The materials include a clearly delineated scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction that builds from simpler to more complex skills while also building towards the application of skills. However, the materials have a limited evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. The materials are based on high-utility phonics patterns and generalizations.

Materials contain a limited evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence for teaching phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Overview, the materials introduce Scarborough’s Reading Rope and The Simple View of Reading. The Chapter 1 video includes a visual depiction of the Reading Rope. The materials do not include a graphic for the Simple View of Reading. The materials do not cite or discuss any other research, including research for phonics generalizations.

• In the Introduction, Multisyllabic Word Reading, guidance is provided to the teacher for teaching syllabication concepts, including a four-step process to divide words. Teacher guidance addresses syllabication rules and prompts students to use different rules and word meanings when decoding. 

• In the Chapter 3 Overview, the video reviews the skills covered in Unit 2, Weeks 5-10 by explaining that students are “introduced to many new skills such as long vowels with various spelling patterns, soft Cc and Gg sounds, and possessives.” The video does not make a connection between the skills taught and the research.

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction, from simpler to more complex skills, and practice to build toward the application of skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Scope and Sequence outlines the progression of phonics concepts across the school year, increasing in complexity. Week 1 begins with a review of short vowels and inflectional endings, then progresses through consonant digraphs, consonant blends, doubling, and closed syllable rules. As the year progresses, students learn long vowels with silent e, y as a vowel, soft c and g, long vowel teams, and r-controlled vowels. Phonics concepts continue to increase in complexity as students study complex vowels, diphthongs, syllable division, schwa, suffixes, and prefixes. The Scope and Sequence ends with four weeks of review.

  • Unit 1: Short Vowels: a, i, o (CCVC words); Endings: -es, -s, -ing, -ed with no spelling changes; Short Vowels: e, u; -ss, -ll, -zz, -ff with short vowels; What is a syllable? Closed Syllables (VC/CV); Consonant Digraphs: sh, ch, tch, ck, wh, th; Inflectional endings: -ed (3 sounds); Syllable Division: closed syllables +le; Consonant Blends: initial and final; Consonant Clusters: spl-, spr-, scr-, str-; Doubling Rule; Closed Syllable Division (VCC/CV, VC/CCV)

  • Unit 2: Long Vowels with final silent e (CVCe, CCVCe); y as a vowel, soft g/c, possessives; Long vowel teams: ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oa, oe, ow, ie, igh, ui, ue; R-Controlled vowels with syllable division

  • Unit 3: Complex Vowels: ew, oo (long), ou (short), au, aw, all, alk, alt; Diphthongs: oi, oy, ou, ow; Syllable Division: VC/V, V/CV, Consonant +le words with closed, open, and r-controlled syllables

  • Unit 4: Silent letter combinations: kn, wr, -mg, gn; Schwa, Compound Words (two syllables, two syllables and more); Contractions, Homophones; Suffixes: -er, -est, -ly, -ful, -less; Prefixes un-, re-, dis-, mis-, pre-; Prefixes and Suffixes with 3-syllable words

  • Unit 5: Final stable syllables: -ture, -sure, -tion, -sion; Additional Affixes: -y, -ness, -ment, -able, -ible; Low Frequency Spellings; Review: short and long vowels, double consonants, consonant digraphs, consonant clusters; r-controlled vowels, vowel teams, diphthongs; silent letters, compound words, contractions, prefixes, suffixes, syllable division

• In Unit 5, Week 23, instruction focuses on the most commonly used prefixes and suffixes: -er, -est, -ly. Then it advances to more complex prefixes and suffixes in Unit 5, Week 29, with instruction focusing on Final Stable Syllables: -ture, -sure, -tion, -sion.

Phonics instruction is based on high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Weeks 1–17, the focus is on reviewing prior phonics concepts and then introduce high-utility phonics generalizations, including complex vowels, silent letter combinations, and two-syllable division. Weeks 18–34 focus on compound words, the schwa, affixes (e.g., re-, dis-, pre-, -ture, -tion, -y, sion, etc.), and other final stable syllables.  

