel is not followed by one or more consonants and its sound is long. So divide after the vowel … If your word doesn’t sound right divide it a different way.” Word lists are provided.
• Students have opportunities to read words with inflectional endings. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students learn suffixes on verbs, and they work on some of the spelling patterns for these suffixes. On Day 1, the students learn that in a verb where the base word ends in a final e, a -d will be added when creating the past tense and that the -ed will make the sound /d/, /id/ or /t/ depending on the base word.  On Day 2, the students learn that a verb where the base word ends in finale e, the final e will be dropped when adding -ing. On Day 3, the students learn that when the base word ends in a short vowel followed by a single consonant, the final consonant is doubled before adding -ed or -ing. On Day 4, the students learn that when the verb base word ends in a long vowel followed by a single consonant, -ed and -ing is added without changing the base word.  On Day 5, students review when a base word ends in a final e and the e is dropped, or there is no change when adding -ed and -ing.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students have the opportunity to read words with inflectional endings during the set of lesson called Vowel-Consonant-e. Words seen in the first ten lessons that engage students in reading words with inflectional endings are: eggs, straps, things, trees, rules, friends, and flowers.

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

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Page 52, ‘Planning for the Using Letter Sounds Group,’ “To facilitate sounding and blending, we first use oral phonemic awareness exercises. We only do two tasks, but we do them every day with a large number of items. We segment individual sounds so that children can use segmentation to spell new words, and we blend individual sounds so that children can blend sounds to decode new words.”

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonics instruction to build toward application. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  mentions that the authors “were searching for maximum challenge in the instructional items, maximum effectiveness in the instructional strategies, and a brief and clear instructional delivery. We had to choose the words and patterns to teach, and then we had to decide which routines would maximize instruction and practice. Many of the orthographic features of words are actually repeated across lessons sets. We view the features as cumulative (see Figure 5.3)” (p. 104).
• In Teacher Manual, Appendix D, there is a cohesive sequence of phonics instruction during Shared Reading, moving from reviewing letter-sound correspondences in initial position during the first four weeks, to sorting words with short vowel families, then to sorting words with short vowels with blends, digraphs, and affricates, and ending with the incorporation of long vowel VCe words and r-controlled vowels.

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

Bookworms Grade 1 materials provide explicit instruction and regular practice in print concepts, text structures, and text features. Identifying text structures and text features are part of ELA and Shared Reading lessons.

Materials include frequent, adequate lessons and tasks/questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g., recognize features of a sentence). Examples include, but not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation). For example: 
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 4, Opinion Writing 4, during direct instruction, the teacher is consistently prompted to tell students...“To make a sentence perfect, we have to add a capital letter to the first word and a punctuation mark to the end. We’ll use a period at the end of each sentence. Remember, it’s just a dot at the end.”
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 26, Day 3, during Dictated Sentence, the reads the sentence to the students: Those kids like the game more. The teacher repeats the sentence and then has the students say the sentence several times chorally until the students have memorized the sentence.  The teacher says: “As you write each word, remember to leave a space between the word and to think about capitals and ending punctuation.” After the students have finished, the teacher writes the sentence and has the students check their work.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 27, Day 1, Dictated Sentence, the reads the sentence to the students: It’s nice to stand and chant at the game. The teacher repeats the sentence and then has the students say the sentence several times chorally until the students have memorized the sentence. The teacher says: “As you write each word, remember to leave a space between the word and to think about capitals and ending punctuation.” After the students have finished, the teacher writes the sentence and has the students check their work.

Students have frequent and adequate opportunities to identify text structures (e.g., main idea and details, sequence of events, problem & solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect). Examples include, but not limited to:

• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 1, direct instruction is provided about the text structure of the story as being a sequence of events.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 4, the students review a cycle diagram to discuss how the text will tell about the cycle of the seasons to help explain why leaves change colors.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 5, direct instruction is provided about this story having a problem and solution.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 1, the teacher and students use a timeline to discuss the major life events shared in the text: Eleanor.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 26, Day 2, students use a story map to record character, setting, problem, events, and resolutions of stories.

