1st Grade - Gateway 1

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

A majority of the texts in each of the three components of this program are written by well-known authors, some of whom have won awards for their writing. These anchor texts contain engaging content for students and are worthy of careful listening and discussion. Texts throughout the school year are well-crafted, rich in language, provide opportunities for both academic and content language, have rich characters, and are artistically and visually appealing to engage and hold student interest.

The Making Meaning component contains the read-aloud texts, many of them being well-known texts published by renowned authors. Some of these include:

• McDuff and the Baby by Rosemary Wells (Unit 2, Week 2): This text describes how life changes after a baby arrives in the main character’s family. The text will be relatable to Grade 1 students.
• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes (Unit 2, Week 3): This noted author writes this published story about friendship. The main character Chrysanthemum thinks her name is perfect until she gets teased about it. This text includes rich characters, and Grade 1 students will relate to the story.
• An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni (Unit 5, Week 1): This is a fable about friendship and loyalty. This text includes rich vocabulary.
• The Bumblebee Queen by April Pulley Sayre (Unit 5, Week 3): This published informational text is full of information about a North American bumblebee queen. The text contains rich content and academic vocabulary.
• Dinosaur Babies by Lucille Recht Penner (Unit 6, Week 3): This first introduction to dinosaurs is an informational text about the life cycle of the dinosaur. The text will engage Grade 1 students, and it includes content-rich vocabulary.
• Throw Your Tooth on the Roof by Shelby Beeler (Unit 8, Week 1): This informational text introduces the students to other cultures and their traditions of losing a tooth. This text is worthy of students’ time and attention.

In the Being a Writer component many well-known, published texts are used as anchor texts for students. Some of the these are as follows:

• All by Myself by Mercer Mayer (Unit 1, Week 3): The familiar character, Little Critter, outlines all the things he can do by himself. This text will engage Grade 1 students.
• Chinatown by William Low (Unit 2, Week 2): This story is about a boy and his grandmother who take a walk each day through Chinatown. The text includes new vocabulary and will interest students in learning about other cultures.
• Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert (Unit 2, Week 4): A child and father grow a bountiful vegetable garden and enjoy its tasty results. This text includes visually appealing illustrations.
• Wait and See by Robert Munsch (Unit 3, Week 3): Munsch, a well-respected children’s author, wrote this funny story in which Olivia wishes for crazy things on her birthday. This text uses humor to engage students.
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Unit 4, Week 1): This Caldecott Winner is about a little boy named Peter who wakes up to find that through the night it has snowed. This text includes artistically and visually appealing illustrations that will engage students.
• Reading Makes you Feel Good by Todd Parr (Unit 7, Week 1): The author shares his opinions on why reading makes you feel good. Students will relate to the story.

In Being a Reader, the shared texts are publishable. Some of these titles are as follows:

• Over in the Meadow: A Counting Rhyme By Louise Voce (Week 5): This text is a traditional counting rhyme where baby animals play with their mothers in a meadow. This text includes a rhyme scheme that will engage and interest Grade 1 students.
• This Little Chick by John Lawrence (Week 7): This text is about a tiny chick that roams a farm to meet the other animals living there. This text includes new information for students about farm animals and will be of high interest to students.
• When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan (Week 12): This published informational text helps students understand what happens in the plant life cycle during the winter months. This text includes academic and content vocabulary.
• Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming (Week 15): This informational text is about all the different types of beetles, and the text will be of high interest to students. The text contains content-rich vocabulary.

The materials reviewed for Center of Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 meet requirements for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level.

The materials include a mix of literary and informational text types across all three components. There is both classic and contemporary literature, and the informational texts include a range of subjects. Each component includes a mix of literary and informational texts.

In the Making Meaning component, students hear both types of texts, and the genres within the text types vary as well. Some examples of this include:

Literary

• It’s Mine! by Leo Lionni (Unit 1, Week 4)
• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes (Unit 2, Week 3)
• Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats (Unit 3, Week 3)
• An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni (Unit 5, Week 1)

Informational

• People in my Neighborhood by Shelly Lyons (Unit 1, Week 3)
• George Washington and the General’s Dog by Frank Murphy (Week 5, Unit 2)
• Using Your Senses by Rebecca Rissman (Unit 6, Week 1)
• Throw Your Tooth on the Roof by Selby B. Beller (Unit 8, Week 1)

The texts in the Being a Writer section are used as model texts, and there is an even distribution of text types. Examples of these texts include:

Literary

• When I Grow Up by Peter Horn (Unit 1, Week 4)
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Unit 4, Week 1)

Informational

• Meet my Neighbor the Dentist by Marc Crabtree (Unit 5, Week 1)
• Fire Trucks by Valerie Bodden (Unit 5, Week 1)

The texts in Being a Reader are used as either small-group texts or shared-reading texts. The small- group texts can be used in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 and depend on the students’ reading levels. Some examples of the texts are as follows:

Literary

• “Kitty Caught a Caterpillar” by Jack Prelutsky (Week 6)
• Listen to The Rain by bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault (Week 21)

Informational

• This is the Way we go to School: A Book About Children Around the World by Edith Baer (Week 1)
• Bugs for Lunch by Margery Faklam (Week 26)

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for 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 are above the complexity levels of what most students can read independently.

The majority of the texts in the materials are at the appropriate complexity level for a read-aloud in Grade 1.

Examples of texts that are at the appropriate level of complexity include:

• In Unit 2, Week 2, students hear McDuff and the Baby, which has a Lexile of AD600L. The use of illustrations in this text supports and assists the reader in understanding the complex features in the text. The theme is moderately complex as it is clear, but the underlying message is somewhat subtle.
• In Unit 2, Week 3, students hear the text, Chrysanthemum, which has a Lexile of 570. However, the text is moderately complex with complex vocabulary such as dreadful, scarcely, and begrudging as well as more than one level of meaning.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, students hear The Extraordinary Egg, which has a Lexile of 620. The language features and knowledge demands of this text are very complex.
• In Unit 8, Week 1, students hear the text Throw Your Tooth on the Roof, which has a Lexile of AD540L. While the purpose and conventionality are only slightly complex, the language features and knowledge demands are more complex, as students are introduced to many different countries and their respective traditions for what they do with their lost teeth.