• In Week 17, Day 1, the teacher tells students about words with silent letters, saying, “The silent letters we’ll work with today are found in the consonant combinations kn, wr. When these letters are together, the first letter is silent. The second letter stands for the sound.”

• In Week 24, Day 1, the teacher tells students that the suffix -ful means “full of” and the suffix -less means “without.”

The materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of phonics skills. The materials include a structured, consistent blending routine with teacher modeling, specifically the Finger-Blending Strategy. The materials include instruction for dictation of words and sentences. The materials include limited guidance on providing corrective feedback. 

Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of newly-taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.

  • In Week 31, Day 1, the teacher writes the vowels a, e, i, o, and u on a five-column chart. Students generate short and long vowel words for each vowel. The teacher records the words, reads them aloud, and points out any common vowel spellings or patterns. 

• Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.

  • In Week 7, Day 1, the teacher identifies words from the Vowel Teams Sound Poster and the Sound Story that have the long a vowel sound. The teacher says, “The words Saige, rainy, always, explaining, trail, rainforest, stayed, sashayed, and wait all have the long a sound, /ā/, in the middle.” The teacher reviews the words Sunday, today, say, day, and play, explaining that they all have a long a sound at the end. The teacher states, “All of these words have the vowel team ai or ay in the middle or at the end.” The teacher displays the Word Construction Cards ai, ay. The teacher taps the letters and says the letter names: a, i, a, y. The teacher explicitly states, “In each of these two vowel teams, the first vowel is the leader: a.”

  • In Week 12, Day 1, the teacher explains the words good, cook, look, playbook, rook, stood, and took have the vowel sound /oo/ spelled with oo. The teacher displays the Letter Card oo, ou and says the names of the letters, explaining both of these vowel teams can stand for the same sound. 

• Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.

  • In Week 15, Day 4, the teacher tells students they will learn about the syllable pattern VCV to divide, build, and read longer words. The teacher displays the Syllable Division Sound Poster, Multisyllabic Words, and writes the following sentence on the board, “Logan is frozen in place when the tuba begins playing.” The teacher guides students to divide frozen into syllables and identify the VCV pattern. The teacher models drawing a slash between o and z and reading the open syllable with a long vowel sound. The teacher repeats the procedure to divide and read begins. 

Lessons include blending and segmenting practice using structured, consistent blending routines with teacher modeling. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In the Introduction, Instructional Strategies, the materials explain the instructional routine for the Finger Blending Strategy. This strategy is used daily in conjunction with Word Construction Cards in the We Do portion of each lesson. The teacher builds and displays a word with the phonics pattern. Students say each sound while holding up one finger for each of the sounds. Then, students close their fist when they say the word aloud.

• In Week 1, Day 1, the teacher used the Word Construction Cards a, t to model blending sounds by saying /a/, /t/. Then, the teacher reads the word at using the Finger Blending Strategy.

• In Week 14, Day 1, the teacher writes the words joy, toys, coins, and voice on the board. A student comes to the board and points to or circles the diphthong oi or oy in each word. The teacher directs students to say the sound that the diphthong stands for /oy/. The teacher and students repeat this routine for the oi pattern. Students use the Finger-Blending Strategy to blend each sound in the word join. Students then segment the sounds in the word join using their Spell Tabs. Then, students slide their finger, blend the sounds, and read the word, join. 

Lessons include dictation of words and sentences using the newly taught phonics pattern(s). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Week 11, Day 4, the teacher dictates the words boost, drew, choose, and grew, sound by sound. Students use the Finger-Spelling Strategy to write the words. The teacher dictates the following sentence for students to write: I outgrew my pants, so I need to choose some new ones.”

• In Week 12, Day 4, the teacher dictates the words crooked, hooked, could, and looked sound by sound. Students use the Finger-Spelling Strategy to write the words. The teacher dictates the following sentence for students to write: I hiked up the crooked path so I could look at the birds. 

