2nd Grade - Gateway 1

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

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

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

• In Week 2, students listen to Henry & Mudge: The First Book, a popular children’s book about friendship between a boy named Henry and a big dog named Mudge. This well-known Ready to Read series is written by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant.
• In Week 17, students listen to Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph by well-known author Jack Gantos, which was first published in 1976 and then published in 2001.
  
• In Week 28, students listen to The Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King by Mary Pope Osborne, which is part of the well-known Magic Treehouse series.

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

• In Week 3, students listen to A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert, which is an award-winning post World War II story about a mother’s dedication to acquire a coat for her daughter. The book has been named an ALA Notable Children’s Book and Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice Award winner.
• In Week 13, students listen to Arrow to the Suni by Gerald McDermott, which is a Pueblo folktale. This folktale is about how the sun god sent his own son to earth. The illustrations resemble pictures that Pueblo people once drew and are engaging for students.
• In Week 23, students listen to The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, which recounts the ordeal that Ruby Bridges went through in the 1950s to pave the way for integrated schools. Students learn about the historical importance of her choices with the author’s use of easy language allowing students to engage in a discussion about the book after reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level.

In Grade 2, students read and listen to both literary and informational texts in both Shared Reading and ELA. Text types include: biographies, fables, historical fiction, mysteries, poems, and science fiction.

Examples of literary texts found throughout the Grade 2 program include:

• Henry and Mudge: the First Book by Cynthia Rylant
• Pinky and Rex by James Howe, A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
• Where in the Wild by David Schwartz and Yael Schy
• Cam Jansen and the Mystery Writer Mystery by David A. Adler
• Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos
• Wolf Island by Celia Godkin
• Tornado by Betsy Byars
• Judy Moody Saves the World by Megan McDonald
• Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos
• My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa Mollelan
• Mud Ball by Matt Tavares
• Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King by Mary Pope Osborne
• Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me by Jon Scieszka

Students also read and hear informational texts in both Shared Reading and ELA. There are no informational texts in Unit 2 of ELA or Unit 4 of Shared Reading. Examples include:

• Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace
• The Journey of a Butterfly by David Salariya
• Creatures Yesterday and Today by Karen Patkau
• Cracking Up--A Story about Erosion by Jacqui Bailey
• The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose
• Jackie Robinson by Sally M. Walker
• History’s All Stars: Abraham Lincoln by Augusta Stevenson
• Helen Keller: Break Down the Walls! by Margaret Fetty
• The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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 1-2 grade levels above their reading level and/or are qualitatively complex for Grade 2 students.

Specific examples include:

• In Week 4, students listen to Cracking Up: A Story about Erosion by Jacqui Bailey, which has a Lexile of 880. Both the quantitative measure and qualitative measures are very complex; however, while reading the text, the teacher simultaneously draws a diagram to help explain the concept of erosion.
• In Week 8, students listen to Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry, which has a Lexile of 590. While the language is moderately complex, the text is relatable and deals with the theme of individuality.
• In Week 10, students listen to and read A-Z Mysteries: The Kidnapped King by Ron Roy, which has a Lexile of 610. This is the first mystery in the unit, so the teacher introduces the text structure to aid comprehension. This supports students’ understanding due to the complexity of the text.
• In Week 25, students listen to Mummies by Joyce Milton, which has a Lexile of 530. The text complexity ranges from very complex in terms of text structure to slightly complex in terms of purpose. Students with no background knowledge of mummification or of Ancient Egypt will find this text more complex than those who have prior knowledge.
• In Week 28, students listen to The Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King by Mary Pope Osborne. While the Lexile is only a 380, the text is very complex with the organization of the text structure, the language features, and the knowledge demands. There is unfamiliar vocabulary, and the characters travel back in time, making the structure complex.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ literacy skills (comprehension) over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills (leveled readers and series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels).

In both English Language Arts and Shared Reading, the texts and tasks increase in complexity to develop independence of grade level skills. While the majority of the texts in Grade 2 are read to the students, the complexity and/or tasks increase within each unit, as well as throughout the year. Students also reread texts chorally or with a partner that the teacher first reads aloud in Shared Reading. These texts have much lower complexity than the texts that are just read aloud in English Language Arts.

In English Language Arts, texts and skills increase over the course of the year. For example, at the beginning of the year, students use a story map to track fiction stories. For example:

• In Week 3, students use a story map to identify setting, characters, and problem and solution in Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday.
• In Week 30, students use a Venn diagram to map two different versions of Cinderella to then compare and contrast the problems and events within each text.

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

• In the first nine weeks, students read a total of ten texts, half of which are non-fiction. The Lexile range from 670 to 880.
• In the second nine weeks, students read a new genre, legends, and therefore, the Lexile range is slightly lower. The Lexiles range from 480 to 740.
• In the third nine weeks, students read a variety of texts with a Lexile range of 560 to 970.
• In the final nine weeks, students read a variety of texts with a Lexile range of 270 to 1,000. The publisher recognizes that the text that has a Lexile of 270 is not very complex, but it was chosen to evoke some higher order thinking around the Vietnam Wall.

In Shared Reading, because more ownership is placed on the students for reading, the Lexiles stay relatively static across the four units. In the first nine weeks, Lexiles range from 400 to 510 and in the second nine weeks, they range from 410 to 760. In the third nine weeks, they range from 500 to 580, and in the last nine weeks, they range from 380 to 530. Students are asked inferential questions from the beginning of the year, and follow-up questions are provided for students who need more support.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that support materials for the core text(s) provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to support their reading at grade level by the end of the school year.

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

In Grade 2, the program begins with simple narratives with familiar characters before moving to simple fantasy and realistic fiction. After five weeks of narrative texts, students begin reading non-fiction with a four-volume science text set about life cycles. Students then read mysteries, biographies, and Native American informational texts.

The Shared Reading curriculum has students read and reread one chapter or one section of a text every day. Every day in shared reading, the whole class reads that day’s selection aloud once chorally, and then with a partner. In Shared Reading, students will spend 155 school days interacting with texts. Some specific examples include:

• In Week 6, students read Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace, which is a non-fiction text that students read for five days about life science and amphibians.
• In Week 12, students read Cam Jansen and the Mystery Writing Mystery by David A. Adler, which is a familiar fiction mystery series.
• In Week 21, students read History All Stars: Abraham Lincoln by Augusta Stevenson, which is a biography about presidents.
• In Week 28, students read Magic Tree House: Day of Dragon King by Mary Pope Osborne, which is a fantasy book about adventure.

