Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for texts of publishable quality and texts worthy of careful reading. The majority of the Kindergarten anchor texts are publishable, and some of the texts are well-known children’s literature and stories. Some examples include nursery rhymes in Domain 1, including “Rain, Rain Go Away,” “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring,” and “Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick.” Similarly, in Domain 3, there are well-known fairy tales and folktales, including “The Three Little Pigs” and a Japanese Folktale, “Momotaro, the Peach Boy.”

Other domains have well-known stories such as in Domain 7, “Cinderella,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and “Old King Cole.” In Domain 9, “The Voyage of the Mayflower” is a published text.

In some of the domains, it is not clear if the texts were previously published; however, the majority of the informational texts are strong, complex texts that have publishable qualities. These include texts in Domains 2, 8, 10, and 12. Some of these texts include, but are not limited to:

• “The Sense of Taste” has graphics and content rich vocabulary words such as taste buds and flavorful (Domain 2, Lesson 8).
• “Safety in Storms” has photographs of different types of storms as well as content rich vocabulary words in bold, such as shelter and gear (Domain 8, Lesson 7).
• “The House Builders: Bricklayers, Masons, and Carpenters” is an informational story with images of tools that bricklayers, masons, and carpenters used in Colonial America (Domain 10, Lesson 7).
• “A Clever General” is a biography about George Washington and a man named Henry Knox who helped him. Throughout the read aloud, there are paintings of Washington and Knox as well as maps to show where they were located (Domain 12, Lesson 3).

All of the informational texts in this series have Tier II vocabulary words and many nonfiction text features including bold words with definitions and diagrams. In addition, the flip books for the anchor text read alouds are artistically and visually appealing. The technical drawings are accurate and realistic.

The K-2 Program Guide specifies, “CKLA provides high-quality texts that are written to fully engage students. The texts were written by children's authors specifically for the program and are original, authentic, and engaging fiction and nonfiction texts” (p. 164). Also, the students see a flip book image while the teacher reads the text from the teacher’s manual; therefore, the students never see the actual text on the page.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for texts that reflect the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards. There is a relatively equal distribution of text types within this series for Kindergarten, but there is a larger distribution of informational texts addressing science and social studies topics. The program balances that by using fictional characters to present the information and/or literary texts to demonstrate the information being presented. Each domain is organized around a topic, and the majority of the domains contain both literary and informational texts. There are a variety of text types and genres including literary texts, fables, fairy tales, informational text, poems, and rhymes.

Within the 12 Domains presented in the Kindergarten level, Domains 1 and 3 are dedicated to nursery rhymes and fables and are all literary. Domain 7 has an equal balance of literary and informational texts. The remaining domains have informational texts alternating between science and social studies. There are a few literary stories in the majority of these domains. In the majority of these informational pieces, a fictional character is used to present the information. For example, in Domain 5, Old MacDonald narrates stories about his farm. In other cases, the informational texts are literary-based, such as in Domain 6 where students hear the story about the Lakota Sioux and a young boy named Little Bear. The content is informational, but the storyline is fictional.

The balance of text types occurs throughout the series, so if the teacher cannot finish the entire curriculum within the year, students will still have access to an equal distribution of literary and informational texts. It should be noted that according to the K-2 Program Guide, “The amount of nonfiction gradually increases, reaching the 50-50 balance of fiction and nonfiction by third grade.” The K-2 Program Guide also states that the balance is achieved throughout the day, not just in the language arts block, and teachers should have students read literary and informational texts in all subjects.

Below is each domain and the text types within:

• Domain 1: Nursery Rhymes and Fables
  • This domain includes only literature texts, specifically nursery rhymes and fables.
• Domain 2: Five Senses
  • This domain includes eight informational texts, including biographies about Ray Charles and Helen Keller.
• Domain 3: Stories
  • This domain includes 10 folktales such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
• Domain 4: Plants
  • This domain is primarily informational, including texts on the life cycle of a plant, a biography, and a literary text story called, “The Gigantic Turnip.”
• Domain 5: Farms
  • This domain is mostly literary nonfiction with a literary story, “Little Red Hen.”
• Domain 6: Native Americans
  • This domain contains two literary texts and six informational texts.
• Domain 7: Kings and Queens
  • This domain contains six literary texts and two informational texts.
• Domain 8: Seasons and Weather
  • This domain has one literary text and seven informational texts. Included in this domain is the tall tale, “The Grasshopper and the Ants.”
• Domain 9: Columbus and the Pilgrims
  • This domain contains nine informational texts such as “Ferdinand and Isabella” and “The Wampanoag.”
• Domain 10: Colonial Town and Townspeople
  • This domain is primarily informational texts.
• Domain 11: Taking Care of the Earth
  • This domain contains 10 informational texts such as “Composting.”
• Domain 12: Presidents and American Symbols
  • This domain has eight informational texts such as “George Washington” and “Barack Obama.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that texts (including read aloud texts and some shared reading texts used to build knowledge and vocabulary) have the appropriate level of complexity according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and a relationship to their associated student task. While the majority of the lessons use an anchor text that is complex and appropriate for Kindergarten, there are other texts that are too complex for this grade level. In Kindergarten, the anchor texts are read alouds, and the majority of them are two to three grade levels higher in complexity than a typical kindergarten text. Below are examples of complex read aloud texts.

