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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Fountas & Pinnell Classroom | ELA
ELA K-2
The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 do not meet the expectations for text quality and complexity and alignment to the standards. The program does not include complex texts and texts do not reflect the distribution of text types required by the standards. The majority of questions and tasks do not provide students with opportunities to utilize and apply evidence from the text during speaking and listening activities or writing. There is limited instruction for grammar and vocabulary called for by the standards.
In foundational skills, the materials use an analytic approach to teaching phonics. The program cites some general research; however, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the teaching of phonological skills or for the hierarchy in which the skills are presented. Additionally, while in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, the program cites studies supporting explicit teaching of phonics skills, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the sequence of phonics. Materials contain phonological awareness lesson structures that provide teachers with the opportunity to explicitly teach phonological awareness. However, daily phonological awareness practice opportunities for students are not provided. For phonics instruction, the Fountas and Pinnell materials contain lessons which provide the teachers with instruction and repeated modeling. However, foundational skills lessons are recommended for 10 minutes a day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive daily explicit instruction to work towards mastery of foundational skills. Since Letter-Sound Relationships and Spelling Patterns lessons do not span the entire year, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. Lessons provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing. Materials include a limited number of generative lessons to use for high frequency word instruction to be repeated by the teacher; however, the program does not specify an exact sequence of high-frequency word instruction. Materials do not include resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. Materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, for students to read during Shared Reading in lessons of the Nine Areas of Learning about Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study. Poems are suggested in each lesson, but the poems are not aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and do not consistently provide practice of the decodable element from the lesson. There are curriculum-based assessment protocols provided in the online resources, which are directly correlated to the nine areas of literacy instruction included in the program. However, there are missed opportunities for assessments to provide the teacher with instructional guidance about the next steps for all students.
Kindergarten
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Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
1st Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
2nd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
ELA 3-5
The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Grades 3-5 do not meet the expectations for text quality and complexity and alignment to the standards. While the program includes suggestions for high quality texts, the recommendations only partially meet the expectations for text complexity and may not include regular interaction with complex, grade-level text. While some questions and tasks used throughout the program (including speaking and writing tasks) include some text-based options, the overwhelming number of optional tasks may limit student time on standards-aligned, grade-level texts, questions, and tasks. There is limited instruction for grammar and vocabulary called for by the standards.
Materials contain limited explicit instruction of phonics, word recognition, and word analysis consistently over the course of the year. Assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year; however, assessments do not clearly inform instructional adjustments of phonics and word recognition to help students progress toward mastery, and many assessments are optional.
Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. However, materials recommend that foundational skills lessons occur for 10 minutes each day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive explicit instruction to work towards mastery of newly learned foundational skills. Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern.
While some Guided Reading lessons include fluency, there is no guarantee that all students will have an opportunity to receive these lessons since they are not a part of core instruction. A fluency rubric is included, but there is not sufficient support for the use of the rubric, nor is there support for instructional adjustments to help students progress toward mastery of fluency. There is no evidence of students receiving instruction on using self-correction while reading.
3rd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
4th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
5th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
Report for 1st Grade
Alignment Summary
The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Grade 1 do not meet the expectations for alignment to the standards. The Interactive Read-Aloud texts in Grade 1 materials are high quality; however, the majority of Shared Reading texts are repetitive, predictable texts with minimal academic vocabulary and do not reflect the distribution of text types called for by the standards. When considering quantitative levels, qualitative levels, and associated tasks, there are few complex texts. Text-dependent questions and tasks provide limited support for students in making meaning of the core understandings of the text being studied. The lesson plan often lacks specific teacher action and strategies for requiring the students to engage with the text directly whether during speaking and listening activities or writing. There are ample opportunities for narrative and informational writing, but there was little evidence found of opinion writing or for process writing to include editing and revising. For most of the Shared and Interactive Writing sessions, the teacher completes the writing while students contribute ideas through discussion. The materials include limited explicit instruction in grammar standards and for authentic practice opportunities. The materials do not provide teacher guidance for outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component.
In foundational skills, the materials use an analytic approach to teaching phonics. The Fountas and Pinnell materials contain four lessons with explicit instruction for Grade 1 print concepts. The program cites some general research; however, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the teaching of phonological skills or for the hierarchy in which the skills are presented. Materials contain phonological awareness lesson structures that provide teachers with the opportunity to explicitly teach phonological awareness; however, there are missed opportunities for students to receive explicit instruction in distinguishing long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. Daily phonological awareness practice opportunities for students are not provided. While in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 cites studies supporting explicit teaching of phonics skills, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the sequence of phonics. The Fountas and Pinnell materials include lessons that provide the teachers with instruction and repeated modeling of grade-level phonics standards. However, foundational skills lessons are recommended for 10 minutes a day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive daily explicit instruction to work towards mastery of foundational skills. Students decode phonetically based words during 10 Spelling Patterns lessons, 10 Word Structure lessons, and 18 Word-Solving Actions lessons. Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, Word Structure, and Word-Solving Actions lessons do not occur daily, therefore, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. Lessons provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing. The materials contain eight High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all eight lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest the teacher repeat the lesson several times with new words selected by the teacher. Materials do not include resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. The materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, Grade 1 for students to read during Shared Reading in lessons of the Nine Areas of Learning about Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study. Poems are suggested in each lesson, but the poems are not aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and do not consistently provide practice of the decodable element from the lesson.
1st Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Usability (Gateway 3)
Overview of Gateway 1
Text Quality & Complexity and Alignment to the Standards with Tasks and Questions Grounded in Evidence
The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Grade 1 do not meet the expectations for Gateway 1. The Interactive Read-Aloud texts in Grade 1 materials are high quality; however, the majority of Shared Reading texts are repetitive, predictable texts with minimal academic vocabulary. The Shared Reading texts reflect a 50-50 balance of informational and literary texts for the year-long plan. However, the Interactive Read-Aloud selections do not reflect a 50-50 balance of informational and literary texts over the course of a school year. When considering quantitative levels, qualitative levels, and associated tasks, Grade 1 texts are mostly accessible or moderate levels. There are few complex texts. There is little variance in overall complexity throughout the year.
The text-based discussion questions come from the sections of the lesson plans Within the Text, Beyond the Text, About the Text. The majority of questions rarely involve the setting or character analysis, and instead, the focus is often a retelling of the sequence of events and character feelings. The questions rarely require readers to produce evidence from texts to support opinions or statements. The instructional materials provide some opportunities and behavioral protocols for students to engage in speaking and listening activities; however, materials do not provide strong protocols for a variety of evidence-based speaking and listening opportunities across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. Students have opportunities to reflect on their reading through speaking and listening opportunities; however, many speaking and listening opportunities do not require students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources.
Materials do not provide opportunities for students to learn and apply skills needed for process writing, such as editing and revising. The on-demand writing opportunities are often not standards-aligned or dependent on the texts students listen to during the Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lesson. There are ample opportunities for narrative and informational writing, but there was little evidence found of opinion writing. The materials provide opportunities for students to discuss and dictate for the genres, but lack sufficient opportunities for application of the writing skills and lack opportunities for students to independently write each genre. Students have opportunities across the school year to practice writing, but lack opportunities to learn and apply writing using evidence from the text(s).
The materials include limited explicit instruction in grammar standards. There was no evidence for the explicit instruction in teacher materials for multiple standards. The materials do not provide teacher guidance for outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. At the First Grade level, the Fountas and Pinnell materials place importance on the vocabulary “behaviors and understandings to notice, teach, and support” students to “recognize and use concept words (e.g. color names, number words, days of the week, months of the year, seasons), recognize and talk about the fact that words can be related in many ways (sound, spelling, category), recognize and use synonyms,....and use antonyms”.
The Fountas and Pinnell materials contain four lessons with explicit instruction for Grade 1 print concepts. The program cites some general research; however, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the teaching of phonological skills or for the hierarchy in which the skills are presented. Although there are a variety of practice activities, there are only 11 phonological awareness lessons. Daily phonological awareness practice opportunities for students are not provided. Materials contain phonological awareness lesson structures that provide teachers with the opportunity to explicitly teach phonological awareness; however, there are missed opportunities for students to receive explicit instruction in distinguishing long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. While in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 cites studies supporting explicit teaching of phonics skills, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the sequence of phonics. Materials contain a Master Lesson Guide which explains the order in which phonics lessons should be taught. The Fountas and Pinnell materials include lessons that provide the teachers with instruction and repeated modeling of grade-level phonics standards. However, foundational skills lessons are recommended for 10 minutes a day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive daily explicit instruction to work towards mastery of foundational skills. Students decode phonetically based words during 10 Spelling Patterns lessons, 10 Word Structure lessons, and 18 Word-Solving Actions lessons. Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, Word Structure, and Word-Solving Actions lessons do not occur daily, therefore, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. Lessons provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing. The materials contain eight High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all eight lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest the teacher repeat the lesson several times with new words selected by the teacher. The program does not specify an exact sequence of high-frequency word instruction. Materials do not include resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. The materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, Grade 1 for students to read during Shared Reading in lessons of the Nine Areas of Learning about Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study. Poems are suggested in each lesson, but the poems are not aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and do not consistently provide practice of the decodable element from the lesson. There are curriculum-based assessment protocols provided in the online resources, which are directly correlated to the nine areas of literacy instruction included in the program. However, there are missed opportunities for assessments to provide the teacher with instructional guidance about the next steps for all students.
Gateway 1
v1.5
Criterion 1.1: Text Quality and Complexity
Texts are worthy of students’ time and attention: texts are of quality and are rigorous, meeting the text complexity criteria for each grade. Materials support students’ advancing toward independent reading.
The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Grade 1 do not meet the expectations for Gateway 1. The Interactive Read-Aloud texts in Grade 1 materials are high quality; however, the majority of Shared Reading texts are repetitive, predictable texts with minimal academic vocabulary. The Shared Reading texts reflect a 50-50 balance of informational and literary texts for the year-long plan. However, the Interactive Read-Aloud selections do not reflect a 50-50 balance of informational and literary texts over the course of a school year. When considering quantitative levels, qualitative levels, and associated tasks, Grade 1 texts are mostly accessible or moderate levels. There are few complex texts. There is little variance in overall complexity throughout the year.
Indicator 1A
Anchor texts are of high quality, worthy of careful reading, and consider a range of student interests. *This does not include decodables. Those are identified in Criterion 3.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1a.
The Interactive Read-Aloud texts in the Grade 1 materials are of high quality; however, the majority of Shared Reading texts are repetitive, predictable texts with minimal academic vocabulary. Many Interactive Read-Aloud books are published works by well-known authors and are accompanied by vibrant and artistic illustrations.
Some anchor texts are of high-quality and consider a range of student interests, are well-crafted, content rich, and engage students at their grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
The Interactive Read-Aloud, Papá and Me by Arthur Dorros, is a first-person, realistic fiction text. The story is chronological with different settings and illustrations. The characters use both Spanish and English to communicate, and the Spanish words are followed with an English translation. For example, the students learn that the word otra vez means again in English. The students also learn that the author and illustrator use the changing sun to show progress throughout the day for the boy and his father.
The Interactive Read-Aloud, Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons, provides a listening opportunity for the students. This informational text contains academic vocabulary and features such as captions, labels, and illustrations that engage the reader as they follow along. The text features also help students understand how sea turtles evolved, how they move, and how their bodies function.
The Shared Reading, Squawk by Nicole Walker, engages the students while the teacher reads. The story is realistic fiction and humorous with relatable characters. This text contains some academic vocabulary and vibrant illustrations.
Some anchor texts are not of high-quality. Examples of Shared Reading texts that are not high-quality include:
The Shared Reading, In My Bag by Amy Frank, is a repetitive, realistic fiction text. It is a patterned reader that contains few academic vocabulary words and a simple plot.
The Shared Reading, Spots by Judy Kentor Schmauss, is a simple, repetitive text. It does not include rich academic vocabulary.
In the Shared Reading, students listen to and read A Pig Tale by Lionel Page. The text is simple, decodable, and not complex.
In the Shared Reading, students listen to and read Woof! Woof! by Armand Benedict. The text is simple, decodable, repeated, and not complex.
Indicator 1B
Materials reflect the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level. *This does not include decodable. Those are identified in Criterion 3.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1b.
The Interactive Read-Alouds and Shared Reading texts do not reflect a 50-50 balance of informational and literary texts for the year-long plan presented in the System Guide. The Grade 1, 8-Week Instructional Plan, available on the digital platform, provides a suggested order of texts, but it does not match the suggested order of texts listed in the System Guide. The Interactive Read-Alouds and Shared Reading materials reflect a variety of text types and genres.
Materials reflect the distribution of text types/genres required by the grade level standards. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, Jamaica’s Blue Marker by Juanita Havill, is a realistic fiction book.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote by Tony Johnston, provides an audio-version of a folktale for students.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons, is a nonfiction expository text.
The Shared Reading text, Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Jan Brett, is an audio-version of the classic folktale.
The Shared Reading text, Rain, Sun, Wind, Snow: Poems About the Seasons by unknown authors, is a poem.
The Shared Reading text, Snail’s Big Adventure by David Earl, is an animal fantasy.
The Shared Reading text, Old to New by Jena Croxford, is a blend of three types of texts. The text includes factual, procedural text with an expository structure.
Materials do not reflect a 50/50 balance of informational and literary texts. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud plan has students listen to and read approximately 80% literary texts and 20% informational texts. There are 22 informational texts out of 120 Interactive Read-Aloud books.