During the English Language Arts Instruction students listen to a read-aloud about half of the days during the week and then discuss the book. The books are typically above grade-level in order to expose students to rich language, expand their vocabulary and build knowledge.

For each text, the teacher begins by developing and/or activating background knowledge, asks questions while reading and models comprehension strategies, discusses the text with the students after the read aloud. In the Interactive Read-Aloud, students will hear a text on 108 days of instruction. Examples include:

• In Week 4, students hear Magnets Pull, Magnets Push by Mark Weakland, which is a non-fiction text about magnets
• In Week 22, students hear Mudball by Matt Tavares, which is a historical fiction story about baseball.
• In Week 34, students read How do you Raise a Raisin? by Pam Munoz Ryan, which is a non-fiction book. It is a mixed-genre book since it is written like a poem, but parallels an informational text.

During the Differentiated Instruction block, students work with the teacher for small group instruction. Students not working with the teacher read self-selected independent reading books for fifteen minutes. 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 Grade 2 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

Most lessons have text-dependent and text-specific questions and offer multiple opportunities for students to engage in discussions about the texts. 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.

The majority of the questions in Shared Reading are text-dependent or text-specific inferential questions. The text-based discussions happen with a partner after the students engage with the text in most cases, while whole group questions happen during the reading. Examples include:

• Week 3, after chorally reading Pinky and Rex by James Howe, students reread the story and are then asked "Which character was jealous? What character did something to impress another character? Why did Amanda want to help pick out her clothes? and Why doesn’t Pinky help her?"
• Week 16, after reading If you Lied with the Cherokee, students are asked how the boys learn to hunt, why they changed their clothes for winter, how they get things to decorate their clothes, and how the families chose the gifts to exchange before getting married.
• Week 21, after chorally reading History’s All Star: Abraham Lincoln by Augusta Stevenson students read the text again and are asked to describe Abe, how Abe’s father finds out that he wants a little wagon, why Abe’s father almost forget about the wagon, and why was Abe crying while he waited for his father.
• Week 30, students read Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me by Jon Scieszka and are asked how the boys identify the thrones and why Apollo is not impressed with Twinkle, Twinkle.

The majority of the questions in the ELA interactive read-alouds are text-dependent or text-specific inferential questions, which require students to combine information presented in the text with their prior knowledge. The majority of the questions and tasks happen during the read-aloud, but there is usually one or two discussion questions after the read-aloud. Examples include:

• In Week 3, after hearing A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert, students summarize what they read using transition words. During the read-aloud students are asked questions such as how Anna feels about the sheep and will Anna’s mother have to pay for the cherries.
• In Week 12, after hearing The Girl who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Gobel, students are asked why they think the people in the text lived in tents and not houses and what was the girl's first problem.
• In Week 22, while listening to Mudball by Matt Tavares, students are asked why was the umpire Andy would make an out and did Andy see where the ball went and how do they know.
• In Week 30, while listening to Cinderella by Marcia Brown, students are asked how Cinderella feels about having to do the hardest chores, how do the stepsisters feel about Cinderella, and what is the theme of Cinderella.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions (small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class) that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

Throughout the Grade 2 Bookworms materials, there are frequent opportunities for students to participate in whole group, small group, and partner discussions about what they are reading. Whole Group discussions take place regularly during dialogic reading, which occurs during the Shared Reading block in the beginning of the year, as well as the interactive read-aloud, which occurs during the ELA block. The teacher uses Turn-and-Talk strategy to prompt students to participate in discussions. Students also work with partners to discuss the book after it is read aloud. Additionally, there are opportunities for teachers to utilize Every Pupil Response techniques such a voting, raising hands, providing signaled responses, thumbs up/down, etc. to engage students and to gauge comprehension. The Teacher’s Guide explains the various discussion protocols included within the lessons.

During Shared reading, after the second reading, the teacher engages the students in a focused inferential discussion of text content. Teachers are encouraged to ask “how do you know?” to prompt students to use evidence from the text in their answer. Students answer some questions individually and other questions in partners. During shared reading, students also discuss with partners the vocabulary words; however, the discussion is not necessarily text-based. Students read with partners frequently and specific instructions are provided in the Teacher Guide including how to group students and the roles of reader and coach so students understand their responsibilities when rereading. Specific examples include:

• In Week 6, students partner read Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace, and then discuss how they think authors of informational texts choose what information to include in the illustrations or photographs and in the text.
• In Week 17, students partner read Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos, and then students discuss why they think Ralph does not want to practice for the game and who Sarah likes best with a partner.

During the ELA Read Aloud, the teacher employs the Every Pupil Response Technique to ensure engagement. Examples include talking to a partner, polling the class, etc. Most of the discussions occur while listening to the read-aloud. Specific examples include:

• In Week 22, while listening to Mud Ball by Matt Tavares, the teacher promotes a whole class discussion by asking questions such as: "Why does the second baseman try to grab Andy (which is discussed with a partner)? Why is the second baseman covered with mud?" and What they think of the manager of the other team saying the runs should not count because no one knows where the ball is (which is also discussed with a partner).
• In Week 34, after reading How do you Raise a Raise? by Pam Munoz Ryan, students are given sentence frames to help aide in the discussion of the text such as, "So who discovered ____________."

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading (or read aloud) and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

Throughout the Grade 2 material, students are given multiple opportunities to practice their speaking and listening about what they are reading. Opportunities come in the form of recalling information though comprehension questions or peer discussions with a selected portion of the text. Students are asked a series of comprehension questions during and after hearing the teacher read the text in both the ELA and Shared Reading components of the program.