In Domain 1, Lesson 10, there is an example of a complex text. The text, “The Lion and the Mouse,” has a Lexile of 710. The majority of the qualitative features are slightly complex, but the meaning of the text is moderately complex due to the fact the theme is clear but conveyed with some subtlety. There are supports impeded throughout the text, as well as throughout the other read alouds, such as scaffolds for students answering questions or completing the tasks. In this specific lesson, the task is for students to identify the main events in the story through image card descriptions and drawings.

In Domain 2, the text, “The Sense of Hearing,” has a Lexile of 910. The qualitative features range from slightly complex to moderately complex. Ideas are presented in chronological order, and the language is largely explicit. Most of the sentences are simple and compound. The purpose is stated, and the knowledge demands are common, but some discipline-specific knowledge is discussed. The task associated with the text is five comprehension questions asked orally, then students create drawings, illustrate noises, and organize them based on volume.

In Domain 3, Lesson 10, the text, “Tug of War,” is also appropriately complex because of the 610 Lexile and the qualitative features being between slightly complex and moderately complex. The task requires students to draw a picture illustrating how two characters are different from one another.

In Domain 4, Lesson 10, the text is appropriate and complex for Kindergarten students. It has a Lexile of 930. The knowledge demands are very complex, as it explains how sap is turned into rubber and discusses photosynthesis. However, students review the parts of the plant prior to the read aloud. which could support students’ understanding. The task is for students to match plant parts to the everyday items people can make from them. It is suggested that this activity can be completed as a whole group if students need the extra support.

In Domain 5, Lesson 5, the text, “The Season of Farming,” has a Lexile of 880 making it appropriately complex. The language features are moderate to very complex due to the vocabulary that contains many specific academic vocabulary words and many complex sentences with several subordinate phrases or clauses. In addition, the knowledge demands are also moderately to very complex due to the students’ background knowledge of farming and understanding of the previous read alouds.

In Domain 6, Lesson 4, “Little Bear goes Hunting,” has a 690 Lexile, which is two levels above grade level and is appropriate for a read aloud in Kindergarten. The text structure is moderately complex since there are two storylines, and there is some challenging academic language such as hunting party, pemmican, and plains. In this text, the task does not apply to the story as it focuses on word work and syntactic activities. There are comprehension questions following the story.

“Spring” is a complex text for Kindergarten, found in Domain 8, Lesson 3. The Lexile is 850, and the qualitative features range from slightly complex to very complex. While the purpose is clear, concrete, and narrowly focused, making it slightly confusing, the language features are very complex because the meaning of the words is occasionally supported by the teacher, and there is a large amount of academic vocabulary. The task associated with this text does further support students’ understanding of the text since it analyzes the following figurative language, “April showers bring May flowers.”

In Domain 12, Lesson 9, the text, “Carving Mount Rushmore”, is also at an appropriate complexity level for Kindergarten. The Lexile is 890, and the qualitative features range from moderately complex to very complex. The language features are very complex due to the use of complex sentences and figurative language such as, “Finally, Borglum announced, ‘We shall carve Mount Rushmore. American history will march along that mountaintop!”’ The task is appropriate with the text as students identify the faces on Mount Rushmore and discuss key information about the four presidents depicted on the monument.

In Domain 5, Lesson 6, “All Kinds of Crops” has a Lexile of 1010. The qualitative features range from slightly complex to moderately complex: The text structure and purpose are slightly complex, but the language features and knowledge demands are moderately complex. Students illustrate different kinds of crops after folding a paper in half to draw food from animals on the left, versus food from crops on the right.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that the materials support students’ literacy skills over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills. The program is designed so that the domains and units build upon each other with increasing demands for knowledge and application as the student progresses through the units, lessons, and year. Students begin Kindergarten with highly familiar literary topics such as nursery rhymes in Domain 1 and fictional tales about different families in the first Reader in Unit 4, to taking care of the earth and learning about presidents and symbols in the final domains. The length and structure of the texts increases appropriately as well.

The anchor texts are the read alouds that are found in every lesson of the Knowledge Strand. All of the read alouds are several grades above what a Kindergarten student can read independently (between 600 and 1200 Lexile). These read-aloud texts focus on building students’ background knowledge with texts focusing on science, social studies, literature, and the arts. Following each story, there are comprehension questions with a focus on literal questions. As students progress through the units, inferential questions are introduced.

