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

The texts provide content that is relevant and interesting to students. Anchor texts across the yearlong curriculum are of publishable quality. Anchor texts consider a range of student interests and are well-crafted and content rich. Examples include:

• Module 1:
  • Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney is a playful rhyming book that teaches an important lesson about sharing. Llama Llama is a well-loved book character that Kindergarten students will find engaging and entertaining.
  • Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow has vibrant illustrations throughout the book. This story is exciting and engaging for students because of the sentence structure, adjectives, and illustrative techniques.
• Module 2:
  • Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons uses bright and colorful illustrations. This informational book teaches vocabulary about weather in an easy to understand format for young students.
  • Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse has simple sentences to help the students be engaged in the story. The story focuses on an African American character, which provides students an opportunity to read a story with diverse characters.
• Module 3:
  • Be a Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber provides students with information about different types of trees. It is an interesting topic for students and the text helps students to understand tree purposes and products.
  • What’s Alive by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is an informational book that demonstrates the qualities that people have in common with other living things, including cats, trees, and birds. It provides an early step in scientific classification and has vivid illustrations.
• Module 4:
  • Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase is about three friends and friendship, which is a relatable topic for kindergarten students. This engaging text informs readers that there are a variety of trees and that trees are important.
  • A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry engages students by showing how trees provide comfort to people and animals. The text allows children a chance to open up their own imaginations about the value of trees.

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

The required texts for the Kindergarten Modules provide a balanced mix of literary and informational texts including riddles and poetry. The Reading Foundational Skills lessons include poems, chants, and rhymes. To supplement the texts types and genres, educators can use Kindergarten Recommended Texts and Other Resources List. According to the Module 1 Teacher Guide, “Throughout the module, to support a volume of reading on this topic, see the Recommended Texts and Other Resources list” (p. 43). During the Labs, there are recommended texts for Storytime. Examples of the Module required texts include:

• Literary Texts:
  • Module 1: Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney and Toys Galore by Peter Stein
  • Module 2: One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews and Come on Rain by Karen Hesse
  • Module 3: The Tree in the Ancient Forest by Carol Reed-Jones and Are Trees Alive? by Debbie Miller
  • Module 4: Gus is a Tree by Claire Babin and A Tree for Emmy by Mary Ann Rodman
• Informational Texts:
  • Module 1: Playing with Friends by Rebecca Rissman and “Attributes of Toys” by EL Education
  • Module 2: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons
  • Module 3: What’s Alive? By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
  • Module 4: A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry and “Tree Texts” by EL Education

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that texts (including read-aloud texts and some shared reading texts used to build knowledge and vocabulary) have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade level according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and a relationship to their associated student task.

Read-aloud texts at K-2 are above the complexity levels of what most students can read independently. Kindergarten read-aloud texts are two to three grade levels higher in complexity, according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. Anchor texts are placed at the appropriate grade level. Examples of text that demonstrate the appropriate complexity include:

• Module 1:
  • Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell falls in the Lexile band for Grades 4-5 and has a Lexile score of 820. Meaning/purpose and language features are moderately complex. The text contains multiple levels of meaning that are fairly easy to infer. The language is easy to understand with some occasions for more complex meaning. Text structure and knowledge demands are slightly complex. The story line is clear and easy to predict. Repeated language signals the pattern of the plot. The illustrations support students in comprehending the text and also extend the text by showing the detail of Molly Lou’s Imagination.
• Module 2:
  • The Snowy Day by Ezra Jacks Keats has a Lexile score of 500. The meaning/purpose of the text is slightly complex and the meaning will be apparent to students early in the text. The text structure is slightly complex and the story is “predictable and chronological,” so student understanding of the story will also be enhanced through the illustrations. The language features of the text are moderately complex as students should be familiar with most of the vocabulary words used throughout the story. The knowledge demands are moderately complex, and the story will likely be easier for students to understand who live in a snowy area or have had experience with snow.
• Module 3:
  • Be a Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber has a Lexile score of 500. The meaning/purpose is slightly complex with the purpose explicitly stated. The text structure is slightly complex with explicit connections between ideas and examples. The language features are moderately complex with simple and compound sentences.
• Module 4:
  • A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry has a Lexile score of 420. The central message of the text is clearly stated in the text. The text structure has explicit ideas. The language features are moderately complex since most of the vocabulary is familiar to students. Most sentences are simple and compound. The knowledge demands are slightly complex because some of the experiences are common to young readers.

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

Complex texts are read aloud to Kindergarten students during the Module lessons to guide students to understand the Guiding Questions and Big Ideas. Students are guided to understand increasingly complex texts to develop independence of grade level skills.

• In Module 1, Unit 1, students have the opportunity to explore classroom toys in order to develop language about playing toys. The teacher reads aloud Llama Llama Time to Share, and the teacher uses a Llama Llama puppet and Nelly Gnu puppet to help students understanding Llama Llama’s feelings. In Unit 2, the teacher reads aloud Attributes of Toys and displays the illustrations in order to scaffold student understanding of toy characteristics.
• In Module 2, the teacher uses read aloud and close reading strategies to support students’ understanding of the complex texts. In Unit 1, science experiments are utilized to help develop students’ vocabulary. As the teacher reads aloud Curious Sofia, the teacher asks text-dependent questions. In Unit 2, students participate in Partner Role-play in order to understand the focused read-aloud text, On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather.
• In Module 3, the teacher uses read aloud, science talk, and note-taking strategies to help students understand the complex texts. In Unit 1, to help students' understanding of plant development, students are to observe three plants over the course of the unit. In Unit 2, students learn how to participate in group note-taking and individual note-taking to help them comprehend the complex texts.
• In Module 4, the teacher uses focused read-aloud texts, shared reading, close read-aloud, and role-playing. To help students access the texts, there are suggested scaffolds such as in Unit 1, Lesson 1, the language and structure of Gus is a Tree may be too complex. The suggested support is to stop and define words in context. To help students understand the text, the teacher and students act out parts of the texts. Throughout the module, there are anchor charts created with student input. As students learn new words from texts, those words are added to the Word Wall for student reference.

During Storytime in the Labs, students hear texts read aloud for an additional 10 minutes. These read-alouds and Labs help scaffold student learning of the module topics and texts.

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

There is a Required Trade Book Procurement List and a Recommended Texts and Other Resources List. These lists contain a range and volume of informational and literary texts that students read or have read to them during Module lessons. Other opportunities for engaging in reading include daily ten-minute read-alouds in the Labs, decodables and shared texts in the Skills Block, and Accountable Independent Reading in the Skills Block. The instructions for Kindergarten independent reading are not explicit, teachers will need to plan for independent reading .

Instructional materials identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in reading (and read-aloud) a variety of texts to become independent readers and/or comprehenders and a volume of reading as they grow toward reading independence at the grade level. Examples include:

• During Module 1 lessons, students hear a variety of read-aloud texts about the following topics: toys and play, weather, and trees. Students hear texts read aloud by the teacher. Read-aloud texts include Toys Galore, The Tree in the Ancient Forest, One Hot Summer Day, We Planted a Tree, and Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya.
• During the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block, students have the opportunity to read shared poetry. For example, in Module 2, Part 2, Cycle 8, Lesson 41, students read “Can a Yak Jump Up?”
• During the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block, students have the opportunity to read decodable readers. For example, in Module 3, Part 2, Cycle 15, Lesson 76, students read “The Milkshake.”
• During Independent Rotations, students participate in Accountable Independent Reading (AIR), which requires students to choose books to read independently. AIR is a time for “students to apply the skills and build stamina, automaticity, and comprehension by reading a large volume of texts of their own choice, with a specific focus on their own personal reading goals.”
• During the Lab Storytime, students hear ten minutes of a read aloud text at the beginning of the Lab. The teacher selects a read aloud text from the Recommended Texts and Other Resources List, and the teacher provides a focus question for students to consider as the teacher reads the text aloud.

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

The Kindergarten materials contain questions and instructional tasks designed to encourage understanding of key ideas of texts and determine the most important learning from the readings. Text-dependent questions and tasks are specifically included in the anchor text and through close reading sessions that occur in lessons and support explicit as well as valid inferences. As stated in the Your Curriculum Companion on page 275, “In each session, students are lifted to greater understanding of the text through purposeful text-dependent questions and activities” These text-dependent questions are typically found in activities with structured protocols requiring discourse such as: Back-to-Back, Face-to-Face, Think-Pair-Share, and Pinky Partners. Additionally, text-dependent questioning is found in Unit Assessments and Student Response Sheets. Text-dependent questions would be stronger if they prompted students by asking, “What evidence from the text helped you answer this question.”

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2 students listen to the story, Llama Llama Time to Share. After listening to pages 1 and 2 the teacher asks, “Who is visiting Llama and his family?” After listening to pages 3 and 4, the teacher asks, “What do you see both Llama Llama and Nelly holding in the picture?” After reading pages 5 and 6 the teacher asks, “What does Llama Llama’s mom say to him?” In addition, after reading pages 5 and 6, students are asked to make an inference. The teacher asks: “What do you notice about his face?” and students are expected to respond, “His eyes are wide. His mouth is in a big “O” shape. He looks worried.”
• In Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Session 2 during the Close Read of Weather Words and What They Mean, the teacher rereads pages 2–5. The teacher is instructed to first read the text at the bottom of the page, read the text in the bubbles, and read the text included in the illustrations. The teacher then asks students, “What are the four things the author says make up the weather?”
• In Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 2, during the Read Aloud of What’s Alive, the teacher leads students through pages 4-7. The teacher asks students to keep the guiding question, “How do we know if something is living?”, in their minds and to gather specific information from the text as they read. The teacher stops to offer turn-and-talk experiences, asking questions, “What information does this page tell us about how to know if something is living or alive?” On page 7, there is a picture of a plant with the vocabulary words, "leaves" and "root", to aid in student response. The teacher follows the protocol for actively teaching new vocabulary. After reading page 7, the teacher asks, “Was anything the same about the (cat, bird, flower, and tree)?” Students are expected to respond with one of the following responses: "they all grow or they all need water." They will use this information as they complete a Living Things Research Notebook.
• In Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 3, during a Focused Read Aloud of A Tree is Nice, the teacher reads pages 1-14. The teacher reminds students of the learning target “I can identify and discuss the reasons the author gives to support points in A Tree Is Nice.” After reading page 6, the teacher stops to ask, “On page 6, what is a reason the author gives that makes you think trees are nice and that people should plant trees?” Students are expected to respond, “They make everything beautiful.” The teacher adds this opinion to the Reasons to Plant a Tree anchor chart. The teacher follows the same routine in having students assist in adding the opinions to the anchor chart as they read by posing the same question, “Using the illustrations and text, what is one reason that trees are nice and that people should plant trees that the author gives us on this page?” Students are expected to respond, “trees have leaves you can play in,” for pages 7-10, “you can climb on trees, sit on tree limbs, and pretend” on pages 11-12, and “you can eat apples from apple trees” for pages 13-14.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials containing sets of high-quality sequences of text-based questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding (as appropriate, may be drawing, dictating, writing, speaking, or a combination).