During the Shared Reading component, the teacher provides the students with a focus for reading and provides text-based questions for students to discuss with their partners. Students are also given the opportunities to share their previous day’s text-based writing response with a partner. In addition, after students chorally read, the teacher provides a new focus for reading and the students are asked text-based questions to discuss with their partners. Examples of opportunities for students to practice their speaking and listening about what they are hearing and/or reading include:

• In Week 3, after hearing Pinky and Rex by Jame Howe, the teacher reminds students about the two main characters and then students reread the text prior to having a whole-class discussion about what they learned about Pinky and Rex and what they learned about how Amanda irritates them. Then, students write how they think Amanda feels about the trip and share their response with a partner.
• In Week 14, after listening to First Day by Cara Ashrose, the teacher helps the students analyze the details about the life of Native Americans on the Northwest Coast. After rereading, students engage in a discussion about the text including why they think the people ate animals from the sea, why it was easier to fish for salmon, and what the people used to make their homes.
• In Week 25, prior to rereading and discussing Mummies by Joyce Milton, the teacher reminds the students to think about all the reasons people stole mummies and engage students in discussion about why robbers broke into the mummies tombs, why scientists take x-rays of mummies instead of unwrapping them, and where is the best place to look for mummies.
• In Week 29, after listening to and reading D is for Dancing Dragon: A China Alphabet (Letter A) by Carol Crane, students engage in a discussion about if they think American traditions are similar to acrobats and what are the similarities between Chinese traditions and American ones.

During the ELA Interactive read-aloud, the teacher utilizes Every Pupil Response techniques, such as polling the class and talking to a partner, to promote students’ listening and speaking about the text. Following each read-aloud, the lesson plans include guiding questions and/or prompts for post read-aloud discussions of the text. Specific examples of opportunities for students to practice speaking and listening about what they read or listen to include:

• In Weeks 8 and 9, students hear Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry and talk to a partner about whether they think the things in the story really happened.
• In Week 12, after listening to a portion of the text The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie DePaola, the students participate in both a partner and whole group discussion answering questions such as what do they think people will sacrifice, why the two characters said they are sure the spirits did not want something belonging to them, and why did one of the main character's think Great Spirits wanted her doll.
• In Week 19, students hear Helen Keller: Break Down the Walls! by Margaret Fetty and Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride by Pam Munoz Ryan. After hearing the stories, students discuss with their partner why Helen wanted to help others. A whole group discussion encourages students to discuss if they think Helen’s parents punished her for kicking and screaming.
• In Week 33, after listening to The Wall by Eve Bunting, students talk to their partner about why they wanted to find his name and if they think the characters will leave something when they find his name.
• In Week 34, after hearing How do you Raise a Raisin? by Pam Munoz Ryan, student discuss if they believe anyone truly knows who ate the first raisin. Then students discuss why they cannot use machines to dry them faster.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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 materials. The writing prompts increase in difficulty over the course of the school year. Process writing is also included throughout the year. Students utilize checklists to guide their revision and editing efforts. Technology is utilized for word processing and for the research projects.

According to the Teacher Guide, at the end of the ELA block each week, there is a writing task for students to react to the book as they demonstrate and deepen their understanding. The on-demand, text-based writing prompt often includes sentence frames and other supports to make the writing task quick and targeted. In the beginning of the year, it is recommended that writing takes place whole class, and then goes to partner and independent writing as students progress through the year. Specific examples include:

• In Week 5, students invent their own animal. They give it a name and write about it. They also draw a picture of it using camouflage.
• In Week 13, after hearing Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott, students write an opinion response in which they state an opinion and supply a reason supporting the opinion, including linking words to connect the opinion and reason. In their writing, they need to tell which kiva is the worst and why.
• In Week 23, after hearing The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, students write an opinion piece about what they would have done if they were in Ruby Bridges’ place.
• In Week 31, after hearing Starry Messenger by Peter Sis, students write a response in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement. They have to explain how Galileo’s idea about Earth was different from tradition.

On-demand writing is also found in the Share Reading portion of the program. Examples include:

• In Weeks 8-9, after reading The Journey of a Butterfly by David Salariya, students draw a diagram of a butterfly and label its parts.
• In Week 23, after reading History’s All Stars: Abraham Lincoln by Augusta Stevenson, students write why they think the author chose to write the biography.

Process writing in the Grade 2 materials includes scaffolding in the beginning, and reducing the scaffolding over time. For all process writing opportunities, students learn the characteristics of the genre, evaluate good and poor examples of the genre, plan the genre, draft, and then revise with both peers and independently. Graphic organizers are used throughout the program and writing genre-specific checklists are used to evaluate the writing for its structure and content, as well as editing checklists to consider mechanics. Examples of process writing include:

• In Week 1, students plan and write their own narrative story in the lesson and evaluate their narratives using the Narrative Writing Checklist. Students are placed into groups and two groups write paragraph two and the other groups write paragraph 3. This is done with minimal support from the teacher.
• In Week 14, students participate in a four-day descriptive writing task where they write about a specific group of Native Americans they have already read about. The teacher models each part of the writing process and after students complete their first four paragraphs and add the conclusion, they begin revising and editing using the Descriptive Checklist and the Second Grade Editing Checklist.
• In Week 32, students participate in a five-day compare and contrast process writing activity. Students read three different versions of Cinderella and then write compare and contrast pieces structured as descriptive writing. Students do pre-writing on Day 1 and on Day 2, the students, with the teacher, complete a compare and contrast graphic organizer. On Day 3, the students watch the teacher model how to write a compare and contrast piece using the graphic organizer as a guide. Then students draft and revise on Day 4 and 5.
• In Week 35, students complete an opinion writing culminating task where they review a book from the year as a form of an advertisement. On Day 1, the teacher models how to complete the graphic organizer before the students do their own. On Day 2, the students plan a creative way to display the reasons why they love their favorite book. On Day 3, they finish drafting their advertisements and on Day 4, they work with a partner to practice presenting their advertisements. On Day 5, students do a share with the whole class.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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.

The instructional materials provide opportunities for students to write narrative, informative, and opinion pieces that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Materials also include checklists that are genre specific to help students. In the ELA portion of the program, there are three opportunities for students to do informative writing, four opportunities for students to do narrative writing, and seven opportunities for students to do opinion writing. Students are given writing prompts and sentence frames following Shared Reading.

Students practice narrative writing in the ELA portion of the program in weeks such as 10, 20, and 36. Examples include:

• In Week 10, students work in groups to plan a narrative story. Then in Week 11, students write their narrative story.
• In Week 20, students write a story and are provided a graphic organizer to support their writing. Additional graphic organizers are provided to make sure events are linked with transition words.

