1st Grade Report Overview

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.