The Shared Reading plan has students listen to and read 63% literary texts and 37% informational texts. There are also two hybrid texts that blend features of literary and informational reading.
Indicator 1C
Core/Anchor texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to documented quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task. Documentation should also include a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria of Indicator 1c.
Materials do not contain quantitative levels for the Interactive Read-Aloud or Shared Reading texts. The materials include their own leveling system but the levels are not included on the texts or lesson plans. There is no formal rationale or analysis for each book. Lesson plans do contain some qualitative information about each book. The qualitative information mostly focuses on the features and writer’s craft of the text. There are no formal qualitative rubrics present in the materials. There is no explanation of how the texts are associated with student tasks and no rationale for the purpose or placement of the texts at this grade level. Although not explicitly stated on the Interactive-Read Aloud cards, the materials direct teachers to refer to the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum to select appropriate learning goals for students.
When considering quantitative levels, qualitative levels, and associated tasks, the Grade 1 books are mostly accessible or moderate levels. There are few complex texts. Most tasks, even for more complex texts, are of low or moderate complexity.
Texts do not have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, From Head to Toe by Eric Carle, has a Lexile of 210L. The qualitative rating is low due to limited access to academic vocabulary. The associated tasks include a game and art, as well as a shared writing activity where the students brainstorm what they noticed about the illustrations in the story on chart paper. The overall text complexity rating is low.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, has a Lexile of AD510L. The qualitative rating is moderate due to large illustrations and poetic language. The text also provides vivid adjectives and rhyming text to engage students. The associated task for this text is rated low and includes an independent writing activity where students record their noticings of humor in the illustrations and dialogue. The overall text complexity rating is accessible.
The Shared Reading text, Scrunch, the Caterpillar by Stephen Krensky, has a Lexile level of 210L. The qualitative rating is low due to repeated episodes throughout the text. There are basic, yet colorful illustrations to engage readers. The associated task is an interactive writing assignment based on low-level comprehension questions. The overall text complexity rating is accessible.
Anchor/Core texts and series of texts connected to them are not accompanied by an accurate text complexity analysis and a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lesson plans each contain a section titled, About This Book. The section includes the genre focus, how the book works, and important characteristics to notice or important text characteristics. The section does give additional information about the text characteristics, but does not provide text analysis. There are no formal qualitative rubrics present in the materials. Quantitative levels are not discussed or included in the lesson plans. However, the lesson plans do include some information about why texts were chosen.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, David’s Drawings by Cathryn Falwell, is a realistic fiction story. According to the lesson plan, the text was chosen because of the repetition; the themes reflecting everyday life; and the colorful, full-page, cut-paper-and-fabric, collage illustrations that fully support meaning.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, Bugs for Lunch by Marjery Facklam, is an expository nonfiction story. According to the lesson, the text was chosen because of its common oral vocabulary, rhyming verses, and scientific content.
The Shared Reading text The Hungry Fly by Hannah Cales is a narrative nonfiction story. According to the lesson, the text was chosen for its range of punctuation and content words that are supported by labeled pictures.
Indicator 1D
Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band to support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria of Indicator 1d.
The texts included in the materials do not increase in complexity as the academic year progresses and associated tasks over the course of the year do not support students’ literacy growth. The complexity of the anchor texts in the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading do not consistently provide opportunities for student growth in literacy skills throughout the year. Outside of rereading the text, materials do not include more complex scaffolds to support reading development. There is little variance in overall complexity throughout the year.
The complexity of anchor texts students read do not fully provide an opportunity for students’ literacy skills to increase across the year, encompassing an entire year’s worth of growth. For example:
The texts provided in Months 1-2 range from AD440L-570L. The qualitative complexity ranges from low to high, with most texts rated as having medium to high levels of complexity. Associated tasks are rated from low to medium levels of complexity. The overall text complexity rating for the beginning of the year is accessible or moderately complex. Some texts include:
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes has a Lexile level of 570L and has a high qualitative complexity. The associated task is medium complexity and the overall text complexity is moderate.
Scram! by Julie Reich does not have a Lexile level, but has a low qualitative complexity. The associated task is also low complexity and the overall text complexity is accessible.
Monster ABCs by Finnoula Louise does not have a Lexile level, but has a medium qualitative complexity. The associated task is also medium complexity and the overall text complexity is moderate.
The texts provided in Months Months 3-4 range from Lexile level from AD460L-620L. Qualitative complexities range from low to high with most texts being medium to high level. Most associated tasks are low complexity. Overall, all Months 3-4 texts are accessible or moderately complex with most being accessible. Some texts include:
Handa’s Hen by Eileen Brown has a Lexile level of AD460L and has a medium qualitative complexity. The associated task is low complexity and the overall text complexity is accessible.
The Last Polar Bear by Jean Craighead George has an AD580L, high qualitative complexity. The associated task is medium complexity and the overall text complexity is moderate.
Captain Brock, Firefighter by Andrea Delbanco has a 410L Lexile level and a medium qualitative level of complexity with a low complexity level task. The overall complexity is accessible.
The texts provided in Months 5-6 range in Lexile level from AD490L-700L. Qualitative complexities range from low to high with an equal distribution between low and high. Associated tasks are mostly low or medium tasks. Overall, all Months 5-6 texts are equally accessible or moderately complex. Some texts include:
A Cool Summer Tail by Carrie A. Pearson has a Lexile level of AD490L and has a medium qualitative complexity. The associated task is medium complexity and the overall text complexity is moderate.
The Hungry Fly by Hannah Cales has a Lexile level of 210L, a low qualitative complexity. The associated task is low and the text is overall accessible.
Garden Helpers by Charlotte Rose does not have a Lexile level, but has a low qualitative complexity. The associated task is also low complexity and the overall text complexity is accessible.
The texts provided in Months 7-8 range from AD66L-520L. The qualitative complexity ratings are low to medium levels of complexity. Associated tasks are rated from low to medium. The overall text complexity for the middle of the year is accessible or moderate with a few additional complex texts. Some texts include:
The Little Red Hen by Lucinda McQueen has a Lexile level of 470L and has a medium qualitative complexity. The associated task is medium complexity and the overall text complexity is complex.
The Frog Who Couldn’t Jump by Lionel Page has no Lexile level and has a low qualitative level. The associated task and overall complexity levels are low and accessible.
The texts provided in Months 9-10 range from AD510L-600L. The qualitative complexity ratings show an equal distribution of texts between low and high complexity. Associated tasks are all low, moderate, or medium complexity tasks. The overall text complexity for the end of the school year is accessible or moderate with a few complex texts. Some texts include:
Old to New by Jena Croxford does not have a Lexile level, but has a medium qualitative complexity. The associated task is also of medium complexity and the overall text complexity is complex.
Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons has a Lexile level of 600L and has a high qualitative complexity. The associated task is medium complexity and the overall text complexity is complex.
As texts become more complex, appropriate scaffolds and/or materials are not provided in the Teacher Edition (i.e., spending more time on texts, more questions, repeated readings). For example:
The associated tasks for Interactive Read-Aloud texts range from low to high complexity. As the tasks become more complex, the teacher is not provided with more advanced scaffolding to support the students. For each reading, the teacher is encouraged to revisit the text “on the same day or subsequent days.” This directive does not change from when the level of complexity changes from text to text.
There are few complex texts in Interactive Read-Aloud or Shared Reading. Most texts are accessible or moderate. This does not demonstrate that the texts become more complex throughout the school year or would require the teacher to provide more scaffolds.
Shared Reading lessons often include multiple readings of the same text over two days. This does not change as the texts increase in complexity. The only lessons that take more than two days are the poetry anthology books.
Indicator 1E
Materials 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, including accountability structures for independent reading.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1e.
Materials include opportunities for students to engage in reading various types of texts throughout the literacy block, including Guided Reading, Interactive Read-Aloud, Shared Reading, Independent Reading, and Book Clubs. Students participate daily in the Interactive Read-Aloud for fifteen minutes and Shared Reading for ten minutes. The proposed time schedule allots an additional hour of rotating learning centers, where based on teacher selection, a student might participate in a Guided Reading Group, Book Clubs, and/or Independent Reading. Depending on the Continuum, teachers select suggested texts for the students to read. The students may be exposed to three to five books per week. The guidance for teachers does not specify the texts or the order in which the books should be presented for student reading.
Instructional materials provide some opportunities and support for students to engage in reading and listening to a variety of texts. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud text sets include four to six texts that the teacher reads. The whole class discusses the content and completes the associated tasks. There are 25 text sets and a total of 120 books, including both fiction and nonfiction genres.
Shared Reading is a component of whole group instruction. The teacher reads the text the first day and gradually releases the reading to the students, on a five-day rotation. There are 65 Shared Reading texts, including both fiction and nonfiction genres as well as a book of poetry charts.
Guided Reading is small group instruction that takes place five days a week for 60 minutes. Students read challenging texts at their instructional reading level with teacher guidance and prompting. There are 200 Guided Reading books (F&P levels A-M) with six copies each and 200 corresponding lessons.
In the example lesson plans available on the digital platform, Grade 1, Day 32, the whole class participates in reading and listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud text set. The teacher selects three to four books to review from the set which are about friendship and family. The lesson plan does not specify which books to review or how to develop reading based on scaffolds for reading complex text. The whole class then reads the Shared Reading text Scram! by Julie Reich. The class also discusses the poem “The Queen of Hearts”. Once the texts are read, the teacher gives a Reading Mini-lesson which introduces the ways to study about authors. During the Guided Reading time, the teacher gives lessons to three guided reading groups, while the other students complete independent reading work which is specified as student choice.
Instructional materials provide some opportunities and support for students to engage in a volume of reading. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud sessions take place for 15 minutes each day. The collection of texts includes 120 titles organized into 25 text sets.
The Shared Reading sessions take place daily for ten minutes each day. There are 65 titles and a collection of 100 poems.
The Guided Reading sessions occur daily for small groups. Each group works with the teacher for 20 minutes. There are 200 leveled texts in the collection.
The students that are not a part of the Guided Reading sessions participate in Independent Reading or Book Club.
The Independent Reading Collection Guide suggests giving students options to read texts from the classroom library. The collection includes 150 Independent Reading Collection books, small versions of Big Books, and Interactive Read-Aloud titles.
The Book Club Collection Guide suggests that students read one book per month. The students choose a text from a set of four books that correlate to the Interactive Read-Aloud text sets. They complete the suggested Before and During Reading activities. When they finish the book, the program suggests that students participate in a 15 minute discussion and complete the After Reading activities when they finish reading the book. There are 32 books in the collection that are organized into eight text sets.
There is limited teacher guidance to foster independence for all readers. (e.g., proposed schedule, tracking system for independent reading, independent reading procedures are included in the lessons.) For example:
A proposed schedule for reading and sample lesson plans for the first 40 days are available on the digital platform.
A Weekly Lesson Plan form is available on the digital platform for the teacher to record titles of books read and any notes including student observations during the lessons.
Independent reading is part of the Independent Literacy Work block and is supported through lessons ranging from how to choose an appropriate book to brief accountability conferences. A tracking form is provided and students are encouraged to choose texts from the provided library. Students read environmental print, posters, and charts, as well as previously read Guided Reading texts, Big Books, and Read-Aloud texts during this time.
A Guided Reading Record Keeping Form is available on the digital platform for the teacher to record observations and anecdotal notes about student performance, levels of reading, and book titles.
Running Records are used on Guided Reading texts to track student progress in fluency and reading behaviors.
Guided Reading levels are determined by using the Benchmark Assessment System. Students are assessed two to three times per year for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension skills using a Recording Form.
Criterion 1.2: Tasks and Questions
Materials provide opportunities for rich and rigorous evidence-based discussions and writing about texts to build strong literacy skills.
The text-based discussion questions come from the sections of the lesson plans Within the Text, Beyond the Text, About the Text. The majority of questions rarely involve the setting or character analysis, and instead, the focus is often a retelling of the sequence of events and character feelings. The questions rarely require readers to produce evidence from texts to support opinions or statements. The instructional materials provide some opportunities and behavioral protocols for students to engage in speaking and listening activities; however, materials do not provide strong protocols for a variety of evidence-based speaking and listening opportunities across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. Students have opportunities to reflect on their reading through speaking and listening opportunities; however, many speaking and listening opportunities do not require students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources.
Materials do not provide opportunities for students to learn and apply skills needed for process writing, such as editing and revising. The on-demand writing opportunities are often not standards-aligned or dependent on the texts students listen to during the Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lesson. There are ample opportunities for narrative and informational writing, but there was little evidence found of opinion writing. The materials provide opportunities for students to discuss and dictate for the genres, but lack sufficient opportunities for application of the writing skills and lack opportunities for students to independently write each genre. Students have opportunities across the school year to practice writing, but lack opportunities to learn and apply writing using evidence from the text(s).
The materials include limited explicit instruction in grammar standards. There was no evidence for the explicit instruction in teacher materials for multiple standards. The materials do not provide teacher guidance for outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. At the First Grade level, the Fountas and Pinnell materials place importance on the vocabulary “behaviors and understandings to notice, teach, and support” students to “recognize and use concept words (e.g. color names, number words, days of the week, months of the year, seasons), recognize and talk about the fact that words can be related in many ways (sound, spelling, category), recognize and use synonyms,....and use antonyms”.
Indicator 1F
Most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-specific and/or text-dependent, 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 materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1f.