Students practice informative writing in the ELA portion of the program in weeks such as 6, 14, and 32. Students also are given informative writing prompts after reading during Shared Reading. Specific examples include:

• In Weeks 8 and 9 of Shared Reading, after reading The Journey of a Butterfly by David Salariya, students write a paragraph about what happens to a caterpillar as it becomes a pupa.
• In Week 14, students write about a specific group of Native Americans they have read about.
• In Week 32, students write a compare and contrast piece about the three different versions of Cinderella that they read.
• In Week 34, students write sentences that tell about each kind of pollinator after hearing How Do you Raise a Raisin? by Pam Munoz Ryan.  

Students practice opinion writing in the ELA portion of the program in weeks such as  2, 3, 13, 18, 22, 24, and 35. Students write book reviews throughout all four units. Students also write their opinions of texts in Shared Reading. Specific examples include:

• In Week 3, after reading Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by David Schwartz and Yael Schy, students write an opinion piece about whether they would have bought anything that Alexander bought and explain why. Later in the week, the students write a book review.
• In Week 13, students write a book review about the book Miss Rumphius.
• In Week 23, after reading History’s All Stars: Abraham Lincoln by Augusta Stevenson, students write an opinion piece about why they think the author chose to write the biography.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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.

In the Grade 2 materials, students complete one text-based response independently each day, connected to their Shared Reading, and together complete a text-based response on the days when the teacher does a read-aloud. Most lessons in both ELA and Shared Reading allow students to practice and apply writing skills, including using evidence. Following each read-aloud, students respond to a text-based prompt.

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

• In Week 3, students write how Pinky and Rex are similar after reading Pinky and Rex by James Howe.
• In Weeks 10-12, after reading A-Z Mysteries: The Kidnapped King by Ron Roy, students write about whether they think Dink’s friends will like Sammi and whether they think the kaleidoscope is important or not.
• In Week 30, after reading Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me by Jon Scieszka, students explain why they think Zeus appears to the boys and why he is angry by using evidence to support their opinion.

The interactive read-aloud concludes with a prompt for writing each day. Sentence frames and other supports are provided to make the writing quick and targeted. Some examples of evidence-based writing in ELA include:

• In Week 13, after hearing Arrow to the Sun by Gerald Mcdermott, students tell which kiva they think is the worst and why using evidence from the text.
• In Weeks 16 and 17, students listen to Tornado by Betsy Byars and then students write why Tornado got his name.
• In Week 23, after students hear My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris, students write one or two sentences that tell about the main lesson from the book.
• In Week 29, after hearing D is for Dancing: A China Alphabet by Carol Crane, students draw a picture of what they think a human pagoda might look like using evidence from the text.
• In Week 34, after hearing How Do You Raise a Raisin? by Pam Munoz Ryan, students write a paragraph following raisins from the cutting to the trailer.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 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.

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide explicit instruction on Grade 2 grammar and conventions standards 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. The read-alouds provide the context for instruction of grammar and conventions. When there is not a read-aloud, students practice skills out of context through writing instruction and tasks.

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

• Students have opportunities to use collective nouns. For example:
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students use the sentence, They bought plants because my mother likes to grow plants. from the text, Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday. The teacher prompts, “If I replace mother, I need another noun. Let’s try a noun that represents a whole group of people.” The teacher prompts students to create a list of collective nouns such as: team, group, family, friends, cousins. The lesson plan encourages the teacher to change the word likes to like if needed.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, an example sentence is provided, “Metal is a useful material for making many objects.” The word ‘objects’ is defined as representing a group of objects. The discussion continues with brainstorming names of specific items that could be used to replace the word ‘objects’ - “Metal is a useful material for making _____.”
• Students have opportunities to form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns. For example:
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 9, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students use the sentence, She looked around, and almost all the children nodded, from the text, Gooney Bird Greene. The lesson asks the students to replace the word children with other plural nouns. In this case, the word children is an irregular plural noun. The teacher says, “Now I’ve taken away children. What a coincidence! Children is a plural form of child. Most plurals are made with just -s or -es. But some are irregular. Person means one. What about more than one? That’s people! What verbs can go with people? All of the people shouted. All of the people waved. All of the people smiled.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 17, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, using the sentence frame, “Nothing came down from the sky except _____ and _____.” Students are prompted to think of nouns that came down from the sky.
• Students have opportunities to use reflexive pronouns. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, the teacher shares the following two sentences to be combined: Animals use mimicry. Mimicry helps animals look like other things. The teacher points out the two sentences have the word animals in them. The teacher asks which pronoun could be used in the place of animals (them). The teacher shares that themselves would also work here and gives examples of the use of myself and yourself. The teacher combines the two sentences: Animals use mimicry to help themselves look like other things. The teacher asks students to think about using the following reflexive nouns in their writing: myself, yourself, himself, herself and themselves.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, Combine, instruction is provided on combining two sentences and using a pronoun to better explain. Example: “The boy buys a cookie. The boy buys a cookie for his sister too. Prompt as one possibility: “The boy buys a cookie for himself and his sister.”
• Students have opportunities to form and use the past tense of frequently occurring regular verbs. For example:
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 9, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, students are asked to use the sentence: She looked around, and almost all the children nodded. from the text, Gooney Bird Greene. The lesson prompts the teacher to guide the class in changing the verb nodded. The teacher says, “Nodded is a verb. I see the -ed ending, so I know that it is a past tense verb. What if it was art class? If I wanted to say draw, but in the past. It would be drew. What if it was physical education? If I wanted to say run, but in the past. It would be ran. What if it was lunch, and I wanted to say eat, but in the past? It would be ate. Most verbs show the past with -ed. There are a few that have different forms. We’ll keep looking for them and we can make an anchor chart to help us remember the correct forms.”
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 16, Day 2, Teach Sentence Composing Imitate, using the sentence frame: We ___ for a moment, ____., students use past tense verbs that end in -ed or are irregular in the first blank and an adjective that make sense in the second blank.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 30, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher has students provide past-tense verbs that could complete the following sentence frame: Now when Rhodopis danced, her feet ___ like _____.
• Students have opportunities to use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher shares the sentence: I got more gum. The teacher says, “Let’s add more detail.” The teacher discusses adjectives and asks students what adjectives could be used to describe gum. The teacher shares the sentence from the book: I know because I used to be rich. The teacher explains that rich is the adjective. The teacher removes rich from the sentence and asks student to give other adjectives that could be used.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, this sentence is provided: The ledge was being eroded. Students are guided to expand on the sentence by adding an adjective to describe the ledge and an adverb to tell how. A phrase beginning with because will also be added to explain why.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher shares the sentence: Slowly, the pebbles were carried away. The teacher explains that slowly is an adverb that describes the verb and that adverbs usually end in -ly. The teacher and students think of other adverbs that could be used in the sentence and match a noun that would make sense.
• Students have opportunities to produce, expand, and rearrange complete, simple, and compound sentences. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 3, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher shares the sentence: First we need wool. The teacher asks students to suggest adjectives that could describe wool.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing Combining, several simple sentences are provided about items that will stick to a magnet and one that will not. Instruction is provided as to how students might combine them to make a more interesting, complex sentence.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 25, Day 5, Teach Sentence Composing, Expand, the teacher and students expand the sentence: Poppy suspected that few grieved. to tell when and why.
• Students have opportunities to capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 4, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate: the teacher asks students to identify different nouns that could be substituted in the sentence frame: One ___ there was a great ___. The teacher reminds students that if a proper noun is used it needs to be capitalized.
• In the ELA Guide, Week 14, Day 5, lesson plans consistently use a checklist called Second Grade Editing Checklist. After students write descriptions of Native Americans in previous lessons, the lesson states that “students will work with a partner to review and edit their papers.” The Second Grade Editing Checklist asks students to check the following criteria: I capitalized the first word in each sentence; I capitalized the pronoun I; I capitalized product names, holidays, and geographic names; I used end punctuation for sentences; I used commas in greetings and closings of a letter, date, and in a series; I used apostrophes for contractions and to show ownership; and I used spelling patterns I know to help me spell words I don’t know.
• Students have opportunities to use commas in greetings and closings of letters. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 4, during Assign or Model Written Response, the following format is used to write an invitation to a Christmas party: Dear ______, Please come to our Christmas party. The date is _______. The time is _____. The address is _______. We hope to see you there! Sincerely, Anna.
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 3, Day 3, Assign or Model Written Response, the students are assigned to write a letter to an old woman thanking her for some cherries. The letter format is provided.
• Students have opportunities to use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives. For example:
• In the ELA Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 1, Teach Sentence Composing, Imitate, the teacher has students create new sentences using nouns and adjectives in the sentence frame: The frog’s ___ is ____. The teacher explains that the ‘s shows that something belongs to the frog.