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

Materials provide numerous opportunities for students to engage with (through listening and reading) a range and volume of texts in order to achieve grade-level reading proficiency. In every component of the program (Being a Reader, Making Meaning, and Being a Writer), students are introduced to new texts and a variety of disciplines and genres. The texts are shared with students through read alouds, shared reading, independent reading, and small-group reading instruction. Students are given ample opportunity to listen to and read a range and volume of texts to promote grade-level proficiency. Students are also given opportunities to reread previously read text for different purposes. Students are consistently exposed to a variety of text.

In the Making Meaning module, students listen to read alouds on various topics and genres such as literary, poetry, expository and narrative informational. Read alouds are found on all instructional days except “Independent Strategy Practice” days. On those days students practice the skills they have learned in their own texts.

Students engage in both Small Group Reading and shared reading in the Being a Reader component. For example:

• Students engage in Small Group Reading four days a week in the Being a Reader module. This begins in Week 5. In Set 10, students use the graphic novel “Bink and Gollie.” On the first day of instruction, the students follow along as the teacher reads. On the second day the teacher introduces and reads the next part of the story to the children. On the third day, the children engage in choral reading. On the fourth day, the teacher reads some of the book, and the students read some of the book. On the fifth day, the students discuss the book and engage in echo reading. On the final day, the students read the text in pairs.
• Students also participate in whole-class shared reading in the Being a Reader module. In Week 1, Day 1, students read the story “This is the Way we go to School,” a book about children around the world, which is a informational text. In Week 7, students read “The Little Chick Aloud.” On the first day, students read the text with the teacher and answer questions. On the second day, the students chorally read the text and then answer questions in regards to the foundational skills. In Week 15, students practice reading the book “Beetle Bop” and practice fluency by engaging in echo reading. Students also practice their reading in the Being a Reader component by rereading poetry such as in Week 29 when students revisit “Mice,” "Caterpillars,” and “Secret Song." They chorally read the poems and discuss the questions. They also read the poems with a partner.

In the Being a Writer module, students listen to various read alouds for ideas and as models for writing.

Students also engage in independent reading. Book bags are introduced in Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, and students begin self-selecting books to read each day.

The materials reviewed for Center of Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

Within the Making Meaning component of the series, students answer text-based questions. Students are required to review their reading in order to answer questions relating to the text. In the Writing about Reading section, students are asked to respond about what they learned from the text.

In the Making Meaning component, the stories in each unit have some text-based questions.

• In Unit 2, students listen to Matthew and Tilly, and students are asked, “What happened to Matthew and Tilly?”
• In Unit 2, students listen to McDuff and the Baby by Rosemary Wells and answer questions such as, “What part of McDuff and the Baby surprised you?”
• In Unit 4, students listen to the story The Snowy Day and then engage in a discussion where they answer questions such as, “What are some of the things Peter does in the snow?” and “Why do you think Peter put the snowball in his pocket?”
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 2, students hear the story An Extraordinary Egg and then engage in a discussion about: “Why do you think the alligator saves Jessica?” and “Why do you think the frogs call the alligator a chicken?"
• In Unit 7, Week 2, Day 1, students listen to the text Big Blue Whales and have to answer the question, “What does a blue whale do to eat whole swarms of krill?”

In the Writing about Reading component, which is a component of Making Meaning, students write about a text using evidence.

• In Unit 3, after listening to George Goes Camping, students answer: “What is your favorite part of Curious George Goes Camping?”
• In Unit 7, Week 2, Day 3, students write some ways they think the books are alike and different after hearing An Ocean of Animals and Big Blue Whale.
• In Unit 8, Week 2, Day 3, students write some ways that they think the books Dinosaur Babies and Velociraptor are similar and different.

In the Being a Reader component, students answer text-based questions.

• In Week 4, Day 3 of shared reading, students read the poem "Hippopotamus Stew" and then discuss what they remember about the poem and what is happening at certain parts of the poem.
• In Week 7, students participate in the shared reading of This Little Chick and answer: “What happens in this story?” “What do you think the little chick is telling his mother on these pages (pages 24-25)?” and “Why do you think that?”

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

The materials in Grade 1 provide opportunities for students to share their thinking about texts in each lesson. The questions within the Making Meaning component are generally text-based and require the students to either remember what has been learned in the lesson or to look back to determine the information. Students engage in "Turn to Your Partner" and "Think-Pair-Share" cooperative structures, and guidance and modeling are provided for these. Video clips and prompts within the teaching materials are provided to support teachers. The Making Meaning component has a Vocabulary Teaching Guide that utilizes the vocabulary words from the stories the students have been hearing. The guide provides multiple opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions across the whole year's scope of instructional materials

In the beginning of each Making Meaning unit, students are paired with a new partner. Students are provided direct instruction and opportunities to practice "Turn to Your Partner" and "Think-Pair-Share"before using them when discussing a text.

• In Unit 1, Week 2, students are introduced to the "Turn to Your Partner Strategy." Direct instruction is provided, and students discuss the question: “What do you think you were like when your were little?”
• In Unit 4, Week 1, students are introduced to "Think-Pair-Share." Direct instruction is provided, and students practice with the question, “What can you do to be a good partner?”

Students are provided opportunities to use these two structures after hearing the texts.

• In Unit 1, Week 2, students are asked to turn to their partners to discuss what they remember about When I Was Little on Day 2.
• In Unit 1, Week 2, after hearing McDuff and the Baby, students are prompted to discuss with their partner the problems McDuff has and how McDuff feels about the baby at the end of the story.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 2, students are asked ”What did you learn about the twilight zone?” Students discuss with their partner.

The vocabulary program includes 30 weeks of new words and review words. The students first hear the word in the Read Aloud, and then in the second week students engage in learning the words with direct vocabulary instruction. Students are taught words and then provided practice using review words. The emphasis is on one new vocabulary word within the read aloud. For example, students hear the text, Matthew and Tilly in Unit 2, Week 1 of Making Meaning. The key word is rescue, and the teacher first explains the word and then points to the picture in the text. The teacher then tells the students to imagine rescuing a baby bird.