In addition, there are decodable readers in the Skills Section which increase in complexity. The first Reader is not introduced until Unit 4, and it has only two words per page and no capitalization or punctuation ("pet dog" "pet hot"). In this unit, students first watch and listen to the teacher read before they read. In Unit 7, students receive a Reader with one complete sentence per page with correct capitalization and punctuation (i.e., "Seth’s dad gets mad if Seth is not in bed at ten.") This is also the first unit where students begin doing independent reading in the decodable reader. The teacher begins by modeling before students read with a partner, in a small group, and/or independently. In Unit 8, the reader gets more complex, because it is the first time the reader is not 100% decodable (due to the inclusion of “Tricky Words,” also known as high frequency words). By the end of the Skills Strand, students receive pages with multiple sentences.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based. There are several places in each lesson that require students to engage with the text directly and draw on textual evidence to support their answers.

One example of how the materials that meet the indicator are the Check for Understanding questions, which occur during the daily text and are also used to review the text the following day. These are typically recall questions/answers that refer back to the text to make sure students are understanding the story on a literal basis. Such examples include, “What is the blue flower in the nursery rhyme called?” (Domain 1, Lesson 1) and “Thumbs up/thumbs down: The main character in this nursery rhyme is the rain.” (Domain 1, Lesson 2a)”

In addition, each read aloud has an interactive component. In the read alouds, there are suggested stopping places for each image projected, with questions either about the image or about the text the students heard. At the end of each read aloud, there are five to six questions for comprehension that teachers spend five to ten minutes on each day. It is suggested that if students are not responding to the questions, the teacher should reread the pertinent lines of the read aloud. There is no text provided in the Flip Book for read-aloud stories. These questions include a mix of literal and inferential questions as well as some evaluative questions. Included in this section are Think/Pair/Share activities which encourage students’ active involvement in class discussions with a peer and to then share their responses aloud with the class.

Examples of literal questions include:

• “What things are red and blue in the nursery rhyme?” (Domain 1, Lesson 1)
• “Who does the mother goat warn her kids about?” (Domain 3, Lesson 4)
• “Name three things you have learned about Washington, D.C.” (Domain 12, Lesson 1)

Examples of inferential questions include:

• “What does it mean when Johnny says,‘Come again another day?'” (Domain 1, Lesson 2a)
• “Which one of the three pigs do you think is the smartest? Why?” (Domain 3, Lesson 4)
• “Why does the author say that spring is an important time of the farm?” (Domain 8, Lesson 3)

One example of evaluative, Think/Pair/Share questions is: “Why do you think the Founding Fathers wanted the country to have an elected president rather than a king?” (Domain 12, Lesson 1).

Other Think/Pair/Share questions are evaluative but are not text based. For example, “With a partner, discuss Annie’s question at the end of her letter: What is it like during the summer where you live?” (Domain 8, Lesson 4). However, in these types of questions, it suggests that support for the answers should come from the read aloud.

Some lessons also have Exit Passes, which are text-based prompts. One example of an Exit Pass is “Students will draw the main events in ‘Little Miss Muffet’” (Domain 1, Lesson 4b). There are assessments interspersed in the text that require the students to draw upon the texts that they have heard to answer the questions. At the Kindergarten level, directions include, “I am going to read a question about one of the nursery rhymes and fables that you have heard. First, you will listen to the sentence that I read. Next, you will look at the three pictures in the row and find the one that answers the question. Finally, you will circle the correct picture.” Examples of questions are: “Who is the little friend? Why is he a great friend? Who learns the lesson?” (Domain 1, Lesson 10).

There are also some text-to-world and text-to-self questions included in the lessons that would not require students to revisit the text and that students with background knowledge of the topics would have more access to answering. The following are examples of questions that do not require students to refer back to the supporting or read-aloud text:

• In Domain 5, Lesson 2, “Why do farmers raise cattle?"
• In Domain 5, Lesson 6, “How would your life be different if farmers didn’t grow crops?"
• In Domain 10, Lesson 2, “Describe what you might see in a town.”

Sometimes, students do not have access to the visual text and are expected to reply by memory. In addition, prior to each read aloud, there is background information for teachers to share with students. This background knowledge helps to prepare the students and set a purpose for listening. While students with no knowledge on a topic will need to utilize the text, others who have some understanding will not.

The materials for Kindergarten meet expectations that materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-based questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding. There are culminating assessments and optional culminating tasks that serve as remediation or enrichment for the students.

Each domain includes a culminating assessment. For most assessments, there are three parts. The first part assesses students’ understanding of the content vocabulary taught in the domain, and the other two to three parts assess students on their understanding of the knowledge they were taught during the lessons. For example, in the culminating assessment of Domain 1, students hear a sentence about one of the nursery rhymes. They are then shown three pictures and have to choose the picture that correlates to the fairy tale. During Domain 1, students answer text-based questions about nursery rhymes such as, “Who is this nursery rhyme about?”