Students have opportunities to generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words. For example:  

• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 8, Day 1, Teach Word Study, direct instruction on reading and spelling long and short /e/ spelling patterns is provided. As words are introduced, words are sorted into /e/, /ee/, and /ea/ patterns. After all the words are sorted, words are chorally read. Words are mixed up for students to sort and write on page 72 of the student workbook.
• 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.

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

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide systematic and explicit instruction in phonics. Students have opportunities to learn foundational skills in both Shared Reading and during Differentiated Instruction, where systematic and explicit instruction is embedded within the lessons. A transparent progression is in place.

Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g., distinguish long and short vowel sounds, apply spelling-sound relationship on common words, decode two syllable words with long vowels). Examples include, but not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 2, Word Study, the teacher reviews the letters that are vowels and reminds students that vowels can represent different sounds. The teacher explains that when the vowel is making the long sound, it is saying its name and when the pattern is CVC, the vowel is a short vowel and is making the short vowel sound. The teacher further explains that if the pattern is vCe, the vowel sound is long. The students listen to each word read aloud and determine if the vowel sound is a short vowel or a long vowel. The following words are read in a mixed order: his, box, glad, pick, get, bus, snack, mine, close, came, drive, here, safe, rule. The students and teacher chorally read the word lists once they are sorted.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students engage in differentiating long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words during “Teaching Letter Patterns.” The teacher says “We are going to start by listening for vowel sounds. We are going to review words that have the short-vowel sounds in hat, pig, pot, and sun. We are going to review words that have the long-vowel sounds in cake, bike, bone, and cube. I’ll say a word and you point to the picture with the same vowel sound.” The teach distributes cards and goes through 15 words as the students listen for the vowel sound and point to the correct clue word on their visual.
• Students have opportunities to know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students engage in decoding by analogy. The teacher says “We are going to work with some vowel patterns. The way we’ll do it is we’ll learn a set of clue words, and we’ll use those words to read other wods. Your clue words today are rain, May, and eight. They all use patterns to spell the same sound. In the word rain, the letters a and i represent the sound /a/.” The teacher explains the pattern in May and eight that say /a/, as well. The teacher then says, “Keep your clue words on top of your new words. Touch your new word. Find the vowel pattern. Then touch the clue word with the same vowel pattern. When I say “Go,” I want you to say: “I know_______, so this is _________.”  For example, “ I know May, this must be way.”
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, a generic lesson plan is provided that includes instruction on long vowel teams. Students learn a set of clue words and use them to read other words. In this sample lesson the clue words are: rain, May, eight. Students use them to read: spray, paid, freight, stain, pay, claim, sprain, train, stray, veil, straight. Fifteen lists of words and passages for decoding are provided for practice during small group instruction.
• Students have opportunities to decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson plans, Week 1, the students review VCe words. The optional challenge words include two-syllable words with long vowels: replace, refuse, polite, comment
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the lesson plan includes spelling practice of words with closed, open, and vowel-consonant-e syllables: compose, athlete, donate, refuge, stampede, ignite, supreme, volume, deplete, expire, estate, humane, immune, dictate, divide.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the strategy of placing a dot underneath each vowel and then deciding how to divide the word into its syllables is reviewed. Students are instructed that if vowel-consonant-e is found in a word that the vowel sound will be long. Student use what they know about the three syllable types to decode 2 syllable words.
• Students have opportunities to decode words with common prefixes and suffixes. For example: 
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students learn prefixes on Day 1 and Day 2. The students learn a prefix is a word part used at the beginning of a word. Students divide and read words with prefixes by finding the prefix, read the root word and then read the prefix and root word together. On Day 3 and 4, the students learn a suffix is a word part used at the end of a word. Students learn to divide and read words with suffixes. On Day 5, the students work with words that have prefixes and suffixes. The students learn that to divide and read words with prefixes and suffixes, they should find the prefix, find the suffix, read the root word, and then read the prefix, root word, and suffix together.
• Students have opportunities to identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences. For example: 
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 17 Day 1, Word Study, the teacher says, “This week we will work on reading and spelling words with the /ar/ and the /ay/ sounds. The /ar/ sound is spelled with a-r. Three ways to represent the /ay/ sound are: a-r-e, a-i, a-i-r. Listen to each word and think about which pattern you hear.” In this set of lessons, the a-r-e pattern is inconsistent with the a-r pattern but is a common spelling-sound correspondence for long /a/.