Materials include frequent and adequate lessons and activities about text features (e.g., title, byline, headings, table of contents, glossary, pictures, illustrations). Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 4, Engage Students in Choral Reading, the teacher states, “I can use the illustration here to really help me understand what is going on” and goes on to think aloud. Illustrations are referred to a number of times as a feature of this story.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 24, Day 1, the teacher explains that the book has a Table of Contents and five chapters, but that it is one story.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 4, the teacher and students use the diagram on page 9 of the text to learn about the parts of a leaf.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 2, the teacher explains that an author uses a subheading to let us know a new section is starting.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 21, Day 3, the teacher and students discuss the table and contents to determine the 4 subtopics that will be discussed in the text: The Washington Monument.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and gain decoding automaticity and sight-based recognition of high-frequency words. This includes reading fluency in oral reading beginning in mid Grade 1 and through Grade 2.

Bookworms Grade 1 materials support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words during weekly Teach Word Study lessons. Students learn a phonics skill, sort words based on the sound and decode the words with the phonic focus. High-frequency words are a focus of daily lessons in the How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Using Letter Sounds, Using Letter Patterns, and Basic Letter Patterns, which students participate in during small group instruction. There are opportunities for students to purposely read grade-level text through the weekly opportunities including choral and echo reading in the Shared Reading Lessons.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read on-level text. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 3, after chorally reading and partner reading Biscuit Goes to School, the students answer the following questions about the text:
• When Biscuit sees the children playing in gym, do you think he goes in? Why? Give reasons.
• Why do the girls put Biscuit into a backpack to keep him a secret?
• Why do you think the girl was worried when Biscuit got out of the backpack? Why? Give reasons.
• What was surprising about the teacher?
• Do you think Biscuit will be allowed back at school tomorrow? Why?
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 19, Day 1, students engage in choral reading and partner reading of Little Bear’s Friend. Then students are asked the following questions about the text:
• Why aren’t the squirrels the best friends for Little Bear?
• Why aren’t the birds the best friends for Little Bear?
• Why isn’t the worm the best friend for Little Bear?
• How does Emily solve her problem?
• Why is Little Bear happy?

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy, rate, and expression in oral reading with on-level text and decodable words. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In the Teacher Manual, Shared Reading: Fluency, the purpose of fluency is explained: “Fluency is build through repeated oral readings. Our approach is developmental. In kindergarten and the first half of first grade, we do not expect students to be fluent with Shared Reading text until the end of the week. That is why we read the same full texts repeatedly, moving form more to less teacher support. Beginning in the middle of first grade and continuing through grade 5, texts become longer, and we therefore read and reread one chapter or segment of text each day rather than an entire text.”
• The teacher will lead the whole class in reading the day’s selection aloud twice each day in Shared Reading, first through choral or echo reading, then through partner reading. The Grade 1 Teacher Manual explains that “in first grade, we target prosody as a goal in each of our readings. You will see that the teacher talk we provide reminds students that making reading sound smooth and natural is an important goal for a beginning reader.”
• Additionally, “our goal for the fluency portion of the shared reading routines is to build competence for students to move from teacher-supported choral reading to an independent partner rereading.” Students have the opportunity for repeated reading through either choral or echo reading, then partner rereading each day during Shared Reading. Partners are expected to take the roles of reader and coach, where “the reader reads to his or her partner with expression” and “the coach should read along whiles the reader reads, and prompt the reader to reread whenever there is an error.”
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 3, students engage in choral reading of Biscuit Goes to School. First the class reads it together. Then the students participate in partner reading. The students are instructed to ask their partner if they don’t know a word.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 19, Day 1, students engage in choral reading of Little Bear’s Friend. The teacher tells students to focus on expression: Let’s think about our expression. We want our reading to sound really smooth and beautiful. And we want to be sure to notice question marks and raise our voices, and when we see exclamation marks we read in an excited way.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students use decodable texts to participate in Whisper Reading (application of decoding and word recognition), Partner Reading (alls for an authentic purpose for rereading) and Choral Reading (ensures that any decoding errors do not remain uncorrected and that the day’s text is read at least once at an appropriate rate).