Each domain also includes several culminating activities. These activities are optional and used after the culminating assessment based on the needs of the individual students. The materials specifically state that these activities are for enrichment and/or extra activities. None of them are mandatory and/or designed as a specific culminating task to assess and apply knowledge learned. The activities are either remediation such as revisiting lessons, rereading, or discussing selected read alouds. The enrichment activities include making class books, art projects, retellings, or field trips. Other activities include creating Venn Diagrams, creating food chains, and theatrical reenactments. Some, but not all of the tasks are supported by the learning that happens throughout the domains, and often it is reference work that was done over time spent in the lessons. Some specific examples of the optional culminating tasks include, in Domain 8: Students act out the characters while the teacher rereads, “The Grasshopper and the Ants.” In Lesson 6, students answer questions about “The Grasshopper and the Ants” which connect to the culminating task such as, “Why do you think the ants are working so hard?” In Domain 10, students pretend to be tradespeople or townspeople in Colonial America. They need to use what they learned in the domain to imagine and then describe what they might see and hear as a tradesperson or townsperson. In Lesson 3, students answer questions about tradespeople such as, “What kinds of tradespeople might a farmer visit in town?” In Domain 12, students create a class timeline that shows the succession of presidents. In Lesson 2, students answer text-based questions about George Washington such as, “Why is the story of George Washington and the cherry tree considered a legend?” Finally, in Lesson 5, students answer questions about Thomas Jefferson such as, “What was Thomas Jefferson’s talent?”

There are also small tasks at the end of some of the lessons within the Knowledge Strand which help to integrate learning that will help students to be successful in a culminating task; however, these are usually stand-alone summary tasks that organize the learning from the lesson. For example, in Domain 3, Lesson 8, students write about their favorite character from the stories that they have read so far and give a reason why that character is their favorite.

Some of the culminating activities that teachers can choose to use are not text-based. For example, in Domain 8, one culminating activity is that students review the school’s procedures for events of severe weather, such as a tornado drill.

The materials reviewed for kindergarten meet the criteria for 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. There are opportunities for students to turn and talk or answer questions orally in a whole group setting, and there are protocols for evidence-based discussions with sentence frames. In addition, there is modeling of speaking with correct syntax and academic vocabulary when students are asked evidence-based questions.

After each lesson, there are comprehension questions where students respond orally to the whole group or to their turn and talk partner. In many of the cases, the materials provide scaffolding to develop speaking and listening skills for students within the lesson to include emerging, expanding, and bridging skills. This is the terminology used by curriculum. For example, in Domain 2, Lesson 4, the emerging support is, “Ask students simple yes or no questions.” The expanding support requires the teacher to provide students with a specific frame. The bridging support is, “Encourage students to use content-related words in complete sentences.” In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 5, the support includes, “Ask yes/no questions using simple phrases for emerging students,” and “When asking each question, provide students with a specific sentence frame to help students expand their ideas.” Lastly, teachers are expected to encourage students to expand and/or build on each other. Students also work with each other to retell stories, such as in Domain 7, Lesson 3.

There are many opportunities for students to turn and talk to discuss a question about the read-aloud text. In the first domain, there are specific protocols for students to follow to learn how to turn and talk. This begins in Domain 1, Lesson 10. The instructions say, “I am going to ask you a question. I will give you a minute to think about the question and then I will ask you to turn to your neighbor and discuss the question. Finally, I will call on several of you to share what you discussed with your partner.” One example of a turn and talk question is, “Have students turn to a partner and explain what our sense of sight is and why it is important,” from Domain 2, Lesson 2. Another example is, “What lesson can we learn from this story?” from Domain 4, Lesson 8. A final example is in Domain 7, Lesson 4, when students turn and talk to describe Old King Cole as a king.

Some directions to teachers model correct syntax when students have discussions about the read aloud. There are also syntactic activities. These allow students to have modeling, exposure, and practice expanding sentences using details from the texts they are reading. For example, in Domain 3, Lesson 6, the Teacher’s Guide says, “Explain to students that you will show them a picture from the read-aloud, and then you will ask them one question at a time. Explain that each time a question is answered, you will add it to the sentence to make the sentence expand, or become longer." In Domain 5, Lesson 12, the teacher models how to take turns saying one thing at a time about the picture and how to combine those ideas into one sentence. Also, in Domain 7, Lesson 1, students complete a drawing after a read aloud. The teacher is expected to circulate around the room and ask them to discuss their drawings. The teacher should repeat and expand upon students’ responses, using richer and more complex language, including, if possible, any read-aloud vocabulary.

There are also instances of teachers supporting evidence based discussions with rich academic vocabulary. For example, in the culminating activities for Domain 10 the teacher is instructed to repeat and expand upon the responses of the students using richer and more complex language, including, if possible, any read-aloud vocabulary. In addition, the comprehension questions after the read aloud include academic vocabulary words that are introduced in the beginning of the lesson. For example, in Domain 7, Lesson 5, a question is, “How are the actions of the king and queen different from the actions of the maid? (where maid is the vocabulary word)." Another example is in Domain 12, Lesson 8: “How is car exhaust bad for the earth? (where the word exhaust is the vocabulary word)."