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

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, mentions 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 the Teacher Manual, Appendix D, shows the cohesive sequence of phonics instruction during Shared Reading, moving from reviewing VCe and r-control words, to sorting words with vowel teams, then sorting words with common vowel digraphs, to words with beginning blends and digraphs, and ending the year with irregular plural words and y to -ies spellings.

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

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide explicit instruction and regular practice in print concepts, text structures and text features. Identifying text structures and text features are part of ELA and Shared Reading lessons.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 1, Day 1, Teach Text Structure Anchor Chart, the teacher reminds students that stories have parts. The teacher tells the students the setting is the place and time where the story happens and the characters are people or animals in the story. The teacher and students work to summarize what they know so far on the story map.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, Day 1, the teacher previews the text structure of sequence with the students. The teacher explains they will be reading nonfiction text and that in nonfiction text, the information is real, the illustrator is often a photographer, and nonfiction books have no characters, problems, and resolutions. The teacher explains the text will be a cycle book, and the author shares a series of events that happen over and over again.
• In Shared Reading, Week 6, Day 1, the teacher previews the text structure of sequential organization. The teacher explains a book that uses a sequential organization means the author will tells the events in time order.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 20, Day 2, Teach Text Structure Anchor Chart, the teacher reminds students that a biography is generally structured as a sequence of events. Students create a timeline based on the events in the text.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 25, Day 1, Teach Text Structure Anchor Chart, the teacher and students identify the main topic and subtopics of the book using a web organizer.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 1, Teach Text Structure, direct instruction is provided about how the author wrote the book in two parts. A diagram is included with a section about how magnets work and how magnets are used.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 7, Day 1, Preview Text Structure Anchor Chart, the teacher tells about the table of contents. The teacher explains that the table of contents helps us to know how the author has organized information.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 3, the teacher and students discuss the title and subtitle of the text: Cracking Up: A Story about Erosion.
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 4, Day 4, Model a Comprehension Strategy and Ask Questions During Reading, as the text is read the teacher is prompted to explain to students how to use a diagram to understand what is being read. “End of page 10: “This diagram is called a cross-section. It lets us see what’s happening underground, where we can’t see in real life.”
• In ELA Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 3, the teacher is prompted to point out that the book does not have an illustrator because all of the pictures are photographs.

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

Bookworms Grade 2 materials support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words during weekly Teach Word Study lessons. Students learn a phonics skill, sort words based on the sound and decode the words with the phonic focus. High-frequency words are a focus of daily lessons in the How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Using Letter Sounds, Using Letter Patterns, and Basic Letter Patterns, which students participate in during small group instruction. There are opportunities for students to purposely read grade-level text through the weekly opportunities including choral and echo reading in the Shared Reading Lessons.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 2, students participate in choral and partner reading of Ivy and Bean and then engage in a comprehension discussion with the following questions:
• Do you think that the spell book is real? Why or why not?
• Why do you think Ivy pretended that she was going to be sick in Mrs. Tranz’s yard?
• How was Bean helpful to Ivy?
• How was Ivy helpful to Bean?
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 15, Day 1, after the students participate in choral reading and partner reading of If You Lived with the Cherokee, students then engage in a comprehension discussion with the following questions:
• Look at the map. Which Native Americans have we already learned about who lived close to the Cherokee?
• It says that the Cherokee moved. What other Native Americans that we learned about moved?
• What kinds of things do you think the Cherokee may have traded with the explorers and the settlers?
• Why did the author write the book this way?
• Is 200 years ago a long time? Why?
• In the Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 30, Day 1, the students participate in choral reading and partner reading of Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me. Students then engage in a comprehension discussion with the following questions:
• How can we tell that Cerberus is actually real?
• What do you think the Book is?
• How is the setting of this story similar to Day of the Dragon King?
• What do you think is going to happen next? Why?
• Does anyone know what a toga looks like?
• Look up an image if they don’t.
• Sam has a lyre. Does anyone know what that is?
• In the Teacher Manual, under Shared Reading: Comprehension, it states that “In Bookworms Reading and Writing, we always help students target important content by providing a specific focus before they read. This will help them access relevant prior knowledge and lead them toward an appropriate mental representation of text meaning. You will see that in multiple readings the students always have a new purpose for reading. We never target skills in our language with children; we always target meaning.” Additionally, “during choral reading, you will be prompted to model one of seven high-utility comprehension strategies. When you  model, you tell the students how you use the strategy to increase your own comprehension of the text. Specifically, you tell what the strategy is, how you used it, and why you used it. Remember that modeling is showing your own thinking; it is different from prompting students to use strategies. Strategies targeted in these lessons are listed in the table below along with procedural cues. Note that we provide the text just before the spot where you think the modeling is most appropriate.” Additionally, the teacher manual says “Over time, strategic processing can become normal routine. Using the same language from book to book conveys the message that the reasoning process is the same. To learn more about this approach to comprehension strategy talk, see Explaining Reading (Duffy, G. G. (2014). Explaining reading: A resource for explicit teaching of the Common Core Standards (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Guildford Press.).

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 5, Day 2, the students participate in choral reading of Ivy and Bean with the teacher. Students reread the text with a partner and look to find ways that Ivy is surprising.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 15, Day 1, the students participate in choral reading of If You Lived with the Cherokee. Students reread the text with partners and think about how life may have changed for the Cherokee when the settlers came.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 30, Day 1, the students participate in choral reading of Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me. Students reread the text with partners and look for clues about the main characters.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students use decodable texts to participate in Whisper Reading (application of decoding and word recognition), Partner Reading (calls for an authentic purpose for rereading) and Choral Reading (ensures that any decoding errors do not remain uncorrected and that the day’s text is read at least once at an appropriate rate).