• In Week 18, Day 4, the teacher dictates the words ribbons, wagon, seven, and brother syllable by syllable and sound by sound. Students use the Finger-Spelling Strategy to write the words. The teacher dictates the following sentences for students to write: There are seven ribbons tied onto the wagon. My brother pulls it along the path.

Materials include limited teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Week 12, Day 4, the materials state the teacher will circulate the room and “provide corrective feedback as needed” while students use the Finger-Spelling Strategy to spell the words crooked, hooked, could, look.

The materials include decodable texts aligned to the phonics Scope and Sequence. Decodable passages are included in the READ book for each week. The lesson plans include opportunities for two reads of each passage, but lesson plans to support repeated reading lack detail beyond brief teacher reminders of the week’s phonics focus and Red Words. The program also includes a Decodables Library. While these texts are briefly mentioned in the lesson plans, there are no lesson plans for these texts; the materials indicate that these texts are intended to support small group or independent reading practice without clear guidance for use and implementation. 

Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 7,  the Scope and Sequence indicates a phonics focus on consonant long vowel teams: ai, ay, ee, ea, ey. The week’s READ book includes the decodable text, A Change in the Air, which includes the following CVVC words using ai, ay, ee, ea, ey: air, mailbox, May, raindrops, hailstones, seeds, weeds, Ray, beat, clean, they.

• In Week 10, the Scope and Sequence indicates a phonics focus on r-controlled vowels with syllable division. The week’s READ book includes the decodable text My Mother, which includes the following r-controlled words: mother, nurse, after, work, first, shirt, germs, curly, unfurling, girl, twirls, arms, garden, porch, birds, chirp, world, corn, dirt, herd, nature, surprises.

Materials do not include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address acquisition of phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 17, Day 5, students reread the story Abby’s Journal. The materials lack lesson plans to support the second read. 

• In Week 21, Days 4 and 5, students read and reread the decodable text Here’s the Place. The teacher reminds students on both days, “Use what you have learned about contractions as well as the Red Words you have learned: don’t, it’s, I’ll, didn’t.”

Reading practice occurs in decodable texts (i.e., an absence of predictable texts) until students can accurately decode single syllable words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In the Introduction, Getting Started, it states, “On Day 5 in the last week of each unit, the Decodable Books that reinforce the sound-spelling relationships and Red Words learned throughout the unit are listed. Teachers can use these Decodable Books during or after the unit of instruction is taught for small group instruction or independent practice.”  

• In Week 28, Days 4 and 5, students read the decodable text, The Shiniest Bike. The text includes decodable words and previously taught Red Words without picture cues or predictable text. 

• In Week 25, Days 4 and 5, students read the decodable text, The Science Fair. The phonics focus of the week is on suffixes: un-, re-, dis-. The decodable text includes the following words that connect to the phonics focus: uneven, discover, rewire, dislike. This text includes the following Red Words: read, group, open, water.

The materials include weekly formative assessments in the form of Weekly Checks. These checks include encoding words in isolation and in the context of a sentence. The Weekly Checks do not include decoding tasks. The Weekly Checks include a document titled, Guidelines for Interpretation of Assessment Data, that provides general guidance for whole group and small group reteaching based on assessment data. Materials also include a document titled, Weekly Check Scoring Guidelines, which provides information for instructional next steps based on assessment data. The materials also include a beginning, middle, and end-of-the-year phonics assessment, which assesses students’ encoding skills. This assessment lacks information about students’ current levels but does provide teachers with instructional next steps based on assessment data. The materials also include a beginning, middle, and end-of-the-year phonics assessment, which assesses students’ encoding skills. This assessment lacks information about students’ current levels but does provide teachers with instructional next steps based on assessment data. 

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonics; however, assessments do not include decoding tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In the Introduction, Downloadable Resources, the materials include a Grade 2 Beginning of the Year and Middle of the Year Phonics Assessments. Teachers can give this assessment to students as a whole group or in small groups. The Middle of the Year Phonics Assessment asks student to spell four words: shook, yawn, spoil, cloud. After the assessment is administered, each student’s spelling can be scored using the Student Scoring guide, with observations noted. The End of the Year Assessment is currently missing from the materials. 

