The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 and worthy of especially careful reading/listening and consider a range of student interests.

The reading selections are engaging and multicultural. Many of the texts are written by award-winning authors. Texts include a variety of genres including: poems, songs, predictable rhyming books, biographies, fiction, and non-fiction. Enriching academic vocabulary and quality illustrations help build student knowledge.

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

• In Week 1, students listen to Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate, a rhyming book with bright illustrations that are of high-interest to Kindergarten students during their first week of school. The text introduces students to Kindergarten and letters of the alphabet.  
• In Week 10, students listen to A Bee’s Life, which is a Time for Kids non-fiction reader that graphs a bee’s life cycle with vivid photos, explanatory vocabulary, and information that is captive to Kindergarten students.
• In Week 21, students listen to The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, a Caldecott Medal Winning book about a culturally diverse character who experiences the enjoyment of snow. The language and vocabulary are rich and the illustrations are engaging.
• In Week 32, students listen to Harriet Tubman: Follow the North Star by Violet Findley and illustrated by Marcy Ramsey, which is an “easy to read” biography exploring important historical subjects through realistic illustrations, diagrams, a glossary, and significant themes.
• In Week 35, students listen to Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, a National Education Association Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children in 2007. The fictional picture book engages students through illustrations and an enjoyable humorous story.

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

• In Week 2, students listen to Frederick by Leo Lionni, an award-winning Caldecott Honor Book, Library of Congress Children’s Book of the Year, New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
• In Week 16, students listen to Building with Dad by Carol Nevius and illustrated by Bill Thompson. The illustrations are done in acrylic paint and colored pencils. Also, with the double-spaced vertical format, when the book is turned sideways, it brings the building experience to life making the book engaging while building knowledge.
  
• In Week 30, students listen to Clouds by Anne Rockwell, an “easy to read”, non-fiction science text where students learn types of clouds through bright, realistic illustrations. This text builds science knowledge.
• In Week 34, students listen to How a Seed Grows by Helene Jordan and illustrated by Loretta Krupinski, which is a non-fiction science text that teaches students how seeds become plants. This book contains accurate illustrations and includes a simple experiment for students to try.

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

Throughout the program, students are exposed to both literary and informational texts in both Shared Reading and ELA. Students are exposed to: action stories, biographies, fables, fairy tales, legends, poems, and fantasy stories.

Examples of read-aloud literary texts in Shared Reading and ELA include:

• Pumpkin Day by Joseph Slate
• Paddington Sets Sail by Michael Bond
• Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
• The Full Belly Bowl by Jim Aylesworth and Wendy Anderson Halperin
• Hit Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
• Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff
• Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Fred and Fred Go Camping by Peter Eastman 
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Miss. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day by Joseph Slate
• Grandfather’s Wrinkles by Kathryn England
• Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau
• Have You Seen My Dinosaur? by Jon Surgai
• Tikki, Tikki, Tembo by Arlene Mosel
• Career Day by Anne Rockwell.

Students are also exposed to informational texts throughout the ELA and Shared Reading components of the program. Examples of these texts include:

• What Makes a Magnet by Franklyn M. Branley
• What Lives in a Shell by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• A Tree for all Seasons by Robin Bernard
• A Bee’s Life by Dona Herweck Rice
• Sarah Morton’s Day by Kate Waters
• A Log’s Life by Wendy Pfeffer
• Pocahontas by Caryn Jenner
• From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Hellingman
• Daring Amelia by Barbara Lowell
• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
• George Washington by Garnet Jackson
• How Plants Grow by Dona Herweck Rice
• From Tadpole to Frog by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• In a Nutshell by Joseph Anthony
• Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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. The majority of the texts have a Lexile that is in the Grade 2 and 3 band or above and are qualitatively complex for Kindergarten students.

Specific examples include:

• In Week 2, students listen to Frederick by Leo Lionni, which has a Lexile of 500 and is moderately complex. It provides a message about acceptance, thinking outside of the box, and how everyone contributes in their own way. The illustrations are important in understanding the story.
• In Week 7, students listen to What Makes a Magnet by Franklyn M. Brantley, which has a Lexile of 410 and is moderately complex. The text structure is somewhat unfamiliar to students in that it provides step by step instructions on making their own magnets.
• In Week 14, students listen to Sarah Morton’s Day by Kate Waters, which has a Lexile of 700. This text is moderate to very complex due to the knowledge demands. The images are from the actual Plymouth Plantation and help students understand and visualize the concepts presented in the book. This is read during Dialogic Reading and the tasks increase throughout the week from recall questions to higher-level inference questions by the end of the week.
• In Week 15, students listen to Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, which has a Lexile of 480. The teacher supports students’ understanding of the text by using a story map to track characters, setting, and the problem and solution. The text is slightly to moderately complex.
• In Week 20, students listen to Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes which has a Lexile of 460. The structure is slightly complex in that it is a narrative plot with graphics that aid comprehension. Both the meaning and knowledge demands are also slightly complex as the story has a common theme of school and acceptance.
• In Week 21, students listen to The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, which has a Lexile of 500. Students are required to make inferences and understand the difference between reality and exaggeration. The language features and theme of the story are moderately complex; however, the knowledge of a snow day is dependent on geographic location, making the text more accessible to some students and more complex to others.
• In Week 33, students listen to Have you Seen my Dinosaur by Jon Surgal, which has a Lexile of 450. The text is slightly to moderately complex with more simplistic text structure and knowledge demands, but more complex language features.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten are read to the students, the complexity and/or tasks increase throughout the year. When the quantitative complexity decreases, the qualitative complexity increases and/or the task associated with the text is more challenging. In addition, students participate in Dialogic Reading each week, which has a structure that increases in complexity each week. On the first day of hearing a text, students are guided through simplistic questions and answers, but by the end of the week, students are completing a retell; and by the end of the year, the students complete this with less and less teacher support. In ELA, the questions, writing tasks, and expectation of student understanding and application of their knowledge grows with each new text.

In English Language Arts, students hear a text over the course of several days. The complexity of the texts and/or the tasks increase throughout the year. For example:

• In the first nine weeks, students hear a total of 12 texts with Lexiles that range from 370 to 760. Students begin the year by hearing six different literary texts before being introduced to non-fiction.
• In the second nine weeks, students hear a total of seven texts, with four of those being non-fiction. The Lexiles are slightly lower than the first nine weeks, 290 to 650, but the qualitative features are more complex. Students learn about Pocahontas, Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation, and our country.
• During the third nine weeks, there is an increase in quantitative complexity. The ranges of Lexiles are from 460 to 1080. There are a total of eight texts, and two of the three non-fiction texts are the most complex. The texts with lower Lexiles have more complex tasks.
• During the fourth nine weeks, students listen to six more texts with Lexiles that range from 430 to 1090. The tasks continue to be more complex, and students are expected to complete more writing. At the beginning of the year, students draw answers, while students are now asked to write a sentence if appropriate.

In Shared Reading, the texts increase in complexity over the course of the year. The types of questions asked also increase over the course of the week. On Monday, students complete a picture walk with WH (who, what, when, where, why) questions. On Tuesday, students listen to the text and are asked completion questions. On Wednesday, students listen to the story again and are asked recall questions. Then on Thursday, students listen to the story again and are asked open-ended questions. Finally, on Friday, students retell the story.