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 17 Day 1, Word Study, the teacher says “This week we will work on reading and spelling words with the /ar/ and the /ay/ sounds. The /ar/ sound is spelled with a-r. Three ways to represent the /ay/ sound are: a-r-e, a-i, a-i-r. Listen to each word and think about which pattern you hear.” In this set of lessons, the a-r-e pattern is inconsistent with the a-r pattern but is a common spelling-sound correspondence for long /a/.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 18, Day 1, students work on reading and spelling words that have /e/, /er/, /ee/ and /ay//r/ working together.
• The /e/ sound can be spelled e-a.
• The /ee/ sound can be spelled e-e and e-a.
• The /er/ sound can be spelled e-r and e-a-r.
• The /ay/ - /r/ sounds can be spelled e-a-r.

A column is made for each spelling pattern. Words are given that have one of the spelling patterns and the word is sorted accordingly.

• /e/ word: deaf
• /ay/-/r/ word: bear
• /er/ words: perch, clerk, earth
• /ee/ words: streak, cheek, creek

Optional challenge words: rehearse, converse, repeat, person.

The students read the words chorally in each column.

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades 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. Students review and learn new high-frequency words at a pace of two per day for the first two weeks, and then review 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.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades 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.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide opportunities for students to learn foundational skills in connected texts and tasks. In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, students have opportunities to participate in writing sentences based in the word study pattern, and students have opportunities to read texts with decodable words and high-frequency words. During Differentiated Instruction, Word Recognition and Fluency small group, students read decodable texts that contain high-frequency words.

Materials support students’ development to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g apply spelling-sound relationship on common words, decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels, decode words with common prefixes and suffixes) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, a generic lesson plan is provided that includes instruction on long vowel teams. The plan includes the use of passages for decoding are provided for practice during small group instruction.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, steps are provided for reading text with students that contain multisyllabic words.
• Introduce the words and have student mark the vowels and divide the words.
• Lead the students to chorally pronounce each word part and then say the entire word.
• Distribute an authentic, engaging, near grade level text and engage students in a choral reading for 5 minutes (If too difficult, switch to echo reading.).
• Engage the students in a re-reading of the day’s segment of text (whisper reading or partner reading).
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, R-Controlled Vowels, students read the following text which contains r-controlled vowels in-context: I can sit in the sun. I get a sunburn. The sunburn can hurt me. I must rub it. It hurts so much. I cannot sit in the sun so much. A sunburn is bad.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Vowel-Consonant-e, students read the following text which contains VCe: I saw a cook with a white hat. His hat had a flat top. He could make a cake. He had eggs and butter. He had milk and flour. He could bake a cake for a birthday. He could bake a cake for my mother. I had a long chat with the cook.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 21, Day 4, students read History’s All Stars: Abraham Lincoln. The text contains irregularly spelled words.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 28, Day 1, students read Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King. The text contains irregularly spelled words.
• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, R-Controlled Vowels, students read the following text which contains high-frequency words: I saw a ship at a port. It was dark. The ship had a torch. The torch was hot. The torch had a lot of light. The light was on the rocks. A torch can help a ship.

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

• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 6, students learn short a and long a sounds. Students learn to decode words such as snag, scrape, span, paste, strange, clay, play, may, gray. On Day 2, students do a Written Response of two sentences, and students are to use two of their word study words in each sentence.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 18, students learn /e/, /er/, /ee/, /ay-/r/. Students learn words such as head, wear, herd, team, deaf, bear, perch, clerk, earth, streak, cheek, and creek. On Day 2, students do a Written Response of two sentences, and students are to use two of their word study words in each sentence.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials supporting ongoing and frequent assessment to determine student mastery and inform meaningful differentiation of foundational skills, including a clear and specific protocol as to how students performing below standard on these assessments will be supported.

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide opportunities to assess students on some foundational skills. Some assessments include the Informal Decoding Inventory (IDI), which is administered at the beginning of the year, as well as, Test of Fry Instant Words. Subtest assessments are given after three to six weeks of instruction and weekly Word Study tests are administered. These assessment opportunities support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Although most of the foundational skills are assessed through Word Study tests and assessments included in the How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, thorough, frequent fluency assessments are not provided. The materials do direct the teacher to the use of oral reading fluency assessments such as AIMSweb or DIBELS Next.

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

• In Teacher Manual, Appendix F, Informal Decoding Inventory, 6 subtests that progress in difficulty: Short Vowels, Consonant Blends and Digraphs, R-Controlled Vowel Patterns, Consonant-Vowel-e, Vowel Teams, Multisyllabic Words. The first five subtests have twenty words in each: 10 real words, 10 nonsense words. The multisyllabic subtest consists of 10 real words that progressively differ in syllable type.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, 4 types of assessments described:
• Screening Measures of achievement in a particular area are given at the beginning of the year and again at midyear;
• Diagnostic Measures follow Screening Measures 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 administered at the end of a unit of instruction, or the end of the school year.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, 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 is presented orally to the student. Words such as mad, bag, fan, map, hat, fin, lip, and hit are included. The sounding and blending section is presented visually to the students so 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, R-Controlled Vowel, assessment is suggested after 29 lessons. The assessment consists of 15 words that can be read as a whole word or by sounding and blending. A score of 10/15 words read correctly is an indicator of proficiency. Examples of words in this assessment include chart, term, skirt, north and burn. It also includes 15 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. Again, a score of 10/15 is an indicator of proficiency. 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 Teams, assessment is suggested after 30 lessons. It consists of having students read words with vowel teams. Seventy words are visually presented for the students to read. A score of 50 is an indicator of proficiency. Examples include shown, glue, field, blind, pray, and threw.