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

Students are provided with a variety of opportunities to discuss with a partner their understanding of texts read aloud to them or about the shared-writing projects they are completing. They are given multiple opportunities to listen and discuss with peers what they are reading, writing, and listening to, as well as with the whole class. Follow-up questions and supports for speaking and listening are found throughout materials. There are times throughout the year where the teacher is explicitly told to model proper speaking and listening, and students discuss what they see and hear.

In the Making Meaning component of the materials, students are given multiple opportunities to turn to a partner to discuss what they read, supporting both their listening and speaking. Examples include:

• In Unit 3, Week 1, after listening to Curious George Goes Camping, students retell the story with a partner and discuss what happens to Curious George when he goes on his camping trip.
• In Unit 3, Week 2, students hear the story Angelina and Henry and then turn to their partners to discuss: "What was Angelina’s and Henry’s problem in the story?" and "How is their problem solved?" Students are encouraged to listen carefully to their partner, because they are expected to share what their partner said in the whole group setting.
• In Unit 6, Week 1 Day 3, students read Using Your Senses and work in pairs to answer" "What did you learn about how people see?" and "What did you learn about the sense of hearing?”
• In Unit 7, Week 1, students listen to and discuss the text An Ocean of Animals. Students work with a partner to discuss what they wonder about animals that live in the ocean and what they learned that surprised them.
• In Unit 8, Week 4, Day 1, after hearing An Elephant Grows Up, students meet with a partner to discuss the part of the story they visualized and share what they saw in their mind.

In the Being a Writer component of the materials, students are asked questions after listening to the story. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 1, students listen to Chinatown and then discuss what makes Chinatown a special place. In addition, students have opportunities to share what they write.
• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 3, students read a partner’s writing and then participate in a group discussion on what they learned from the partner’s story.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, students write an opinion piece about their favorite type of book and are invited to share what they wrote with the class. Students also share their stories with a partner.

In the Being a Reader component of the materials, students are regularly required to speak and listen about the shared reading. Students have opportunities to demonstrate listening carefully as well as reflect on what they did to do be a good listener.

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

The materials in Grade 1 offer a mix of on-demand and process writing as well as short, focused projects that incorporate digital resources. Some activities take the students through the writing process, while others offer on-demand writing, when students respond to a prompt, typically in response to the read aloud. There are opportunities for students to revise and edit as well. Students are involved in guided- and shared-writing activities before writing independently.

Students are frequently given opportunities for on-demand writing in the Making Meaning component of the progress as students often write about the stories they hear. Students are given a reading response journal that they use for their writing. For example in Unit 4, Week 2, Day 3, students write about their visualized drawings of “The Balloon Man.” Similarly in Week 5, students visualize from The Snowy Day and draw and write in their response journals about a part of the story they visualized clearly. In Unit 6 of Making Meaning, students write about a favorite sense by first listening to the story and then reflecting on what they learned. There are also shared-writing opportunities. For example in Unit 3, Week 1, students participate in a shared-writing experience of writing about a fun time they had. in Unit 7, Week 1, students, as a class, write a poem on chart paper about food. The students have to work together to include an option, varieties of the food, and a reason for eating it.

There are also opportunities for students to engage in process writing. There are opportunities for students to go back and revise their work beginning in Unit 1, Week 1, Day 3, when students add details to their illustrations or writing. In another example, students begin rereading their stories and adding details in Unit 1, Week 3, when they write about their family members. In Making Meaning, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 1, students use the text Sleep Well: Why You Need to Rest to first write about a time they had trouble falling asleep, then on Day 3 they are expected to continue writing by turning what they read and heard about the book into an opinion piece on why we need sleep. In Unit 8, Week 4, Day 2, there is an extension activity where students conduct a mini-research project with a partner.

Technology is included in the writing lessons. In the Being a Writer Component, there are a variety of opportunities for students to use digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. There is an digital storytelling tool introduced in Unit 1, Week 4, Day 3 that gives students an opportunity to create digital stories by uploading pictures and recording a narration to go with them. By Unit 3, Week 4, Day 3, students are collaborating to create a digital storybook. Each student takes a turn recording his/her portion of the story, and the stories can be shared online, emailed to parents, or stored for others to view. There is also a blog option available where students can post their writing about reading on a blog, and families have the opportunity to comment.

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

The Being a Writer component of this series gives students an opportunity to write narrative, expository, and opinion pieces. There are a variety of prompts, models, anchor pieces, and supports throughout the year, and students have an opportunity to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes/types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. In addition, students have additional opportunities for writing in the Making Meaning component.

In Being a Writer, narrative writing is found in Units 1- 4. Students create their own stories in Unit 2 and are given sentence starters. This type of writing and the scaffolds continue into Unit 2. In addition to the Being a Writer component, there are opportunities for narrative writing in Making Meaning such as in Unit 1, Week 4, Day 2, when students write and illustrate stories about what they want to be when they grow up.

Unit 5 of Being a Writer covers expository writing. For example in Unit 5, Week 2, students write about their partners. They first interview their partner, write facts, and learn how to write an introductory sentence. Then they interview and write even more facts about their partner the next day and learn how to write a closing sentence. Students also engage in expository writing in Making Meaning. For example, in Unit 4, Week 1, Day 3, students write about pictures they drew while visualizing the poem, “The Balloon Man.”

In Being a Writer Unit 7, students learn about opinion writing. Students learn what an opinion is. Then they form their own opinions about topics and write pieces in which they clearly state their opinions in opening sentences, provide reasons that support their opinions, and write closing sentences. Specifically, in Week 1, students write opinion pieces about foods they think are the best and the worst. In Week 2, they explore writing longer pieces by writing opinions about activities at school and outside of school that make them feel good. In Making Meaning, students have regular writing in response to a text. For example, in Unit 7, Week 4, Day 3, students write an opinion about which type of book they like better, fiction or nonfiction.