The curriculum offers many opportunities for students to engage with text-based questions and activities that build to a culminating task. The close reading/read aloud sessions in the Module lessons, are taught across five lessons to support comprehension and knowledge building from the text. Following these lessons, students demonstrate their understanding of the text through a variety of activities involving writing, drawing, and speaking. Students also have daily opportunities to participate in collaborative conversations and the teacher records ideas on an Anchor Chart which is displayed in the classroom. In addition, students complete written responses in notebooks and journals that require reference back to the text and give the teacher usable information about students’ readiness to complete the culminating task. The culminating task for each Module is found in Unit 3 and is called a Performance Task. This task provides students the opportunity to demonstrate their content and literacy knowledge through a combination of literacy skills including reading, writing, drawing, and speaking and listening.

The Module 1 Performance Task requires students to incorporate their knowledge about toys to write an informational piece about a classmate’s preferred toy. Students utilize information from collaborative conversations, anchor charts, and information that they obtained from interviewing their classmate. Students draw and label their classmate’s preferred toy and write an accompanying sentence. Then, students create a drawing and sentence about how their classmate plays with their preferred toy. Lessons throughout the Module prepare students to complete the culminating task. In the Unit 3, Lesson 1, Session 2, Close Read/Read Aloud, after rereading page 1, the teacher asks the following question: “According to the pictures and the words, what does Molly Lou Melon have a lot of?” In Unit 3, Lesson 1, Session 4-5, the teacher uses the Toys Molly Lou and Gertie Prefer Anchor Chart to record student responses to a series of questions that include the following: “What toy is Gertie choosing to play with? How does a battery help Gertie’s car? What toy is Molly Lou Melon choosing to play with?”

The Module 2 Performance Task requires students to incorporate their knowledge about weather to write an imaginary narrative about a character’s experience with the weather, using The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as a mentor text. Students’ narratives reflect how the weather affects the choices the character makes about what to wear and what to do. Students use group notes, puppets, and oral planning as scaffolding to illustrate their stories. Students revise, edit, and practice reading their original narratives in preparation for sharing them. Lessons throughout the Module prepare students to complete the culminating task. In Unit 1, Lesson 2, Session 4, Close Read/Read Aloud, the teacher rereads pages 16–17 and asks the following question: “What does the author tell us are one or two more examples of moisture?” A total participation technique is used to generate student responses. In Unit 1, Lesson 7, Close Read-aloud Culminating Task, students work independently to write and draw about the three components of weather that they learned about while reading Weather Words and What They Mean.

The Module 3 Performance Task requires students to incorporate their knowledge about trees to create an informational collage to demonstrate their expertise about a tree, its needs, and the animals for which it provides food. Students create a tree collage, write an informational writing piece that describes the tree and its needs while sharing information about one animal that depends on the tree for food, and create an accurately colored animal puppet that represents the animal from students’ writing. Lessons throughout the Module prepare students to complete the culminating task. In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Work Time B, students use the information gathered during the read-aloud to write and draw about how living things depend on trees to meet their needs. Students use the Be a Friend to Trees Response Sheet and include details in their writing and labels in their drawings. In Unit 2, Lesson 8, students participate in a game of charades about animals and how they get their food from trees. The information learned from the game supports students to complete a component of the culminating task on how animals get food from trees.

The Module 4 Performance Task requires students to incorporate their knowledge about enjoying and appreciating trees to create a piece of artwork and write an opinion piece. Student opinion writing begins with, “Trees are nice because...” Students create a piece of artwork showcasing a specific part of a tree to match their writing. These two components (opinion writing and high-quality artwork) come together to create a Tree Appreciation card. Lessons throughout the Module prepare students to complete the culminating task. In Unit 1, Lesson 2, students participate in a close read aloud of A Tree for Emmy and complete their journal page answering the following prompt: “Sketch the picture and write sentences to describe how the person in the photograph is enjoying the tree.” In Unit 1, Lesson 7, Work Time A, students focus on the important events that occur in the middle and the end of the story. After reading the text, Oliver’s Tree, the teacher uses total participation techniques and asks the following questions: “What do the illustrations show the characters doing with trees on this page? How does Oliver feel in the middle of the story about trees? What does Oliver do in the middle with trees?”

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

Protocols are provided for evidence-based discussions. These protocols give each task structure and provide supportive scaffolds. The Curriculum Companion Guide provides the rationale for program protocols and the importance of modeling and using sentence frames to deepen student discourse for all students, including ELL and struggling students. Protocols are provided for Think-Pair-Share, Back-to-Back, Face-to-Face, and Pinky Partners discussion activities. Several protocols also exist to promote language and academic vocabulary development such as the Frayer Model, Interactive Word Walls and Contextual Redefinition. Students utilize these protocols to analyze and synthesize author’s intent and understand the syntax of the text. The teacher is provided multiple anchor charts and answer keys to support teaching the protocols effectively. A companion book, Classroom Protocols, provides protocols for facilitating evidence-based discussions, encouraging the modeling and usage of academic vocabulary, emphasizing the learning and usage of new vocabulary, and conducting informal checks of understanding. While these strategies are utilized throughout the program they are listed in one area as an efficient tool for educators to use to differentiate instruction.

Text-based discussions are emphasized in the Close Read/Read Aloud lessons. Each of these sessions provides an opportunity for students to discuss their responses to questions that are largely based on the text itself, looking closely at words, sentences and ideas presented in the text. Language Dives help guide conversations among students about specific words, phrases, and sentences to better understand complex syntax. Total participation techniques such as Turn-and-Talk, Cold-Call and Equity Sticks are also utilized to engage all students in responding to text-based questions and prompts.

Examples of protocols and opportunities for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Teacher Guide Overview, students practice norms and behaviors for sharing and caring for classroom toys and interacting with peers. Students consider the unit’s guiding question, “What can we do to make playing together fun?” as they explore classroom toys, engage in structured conversations, and read about playing together. During the second portion of the unit, students document and synthesize their learning through structured discussions and shared writing experiences. Throughout these activities, students generate the Commitments for Playing Together anchor chart, which is a resource that guides their play and interactions throughout the year.
• In Module 1, Unit 1 Assessment, Responding to Text: Thinking about Illustrations and Speaking, the focus is students’ comprehension of a literary text read aloud. After being presented with a variety of scenes from the text Llama Llama Time to Share, students choose the illustrations that best answer the focus question: “What does Llama Llama learn about playing with others?” Then, using the pictures that they chose, students engage in a conversation with a partner to explain their work. Data is collected using the Speaking and Listening Checklist.
• In Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 6, Close Read/Read Aloud Session 2, for the text, Come On, Rain!, students have a text-based discussion using Think-Pair-Share with an elbow partner. Students discuss the following prompts: “Think back to what we have learned about the weather. What science clues make Tess believe it will rain soon? How do you know?”
• In Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 6, after completing a sorting activity classifying pictures that are living and non-living with a partner, the teacher re-reads pages 22-25 of What’s Alive? aloud. Students gather information to assist with a research project. The teacher stops on page 24, prompts a turn and talk protocol, and inquires, “What information does What’s Alive? give us that would help us confirm what we know about living things?” The teacher has the option to extend the conversation by asking, “Who can add on to what your classmate said? I’ll give you time to think.” Students utilize the information and research obtained during the sort, read aloud, and classroom discussion to cite evidence of living and non-living things in their Living Things research notebook.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 4, the teacher purposefully guides students through a close reading of A Tree for Emmy focusing on asking and answering questions about the story elements. During an independent writing activity, the teacher displays an image (Enjoying Trees image 3) and prompts the turn and talk protocol by asking, “How are the people in this picture enjoying trees?” Suggested responses include the following: “The kids are hiding” and “The kids are playing hide and seek.” The teacher extends the conversation by prompting, “Who can explain why your classmate came up with that response? I’ll give you time to think.” As students share, the teacher uses the Speaking and Listening Checklist to make anecdotal notes. Students work independently on a writing task concluding the session with a Face-To-Face protocol, which includes sharing their writing with a partner in a structured format.

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

There are many opportunities for students to discuss what they are reading by asking relevant follow-up questions and providing teacher support. The Focused Read Aloud and Close Read/Read Aloud sessions incorporate numerous opportunities for students to listen to their teacher, listen to their peers, and speak about what they are thinking and have learned about the text. Think-Pair-Share, Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face, and Pinky Partners are lesson strategies used to encourage these collaborative discussions. Specific Speaking and Listening lessons are strategically placed before and after Read Aloud or Close Reading lessons. While all lessons provide opportunities for student discourse, these lessons are focused on providing structured opportunities for students to use new vocabulary, gain background knowledge prior to reading, and engage with text that has been read independently and then shared with a partner or read as a class and then shared with a partner or group. Research is implemented in the Read-Think-Talk-Write Cycle and begins as shared class research discussed by all. K-2 Labs, which are scaffolded experiences connected to the Module Lessons, place an emphasis on research to help students expand their content knowledge.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2, the teacher reads aloud Toy Riddles and extracts meaning from the text through whole group discussion. The teacher asks students to guess the meaning of the riddle on page 5. Then asks, “What attributes did you hear that helped you to solve the riddle?” Teachers are provided with correct student responses such as, “brown, soft, colorful, small.”
• In Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 1, after reading the text Have Fun Molly Lou Melon, two students go to the front of the room to act out pages 21–22 playing the roles of Molly Lou and Gertie. The teacher rereads the passage, if needed, and explains that an operator was a person who helped people to make phone calls long ago. Students paraphrase what the characters said and/or did using dialogue and physical movement.
• In Module 2, Labs, Practice Stage, Teacher Guide, pages 112-114, students work collaboratively with a research partner to study photographs of extreme weather events. Students notice details, take notes, and discuss with their partner. The teacher asks, “What kind of weather is the most powerful?” Students use single words, phrases, or images to capture notes about what they see for their weather research.
• In Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 5, the teacher initiates a shared writing activity circling around their research on how people depend on trees for food. Prior to writing, the teacher initiates conversation through a turn and talk protocol by asking, “What is the big idea that we should share about what people get from trees?” Students are expected to respond with, “People get food from trees.” The teacher provides students ten minutes to write a focus statement that shares the big idea independently. The teacher asks, “What picture should we draw that will show the big idea about how people depend on trees?” Responses vary, but may include a picture of a person eating food from a tree. The teacher completes a model drawing of matching a picture to text. The teacher encourages students to think of a sentence that matches the drawn picture and to utilize the word “eat.” Students use their writing as they answer the following questions: “Now we need to write a sentence that matches our drawing. What can we say that answers the question ‘How do people depend on trees for food?’ without giving away details?” Students use the ideas and themes discussed in this session to complete the focus statement in their People Depend on Trees booklet.
• In Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 3, the teacher completes a Read Aloud for pages 1-14 of A Tree is Nice. As the teacher reads, students identify and discuss the reasons the author gives to support his points. After reading page 6, the teacher stops to ask, “On page 6, what is a reason the author gives that makes you think trees are nice and that people should plant trees?” With a suggested student response derived from the text, “They make everything beautiful.” After reading multiple reasons why people should plant trees throughout the book, the teacher stops and prompts the Turn-and-Talk protocol, “Using the illustrations and text, what is one reason that trees are nice and that people should plant trees that the author gives us on this page?” Student responses should be text-based and can include “trees have leaves you can play in,” “you can climb trees,” “sit on tree limbs, and pretend,” and “you can eat apples from apple trees.”