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading with relevant follow-up questions and support. Every whole group text is a read aloud; therefore, each lesson requires students to listen, and various supports are given. In addition, the students have to respond to comprehension questions orally, which supports their speaking about what they are reading. There are relevant follow-ups and supports interspersed throughout the lessons. Many of the activities use Think-Pair Share as a way for the students to express and share ideas. There are supports in every lesson that offer scaffolding. Students are given multiple opportunities for learning through speaking and listening and for demonstrating their learning through different speaking activities.

Each lesson has an objective and a purpose for listening to help the teacher and the students focus on specific topics to listen for and speak about. For example, in Domain 2, Lesson 2, the purpose for listening is: “Tell the students that the main topic or main idea in the lesson is the sense of sight. Ask them to listen carefully to find out more about the sense of sight. Have them pay attention to the names of the different parts of the eye and what each part does.” In Domain 3, Lesson 8, the purpose for listening is: “Listen to the second half of the story about Jumping Mouse to find out how Jumping Mouse helps others and what lesson can be learned from the folktale.” In Domain 6, Lesson 2, an example is: “Tell students to listen to find out why the buffalo were so important to Lakota Sioux.” In Domain 7, Lesson 1, the purpose for listening is to find out about different European kings and queens from long, long ago, including the places they lived and all the different royal things that belonged to them.

In the read alouds there are also Check for Understanding Questions that support students’ speaking and listening. For example in Domain 9, Lesson 5, one check for understanding is “Who was Columbus?” and in Domain 9, Lesson 6, another check for understanding is, “When was Columbus's first voyage to America?” In this same lesson, students have a discussion at the end of the lesson about how the two maps are different and how they are similar. The discussion is based on a variety of questions such as, “What do both the world map of today and the 1492 map show?”

Throughout the lessons there are other various supports. For example, in Domain 1, Lesson 1B, it says, “If students give one-word answers and/or fail to use read-aloud or domain vocabulary in their responses, acknowledge correct responses by expanding the students’ responses using richer and more complex language. Ask students to answer in complete sentences by having them restate the question in their responses.”

Other supports for speaking and listening occur in the culminating activities. For students who need more support after the culminating assessment, one activity for remediation is reading. The teacher is directed to read the read aloud a second time and ask the students if they noticed anything new or different during the second reading that they did not notice during the first reading.

In many of the lessons there is support for the various supports for speaking, such as when students are asked simple yes/no questions, are provided with a sentence frame, and are encouraged to use key details in a complete sentence. In other cases, such as Domain 8, Lesson 3, students are asked yes/no questions about activities they can do in the spring, others are encourage to build on what the previous student said about the activities, and other students are challenged by asking them to say more about what the previous student has said about activities. These types of supports are found throughout the lessons.

Additional speaking activities are found throughout the domains to help students. For example in Domain 1, Lesson 7B, students share an experience orally. In Domain 3, Lesson 6, all students are provided a sentence frame for offering their opinion: “I think _____ makes a person a hero because...” Then, based on the student and his or her needs, the differentiation includes helping the students complete the sentence frame, encouraging the students to respond to the opinion of their peers by using phrases such as, "I agree or disagree because...," or challenging students to respond to the opinion of their peers before they offer their own opinion. Another example of this is in Domain 3, Lesson 10, when students think of a story, folktale, or trickster tale that they’ve heard during a read aloud and have to turn to their neighbor and recall the basic plot, using words like first, next, then, with an emphasis that they should use the word ‘last’ at the end.

In the Skills Section of the material, teachers are strongly encouraged to use specified questioning and answering techniques. In Unit 7, students learn how to answer inferential questions orally, and in Unit 8, students will answer evaluative questions.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate. The materials cover a year’s worth of instruction and involve both short and longer writing tasks and projects. There are instances where digital resources are used for writing. The writing tasks and projects are aligned to the grade level standards being reviewed.

Within the Kindergarten materials, there are opportunities for students to begin learning to produce on-demand written responses related to information being presented. For many lessons, it may be to provide an illustration for understanding (with a scribed response and/or a simple word or sentence). There are many examples of this throughout the domains. For example, in Domain 3 students are instructed to draw a picture of Momotaro on one side of the paper, and on the other side of the paper, to draw a picture of Jumping Mouse. The pictures need to emphasize the similarities and differences between the two characters in each of their drawings in Domain 3, Lesson 7. Another example is in Domain 1, Lesson 5B where students have to draw the five events that take place in the nursery rhyme. In Domain 3, Lesson 3, students work together to draft a story with the teacher. This also occurs in Domain 11, Lesson 10, where students participate in writing a class book, which includes ideas for solutions to problems regarding taking care of the Earth. Additional examples of on-demand writing tasks include drawing the read aloud. This allows students to demonstrate an understanding of the information that they learned from the read aloud. Examples of this are in Domain 7, Lessons 1 and 2, as well as in Domain 9, Lessons 2, 4, and 8. Also, students are expected to sequence events in the story in Domain 7, Lessons 3, 7, and 8.