The text-based discussion questions come from the sections of the lesson plans Within the Text, Beyond the Text, About the Text. The majority of questions rarely involve the setting or character analysis, and instead, the focus is often a retelling of the sequence of events and character feelings. The questions rarely require readers to produce evidence from texts to support opinions or statements. The teacher materials provide some support for teachers about when to ask the questions such as before, during, after reading, or after a rereading. The suggestions are often repeated and not text specific, including directing students to discuss in pairs or threes or to engage in a turn and talk. The lesson plan often lacks specific teacher action and strategies for requiring the students to engage with the text directly.
Text-specific and text-dependent questions and tasks provide limited support for students in making meaning of the core understandings of the text being studied. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
After listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Sheila Rae, The Brave by Kevin Henkes, the students are asked the questions “What does Sheila Rae learn about her sister, Louise?” and “What lesson does Kevin Henkes want you to learn from this story?”
After listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka, the students answer the question, “How does Sheila Hamanaka describe the different kinds of hair?”
In Shared Reading, students listen to and read the text, The Three Little Pigs by Helen Scully. Students answer the questions, “What is a neat house?” and “What is a cozy house?”
In Shared Reading, students listen to and read the text, Boomer’s Checkup by Aaron Mack. Students answer the questions, “I noticed that Calvin told Boomer about his own doctor visit. Why do you think he did that?” and “What did the doctor discover at the end of the story?”
Teacher materials provide limited support for planning and implementation of text-based questions and tasks. For example:
After reading the Interactive Read-Aloud, Over on a Mountain: Somewhere in the World by Marianne Berkes, the students provide responses for each animal in the story during the Interactive Writing experience. The students provide responses that fit in the following sentence frame “______ have _____ in the ______.” The teacher adds the student responses to chart paper. There are three examples written that use facts from the text. In the second part of the exercise the students “come up and write initial consonants or high-frequency words they are learning.” However, there are not any examples of the high-frequency words the students might choose.
After reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, The Night Worker by Kate Banks, the students answer the questions “Why do you think Alex’s father works at night instead of during the day?” and “How are Alex’s father and the other night workers in the story helping their community?” Materials do not include sample answers in the lesson to guide the teacher’s response for the students.
After reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, To Be a Kid by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko, the students complete an Independent Writing Assignment. The students write about ways that “kids all over the world are alike.” While there is a student sample for the teacher to review, the lesson plan does not reference text-specific details that the students could select for this task.
After reading the Shared Reading text, Zip, Zip, Zip by Andrea Young, the students recall facts they learned about hummingbirds from the text and chart their responses on paper. To guide the students while writing, the lesson plan has a few examples for the teacher to use during the activity. However, it is unclear whether the examples are from the text.
Indicator 1G
Materials provide frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1g.
The instructional materials provide some opportunities and behavioral protocols for students to engage in speaking and listening activities; however, materials do not provide strong protocols for a variety of evidence-based speaking and listening opportunities across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. The protocols are generalized for all discussions, with no guidance for growth as the year progresses. Most of the lessons do not contain samples or rubrics for discussions and do not include teacher modeling. There is minimal teacher guidance for facilitating and monitoring speaking and listening activities. Some tasks contain instructions for speaking and listening in smaller groups, but tasks are an optional choice list, so not all students will receive the same opportunities.
Materials provide limited protocols for evidence-based discussions across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. For example:
The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum Grades PreK-8 briefly mentions that teachers should discuss books as a whole class, use “turn and talk”, and use small-group discussions. Teachers are instructed to consult a separate text for detailed guidance: Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency: Thinking, Talking, and Writing About Reading, K-8 by Fountas and Pinnell.
The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum Grades PreK-8, contains a section on Interactive Read-Aloud and Literature Discussions. This section gives some information about class discussions, although the teacher guidance for discussions is general. Additionally, the class discussions do not contain a specific protocol for teachers to follow. Materials state: “We use the terms intentional conversation to describe the instructional moves you make during the conversation surrounding books in interactive read-aloud or in small group literature discussion. Your first goals when reading aloud to your students and engaging them in small-group discussions are to engage their interest and intellect, to make the occasion enjoyable, and to guide them in active conversation.” Materials also state, “the teacher asks students to share their thinking in a focused way and keep the conversation grounded in the text.”
The Fountas and Pinnell Grade 1 System Guide includes Five Keys to Thoughtful Talk. “1. Help children understand that reading is thinking and that when they talk, they share their thinking. 2. Teach children to turn and talk effectively with each other. 3. Give children wait time and guide them to give others wait time as well. 4. Demonstrate the use of language that fosters participation, respect for others’ thinking, and promotes building on the ideas of others. 5. Set the norm that everyone listens attentively and respectfully to each other.” These are general guidelines and the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lessons do not include a detailed protocol to achieve these Five Keys to Thoughtful Talk.
In the Shared and Performance Reading section of the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum Grades PreK-8 book, there is a list of basic shared reading components for a lesson and it includes “Introduce the text: You say a few words about the text and invite some conversation that is directed toward reading it” and “Discuss the text: You guide the conversation about the meaning of the text, inviting students to share their thinking.”
The lesson plans for the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lessons do not contain text-specific discussion protocols beyond, “Stop a few times to invite thinking and a brief conversation. Children may turn and talk in pairs or threes”.
The Reading Minilessons Book provides some general anchor charts for students on how to engage in respectful conversations. For example:
In Reading Minilesson MGT.U1. RML 1, the teacher makes an anchor chart about using the appropriate voice level. The chart includes a 0-3 level with information about silent, soft, normal, and loud voices.
In Reading Minilesson LA.U4. RML 5, the teacher makes an anchor chart for students to engage in Book Clubs. The guidance includes:
What are you thinking?
What did you notice?
What surprised you?
What can you add to that idea?
What do you think about the illustrations?
Speaking and listening instruction includes limited facilitation, monitoring, and instructional support for teachers. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
The teacher and students read four realistic fiction texts written by Bob Graham in the Interactive Read-Aloud text set “Bob Graham: Exploring Everyday Life”. Since this is an author study, the students are prompted to look for examples of “characteristics common to a particular author or illustrator’s work.” For each story the students “analyze the characteristics of the author or illustrator’s work.” The teacher records their responses on chart paper. Some sample responses are provided in the Text Set Overview. The Shared Writing examples, written by the teacher, state that the students noticed that Bob Graham “writes about small, everyday things. And uses language like poetry.” There are no other teacher directions or support for providing or evaluating speaking or listening opportunities.
The teacher and students read the Interactive Read-Aloud text King of the Playground by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The directions for Introducing the Text remind the teacher to “Make the introduction and reading interactive, allowing time for children to respond between questions.” Some of the questions the students answer before reading the text are “How do you feel when someone bosses you on the playground?” and “What can you do when they do that?” There are no sample responses to guide the teacher when prompting or evaluating the students’ answers. In the Discuss the Text section, the students are encouraged to “talk about the book.” The teacher is given four suggested questions “to engage thinking.” An example of one of the questions is “Kevin was not brave enough to stand up to Sammy at the beginning of the story. Why not?” The teacher is to “Guide the children toward the key understandings of the text.” The lesson provides the teacher with four possible key understandings the students might suggest while Thinking Within the Text, Thinking Beyond the Text, and Thinking About the Text. An example from Thinking Within the Text suggests that “Sammy says he will tie Kevin up. And Kevin steps into the sandbox when Sammy tells him to go home.”
At the end of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text Smokey Bear: A True Story by Hannah Cales. During the Discuss the Text, the teacher is provided with suggested questions and prompts that encourage the students to “talk about the book.” One question the students are asked while reading the text is “What happened in the story?” The possible answer that is provided would help guide the teacher in checking student summaries for accuracy. There are several key ideas listed in chronological order from the text including “A forest fire started in New Mexico. A mama bear and her cub smelled the smoke. A ranger took the cub to a vet and then home.” When discussing the text after reading, the teacher can ask “How did the illustrator help you understand how bad the fire was?” The possible answer that is provided for the teacher to use to guide the discussion is “The illustrations show how big and scary the fire was. They show how scared the animals were.”
Indicator 1H
Materials support students' listening and speaking about what they are reading (or read aloud) and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and support.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1h.
Students have opportunities to reflect on their reading through speaking and listening opportunities; however, many speaking and listening opportunities do not require students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources. Students participate in daily whole group discussions of texts or turn and talk to a partner, but the speaking and listening opportunities are not varied over the course of the year.
Students have limited opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading through varied speaking and listening opportunities. The majority of discussions occur either in a whole group or turn and talk. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
In Months 1-2, the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud text, One of Each by Mary Ann Hoberman. Afterwards, the students participate in a whole group discussion of the text. The teacher demonstrates cutting apples so that everyone gets a piece and asks students how that is like what the character does in the story. Students also make two of the same kind of object out of clay and discuss the objects with a partner.
In Months 5-6, the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Tools by Ann Morris. The students listen and participate in a discussion about the book. This can be in turn and talk format or with the whole group. Students have the option of “pantomiming” using tools and adding verbal clues so that peers can guess the tool.
In Months 7-8, the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree by William Miller. Afterwards, the teacher asks, “Why did the author want you to know about Zora Hurston? Talk with a partner about the importance of what Zora Hurston did. The teacher reminds the students that Zora is a young girl when this story ends. The students then talk about what they think she will do when she gets older. Teachers can choose for students to respond to the text that includes several photographs of Zora Hurston as an adult. The teacher prompts a discussion by asking the students, “What do you think Zora Hurston was like as an adult?” and “If you could have met Zora Hurston, what would you have liked to ask her?”
In the middle of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, Woof! Woof! by Armand Benedict. The teacher guides a whole group discussion of the text. The class revisits the text over the next few days and groups of students take turns reading parts of the story. The groupings change each time they read the book. During Independent Reading, students listen to the book individually or read the book with a partner.
Some speaking and listening work requires students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources. For example:
After listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Water: Up, Down, and All Around by Natalie M. Rosinsky, the students discuss the text either in whole groups or in turn and talk. Then, the teacher has the option to break students into small groups to conduct the science experiments described in the book. When performing the experiments, the teacher allows students to share observations and findings with the class. In another suggested activity, the students draw a part of the water cycle and share the drawing with partners or small groups.
After the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Mud by Mary Lyn Ray, the students revisit and reread the book over multiple days and discuss the text. Students listen for words that tell what mud feels like, how it sounds, and how it smells. For example, squish, sop, splat, slurp, gooey. Each student takes a card with one of the words on it and reads it to their partner. Then they talk about what they think the word means or the questions they have about it. Students are not asked to use evidence from the text to support their answers.
After the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, Zip, Zip, Zip by Andrea Young, the teacher asks students several questions. The teacher prompts a discussion by asking the students, “How do you think the hummingbird got its name?” and “What else would you like to learn about hummingbirds?” The questions do not require the students to use text evidence to answer.
Indicator 1I
Materials include a mix of on-demand and process, grade-appropriate writing (e.g., grade-appropriate revision and editing) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria of Indicator 1i.
The materials for Grade 1 include some opportunities for on-demand writing within the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lessons. The on-demand writing opportunities are often not standards-aligned or dependent on the texts students listen to during the Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lesson. Materials do not provide opportunities for students to learn and apply skills needed for process writing, such as editing and revising. There are little to no digital tools to aid in the production and publishing of student work over the course of the school year. The support provided for teachers to develop writing skills during the school year is limited.
Materials include some on-demand writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction. The majority of on-demand writing tasks are not standards-based and can be answered without using the text. For example:
In Months 1-2, the students complete an Independent Writing task after the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud text The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate. The teacher records student responses to the questions “What do Ray and Bunny like to do together?” and “What are some other things that Ray and Bunny might like to do together that are not in the story?” The teacher records the student responses on chart paper. Then the students draw a picture of Ray and Bunny doing an activity from the list. The students label Ray and Bunny, and write one sentence about what friends like to do. This on-demand writing opportunity does not connect to standards.
In Months 5-6, the students work on an Independent Writing task after reading the Interactive Read-Aloud, Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin. Students write about a scene from the text where Farmer Brown is doing something funny or is worried, and then they illustrate their writing.
Near the end of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read Oh, Good! by Judith E. Nayer. The students participate in an Interactive Writing task. They create a new part of the story through discussion. The teacher writes the ideas on chart paper. The students create illustrations to show the ideas on the list.
Materials do not include process writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction. There are no opportunities for students to revise and edit writing. For example:
Aside from the Reader’s Notebook that could potentially be used for process writing purposes, there was no evidence found of process writing instruction or tasks within the Interactive Read-Aloud, Shared Reading, Reading Minilessons, or any other component in the materials provided.
Materials include a limited number of digital resources to support student writing. For example:
Graphic organizers are available online to print to assist students with planning writing. There are no digital resources for students to use online to produce or publish writing.
Indicator 1J
Materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing (year-long) that reflect the distribution required by the standards.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1j.
Students participate in Shared Writing, Interactive Writing, and Independent Writing for both Shared Reading and Interactive Read-Aloud texts. There are also some opportunities for guided research. The materials provide opportunities for students to discuss and dictate for the genres, but lack sufficient opportunities for application of the writing skills and lack opportunities for students to independently write each genre. There are ample opportunities for narrative and informational writing, but there was little evidence found of opinion writing. In addition, students are not explicitly taught new writing skills, but rather, they respond to reading. There is not allotted time for the writing tasks included in Interactive Read-Aloud lesson plans or the Suggested Projects for text sets.
Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
Materials provide some opportunities across the school year for students to learn and practice different genres/modes/types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards; however, materials lack explicit instruction in each genre. For example:
In Months 1-2, the students participate in an Independent Writing task after reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. The students form opinions about how the main character feels on her first day of school. Students discuss ways to make Sarah feel less nervous, and the teacher creates a list of what the students might say to Sarah to help her feel better. The students then “draw a picture of themselves speaking to Sarah.” Then they add a speech bubble containing a few written words that show what they might “say to Sarah to make her jitters go away.”
In Months 5-6, the students participate in an Independent Writing task after reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, That’s Good! That’s Bad! by Margery Cuyler. The students draw a picture of a boy meeting another animal, and then they write a sentence to clarify what is happening in the picture.
In the middle of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, The Hungry Fly by Hannah Cales. During the Shared Writing activity, the teacher “works with children to complete a chart naming the predators and prey from the book.” It is unclear whether or not the students are writing on their own chart or if the teacher is doing the writing. The teacher “can also revisit the prepositional phrases from the book” by having the students note where the fly was when “she saw each predator.”
At the end of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, Old to New by Jena Croxford. During the Independent Writing Task the students “write or draw the steps for turning a piece of trash into treasure.”
Different genres/modes/types of writing are not distributed throughout the school year. Materials lack opportunities to engage in opinion writing. Where appropriate, writing opportunities are connected to texts and/or text sets. For example:
Students have limited opportunities to engage in opinion writing.
In Months 1-2, the students form opinions after listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud, Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest. During the Independent Writing task, the students draw a picture and write sentences to explain why they would like to be friends with one of the characters. The example writing includes a detail from the text for the explanation.
In Months 9-10, the students form an opinion about characters after reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. After folding a piece of paper for the Independent Writing task, the students write a sentence about a character that “Grace likes to play.” On the other half of the paper, they write about a character that they like to play. The students illustrate their work and “share their drawings with a writing partner.”
Near the end of the year, the students participate in an Interactive Writing activity after reading the Shared Reading text, The Three Billy Goats Gruff: A Tale from Norway by Karl Larson. The students explain what they would say to the troll to change his bullying behavior. The teacher records the student input in a letter format, and students sign their name to the finished letter.
Students have opportunities to engage in informative/explanatory writing.
In Months 1-2, the students participate in a Shared Writing after the teacher reads the Interactive Read-Aloud, Max and the Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper. The students discuss what they know about the moon cycle while the teacher records their ideas. Then the students share questions they have about the moon and the teacher gathers science resources from the library or online to answer the children’s questions.
In Months 5-6, after listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud, What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins, students participate in Independent Writing. Students write and draw pictures of how one of the animals in the book is threatened and how the animal protects itself.
Near the end of the year, students participate in a Field Trip/Shared Writing activity after reading the Shared Reading text, Garden Helpers by Charlotte Rose. The students and teacher take a brief field trip outside to observe nature. Students write about what they observed outside. The teacher writes while the students share their observations.
Students have opportunities to engage in narrative writing.
In Months 1-2, the students participate in a Shared Writing activity after listening to the Interactive Read-Aloud, The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway. With student input, the teacher builds a story map, and the students draw pictures of the events.
In the Months 7-8, the students participate in a Shared Writing task after reading the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert. After a discussion, the teacher defines a main event. The students provide some ideas about the main events in the story, and the teacher lists what they come up with on a chart. Then with the children’s input, the teacher creates a timeline showing the sequence of the main events in the story on a chart.
At the end of the year, the students participate in a Shared Writing task after they listen to the Shared Reading text, The Donkey and the Farmer: An Aesop Fable retold by Marta Magellan. The class rewrites a part of the story from the perspective of the donkey. The teacher does the writing with the input of the students.
Indicator 1K
Materials include regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria of Indicator 1k.
Students have opportunities across the school year to practice writing, but lack opportunities to learn and apply writing using evidence from the text(s). The majority of writing tasks include students supporting their opinions with personal experience, as opposed to supporting opinions with evidence from the text. The writing tasks are embedded within the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading texts; however, the lessons include writing responses to the texts and do not have specific writing instructions that build in complexity over the course of the school year. The tasks are similar from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. For most of the Shared and Interactive Writing sessions, the teacher completes the writing while students contribute ideas through discussion.
Materials do not provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Writing tasks do not include guidance for the teacher to provide explicit instruction. For example:
In Months 3-4, the students listen to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale From Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlin. The students participate in a Shared Writing task. The teacher points out interesting expressions the main characters use in the story. The example, which is written by the teacher, shows that the expressions are written in the text, rather than facial expressions. With student input, the teacher records those expressions on chart paper. The students do not write during this task.
In Months 7-8, the students listen to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, The Silver Button by Bob Graham. Then students participate in a Shared Writing task. On chart paper, the teacher writes what the students notice about the author’s writing and illustrations. The students reread the noticings and volunteers are invited to add illustrations.
At the beginning of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, Home Sweet Home by Stephen Krensky. The students participate in a Shared Writing. Students decide what Turtle wants to say to the other characters. The teacher writes the letter to the other characters using the responses from the students. The students do not write, and they do not use evidence from the text during this activity.
At the end of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text The Farmer and the Crow, by Byron Kent. The students participate in an Interactive Writing task. They talk about how the illustrations in the story help a reader understand a story better. Then the students write a few sentences about what they think of the illustrator and their drawings.
The majority of writing opportunities are not focused around students’ recall of information to develop opinions from reading closely and working with evidence from texts and sources. For example:
In Month 1-2, the students listen to the Interactive Read-Aloud, Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks. For the Independent Writing task, the students use two index cards to draw something on a clothesline that people could wash. On the second card, they draw an example of something that is impossible to wash. They write the names of the items on the card.
In Months 5-6, the students listen to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett. The students participate in the Independent Writing task focused on writing an opinion. Students decide whether animals should wear clothing or not, and provide one reason in their writing. Students illustrate their writing.
In Months 9-10, the students listen to the Interactive Read-Aloud text, Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. The students write an opinion as part of the Independent Writing task. They fold a piece of paper in half and write one thing the girl in the story likes to do. On the other side the student writes about something they like to play. There is no relationship between the two writings when the student writes the opinion.
In the middle of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, Zoom in and Out by Amanda Yskamp. The students participate in a Shared Writing task where they provide an opinion. The students are prompted to discuss what they did and did not like about the book. Then they work together to write a book recommendation. The example is written by the teacher.
At the end of the year, it is suggested that the teacher and students read the Shared Reading text, The Farmer and the Crow by Byron Kent. Afterwards, the students participate in an Interactive Writing task. The teacher prompts the students to discuss the illustrations in the text. The teacher works with the students to compose sentences expressing opinions about the illustrator and the illustrations.
Indicator 1L
Materials include explicit instruction of the grade-level grammar and usage standards, with opportunities for application in context.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1l.
The materials include limited explicit instruction in grammar standards. There was no evidence for the explicit instruction in teacher materials for multiple standards. Materials include limited opportunities for students to demonstrate the application of skills in context, including limited opportunities for authentic application to student writing.
Materials do not include explicit instruction of all grammar and conventions standards for the grade level.
Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource, page 180, the teacher instructs students on how to write the letter h. Students practice writing it in the air and then writing it on paper.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Prompting Guide, Part 1, Verbal Path, Tab 25, Formation of Letters, this tab provides the language teachers can use to teach students how to form both lowercase and uppercase letters. For example, for the lowercase letter a, the teacher says, “Pull back, around, up, and down.”
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Knowledge Concept 13, page 191, Recognize Uppercase and Lowercase Letters, students play Concentration, matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, Word Study, Lesson Folders, Level First Grade, Word Study Cards, Letter Knowledge, Card 6, Interactive Writing, when a student is making a letter, the teacher should mention that the letter has a long stick, a short stick, or no stick.
Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
No evidence found
Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop).
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource page 390, the teacher says the word cat and then asks students how to make cats. The teacher says you can add -s to make cats. The teacher goes through more words and then tells students that these words are plural and they mean more than one.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 3, page 389, the students sort singular nouns and plural nouns.
Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their, anyone, everything).
No evidence found
Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 5, page 397, Recognize and Use the Ending -ing When Forming the Present Participle of a Verb, the teacher discusses the difference between “I can read” and “I am reading” with students.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, Word Study, Lesson Folders, Level First Grade, Word Study Cards, Word Study 6, the teacher displays the pocket chart cards for today and yesterday. The teacher should put walk and walked in the correct places and continue with other verbs.
Use frequently occurring adjectives.
No evidence found
Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
No evidence found
Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).
No evidence found
Use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
No evidence found
Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.
No evidence found
Capitalize dates and names of people.
No evidence found
Use end punctuation for sentences.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Section 2: Literacy Analysis, page 217, the teacher talks to students about the purpose of an author using different punctuation. The examples for exclamation marks and question marks are written on an anchor chart.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Early Literacy Concept 4, page 91, Understand the Concept of a Sentence, the teacher has students work in partners to create sentences using word cards and “remind[s] them of... ending punctuation.”
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 216, the goal of this lesson is for students to notice how writers use punctuation in interesting ways to communicate meaning.
Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
No evidence found
Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Solving Actions Concept 1, page 423, Recognize and Read Known Words Quickly, the teacher has students play the game “Follow the Path”, where they read words quickly and review a range of high-frequency words.
In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words, pg. 349-352, students practice reading, making, and writing high-frequency words during Apply. Words could include: from, came, have.
Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Guide, online resource page 449, students practice making words based on other words they know. The teacher has one student write a word that the student knows, and the second student makes a new word on the other side of the page by changing a letter at the beginning of the word to make a new word.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Guided Reading Card, Level G, Two Ways to Play, page 4, in “Phonics/Letter and Word Work,” the teacher directs the students to write CVC words. For example, the teacher says the word fun slowly and then has the students say it. The teacher says the following, “What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word fun? What letter stands for the sound /f/? Write the letter f in the first box.”
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Solving Actions Concept 2, page 427, the teacher explains that students are going to think about the sounds in the words and that knowing these sounds will help them read the text Six Little Ducks.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, Word Study, Lesson Folders, Level First Grade, Word Study Card, Word Solving Action 2, the teacher substitutes a word students will not know for a word in the text and have the children write the word.
Materials include limited authentic opportunities for students to demonstrate application of skills in context, including applying grammar and convention skills to writing. For example:
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Guide, online resource, page 394, the teacher tells students they are going to learn more about making words plural. The teacher writes the word beach on the paper and then adds -es to create the word beaches. Both times students read the word with the students. The teacher explains that when you say the word beaches, you mean more than one. The teacher does this same procedure with the words dish, bus, box, and quiz.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Section 2: Literacy Analysis, page 217, in “Section Share”, the students identify if they read a story with interesting punctuation in it. The teacher asks students to share how the author used punctuation in an interesting way.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Guided Reading Card, Level E, Brrr!, page 4, in the section titled “Writing About Reading” (an optional activity), the teacher and students talk about the character in the story. The teacher then dictates one to three sentences about the character. Students should be able to write words they know quickly. For other words, students say them slowly, listen for easy-to-hear sounds, and write letters that represent them.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Early Literacy Concepts Concept 3, page 90, students engage in independent writing where they are encouraged to form complete sentences after learning about the concept of complete sentences.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Knowledge Concept 6, page 166, the teacher engages with students during independent writing conferences about noticing the features of letters as they make them after their lesson on letter formation.
Indicator 1M
Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria of Indicator 1m.
The materials do not provide teacher guidance for outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. Vocabulary goals are included within the daily materials; however, only some of the terms listed in the lesson goals are mentioned or taught in the lesson. Because many text sets are not focused on a topic, text sets contain books with unrelated vocabulary; therefore vocabulary is not repeated across multiple texts. The materials lack a standard routine or protocol to teach vocabulary throughout the year. Some vocabulary lessons focus more on sight reading skills than meaning of words and tasks usually do not use the vocabulary words. At the First Grade level, the Fountas and Pinnell materials place importance on the vocabulary “behaviors and understandings to notice, teach, and support” students to “recognize and use concept words (e.g. color names, number words, days of the week, months of the year, seasons), recognize and talk about the fact that words can be related in many ways (sound, spelling, category), recognize and use synonyms,....and use antonyms”. In the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum, Grades PK-8, it is stated that “Expanding vocabulary means developing categories of words: labels, concept words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and all parts of speech.” There were very few, if any, of these lessons located in the First Grade materials.
Materials do not provide teacher guidance outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
In the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study section the primary focuses for teaching and learning vocabulary development are Concept Words taught in Kindergarten, as well as Related Words. With Related Words, listed goals include recognizing and talking about the different ways words are related to each other through sound, spelling, and category, as well as understanding through the use of synonyms and antonyms.
The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum lists grade-level vocabulary goals for a school year. During the Reread and Revisit the Text section in each Interactive Read-Aloud lesson, the teacher may choose to discuss one or two vocabulary words listed for meaning or context. A Supporting English Learners section appears in the sidebars to support both the Interactive Read-Aloud and Shared Reading lessons. The sidebars support a student’s understanding of common expressions and important vocabulary necessary to build comprehension of texts.
The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum: Grades PreK-8 contains Selecting Texts characteristics for each grade level. The Selecting Texts characteristics are divided into parts of the text. For Interactive Read-Aloud and Literature Discussion, Shared and Performance Reading, and Guided Reading, there are sections to support Vocabulary development.