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

There are opportunities for on-demand writing, process writing, and short, focused projects through a variety of instructional tasks. On-demand writing addresses a variety of text types and purposes and is included in each module’s end-of-unit assessment. To demonstrate understanding of the text, students write on-demand and draw in response to text through instructional tasks in the Module Lab Lessons.

The Skills Block lessons provide more opportunities for on-demand writing utilizing content that is directly related to the phonic skills/spelling skills that are being taught. Shared writing activities address several genres and are completed during whole group instruction time with students doing the thinking and the teacher doing the writing and modeling of the Revising and Editing Checklist. Writing of research projects is supported through the Read-Think-Talk-Write Cycle and the Writing for Understanding Framework and students engage with text to identify information that will help them answer a research question. The curriculum recommends the use of a variety of digital resources throughout the Module lessons. Additionally, the curriculum provides anchor charts and exemplar writing samples to support instruction.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 7, students use drawing apps or software, such as Kids Doodle, to draw the response of their personal playing commitment using the My Playing Commitment Student Response Sheet. Students are encouraged to add words/labels to their drawing.
• In Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 7, students complete a reflection responding to the prompt, “Write the name of the three weather components you have learned about. Then, draw a picture and label to show what you learned about each one.”
• In Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 11, students identify the characters and setting of the story, while the teacher records the information on the Brave Irene anchor chart creating a shared class writing piece.
• The Module 2 Process Writing Tasks include a narrative piece, “My Weather Story,” and an information piece, “Weather Journals.” Students write an imaginary narrative about a character’s experience with the weather, using The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as a mentor text. Students’ narratives reflect how the weather affects the choices the character makes, about what to wear and what to do. Students use group notes, puppets, and oral planning as scaffolding to illustrate and write their stories. They also revise, edit, and practice reading their original narratives in preparation for sharing them.
• In Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 4, students complete an on-demand writing task where they draw a picture and label using the Fruit and Nut Reference Sheet and their People, Trees, and Food: Class Notes. After adding notes about their assigned item (fruit, nut, or seed) they complete the sentence frame, “People eat ______ from trees.”, with their notes as reference.
• In Module 4, Unit 3, Lesson 3, students are asked to complete a performance task drawing a detailed picture to match writing about why trees are nice. In lesson 6, students add more to their sentence by including two reasons why trees are nice. Students are simultaneously practicing speaking and listening skills (Lessons 4-6) as they sketch pictures of trees, draw and label pictures of trees, and talk about why trees are nice.

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

The curriculum offers opportunities for students to engage in writing tasks across the text types required in the standards. Students use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose many types of writing including opinion, informational and narrative utilizing the writing process. Writing opportunities are scaffold so students move from drawing to labeling to writing. There is a balance of short writing pieces and longer writing pieces that are worked on over the span of a unit. By incorporating a variety of writing tasks in multiple formats, students experience independent writing, partner writing, the writing process, and a balance of genres. The Writing for Understanding framework and the Read-Think-Talk-Write Cycle support students as they engage in writing tasks throughout the Module Lab lessons. To provide instructional support Writing Checklists are available for informational, narrative, and opinion writing in the Teacher Guide Supporting Materials. Opportunities to address text types of writing that reflect the distribution by the standards, include but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, students write an opinion writing piece about their preferred classroom toy along with an informational writing piece about the preferred classroom toy of a classmate. Students interview a classmate about their favorite toy then draw, label, and write a sentence about the toy. Students then draw, label, and write a sentence about how this classmate likes to play with their toy.
• In Module 2, students write a narrative writing piece about a weather story along with an informational writing piece about keeping a weather journal. Students write an imaginary narrative about a character’s experience with the weather, using The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as a mentor text. Students’ narratives reflect how the weather affects the choices the character makes about what to wear and what to do. Students use group notes, puppets, and oral planning as scaffolding for illustrating and writing their stories. Students revise, edit, and practice reading their original narratives in preparation for sharing them.
• In Module 3, students prepare to write an informational writing piece through keeping a living things research notebook. Students then write about how animals depend on trees.
• In Module 4, students write an opinion piece about where they would plant a tree along with an informational writing piece about enjoying trees.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials including regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level.

Materials include regular opportunities for evidence based writing. Activities require students to participate in collaborative conversations about text while the teacher records the ideas from these conversations on anchor charts. As students move through the module units, these charts are utilized during independent writing and drawing. Unit 1 of each Module builds background knowledge on the specific topic, and students are engaged in tasks that require writing with evidence. Materials provide opportunities for students to recall information from the text by drawing, dictating their understanding of the text in their own words, detailing elements of the text, and engaging in other writing tasks that represent each of the writing text types.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, students document and synthesize their learning through structured discussions and shared writing experiences. Through these activities, students generate the Commitments for Playing Together anchor chart, which is a resource that will guide their play and interactions throughout the year. At the end of the unit, students collectively write a letter back to their principal and individually illustrate one of the Commitments for Playing Together as a way to share their learning from the unit.
• In Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 12, students have an opportunity to read and role-play portions of Brave Irene and identify the events of the story using the Brave Irene Anchor Chart. Students respond to the following prompts as the teacher records on the anchor chart, “What is the first very important thing that happens in the story? What are two or three other important events that happened in the story after Irene left her house with the dress? What are the important events at the end of the story?”
• In Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 5, students complete a shared read with the book, Be a Friend to Trees, and utilize their People Depend on Trees booklet to complete a shared writing experience. The teacher prompts students to think about the question, “How do people depend on trees for food?” Students then draw a picture that will show the big idea of how people depend on trees. Students then write a sentence to match their drawing.
• In Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1, students are beginning a new unit with the guiding question: "How are trees important to us and our community?" After a brief mini-lesson in Part A about opinions and reasons and back to back protocol about how trees are important to us and our community, students open their new journal titled Enjoying Trees Journal, Part II. This journal is different than Enjoying Trees Journal, Part I, as this one contains pictures and requires students to write the sentences. The teacher turns to page 1 and asks students, “How would you describe where the trees are in this picture?” The teacher then encourages students to look at the picture and write a sentence in their journals using evidence from the picture.

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

Opportunities to learn language standards are in the Module Lessons and in the Foundational Reading Skills Block. Grammar and convention standards are predominantly taught and learned through context instruction.

• L.K.1a
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 7, students participate in the instructional practice: Getting to Know Letters: Printing Lowercase and Uppercase “a”. The teacher traces the letter ‘a’. The teacher skywrites the letter and says the sound of the letter. The students echo the sound and say the name as they skywrite the letter. The teacher models proper letter formation on a demonstration board. Students practice writing the letter using handwriting paper and with teacher guidance.
• L.K.1b
  • Throughout Module 4, students are reminded to use a noun and verb in their sentences. In Unit 1, Lesson 2, during Closing Assessment, the teacher is to remind students that their writing should include a noun, the person or people in the picture and a verb that says what the person or people are doing. “Remind them that all complete sentences use a noun and a verb. Provide examples as needed.”
• L.K.1c
  • In Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 3, the teacher reviews the definition of noun (a person, place, or thing). Students learn to wiggle one finger for the word singular and many fingers for plural. The teacher reads “What’s Alive and What’s Not” Version 1. Students use the gestures for singular and plural to when they hear those nouns. With a partner, students tape nouns from the poem onto Singular and Plural Nouns anchor chart.
• L.K.1d
  • In Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 1, during the Closing and Assessment on page 215, the teacher asks “What are questions?” and provides examples of sentences that ask for answers. Students then focus on the Ways We Ask Others Questions anchor chart. The teacher reads and explains the chart. Working with a partner, students ask each other questions about a toy from long ago that is displayed in a photograph.
• L.K.1e
  • In Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 2, students are introduced to prepositions. During the Opening, students learn prepositions explain where a person, place, or thing is, or its position. Students listen for words that might be a preposition in a song. In Lesson 3, students find prepositions in “Trees in Our Community.” The teacher asks, “Where does the song say the oak tree is located?”
• L.K.1f
  • In Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, during Work Time B, Building Vocabulary, students are given two choices from the Would You Prefer? Index cards. The teacher models providing a reason behind the chosen preference that expands the sentence. For example, the first card asks if you prefer cheese pizza or pepperoni pizza. The teacher answers, “I prefer cheese pizza because l like my pizza to be plain and I love cheese.” Students answer using the sentence frame “I prefer ____ because ____.”
• L.K.2a
  • In Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 11, during Work Time B, Independent Writing: Describing a Classmate’s Toy Preference, teacher models writing the sentence that describes the pictures and labels, beginning the sentence with a capital letter while thinking aloud.
• L.K.2b
  • The teacher models using a period at the end of sentences. Other ending punctuation marks are not explicitly taught. In Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1, the teacher models using a period as end punctuation. In Module 4, Unit 3, Lesson 3, the teacher purposely does not use a period, so students can learn how to edit the sentence.
• L.K.2c
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 2, Lesson 6, students participate in the instructional practice: Introducing Writing the Letter to Match the Sound for “p,” “t,” “a,” “c,” “h”. The teacher pronounces the phonemes for the word cat. As the teacher writes the letters he/she explains the motions of letter formation as it is written. The students skywrite the letter.
• L.K.2d
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 23, Lesson 120, During Opening A, students work through a series of scaffolded steps to spell single-syllable CVC words. They first isolate and identify the individual phonemes in the spoken word. Students then apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound connections to identify the grapheme (letter) that matches each individual phoneme. Finally, they use that information to encode (spell) the word.
• L.K.6
  • In Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 6, students use details from the text, Toys Galore, to describe the ways they can play. The teacher reads aloud the text and the students find words that describe ways they can play with toys. Students share the words they hear. The words are used to create attributes anchor charts, Classroom Toys chart, and Toys and Play Word Wall. Students are reminded to use these resources to help with labeling and adding details to their drawings in Lesson 7.

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

In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, alphabetic principles, phonological awareness and phonics are explicitly and systematically taught through the Work Time activities. Consonant Vowel Consonant are introduced in Module 3. Opportunities to practice and produce rhyming words occur during the Rhyme Time Instructional Practice. Syllables are introduced and practiced during the Feel the Beats Instructional Practice that includes counting, pronouncing, segmenting and blending of the syllables in words. Each skill becomes more complex in subsequent lessons and as skills are obtained the next skill in the staircase of the learning progression begins. Explicit instruction of long vowels is not until Module 4.