• In Week 1-9, Lexiles range from 230 to 590. Early in the year, the teacher models the retelling of the story and the students engage in an oral rehearsal of the story to demonstrate understanding of key ideas and details within the text.
• In Weeks 10-18, Lexiles range from 280 to 700. For the retelling, the teacher provides a sentence frame to prompt students’ retelling of the key ideas and details with a focus on beginning, middle, and end.
• In Weeks 19-27, Lexiles range from 240 to 890. Students continue to practice retelling with sentence frames with slightly more complex texts.
• In Weeks 28-36, Lexiles range from 210 to 990. For retelling, the teacher asks open-ended questions to prompt their retelling, but sentence frames are not provided.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 45 minute periods of literacy instruction. Shared reading instruction is comprised of 15 minutes of oral language, focused dialogic reading, 15 minutes of poems and word study, and 5-10 minutes spent with concepts of print. ELA instruction is comprised of 45 minutes of a read-aloud two to three days a week. The final block is designated for differentiated instruction. Throughout the year, students engage with a range and volume of texts including poems and nursery rhymes, and they interact with the texts chorally, through dialogic reading, and through read-alouds.

In Shared Reading, the materials include three texts each week, including an interactive trade book for dialogic reading and two short poems or songs for work with phonological awareness and concepts of print. This block of time includes time for students to read and listen to the teacher read-aloud. Students read a range of texts including stories and nursery rhymes. Specific examples of texts in this part of the program include:

• In Week 5, students read Biscuit Loves the Library for dialogic reading, Equestrienne for phonological awareness, and Jack be Nimble for concepts of print.
• In Week 14, students read Sarah Morton’s Day for dialogic reading, Happy Birthday from your Loving Brother for phonological awareness, and Hickory, Dickory, Dock for concepts of print.
• In Week 22, students read Snowmen at Night for dialogic reading, We Cannot All be Washington's and Lincoln's for phonological awareness, and Wee Willie Winkie for concepts of print.
• In Week 43, students read Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt for dialogic reading, May for phonological awareness, and Three Little Kittens for concepts of print.

The English Language Arts block includes teacher-conducted read-alouds that utilize above grade-level texts to help increase students’ oral language and background knowledge. Each of these texts are read twice. Some examples include:

• In Week 5, students hear A Tree for All Seasons by Robin Bernard, which is a non-fiction book and Forest Bright, Forest Night by Jennifer Ward, which is a non-fiction book about animals.
• In Week 14, students hear America is... by Louise Borden, which is a non-fiction book about our country.
• In Week 22, students hear George Washington by Garnet Jackson, which is a non-fiction book about George Washington.
• In Week 33, students hear A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon, which is a fantasy book.

During Differentiated Instruction, three groups meet with the teacher each day while the other students practice handwriting and engage in individual, self-selected reading from the classroom library. Bookworms includes a sample classroom library list in the Teacher Manual with over 100 fiction and non-fiction texts that address a variety of topics and themes.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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).

Every lesson has text-dependent questions for the teacher to engage the students in discussing the text either whole class or with a peer. Students are asked evidence-based questions in both the Shared Reading portion of the curriculum, as well as the ELA portion. The majority of the questions in both sections take place while reading to help students comprehend the text.

During the 45-minute Shared Reading block, dialogic reading occurs each day. During this time, teachers use the same book for an entire week, but each day of the week targets one or more specific types of questions. The questions increase in difficulty and become increasingly more text-specific from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. The questions take place during the reading after every page or after every two pages. Specific examples of this include:

• In Week 8, after reading Pumpkin Day by Candice Ransom, teachers are asked, "What the farmer does with the things in her cart?," "Why are the baby goats are running?," and "Why did the sister make a silly face?"
• In Week 12, after reading Hi Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold, students are asked, "Why the pictures vanish?," "Why does the little girl say life is but a dream?," and "What did Buzz give Fly Guy for lunch?"
• In Week 19, students are read Fred and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman. Students are asked various questions during the shared reading such as: "What is the bird doing?," "What are they finding?," "What did Fred and Ted think about the spot on pages 5-6?," and "When did Fred wake up on pages 11-12?"
• In Week 28, students read Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize by Marjorie W. Sharmat, and are asked questions such as: "Why does Nate go to the grocery store?," "How did he choose the things that he was going to buy?," and "Why was he not surprised by the strange sounds at Rosamund's house?"
• In Week 36, students read Tarra & Bella by Carol Buckley. Students are asked various questions while reading including: "What kind of place is the Elephant Sanctuary?," "What did Tarra teach the other elephants to pick?," and "Why did the other elephants have to like Bella too?"

Within the ELA portion of the materials, the teacher asks questions during the interactive read-aloud, while modeling comprehension strategies. Following the interactive read-aloud, the teacher leads a brief text-based discussion, helping students use evidence from the text to answer a question.  

• In Week 3, after hearing Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tomie dePaola, students are asked, "Why is Charlie working so hard and after he finishes the cloak? and How does Charlie feel?"
• In Week 10, after hearing A Log’s Life by Wendy Pfeffer, students are asked questions such as: "Why did the porcupine need to move?, What has the log turned into?, and Why did the squirrel bury the acorn?"
• In Week 20, students hear Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. They are asked a series of questions during the read aloud, including: "Why did the other students laugh when they heard Chrysanthemum’s name?, What kind of person is Victoria?, How do you think Chrysanthemum is feeling to be chosen as Daisy in the school play?, as well as How is Mrs. Twinkle’s name like Chrysanthemum’s name?"
• In Week 30, after hearing Clouds by Anne Rockwell, students are asked: "Which clouds would be best to see in the sky if they wanted to play outside? and Which ones would keep them inside?"
• In Week 34, after hearing How a Seed Grows by Helene Jordan, students are asked how they can tell what a seed will grow up to be as well as label the parts of the plant with the teacher.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten Bookworms materials, there are frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions. Within the ELA materials, there are frequent opportunities for students to participate in small group, partner, and whole-class discussions. The teacher uses the Turn-and-Talk strategy regularly in order for students to discuss the text with a partner. During the Shared Reading Block, students engage in dialogic reading, which involves the teacher reading aloud a text and the students answering evidence-based questions using a questioning sequence that is outlined in both the Teacher Guide and scripted within the lesson plans. Additional responses are found throughout the program, including the Every Pupil Response technique, which helps make all students respond to a prompt. The Teacher’s Guide includes information on the various discussion protocols which provide modeling, discussion, and sharing opportunities.