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

Language standards are addressed throughout lessons within Being a Reader, Being a Writer, and Vocabulary Teacher Guide (Making Meaning). The instructional strategies of the lessons include teacher modeling, Think-Pair-Share, and Turn to Your Partner. Students are supported in their acquisition of grade-level grammar and convention standards through teacher questioning and the students having opportunities to speak with a partner before recording their responses. Students use Handwriting Notebooks to record their handwriting lessons. Students also are presented with visual materials to help aid in language and convention standards acquisition such as sentence strips, note cards, and vocabulary picture cards.

Materials include explicit instruction of all grammar and conventions standards for the grade level, and instruction is provided in increasingly sophisticated contexts. Examples include:

Students have the opportunity in Being a Reader with weekly handwriting instruction to practice printing capital and lowercase letters. Students also have the chance to practice printing letters during independent work time. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Handwriting, Week 6, Day 1, students practice forming lowercase letters c, o, s. “Have the students stay in their seats. Tell the students that today they will learn to form the lowercase letters c, o, and s. Write each letter where everyone can see it, and say the name of the letter as you write it. Explain that first the students will learn to write the letters on the wipe-off boards, and then they will practice forming the letters in their Handwriting Notebooks.”

Students have the opportunity to use common, proper, and possessive nouns. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skill Practice, Lesson 1, students are instructed to circle who the sentence is about. Later on in the lesson students are given a picture of a playground and sentences about the playground; students must then circle the noun in each sentence.
• In the Skill Practice in Being a Writer, Lesson 14, students are given sentences such as “The boy washes the (cat’s, cats) dish.” and are asked to choose the correct form of the noun to complete the sentence.
• In Being a Writer, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, student write about a fun time they have had. They are encouraged to use proper nouns for people and places. Teachers are to check to see if they are capitalizing the proper nouns. The teacher asks “Who used a capital letter to begin names in their story? Tell us about a name you capitalized.”

Students have the opportunity to use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Independent Work, Week 7, students work independently on sentence frames matching the sentence structure from the shared reading of The Little Chick, adding animals and their actions. “Provide blank index cards and markers for the students to write additional animals and actions for the pocket chart sentences. Have the students use the pointer with the pocket chart to read the new sentences during independent reading.”
• In Being a Writer, Skill Practice, Lesson 3, students practice identifying nouns and verbs in sentences. Students are given sentences such as “The teacher_ work hard.” and are instructed to add –s or –es to complete the sentence.
• In Being a Writer, Skill Practice, Lesson 5, students are provided sentences such as “Pig (like, likes) corn.” and are instructed to circle the correct form of the verb to complete the sentence.

Students have the opportunity to use personal, possessive and indefinite pronouns. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 2, Week 3, Day 2, the teacher models writing from the writing/drawing chart from Day 1. When modeling, the teacher points out when a personal pronoun has been used to replace a noun.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 14, students have the opportunity to practice adding an apostrophe to nouns to make the nouns possessive. “How should we say this sentence to show that this new bike belongs to Ana?” Students practice adding ‘s to words to make them possessive. To review, the teacher asks, “When can you use an apostrophe and s in your writing?”

Students have the opportunity to use verbs to convey a sense of past, present and future. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 4, the teacher reads aloud Hide and Seek Shadow. Together with the students they list any movement words on the movement words chart. The teacher points out how walked and danced are in the text and that they end in -ed which tells us they happened in the past.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 9, students have the opportunity to practice using verbs in the past tense. “What would we do to the verb if we wanted to show that the action has already happened?” Students practice circling the correct tense of the verb in sentences.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 10, students have the opportunity to practice using verbs in the future tense. “If we wanted to show that the action would happen later, what would we do?” Students are provided a picture and then instructed to write three sentences about what the people in the picture will do in the future.

Students have the opportunity to use frequently-occurring adjectives. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 15, students are given sentences such as, “Ann puts on a fuzzy scarf.” Students are asked to circle the adjective in the sentence. Students are also asked to draw a picture and write down two adjectives describing their picture.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 18, students must complete a story by selecting from a set of adjectives that are provided.
• In Being a Reader, Week 21, Day 3, students have whole group practice with adjectives. After reading a poem about the earth, the teacher asks students, “What is another word you could use to describe the grasses?” The teacher then substitutes in new adjectives to describe the grass, mountains, oceans and deserts in the poem.

Students have the opportunity to use frequently-occurring conjunctions. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 29, students are provided sentences such as “Ling rides a pony (and, or, but) brushes a cow.” Students also practice rewriting sets of two sentences using and, or, but. For example: “Nate plays a game. He wins a prize.”
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 30, students continue to practice writing compound sentences and have the opportunity to create some of their own. “What are two things you do to get ready for bed? Write a compound sentence about them.”

Students have the opportunity to use determiners. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 16, students are given determiners such as a, an, the and must draw a line to the noun that would follow: wings, beak, eye.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 24, students practice using the words this, these, that and those in sentences. For example, “(This, These) giraffe takes peanuts from my hand.”
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 26, students continue to practice filling in the missing pieces of sentences using determiners. “Put a blanket over (this, these) two chairs.”

Students have the opportunity to use frequently-occurring prepositions. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 17, students must read a sentence and circle the preposition. For example, students circle the preposition in the following sentence: “We go to the hat store.”
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 18, students are provided a chart with verbs, prepositions, and nouns and must then use the words to write command sentences.
• In the Being a Writer, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 4, the class completes a whole-group writing activity focused on writing the beginning, middle, and end of a story. The teacher is instructed to point out any prepositions that are being used in the story.

Students have the opportunity to produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 19, students are provided the words I, We and You and must use these words to complete sentences such as “___ am the leader.” “___ are too loud!”
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 29, students are provided two sentences that they must combine to make a compound sentence, “The fair is almost over. The children are not tired.” Students are also instructed to “Write a compound sentence that tells about something fun that you did.”
• In the Being a Writer, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 1, students complete a guided-writing practice lesson where they must practice completing the prompt “My Friend and I Like to….” Students complete a similar activity in Unit 1, Week 2, Day 1, when they practice writing sentences using the prompt “I help when I….”

Students have the opportunity to capitalize dates and names of people. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, the teacher models writing a sentence. They use the students’ ideas to add to the story. As they do, they point out that they are capitalizing the names of people, places, or things.
• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 27, the teacher asks the students to write their names on a sheet of paper, and then hold up the sheets so everyone can see them. Ask: "What do notice about the first letter in your name?” Have students draw a picture about their birthday. Have them write their birthdate down, practicing using capital letters and commas in the date.

