Kindergarten Report Overview

The materials for Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Kindergarten do not meet the expectations for alignment to the standards. The Interactive Read-Aloud texts in Kindergarten 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. There are eight lessons with explicit instruction on 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 include a Master Lesson Guide which explains the order phonics lessons should be taught. While in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons, Grade K 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 seven High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all seven lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest the teacher repeat the lesson several times. Materials contain poems from Sing a Song of Poetry, Grade K 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.