Within the Kindergarten Shared Reading block of time, dialogic reading is utilized to develop students’ listening and speaking skills. Dialogic reading focuses on maximizing student talk with a specific sequence of questions each day. During Day 1 of each week, the teacher completes a picture walk with wh-questions to help students begin talking about the text before listening to the text. On Day 2, the teacher reads the text, and while reading asks fill-in-the-blank questions without one correct answer in order for multiple students to participate. Day 3 of dialogic reading involves the teacher reading the book again and this time the students are asked retell questions. On Day 4, students are asked open-ended comprehension questions. During Day 5, the students read the book by retelling it, which is highly scaffolded in the beginning of the year, but gradually releases responsibility to the student over the course of the year. Specific examples of this include:

• In Week 25, students listen to Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats and follow this sequence of speaking and listening:
• Day 1: Students participate in a picture walk and are asked questions such as: "What is Peter doing?, What is Peter’s father doing?, and What is happening in this picture?"
• Day 2: The teacher reads the text and students answer fill-in-the-blank questions while listening such as, "Peter arranged _________, Peter’s mother called and said ___________, and Peter told his father they should _______."
• Day 3: The teacher rereads the text and students answer recall questions such as "Peter finished _________, The chair was _________, Peter and Willie decided to __________."
• Day 4: The teacher rereads the text again, and the students answer open-ended questions such as: "What would your mother say if you were too loud?, Why did Peter’s parents paint the crib pink?, and Why do you think Peter wanted to run away?"
• Day 5: The teacher flips through the pages of the book and uses questions to prompt student to retell such as: What is happening? Then students retell the story more formally with sentence frames given orally.

Each week, students engage in Word Walk, which is a procedure addressing oral language goals while teaching a total of four words from the shared reading text each week. It is suggested that two words are introduced on Monday, two words are introduced on Wednesday, and all four words are reviewed on Friday. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, students work with a partner to use each word in a sentence. The sequence involves: 1. Showing a card with target word and picture, 2. Pronouncing the word, 3. Asking students to pronounce the word, 4. Providing a child-friendly definition, 5. Reading book with word in context, 6. Listening to a sentence using the word in another context, and 7. Producing a sentence level-context of the word to share with a partner. Specific examples of this includes:

• In Week 3, Day 4, students are showed the card with the word knocked. The teacher explains that it means to bump into something and then asks the students to turn to a partner and tell them what they know about the word and then raise their hand when they hear the word in the book.
• In Week 12, Day 2, students learn about the word rescue and are told it means to help someone from danger. Students work with a partner to explain what they know about the word rescue, then raise their hand when they hear the word in the book.
• In Week 28, Day 4, students learn about the word grumbled and are told that it means to complain in a low voice. Students work with a partner to explain what they already know about the word and then raise their hand when they hear the word in the book.

During the ELA Read Aloud, there are opportunities for text-based discussions, and the teacher is told to utilize Every Pupil Response techniques including: talking to a partner, polling, and signaling to ensure student engagement. During the Read Aloud, the teacher asks students comprehension questions  involving the comprehension strategy being taught. After listening to the text, the teacher leads students in a brief discussion and then they update the text structure anchor chart together. For example:

• While listening to Nothing Sticks like a Shadow in Week 19, students are asked questions such as: "How do you think Rabbit is feeling after his third idea didn't work?" Students are also directed to turn to a partner to explain why they think he did not want to get rid of his shadow.
• While listening to Pocahontas by Caryn Jenner in Week 13, Day 1, the teacher utilizes the voting procedure to see if students think the Native Americans and settlers should be friends or should not be friends, and then utilizes the Every Pupil Response to have a discussion.
• While listening to George Washington by Garnet Jackson in Week 22, students are asked questions and are given sentence frames to help them provide the answers with correct syntax. Sentence frames in this lesson include "President Washington was __________" and "George Washington was a good leader because ____________."

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 program, students practice their speaking and listening about what they are reading in both the Shared Reading and the ELA portions of the program. In Shared Reading, students participate in the oral language-focused dialogic reading. The prompts require students to respond aloud to questions about the text following a sequence of questions. During the ELA interactive read aloud, the teacher asks comprehension questions based on the text and students listen to the teacher model the reading comprehension skill while listening to the read aloud. Following the read aloud, students participate in a whole-class discussion using text-based comprehension questions as a guide.

In Shared Reading, students respond aloud to text-based questions following a specific sequence. On Day 1, students answer wh- questions and on Day 2, students engage in completion activities. On Day 3, students recall facts from the text and on Day 4, students answer open-ended questions. On Day 5, students retell the story. Specific examples of this include:

• In Week 1, during and after hearing the book Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate, students practice their speaking and listening skills. While listening to the story, the teacher stops and asks questions that give students opportunities to orally share their answers. Questions include: "What are the animals doing?" and "Why are the sheep wagging their tails?"
• In Week 12, after hearing the book Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold, the teacher models the retelling process for students while engaging them in an oral rehearsal of the retelling. The teacher uses retell frames to prompt oral retelling such as: next, in the middle, and in the end Buzz’s dad ______.
• In Week 19, after hearing Fred and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman, students are given sentence frames to support their speaking after they listened to the story. Sentence frames include: "Fred and Ted are ______ and they parked the cars and ________."

In ELA, while students are listening to the read-aloud, the teacher asks comprehension questions to support speaking and listening as well as comprehension skills. Speaking and listening opportunities include both whole group and partner opportunities. Examples include:

• In Week 2, while listening to Frederick by Leo Lionni, students are asked why they think the mice made their home near a barn and granary and how the other mice feel about Frederick.
• In Week 18, students listen to the book Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo and are asked what kind of person they think Martin was, as well as, how can they tell the boys were using peaceful ways to solve problems. Both questions are discussed in a whole group setting.
• In Week 32, while listening to Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, students are given multiple opportunities to speak to a partner about what they heard such as explaining why Grace’s mom looks angry and what Natalie may have learned from Grace.
• In Week 34, while listening to the story How a Seed Grows by Helene Jordan, the teacher stops periodically to ask comprehension questions. For example, after page 5, the teacher asks if a giant tree can grow from a tiny seed, and at the end of page 6, the students are asked how they can tell what a seed will grow up to be.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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.

Weekly lessons conclude with an on-demand written response to a text-based prompt for each interactive read-aloud in the ELA portion of the text. Process writing instruction occurs throughout the year as well.

According to the Teacher Guide, the materials incorporate weekly responses that provide students with the opportunity to show what they learned from listening to the interactive read aloud. In the beginning of the year, weekly responses focus on drawing, and then progress to labeling the pictures toward the middle of the year. By the end of the year, students are encouraged to write simple sentences. Examples of on-demand writing include:

• In Week 1, after listening to The Egg by M.P. Robertson, students draw a picture of George teaching the dragon something.
• In Week 12, after listening to Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley, students draw a picture of the pilgrim celebration and write a word under the picture to describe it.
• In Week 18, after hearing Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo, students are given the sentence frame Martin’s dream was ________, they complete the sentence, and then draw a picture that shows Martin’s dream of people living together without being mean.
• In Week 29, after listening to Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros, students draw a picture of a river delta and label the picture with river, ocean, and delta.
• In Week 34, after hearing How a Seed Grows by Helene Johnson, students draw a series of pictures showing the steps of planting a seed and growing into a plant. They write a sentence to go with their picture using the sentence stem: Seeds grow ________.