Students have frequent and opportunities to learn and understand phonemes (e.g., produce rhyming words, segment syllables, blend onsets and rimes, pronounce vowels in CVC words, and substitute sounds to make new words). Examples include:

• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 8, the teacher points to the Keyword Picture Card: “t” on the anchor chart and says: “‘t,’ tern, /t/.” Students repeat: “‘t,’ tern, /t/.”
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 9, the teacher recites the first line of the Alligator/Tern poem again, tapping the beats while students listen: “All-i-ga-tor went to the an-i-mal zoo.” Students recite the line, tapping the beats just as teacher just did and to say the word “all-i-ga-tor” aloud, holding up a finger each time they hear a beat.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 21, the teacher says: “We are going to learn the story of two new letters today: ‘m’ and ‘r.’ We will learn the names, the sounds, and keywords for these two letters.” Teacher holds up a Keyword Picture Card: “m,” showing only the picture, and asks: “Who knows the name of this landform that we just learned?” (“mountain”) “What sound do we hear at the beginning of the word: ‘mountain’?” (/m/) 3. Teacher says: “Let’s all say that sound together: /m/.” Students repeat sound: /m/.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 24, the teacher says, “We noticed that some words have one syllable, like the words ‘run’ and ‘top’, and some words have more than one. The word ‘mountain’ has two syllables: ‘moun’ and ‘tain.’ Each syllable is one beat.” Teacher says: “Now let’s play a game: I’ll say each syllable in a word, and you blend them together to say the word they make.” Teacher says: “crack-ers.” Students say: “crackers.”
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 14, Lesson 75, students use chaining to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters. Students write "rip" on their sound board. The teacher states, “Now we’re going to make a new word, just by changing the letter for one sound! Let’s replace /r/ with /s/.” Students read their new word by running their fingers under each box and make each sound and blend the sounds to say “sip.”
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 2, Lesson 14, students blend the word after the teacher says the word in segmented syllables. Teacher says: “sur-prised” and the students say: “surprised”
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 24, students segment syllables in spoken words. The students identify the number of beats or syllables in the word: mountain. Then the students identify the first syllable and the second syllable that they hear in the word mountain. Students then are given the two syllables: crack-ers and they blend the syllables to make the word: crackers. This is repeated 2 to 3 more times with other multisyllabic words take from the poem: “Mouse and Rabbit Share a Snack”.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 9, Lesson 49, students segment and blend onset and rime. The teacher models segmenting fox into the onset /f/ and rime /ox/. The students practice segmenting onset and rime with the words “rain” and “down”. The teacher then gives the students the onset and rime to blend: /f/ /ix/. The students say “fix”. This is repeated with the words “quick” and “chat”.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 12, Lesson 62, students segment phonemes in CVC words. The teacher models how to segment the phonemes in the word ‘ship’ using the thumb-tapping technique. This is repeated with the words: thin, rich, wish, with, chop. The teacher asks the students to identify the beginning sound, the middle sound and the ending sound in each word.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 12, Lesson 65, students segment onset and rime. The teacher and students read a poem: “What Do You Want to Do?”. The teacher asks students to choose words from the poem and asks students to segment the word into its onset and rime.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, Lesson 67, students tap the sounds in CVC words to identify the beginning, middle and end sounds in words. The teacher practices segmenting the CVC words (cat, bat, gap, sag, mad) and guiding students to do the same. The teacher segments the word ‘zap’ and then asks the students to identify the beginning sound, middle sound, and ending sound.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, Lesson 70, students substitute individual phonemes to make new words. The teacher models how to replace the initial phoneme in ‘map’ to make the word ‘tap’. The teacher provides guided practice for the students by presenting them with the word tap. Then the teacher asks the following questions: "What is the last sound in ‘tap’? Let’s change the /p/ to /g/. What word do we have now?" This is activity is repeated with changing rat to mat.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 14, Lesson 75, students substitute individual phonemes to make new words. The teacher models how to replace the initial phoneme in ‘lip’ to make the new word ‘sip’. Then the teacher asks students to identify the last sound in ‘sip’. The teacher asks students to change the /p/ to /t/ and asks “What word do we have now?”. This process is repeated with fit, jig and rib.

Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g. one-to-one correspondences, long and short sounds with common spellings, and distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying sounds of the letters). Long vowel instruction does not occur until Module 4. Examples include:

• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 6, Lesson 31, students identify the sound that is heard at the beginning of the word ‘goose’. The students then identify the letter that makes the sound /g/ at the beginning of the word. Then students share words they know that begin with /g/. The students again identify the name of the letter that makes that sound. The teacher writes the words on the board and circle the letter ‘g’ in each word.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 6, Lesson 35, students participate in the Letter-Sound Chant for the following letters: h, p, a, t, n, c, m, r, v, s, i, and g. The teacher and students say the Letter-Sound Chant for each letter, example: i, iguana, /i/.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 9, Lesson 46, students participate in the Letter-Sound Chant for the letter u. The teacher models: u, umbrella, /u/. Students join in and complete the chant as a class.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, Lesson 70, students make new words by changing the letter for one sound in a CVC word. The teacher and students work together to change map to mat. The teacher and students write the word map. The teacher asks students to change the /p/ with /t/. The teacher asks: “What letter do we need to erase? What letter do we need to replace it with?" The students read the new word by blending the sounds. This process is repeated to make the words: rat, rap, nap, tap, tag.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 14, Lesson 75, students make new words by changing the letter for one sound in CVC words. The teacher and students work together to change rip to sip. The teacher writes "rip" on the board. The teacher says, “Let’s replace /r/ with /s/.” The teacher asks: “What letter do we need to erase? What letter do we need to replace it with?” The teacher invites students to read the new word by blending the sounds. This process is repeated with nip, nip, fig, big, bit, it, fit, hit, sit, sat, mat, rat.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 4, students learn the t and /t/. The teacher states: “The /t/ sound at the beginning of the word ‘tern’ was shown by this letter hidden in the picture of tern.” The teacher traces “t” in the image of the tern. “This is the letter ‘t’ and it shows the sound /t/.” (3a)
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 6, students learn a /a/. The teacher says: “The /a/ sound at the beginning of the word alligator has shown by this letter hidden in the picture of the alligator.” The teacher tells students that a makes /a/. Students skywrite the lowercase letter a.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 8, the teacher points to the Keyword Picture Card: “t” on the anchor chart and says : “‘t,’ tern, /t/.” Students repeat: “‘t,’ tern, /t/.”
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 9, the teacher recites the first line of the Alligator/Tern poem again, tapping the beats while students listen:“All-i-ga-tor went to the an-i-mal zoo.” Students recite the line, tapping the beats just as teacher just did and to say the word “all-i-ga-tor” aloud, holding up a finger each time they hear a beat.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 21, the teacher says, “We are going to learn the story of two new letters today: ‘m’ and ‘r.’ We will learn the names, the sounds, and keywords for these two letters.” Teacher holds up a Keyword Picture Card: “m,” showing only the picture, and asks: “Who knows the name of this landform that we just learned?” (“mountain”) “What sound do we hear at the beginning of the word: ‘mountain’?” (/m/) 3. Teacher says: “Let’s all say that sound together: /m/.” Students repeat sound: /m/.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 24, the teacher says “We noticed that some words have one syllable, like the words ‘run’ and ‘top’, and some words have more than one. The word ‘mountain’ has two syllables: ‘moun’ and ‘tain.’ Each syllable is one beat.” Teacher says, “Now let’s play a game: I’ll say each syllable in a word, and you blend them together to say the word they make.” Teacher says: “crack-ers.” Students say: “crackers.”
• In the Readings Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 14, Lesson 75, students use chaining to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters. Students write rip on their sound board. The teacher states, “Now we’re going to make a new word, just by changing the letter for one sound! Let’s replace /r/ with /s/.” Students read their new word by running their fingers under each box and make each sound and blend the sounds to say “sip.”
• In the Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 23, Lesson 118 students learn long a. The teacher displays “The Vowels Have Something important to Say.” The teacher asks, “What is the secret the vowels want us to know? What does ‘their names are the same as new sounds they make’ mean?” Students tap out the name Kate to learn the long a.
• In the Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 24, Lesson 125, students learn long o. The teacher uses Spelling to Complement Reading for students to learn long o. The teacher models stretching out the word cone, tapping the sounds, and using a sound board to model the role of “e” at the end of the word. Students practice figuring out how to spell hope and poke.

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction to build toward application. Examples include:

In Module 1, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 1, students learn a and t.
• Cycle 2, students learn h and p.
• Cycle 3, students learn n and c.
• Cycle 4, students learn m and r.

In Module 2, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 5, students learn v and s.
• Cycle 6, students learn g and i.
• Cycle 7, students learn l, d, and f.
• Cycle 8, students learn k and y.
• Cycle 9, students learn x, q, and u.
• Cycle 10, students learn b, o, w.
• Cycle 11, students j, e, z.

In Module 3, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 12, students learn sh, ch, th.
• Cycle 13, students learn /a/ words.
• Cycle 14, students learn /i/ words.
• Cycle 15, students learn /u/ words.
• Cycle 16, students learn /o/ words.
• Cycle 17, students learn /e/ words.
• Cycle 18, students compare short vowel sound words.

In Module 4, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 19, all short vowels and digraph are reviewed.
• Cycle 20, short vowels (/a/ and /i/) are reviewed. Decoding of -an and -am spelling patterns.
• Cycle 21, short vowels (/e/ and /u/) are reviewed. Spoken words with -ank and -ink are introduced.
• Cycle 22, short vowels (/o/) are reviewed. Decoding of words with double final consonants is taught.
• Cycle 23, long vowels in spoken words are introduced (long a and long i).
• Cycle 24, long vowels in spoken words are introduced (long o, long u, and long e).
• Cycle 25, r-controlled vowels are introduced in spoken words.

• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, 2, and 3, students participate in Feel the Beats Instructional Practice for Lesson Work Time. During this activity students listen for and identify each syllable in a spoken word. They count the number of syllables in the word, pronounce each one, and segment and blend them.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, 2, and 3, students participate in Rhyme Time Instructional Practice for Lesson Work Time. During this activity students identify rhyming words and produce rhyming words.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3 and 4, students participate in Phonemic Blending and Segmentation Instructional Practice for Lesson Work Time. During this activity students segment and blend single-syllable words with three phonemes.

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonics instruction to build toward application. Examples include:

In Module 1, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 1, students learn a and t.
• Cycle 2, students learn h and p.
• Cycle 3, students learn n and c.
• Cycle 4, students learn m and r.

In Module 2, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 5, students learn v and s.
• Cycle 6, students learn g and i.
• Cycle 7, students learn l, d, and f.
• Cycle 8, students learn k and y.
• Cycle 9, students learn x, q, and u.
• Cycle 10, students learn b, o, w.
• Cycle 11, students j, e, z.

In Module 3, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 12, students learn sh, ch, th.
• Cycle 13, students learn /a/ words.
• Cycle 14, students learn /i/ words.
• Cycle 15, students learn /u/ words.
• Cycle 16, students learn /o/ words.
• Cycle 17, students learn /e/ words.
• Cycle 18, students compare short vowel sound words.

In Module 4, students learn the following patterns:

• Cycle 19, all short vowels and digraph are reviewed.
• Cycle 20, short vowels (/a/ and /i/) are reviewed. Decoding of -an and -am spelling patterns.
• Cycle 21, short vowels (/e/ and /u/) are reviewed.
• Cycle 22, short vowels (/o/) are reviewed. Decoding of words with double final consonants is taught.

• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, 2 and 3, students participate in Getting to Know the Letters (Part I) Instructional Practice for Lesson Work Time. During this activity students "meet" each new letter for the cycle. Students are instructed on the letter’s name, the sound it makes, and a consistent keyword that represents the letter.
• In the Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3 and 4, students participate in Chaining Instructional Practice for Lesson Work Time. During this activity, students identify each phoneme they hear in a CVC word and connect each sound to the letter. After encoding the word, they then decode it by making each individual sound and blending them to pronounce the word.

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

Throughout the Modules 1 and 2 of the Foundations Skills Block, students are introduced to lowercase and uppercase letters. Explicit instruction includes identifying the letter and properly forming the letter. The teacher models and guides students through the print concepts of reading from left to right and top to bottom, as well as one-to-one correspondence. Throughout the modules, students are explicitly taught the phoneme and grapheme correspondence when writing and reading words.

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

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1 and Module 2, Cycles 1 through 11, students receive explicit instruction in letter identification (name, sound, formation)
  • Cycle 1: a and t
  • Cycle 2: h and p
  • Cycle 3: n and c
  • Cycle 4: m and r
  • Cycle 5: v and s
  • Cycle 6: g and i
  • Cycle 7: l, d, and f
  • Cycle 8: k and y
  • Cycle 9: x, q, u
  • Cycle 10: b, o, w
  • Cycle 11: j, e, z

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 3, Lesson 17, students participate in a guided activity where they locate and circle the letter ‘c’ and the letter ‘n’ in the poem: “My Cat, Noodles.” The teacher uses ‘binoculars’ or a ‘magnifying glass’ to look closely at the words of the poem and encourages to students to do the same. The teacher models finding a ‘c’ and circling the word ‘cat’. During Work Time, the teacher models how to skywrite the letter ‘c’. The teacher directs the student in proper letter formation with directions that are from the Letter Formation Guidance document.

Materials include frequent and adequate tasks and questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing, upper- and lowercase letters). For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 8, students participate in a Shared Reading of the poem, “Alligator and Tern.” Students are invited to extend their arms and follow left to right and top to bottom as the teacher reads the poem aloud, pointing at each word as students listen.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 1, Lesson 8, students sing the ABC Song with the teacher. The teacher points to each letter on the chart as it is sung. The teacher explains that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and that each letter is important because each one of them has a sound. The teacher also shows the Key Word Picture Card ‘a’- ‘a’, alligator, /a/. Later in the lesson, during Work Time B, the teacher invites students to find and circle the letter ‘a’ in words. The teacher asks: “Is that a lowercase ‘a’ or upper case ‘a’? This is repeated for the letter ‘t’.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 3, Lesson 17, students search for the letter ‘c’ and the letter ‘n’ in their poetry notebooks or by using copies of the poem: “My Cat, Noodles.”
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 5, Lesson 26, students follow along chorally as the teacher reads the poem: “Victor the Sleepy Vulture” aloud, pointing to the words on their copy as they read. In the ‘Meeting Students’ Needs’, the teacher is prompted to consider providing support and/or practice with left-to-right directionality by inviting individual students up to the front to the enlarged poem to point to the words as the class chorally recites.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 9, Lesson 47, students participate in a shared read aloud of the poem, “A Fox and a Quail in the Rain.” The teacher uses the Key Picture Cards: “u”, “q”, and “x.” Later in the lesson, the teacher models searching for words that start with “u”. The teacher says: “The letter ‘u’ starts the word ‘under’. I can hear the /u/ sound at the beginning of the word ‘under’.” The students circle the letter in their copy of the poem.

For Standard RF.K.1c (Understand that words are separated by spaces in print), whole group lessons implicitly teach this concept during Interactive Sentence Building. Students do not explicitly identify that words are separated by spaces in print. For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 11, Lesson 59, students participate in an interactive poem activity. Students help to complete sentence by providing the missing words. When the sentences are completed the teacher rereads the two sentences, modeling one-to-one correspondence, while students follow along.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 12, Lesson 64, students help the teacher figure out a missing word in a sentence: “Do you want to make a wish? Or do you want to catch a ___?” A student finds the word fish from a Word Card. “Teacher rereads the two sentences, modeling one-to-one correspondence, while students follow along.”

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

Over the course of the year, students are provided with opportunities to read emergent readers and decodable texts. Lessons follow a consistent routine throughout the cycles. Mystery Word activities are done in each cycle with the high-frequency word(s) of the cycle identified through clues given that require students to use word analysis and apply their foundational knowledge of words. The high-frequency words are found within the context of a poem that students are asked to read either independently or with a partner. These poems also include words that contain the phoneme focus of the cycle. In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, students access decodable readers. These texts consist of decodable words and high-frequency words.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read emergent-reader texts. Students are provided a purpose for reading such as in Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, Lesson 66: “Now we are going to start reading books instead! This book is based on the story, ‘A Book of Animals.’ I will read the words first, just like we did with the poem, and then you will read the words with me. Look and listen for high-frequency words and for letter sounds that you know.” Beginning in Module 3, Cycle 13, students read a decodable text with a partner during each cycle. For each text, the teacher asks students to pay attention to and circle the high-frequency words learned and point to letters as they make the letter sounds.

• In Module 3, students read “A Book of Animals,” “The Ham Sandwich,” “The Milkshake,” “Fun With Gum,” “The Mop is a Dog!” and “Josh’s New Home.”
• In Module 4, students read “Chip Can’t Nap!,” “Josh Takes a Bath,” “Jash and Chip at the Farm,” “The Bowling ‘Alley’,” “Time to Bake,” “The Mystery Moth” and “The Jazz Trio.”

Materials support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words over the course of the year. For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, Lesson 68, students are introduced to a poem. The poem includes the words that contain vowel phoneme /a/, which is the focus for this cycle. This poem also includes the two high-frequency words that are the focus of this cycle. Students practice chorally reading the poem with the teacher. The poem contains: fat, cat, at, has, can, nap, glad and snack, which contain the phoneme /a/.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 14, Lesson 71, students participate in a Decodable Reader activity. The teacher reads an enlarged copy of the Decodable Reader, “The Ham Sandwich.” The teacher reads the words first. The teacher highlights the high-frequency words with a highlighter. The students read the Decodable Reader, “The Ham Sandwich,” with a partner.

Students have opportunities to read and practice high-frequency words. For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 23, students participate in a Work Time activity: Mystery Word. The teacher reads aloud the poem, “Mouse and Rabbit Share a Snack.” Students clap each time the teacher says a word with two letters. The students read their own copy of the poem either with a partner or independently. The students turn to a partner and point to the word they believe to be the mystery word.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 7, Lesson 38, students participate in a Work Time activity: Mystery Word. The first clue to the mystery word is that it has three letters. The teacher asks the students: “Can you find any other words with three letters?” The students search their copy of the poem, “An Afternoon Swim.” The students clap their hands each time the teacher says a word with three letters as she/he rereads the poem to them. The students turn to a partner and point to the word they believe to be the mystery word.

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

Beginning in Module 3, Student Decodable Readers are used as an instructional practice in each cycle. Texts consist of decodable words (one-syllable, regularly spelled words that include only taught phonemes) and high-frequency words. Texts provide opportunities for students to decode and recognize words in context. Encoding in context of graphemes, phonemes, and spelling patterns is addressed during Interactive Sentence Building.

Materials support students’ development as they learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g., one-to-one correspondences, syllable segmentation, rime and onset recognition, long and short sounds with common spellings and distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying sounds of the letters) in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 5, Lesson 26, during the Opening, the class reads the poem, “Victor, the Sleepy Vulture,” pointing to each word. During Work Time, students get to know letters v and s that were featured in the poem during the Getting to Know Letters task. The teacher holds up a keyword picture card for s only showing the picture of a snake and asks students to identify the animal and the sound heard at the beginning of the word. After making the /s/ sound, students identify the letter, say the letter s, and skywrite the letter s. Students share words that begin with s. This is repeated for the letter v with the picture vulture. To meet students' needs, students may have the opportunity to say the letter sound chant.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 14, Lesson 71, students apply knowledge of previously taught graphemes and phonemes as they decode simple one-syllable words with the Decodable Reader, “The Ham Sandwich.”
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 19, Lesson 96, students apply knowledge of previously taught graphemes and phonemes as they decode simple one-syllable words with the Decodable Reader, “Chip Can’t Nap.”

Materials provide frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 14, Lesson 71, students read high-frequency words in the Decodable Reader, “The Ham Sandwich.” The teacher displays and reads the Enlarged Decodable Reader. The teacher reads the text again and highlights the high-frequency words: I, see, the, in, he and a. The students work with a partner to find and circle these same high-frequency words in their own book. The partners read “The Ham Sandwich” to each other, in unison, or both.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 19, Lesson 96, students read high-frequency words in the Decodable Reader, “Chip Can’t Nap!”. The teacher displays and reads the Enlarged Decodable Reader. The teacher reads the text again and highlights the high-frequency words: has, a, by, the, to, is and will. The students work with a partner to find and circle these same high-frequency words in their own book. The partners read “Chip Can’t Nap!” to each other, in unison, or both.

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 Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 15, Lesson 79, students participate in the Interactive Sentence Building with an Enlarged interactive poem called “A Bug.” Students help fill in omitted words through rhyming and sounding out the spelling of the omitted word. Students skywrite the missing word, while a student writes the missing word on the poem.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 4, Cycle 20, Lesson 103, students participate in the Interactive Writing instructional practice. The teacher displays a picture of a character from the decodable readers. The students and teacher develop a sentence based on the picture. (Josh is in the mud.) The teacher and students count the number of words in the sentence. The teacher draws 5 lines, one for each word in the sentence. The teacher and students repeat the sentence and the teacher points to each line as they say each word. A student goes to the board to write the first word, Josh. The rest of the class writes the word on their own whiteboards or use skywriting. The teacher says, “Great job! I see (/j/ /o/ /sh/) written with the letters ‘j,’ ‘o,’ ‘s,’ and ‘h.’” Students tap out the sounds they see. This is repeated to complete the rest of the sentence.

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

The Kindergarten materials provide teachers and students with frequent and ongoing assessment opportunities. The variety of assessment types (benchmark, informal, formal, summative, formative, daily, by cycle, etc.) demonstrates that assessment of K-2 foundational skills is necessary to determine student mastery, to see where students are struggling, and to differentiate the instruction needed by the students. For example, students take cycle assessments on a regular basis throughout the school year, based on a student’s performance on the test, the teacher and the student would set a goal for the student to work towards.