Vocabulary is repeated in contexts (before texts, in texts) or across multiple texts. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
The Interactive Read-Aloud text set, “The Importance of Friendship” contains five texts. The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate includes vocabulary such as magician, assistant, entrance, subway, glittering, tangle, and frolic. Only the words entrance, assistant, and magician are discussed after the reading of the text. Chester’s Way by Kevin Henkes lists vocabulary words as croquet, miniature, and fierce-looking. The lesson does not provide any explicit instruction guidelines for any of these words. There are two expressions, “two peas in a pod” and “mind of his own” discussed after rereading the text. Wallace’s Lists by Barbara Bottner and Gerald Kruglik lists vocabulary words such as dumbfounded, thunderstorms, hailstorms, blizzards, and automatically. Dumbfounded and automatically are the only words discussed by the teacher. The students pay attention to pictures for word meanings. None of the words listed in the individual lessons are repeated or retaught in the text set.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text set, “Living and Working Together: Community” contains five stories. The nonfiction story Be My Neighbor by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko discusses the vocabulary word habits, customs, refer, and responsibility in the lesson and students learn the meaning of the word public transportation by thinking of the definitions of the words separately. A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham is a fiction text and students are asked, “What does Heaven make you think of?” The teacher also asks what the word nested makes the students think of and what they think a donation is, but there is no mention of explaining its meaning to the class. In the lesson for the fiction story, Blackout by John Rocco, the students are asked before reading, “What do you think a blackout is?” and then the teacher proceeds to explain its definition. The teacher also discusses with the class what huddle and normal mean. There are no vocabulary words repeated within the context of this text set.
One of the Shared Read-Aloud stories that are meant to be additional resources for the Interactive Read-Aloud text set, “Living and Working Together: Community” is the non-fiction text, Captain Brock, Firefighter by Andrea Delbanco. There is a question that mentions how wearing all the fire gear feels like an oven mitt and the teacher is prompted to clarify the meaning of ‘oven mitt’, if necessary. Other words such as ‘firehouse’ and ‘firefighter’ are talked about and defined, pointing out they’re compound words. No vocabulary words within this text set or suggested Shared Reading stories are revisited.
Attention is not paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and to high value academic words. For example:
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, Animals Black and White by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes, includes the vocabulary: rare, herd, gallop, gracefully, predators, flippers, rookery, and misty. The teacher revisits and discusses the words because of the alliterative phrasing, such as: gallop gracefully and protection from predators. The focus of the discussion is not about the meaning and academic value within the text.
The Interactive Read-Aloud text, Going Places by Peter Reynolds and Paul Reynolds, includes the vocabulary: enviously, peered, contraption, replica, and contestants. It also includes goals for teaching academic vocabulary: fiction, beginning, problem, and solution. The words are not introduced prior to reading, but during the discussion the students answer, “It says the rest of the class watched enviously as Rafael walked back to his seat. What does enviously mean?” After the teacher reads pages 37-38, the teacher says, “That’s an interesting contraption.” There is no further discussion or explicit instruction on these two words. The academic language is used throughout the discussion, but the teacher uses the words in questions and as embedded language.
In the Shared Reading text, Clippity Clop by Susan A. Layne, the vocabulary words raced and dashed are included. The teacher defines these words and the meaning, and also includes the word ran. No other words are discussed.
In the Shared Reading text, Old to New by Jena Croxford, the lesson goals include “using academic language to talk about the text: e.g., author, photographer, flaps, heading, topic.” The vocabulary is embedded in the discussion questions, but not explicitly taught. Students answer the questions, “How do the photographs, labels, and captions help us? Let’s read the headings together. How do these headings help us?” Sample answers include, “They add information and help us understand what is in the main text. They tell us what each section is about.”
Criterion 1.3: Tasks and Questions: Foundational Skills Development K-2
Materials in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language targeted to support foundational reading development are aligned to the standards.
The Fountas and Pinnell materials contain four lessons with explicit instruction for Grade 1 print concepts. The program cites some general research; however, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the teaching of phonological skills or for the hierarchy in which the skills are presented. Although there are a variety of practice activities, there are only 11 phonological awareness lessons. Daily phonological awareness practice opportunities for students are not provided. Materials contain phonological awareness lesson structures that provide teachers with the opportunity to explicitly teach phonological awareness; however, There are missed opportunities for students to receive explicit instruction in distinguishing long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. The Fountas and Pinnell materials include lessons that provide the teachers with instruction and repeated modeling of grade-level phonics standards. However, foundational skills lessons are recommended for 10 minutes a day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive daily explicit instruction to work towards mastery of foundational skills. While in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 cites studies supporting explicit teaching of phonics skills, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the sequence of phonics. Materials contain a Master Lesson Guide which explains the order in which phonics lessons should be taught. Students decode phonetically based words during 10 Spelling Patterns lessons, 10 Word Structure lessons, and 18 Word-Solving Actions lessons. Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, Word Structure, and Word-Solving Actions lessons do not occur daily, therefore, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. Lessons provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing. The materials contain eight High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all eight lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest the teacher repeat the lesson several times with new words selected by the teacher. The program does not specify an exact sequence of high-frequency word instruction. Materials do not include resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. The materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, Grade 1 for students to read during Shared Reading in lessons of the Nine Areas of Learning about Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study. Poems are suggested in each lesson, but the poems are not aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and do not consistently provide practice of the decodable element from the lesson. There are curriculum-based assessment protocols provided in the online resources, which are directly correlated to the nine areas of literacy instruction included in the program. However, there are missed opportunities for assessments to provide the teacher with instructional guidance about the next steps for all students.
Indicator 1N
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.
Indicator 1N.i
Explicit instruction in phonological awareness (K-1) and phonics (K-2).
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1n.i.
Materials contain phonological awareness lesson structures that provide teachers with the opportunity to explicitly teach phonological awareness. Lessons start with Teach, which is a whole-class instruction on the phonological concept. The Teach section provides the teacher with examples for instruction in blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes. There are missed opportunities for students to receive explicit instruction in distinguishing long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. The Fountas & Pinnell materials include lessons that provide the teachers with instruction and repeated modeling of grade-level phonics standards. However, foundational skills lessons are recommended for 10 minutes a day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive daily explicit instruction to work towards mastery of foundational skills.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Materials provide the teacher with systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. However, materials recommend that foundational skills lessons occur for 10 minutes each day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive explicit instruction to work towards mastery of newly learned foundational skills.
Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
No evidence was found.
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Word Solving Actions Card 1, Extend Learning, the teacher includes words with ending digraphs and ending consonant blends.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Sound Relationships Concept 7, Recognize and Say Consonant Clusters That Blend Two or Three Consonant Sounds (Onsets), page 229, the teacher says, “You have been learning a lot about consonants and the sounds that they stand for.” They show a picture of a tree and have students say the word with them. “What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? You hear /t/. What sound do you hear next in tree?”
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 7, page 122, the teacher shows three picture cards (cat, pan, van). The teacher asks, “How are these three words alike? They sound the same in the middle, /a/. Students view a picture of a bug. The teacher asks, “What sound do you hear in the middle?”
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness Lesson 11, page 138, the teacher shows a picture of a globe and tells students the sounds heard in the word, raising one finger for each sound heard. The teacher then guides students to say the sounds they hear in the word nest. The students then practice doing this with other words with four or five sounds.
Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade level standards.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Introduction, Phonological Awareness, page 6, the Phoneme Chart outlines the forty-four phonemes.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource, Phonological Awareness Lesson 7, page 122, the teacher is given the example words pan, van, soap, can, cube, fan, mop, and bed.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Phonological Awareness Lesson 8, page 126, the teacher is given word cards for the activity, including broom, ring, tooth, and bell.
Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. However, materials recommend that foundational skills lessons occur for 10 minutes each day, which may not provide sufficient time for students to receive explicit instruction to work towards mastery of newly learned foundational skills.
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships, Lesson 19, page 278, the teacher writes the word she and asks students to notice what sound they hear beginning and what letters that sound is represented by. The teacher repeats with /th/.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Sound Relationships Concept 20, Recognize and Use Consonant Digraphs at the End of a Word, page 281, the teacher writes fish on chart paper and asks, “What do you notice about the letters at the end of the word fish?...Fish sounds like /sh/ at the end of the word. How many sounds do you hear in /sh/? One sound. How many letters stand for the sound /sh/? Two letters.”
Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Spelling Patterns Lesson 1, page 292, the teacher writes down words with common spelling patterns that students would know. The group reads the words together. The students read a list of words with different patterns including CVC, words containing vowel /i/, and common part or pattern words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 2, Recognize and Use The CVC Pattern, page 298, during Shared Reading of “Little Pup, Little Pup,” the teacher has students use highlighter tape to mark down words that contain the CVC spelling pattern.
Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships Lesson 14, page 258, the teacher shows words with VCe patterns with long /a/ and long /o/ and asks students what they notice about the words. Students are guided to notice the VCe pattern and that the first vowel in the word makes a long sound. Students then sort other words according to the pattern in the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 18, page 274, the teacher displays words in the pocket chart with long and short e words. The words at the top are bell and tree. The students say each word with the teacher, so all students hear the words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Spelling Patterns Lesson 9, page 324, the teacher places the cards for gate, make, and name at the top of the three columns. The teacher asks students to identify what patterns they notice in the words. The teacher then holds up different name cards with those patterns and the teacher places the word under the word in that column.
Know that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource, Word Structures Lesson 1, page 382, the teacher says the word hat. Now the teacher has students listen to the word mother. The teacher says that hat has one syllable and mother has two. The teacher has students clap the syllables for words fish, finish, play, ship, however, absent, boat, basket, thick, garden, picnic, and bread. The teacher asks students what they notice about the words and guides them to notice that there is a vowel in every syllable.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Word Structure Card 1, Teach, the teacher places some words in a pocket chart (fish, play, garden, basket, and picnic). Have the students discuss anything they notice about the words (example: every syllable has a vowel).
Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Word Structure Lesson 1, page 384, the teacher reads the story Little Raindrops. The teacher has students clap two-syllable words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 2, Identify Syllables in One- or Two-Syllable Words, page 385, the teacher asks students to clap the parts they hear in each word. The teacher reads the words with students as they clap words like flower, birthday, and painting.
Read words with inflectional endings.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 3, Recognize and Use Plurals That Add -s, page 389, the teacher says the word cat to the class. Cat means “one cat”. What about more than one cat? How do you say a plural for cat?”
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Lesson 4, page 394, the teacher writes words ending in ch, sh, z, s, and x on the board and guides students to figure the principle of the lesson, that words that end in these letters have -es added to make them plural.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Word Structure Lesson 5, page 398, the teacher writes, “I can read” on one line and “I am” on the other. The teacher asks the students what they would write to make the sentence sound correct. The teacher explains that they could say, “I am reading.” Then the teacher asks what the students notice about the word reading.
Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Letter Knowledge Lesson 15, page 200, the teacher uses magnetic letters to display the alphabet and helps students to identify which letters are consonants and which are vowels.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 19, page 279, students see the word fish on chart paper. The teacher asks, “What is this word?” Students say the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 2, page 386, the teacher reads the remaining words in the pocket chart with 1 or 2 syllables, read, night, coat, flower, birthday, and painting for students to hear.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Word Structure Lesson 5, page 399, in the “Apply” section of the lesson, the students read the sentences with “I am” in them and adds words with -ing, then reads the sentences.
Indicator 1N.ii
Phonological awareness based on a research-based continuum (K-1).
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1n.ii.
Materials contain a hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills. The hierarchy is separated into early, middle, and late Grade 1. The Master Lesson Guide shows the order phonological awareness should be taught. The program cites some general research; however, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the teaching of phonological skills or for the hierarchy in which the skills are presented. Although there are a variety of practice activities, there are only 11 phonological awareness lessons. Daily phonological awareness practice opportunities for students are not provided. There are missed opportunities for students to distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Materials have a sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students’ application of the skills.
In Grade One, Online Suggested Sequence of Phonics Lessons, page 55, suggests that the teacher complete Phonological Awareness lessons 7-11 and 47-51.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Suggested Sequence of Phonics Lessons, page 55, the guide suggests that the teacher complete Phonological Awareness lessons 1-6, which focus on hearing and saying rhyming words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Table of Contents, the Table of Contents outlines the order of the 11 Phonological Awareness lessons
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Nine Areas of Learning, page 46, the guide outlines the early, middle, and late development of Phonological Awareness skills.
Materials do not contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, page 95, the guide states that phonological awareness is the ability to identify and make rhymes, hear syllables in words, hear the parts of words, and hear individual sounds in words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, page 48, the guide identifies that skills are sequenced based on what skills students should learn in the early, middle and late parts of the year.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness, page 6, the guide outlines the development of phonological awareness
Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Phonological Awareness Lesson 1, page 98, the teacher places cards with pictures of a shell and a bell in the pocket chart and asks students to name them. Then the teacher asks what students notice about the words. The teacher explains that they rhyme. The teacher adds other words to the list, and students name them.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource, Phonological Awareness Lesson 3, page 106, the teacher shows students a set of picture cards including pictures of a bear and a bus. The teacher says the word bus. The teacher then asks what students notice about the word bus. Then the teacher tells students they are going to focus on the beginning sound in words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, page iv, of the eleven phonological awareness activities, the vast majority of them (eight) use the instructional procedure of “Hear and Say”, where the teacher says words that match the target skill. Students search for phonological patterns and articulate the target principle, then work with words to apply the principle.