The Teacher Guide outlines the materials’ structured approach to teaching writing. The Kindergarten materials include a gradual release of responsibility model with extensive teacher support in the beginning of the year and move to less support including a routine and a repetitive approach. The steps throughout the entire program are to learn the characteristics of the genre, evaluate good and poor examples of the genre, learn to plan the genre, learn to draft the genre, and then learn to revise with peers and independently. Students complete the process writing of narratives, opinion pieces, and descriptions and the program includes checklists for students to help them think about the process. Examples of process writing includes:

• In Week 4, students use a combination of dictation, writing, and drawing to compose an opinion piece on the book they are reading. In the beginning, the teacher, with student input, generates a sentence about their opinion on the book The Full Belly Bowl. Then together the teacher and students create two supporting detail sentences. Students then independently create an illustration that matches the opinion sentence. Students then share with a partner. On the next day, the students repeat the lesson, but with the text My Shoelaces are Hard to Tie.
• In Week 14, after watching the teacher model a sentence, the students write a sentence of their choice and include an illustration. The teacher walks around to provide support for revision. Students then share with a partner.
• In Week 20, students write a sentence about what happened to cause a person’s face to wilt. Then, they create their own narrative sentences and share it with a partner.
• In Week 27, students use a combination of dictating, writing, and drawing to compose a descriptive text in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information on a topic. Together with the class, students list facts on the board about plants. Students then write their own introductory sentence using the sentence frame Do you know _________? Then, students write a second sentence including another detail and a drawing. Revision involves the teacher walking around providing support to students as needed.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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.

Within the Kindergarten materials, students have the opportunity to write narratives, opinion pieces, and informative writing in the form of descriptive writing and book reviews. All writing examples are found in the ELA portion of the curriculum. Throughout the year, students complete nine opinion pieces, nine narrative writing pieces, and ten informative writing pieces.

Throughout the program, students write narrative pieces during weeks 8, 9, 14, 15, 20, 21, 28, 33, and 36. Some examples of narrative writing include:

• In Week 15, after reading Giggle Giggle, Quack, Quack and Sammy the Seal, students write a narrative about Sammy the Seal. They have to pretend that instead of going to the school near the zoo, he comes to the students’ school.
• In Week 20, students write a sentence about what happened to cause a person’s face to wilt. They write their own narrative sentences to complete this task.
• In Week 28, after reading Henry and Mudge and Wild Wind and Tikki, Tikki, Tembo students write a narrative about a small part of one of their days being sure to write sentences with details.

Throughout the program, students write opinion pieces during weeks 4, 11, 18, 23, 24, 25, 29, 31, and 35. Some examples of opinion writing include:

• In Week 11, students write their opinion about whether or not they like Shelia Rae, Owen, or both books. They add an illustration, as well.
• In Week 18, students write an opinion about Martin by illustrating and copying the teacher’s sentence or writing their own sentence.
• In Week 31, students write a book review for Ada’s Violin.

Throughout the program, students write descriptive pieces during weeks 7, 10, 13, 16, 22, 27, 30, and 32. Examples of informative writing include:

• In Week 16, students read two books about construction work Building with Dad and Roadwork and then write some of the facts they learned to teach someone else about construction work.
• In Week 32, after reading Harriet Tubman: Follow the North Star, students write a descriptive writing piece describing two facts about Harriet Tubman.
• In Week 34, after reading Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt and How a Seed Grows, students write facts about gardening and growing plants in a descriptive writing piece.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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.

Throughout the program, the ELA portion of the curriculum includes weekly text-based responses providing students an opportunity to demonstrate what they learned from listening to the interactive read-aloud. Students often draw their responses and are encouraged to include a word or phrase to describe their illustration. Throughout the year, the teacher models while reading, and students are asked to use their knowledge and evidence from the reading to write about what they know. Students are encouraged to use simple illustrations, sentence frames, lists, and whole sentences.

Examples of evidence-based writing throughout the program include:

• In Week 13, after hearing Pocahontas by Caryn Jenner, students write about Pocahontas. The teacher tells the students to listen for specific details to describe her during the read-aloud.
• In Week 16, after listening to Building with Dad by Carol Nevius, students draw and write about their favorite vehicle from the story.
• In Week 24, after hearing Grandfather’s Wrinkles by Kathryn England, students draw a picture of themselves now and then draw a picture of what they might look like when they are old. They have to recall what they read about in the story since they read and discussed wrinkles as a characteristic of an older person.
• In Week 34, after listening to Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt and How a Seed Grows, students write the best facts they learned about gardening and growing plants.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten 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 all 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 many upper- and lowercase letters. For example:
• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plan, Week 8, Day 4, Letters Tt, Nn, Gg, Teach Upper and Lower-Case Letter Formation: The teacher demonstrates how to form each letter. The teacher models once and then with students five more times for each new letter and three times for each review letter.
• In the Shared Reading section of the Teacher Guide, Word Study: Handwriting is described as essential for kindergarten teachers to ensure children can form letters consistently and fluently. The Teacher Guide explains, “teachers demonstrate with sky writing while naming the strokes necessary for the letter. Students sky write on Day 2, write on whiteboards on Day 3, and on paper on Day 4.” Handwriting practice pages are included for seat work during small-group time.
• Students have opportunities to use frequently-occurring nouns and verbs. For example:
• In the Teacher Guide, ELA, Sentence Grammar, Imitating, “The teacher presents a single, well-crafted sentence from the text, and replaces one or more content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) with blanks. The teacher prompts the students to substitute other content words. Doing so changes the meaning of the sentences, but not the syntax. In Kindergarten, we ask students to help to generate a list of possibilities, and then the teacher inserts each into a frame sentence.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher explains a good sentence has two parts, a subject and a predicate, using: The peddler pulled off his cap. The teacher explains the subject is what the sentence is about: the peddler. The teacher explains that the predicate tells what the peddler did: pulled off his cap. The teacher and the students create a list of possible subjects for the sentence and possible predicates and practice putting them into sentences. On Day 4, during Teach Sentence Composing, Unscramble: the students identify the subject of the sentence by giving a thumbs up when they hear the part of the sentence that tells who or what the sentence is about.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Frederick, Week 2, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher uses the sentence: The mice worked hard. to teach students about subject and predicate. The teacher models changing the subject in the sentence. The teacher and students make a list and place the new subjects in the sentence.
• Students have opportunities to form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher uses the sentence frame: The Pilgrims grew _______. The students and teacher make a list of things that can be grown. They decide if some of the words need /s/ or /es/ at the end to make sense.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 20, Day 3, during Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students engage in an activity with plural nouns. Using a sentence (Chrysanthemum loved her name.) from Chrysanthemum, students are prompted to replace the phrase, “her name” with additional nouns. The lesson prompts the teacher to say, “We’ll decide whether some of the items on our list need to have a /s/ or /es/ at the end to make sense. Those sounds tell us that there are more than one.”
• Students have opportunities to understand and use question words (interrogatives). For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher introduces the the title of the book: What Lives in a Shell? The teacher explains that this is a different kind of sentence because it does not start with a subject. The sentence starts with a question word and ends with a question mark. The teacher and students list other places where things live. The teacher and students use the list to make new question sentences using the following sentence frame: What lives in a _________? The students and teacher use the following sentence frame to answer the question: ________ lives in a ________.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 9, Day 3, during Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher reminds students that a question sentence begins with a question word and ends with a question mark. The teacher and students create a list of things that Owen might have to complete the sentence frame: Where is Owen’s ______?
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 15, Day 2, during Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher reminds students that a question sentence begins with a question word and ends with a question mark. The teacher and students create a list to answer: Who tricked Bob? The teacher and students use the list to complete the sentence frame: ____ tricked Bob.
• Students have opportunities to use the most frequently occurring prepositions. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher and students expand the sentence: The bear tumbles. using prepositions in the following sentence frames: The bear tumbles down the _______., The bear tumbles in the ______., The bear tumbles on the ______., The bear tumbles over the _____.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 16, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand: the teacher provides sentence starters to help students expand the sentence: I spell out each letter..., using prepositions in the following sentence frames: I spell out each letter in the ______., I spell out each letter with a _____., I spell out each letter on the _____., I spell out each letter by the ______.
• Students have opportunities to produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 5, during Teaching Sentence Formation, the teacher provides the students a list of subjects and predicates. Students identify each is a subject or a predicate. The teacher and student work together to combine the different subjects and predicates to create a sentence.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 5, during Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, the teacher models combining the following sentences using the linking word ‘and’: Woodpeckers rap. and Woodpeckers tap. to create the sentence: Woodpeckers rap and tap.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 3, students engage in a Narrative Writing lesson. The teacher states that each sentence has a subject and a predicate and defines both. The teacher shows the students a list that has both subjects and predicates. As the teacher introduces each item on the list, the students help decide whether to sort the item as a subject or a predicate. Next, the teacher says, “We can make a sentence by taking any subject and any predicate and putting them together. Some of the sentences will be funny ones. Let’s give it a try.” The students create sentences together, focusing on the concept that each sentence contains one subject and one predicate.
• Students have opportunities to capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 5, Teaching the Sentence Formation, the teacher explains that the sentence that was formed needs a capital letter for the first word and a punctuation mark at the end.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 11, Day 4, Opinion Writing, the teacher reminds students they learned to write I during the previous week. Students watch the teacher write the model sentence: I like Sheila Rae. The teacher states, “Now I will write the first word. What is the first word? I. Very good! We learned how to write an I last week…”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 4, Opinion Writing, during direct instruction, the teacher tells 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.”
• Students have opportunities to recognize and name end punctuation. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 3, during Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher states, “The title of our book is a sentence: What lives in a shell? It’s a different kind of sentence. It doesn’t start with a subject. It starts with a question word. It doesn’t end with a period. It ends with a question mark."
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 4, Opinion Writing 4, when the teacher models writing for the students, s/he is prompted to remind students, “Remember a period is just a dot. It shows that the sentence is done.”
• Students have opportunities to write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 5, during Assign or Model Written Response, the students draw a picture of the pilgrim celebration and write a word under the picture. Students are directed to find the sounds in the word and write them down.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 15, Day 4, Narrative Writing: when the teacher models for students, s/he explicit models how to find the sounds in words s/he wants to write. “...I also want to remind you how I find the sounds in the words and say them slowly so that I can write a letter for each sound I hear. I am going to write the first word. My sentence is, 'Sammy reads a book.' The word I need to write here is Sammy. Listen to me stretch the word by saying it slowly so I can hear each sound.”
• In the Shared Reading Word Study, Week 5, Day 2, students sort picture cards by identifying the first sound of each picture card. In this lesson, the focus are letters Bb and Mm. After sorting pictures by first sound, students form these upper and lower-case letters.
• In the How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction materials, on page 84, there is a Using Letter Patterns: Generic Lesson Plan that includes Teaching Letter Patterns. In this part of the lesson the students write a word that is given to them using the letter pattern that they have been taught.
• Students have opportunities to spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 13, Day 5, Descriptive Writing, students are encouraged to, “find the sounds in each word and write them down.” The publisher also included this note for teachers in the lesson plan,  “Invented spellings are important practice for emergent writers. For the second 9 weeks, encourage students to represent initial sounds in some words. For students who can do that, move to final sounds.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 20, Day 4, the teacher models how to discern the number of words in a sentence and how to write each unique word. The teacher says, “The next word is toy. I can find the sounds in toy. /t/ /oy/. I hear two sounds. The first sound I hear is /t/ like teeth. Turn and tell your partner what letter makes the /t/ sound. Yes! T. I will leave a space after the word my and then I will write the letter t. /t/ /oy/. The next sound is /oy/. One way to make the /oy/ sound is with the letters o and y. I will write them.” The teacher repeats this procedure for the remaining words.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 20, Day 5, the teacher models how to write a sentence by orally creating a sentence, counting the number of words in the sentence and phonetically spelling the word sad using letter-sound relationships. Students independently write their own sentence.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: students are asked to spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships in the set of word recognition and fluency lessons called “Letter Patterns”. Pages 53 to 55 explain that students in this group will use high-utility spelling patterns to help spell words during the lesson. The spelling portion of the lesson is about three-minutes per day. Additionally, in all of the Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition (PAWR) groups, as well as the Word Recognition and Fluency groups (WRAF), students engage in counting the sounds in the words and recognizing exactly how the letters and sounds match through high-frequency word instruction (p. 50). This helps students when spelling simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten materials provide systematic and explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle, letter-sound relationships, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness, and phonics.

Students have frequent and adequate opportunities to learn and understand phonemes (e.g., produce rhyming words, segment syllables, blend onsets and rimes, pronounce vowels in CVC words, and substitute sounds to make new words). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to recognize and produce rhyming words. For example:
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 3, Phonological Awareness: Sand House, students work with the teacher to identify rhyming words in the poem Sand House. The teacher explains that rhyming words are words that sound the same at the end. The teacher emphasizes the rhyming words in the poem as they are read aloud. The teacher gives examples and non examples of the rhyming words in the poem. The teacher gives a word and asks students to give a word that rhymes with the word: top, me, wave, toes, like, house.
• In Shared Reading Lessons Plan, Week 12, Day 3, Phonological Awareness: Jack Frost, students work with the teacher to identify rhyming words in the poem Jack Frost. The teacher explains that words rhyme when they end with the same sounds. The teacher says: pane, cane, Jane, lane. The teacher explains that all these words rhyme because they sound the same at the end and that they all end in /ane/. The teacher also gives a non-example: frost, pictures, flowers, frosty and explains that they do not rhyme because they do not sound the same at the end. The teacher reads the first section and asks students to identify rhyming words. The teacher also asks students to identify words that rhyme with words given to the students. The teacher then changes the initial sound in Jack to /b/ and asks if Jack and back rhyme. The teacher continues this with some additional words and reminds students that they rhyme because they sound the same at the end.
• Students have opportunities to count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. For example:
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 4, Phonological Awareness, the teacher shows students how to count words and syllables. The teacher demonstrates how to count the words in the first line of the poem by touching the first letter of each word and counting. The teacher explains that a syllable is a part or chunk of a word and that words can have one, two, three or more syllables. The teacher explains that syllables can be counted by clapping our hands for each syllable. The teacher demonstrates this using the word: bucket. The teacher repeats this demonstration with cup, second, sea, fingers, wave and dominoes. The teacher invites students to count the syllables in the words: house, one, tumbled, between, toes, afternoon.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 4, Dialogic Reading, direct instruction is provided on how to count syllables in words by clapping. The definition of syllables is given. Teacher models with three words: wind, one and frolic. Guided practice occurs with: morning, sleep, leap, now. Students practice with: cap, chase, every, make, galloping.
• Students have opportunities to blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. For example: 
• In Shared Reading, Week 18, Day 3, Phonological Awareness, the teacher and students blend initial phonemes of a word to create rhyming words. For example, “I see dog. What if we change the /d/ to /f/? What word would we have? Yes, fog. Dog, fog. Do they rhyme? Yes, because they sound the same at the end.”
• In Shared Reading, Week 24, Day 5, Phonological Awareness, the teacher demonstrates how to segment words. The teacher uses words from the poem. The teacher says the word quickly and the students are to say the word slowly. The teacher tells students to watch her/his fingers so that they stay together as they segment each phoneme.This is done with: green, toad, born, might.
• Students have opportunities to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 21, Day 4, Word Study, the routine Say It and Move It is used to isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three-phoneme words. The teacher states,n “Today 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 first words is cat. What word? I am going to say it slowly: /c/ /a/ /t/, cat. (the teacher holds up a finger for each phoneme) Now I am going to say it and move it.” Using the Elkonin box, the teacher moves a marker for each sound. Then, students use their own manipulatives or just count on their fingers. This procedure is repeated for all of the word study cards.
• In Shared Reading, Week 25, Day 4, Word Study, the teacher and students participate in an activity called “Say It and Move It”. The teacher says the word and then says it slowly. Then the teacher will say it and move it. The teacher models this using the word hit. The teacher says the word. The students repeat the word. The teacher says it slowly and holds up one finger for each phoneme. The teacher then will say it and move it by moving a marker on the Elkonin boxes for each phoneme /h/ /i/ /t/.  The students repeat this using their fingers and saying the sounds orally. This is repeated with: sit, fit, lit, pin, fin, tin, win.
• 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: “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 add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 14, Day 3, Phonological Awareness, the teacher and students substitute the initial sound of a word to create rhyming words. For example, “I see neat. What if we change the /n/ to /m/? What word would we have? Yes, meat. Neat, meat. Do they rhyme? Yes, because they sound the same at the end.”
• In Shared Reading, Week 20, Day 3, Phonological Awareness, the teacher and students delete the initial phonemes to determine the part of each word that sounds the same and add/substitute initial phonemes to make new words that rhyme. The teacher reminds students that rhyming words sound the same at the end. The teacher gives the words: brother, another, smother. The teacher asks if the words rhyme and then identifies that /other/ is the part that is the same at the end in all three words.  The teacher gives the word bit and asks students to change the /b/ to /f/ and then /f/ to /y/. This activity is repeated with took. They change the /t/ to /b/ and then /b/ to /l/ to make new words that rhyme.