Process writing in Kindergarten teaches students to utilize the draft and revision process to edit their writing. In terms of process writing opportunities at this level, students are introduced to graphic organizers for understanding story elements, and they work on sequencing with illustrations. In addition, in Domain 9, students write a travel journal over the course of several lessons, including Lessons 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. These travel journals document the voyages of Columbus and the voyages of the Pilgrims. There are also opportunities for students to edit their writing. In Domain 8, Lesson 7, students peer edit and then review their copy and add details based on peer suggestions. In Domain 12, Lesson 3, students are divided into pairs to exchange papers. They are then instructed to suggest at least one detail to be added to each picture in the sequence. Students then incorporate feedback into revising their work.

Students are also given opportunities for writing through the use of technology. The variety of topics and incorporation of digital resources allow students to become familiar with digital tools as a support to the writing process. In Domain 12, Lesson 3, for example, students explore various digital tools to revise and/or publish their retellings of the legend. Such tools include various student publishing software and web-based publishing programs.

The Kindergarten materials reviewed meet the criteria for providing multiple opportunities for students to address the different texts types of writing, which are narrative, expository/informational, and opinion. The materials provide multiple opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/models/types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Students use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, as well as tell about the events in the order in which they happen. In Domain 1, students focus on the literary genre through the retelling of nursery rhymes and fables. In Domain 3, students also focus on the literary genre through the retelling of stories. Also in Domain 3, students use graphic organizers to identify the characters, setting, and plot of a literary text in Lesson 9. Similarly, in Domain 5, students will use drawing to retell the main events of a folktale in Lesson 7. Additionally in Lesson 7, students practice sequencing events for the beginning, middle, and end of stories. In Domain 10, students publish a legend, with assistance, in Lesson 3.

Students use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts. In Domain 2, students use drawings to describe key concepts from informational texts about the five senses. Students create drawings that identify the sense with its corresponding body part. They also complete two timelines showing important scenes from the lives of Ray Charles and Helen Keller. In Domain 4, students compare and contrast in writing different types of plants and seeds, as well as how different plant parts are used by people. They will also draw pictures to communicate understanding of plant parts and the cycle of plants. In Domain 5, students focus on using details to describe key concepts in informational texts about farms, and similarly, in Domain 6, students focus on using details to describe key concepts in informational texts about Native Americans.

Lastly, students use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces. One example is in Domain 3, Lesson 6, students write their opinion about a hero and give a reason for their opinion. Another example of this is in Domain 8, Lesson 8, when students will make a prediction based on their opinion of what the weather will be like tomorrow. Students are taught what opinion means and that they need to give a reason to support why they think it will happen.

The materials in the Kindergarten curriculum meet the criteria for materials that include regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level. Within the materials, there are grade-appropriate opportunities for students to recall information through drawing main events. Students are also presented with sentence frames and are asked to present reasons/opinions for characters that they select in Domains 1, 3, and 5 to draw and/or write about. There are also opportunities for students to detail information they are learning through listening events and with the use of graphic organizers.

In Domain 1, Lesson 4, students are asked to draw the main events in “Jack and Jill.” They repeat this direction in Lesson 4B with “Little Miss Muffet” and “The Lion and the Mouse” in Lesson 10. In Domain 2, students create a drawing and provide an oral statement describing the sense of sight and how it helps people. In Domain 3, Lesson 5, students draw and label a picture of a main character from the folktale that they heard. Other examples include drawing a picture of a type of food that comes from an animal and another picture of one that comes from a crop (Domain 5, Lesson 6), as well as drawing a picture of the jobs associated with each season on the four quarters of a piece of paper (Domain 5, Lesson 8). In Domain 6, students describe the environment of the Lakota Sioux and record their answers on a graphic organizer.

In Domains 9, 10 and 11, for example, students were asked to demonstrate their understanding of the information that they learned from the read-aloud text by drawing pictures and discussing them with the class. One such example is that students will draw an illustration with a caption, depicting part of the story (in Domain 10, Lesson 9). Similarly in Domain 12, Lesson 5, students are asked to use a drawing activity to describe Thomas Jefferson.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation that 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 with opportunities for application both in and out of context. The Skills Domain lessons are typically designed to run 60 minutes.

There are multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds in each unit. There are many opportunities for rhymes and songs. Some examples of rhyming lessons include Unit 6, Lesson 9 and Unit 8, Lesson 4, where the teacher reviews what it means when a word rhymes and then the teacher reads pairs of words and students decide if the words rhyme or do not rhyme.