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, there are assessments that test foundational skills:
• Informal Decoding Inventory, Short Vowels through Vowel Teams (to determine the highest decoding skill set the student has attained in pronouncing one-syllable words of progressively more difficult patterns):
• In the Vowel Teams subtest, the teacher points to the word neat and says, “What is this word?” The assessment includes the following words: neat, spoil, goat, pail, field, fruit, claim, meet, beast, craid, houn, rowb, noy, feap, nuit, maist, ploat, tead, steen
• Informal Decoding Inventory, Multisyllabic Words (to determine proficiency in pronouncing two-syllable words of progressively more difficult patterns):
• In the Multisyllabic Words subtest, the teacher points to the word flannel and says “What is this word?” The following words are included in the assessment: flannel, submit, cupid, spiky, confide, cascade, varnish, surplus, chowder, approach

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, it explains how to use the assessment results to form groups in the second half of grade 1 and beyond.
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency and failure to pass the Multisyllabic subtest of the IDI, place the student in a Fluency and Comprehension group with Multisyllabic Decoding.
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency but the student passes the Multisyllabic subtest of the IDI, place the student in a Fluency and Comprehension group without Multisyllabic Decoding.
• Failure to pass the benchmark in fluency and pass the Vowel Teams subtest of the IDI, follow the steps in Figure 3.4
• If the student passes the benchmark in fluency- place the student in a Vocabulary and Comprehension group
• In the Teacher’s Manual, Evaluation and Grading, a sample word study assessment is provided. This type of assessment asks students to use the featured patterns from the week’s word study focus to spell 15 words, including one transfer word from each featured pattern, with the remaining words coming from the word study list. “For each word, write a plus (+) in the blank next to it if the student correctly pronounces it until you have identified 10 unknown words. If you re-administer the inventory, return only to those words not automatically recognized during previous testing.”
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the book states, “formative assessments are most useful when they are given periodically” and “we recommend 3-week and in some cases 6-week cycles” for teachers to “regularly take stock of student progress and adjust their instruction accordingly.” After each cycle, “the last day of the cycle is devoted entirely to assessments that target the work the students have undertaken during the past weeks.” These assessments can be seen at the end of each skill set. For examples, see pages 75-76, 86, 95, and 147 to see end-of-skill assessments.

The Bookworms materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills, so all students achieve mastery of foundational skills.  

Bookworms Grade 2 materials provide differentiated lessons and guidance based on screening test results, assessment results and progress monitoring results in order for teachers to support each student’s learning needs.

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Multisyllabic Decoding, Week 11: Vowel Teams, instruction is provided about decoding words with open, closed, r-controlled, and vowel team syllables. “A strategy you can use is to place a dot underneath each single vowel and an underline beneath a vowel team.” Students mark the vowels in words, divide the syllables, decode, and then blend them to read the word.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Multisyllabic Decoding, Week 9: Closed, Open, and Vowel-Consonant-e Syllables, the strategy of placing a dot underneath each vowel and then deciding how to divide the word into its syllables is reviewed. Students are instructed that if vowel-consonant-e is found in a word that the vowel sound will be long. Students use what they know about the three syllable types to decode  syllable words.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, Multisyllabic Decoding, Week 4: pre-, dis-, -able, -er, -ar, -or, -ed, each day of Week 4, a prefix and/or suffix is taught, and students have guided practice in reading words containing a prefix or suffix. There is a segment where students practice spelling words with the prefix or suffix that was taught.
• In Shared Reading Lesson Plans, Week 2, Day 1, Word Study, the focus of the lesson is on reading and spelling words with long and short vowel sounds. After listening for the the short or long sound of the vowel, the word is shown to students and sorted based on CVC or CVCe. Once the words are all sorted, students read the words in each group. Words included in the lesson: short vowel words: did, dog, hug; long vowel words: like, home, huge; Optional challenge words: propose, remake, revise, promote.

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

• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, coaching template for vowel teams explain instructional decisions and processes for the lesson components:
• During High-Frequency Words, the teacher selects words based on the high-frequency word inventory. Two new words are introduced each day.  The teacher is instructed to stretch the sounds first and then print the word. The teacher shows how the sounds match the letters from left to right. The teacher gives the children the two news words and the previously taught ones on a list. The teacher calls the words, and the students touch them. The teacher calls the words, and the students spell them aloud
• In Vowel Team Analogies, the teacher introduces the key words for the day and reviews the vowel patterns. Students receive the day’s card. Students find its vowel pattern and then touch a key word with the same vowel pattern. Students chorally respond. “I know ________. This must be ________.”
• During student practice, the teacher models the whole card and then sets a timer for 1 minute. The students are to practice on their own. The teacher is reminded that the students should look at each word, say it if they know, or sound and blend it if they don’t.
• During Decoding Text Reading, the teacher pre-teaches words that will be problematic. The teacher sets a timer and asks students to whisper read until time is called. The teacher tells student that if they know the words, they should say them, and if they don’t, they should sound and blend. Then the students switch to partner reading. The teacher has students read alternate sentences until time is called and that one student should read while the other tracks and listes. The teacher is directed to coach students to reread.
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, coaching template for fluency and comprehension with multisyllabic decoding, includes:
• Through choral response, the teacher helps student chorally to pronounce each word part and then to say the entire word.
• During First Reading, the teacher shares a near grade level text with few or no text features. The teacher engages students in an initial choral reading of a new text segment for 5-minutes. If the text appears to be too difficult, the teacher can switch to echo reading.
• In Second Reading, the teacher engages the students in a rereading of the day’s segment. The teacher can use whisper reading, or partner reading if the text is more difficult.
• 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 administered to determine current skill levels. For example (page 201-202), if a student passed the Vowel Team subset of the Informal Decoding Inventory, but is not reading at fluency benchmark, the student should be placed in a Fluency and Comprehension small group which may or may not include instruction on multisyllabic decoding (at the discretion of the teacher).

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

• In How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, the number of lessons for each foundational skill focus is listed:
• Vowel Teams (30 lessons)
• Multisyllabic Decoding (18 weeks)
• In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, after students are placed appropriately in a foundational skills group, they receive targeted instruction in that skill for either a three-week or six-week cycle. For example, K if students are receiving instruction in “Letter Sounds” starting on page 78 in In How to Plan for Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3, students will 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, a generic lesson plan is provided that includes instruction on long vowel teams. Students learn a set of clue words and use them to read other words. In this sample lesson the clue words are: rain, May, eight. Students use them to read: spray, paid, freight, stain, pay, claim, sprain, train, stray, veil, straight. Fifteen lists of words and passages for decoding are provided for practice during small group instruction.