Lessons and activities provide students adequate opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g., one-to-one correspondences, long and short sounds with common spellings, and distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying sounds of the letters). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 9, Day 1, Word Study, the teacher introduces the letters Ii, Pp, and Nn. The lesson prompts the teacher by saying “To introduce each header card, name the sound associated with each letter. To do this, you will articulate the initial sound in each word, followed by the word. Say, “This week we will work with words that start like /i/ insect, /i/ insect, /i/ insect.” Then place the card in the pocket chart.” After the teacher repeats this procedure for all of the letters, the teacher introduces the students to picture cards and guides the students to identify the header that matches.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 12, Day 1, Word Study: Dd/Hh/Ll, students are introduced to the sound associated with Dd, Hh, and Ll. The teacher introduces the header card and names the sound associated with each letter by articulating the initial sound in each word, followed by the word. The teacher introduces picture cards by naming the picture card by first articulating the initial sound and then saying the entire word three times: /d/ door, /d/ door, /d/ door.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students engage in Basic Alphabet Knowledge. In the portion of the lesson called Letter Names and Sounds, the teacher says “Now let’s think about letters. You have four letters today. These two are named Bb. Point to your Bbs. Look at the shapes.” The teacher introduces the other three in the same format. Then, the teacher says “These letters have sounds. These two say /b/. Point to your Bbs. Say the sound.” and goes through the other three letter sounds, as well. Finally, the teacher says “I will say a letter sound, and you point to the right shape.” Students say letter sounds for the day’s letters.
• Students have opportunities to associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 24, Day 1, Word Study, students work on reading and spelling three vowel patterns: __ag, __an, __ap. The teacher introduces each header card, names the sound associated with each letter pattern and tells how it’s spelled. The teacher reads word cards that contain these three vowel patterns, and the students decide under which header card it belongs. Students read the header cards and word cards chorally with the teacher.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, on page 67, the Vowel-Consonant-e: Generic Lesson Plan, the students participate in a segment of the lesson where they are expected to identify the vowel that makes the sound in the given short-vowel or long-vowel word. The teacher explains that a word will be said, the students think about the vowel sound and if it says its name, the students look for a word with the final e. The students touch the word, and then spell it out loud when the teacher says, “Go.” The students write words given to them by the teacher. The teacher reminds them to use a final e when the vowel says its name.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Page 168, provides a generic lesson plan for Teaching Letter Patterns. The students review words with short vowel sounds and words with long vowel sounds. Then they listen to a word spoken by the teacher and have to point to a picture with the same vowel sound. They go on to spell it and write it.
• Students have opportunities to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 36, Day 2, Word Study, students work on reading and spelling three vowel patterns: __ed, __et, __en. The teacher introduces each header card, names the sound associated with each letter pattern and tells how it’s spelled. The teacher reads word cards that contain these three vowel patterns and the students must decide under which header card it belongs. Students read the header cards and word cards chorally with the teacher.

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

• In the Teacher Manual, Word Study, the materials explain how phonological awareness is addressed both in- and out-of-context, “For the first four weeks of school, we emphasize rhyme with the simple task of determining whether two specific words rhyme and with the more complex task of finding rhyming words in context. We also support counting the number of words in a line and the number of letters in a word repeatedly. We also ask children to find specific letters from their own names in the week’s target text. These early activities can be done quickly, chorally, and playfully as children learn the routines. After that introductory month, we target more complex phonological tasks. We reduce the level of teacher support in rhyming tasks, and we ask children to substitute initial phonemes to produce rhyming words. When they look for letters in the target text, we cue letters whose shape and sound we are studying. By the time students are beginning to study short vowel word families, we engage them in oral phoneme segmentation tasks with words from their anchor poem.”
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Planning for the Using Letter Sounds Group (p 52), “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.

• In the Teacher Manual, Appendix C, shows the cohesive sequence of phonics instruction during Shared Reading, moving from ABC Knowledge, to initial sound sorting, to word sorting with short vowel words.
• In the Teacher Manual, Appendix E, is a chart that indicates the sequence of phonics instruction by week, the Target Sounds and the pictures associated with those Target Sounds. The sequence moves from letter-sound instruction, to short vowel patterns.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, it 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 How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Page 46, explains the sequence of skills taught: Basic Alphabet Knowledge, Using Letter Sounds, Using Letter Patterns, and Dictated Spelling.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten materials provide opportunities for explicit instruction and regular practice of print concepts during Shared Reading. Directionality and spaces between words are taught through the poems introduced each week, and alphabet knowledge is addressed in daily whole group lessons as well as small group instruction. Additionally, students receive individualized instruction in the differentiated instruction block in Basic Alphabet Knowledge, which also targets acquisition of print concepts, including alphabetic knowledge and directionality.

Materials include frequent and adequate lessons and activities for students to learn how to identify and produce letters.