There are opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resource, Phonological Awareness Lesson 4, page 111, in the “Apply” section, students play a sorting game with a peer. The teacher gives students a three-way sort. The students pick a card, say the word, and then say the ending sound. Then the student puts it in the right column.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Phonological Awareness Lesson 5, page 116, in the independent writing activity, the students are encouraged to use known words to spell words they want to write by changing the first sound and thinking about what letters stand for that sound.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, online resources, Phonological Awareness Lesson 7, page 122, students sort pictures of a pan, a van, a bar of soap, a can, a cube, a mop, and a bed, identifying words by the middle sound in the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Contents, page iv, there are eleven lessons listed under phonological awareness.
Materials provide opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern.
Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
No evidence was found.
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 8, page 126, the students blend words the teacher states in onset and rime format. For example, the teacher says /b/ /ell/. Students say the two parts: bell.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 10, page 134, the students play a game together where one student takes a word picture from a pile of cards and pronounces the first and last part of the word that represents the picture. The partner blends the parts together and says the word smoothly.
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Hear, Say, and Write, Sound and Letter Boxes, page 38, using the sound boxes in Ready Resources, the teacher has students slowly say a word and slide a marker into the box for each sound.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 7, page 122, the teacher shows three picture cards (cat, pan, van). The teacher asks, “How are these three words alike? They sound the same in the middle, /a/. Students view a picture of a bug. The teacher asks, “What sound do you hear in the middle?”
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 9, page 130, the teacher says several words and students identify the first sound and the last sound of the word.
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 11, page 138, in Teach, students practice hearing and saying the sounds in order for the following picture cards: clap, rainbow.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 11, page 139, in Apply, it says “have partners take turns showing a picture card, slowly saying the word that the picture represents, and putting fingers in the air as they hear each sound. Check a child’s understanding by asking: What sounds do you hear in this word?”
Indicator 1N.iii
Phonics demonstrated with a research-based progression of skills (K-2).
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1n.iii.
Materials contain a master lesson guide which includes a suggested sequence for phonics lessons. While Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 cites studies supporting explicit teaching of phonics skills, the program does not present a research-based or evidence-based explanation for the sequence of phonics. Students have practice in listening, speaking, writing, and reading the phonics skills they are learning through a variety of activities. The Fountas & Pinnell materials contain opportunities for students to decode letter sounds during 21 Letter-Sound Relationships lessons. Students decode phonetically based words during 10 Spelling Patterns lessons, 10 Word Structure lessons, and 18 Word-Solving Actions lessons. Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, Word Structure, and Word-Solving Actions lessons do not occur daily, therefore, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. The materials do not contain a deliberate, systematic review of previously introduced grade-level phonics skills. The Fountas & Pinnell materials contain some opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and write words based on phonics patterns. Encoding opportunities are not provided daily. Opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode are provided during Teach and Apply within lessons. Lessons provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Lessons provide students with opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words.
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Contents, page vi, there are two lessons focused on consonant digraphs that teach /sh/ and /th/ at the beginning and end of words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Letter-Sound Relationships 19, page 278, the teacher tells students that they are going to learn about consonants. The teacher explains how letters make certain sounds. The teacher writes the word she on chart paper. The teacher highlights /sh/ and explains that the two letters together make one sound.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Sound Relationships Concept 20, Recognize and Use Consonant Digraphs at the End of a Word, page 281, the teacher writes the word fish on chart paper and asks, “What do you notice about the letters at the end of the word fish? Fish sounds like /sh/ at the end of the word. How many sounds do you hear in /sh/? One sound. How many letters stand for the sound /sh/? Two letters.”
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships, Card LSR 19, the teacher writes sh and th on the board. Students identify that it is one sound. Then they categorize the following words on the chart: ship, shell, shop, think, this, three, them. (The term digraphs is not used).
Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 2, Recognize and Use The CVC Pattern, page 298, during Shared Reading of “Little Pup, Little Pup,” students use highlighter tape to mark down words that contain the CVC spelling pattern.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Word Solving Actions, Card WSA2, the teacher shows a poem and covers a few words. The students predict what the word should be. Then they look at the word and say it sound by sound to see if they were correct.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 2, page 297, students use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or lowercase letter cards to make words with a variety of CVC spelling patterns. Students write each word on a list sheet.
Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study, Online Resources, Grade One Resource, Letter-Sound Relationships Activity 14, page 258, the teacher places the words came and ate in the columns on the pocket chart. Students read the words with the teacher. The teacher prompts the students to identify what letters come before the e.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Contents, page vi, there are two lessons focused on teaching final -e for representing long vowel sounds.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships, Card LSR 13, the teacher gives students a set of word cards to arrange on the pocket chart under vowel cards A, E, I, O, U: e.g., rain, make, shade, feet, clean, seat, tight, kite, pie, so, boat, road, blue, mule, due.
Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Word Structure, Card WS1, using a pocket chart, the teacher displays some one- and two-syllable words such as basket, garden, and picnic. The students discuss what they notice about the words, such as that there is a vowel in every syllable.
Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Word Structure 2, page 386, the students are told they are going to continue to practice clapping syllables with one- and two-syllable words. The teacher starts with the examples read and flower. The teacher will help students notice that they clap one for read and twice for flower.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 1, page 382, the teacher places the word cards (fish, play, boat) in one column and another set of words (basket, garden, picnic) in a second column. The teacher and the students say and clap the syllables. The teacher cuts the two-syllable word cards in half and explains to the students that the cut in each syllable word divides the word into syllables.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Folders, Grade 1, Letter Sound Relationships, Card WS2, Independent Writing, the teacher prompts students to say the syllables of a word to help them write the letters that represent the sounds.
Read words with inflectional endings.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 3, Recognize and Use Plurals That Add -s, page 389, the teacher says the word cat to the class. Cat means “one cat”. What about more than one cat? How do you say a plural for cat?”
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study, Online Resources, Grade 1, Word Structure 6, page 402, the teacher has cards with “Today I….” and “Yesterday I…” in the pocket chart. The teacher asks students what they notice about the words and talks about how -ed shows that something has already happened.
Lessons provide students with opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 6, Recognize and Use More Common Phonograms with a VC Pattern, page 312, the students take turns choosing a pattern and reading the words in the column.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Spelling Patterns 9, page 324, the teacher has students work with the teacher to sort words into columns with VCe patterns, under the columns gate, make, and name. Students read all of the words once they are placed in the right columns.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resource, Grade One Spelling Patterns 10, page 330, during the apply activity, students read words with -ell and -ill letter pattern words.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words in a sentence.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Letter -Sound Relationships 8, page 234, the teacher reads the poem “Traffic Safety” with students. The poem has blends of tr, st, and gr.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Letter Sound Relationships 21, page 288, the students and teacher read the story, “Be My Neighbor” and highlight the words that have digraphs in them.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Literacy Continuum A Tool for Assessment, Planning, and Teaching Level PreK-8, Level J, Guided Reading, Selecting Goals Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support, Solving Words, Reading words, page 467, students solve words rapidly while processing continuous text with minimum self-correction.
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Letter-Sound Relationships 7, page 232, in the interactive writing section, the teacher has the students write a word with a consonant cluster at the beginning of the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Contents, page vii, five lessons focus on word families. Students sort words by the word family it belongs to in all five of these lessons.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 4, Recognize and Use Phonograms: -ap, -ay, page 305, the students use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or lowercase letter cards to make words with the spelling patterns -ap and -ay.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 6, Recognize and Use More Common Phonograms with a VC Pattern, page 312, the students say and sort the words in envelope 1 into four categories on their desk and then write the words on a four-way sort.
Materials contain some methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade level phonics.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Resource Word Structure 6, page 403, students sort words to match verbs with their past tense.
Generative Lesson plans contain a structure for teachers to present similar content or concepts to teach a variety of spelling patterns. The intention is not for systematic, explicit review of phonics skills with a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics. For example, in Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 7, pg. 229, the generative lesson suggestion is:
A generative lesson has a simple structure that you can use to present similar content and concepts. Use this lesson structure to teach a variety of consonant clusters.
Materials delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward application of skills.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, pages 48-49, there is A Suggested Sequence for Phonics Lessons. This explains how phonics lessons are organized by the nine areas of learning. On pages 50-75, there is a MASTER LESSON GUIDE Suggest Sequence for Phonics Lessons. This contains the Lesson Number, the Lesson Title, Teaching Suggestions for Extending Learning, and Teacher Notes.
Materials have an explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. Research is not cited for the explanation.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, page 1, the guide states that phonics is more than learning letters and sounds. The guide states that the lessons have a system of phonics, spelling, and word study to help students learn to read.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, page 9, the guide states that all nine areas are essential in students learning to read and write: Early Literacy Concepts, Phonological Awareness, Letter Knowledge, Letter-sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, High-Frequency words, Word Meaning/Vocabulary, Word Structures, and Word-Solving Actions.
Materials provide some opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Grade One Resource Letter-Sounds Relationships 21, page 286, students work to identify words in columns headed with the words cat and city. Then the teacher reads the words and the teacher helps students to place the words in columns under either cat or city. The word list is come, circus, can, celery, cut, and cent.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Literacy Continuum, A Tool for Assessment, Planning, and Teaching Level PreK-8, Level J, Guided Reading, Selecting Goals Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support, Planning for Letter and Word Work After Guided Reading, Examples, page 471, students solve words using letter-sound analysis from left to right. (n-o-th-i-ng)
Indicator 1N.iv
Decode and encode common and additional vowel teams (Grade 2).
Indicator 1O
Materials, questions, and tasks provide explicit instruction for and regular practice to address the acquisition of print concepts, including alphabetic knowledge, directionality, and function (K-1), structures, and features of text (1-2).
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1o.
The Fountas & Pinnell materials contain four lessons with explicit instruction for Grade 1 print concepts. Those lessons are in the Early Learning Concepts and Letter Knowledge lessons. Early Learning Concepts are taught until #56 of the Master Lesson Guide. Therefore, print concepts are not reviewed and practiced after #56 when using Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1. The Fountas & Pinnell materials contain opportunities for explicit instruction of text structures and features of text; however, there are missed opportunities for students to learn some text structures such as main idea and details, compare and contrast, and cause and effect. The Shared Reading lessons include some general guidance for teaching print concepts, such as, “point crisply under each letter and word with the pointer,” but do not include explicit and systematic instruction in print concepts.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Materials include some lessons and tasks/questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g., recognize features of a sentence).
Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Early Literacy Concepts Lesson 3, pg. 88, the teacher shows students how to understand the concept of a sentence. The teacher models complete and incomplete sentences using students’ names.
In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Early Literacy Concepts Lesson 4, pgs. 91-94, the students work together to make sentences using the word cards. Students read aloud each sentence they constructed to make sure the group of words makes sense. Students select four sentences to write on lined sheets.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 398, the teacher tells students that when you get to a sentence that has a period, your voice goes down and comes to a full stop when you are reading.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 400, the teacher asks what the students notice at the end of the sentence. The teacher asks students to listen to how the teacher’s voice changes when they read a sentence with a question mark at the end of the sentence. The teacher has the students read the question as they write it.
Students have some opportunities to identify text structures (e.g., main idea and details, sequence of events, problem and solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect).
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 313, the teacher reads the book Knuffle Bunny. The teacher works with students to identify the main idea and the problem that Trixie has. The students and teacher then work together to outline the events in the story and identify the solution to Trixie’s problem.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Literary Analysis: Thinking About Where Stories Take Place, Understanding Simple Plot: Problem and Solution, page 309, the teacher uses the book Leon and Bob to identify the problem and solution followed by doing the same with the books: I Am Invited to a Party! and Chrysanthemum.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Literary Analysis: Stories start with a problem and end with a solution, page 312, the teacher works with students to identify the problem Trixie has in Knuffle Bunny and leads them through the process of sequencing events.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Literary Analysis: When you tell about a story, tell who, where, and what happened, page 316, the teacher summarizes a familiar book and makes an anchor chart about things that students noticed when s/he talked about the story.
Materials include lessons and activities about text features (e.g., title, byline, headings, table of contents, glossary, pictures, illustrations).
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 266, the teacher explains that the big text at the top of the page is called a heading. The teacher then tells students that a heading can help them know what a book is about.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 314, the teacher asks students to identify what is going on in the illustration. The teacher reinforces that it looks like one boy is not being nice to another boy.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, page 367, the teacher tells students that illustrations can help show important information about a story. The teacher reads the page out loud from the story, “Let’s Get a Pup,” and asks students what Bob Grahm did with the illustrations to help them understand more about Dave the pup.
In Fountas & Pinnell The Reading Minilessons Book, Grade 1, Section 2, Umbrella 14, RML 1, RML 2, RML 3, pages 266-271- RML 1 is a minilesson about headings, RML 2 is a minilesson on the table of contents, and RML 3 is a minilesson on sidebars.
Indicator 1P
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.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1p.