Multiple assessment opportunities are suggested and provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills. Examples include:

• Benchmark assessments are administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year to assess Letter Name and Sound Identification, Phonological Awareness, Spelling, Decoding, and Fluency. These assessments help teachers group students based on whether or not students fall into the early, middle or late pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, alphabetic, or consolidated alphabetic stages.
• The Benchmark Assessment Letter Name and Sound Identification assesses the ability to name the letter and sound of the 26 uppercase and lowercase letter symbols.
• In the K-2 Resource Manual, Assessment Overview, Types of Assessments Chart contains the following information about Benchmark assessments:
  • “Beginning-of-Year: Provide diagnostic information to help the teacher:
    • Determine the phase at which a student currently is reading and spelling
    • Determine the approximate cycles in the K–2 Continuum that would best fit that student’s instructional needs
    • Gauge whether the student is approximately on grade level (as defined by the CCSS)
  • Middle-of-Year 2
    • Track students’ progress toward the end-of-year goals (as determined by the grade-level Scope and Sequence)
  • End-of-Year:
    • Measure students’ mastery of the end-of-year goals”
• Cycle assessments are administered more often than Benchmark assessments and provide information about students’ progress toward mastery of skills taught up to a particular point. These assessments can be differentiated based on student need.
• Daily Snapshot Assessments are conducted in K-1 that help a teacher quickly check on mastery of daily learning targets. For example:
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 8, Lesson 41, the teacher observes students during the Opening to determine whether they demonstrate one-to-one correspondence with words. The teacher observes students during Work Time to determine whether they can say the sounds for each letter correctly. The teacher records students’ progress on the Snapshot Assessment.
• An Assessment Path is also provided for each grade level (Page 43 - Teacher Resource Manual). For example, for Kindergarten at the beginning of the year, the teacher should assess letter names and sound identification and administer a phonological awareness assessment as well. The suggested assessments for the middle of the year are as follows: “letter name and sound identification, phonological awareness, spelling (begin with Partial Alphabetic Word List), consider decoding (begin with Middle Partial Alphabetic Word List).” The recommended Assessments for the end of the school year are as follows: “letter name and sound identification, phonological awareness, spelling (begin with Partial Alphabetic Word List), decoding (begin with Middle Partial Alphabetic Word List).” Note: if students have already mastered letter name and sound identification and spelling then the assessments are not re-administered.

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

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 7, Lesson 36, on page 157, the teacher observes students during Opening to determine whether they can identify the letters “d,” “f,” and “l” in the shared text and what their letter formation is. The teacher identifies this on the Snapsheet Assessment document.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 12, Lesson 65, the teacher shows students the stack of Question Cards. Teacher says, “Each card will ask you a question that will help you practice what you’ve been learning.” Students respond individually using white boards to the question cards, so that the teacher can see their current understanding.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 16, Lesson 81, there is an optional assessment in the Teacher Guide. The teacher documents using the Snapshot Assessment form: Demonstrate one-to-one correspondence when reading decodable text, follow left to right page order when reading decodable, map graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds) for consonants when reading decodable text, map graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds) for vowels when reading decodable text, and read the high-frequency word “the, is, up, see, he, and in.”

Materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Examples include:

• Based on how a student performs on the assessments, a student will be placed into the early, middle, or late stage of pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, or consolidated alphabetic stages. This will help to guide the instruction a student receives over the course of the school year.
• In Module 1, Cycle 6, Lesson 33 is used to determine whether students can say the sounds for each letter correctly. To help students, the teacher is to refer to the Articulatory Gestures chart as needed.
• Based on how a student performs on the assessments, the teacher is directed to a chart in the K-2 Skills Block Resource Manual that provides lessons to use for additional supports based on whether a student in in the early, middle, or late range of the pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, or consolidated alphabetic ranges. For example, a student that is Middle Partial Alphabetic should work on the following skills/lessons:
  • “GKM4, C19–22: decoding CVC words and beginning to decode CVCC; comparing long and short vowel sounds
  • C19: all short vowels; words with digraphs
  • C20: “-am” and “-an” words
  • C21: “-ank” and “-ink” words
  • C22: “floss” words (double consonants)”
• A students in the Early Full Alphabetic range, should receive the following lessons for support:
  • “G1M3, C12–17: syllable types: closed syllable, open syllable, and CVCe syllable-type words
  • C12: two-syllable with closed syllables
  • C13: repeat C12 with double consonants in middle and compound words
  • C14: open syllables
  • C15: CVCe (mostly /ā/)
  • C16: CVCe (mostly /ō/ and /ī/)
  • C17: CVCe (mostly /ū/ and /ē/)”
• A chart is provided in the Resource Manual with Activity Bank materials and their uses to help teachers choose what to use with students to improve students’ foundational skills. The chart contains activities aligned to CCSS and categories (rhyming, letter recognition, phonological manipulation, onset/rime, high frequency words, vowels, fluency, digraphs, syllables, affixes, question). For example, ABC Puppets allow students to demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Students use puppets to say the sound of each letter of the alphabet.

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

Numerous differentiation opportunities are throughout the Kindergarten materials. During whole group lessons, teachers have the option to differentiate lessons through the Meeting Student Needs portion of the lessons. Students are provided with small group differentiation based on their needs. For students below level, small group differentiated instruction occurs on a daily basis. For students at or above grade level, small group differentiated instruction occurs once or twice a week. Students have multiple practice opportunities within each cycle to master grade level foundational skills. The same format for differentiation was present in all three grade levels, making for a coherent transition from grade level to grade level.

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

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block each day 40-45 minutes is allotted for small group differentiated instruction. “Teacher meets with two or three differentiated small groups, based on phase. Each group meets with the teacher for 10-12 minutes while other students do purposeful independent work.” Groups are formed based on how a student scores on the benchmark assessments.
• For differentiation lessons and instructions, the teacher can refer to:
  • Reteaching or extending the whole group lesson
  • Activity Bank
  • Differentiation Pack
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 2, the differentiated small groups instruction begins.
  • In Lesson 12, the students in the Pre-Alphabetic group receive instruction on letter formation of h and p. The students in Early Partial Alphabetic students receive instruction on letter formation of h and p and hear the Letter Stories of h and p. The students in Late Partial and Early Full Alphabetic receive instruction on letter formation of h and p and hear the Letter Stories of h and p.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 12, Lesson 63, there are 3 different activities that the teacher does with students based on whether they are pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic or consolidated alphabetic knowledge. For students who are pre-alphabetic students play a letter match game. For students who have partial alphabetic knowledge students, play a mystery word search game and students who know the alphabet independently complete the task of mystery word write. Instructions are very explicit as to how the teacher is to differentiate small group lessons. Instructions are clearly laid out for pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic and the consolidated alphabetic stages.

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

• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Cycle 1, Lesson 4, teachers are provided with additional activities to use throughout the lesson such as, “Using body language and/or commentary while reading the story aloud supports comprehension of new information and vocabulary. For example, when reading 'the dirt path we were walking on started to loosen between our toes,' reach down and mime picking up soft dirt and commenting on how walking on it has caused the soil to break up.”
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 5, Lesson 26, Meeting Student Needs: “To provide support or practice with left-to-right directionality and one-to-one matching, consider inviting individual students to approach the enlarged poem and point to the words as the class chorally recites.”
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 9, Lesson 46, students who have pre-alphabetic knowledge the teacher guides students in sorting pictures sharing initial sounds with keywords (“u” and “q”) and final sounds with a keyword (“x”). While students who have early partial letter knowledge work on, sound sorting with the sounds u and q. Students who have late partial or full, work on sort and paste sound words on a sheet.

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

• Each Module contains cycles, which provide sufficient opportunities for students to master skills taught. For example, in Kindergarten Module 1 (six weeks of instruction), Cycle 1 is ten days long. Students learn a and t during those 10 days.
• In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 1, Cycle 4, Lesson 22, students work with the teacher to say all of the letters in the alphabet and their sounds.
• Starting in Module 3, students have Decodable Readers that the teacher downloads and the students read. The stories are centered around different letter sounds that students are working on.
• Students have multiple practice opportunities throughout each module to master grade level foundational skills. For example:
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 2, Cycle 5, students focus on learning the phonemes /v/ and /s/. Students work on mastering this skill over the course of five lessons in the cycle. Examples of some of the activities students will complete in the cycle that focus on these phonemes include: a letter-sound chant for v and s, a poem letter search for v and s and writing the letters v and s.
  • In Reading Foundations Skills Block, Module 3, Cycle 13, students have five lessons that focus on CVC words with short a. Some activities students will complete to master this skill include phoneme blending, a letter sound chant, a word chain activity, and phoneme substitution activities.

The Kindergarten instructional materials are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing that span a school year. The materials include a Curriculum Plan and a Curriculum Map containing four content-based modules, each with three units that are designed for eight to nine weeks of instruction. Module 1 provides six weeks of instruction to allow for the development of classroom routines and procedures.

The materials utilize three hours of instruction per day. Module Lessons provide one hour of content-based literacy instruction built around close read-alouds of complex text, explicit focus on the listening and speaking standards, daily goal setting and reflection, and a culminating performance task. Lab lessons, also part of the content-based literacy block, contain one hour of instruction to deepen and enhance learning and foster student independence by giving students an opportunity to explore, engineer, create, and imagine. Labs also contain two weeks of Flex Days if additional time is needed to best meet student needs. The Reading Foundations Skills block provides a third hour of instruction with five components including independent reading, additional work with complex text, reading and speaking fluency, writing practice, and word study and vocabulary.

All modules are designed around the Four T’s framework (topic, task, targets, and text). Compelling topics are chosen that bring the content to life. Learning targets are centered around ELA standards. On-demand tasks are scaffolded to support the culminating performance task. Each of four Modules contains three units with lessons spanning 1-2 weeks. Each unit contains A Key Understanding, A Focus Question, Supporting Language and Engagement, and a Culminating Task. Each Lesson includes an Opening (5 Minutes), Work Time (45 Minutes), Closing and Assessment (5 Minutes).

An Additional Language and Literacy Block (ALL Block) operates parallel to the three units of the Module and has five components, including independent reading, additional work with complex text, reading and speaking fluency, writing practice, and word study and vocabulary. Two hours per day of content-based literacy includes one hour for module lessons and one hour for Labs, plus one hour of structured phonics.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the criteria that the teacher and student can reasonably complete the content within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding. The Curriculum Plan and Curriculum Map consists of three hours of instruction per day. Module and Lab Lessons contain two hours of content-based instruction. A separate Reading Foundations Skills block provides a third hour of instruction. There are four content-based modules, containing a total of twelve Units, which account for approximately 32-36 weeks of instruction.

The Kindergarten Lab lessons complement the Module lessons and are designed for six weeks of instruction within the eight to nine week module, giving teachers flexibility in meeting the needs of all students. This flex time may be utilized to reteach skills and concepts, solidify routines and structures, support ELL students, and/or provide time to confirm understanding of the module topic. The one hour Lab lesson is intentionally designed to allow more time for students to increase their content knowledge and literacy skills and to build student independence.

Each module contains a culminating performance task that allows students to synthesize their content learning. Each module contains three assessments, one per unit, that scaffold to the culminating task. The reading assessment is based on ELA standards, the writing assessment is based on K-5 writing rubrics, and the speaking and listening assessment is based on checklists.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the criteria that the student resources include ample review and practice resources, clear directions and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids (eg. visuals, maps, etc.)