Oral blending lessons begin in Unit 1 and continue throughout the entire program. In Units 1 and 2, oral blending is the only skill taught, and it is introduced before letter-sound correspondence is introduced in Unit 3. In Unit 1, students also engage in distinguishing individual words in spoken language such as counting the number of words that they hear in oral sentences (Unit 1, Pausing Point). In Unit 2, the focus is on blending compound words and occurs at the start of every lesson. The degree of difficulty of oral blending increases as the units progress. For example, in Unit 3, students orally blend words of two or three phonemes and in Unit 6, the focus is on blending sounds into three-five sound words with a focus on blending consonant clusters. In addition, many of the lessons include opportunities for students to add or substitute individual sounds to make new words. These activities are called “Chaining Activities,” and they are included in many lessons. For example, in Unit 8, Lesson 6, the teacher begins with the word hot, and students change one sound at a time to end up with the word wings. Other examples include students changing one sound between two words. For example in Unit 4, Lesson 1, students read words that start with either /m/ or /n/ and then read the word again, but with the other sound.

Students apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills when decoding words, beginning in Unit 3. In Unit 3, /a/, /o/, and /i/ are introduced as well as /m/, /t/, /d/, /c/, and /g/. When introducing a new sound, the teacher says the sound and then asks students to repeat it. Then the students read a number of words with the sound in the beginning position and the end position several times after the teacher models reading the word. In Unit 4 and 5, the remaining letter sounds are introduced. The phonics get more challenging in later units such as /ch/ and /sh/ in Unit 7, the double letter spellings for consonant sounds in Unit 8 and the "magic 'e'" in Unit 10. Tricky Words or sight/high frequency words are introduced, beginning in Unit 3. A few new words are introduced in each unit, and they are used in the Decodable Readers for students to practice.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet expectations that 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).

Letter names and alphabetic knowledge are introduced Unit 6, based on the philosophy that students first need to understand the sound of letters and not the letter names to avoid confusing students. According to the program, the instruction in letter-sound relationships is non-traditional, and teachers are encouraged to not teach letter names before students are taught sounds. Lowercase letters are used initially in all texts, including the first Decodable Reader in Unit 4. Beginning in Unit 5, capital letters are introduced.

In Units 1 and 2, students engage in directionality activities such as tracking pictures in Unit 2, Lesson 1. Starting in Unit 4, decodable texts are introduced, where directionality of text is explicitly taught. When the teacher does the read aloud for demonstrations, it is suggested that the teacher (and later on the students) explicitly point to the words to help students with directionality. For example, in Unit 6, Lesson 2, while the teacher reads “Kit and Stan,” the students track the print from the top to the bottom and from the left to the right. In subsequent lessons, the teacher is instructed to point out that the print goes from left to right across the page and that words are separated by spaces (beginning in Unit 4, Lesson 12).

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectation that 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.

There are multiple opportunities for students to practice automatically and accurately read grade-level words, beginning in Unit 3 with the words, one, two, three being taught in Lessons 13 and 14. In Unit 4, there are pocket chart chaining activities to support reading (Lessons 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9). Students also are provided flashcards to take home to practice. In each unit, there is a list of decodable words that students should be able to read. For example, in Unit 6, some of the words include: can, cut, did, get, had, and him.

There are multiple opportunities for students to purposefully engage in emergent reader texts, beginning in Unit 4. The students first watch the teacher read, and then they are provided opportunities to read short phrases in the story. Every word in this book has been selected based on different letter-sound correspondences that have been taught. In Unit 5, a student is provided a copy of the text, so he/she can read the phrase on each page, pointing his or her finger under each word. In later units, students practice oral reading fluency when they are provided opportunities to read the Decodable Reader with a partner, a small group, or as a class. CKLA states, “Repeated oral reading will be an important exercise from this point on in the program. It is a regular exercise in CKLA....” (Unit 6, Introduction).

Students are provided frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words. Unit 4 words include words from the Dolch Sight List and the Fry List, including one, two, three, can, get, and had. By Unit 7, students are expected to be able to read 53 high-frequency words from the Dolch Site Word List and 53 high-frequency words from the Fry Word List, including down, of, out, and down.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectation that materials, questions, and tasks provide systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks. While the lessons and skills taught are structured and systematic, it is unique and differs from the type of phonics usually taught in the United States, according to CKLA, in that the materials begin with a focus on sounds and then links those sounds to spellings. The program avoids the use of letter names in the early units of Kindergarten, because “what is most important for reading is not the letter names but the sound values the letters stand for.” Students learn to read words that contain onsets, rimes, and consonant clusters, but they learn to view and process these larger units as combinations of smaller phoneme-level units.

Beginning in Unit 4, students are provided a Decodable Reader that is 100% decodable, so students can practice word recognition and analysis skills in a connected text. This first story is simple, since the words are only made up of letter-sound correspondences students have been explicitly taught. As students move into later Kindergarten units, they will encounter longer and more challenging stories with fully decodable sentences.