Students have opportunities to practice and read irregularly spelled words. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, High-Frequency Words, students learn two new words: the, I. The students use Elkonin boxes to link each sound to the letter that is seen.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 10, Day 1, High-Frequency Words, students learn two new words: see and three. The students use Elkonin boxes to link each sound to the letter that is seen.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 15, Day 1, High-Frequency Words, students learn two new words: too and blue. The students use Elkonin boxes to link each sound to the letter that is seen.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, high-frequency word instruction is included in the lessons for Basic Alphabet Knowledge. The High-frequency words portion of the lesson begins with two words and then adds one word each day.  The teacher stretches the sounds first, prints the word, then shows how the sounds match the letters from left to right. The teacher calls the words and the students touch them. The high-frequency words that are taught include: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for, on, are, like, me, she, can, go, my, that, this, play, are, be, down, here, her, we, jump, at, see.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Bookworms Grade 1 materials provide opportunities for students to learn foundational skills in connected texts and tasks. In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, students have opportunities to participate in writing dictated sentences, which include decodable words and high-frequency words. During Differentiated Instruction, Word Recognition and Fluency small group, students read decodable texts that contain high-frequency words.

Materials support students’ development learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g., spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, syllable and vowel relationship, decode two-syllable words, read words with inflectional endings) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, in the Blends and Digraphs lessons, students work with reading text that includes phonics skills studied. Students read a passage that includes words with these digraphs. They whisper read the passage, partner read the passage and then chorally read the passage.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, in the R-Controlled Vowels lessons, students read connected text.
• In Lesson 5, students whisper read, partner read, and choral read a passage that includes words with /o/ and /or/.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, in the Vowel-Consonant-e lessons, students read single syllable words with short and long vowels and read these words in connected text. Students whisper read, partner read and choral read a passage that includes words with short and long vowels.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, steps are provided for reading text with students that contain multisyllabic words.
• Introduce the words and have student mark the vowels and divide the words.
• Lead the students to chorally pronounce each word part and then say the entire word.
• Distribute an authentic, engaging, near grade level text and engage students in a choral reading for 5 minutes (If too difficult, switch to echo reading.).
• Engage the students in a re-reading of the day’s segment of text (whisper reading or partner reading).

Materials provide frequent opportunities to read irregularly spelled words in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Blends and Digraphs, students read the following text which contains high-frequency words: I go to a club. I have fun. I am glad to go. I clap and I smile. My club is fun. You can come to my club. You will have fun.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, R-Controlled Vowels, students read the following text which contains high-frequency words: A map is like a chart. I can use a chart to find a big yard. I can go to the big yard to play. I can use a chart to find a big pond. I can go to the pond to swim.

Lessons and activities provide students many opportunities to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills while encoding (writing) in context and decoding words (reading) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 29, Day 2, students learn two new high-frequency words: night and write. The teacher says the sounds in the word night and puts up three fingers, one for each phoneme. The teacher then writes the word and points out that there are five letters in the word. The teacher uses Elkonin boxes to demonstrate each sound in the word and the letters that say that sound. The teacher points out that igh work together to say long i. The same process is used for the word write.  The students write the dictated sentence: Last night, I saw nine stars in space.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 29, Day 3, students learn a new high-frequency word: word. The teacher says the sounds in the word word and puts up three fingers, one for each phoneme. The teacher then writes the word and points out that there are four letters in the word. The teacher uses Elkonin boxes to demonstrate each sound in the word and the letters that say that sound. The teacher points out that or work together to say /er/. The students write the dictated sentence: The boys can write the words on the page.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the teacher and students co-construct a summary sentence. The students independently write a dictated sentence. The teacher encourages the children to segment each word and then write each sound they hear. The teacher praises invented spelling.  