Students have the opportunity to use end punctuation for sentences. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Handwriting, students practice ending punctuation (! and ?). “Explain that students will practice forming punctuation marks and writing sentences with ending punctuation. Write the sentences they will practice where everyone can see them: I saw a lost dog! Did a cat run? I was glad. Model using two fingers to make a space before you write each word, and point out the ending punctuation in each sentence. Read the sentences aloud, and then have the students read them.”

Students have the opportunity to use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Skills Practice, Lesson 27, students draw a picture about their birthday. Students write their birthdate, practicing using capital letters and commas in the date.

Students have the opportunity to use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently-occurring irregular words. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 4, students have the opportunity to check their spelling in their writing piece. Students should reread their writing and check to make sure they have spelled all words from the word wall correctly. “If they have misspelled a word, have them erase (or cross out) the word and rewrite it correctly.” The teacher asks students, “What words from the word wall did you find in your writing today?” Have two or three volunteers share their words with the class.

Students have the opportunity to spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 2, Week 4, Day 2, students work on writing stories. “Encourage the students to listen for sounds to help them think about the spelling of unfamiliar words in their writing today. Also remind them to use the word wall to help them with their spelling.“

Students have the opportunity to determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on Grade 1 reading and content, choosing from an array of strategies. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 8, Day 2 of The Polar Bear Son, students use sentences from the text and work with partners to determine the meaning of the word, faithful. “Have the students turn to page 36 of The Polar Bear Son and follow along as you read it aloud. Ask: 'What does it mean to be faithful? What does Kunikdjuaq do to be faithful? Turn to your partner.' Have a few students share their thinking. Encourage them to refer to the text to support their thinking."

Students have the opportunity to, with guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 27, Day 2, students work to sort words from the shared- reading story. “Remove the posted word cards and put them back in the pocket chart in any order. Tell the students that there is often more than one way to sort a set of words. Explain that paying attention to the way words are spelled, how they sound, or what they mean can help the students notice different ways to group some of the words together. Ask: What are some words in this list that you could group together? Why would you group those words together?”

Students have the opportunity to use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently-occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 21, Day 3, students work with the teacher to generate words that describe common words. “What is another word you could use to describe the grasses? Have a volunteer share. As the student shares, write his idea on an index card and place it over the word green to cover it in the pocket chart. Repeat this procedure to have the students generate new words to describe the mountains, oceans, and deserts. As the students share, write their ideas on individual index cards and place them in the appropriate places in the pocket chart.”

Materials include opportunities for students to demonstrate application of skills both in and out of context. For example:

• In Being a Writer, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, students contribute to a shared story. As the teacher adds sentences from students the teacher is directed to: “Use the students’ suggestions to add to the story. As you write, point out that you are capitalizing the names of people, places, or things (proper nouns).”
• In Being a Writer, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 3, during Proofreading and Publishing, the teacher has students review and revise their own writing. The teacher asks some of the following questions and pauses for students to revise their writing: “Did you use a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence? If not, erase or cross out the incorrect letters and write capital letters. Did you use a period or exclamation point at the end of each sentence? If not, write in periods or exclamation points where they belong.”

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

Foundational skills are presented to address phonics and word recognition. Phonological awareness is taught explicitly in the Shared Reading lessons in the Being a Reader Teacher Manual. In addition, foundational skills and differentiated instruction that includes phonics and decoding are incorporated in the Small-group Reading sets of the Being a Reader materials. These skills are taught in a logical progression that increases in difficulty throughout the year.

Students have frequent opportunities to learn and understand phonemes (e.g. distinguish long and short vowels, blend sounds, pronounce vowels in single-syllable words, and segment single-syllable words). For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 1, Day 1, students learn the long a sound. “Explain that you will say the sounds in a wod, and then the students will put the sounds together to make the word. Model, using the word lane.”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 3, Day 2, students practice sorting words into two categories of long and short /u/. “Take the sorting guide from your own bag of words. Point to the words cut and cube on the sorting guide, and read the words aloud. Explain that the students will match the sounds in these words (in this case, the middle sounds /ŭ/ and /ū/).”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 4, Day 1, “Have the students blend each of the words that follow after you say the phonemes, using continuous blending. Clap softly as you say each sound. Then brush your hands past each other as the students say the word.” Words blended included: pile, games, late, hole, shines, bone.

Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g. spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, know final-e and long vowels, syllable and vowel relationship). For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5, Week 2, Day 2, students learn to break a VCCV word into two syllables and then put together the words. For example, the materials state: “Write the word mistake on your wipe-off board. Point out the vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern. Review that when two or more consonants come between two vowels, the students will break the word between the consonants. Break mistake by drawing a dot between the s and the t. Point out that the second syllable, take has a long vowel sound. Point to each syllable and read it; then read the whole word as you sweep under it.”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 7, Day 1, students practice clapping words and determining if the words are one or two syllables. The rule that each syllable must have a vowel sound is reviewed. “Identifying Spoken Syllables: Remind the students that they have been listening for and counting sounds in words. Tell them that today, they will listen for and count a different kind of word part that is called a syllable. Explain that some words are made up of one part, or syllable, and that a syllable has one vowel sound. Tell the students to listen as you say some words with one syllable. Then clap once as you say each of the following words: sit, skate, teach. Explain that some words are made up of two parts, or two syllables. Tell the students to listen as you say some words with two syllables. Then clap twice as you say each of the following words: sitting, skated, teacher.”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5, Week 14, Day 1, students are introduced to digraphs ce, cy, ci and practice writing and identifying the sounds within a given set of words before reading the decodable readers. “Introduce the Spelling-Sounds ce, ci, cy /s/. Write the words can, come, and cot on your wipe-off board and have the students read the words. Underline all instances of the letter c.”