Tricky Words are also taught, and these words are defined as high-frequency words that have sounds that cannot be blended using the letter-sound correspondences students have been taught. Prior to Unit 8, Tricky Words are not in decodable texts, but instead only in Picture Readers and related activity pages, which rely heavily on the use of pictures. In Unit 8, students still use the Picture Reader, and Tricky Words are gradually included in the stories. In Unit 9, the Tricky Words are only in the decodable texts, and a Picture Reader is no longer used. In the decodable readers, the tricky parts of the Tricky Words are underlined. This occurs for the first 20 times the word is in a story.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectation that materials support ongoing and frequent assessments to determine student mastery and to 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. Each unit provides multiple opportunities for teachers to monitor student understanding and offers suggestions and methods for re-teaching and providing scaffolding supports.

There are summative assessments as well as pretests in the Skills Section of each unit. Beginning in Unit 1, there are two pretests, including Blending Pretests; two additional optional pretests include a test of letter-sound correspondences and a test of letter names. In Unit 2, Lesson 10, there is an assessment on oral blending that is meant to be given to the entire class. It is suggested that any student who performs poorly should be given the pretest from Unit 1, Lesson 4. This type of additional assessment, found in almost every single unit, is for students who perform poorly on the initial assessment. This extra data allows teachers to understand the root cause of the problem and provide appropriate remediation. Another example of a summative assessment is in Unit 4, where students get an assessment to pronounce one-syllable CVC words. Students who perform poorly on the assessment will be provided a similar assessment the next day. In the Teacher Resource Section of each unit, teachers can find all of the materials. For example, in Unit 7, assessments in the Teacher Resource Section include the Dolch Word Assessment, Fry Word Assessment, Oral Segmenting Observation Record, Anecdotal Reading Record, and Unit 7 Assessment Record Pages.

After the summative assessments, it is suggested that teachers review and analyze all students’ assessment results and then pause for one to three days to provide enrichment and remedial practice. After some of the units, the program suggests that some students not move on to the next unit due to their poor performance on the assessments and the need for mastery in order to be a proficient reader. For example, in Unit 8, Lesson 15, it says, “If students score poorly on this assessment but are successful on the other assessments, they still move on to Unit 9 while receiving remediation on letter names from the Pausing Point of Unit 6 or the Assessment and Remediation Guide for Unit 6. If students score in the poor range and also score poorly on other assessments, consideration should be given to placing those students in a remediation group and not continuing to Units 9 and 10.”

Formative assessments are incorporated throughout the units and are clearly marked for monitoring student performance and progress in key skills. In Unit 2, the formative assessments are on blending syllables and individual sounds. There are also “Checks for Understanding,” that are quick ways to collect data on which students, if any, may benefit from reteaching and/or more practice on a particular skill. Also, observations are meant to be taken throughout various lessons. For example, in Unit 2, Lessons 1-9, there is an Oral Blending Observation Record for the teacher to use as he/she listens to students blending syllables. In Unit 4, the observations are even more specific about collecting observation records on segmenting words, blending words, and saying each letter sound. In Unit 7, teachers collect observational data on segmenting words with consonant clusters and digraphs, letter sounds and names, and story comprehension of discussion questions. At other times, it is recommended that the teacher collect specific Activity Pages to review at a later time in order to evaluate student performance.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectation that materials, questions, and tasks provide high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills. The lessons are designed in a structured way that allows for students to apply what they learned, and for the teacher to observe, reflect, and then offer scaffolding, feedback, re-teaching, and/or other differentiated methods to ensure learning and eventual mastery of foundational skills.

Throughout each lesson, there are supports and challenges included in the sidebars. For example, in Unit 2, Lesson 4, a support is to look for opportunities during the lesson day to segment words that students can then blend. In Unit 8, Lesson 3 another example of a support is for students to say the sounds in the Tricky Words instead of the letter names.

At the end of each lesson, there is additional support for the skills taught that day which the teacher can use with individual students, a small group of students, or the entire class. For example, in Unit 2, Lesson 5, there is additional support with blending syllables, by saying each syllable and then blending it together. In Unit 3, Lesson 9, there is extra support in blending words with two phonemes. In Unit 4, Lesson 10, there is a BINGO game to help students with reading words. In Unit 6, Lesson 9, there is a spelling hopscotch game to help students spell consonant clusters.

In each unit, there is a Pausing Point section that includes a variety of differentiated activities based on the unit objectives. Teachers can choose which activities students complete based on their individual needs. It is typically suggested that teachers pause for this for two to three days.

After each unit's End of Unit Assessment, there are suggestions for differentiation for students who do not master the skills. In Unit 4, if students perform in the fair to poor range, the teacher administers a second reading assessment on an individual basis to help plan for differentiation.