The Fountas & Pinnell Grade 1 materials contain some opportunities for the teacher to explicitly instruct students to decode with automaticity and accuracy. The teacher explains the phonics concept in some lessons but does not model reading words with automaticity and accuracy before asking students to read the words. The materials contain some opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice during Teach and Apply. Materials do not include resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. Students do have opportunities to hear the teacher read some grade-level text during Shared Reading and Interactive Reading in Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1. The teacher reads aloud poetry from Sing a Song of Poetry. Students do not read text with a focus on fluent reading. While students read-aloud poetry with the teacher from Sing a Song of Poetry, the practice is not to build students’ skills in rate, accuracy, and expression. Students participate in the reading of poetry to practice decoding automaticity. The materials contain eight High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all eight lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest the teacher repeat the lesson several times with new words selected by the teacher. The program does not specify an exact sequence of high-frequency word instruction. In the Master Lesson Guide, Lesson #15 (High-Frequency Word Lesson 4) indicates the goal for Grade 1 is instant recognition of 100-150 high-frequency words. High-frequency lessons are not frequently addressed over the year, with lessons occurring in #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #69, and #70 of the Master Lesson Guide. Each lesson suggests using the Words to Know Instructional Procedure, which contains five steps, including explicit instruction by the teacher and opportunities for students to understand the principle.
Some opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read on-level text.
Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
During Shared Reading of the book Going on a Bear Hunt, the teacher introduces the books by telling students that they will be reading the book. During the second reading, the teacher reads with the students.
Fountas & Pinnell, Guided Reading Card, Levels E-J, each Guided Reading Card has three sections focused on understanding the text. These sections are called “Introducing the Text”, “Reading the Text”, and “Discussing and Revisiting the Text”. However, because students read text at their instructional level, the books read may not be on grade level.
Materials support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words over the course of the year.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Lesson 1, in the “Apply” section of the lesson, students read all of the CVCe words. They take turns using different patterns to sort words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Lesson 2, students use magnetic letters to build CVC words. Then they write the word next to the magnetic letters.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 8, each student sorts word cards with -an, -at, -ay. Each student reads the list of sorted words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 14, each student gets a set of word cards with a_e and o_e. Each student is to say and sort the words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 20, each student gets a set of word cards with -sh or -th. Each student reads the word cards.
Multiple opportunities are not provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy, rate, and expression in oral reading with on-level text and decodable words.
Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
In Fountas & Pinnell, Phonics, Guided Reading folder, “Chester’s Ballroom Ride”, the guide suggests that the teacher may want to demonstrate reading with phrasing at a good rate for students or a group of students.
Fountas & Pinnell, Prompting Guide 1, Maintaining Fluency, Tabs 17-20, focus on rate, pausing, phrasing, stress, intonation, and integration. There are teach, prompt, and reinforce sections for each area. Students read books at their instructional level, which may not be at grade level.
Materials do not include frequent opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements using grade-level text.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, during the guided reading of the story The Ant and The Grasshopper, the teacher is instructed that, when students make a mistake, the teacher should ask if that word made sense, sounds right, or looks right.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, during the guided reading story “Wind and Sun,” the teacher is prompted to make the reading sound interesting to prompt fluency and reinforce with reading it.
Fountas & Pinnell, Interactive Read-Aloud Collection Guide, Grade 1, Section 3: Strategies and Skills, Umbrella 3, RML 6-9, the topics of these lessons are “Put your words together, so it sounds like talking”, “Make your reading aloud interesting”, “Make your reading sound smooth”, and Read the talk the way the character said it”. The teacher uses interactive read-aloud texts to teach these lessons. Students may read from these texts during the lesson, but the books may not be grade-level texts.
Materials provide opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 2, students listen to the teacher read “The Little Red Hen” during the interactive read-aloud.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 21, students hear the teacher read the poem, “The Clever Hen” or “Dingle Dangle Scarecrow” from Sing a Song of Poetry.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, World Solving Actions 1, during the shared reading, the teacher and students read the story, I Had A Little Rooster.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word-Solving Actions 2, the students read Six Little Ducks with the teacher.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 2, students hear the teacher read the poem, “Two Cats of Kilkenny” from Sing a Song of Poetry.
Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, the Words to Know Instructional Routine is described with five steps:
1. Show a group of high-frequency words, reading each one while running your pointer finger under it, left to right.
2. Children look at each word to see if they recognize it.
3. Help children understand the principle.
4. Children work with high-frequency words to apply the principle.
5. Summarize the learning by restating the principle.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 1, page 334, the teacher states had and places had on the left side of the whiteboard with magnetic letters. The teacher discusses with students what letter is put first, second, and at the end of the word. Once the students talk about the word, the teacher writes the word without stopping, reminding students that there are some words they need to know how to read and write quickly.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 7 page 358, using the pocket chart cards and a pocket chart, the teacher displays a few words of three or more letters that the students know, such as make, come, look. Students read the words. The teacher adds two or three more words. The students work with the teacher to notice the pattern in words by demonstrating how to make it with magnetic letters.
Students have opportunities to practice and read irregularly spelled words in isolation.
Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 2, page 339, students play Concentration using high-frequency words they have learned. Students turn the card over, read the word, and then complete the same thing with the second card. If it is a match, they get the pair.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 5, pages 349-352, students practice reading, making, and writing high-frequency words during Apply. Words could include: from, came, have.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 8, pages 361-364, the lesson uses the following format, “What is this word? This word is ___. You read it together,” when teaching high-frequency words with three or more letters.
Materials include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress.
There are eight high-frequency lessons in the Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 book. On page 333, it states, “once children have learned forty or so words, you may want to expand your high-frequency word list.” The teacher is provided a list of 150 high-frequency words for Grade 1, but the program does not specify an exact sequence.
Indicator 1Q
Materials, questions, and tasks provide systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1q.
The Fountas & Pinnell Grade 1 materials contain instruction and practice in word analysis strategies during Letter-Sound Relationships, Word Structure, Word Solving Actions, and Spelling Patterns. The skills introduced are explicitly taught, and students are provided both guided and independent practice activities that include word sorts, games, using magnetic letters, poems, and other reading selections. Students have opportunities to hear and read high-frequency words in the context of sentences during Teach and/or Shared Reading of the High-Frequency Word lessons. The teacher models reading poems that contain high-frequency words from Sing a Song of Poetry, and students are encouraged to join the teacher after one or two repetitions. During Interactive Writing, there are various opportunities for students to write high-frequency words out of context to check their spelling on the word wall, but there is no systematic practice on writing high-frequency words in sentences. In some Independent Writing sections, the teacher encourages students to recall words they know by sight and write them quickly, checking them for accuracy against words posted on the word wall, but does not provide any systematic practice on writing that day’s high-frequency words in context. The materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, Grade 1 for students to read during Shared Reading in lessons of the Nine Areas of Learning about Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study. Poems are suggested in each lesson, but the poems are not aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and do not consistently provide practice of the decodable element from the lesson. Poetry can be used for repeated readings for the following reasons: expand oral language and/or help students notice print features such as letters, letter patterns, or words. The materials do not suggest when to reuse poems for repeated readings. The poems also include high-frequency words for students to read during Shared Reading in the High-Frequency Words and Word Structure Lessons. The decodable texts/poems align with the scope and sequence of the Master Lesson Guide. While there are poems for high-frequency word reading in decodable texts, there are a limited number of prepared lesson plans for repeated readings of the poems.
Materials provide limited support for students’ development learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g., spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, syllable and vowel relationship, decode two-syllable words, read words with inflectional endings) in connected text and tasks.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 14-15, these two lessons focus on final -e spelling for long vowel sounds. Other common team conventions for long vowel sounds are not explicitly taught. Students are asked to notice letters that make a long vowel sound during lessons about long vowel sounds.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 19-20, these two lessons focus on the spelling-sound correspondences for /sh/ and /th/ at the beginning and ends of words. No other common consonant digraphs are taught.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 20, students read the book “Puddles” with the teacher during interactive reading. Consonant digraphs are throughout the book. At the end of the story, students identify the digraphs that they read.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 1, the students play a game where they complete a two-way sort. The students pick up a card and read it aloud to a partner. The partner writes the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 2, students read the story The Hungry Fly. Students use highlighter tape to identify one- and two-syllable words in the story.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure Concept 2, the teacher asks students to clap the parts they hear in each word. The teacher reads the words with students as they clap words like flower, birthday, and painting.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 3, students choose a syllable card and clap the syllables in the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 6, in a two-way sort, students put words in two columns entitled “Today I…” and “Yesterday I….” Students then read the words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Structure 3-6, these lessons focus on reading words with the inflectional endings -s, -es, -ing, and -ed.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns Concept 2, during Shared Reading of the story “Little Pup, Little Pup,” students use highlighter tape to mark down words that contain the CVC spelling pattern.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 9, students read The Little Red Hen, which features VCe words. The teacher talks with students about VCe words after they read the story.
Materials provide some opportunities to read irregularly spelled words in connected text and tasks.
Recognize and read grade-level appropriate irregularly spelled words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 3, students read the poem “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider,” and students identify the high-frequency words.
During Shared Reading, the teacher can use other poems from Sing a Song of Poetry for students to read. Students can locate and identify one or two high-frequency words in the poem.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 1, during Shared Reading, students read “Sing a Song of Sixpence” with the teacher. Students locate one, two, or three high-frequency words using highlighter tape.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 4, during Shared Reading, students read the poem, “Polly, Put the Kettle on.” Students use highlighter tape to identify high-frequency words.
Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills while encoding (writing) in context and decoding words (reading) in connected text and tasks.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word Solving Actions 2, during interactive writing, the teacher prompts students to say words slowly and generate letters for beginning and ending consonant sounds.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word-Solving Actions 7, students work in pairs with magnetic letters, a known sheet, and an index card. The first student makes a word s/he knows on the left side of the sheet. The partner reads the word but changes a letter at the beginning to make a new word on the right side of the sheet. The first student reads the word. After making eight pairs of words, partners choose one pair and write the index card.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 4, students use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or letter cards to build -ap and -ay words. They make the word, then write the word, and read the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 6, students have two envelopes that represent two groups of cards with spelling patterns students have learned such as -an, -at, in, -it and in the second envelope, there are -op, -ot, ut, -og words. Students say and sort the words in the first envelope into four columns on a sheet of paper. They write out the words in the correct column.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 10, students use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or letter cards to build -ell and -ill words. Students not only make the word on the chart, but they create new words also. Students write the words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 7, students use magnetic letters to build tr words. Students draw a picture and write the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 10, students play the game Lotto. Students take turns picking a card, reading it, and if the student has the same consonant cluster, they place a game marker over the word.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words during Interactive Writing, the teacher asks students to quickly write the high-frequency words that come up during the writing.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words during Interactive Writing, students write isolated high-frequency words. Then other students find them on the wall.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency 8, during Interactive Writing, when the teacher is composing a text with students, the teacher should include high-frequency words.
Materials include some decodable texts that contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Letter-Sound Relationships 15, students read the poem, “I Know Something.” The poem contains CVCe words.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 6, students read the poem, “I’ve Got a Dog as Thin as a Rail.” The poem contains -og, -in, -op spelling patterns.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 1, Word Structure Lesson 3, students read the poem, “I Love the Mountains.” The poem has nouns with -s.
In Sing a Song of Poetry, page 13, there is a grid to help a teacher think about using five poems as a text to revisit.
A teacher could revisit “How Much Dew?” to focus on:
Phonogram Patterns: -ow, -ew, -op, -ey, -at, -en.
Letter-Sound Beginning h, m, d, dr, th, wh.
Letter-Sound Ending w, ch, s, p, f, y, t, n.
One- and two-syllable words
Assonance (/oo/)
A teacher could revisit “The Little Plant” to focus on:
Phonogram Patterns: -eed, -eep, -ay, -ine, -ose, -at, -ide.
Letter-Sound Beginning th, h, s, b, d, l, p, f, w, cr, t, v, r, wh, m.
Letter-Sound Ending n, t, f, d, p, r, l, k, c, s.
Multisyllable words.
Materials include some decodable texts that contain grade-level high-frequency/irregularly spelled words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 1, students use highlighter tape to highlight one-, two-, and three-letter high-frequency words from the poem, “Mary’s Canary.” The poem contains two words from the lesson, had and was.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 2, students read “Sing a Song of Sixpence” or “The Man in the Moon” to practice words introduced in the lesson.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words Lesson 5, during the Interactive reading portion, the teacher and students read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.” The teacher prompts students to read high-frequency words from the text.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Lessons Study Grade 1, Word Structure 2, students use poetry charts and highlighter tape to search for one-, two-, and three-letter high-frequency words.
In Sing a Song of Poetry, page 13, there is a grid to help teachers think about using five poems as a text to revisit.
A teacher could revisit “Bat, Bat” to focus on:
High-Frequency Words: come, my, and, you, a, of, when, I, if, am, not.
A teacher could revisit “If You’re Happy and You Know It” to focus on:
High-Frequency Words: if, and, you, it, your, then, will.
A teacher could revisit “Little Robin Redbreast” to focus on:
High-Frequency Words: little, a, went, his.
Indicator 1R
Materials support 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 materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1r.
In Fountas and Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 materials, daily opportunities are suggested to assess students’ foundational skills concepts during Assess. There are curriculum-based assessment protocols provided in the online resources, which are directly correlated to the nine areas of literacy instruction included in the program. Each assessment explains what is being tested, why it is important, and how to complete the assessment. These opportunities provide the teacher with information about students’ skills. There are Extend learning sections the teacher can do if a student has mastered a content area or if a student needs reteaching. The assessments within the lessons are administered at the end of lessons. Throughout the High-Frequency Words lessons, the following assessment opportunities are provided within the Online Resources to use over the course of the year: Assessment A: Reading High-Frequency Words, Assessment B: Recognizing and Writing High-Frequency Words. For word analysis, there are Word-Solving Action assessments provided such as Assessment A (Sorting Words), Assessment B (Using Known Words to Solve New Words), Assessment C (Solving Unknown Words While reading a Text), Assessment D (Monitoring Word-Solving Accuracy with a Familiar Text), Assessment E (Changing Sounds to Make and Solve New Words), and Assessment F (Taking Apart a Compound Word to Read Two Smaller Words). Each assessment provides recommendations for what teachers should analyze once the assessment has been administered. There are missed opportunities for assessments to provide the teacher with instructional guidance about next steps for all students. The materials do not provide regular and systematic assessment opportunities of students’ current skills in fluency. While Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 provides curriculum-based assessment measures in each of the nine areas of phonics instruction, fluency is not included in the nine areas.
Assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills. For example:
Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of print concepts.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Early Literacy Concepts 3, page 89, during Assess, the teacher notices whether children are composing complete sentences in their independent writing.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Letter Knowledge 5, page 161, during Assess, the teacher observes whether children can find letters quickly and match and check them. The teacher also observes the students working with letters and to be aware of how students are using them.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Letter Knowledge 7, page 169, it is recommended that the teacher may want to use Letter Knowledge Assessment A (Recognizing Letters and Stating Their Names) or Assessment D (Individual Record).
Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness.
There are five assessments and an individual record form found in the Online Resources for Phonological Awareness. A teacher is prompted during Assess to use particular assessments. The assessments are:
Assessment A: Hearing and Saying Rhyming Words
Assessment B: Hearing and Saying Beginning Consonant sounds
Assessment C: Hearing and Saying Ending Consonant Sounds
Assessment D: Hearing and Saying Sounds in Words
Assessment E: Hearing and Dividing Word Parts
Assessment F: Blending Word Parts
Assessment G: Individual Record
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 7, page 123, during Assess, it states to notice whether students can identify the cards that represent words with /a/ in the middle.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 11, page 139, during Assess, it is recommended to observe whether students can produce each sound in a word distinctly and in the correct order. It is recommended that the teacher may wish to use online assessment D or G.
Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics and decoding.
Throughout the Letter-Sound Relationships (LSR), the following assessment opportunities are provided within the Online Resources: Assessment A: Saying and Identifying Sounds in Words, Assessment B: Matching Beginning Consonant Sounds with the Letters that Represent Them, Assessment C: Matching Beginning Sounds with the Letters that Represent Them, Assessment D: Matching Beginning Sounds with the Consonants Digraphs that Represent Them, Assessment E: Matching Ending Sounds with the Consonant Digraphs that Represent Them, Assessment F: Matching Short Vowel Sounds with the Letters that Represent Them, Assessment G: Matching Long Vowel Sounds with the Letters that Represent Them, Assessment H: Writing Words, Assessment I: Individual Record (Saying and Recording Sounds in Words), Assessment J: Individual Record (Letter-Sound Knowledge), Assessment K: Class Record (Consonant Clusters), and Assessment L: Class Record (Consonant Digraphs).
Throughout the Sound Patterns (SP), the following assessment opportunities are provided within the Online Resources: Assessment A: Matching Phonogram Patterns in Words, Assessment B: Reading Names with Phonogram Patterns, Assessment C: Reading Words with Phonogram Patterns, Assessment D: Reading and Writing Names (Phonograms), Assessment E: Individual Record (Reading), Assessment F: Class Record (Reading), Assessment G: Individual Record (Reading and Writing), and Assessment H Individual Record (Spelling).
Throughout the Word-Solving Actions (WSA) set of lessons, the following assessment opportunities are provided within the Online Resources: Assessment A: Sorting Words, Assessment B: Using Known Words to Solve New Words, Assessment C: Solving Unknown Words While Reading a Text, Assessment D: Monitoring Word-Solving Accuracy with a Familiar Text, Assessment E: Changing Sounds to Make and Solve New Words and Assessment F: Taking Apart a Compound Word to Read Two Smaller Words.
Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, High-Frequency Words 8, page 363, it is suggested that the teacher assess students with the high-frequency assessments (A, B, C, or D). During the lesson, the teacher should notice whether students can recognize high-frequency words with three or more letters quickly when reading.
In Assessment A (Reading High-Frequency Words), students are individually assessed over several days using five provided word lists.
In Assessment B (Using Known Words to Solve New Words), the students read word cards one at a time. The teacher can administer the assessment several times as students become more advanced.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Word-Solving Actions 3, page 433, during Assess, the teacher notices whether students can figure out unknown words from known words. Next, students say three words. Lastly, the students change the first sound of each to make a new word.
In the Word-Solving Actions Online Assessment B, students read a list of words. If students are struggling, the teacher prompts the student to look for a part the student knows.
Materials do not include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of fluency.
Materials do not provide regular and systematic assessment opportunities of students’ current skills in fluency.
Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding.
In Fountas and Pinnell Assessment Guide, Reading Words with Phonograms, the teacher assesses students individually. The teacher keeps an ongoing running record of the regular phonogram patterns.
In Fountas and Pinnell Assessment Guide, Spelling Patterns, Assessment E for Spelling Lessons 1-10, there is a running record document that the teacher uses to determine which words students have missed and which ones they were able to write correctly.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resources, Early Literacy Concepts, Grade 1, four assessments are available in this resource, including word-matching, locating a word, and finding first and last letters. The guidance suggests the lessons in which these assessments are to be used and what teachers should notice during these lessons.
In Fountas and Pinnell, BAS1 3rd Edition, Optional Assessments, Where-to-Start-Word Test, this test allows the teacher to give a quick assessment to give the broad notion of the level at which to begin the Benchmark Assessment.
In Fountas and Pinnell, BASI 3rd Edition, Recording Form, Trucks, Level H, NonFiction Tests, these tests assess students’ oral reading fluency and comprehension.
Materials provide limited support to teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills.
In Fountas and Pinnell, Guided Reading book, Chapter 8, page 203, in this section on assessment, teachers use The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum to determine what to work on next by reading level.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Online Resource Guide, Letter Knowledge, Card 5, page159, every card contains suggestions for English Language Learners.
Indicator 1S
Materials, questions, and tasks provide high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills, so all students achieve mastery of foundational skills.
The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1s.
The Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1 lessons consistently include Teach, Apply, and Share. “Teach” is a whole-class lesson. “Apply” is hands-on practice, and the teacher may have students work in a small group at a literacy center. “Share” is a whole-class meeting for students to share their phonics, spelling, and word study lessons. Within Teach, Apply, and Share, there are no opportunities or explicit instruction in re-teaching when a student performs below grade level to receive extensive opportunities for learning and practice. While some of the lesson plans are generative and a teacher can reteach the generative lesson repeatedly, guidance is not provided to the teacher as to how to scaffold students performing below grade level. The Fountas & Pinnell materials provide daily support for students who read, speak or listen in a language other than English. Each lesson is introduced with a section entitled Working with English Language Learners, which provides additional suggestions for addressing the instructional needs of this population. No advanced opportunities are provided for students to work on, while the teacher provides reteaching to students who have not acquired the skills being taught. Each lesson contains Extend Learning opportunities, which can provide advanced students with the opportunity to learn grade-level foundational skills at greater depth. In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Lessons, Grade 1, page 34, the materials describe Extend Learning as “If children need more experience, you can repeat the lesson format using these suggestions for variation, different examples, or more challenging activities.”
Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards. At the beginning of each lesson, information is provided to the teacher for working with English Language Learners. Examples include, but are not limited to:
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 1, page 137, it is suggested that the teacher should say words slowly to make sure the phonology of English words are more available to English language learners.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, page 261, it suggests the teacher help students think about the letter name and associate it with the long vowel sounds they are hearing. Students use magnetic letters and swap out a consonant to build a string of related words, including hide, ride, side, and wide.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons, Grade 1, page 333, it says it is important for the teacher to use the high-frequency words in sentences so that students can hear them and become familiar with how they are used. It says to construct meaningful sentences that students can repeat.
General statements about ELL students, or few strategies noted at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the teacher edition are then implemented by the materials throughout the curriculum.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lesson Book, What Are Some Ways of Working Effectively with English Language Learners?, pages 23-29, states, “You are likely to have many children in your class who not only can speak one language but are learning a second or even third language.” It is suggested that the teacher adjust their teaching to ensure that English language learners have access to the teaching of sounds, letters, and words. Suggestions are provided for Oral Language, Reading, Writing, Phonics, and Word Study. For example:
Oral Language: Engage English language learners in repeating and enjoying songs, rhymes, and repetitive chants. Incorporate body movements to enhance children’s enjoyment of songs, rhymes, and chants and help them remember and understand the language better.
Reading: Understand that shared reading involves children in a great deal of repetition of language, often language that is different from or more complex than they can currently use in speech. This experience gives children a chance to practice language, learn the meaning of the words, and use the sentence structure of English.
Writing: Know that once a text has been successfully produced in interactive writing and children can easily read it, this text is a resource for talking about language--locating specific words, noticing beginning sounds and ending sounds, noticing rhymes, and so on.
Phonics and Word Study: Be sure that the print for all charts (ABC charts, name charts, shared writing, picture and words charts, etc.) is clear and consistent so that children who are working in another language do not have to deal with varying forms of letters.
Materials do not provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level foundational skills and to meet or exceed grade-level standards.
Materials suggest small group teaching but do not provide lesson plans and explicit instruction for reteaching students performing below grade level.
Materials do not provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards.
Materials provide some extensions and/or advanced opportunities to engage with foundational skills at greater depth for students who read, write, speak, and/or listen above grade level.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Lessons, Grade 1, Phonological Awareness 9, page 132, during Extend Learning, the teacher is to have students play Follow the Path with other pictures or picture cards on the path.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Lessons, Grade 1, Letter Knowledge 5, during Extend Learning, pg. 162, the teacher is to:
Repeat this lesson with different letters.
Repeat this lesson and mix in uppercase letters.
After children understand the procedures for finding and grouping specific letters, increase the challenge by having a larger group of distracting letters. Encourage the children to work quickly and check their grouping.
In Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Lessons, Grade 1, Spelling Patterns 9, page 326, during Extend Learning, the teacher is to repeat the lesson with other VCe phonograms, such as -ace, -ade, -ale, -ane, -ape, -ide, -ile, -ine, -ive, -oke.
Overview of Gateway 2
Building Knowledge with Texts, Vocabulary, and Tasks
Gateway 2
v1.5
Criterion 2.1: Building Knowledge
Materials build knowledge through integrated reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language.
Indicator 2A
Texts are organized around a cohesive topic(s) to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.
Indicator 2B
Materials require students to analyze the key ideas, details, craft, and structure within individual texts as well as across multiple texts using coherently sequenced, high-quality questions and tasks.
Indicator 2C
Materials require students to analyze the integration of knowledge within individual texts as well as across multiple texts using coherently sequenced, high-quality text-specific and/or text-dependent questions and tasks.
Indicator 2D
Culminating tasks require students to demonstrate their knowledge of a unit's topic(s) through integrated literacy skills (e.g., a combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).
Indicator 2E
Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to achieve grade-level writing proficiency by the end of the school year.
Indicator 2F
Materials include a progression of research skills that guide shared research and writing projects to develop students' knowledge using multiple texts and source materials.
Criterion 2.2: Coherence
Materials promote mastery of grade-level standards by the end of the year.
Indicator 2G
Materials spend the majority of instructional time on content that falls within grade-level aligned instruction, practice, and assessments.
Indicator 2H
Materials regularly and systematically balance time and resources required for following the suggested implementation, as well as information for alternative implementations that maintain alignment and intent of the standards.
Overview of Gateway 3
Usability
Criterion 3.1: Teacher Supports
The program includes opportunities for teachers to effectively plan and utilize materials with integrity and to further develop their own understanding of the content.
Indicator 3A
Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials to support students' literacy development.
Indicator 3B
Materials contain adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level/course-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.
Indicator 3C
Materials include standards correlation information that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series.
Indicator 3D
Materials provide strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.
Indicator 3E
Materials provide explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.
Indicator 3F
Materials provide a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities.
Indicator 3G
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Indicator 3H
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Criterion 3.2: Assessment
The program includes a system of assessments identifying how materials provide tools, guidance, and support for teachers to collect, interpret, and act on data about student progress towards the standards.
Indicator 3I
Assessment information is included in the materials to indicate which standards are assessed.
Indicator 3J
Assessment system provides multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up.
Indicator 3K
Assessments include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level/course-level standards and shifts across the series.
Indicator 3L
Assessments offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment.
Criterion 3.3: Student Supports
The program includes materials designed for each student’s regular and active participation in grade-level/grade-band/series content.
Indicator 3M
Materials provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards that will support their regular and active participation in learning English language arts and literacy.
Indicator 3N
Materials regularly provide extensions to engage with literacy content and concepts at greater depth for students who read, write, speak, and/or listen above grade level.
Indicator 3O
Materials provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning.
Indicator 3P
Materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.
Indicator 3Q
Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards to regularly participate in learning English language arts and literacy.
Indicator 3R
Materials provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.
Indicator 3S
Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning.
Indicator 3T
Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning.
Indicator 3U
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Indicator 3V
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Criterion 3.4: Intentional Design
The program includes a visual design that is engaging and references or integrates digital technology, when applicable, with guidance for teachers.
Indicator 3W
Materials integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.
Indicator 3X
Materials include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable.
Indicator 3Y
The visual design (whether in print or digital) supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic.
Indicator 3Z
Materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.