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonological awareness instruction to build toward application. For example:

• Grade 1 students learn phonological awareness in small-group reading for emerging readers. Students learn oral blending, oral segmenting, identifying beginning sounds, identifying middle sounds, identifying endings sounds, blending onsets and rimes, identifying and producing rhymes, identifying syllables, dropping first sound, dropping initial blend, and dropping last sound.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Sets 1-4, students begin with phonological awareness oral blending activities where they practice blending and segmenting words. “Phonological Awareness: Oral Blending Have the students blend each of the words that follow after you say the phonemes, using continuous blending. Clap softly as you say each sound. Then brush your hands past each other as the students say the word. /păăt/ pat, /pŏŏt/ pot, /tăăp/ tap, /pĭĭnn/ pin, /păăd/ pad, /pěěnn/ pen.”

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonics instruction to build toward application. For example:

• Through Word Study, Grade 1 students learn short vowels, long vowels with final e, complex vowels, r-controlled vowels, inflectional endings, alphabetizing, consonant l-e syllables, open and closed syllables, syllabication strategies, prefixes, suffixes, and compound words.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Sets 1-4, “Phonological Awareness: Oral Segmenting Explain to the students that in this activity they will segment words. Explain that when they segment, you will say a word, and then they will say the sounds they hear in the word. Model how to segment a word, using the word fan. Say the word normally: fan; then say it again, drawing out the sounds: /ff/ /ăă/ /nn/. Finally, say each individual sound: /f/ /ă/ /n/. Clap softly as you say each sound. Tell the students that you clapped three times as you said the sounds, so there are three sounds in the word.”

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

Throughout the Being a Reader guided lessons were taught to students that focused on print concepts. Whenever a new story was shared text features such as the title, author and illustrator were discussed. Students have the opportunity to go more in-depth in discussion about text features such as illustrations and punctuation. In Making Meaning, Unit 8 students learn a broad range of text features and comprehension strategies.

Materials include frequent, adequate lessons and tasks/questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g. recognize features of a sentence). For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group Set 3, Week 1, Day 3 of Being a Reader Guided Spelling, students answer the follow question: “What’s special about the first word she if you are not sure how to spell it?”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 3, Week 5, Day 3 Guided Spelling, students contribute to the following question: “What mark do we need at the end of a sentence?”

Students have frequent and adequate opportunities to identify text structures (e.g. main idea and details, sequence of events, problem and solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect). For example:

• In Making Meaning, Unit 3, Week 1, through retelling, Grade 1 students learn to sequence narrative stories. Students hear a model retelling of Curious George Goes Camping. After viewing more illustrations, students start to retell more of the story. In Week 2, students retell the sequence of events of Angelina and Henry.
• In Making Meaning, Unit 3, Week 2, students compare and contrast the adventures of the characters in Curious George Goes Camping and Angelina and Henry. “How are the camping trips of Angelina and Henry and Curious George alike? Turn to your partner. How are their camping trips different?”

Materials include frequent and adequate lessons and activities about text features (e.g. title, byline, headings, table of contents, glossary, pictures, illustrations). For example:

• In Making Meaning, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 1, students learn how to explore the table of contents of Sleep Well. “Show page 3 of Sleep Well, where the table of contents appears. Explain that this page is called the table of contents and that a table of contents appears at the beginning of many nonfiction books.”
• In Making Meaning, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 1, students help explore the table of contents. “Show the table of contents on page 3 of An Ocean of Animals. Remind the students that a table of contents lists the different chapters, or sections, of a book, and the page on which each chapter begins.” Students use the listed off chapters to think about what they will learn about ocean animals when they listen to the book read aloud.
• In Making Meaning, Unit 8, the focus is using text features. In Week 1, students learn labels and diagrams. In Week 2, students learn captions and glossaries. In Week 3, students learn how to use chapter titles, “fun facts” sections, and “to learn more” sections.

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

Students have multiple opportunities over the course of the year to read emergent texts within Being a Reader: Independent Work, Shared Reading, Small Group Reading, and Making Meaning. The instructional core materials provide opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy of grade level decodable words through choral reading, echo reading, sound sorts, and the sound cards. Students also have multiple opportunities to practice high-frequency words from shared reading and small group reading with the strategy focus or read, write, and reread. Independent reading is a part of every Making Meaning lesson that provides opportunity for students to practice reading independently from their book bags.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read on-level text. For example:

• In Making Meaning, students practice reading independently daily at their appropriate reading levels. “INDEPENDENT READING IN GRADE 1: During Individualized Daily Reading in Grade 1, the students spend up to 15 minutes a day reading books independently at their appropriate reading levels. An IDR section appears at the end of each lesson. IDR can follow the day’s lesson, or you can schedule it during another time of the school day.”
• In Making Meaning, Unit 6, Week 3, Day 1, students have individualized daily reading time. Students select books from their book bags to read for 15 minutes. Students are given the purpose to making connects between the books and their own lives. The teacher confers with students do this time, and the teacher records observations of the students’ reading in the IDR Conference Notes.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 4, Day 2, students read A Cold Ride. Before reading students, discuss the following question: “What do you think might happen in this story?”

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy, rate, and expression in oral reading with on-level text and decodable words. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 2, Day 1, students revisit texts and echo read Up, Down, and Around. “Remind them that you will slide the pointer under the words to help them read the words smoothly and in a way that is easy to understand.” Next students chorally read Up, Down, and Around. “When the class is finished reading share some of your observations about how the students did with following the pointer and reading the words smoothly and in a way that was easy to understand during echo and choral reading.”
• In Being a Reader, Week 3, Day 2, students practice echo reading and choral reading of the shared story to practice oral reading skills. “Chorally Read Flower Garden. Tell the students that now they will chorally read the same pages of the book they just echo read. Review that choral reading is when the class reads the same words aloud together at the same time.”
• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 28, Day 2, students read parts of a book, One Duck Stuck, in a small group. The class chorally reads the beginning of the story and then small groups of students read aloud a part of the book.