The student materials offer students opportunities to demonstrate thinking and learning through a variety of tasks such as Guiding Question Response Sheets, Module Reflection Response sheets, Journals, Notebooks, Note-Catchers, Graphic Organizers, and Anchor charts. Students demonstrate knowledge of content through writing. The student materials for each module are clearly labeled and provide clear directions for each instructional activity. Examples include:

• Anchor charts are used to describe procedures and protocols such as Sharing Our Work. In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 1, students complete a two-column chart describing a character’s feelings and words that describe those feelings.
• Lessons contain several response sheets with guiding questions and students respond to the question.
• In Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 8, students interview a classmate about toy preference. Students circle the preferred toy and answer the question, “How do you play with your preferred classroom toy?”
• In Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 13, students complete a reflection of the information learned by answering the questions, “One thing I learned about toys” and “One thing I learned about playing with others.”
• In Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 2, students complete a Meteorologist Notebook by completing facts about weather such as temperature, moisture, clouds and rainbows.
• In Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 6, students record the weather each day for nine days. Students journal the type of clothing worn for specific types of weather and record the temperature.
• In Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 2, students use their Research Notebook to observe an item (plant, person, animal, toy), record their observations in a small box that is provided, and then construct a sentence about whether the item is living or non-living citing reasons within the context of a sentence frame.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 1, students use a Note-catcher page to draw, label, and write one way the classroom community could enjoy a tree.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for including publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks and assessment items. Alignment to the Common Core State Standards is documented throughout the materials. The materials are comprehensive and include the teaching and assessing of all strands of the CCSS. The learning targets for each lesson are designed with the CCSS as a primary source of guidance. Module lessons were developed using a framework called the Four T’s (topics, tasks, targets, texts). In the context of the Four T’s framework, “targets” refers to the ELA Standards.

Alignment information can be found in the Curriculum Plan, Curriculum Map, and individual modules through the Expeditionary Learning website. For example, standards are noted for each lesson in the Purpose and Alignment to Standards. Also found in each lesson are Standards-Based Learning Targets which are written in student-friendly language.

The Assessment Overview for each module describes the Module Performance Task, each Unit Assessment, and the Assessment Checklists. These descriptions also document the standards addressed by these tasks and assessment items. The Assessment Checklists are designed to help track students’ progress toward a variety of standards over the course of this module. These formative assessment opportunities are noted throughout the module lessons.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials contain a Teacher Guide with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and in the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

Suggestions on how to present the content are contained in the Week at a Glance in each Overview, including Lessons, CCSS, Agenda, Daily Learning Targets, Ongoing Assessments, Anchor Charts, and Protocols. There are Teaching Notes for each unit that provide guidance on how to present the content.

The Language Arts materials include a Teacher Guide for each Module and state on page vii, “The curriculum is intended to act as a professional development resource for users.” The beginning of each lesson contains Teaching Notes that provide information about the purpose of the lesson and alignment to standards. These notes support lesson preparation along with making informed adjustments to best meet the needs of students. There is an Overview that lists the Big Idea, Guiding Questions Standards, Instructional Focus, Culminating Tasks, and Assessments that are addressed within each Module. The Overview contains an agenda listing each Lesson component which includes the following: opening (10 minutes), work time (35 minutes), and closing and assessment (10 minutes).

The Meeting Students’ Needs section in each Module provides additional considerations for students who may require further supports or extended learning opportunities. Strategies presented in the Universal Design for Learning section provide suggested tools and scaffolded support for all learners.

Teacher guidance for the use of technology is provided for each lesson in the Technology and Multimedia section, which gives recommendations on how to extend student learning into digital experiences. Other examples include:

• The 4 T’s table in the Module and Unit Overview unpack how each Module engages students in compelling topics, texts, and tasks, working towards mastering the specific standard or target.
• The At a Glance summaries, marked by a calendar icon, give the gist of a Module, a Unit, or the Assessment structure before beginning teaching on a new topic.
• The Teaching Notes at the beginning of the lessons provide scaffolds for teaching and professional development. Teaching Notes are intentionally highly scaffolded to support lesson preparation and empower teachers in making informed decisions and adapt the curriculum to students within a classroom.
• Meeting Students’ Needs provides additional adaptations for students who may require extensions or supports to reach the rigor of the grade level lesson. There are specific supports for English Language Learners and for different learning modalities from the Universal Design for Learning framework.
• The Universal Design for Learning framework emphasizes differentiation. Tools and scaffolding support all learners, and teachers have flexibility in the manner in which they present information, ask students to respond, and engage with students.
• A complete set of classroom protocols, including all of the protocols used in lessons, are available in the Classroom Protocols pack on Curriculum.ELeducation.org. The book, Management in the Active Classroom, is a rich resource for protocols and classroom management strategies, available on ELeducation.org.
• Instructional videos showing the curriculum at work in real classrooms can be accessed at Curriculum.ELeducation.org.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials contain a Teacher Guide that contains full, adult-level explanations and examples of the more advanced literacy concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

Each Module includes a Teacher Guide with detailed explanations for each instructional task, its purpose, and alignment to the standards. In addition, the Your Curriculum Companion is designed to provide guidance on the delivery of the Language Arts Curriculum and serve as a resource to build professional knowledge in the areas of standards and research-based best practices. The guidance document, Implementing the K-2 Labs, is intended to help teachers understand the why, what, and how of the K-2 Labs. Other examples include:

• In the Your Curriculum Companion, on pages 141-145, teachers are provided Module lesson planning task cards. Each task card has guiding questions and provides specific information to teachers to help build their knowledge in order to plan for each part of the Module.
• Chapter 5, section 5A of the Your Curriculum Companion provides teachers with guidance on text complexity. Teachers are given information on what makes a text complex, how to determine text complexity, and the rationale behind the importance of text complexity (pages 260-262).
• Chapter 6 of the Your Curriculum Companion provides teachers with information on writing. Specifically, evidence-based writing, the writing cycle, and strengthening student writing. It provides charts that correlate the reading and writing CCSS standards, student examples, and evidence-based instructional strategies.
• Each chapter in the Your Curriculum Companion provides a frequently asked questions section, which builds teacher knowledge by providing information on the standards, how the program addresses the standards, and best practices for implementation.It includes notes that give adult-level explanations and examples.
• The Engaging Students with Protocols section of Chapter 3 in Your Curriculum Companion states that “[p]rotocols are an important feature of our curriculum because they are one of the best ways we know to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials contain a Teacher Guide that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum.

The Your Curriculum Companion serves as a guide in combining content area standards and CCSS language to create a target with the goal of meeting and contextualizing the standard. Each lesson contains a learning topic that addresses priority content standards and targets that combine the content with ELA/literacy standards.

The Module Overview clearly connects the learning for the day to the intended CCSS. Standards are explicitly taught and, as students move through the program, standards cycle back through allowing for review and solidification of concepts. The curriculum provides direct standards correlation at the beginning of each Module in the Skills Block Teacher Guide for quick reference as teaching begins.

• The Teacher Guide for each Module lesson contains a Teaching Notes section that provides the purpose of the lesson and standards alignment and explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum. For example, in the Grade K, Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 7, “Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards: In this lesson, students continue to cultivate their curiosity and build their knowledge of the components that make weather. This lesson invites students to ask and answer questions about details and unknown words in the text regarding wind as they seek to clarify their understanding, connect with prior knowledge, and wonder about the components that make weather (RI.K.1, RI.K.2, and RI.K.4).”
• On page 9 of the Your Curriculum Companion, it states “We believe the standards invite us to build in our students critical skills for life--for career success and civic contribution. What is important is not just what the standards say, but how they are used.” On pages 25-27, it explains how the curriculum addresses each CCSS shift in the aspect of reading, writing, language, and speaking/listening. The Your Curriculum Companion provides more specific details in pages 29-35 by explaining how the backwards design approach to the curriculum connects to each CCSS shift.
• In the Module Overview in the Teacher Guide for each Unit, all standards covered in the entire Module are listed, separated into Reading-Literature, Reading-Informational Text, Foundational Skills, Speaking and Listening, Language, and Writing. It further provides information regarding which standards are assessed per unit, the instructional focus for each unit, and the assessments and performance tasks for each unit. An explanation is provided for the emphasis on reading, writing, language, speaking, and listening standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials contain a explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research based strategies.

Materials identify the five elements of literacy instruction most critical for addressing literacy: vocabulary, knowledge building, syntax, fluency, and decoding. Research surrounding these five elements influenced the design of the curriculum. The Skills Block Teacher Guide, provides an in-depth year-at-a-glance or scope and sequence document teachers utilize to ensure students have multiple exposures to content to gain a deeper understanding. This guide clearly explains the connections between learning and the CCSS Reading Foundation Standards and provides the research that informed the creation of the curriculum.

The Skills Block Teacher Guide includes an assessment overview and a specific Module overview. The Cycle at a Glance component found in the Skills Block Teacher Guide, provides research-based resources for the teacher to access while planning throughout the year. It also encourages teachers to utilize specific videos created by EL Curriculum of modeled teaching strategies and instruction.

The Your Curriculum Companion provides an in-depth rationale for the delivery method of the entire program, in addition to the research-based strategies that have been chosen to deliver the content. Such as:

• Chapter 1B of Your Curriculum Companion explains how research impacted the design of the curriculum. On page 19, Your Curriculum Companion provides an analysis of the research on the literacy achievement gap and, on page 20, uses charts to explain what is already known about the literacy achievement gap and how the EL curriculum addresses it. The Your Curriculum Companion continues to provide this for the research behind knowledge building, syntax, fluency, and decoding making the connection to the EL curriculum. It provides information regarding the five elements of literacy instruction most critical for addressing the literacy achievement gap: vocabulary, knowledge-building, syntax, fluency, and decoding. This is based on the presentation by David Liben, Student Achievement Partners, July 2015.
• Page 27 of Your Curriculum Companion states that the design of the curriculum uses the guiding principles of backward design, which required curriculum designers to consider three questions: “1. At end of a sequence of instruction, what will students know and be able to do? 2. What will proficiency look and sound like? 3. How will we know when students are proficient?”
• Pages 83-85 of Your Curriculum Companion explain how the parts of the ALL Block promote proficiency and growth in students. In these explanations, research is cited to support the curriculum, such as the following explanation: “Research tells us that readers in intermediate grades benefit from a more contextualized approach to teaching phonics and word recognition” (pg. 85).
• The “Research Behind EL Education Language Arts Curriculum and Professional Services Guide” provides a “high level summary of the research that informed the Language Arts curriculum design (e.g., content-based literacy, phonics, supports for ELLs) and our professional development (e.g., focus on leadership, coaching, common implementation challenges).”
• The “Language Dives in the K-5 Language Arts Curriculum” Overview contains an explanation of the language dive and the research behind this instructional technique. The guide “describes what a language dive is, criteria for a good language dive sentence, when students do language dives, what the benefits of language dives are, and the principles and research base that underlie language dives.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress.

The materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress. The curriculum offers numerous opportunities for assessment of student learning and emphasizes formative assessment, daily learning targets and checking for understanding techniques, and opportunities for formal assessments and performance tasks.

