1st Grade Report Overview

From Phonics to Reading Grade 1 materials provide instruction in all foundational skills standards. Materials provide instruction in Grade 1 print concepts; however, some of the initial instruction on a print concept skill is provided after the students have already been expected to use the skill in reading connected text, such as in left-to-right progression, return sweep, and reading from the top to the bottom of the page. Instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band; materials include daily activities for students to practice phonemic and phonological awareness skills. Instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling. For examples of explicit instruction, it is imperative that the teacher reference the Instructional Guides. Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice reading words containing new and review phonics elements through decoding by phoneme and reading complete words. Opportunities for practice are built into daily instructional time. Materials provide frequent and systematic practice decoding phonetically regular words in the context of a sentence. Materials include recurring instructional routines that give students frequent practice building and encoding words, both in isolation and in written responses to text. Materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials promote application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. While the student practice is frequent, there are missed opportunities for teacher instruction and modeling of encoding. Materials include recurring instructional routines explicitly model and teach both reading and spelling of high-frequency words, primarily using the Read-Spell-Write routine. Materials provide explicit instruction in phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication and morpheme analysis using the Word Study routines and when introducing new sound-spelling patterns in the Blend It exercises. Materials include explicit instruction in fluency. Explicit instruction in and modeling of phrasing, expression, intonation, rate, and accuracy is included in the From Fluency to Comprehension: Routines and Minilessons guide.