Materials support reading of texts with attention to reading strategies such as rereading, self-correction, and the use of context clues. For example:

• In Making Meaning, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 1, students learn about self monitoring through a teacher model. Students then practice self monitoring during independent reading. “Read Independently and Self-monitor. Have the students get their book bags and begin reading quietly to themselves. After 5 minutes, signal for their attention and read the questions on the chart aloud. Pause after each question to give the students time to think. Remind them that if they do not understand what they have read, they should go back and reread.”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 8, Day 2, “Explain that it is important for readers to remember enough information to be able to understand and talk about what they have read. Tell the students that when readers discover that they do not remember enough of what they have read, they go back and reread more carefully.” The teacher then models self-correcting.

Students have opportunities to practice and read irregularly spelled words. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 2, Day 1, student practice reading two high-frequency words: woman, women. The teacher shows students the word cards for the two words. Then the teacher uses the words in sentences: “The principal of our school is a woman. Some teachers are women and some are men.” The students read the words and spell the words twice. Then the students read it a third time.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5, students are taught the following high frequency words: was, after, work, head, read, never, ever, only, give, live, walk, talk, because, children, even, picture, move, great, though, once, enough, watch, been, few, kind, find, mind.

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

In Grade 1, during the Being a Reader, Small Group Reading portion of the program, students are introduced to spelling-sound correspondence, students read decodable words with the spelling-sound correspondence being taught and then practice applying the phonic skill to spell the word and read it within text. The students are also introduced to irregularly spelled words. They practice reading the words in isolation and within context.

Materials support students’ development to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g. spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, syllable and vowel relationship, decode two-syllable words, read words with inflectional endings) in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 9, Day 1, students practice identifying sounds and rhyming words in the poem, “Kitty Caught a Caterpillar.” The teacher states, “Do you hear any words in this line that start with the same sound? What are they?”
• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 16, Day 2, the class applies the counting of syllables to the poem, “Kick a Little Stone.” “Clap on the syllables of the words as you read. Then have the students say the same line, clapping on the syllables in the words as they read. Tell the students that next you will point to each word in the line and ask how many syllables it has. You will mark a dot under each one-syllable word and circle each two-syllable word.”
• In Being a Reader, Small Group Reading Set 5, Week 2, Day 1, students work with breaking apart a two syllable (VCCV) word. “Introduce Breaking a VCCV Word. Remind the students that they have been reading two-syllable words by first reading each syllable alone and then reading the whole word. Tell the students that today they will learn how to break words into two parts or syllables. Explain that learning how to break a word into parts will help them read long words on their own.”

Materials provide frequent opportunities to read irregularly spelled words in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5, Week 2, Day 2, students are introduced to the high-frequency word work. The students are shown the high-frequency word card for read (/rēd/) and read (/rĕd/). Teacher explains that in the text students will need to try the word both ways to see which way makes sense. The students will read the word both ways, spell it and read it again both ways. The word card for ‘read (/rēd/) and read (/rĕd/)’ will be added to the Review Deck of High Frequency Words. Later in the lesson, the students read Ann’s Book Club. Prior to reading the book, the students are asked to locate the high frequency word ‘read (/rēd/) and read (/rĕd/)’ in the text.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5, Week 7, Day 2, students read Ball Games. This text contains a high-frequency word, even, that is studied in the small group time.

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. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 27, Day 3, students sort words from the text, A Pig is Big. “Have the students chorally read the words as you point under each one. Then one word at a time, have the students say the word, clap on the syllables, and tell how many syllables are in the word.” Later in the lesson, students discuss other ways to sort the words. “What are some words in this list that you could group together? Why would you group those words together?”
• In Being a Writer, Unit 2, Week 3, Day 1, students learn about approximate spellings by writing a shared story about a family member. “As you write, engage the students in thinking about how to spell one or two unfamiliar words by asking the following questions. Write the letters as the students suggest them.”

The materials reviewed for Center of Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials supporting ongoing and frequent assessment to determine student mastery and inform meaningful differentiation of foundational skills, including a clear and specific protocol as to how students performing below standard on these assessments will be supported.

The lessons within Being a Reader and Making Meaning are structured to provide students with application of foundational skills and provide additional support for teachers to guide students towards mastery of foundational skills. Through the small group reading portion, teachers are provided with lessons for differentiation of foundational skills. A Grade 1 teacher has access to sets 3-5 which come with assessments. As the students progress to sets 6-8, teachers have access to assessments. Materials provide formative and summative assessments the materials and placement test for teachers to know where to start students in small group reading sets.

The SIPPS Extension level is identified as developmentally appropriate for Grade 1. There are assessments in SIPPS Extension level for foundational skills such as SIPPS Assessment, which is used to group students for SIPPS. There are mastery tests and instructional self-checks. A teacher can monitor students fluency using Fluency Practice/Individualized Daily Reading.

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. For example:

• In Being a Reader, the teacher observes students reading using an Individual Reading Observation. These notes occur every other week in sets 3-5 and once or twice during each three-day sequence of lessons in Sets 6-12. The teacher documents if the student can read high-frequency words, decodable words, and polysyllabic words. The student is assessed as they self-monitor, and students are assessed for fluency.
• Mastery Tests for Small-group Reading Sets 1-5. A Mastery Test Assessment Note occurs once every four weeks in Small-group Reading Sets 1-5. This test assesses how well individual students are learning the spelling-sounds, phonics patterns, and high-frequency words taught in Small-group Reading Sets 1-5. For example, in Mastery Test 3 students are assessed on their knowledge of spelling-sounds: c, ck, k, b, p, l, g and high-frequency words: saw, they, was, little, put, what, do and like. There are not assessments for sets 6-8.
• In Being a Writer, there are weekly Class Assessment Records that are used to assess the class progress in specific skills. For example, In Being a Writer, In Unit 1, in Week 2, Day 2 the Class Assessment Record includes the question: Can they spell some words conventionally? If not, do they approximate spelling using letter-sound relationships?

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding. For example:

• Grade 1 teachers are directed to use the same Small Group placement test for Kindergarten for placing students in Sets 1-5.
• Being a Reader Assessment Resource page xi states that after students have progressed through Small Group Reading Sets 1-5, it is recommended that teachers use an assessment such as the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) or the Teachers College Reading & Writing Projects Running Records Assessment to identify students’ reading level for Small-group Reading Sets 6-12.
• In SIPPS Extension, there is a K-3 Placement Assessment which screens letter names, phonics, and sight words. There are also mastery texts in SIPPS Extension.