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Word Study, handwriting is described as essential for Kindergarten teachers to ensure that children can form letters consistently and fluently. The Teacher Manual explains, “Teachers demonstrate with sky writing while naming the strokes necessary for the letter. Students sky write on day 2, write on whiteboards on day 3, and on paper on day 4.” Handwriting practice pages are included for seat work during small-group time.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Word Study, the Kindergarten Teacher Manual states teachers, can “choose any alphabet song that allows students to practice all of their letter names while pointing to a letter strip or chart.”
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 2, Day 1, Word Study, students use visual and auditory and kinesthetic modalities to identify letters. The materials prompt the teacher to have students echo read the letter names while pointing to each letter on a chart, strip or list. For example, the teacher points to the letter A and says “A.” The students point to the letter A and say “A.” This routine occurs daily during the first four weeks of lessons.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 8, Days 2, 3, and 4, Word Study,  students use kinesthetic and auditory modalities to learn how to form letters. The teacher models and guides students to skywrite each letter as the teacher describes how the letter is formed. Example: (Upper-Case T) “Reach up high and draw a long, straight line down to your belly button. Reach up high to the left. Draw a short line to the right.”

Materials include frequent and adequate tasks and questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing, upper- and lowercase letters). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page. For example:
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 3, Print Concepts: “Little Bo-Peep”, the teacher shows the students how to read text using the poem, “Little Bo-Peep.” The teacher points to the top line of the poem and tells students to start at the top. The teacher tells students to find the first word by looking all the way to the left. The teacher demonstrates reading left to right by touching the first letter of each word. The teacher demonstrates and explains how to move to the next line and again move all the way to the left to continue reading. The teacher invites students up to the board to demonstrate the following:
• Point to the top line.
• Point to the second line.
• Point to the line that comes next.
• Point to the line that is read last.
• Point to where you start reading on the top line, and show with your finger how you read this line. (Look for pointing across the line from left to right. Students do not have to read the words, nor point to each word correctly. Encourage them to move their finger from left to right.)
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 9, Day 3, the teacher says, “Today I am going to teach you how to read text. First, we will chorally read the poem, and then you will turn and tell your partner what this poem is about.” The teacher notes in Shared Reading say, “Read the poem in its entirety to the students. Finger point as you read. To do this, touch the first letter of each word.”
• The lesson teaches the “return sweep” and the teacher says, “When we read we start at the top. Then, we find the first word by looking all the way to the left. The first word is Oh. I read across the top line from left to right. I can touch the first letter of each word as I read. Watch how I do this.” The teacher models. Then, the teacher says, “I have run out of words to read! So, I return sweep and go down to the first word of the next line all the way to the left. I will read this word next.” Students are invited up to the board to engage with different aspects of print concepts, such as, point to the top line, point to the second line, point to where you start reading on the top line.
• Students have opportunities to recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. For example:
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 1, Word Study: Alphabet Knowledge, Dialogic Reading, the suggested routine presents the student’s name on a sentence strip, followed by an echo read of each letter. Then the name is cut up into the individual letters and matched to an alphabet chart and an echo read/spelling. The letters are put back in order to spell the child’s name. The name is spelled one more time and then read. This routine is suggested for the first four weeks of school.
• Students have opportunities to understand that words are separated by spaces in print. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 4, Print Concepts, the teacher teaches that words are separated by spaces in print. The teacher and students chorally read the poem. The teacher reminds the students that when we read we start at the top and that we find the first word, by looking all the way to the left. The teacher shows that the first word in the poem is Little. The teacher shows the students that she/he knows the word little ends because there is a space after the word and that the next word begins after this space. The teacher demonstrates how to read with one to one correspondence by pointing to the first letter of each word and reminding the students that there is a new word after each space. The teacher points to each space and says “space,” then points to the next word and says “new word”.
• In Shared Reading, Week 2, Day 4, during Phonological Awareness: What Shall I Pack in the Box Marked “Summer”?, the teacher demonstrates how to count words by pointing to the first letter of the word and by noticing there is a space between the words that means a new word will be counted after the space.
• Students have opportunities to recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 1, Word Study, students engage in an activity called Alphabet Knowledge. In this routine, the students sing the alphabet song chorally with the teacher. The teacher  supports the students in echo reading of the letter names. First, the echo reading will be done without a reference to an alphabet chart. Then, the echo reading will be done with the reference to an alphabet chart, where the teacher will point to the letter as the students echo the name of the letter.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the Basic Alphabet Knowledge lessons ask students to sing and say the alphabet, say the letter names in order, and track the alphabet on a card.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten materials provide 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 small group instruction lessons in How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grade K-3, Using Letter Sounds and Using Letter Patterns. There are multiple opportunities for students to purposefully read emergent-reader texts through the weekly opportunities to echo read and chorally read the poem or song in the Shared Reading Lessons.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 2, the students and teacher read the Apple Song. The teacher reads the poem to the students. The students discuss with a partner what the poem was about. The students echo read one line at a time. This procedure is done two times. They echo read two lines of the poem at a time. This procedure is done two times. The teacher and students then read the poem chorally several times.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 14, Day 2, the students and teacher read Happy Birthday from Your Loving Brother. The teacher reads the poem to the students. The students discuss with a partner what the poem was about. The students echo read one line at a time. This procedure is done two times. Students echo read two lines of the poem at a time. This procedure is done two times. The teacher and students read the poem chorally several times. The teacher then checks for understanding: What does the brother think his sister will do when she sees the worm? Show me quietly how she would squirm.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 24, Day 2, the students and teacher read If We Didn’t Have Birthdays. The teacher reads the poem to the students. The students discuss with a partner what the poem was about. The students echo read one line at a time. This procedure is done two times. They echo read two lines of the poem at a time. This procedure is done two times. The teacher and students read the poem chorally several times. The teacher checks for understanding, "Why do you think Dr. Seuss wrote this poem?"

Materials support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words over the course of the year. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Word Study, the students participate in several instructional routines.
• In Word Sort, the students compare words to header cards to determine where the word belongs, after the sort, the students read the words under each header card
• In Patterns, after the Word Sort, the students use the sentence frame: “The pattern is ______ and I spell it _________.”
• In Sounds, the teacher points to each letter, making the sounds out loud and then blending the sounds to make the word. The students sound and blend.

Students have opportunities to read and practice high-frequency words. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grade 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 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.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grade K-3, high-frequency word instruction is included in the lessons for Using Letter Sounds Group. The high-frequency words used for instruction in this portion of the lesson are selected from the results of the high-frequency word inventory.  Ten words are included the first week, 10 words for the second week and all 20 words are reviewed the third week.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grade K-3, high-frequency word instruction is included in the lessons for Using Letter Patterns Group. 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. Then the teacher says, “Go” and the students spell the word out loud.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grade K-3, the teacher must create a list of high-frequency words using the Fry Inventory. The teacher will assess each student in the differentiated group, and any high-frequency word unknown by any one member of the group will be taught to all. This ensures children will be reviewing and learning new high-frequency words at a pace of two per day for the first two weeks, and then reviewing the 20 words learned in the third week. Students first point to the words as the teacher says them in a speed drill, and then the student points, waits, and spells the word aloud.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten materials provide opportunities for students to learn foundational skills in connected texts and tasks. Students have opportunities to participate in using print concepts to read nursery rhymes through echo reading and choral reading. Students practice encoding through writing. During Differentiated Instruction, students track memorized text that includes word patterns 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 to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g., one-to-one correspondences, syllable segmentation, rime and onset recognition, long and short sounds with common spellings and distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying sounds of the letters) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, in the Basic Alphabet Knowledge lessons, Lesson 29, students participate in Initial Sound Sorting: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ ; Letter Names and Sounds: Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu; High-Frequency Words: jump, we, down, at, see; Tracking Memorized Text: You can see me jump down.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Blends and Digraphs, students read the following text: The pet was in a shed. The shed was like a den. I fed the pet. The pet was happy.