• In the Introduction, Assessment-Weekly Check, materials state that “on Day 5 of instruction each week, student will participate in a Weekly Check. These checks are designed to be a quick and simple way to assess students’ progress.” 

• In Week 26, Day 5, the focus of the weekly lesson is on the following spelling patterns: prefixes mis- and pre-. During the Weekly Word Check, students listen and spell the following words in isolation: below and between. Students write both Red words and words using the spelling pattern in the context of a sentence: He made a small mistake at preschool today, She has never misplaced the form for her teacher before, and You can take the prepaid card to the market.

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

• In the Introduction, Downloadable Resources, the materials include an optional Weekly Word Check Recording Sheet. This sheet includes columns for each student with the headings Target Skill Application, Red Words Application, Sentence Conventions (when applicable), and Next Steps for Instruction. The materials do not provide guidance for the use of this form aside from general directions to use the form to gather data and track student progress, then use the data they have gathered to inform small-group instruction or reteaching. 

Materials partially support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In the Introduction, Downloadable Resources, the Grade 2 Beginning of the Year Phonics Assessment includes instructional support and next steps for teachers to use if they make any of the following observations of students’ encoding: difficulty writing initial or final sounds in words, difficulty writing the correct vowel, writing complete words correctly. Supports include kinesthetic elements, manipulatives, modeling strategies, specific strategies to encourage student sound awareness, and the use of differentiation supports within the lesson plans. 

• In the Introduction, Downloadable Resources, the Grade 2 Middle of the Year Phonics Assessment includes instructional support and next steps for teachers to use if they make any of the following observations of students’ encoding: difficulty writing with the correct letters to match the vowel sound, difficulty writing two-syllable words, writing complete words correctly. Supports include kinesthetic elements, manipulatives, modeling strategies, specific strategies to encourage student sound awareness, and the use of differentiation supports within the lesson plans. 

• In the Introduction, Downloadable Resources, the materials provide teachers with a Weekly Word Check Recording Sheet. This document tells teachers it is an optional recording sheet to track assessment data and student progress with taught skills and Red words. This document tells teachers to use the data gathered to inform small group instruction or reteaching.

• In the Weekly Checks, materials include a downloadable pdf titled, Weekly Check Scoring Guidelines, which provides information about instructional next steps with specific information for reteaching in small groups. 

• In the Weekly Checks, materials include a downloadable pdf titled, Guidelines for Interpretation of Assessment Data. This document provides general guidance for whole-group and small-group reteaching based on assessment data.

The materials include limited opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in oral reading fluency. Teachers use weekly stories from sound posters to give general information about the habits of fluent readers and to model fluent reading. 

Materials include limited opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in rate, accuracy, and prosody using grade-level connected text (e.g. decodable texts, poetry, readers’ theater, paired reading). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 30, Day 1, the teacher posts and rereads six sentences from the previously read Final Stable Syllables Sound Story poster. The teacher tells students to listen for the reading rate and describes it as how fast or slowly they read. The teacher tells students that active readers read at a rate that is neither too slow nor too fast. 

Materials provide opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 4, Day 1, the teacher reads a story from the Consonant Blends and Clusters Sound Poster. Before reading, the teacher explains to the students “that good readers also pay attention to the volume of their voice and which words they stress for importance. Be sure to listen for how loudly or softly I read and also for which words I stress with my voice.”

• In Week 22, Day 1, the teacher reads a story from the Contractions Sound Poster. Before reading, the teacher tells students to listen for their intonation as they read and defines it as how their voice moves up and down as they read. The teacher tells students that intonation helps us understand what we read.

• In Week 28, Day 3, the teacher reads a story from the Prefixes and Suffixes Sound Poster. Before reading, the materials tell the teacher to say: “Remember to also pay attention to how my voice’s volume rises and falls as I read. I do this to stress the importance of certain words or syllables so I can better understand what I am reading.”