Materials partially support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. For example:

• The same types of Whole Group Assessments that were provided in Kindergarten are also provided in Grade 1. For example, in Week 18 of the Teacher’s Assessment Manual, the teacher marks either: All or most students, about half of the students or only a few students. In response to the following questions about handwriting: “Are the students using the correct stroke sequences to form the letters? Do they form letters that are appropriately sized? Do they leave spaces between the words? Are they gripping their pencils in a standard way?” Teachers are then provided with a list of suggestions at the bottom of the page to help students who are struggling.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group Reading, Set 5, Day 3, the teacher’s manual includes Teacher Notes to support teachers if the student has trouble keeping track of the sentence. It suggests that teachers might support them with a visual aid, drawing three boxes side by side on the wipe-off board and pointing to each box in succession as the students says the sentence.
• In Being a Reader, Small Group Reading, Set 7, Day 3, the lesson for Chameleon! is focused on fluency. If students are struggling, teachers are directed to, “Support any student who struggles to read fluently by echo reading or choral reading part of Chameleon! with him or her.”
• The Individual Reading Observation for Small-group Reading includes the following suggestions for supporting readers:
• If the student struggles with a word for more than a few seconds, read the word for the student.
• If the student struggles to read a particular type of word (e.g., high-frequency words, polysyllabic words, words with inflectional endings), you may want to address this during an individual conference at another time.
• If the student incorrectly reads a word and does not self-correct, ask the student to reread the sentence.
• If the student incorrectly reads a sentence or a passage aloud and does not recognize the error, you may want to stop the student and ask, “Does that make sense?” You may need to paraphrase what was read aloud. Encourage the student to go back and reread.
• If the student struggles to reads fluently, you may want to address this during a Small-group Reading lesson on fluency or during an individual conference.
• On page 187 of the Assessment Resources Book, there is a section titled Interpreting the Assessment Results that provides information on what to do if students do not pass the Mastery Test with an 80% or higher score. Teachers are directed to repeat instruction and to follow the reteaching instructions in the corresponding Mastery Test Assessment Note in the Small-group Teacher’s Manual.
• In SIPPS Extension, if many students do not pass the mastery test, the teacher is directed to reteach the previous lessons. If only a few students are not passing the mastery test, the direction to the teacher is to provide extra practice for those students.

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

The materials provide high quality lessons in foundational skills throughout the school year. This is done through Being a Reader, and Making Meaning. The materials provide teachers with opportunities for differentiation through small group reading sets. The Being a Reader Teacher’s Manual also provides ideas for supporting ELL students, ideas to support students who were struggling with concepts and at times ideas for some extension activities that went along with the Shared Read Alouds. Skills are also repeated numerous times throughout the school year to help students build mastery and independence in foundational skills.

Materials provide high-quality learning lessons and activities for every student to reach mastery of foundational skills. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Sets 1-5, phonological awareness, spelling-sounds, high-frequency words, guided spelling, and reading decodable text are included. (Foundational Skills Instruction Scope and Sequence for Small-group Reading Sets 1-5). For example, in Set 5 foundational skills instruction includes the following: dropping the first sound, dropping initial consonant blend, dropping last sound, high-frequency words (after, work, head, read, never, ever, only, give, live, walk, talk, because, children, even, picture, move, great, though, once, enough, watch, been, few, kind, find, mind), guided spelling of cvc words that contain the spelling-sounds taught and the reading of controlled-vocabulary texts.

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support each student’s needs. For example:

• Each lesson has a Teacher Note column/sidebar that provides guidance for teachers to help scaffold the lessons for the students. For example, in Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 4, Week 7, Day 2, the teacher is provided with additional guidance for decoding support. “Decoding Support- Support struggling students by covering the ending and having the students read the base word alone. Then uncover the ending and have them read the entire word. Another option is to write just the base word, have the students read that, add the ending, and have the students read the inflected word.”
• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 6, Day 1, while playing a game in pairs the teacher is instructed to, “Observe partners as they play. Support any students who struggle by having them say and clap on the syllables in their names with you.”
• In Being a Reader, Shared Reading, Week 8, Day 3, teachers are provided with extension ideas for the story The Busy Little Squirrel. These ideas include performing a play of The Busy Little Squirrel and Creating a Class Book for the story. Teacher instructions are provided for each activity.

Students have multiple practice opportunities with each grade level foundational skill component in order to reach mastery. For example:

• In Being a Reader, Small-group Reading Sets 1-5, students have the opportunity to continue to practice skills taught in the previous set.
• In Set 3, students are taught spelling-sounds wh /wh/, ng /ng/, -ing /ing/, _ed /t/, /d/, /ed/, qu /khw/, sn /sn/, st /st/, fl /fl/, fr /fr/, _s /s/ /z/, gr /gr/, dr /dr/, pl /pl/, sm /sm/, sp /sp/, cl /kl/, sk /sk/, sl /sl/. In Set 4 the students participate in guide spelling of words that contain these spelling-sounds (slide, plume, smiled, hiked, , stones, shaking, shining, plan, hiding, formed)
• In Being a Reader, Small-group Reading Sets 1-5, students have the opportunity to continue to practice skills taught in the previous set.
• In Set 4, students are taught spelling-sounds long a, i, e, o, u with v_e, ee and ea, r-controlled vowels -er, -ir, -ur, ar, or . In Set 5 the students participate in guide spelling of words that contain these spelling-sounds (safe, read, team, place, fort, after, sport, forget, barnyard, stir)
• In Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 3, Week 2 Day 1, the inflectional Ending -ed /t/ /d/ /əd/ is introduced. “Tell the students that today they will learn the word ending e-d. Explain that when e-d is added to an action word, it shows that the action happened in the past. Write the following pairs of words on your wipe-off board: drop/dropped, tag/tagged, lift/lifted.” The teachers then goes over with students the different sounds -ed can make at the end of a word. This skills is repeated again and taken a step further in Being a Reader, Small Group, Set 5 Week 10, when students work on changing __y to i with -ed. Students practice changing the y to i and adding ed, for the following words: dry, spy, tally, try, carry.