Materials provide frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Basic Alphabet Knowledge lessons, students participate in reading Tracking Memorized Text: We go to the top.
• 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 saw a pig. The pig was big. It had a pink tail. It had a pink nose.

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 are not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, in the Blends and Digraphs lessons, students work with sounding and blending words and read connected text.
• In Lesson 5, students read a passage that includes words with digraphs. They first whisper read the passage, partner read the passage and then chorally read the passage. There are 29 lessons for the Blends and Digraphs focus.
• In ELA Lessons, Week 14, Day 4, Narrative Writing, the teacher models how to write the word last by stretching the word, listening for the sounds and writing them. When students are to write independently, they are encouraged to stretch the words, listen for the sounds, and write the letters that make those sounds to write any unknown word.
• In ELA Lesson, Week 21, Day 4, Narrative Writing, the lesson plan states, “The purpose for the third 9 weeks is for students to use more complex invented spellings. We expect a wide range of spelling achievement in a kindergarten class. Invented spellings are important practice for emergent writers. For the third nine weeks, encourage students to represent initial sounds and final sounds in some words.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten 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 begin with Week 21. These assessment opportunities support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. 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. 

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 are not limited to:

• 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 mid-year;
• Diagnostic Measures follow Screening to 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 given 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, assessment materials are provided 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, students 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, assessment materials are provided or suggested for use after 14 lessons. The assessment consists of segmenting and blending CVC words, sounding and blending CVC words, and 20 high-frequency words (to be determined by the teacher). The segmenting and blending section should be 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 that they 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 (selected by the teacher) 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, 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.’ It also includes 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, Vowel-Consonant-e, 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. A score of 10/15 is an indicator of proficiency. It includes 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.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding. Examples include, but are 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 Letter Names helps determine which letters can be named when viewed in isolation. The teacher shows the student copy of Test of Letter Names. Students name the letters moving from left to right and from top to bottom.
• Test of Letter Sounds helps determine which letters can be associated with the phonemes they represent. The teacher points to the student copy of Test of Letter Sounds. The teacher points to Ss and says, “What sound do these letters say?”
• Test of Fry Instant Words helps determine which high-frequency words can be pronounced quickly when words are viewed in isolation. The teacher places the student version in front of the student. The teacher explains  the student will see some words and the student should say the words aloud. The teacher uses a window card to show one word at a time. The teacher administers until there are 10 unknown words.
• 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 Short Vowels assessment, the teacher points to the word sat and says, “What is this word?” The teacher repeats this question for each word in each row. The words include: sat, pot, beg, nip, cub, pad, top, hit, met, nut, mot, tib, han, teg, fet, lup nid, pab, hud, gop.

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Figure 3.4, explains how to use the assessment results to form groups in Kindergarten. For example:
• Failure to pass the Test of Letter Sounds with a score of 720 or higher, place the student in the Basic Alphabet Knowledge group;
• If a 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;
• If a 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;
• If a 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, place the student word on spelling and handwriting.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Using Assessments Systematically, three reasons are provided for the importance of assessments for small-group differentiated instruction:
• Systematic assessments permit the teacher decide which students will benefit most from instruction with a particular focus.
• Systematic assessments provide guidance in choosing which skills to target in a series of lessons.
• Systematic assessments form the basis of determining whether small-group instruction has been effective and deciding which group will best serve each student during the next cycle.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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 Kindergarten 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 are not limited to:

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 1, Word Study, the suggested routine presents the student’s name on a sentence strip, followed by an echo read of each letter. Then the name is cut into the individual letters and matched to an alphabet chart and an echo read/spelling. The letters are put back in order to spell the child’s name. The name is spelled one more time and then read aloud. This routine is suggested for the first four weeks of school.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 3, Phonological Awareness, explicit instruction is provided about the concept of rhyme. Examples and non-examples are provided. After reading each stanza of the poem, students listen for words that rhyme. The teacher confirms student responses and restates why the words rhyme. The second part of the lesson asks students to think of words that rhyme with top, me, wave, toes, like, house. Nonsense words are acceptable. Teacher prompts as needed.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 4, Teach Concept of Word, direct instruction is provided about how to read words using the poem. The teacher uses a metacognitive strategy to explain how she knows where to begin reading, when the next word starts because of the space between words and what to do when she gets to the end of a line of text. Guided practice is provided before students are asked to come up and point to a space, the first, next or last word, etc.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 30, Day 3, Word Study, in this lesson a sound and blend routine is used to read CVC words (mop, top, sop, bog, dog, fog, hog). The teacher models with the word mop pointing to each letter and making the sound it represents and then blending the three sounds to read the word. Guided practice is provided for the remaining words where the teacher points, and the students make the sounds and read the words.

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, it lists assessments useful in forming groups for Kindergarten students:
• The Test of Letter Names helps to determine which letters can be named when viewed in isolation. For example, if students are receiving instruction in “Letter Sounds” starting on page 78, students will then 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 (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, Appendix 4.1, a sample lesson plan for the small group needing Basic Alphabet Knowledge instruction. The basic alphabet review segment is intended to last three minutes. Direct instruction is provided for how to sing and say the names of the letters. Guided practice also occurs when the teacher points to and names the letters, then students point to and name them. There are 30 lessons.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the materials explain what to do instructionally after administering the progress monitoring assessment:
• Basic Alphabet Knowledge group: There are six weeks of lessons with a midterm check. The teacher is to use the assessment of letter names and sounds after three weeks so instruction for those students that started at the beginning of the lessons can attempt to show proficiency. If students demonstrate proficiency, the teacher is directed to move to the second set of lessons. If students do not reach proficiency, the teacher is directed to reteach the three weeks of lessons.
• Using Letter Sounds group: The teacher is directed to use the assessment that is provided to test whether students can sound and blend short-vowel words that they have not studied. If the students demonstrate that they can, the teacher is directed to move to letter patterns and if students cannot, the teacher is directed to reteach the three weeks of lessons.
• Using Letter Patterns group: The teacher is directed to use the assessment provided to determine if students can generalize the patterns that have been taught. If students can then the teacher is directed to move to Dictated Sentences.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the materials guide the teacher in forming small groups based on the results of the assessments given to determine current skill levels. For example (page 23), if the student passed the Test of Letter Sounds, it is suggested the student be placed in the Using Letter Patterns small group. If the student does not pass, depending on the specific score, the student should be placed in either the Using Letter Sounds small group or the Basic Alphabet Knowledge small group. For each small group category, there are generic lesson plans, as well as a sample lesson plan provided for the teacher (for example pages 78-79 Using Letter Sounds).

Students have multiple practice opportunities with each grade level foundational skill component in order to reach mastery. Examples include, but are 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)
• 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 for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students will then receive high-quality learning 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 (page 86), to gauge their readiness to move on or receive further instruction in this skill.