Materials include a limited variety of resources for explicit instruction in oral reading fluency. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 13, Day 2, the teacher reads a story from the Complex Vowels Sound Poster. The teacher tells students to listen to how their voice goes up and down as they read. The teacher tells students that intonation helps them emphasize different words so the students will know they are important. 

• In Week 23, Day 2, the teacher reads a story from the Suffixes Sound Poster. The materials tell the teacher to say “Listen also for how my voice’s volume changes as I read. My volume may go up when I want to stress the importance of a syllable or word.”

The materials provide limited opportunities for students to engage in supported practice to gain automaticity and prosody. Students practice fluent reading independently using word lists, sentences, and decodable text passages. Teachers provide general reminders about fluent reading strategies before students read the passage. While the materials include some guidance and corrective feedback related to accuracy, there is no guidance for teachers to support prosody and rate. 

Varied, frequent opportunities are somewhat provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to gain automaticity and prosody. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 6, Day 4, students read the story The Missing Garden Hose. The teacher reminds students to use what they know about long vowels, possessives, and word division as they read. 

• In Week 15, Day 4, students read the story The Doodle Contest. The teacher reminds students to use what they know about multisyllabic words and the Red Words from the week’s lesson: little, people, sentence, only.

Materials provide practice opportunities for oral reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., repeated readings, dyad or partner reading, continuous reading). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 18, Day 4, students practice word reading fluency in their READ books with the following words: circus, along, problem, moment, pencil, across, above, bottom, open, return, again, carrot, another, location, enjoy. Students then read five connected sentences and the short story All Aboard!

• In Week 24, Day 4, students practice word reading fluency in their READ book with the following words: mindless, always, happiness, restless, skillful, thought, dutiful, never, playful, grateful, endless, sleepless, powerful, care, harmless. Students then read four connected sentences and the short story Duck at the Dentist. 

Materials include limited guidance and corrective feedback suggestions to the teacher for supporting students’ gains in oral reading fluency. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Week 28, Day 4, the materials provide guidance for teachers to support students having trouble reading the week’s decodable passage within the READ book. The materials instruct teachers to use one of the following three strategies: Assign partners and encourage children to read the passage together, shorten the passage and model the strategies for reading compound words, then have students read three sentences at a time, preview the passage to review Red Words and previously-taught sound-spellings.

• In Week 32, Day 4, the materials provide guidance for teachers for students having trouble reading the week’s decodable passage. The materials instruct teachers to use one of the following four strategies: assign partners for passage reading; shorten the passage and model decoding r-controlled vowels, long vowel teams, and diphthongs, then have students read three sentences at a time; preview the passage to review Red Words and previously-taught sound-spellings; review articulation for the diphthong /ow/ and building one-syllable words with diphthongs before moving to two-syllable words.

Materials include limited assessment opportunities over the course of the year for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of oral reading fluency. The materials include a Fluency Checklist for the teacher to use to assess fluency weekly using the Day 4 decodable reader. This same checklist is provided each week over the course of the year and states the teacher should pull two students daily to record observations and WCPM using the Fluency Checklist using the Day 4 decodable reader. Assessment materials provide the teacher and students with limited information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of fluency. Materials do not support the teacher with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in oral reading fluency.

Multiple assessment opportunities are not provided regularly and systematically over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of oral reading fluency. 

• The materials include a weekly Fluency checklist for the Day 4 decodable reader. This is the only fluency assessment found in the materials.

Assessment materials do not provide the teacher and students with information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of oral reading fluency. 

• In the Introduction, Fluency, materials include a downloadable pdf that includes a Fluency Checklist. The checklist includes areas for the teacher to check including accuracy, phrasing, volume and stress, intonation, and rate. It also includes oral reading fluency norms. This same checklist is provided throughout the materials. The materials state, Choose two to three children each day to assess their reading behaviors. Use the Day 4 decodable passage to record observations and WCPM using the Fluency Checklist.

Materials do not support the teacher with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in oral reading fluency.

• No evidence found.