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials supporting 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.

Bookworms Grade 1 materials provide opportunities to assess students on some foundational skills. Assessments include the Informal Decoding Inventory (IDI), the Test of Letter Names, the Test of Letter Sounds, and the Test of Fry Instant Words. Subtest assessments are administered after three to six weeks of instruction and weekly Word Study tests are administered. These assessment opportunities support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Although most of the foundational skills are assessed through Word Study tests and assessments included in the How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, thorough, frequent fluency assessments are not provided. The materials do direct the teacher to the use of oral reading fluency assessments such as AIMSweb or DIBELS Next.

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In the Teacher Manual, Appendix F, Informal Decoding Inventory, 6 subtests that progress in difficulty are administered: Short Vowels, Consonant Blends and Digraphs, R-Controlled Vowel Patterns, Consonant-Vowel-e, Vowel Teams, Multisyllabic Words. The first five subtests have twenty words in each: 10 real words, 10 nonsense words. The multisyllabic subtest consists of 10 real words that progressively differ in syllable type.
• In the Teacher Manual, Writing, a conventions rubric is provided for the teacher to evaluate Grade 1 print concepts. It includes capitalizing the first word in a sentence and using end punctuation.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, 4 types of assessments described:
• Screening Measures of achievement in a particular area are given at the beginning of the year and again at midyear;
• Diagnostic Measures follow Screening Measures break down the area into teachable skills and strategies;
• Progress Monitoring Measures are administered periodically to determine if instruction is having the desired effect so adjustments can be made in order to improve learning;
• Outcome Measures administered at the end of a unit of instruction or the end of the school year.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Basic Alphabet Knowledge, the assessment materials are for use after Lessons 1-14 and Lessons 15-30. The assessment consists of identifying letters and sounds given in random order. Students are presented with the alphabet and asked to give the names of each letter. Using the same alphabet, they are then asked to tell the sounds of the letters. An example of the first row of letters is as follows: Bb, Mm, Ss, Rr, Tt.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Using Letter Patterns, the assessment materials are provided for use after 14 Lessons. The assessment consists of segmenting and blending CVC words, sounding and blending CVC words, and reading 20 high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). The segmenting and blending section is presented orally to the student. Words such as mad, bag, fan, map, hat, fin, lip, and hit are included. The sounding and blending section is presented visually to the students, so students can sound and blend untaught short-vowel words. The previously mentioned words are the same for this part of the assessment. A score of 10/15 or better is an indication of proficiency for each of those sections. The high-frequency words are visually presented in random order. Words the students cannot yet read can be retaught in the next lessons.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Blends and Digraphs, the assessment is suggested after 29 lessons. The assessment consists of reading either as a whole word, or by sounding and blending words with initial and final blends and digraphs. A score of 10 correct is a signal of proficiency. The first five words have initial blends, as in the word ‘slip.’ The second five words have initial digraphs, as in the word ‘chop.’ The last five words are a mix of initial and final blends and digraphs, as in the word ‘chest.’ There are 20 high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). It is suggested that any unknown words be taught in the next cycle of lessons.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, R-Controlled Vowel, the assessment is suggested after 29 Lessons. The assessment consists of 15 words that can be read as a whole word or by sounding and blending. A score of 10/15 words read correctly is an indicator of proficiency. Examples of words in this assessment include chart, term, skirt, north and burn. There are 15 high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). Any unknown words should be taught in the next cycle of lessons.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Vowel-Consonant-e, the assessment is suggested after 14 Lessons. It consists of reading VCe words, spelling VCe words, and reading high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). Fifteen VCe words are visually presented to the student. A score of 10/15 is an indicator of proficiency. Examples of the words included are pack, ice, place, cute, tame, and stun. An additional fifteen words are provided for the teacher to present orally as the students spell them. Examples from this section include cap, cape, man, mane, and time. Again, a score of 10/15 is an indicator of proficiency. It includes 20 high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). Any unknown words should be taught in the next cycle of lessons.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Vowel Teams, the assessment is suggested after 30 Lessons. It consists of having students read words with vowel teams. Seventy words are visually presented for the students to read. A score of 50 is an indicator of proficiency. Examples include shown, glue, field, blind, pray, and threw.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, there are assessments that test foundational skills such as:
• Test of Fry Instant Words helps determine which high-frequency words can be pronounced quickly when they are viewed in isolation
• Informal Decoding Inventory: Short Vowels through Vowel Teams helps determine the highest decoding skill set the student has attained in pronouncing one-syllable words of progressively more difficult patterns
• In the Vowel Teams subtest, the teacher points to the word neat and says, “What is this word?” The teacher moves from left to right.  The assessment includes the following words: neat, spoil, goat, pail, field, fruit, claim, meet, beast, craid, houn, rowb, noy, feap, nuit, maist, ploat, tead, steen
• Informal Decoding Inventory: Multisyllabic Words subtest helps determine proficiency in pronouncing two-syllable words of progressively more difficult patterns
• In the subtest Multisyllabic Words, the teacher points to the word flannel and says “What is this word?” The following words are included in the assessment: flannel, submit, cupid, spiky, confide, cascade, varnish, surplus, chowder, approach
• In the Teacher Manual, Appendix F, Informal Decoding Inventory, there are 6 subtests that progress in difficulty: Short Vowels, Consonant Blends and Digraphs, R-Controlled Vowel Patterns, Consonant-Vowel-e, Vowel Teams, Multisyllabic Words. The first five subtests have twenty words in each: 10 real words, 10 nonsense words. The multisyllabic subtest consists of 10 real words that progressively differ in syllable type.

Materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, explains how to use the assessment results to form groups in the first half of grade 1.
• Failure to pass the Test of Letter Sounds with a score of 720 or higher- place the student in the Basic Alphabet Knowledge group
• Student passes the Test of Letter Sounds with a score of 720 or higher but fails to pass the Test of Letter Sounds, place the student in the Using Letter Sounds group
• Student passes the Test of Letter Sounds with a score of 720 or higher and passes one or more of the lower subtest of the IDI, place the student in the lowest subtest that the student failed
• Student passes the Test of Letter Sounds with a score of 720 or higher, the lower subtests of the IDI and the Vowel Teams subtest of the IDI, have the student word on spelling and handwriting
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, explains how to use the assessment results to form groups in the second half of grade 1 and beyond.
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency and failure to pass the Multisyllabic subtest of the IDI, place the student in a Fluency and Comprehension group with Multisyllabic Decoding
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency, but the student passes the Multisyllabic subtest of the IDI, place the student in a Fluency and Comprehension group without Multisyllabic Decoding
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency and pass the Vowel Teams subtest of the IDI, follow the steps in Figure 3.4
• If the student passes the benchmark in fluency, place the student in a Vocabulary and Comprehension group.

The Bookworms materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills, so all students achieve mastery of foundational skills.  

Bookworms Grade 1 materials provide differentiated lessons and guidance based on screening test results, assessment results and progress monitoring results in order for teachers to support each student’s learning needs.