The Reading Foundational skills block contains benchmark assessments, cycle assessments, and daily assessments. Benchmark Assessments include letter name and sound identification, phonological awareness, spelling, decoding, and fluency. These are given at the beginning of the year to form differentiated small groups and are reused during the middle and end of year to provide targeted instruction. Cycle assessments are given once per cycle beginning in Module 4 and are tied to module targets. Snapshot Assessments are given daily and provide a quick check on mastery of daily learning targets.

The Content-Based Literacy Instruction contains Formative Assessments: assessment checklists, text-dependent questions, and writing routines. Checklists are provided for reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language skills. In Kindergarten, text-dependent questions are answered orally. Throughout the module, students write in research notebooks, journals, note-catchers, and graphic organizers which can be used for teachers to gather evidence.

The Content-Based Literacy Instruction also contains Summative Assessments: end of unit assessments and on-demand writing. End of Unit Assessments may include written responses, completed graphic organizers, or selected responses. On-Demand Writing tasks are at the end of each unit found in the module and address the module’s anchor writing standard. In Kindergarten, students write with support.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that assessments clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

Assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized. The Assessment Overview in the Teacher Supporting Materials and the Assessment Overview in the Teacher Guide contain the standards addressed within each unit. These documents allow the educator to see how assessments and standards build on one another throughout the curriculum. In the Supporting Materials document, educators are provided with checklists and specific unit assessments that have clearly matched standards.

Kindergarten assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized. The standards are clearly labeled in the Assessment Overview of each Module. Standards are clearly labeled in the daily lessons and are also found on the performance-based assessments for each unit. For each Module, the standards formally assessed are indicated with a check mark on a chart containing all ELA standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher Guide, Grade K, Module 2, pg 16, it is clearly noted which standards are being emphasized for each assessment. For example, for the final performance task, it states, “In this performance task, students write an imaginary narrative about a character’s experience with the weather, using The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as a mentor text. Students’ narratives reflect how the weather affects the choices the character makes about what to wear and what to do. Students use group notes, puppets, and oral planning as scaffolding to illustrate and write their stories. They also revise, edit, and practice reading their original narratives in preparation for sharing them with families and friends during the end of module celebration: a Weather Expo. This task addresses CCSS ELA W.K.3, W.K.5, L.K.1a, L.K.2a, L.K.2c, L.K.2d, and L.K.6.”
• The end of unit assessments specifically note the standards that are addressed. For example, students complete the Module 3, Unit 2 end-unit assessment, which “centers on CCSS ELA W.K.2, W.K.7, and W.K.” In this assessment, they “write an informational booklet stating researched facts about different animals that get food from trees. Students use the individual notes created during the research process to inform their writing with researched facts. Over the course of three lessons, students complete their booklet with a focus statement and three detail statements about different animals that get food from trees.”
• In Module 1, End of Unit 3 Assessment: Speaking and Listening: Interviewing a Classmate about a Favorite Classroom Toy, p. 283 in the Teacher Guide, assesses the following standards: W.K.8 and SL.K.3.
• In Module 2, the Kindergarten Create Lab Checklist for Create Lab: I can create detailed weather landscapes and cityscapes, assesses the following standards: SL.K.1a, SL.K.4, L.K.1d, L.K.1f.
• In Module 4, Unit 2, the End of Unit 2 Assessment: Reading about an Author’s Point and Writing Opinions, assesses the following standards: RI.K.8, W.K.1, L.K.1e, L.K.2a, and L.K.2b.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that assessments provide sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow up.

Materials provide teachers with guidance for administering assessments, ways to scaffold assessments, areas of focus, connections to learning building towards the assessment, and suggestions for lessons in the future. Each assessment is broken down into sections to help support teacher understanding. The first section is titled “Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards.” The curriculum refers to assessments as an additional lesson, so in this section it explains which standards the assessment aligns to, the purpose behind the assessment, and information about tracking progress. The second section is titled “How it builds on previous work.” In this section, the curriculum explains how the unit and lessons have build upon each other in order to bring students to this place of learning. The third section is titled “Areas where students might need additional support.” This section anticipates barriers that students may face and offers suggestions to teachers on how to move students past the barriers. The fourth section is titled “Assessment guidance.” In this section, the assessment is broken down for teachers, typically by standard and explains how the assessment addresses each standard. There is also additional information regarding feedback for students. The last section is titled “Down the Road.” In this section the curriculum explains how the knowledge students have now will be used as they move forward in the curriculum.

In Your Curriculum Companion, pgs. 396-397, there are examples of student work and how they should be graded using the rubric found in the Teacher Guide. Further guidance is provided on the following:

• Choosing evidence for analysis, pg. 401
• Organizing the evidence, pg. 403
• Identifying the patterns and trends that can inform instruction, pg. 403
• Creating an action plan based on the data (next steps), pg. 404

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials should include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress.

Materials include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress. There are informal checklists to help collect evidence of progress as teachers observe students working. Progress monitoring formative assessments are integrated within every module by using mid and end unit assessments, performance tasks, ongoing assessment suggestions within each lesson, scaffolded instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Your Curriculum Companion, on pgs. 393-395, there is an overview of how the curriculum supports ongoing progress monitoring. For example, on pg. 393 a description of how each lesson within the module includes formative assessments that align with the learning targets.
• In the Your Curriculum Companion on pg. 394, it describes the use of informal checklists. The informal checklist is a tool that provides teachers with a way of tracking student progress while making observations. In Kindergarten, informal checklists include reading fluency, writing process, collaborative discussions, presentation of knowledge and ideas, and speaking and listening comprehension.
• The curriculum uses text-dependent questions as an ongoing progress monitoring tool. This takes place by having students answer the questions independently while reading additional text.
• Writing routines are built with ongoing formative assessments. The curriculum uses exit tickets, note-catchers, and graphic organizers to assess student learning.
• On pg. 394 in Your Curriculum Companion, it states that writing routines are repeated and appear frequently throughout the modules. Exit tickets, note-catchers, and graphic organizers are repeated multiple times in a unit.
• In Your Curriculum Companion, p. 395, there is an explanation on Tracking Progress Forms. It states, “students review their assessments for evidence of mastery of standards and add sticky notes to their work to point to this evidence. After students track their progress, the teacher then reviews and adds to the form.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding the grade-level standards.

In the Module Blocks in each lesson, there is a section called Universal Design for Learning. It is divided into three different parts: Multiple Means of Representation (MMR), Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE), and Multiple Means of Engagement (MME). The Teacher Guide for each module anticipates areas where students might need additional support and provides a section geared toward supporting English Language Learners that includes various scaffolds and levels of support recommendations. Each lesson includes a section on Universal Design for Learning, an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences that promotes the use of flexible learning environments in order to accommodate individual learning differences.

The Skills Block is a one hour block consisting of 15-20 minutes of whole group instruction and 40-45 minutes of differentiated small group instruction.This systematic instruction for all students followed by differentiated small group instruction, eliminates the need for additional interventions for struggling readers. The Skills Block is structured, so that students that are the furthest behind will meet with the teacher daily to receive additional explicit instruction. Guidance for more advanced students can be found in the Teacher’s Notes, Meeting Students’ Needs sections of the Skills Block.

Embedded within the lessons as teachers move from the Reconstruct to the Practice section of the lesson, teachers are given instruction on the type of support to provide. For example, in Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 6, teachers are given the following information: “Tell students to pretend they are making a doll themselves and to think about how they would use their imagination, just like Gertie, to make different parts of the doll. Display and read aloud the sentence frame.” Different sentence frames are available depending on the level of support needed by students. For heavier support, teachers are instructed to complete the practice as a shared group activity, provide an illustrated word bank, and consider sketching the doll to make the practice more concrete.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level, or in a language other than English, with extensive opportunities to work with grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards.

The Teacher Guide for each module provides a section supporting English Language Learners that includes various scaffolds and levels of support recommendations, which often include allowing students to grapple with complex texts and tasks before providing necessary adjustments based on targeted observation. There are Eight High-Leverage Approaches to Supporting English Language Learners in the Supporting English Language Learners section of Modules. The Supporting English Language Learners section in the Unit Overview tells where support practices like Language Dives and Conversation Cues are placed in each unit. Protocols for Conversation Clues and Language Dives are scaffolded for English Language Learners and students who may need additional support in that specific skill to meet or exceed the grade-level standard. In lessons, the Supporting English Language Learners sections are found at the start of the lesson and are embedded throughout in the Meeting Students’ Needs section of the daily lesson plan and provide differentiated levels of support for students with different levels of language proficiency needed for that day’s work.

The Meeting Students Needs section provides additional adaptations for students who may require extensions or support to reach the rigor of the grade level lessons. There are specific supports provided for ELL students.

The Supporting English Language Learners section can be found at the start of the lesson and includes differentiated levels of support for students with different levels of language proficiency needed for that day’s work.

Language Dives provide students with strategies to analyze, understand, and use the language. During a Language Dive, teachers and students slow down the reading of a text to deeply analyze the meaning, purpose, and structure of a specific part of the text. The Language Dive supports ELL students to acquire language and deconstruct complex text (Your Curriculum Companion pages 99-100).

Conversation Cues engage ELL students and their peers in thoughtful and academically focused discussions based on questions asked by the teacher. The Goal for ELL students during these conversations is to be understood, listen carefully and seek understanding, deepen their thinking, and think of ways to extend the conversation (Your Curriculum Companion pages 100-101).

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.

The curriculum provides collaborative structures that are used consistently throughout the module lessons. The curriculum also encourages educators to teach total participation techniques to increase student engagement and opportunities to respond during whole group discussions. Additionally the materials provide opportunities for teachers to use both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping strategies. Students participate in partner and small group Think/Pair/Share, Whole Class Discussion, Small Group Discussion, Read Alouds, Shared Reading, Independent Reading, and Language Dives for both informational and literary texts. Teachers are encouraged to use information gained from the ongoing assessments in the lessons to help determine where students need additional supports or extensions during small groups. In the Modules, a variety of grouping strategies are encouraged where students work in pairs or triads and are strategically paired in advance to create productive and supportive work time. In the Labs, student groupings are dependent on activities that are differentiated based on student need. Examples of groupings include, but are not limited to:

• Think-Pair-Share: promotes productive and equitable conversations, giving all students the opportunity to share and consider the views of others. For example, in Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 6, there is a Think-Pair-Share activity facilitated by the teacher and then followed up with questions to prompt further discussion or sentence frames for those who need them. Teachers ask, “What do you see happening in your picture? Which commitment is shown?”
• Back to Back and Face to Face: designed to give students the opportunity to hear several different perspectives on a topic and/or to engage in critical thinking about a topic.
• Pinky Partners: designed as a fun way for students to find a partner to engage in conversation.

An Approaches to Flexible Grouping in the K-5 Curriculum chart is included. This chart explains all the grouping strategies for each component of the curriculum. For the module lessons, teachers are given suggestions to group students based on similar needs. Ongoing assessments throughout the module lessons are used to make grouping decisions about who should be grouped together. In the ALL Block, students are grouped in either below grade level, on grade level, above grade level, or English Language Learner groups. These groups are formed for a two week period using the data from the module lessons. Students then rotate through the activities and are provided the necessary scaffolds or enrichment depending on the group (Your Curriculum Companion page 113).