Materials provide high-quality learning lessons and activities for every student to reach mastery of foundational skills. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, Word Study, part of this lesson routine requires students to listen to a word (cvc) and decide which vowel pattern it matches, /at/ or /an/. Example: students hear the word /man/ and have to decide if it sounds more like /cat/ or /pan/.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 1, Word Study, after listening to a word in order to determine which vowel pattern it matches, students are provided with guided practice in sorting the words and then reading the words. The dictated sentence practice that follows gives students practice with encoding the same vowel pattern.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 26, Day 1, Word Study, students have to listen to a word spoken by the teacher and decide if it has the short or long sound of /a/. Students compare the words they hear to ‘clap’ and ‘cake’. The teacher is provided with the following word lists:  short /a/ words: slap, stamp, mad, stand, plant - long /a/ words: hate, made, place, game, flame, fame. (Later the students will read the words.)

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support each student’s needs. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  planning lessons to develop students’ proficiency in small groups with VCe includes the parts of the lesson and the rationale for instructional items:
• Teaching Letter Patterns, High-Frequency Words, Whisper Reading, Partner Reading, and Choral Reading
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  a sample script is provided for Using Letter Patterns instruction. During the oral segmenting and blending, 3 minute routine, the teacher says the sounds in a word and the students blend the sounds to say the word. (In the word lists for the 14 lessons of Using Letter Patterns Instruction only CVC and CVCC (-ck and double consonant) words are provided.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  there is a coaching template for vowel teams. Lesson components include:
• High-Frequency words: The teacher selects words based on the high-frequency word inventory. Two new words are introduced each day. The teacher stretches the sounds first and then prints the word. The teacher shows how the sounds match the letters from left to right. The teacher gives the students the two new words and the previously taught ones on a list. The teacher calls the words, and the students touch them. The teacher calls the words and then the students spell them aloud
• Vowel team analogies: The teacher introduces the key words for the day and reviews the vowel patterns. Students look at words, find its vowel pattern, and then touch a key word with the same vowel pattern. Students chorally respond. “I know ________. This must be ________.”
• Student practice: The teacher models the whole card and then set a timer for 1 minute. The students practice on their own. The teacher reminds students should look at each word, say it if they know, or sound and blend it if they don’t.
• Decoding text reading: The teacher pre-teaches any words that will be problematic. The teacher sets a timer and asks students to whisper read until time is called. The teacher tells students that if they know the words, theys should just say them, and if they don’t they should sound and blend. The students switch to partner reading. The teacher is directed that students should alternate sentences until time is called and that one student should read while the other tracks and listens. The teacher coaches and asks the student to reread. Then the teacher is directed to switch the students to choral reading.

Students have multiple practice opportunities with each grade level foundational skill component in order to reach mastery. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  the number of lessons for each foundational skill focus is listed:
• Basic Alphabet Knowledge (30 lessons)
• Using Letter Sounds (15 lessons)
• Using Letter Patterns (15 lessons)
• Blends and Digraphs or R-Controlled Vowels (45 lessons)
• Vowel-Consonant-e (15 lessons)
• Vowel Teams (30 lessons)
• Multisyllabic Decoding (18 weeks)
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, after students are placed appropriately in a foundational skills group, they receive targeted instruction in that skill for either a 3-week or 6-week cycle. For example, if students are receiving instruction in Letter Sounds starting on page 78 in How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students receive lessons and activities for 14 days to assist with reaching mastery of foundational skills. After the 14 days, the students will receive an end-of-skill assessment, seen on page 86, to gauge their readiness to move on or receive further instruction in this skill.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  a sample script is provided for small group instruction with blends and digraphs. Twenty-nine lessons/word lists are provided for students to practice sounding and blending words with consonant digraphs. Short, decodable passages are included with each list.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3,  a sample script is provided for small group instruction on reading words with the VCe pattern. Fourteen lessons/words lists are provided for students to practice. (Pages 169-176) Short, decodable passages are included.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, a generic lesson plan is provided that includes instruction on long vowel teams. Students learn a set of clue words and use them to read other words. In the following lesson the clue words are: rain, May, eight. Students use them to read: spray, paid, freight, stain, pay, claim, sprain, train, stray, veil, straight. Fifteen lists of words and passages for decoding are provided for practice during small group instruction.