The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten fully meet the expectations for reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards. The Common Core State Standards recommend that there be a 50-50 balance between informational and literary texts in Grades K-2. The Journeys literacy materials for Kindergarten are divided into big books, read-alouds, and paired selections. Though the read-alouds are more heavily weighted toward literary selections, the balance is achieved by working across all three categories. It is also important to note that many of the literary selections support the topics covered by informational texts. This balance is represented in the list below:

• Big books- 15 informational texts to 15 literary texts.
• Paired selections- 17 informational to 13 literary texts
• Read-alouds- 9 informational to 21 literary texts
• Total: 41 informational to 49 literary texts

The texts also reflect a distribution of genres by including realistic fiction, fantasy, poetry/song, fables/folktales/fairytales, and one biography. The titles below represent a sample of genres in the materials.

• “My Five Senses” by Aliki (informational)
• “The Tortoise and The Hare” by Aesop (fable)
• “El Cocquito” a Puerto Rican lullaby (song)
• “Good Morning Digger” by Anne Rockwell
• The Curious George books by Margret and H.A. Rey (fantasy)
• “Kitten’s First Full Moon” by Kevin Henkes (realistic fiction)
• “Silverly": by Dennis Lee (poetry)

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations that the read aloud texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task.

Many of the read-aloud texts for shared and interactive reading are at a higher Lexile level usually recommended for grades 2-3. Most Lexile or Guided Reading levels for these texts are not provided by the publisher, but are labeled as “Teacher Reads Aloud” because students will not be reading them independently. Lexile levels used below were found at https://lexile.com/. The teacher materials also provide a “Why This Text?” section that explains why the selected text is relevant to the reader’s learning. Teacher materials outline planned scaffolding to ensure that these texts are accessible for Kindergarten students. For guided reading materials and the vocabulary readers, the quantitative information according to leveled readers is also provided. In Unit 1, guided readers begin at level A or B and move to levels C to F by the end of Unit 6. The vocabulary readers for support also range from level A to B for independent student reading. Texts for teacher read-alouds begin at the low range (350L) of the second to third grade Lexile band and advance to higher end of the range (740L) of Grade 6.

Texts for read-alouds and shared reading are also reviewed with a qualitative analysis based on criteria as outlined in Appendix A in the CCSS: purpose/levels of meaning, text structures, language features, and knowledge demands. Like the quantitative progression, the texts used at the beginning of Unit 1, fell into the lowest level of qualitative complexity, but by Unit 6 the texts scored middle to high on each of the categories of the qualitative complexity analysis.

The evidence listed below exemplifies the quantitative and qualitative complexity across the year.

Unit 1: Lesson 2

Guided Reading Leveled Readers: Level A to D

Vocabulary Reader: Level A

Read-Aloud: Friends at School by Rochelle Bunnett

• Readability Level: 350L
• Qualitative analysis: low range of complexity

Big Book: “How do Dinosaurs go to School” by Jane Yolen

• Readability level: 420L
• Qualitative analysis: low to middle range of complexity

Paired Selection: “My School Bus” by Stephen Schaffer

• Readability level: AR 1.4
• Qualitative analysis: low level of complexity

Unit 4: Lesson 16

Guided Reading Leveled Readers: Level A to C

Vocabulary Reader: Level B

Read-Aloud text: “Dear Mr. Blueberry” by Jane Yolen

• Readability level: 660L
• Qualitative analysis: low to middle range complexity

Big Book: “What is Science?”

• Readability level: 350L
• Qualitative Analysis: middle range qualitative complexity

Paired Selection: “Benjamin Franklin, Inventor” by Linda Ruggieri

• Readability level: No Lexile found
• Qualitative analysis: middle range complexity

Unit 6: Lesson 28

Guided Reading Leveled Readers: Level A to F

Vocabulary Reader: Level B

Read-Aloud text: “The Little Engine that Could” by Watty Piper

• Readability level: 740L
• Qualitative analysis: middle range complexity

Big Book: “You Can do it Curious George” by Margret and H.A. Ray

• Readability level: 470L
• Qualitative Analysis: middle range qualitative complexity

Paired Selection: Poems about “Things You can Do” by various authors

• Readability level: Lexile measures are not applicable to poetry
• Qualitative analysis: middle to high range of complexity

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for anchor texts (including read-aloud texts in K-2) and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis. Texts are identified as having an appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task.

Each lesson series is preceded by a “Prepare for Complex Text” page in the Teacher Edition that offers quantitative and qualitative information for read-aloud books, big books, and paired selections. Big books and paired selections are labeled as “Teacher Reads Aloud” because students will not be reading them independently. For guided reading materials and the vocabulary readers, the quantitative information according to leveled readers or DRA scores is provided.

The teacher materials also provide a “Why This Text?” section that explains how the selected text is relevant for the reader’s learning. Teacher materials also select key features and academic language focus for the big books and paired selections that adhere to the qualitative or quantitative complexities in the text and offer suggestions for reader support and tasks.

Texts for read-alouds and shared reading are also reviewed with a qualitative analysis, based on criteria as outlined in Appendix A in the CCSS: purpose/levels of meaning, text structures, language features, and knowledge demands. Below is an example from the “Prepare for Complex Text” page:

Unit 3: “Jump into January” by Stella Blackstone

Genre: Informational Text

Why This Text?

• This interactive rhyming text describes weather and seasonal activities over a year.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Learn about weather across the months
• Compare and contrast information
• Gather information from text and visuals

Quantitative Measures: Teacher Reads Aloud

Qualitative Measures: Low Complexity

Purpose/Level of Meaning:

• Density and Complexity: 25% of the texts contain a single level of meaning

Text Structures:

• Organization: 25% of the texts contain a clear sequential organization
• Text features: 50% of the secondary texts, complex tasks include naming items in the illustrations

Language Features:

• Conventionality and Register: 25% of the texts contain mostly familiar and concrete language
• Sentence Structure: 25% of the texts contain a repeated, predictable sentence structure

Knowledge Demands

• Life Experiences/Background Knowledge: 50% of the texts contain some possibly unfamiliar life experiences.

The instructional materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations for providing opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade level reading over the course of the school year. There are many opportunities for students to practice with different texts in and out of the topics being studied at the time. The core materials contain read-alouds, anchor texts, the student textbook, and paired reading selections. Supporting materials include big books, guided readers, vocabulary readers, Alphafriends cards, high frequency word cards readers’ notebooks, and biliteracy resources in Spanish, which offer students access to multiple texts daily for shared, guided, and independent reading. Materials also provide a Common Core ELA Exemplar Text Resource that provide teachers close reading support, pacing, and tasks for texts found in the K-1 CCSS Exemplar texts. These are texts offered beyond the curriculum for extended shared or independent reading practice.

Each lesson series follows a general format in which students engage in reading or having access to multiple texts each day. The typical lesson series for all 30 lessons features multiple texts and resources centered around the current topic. Guided readers are also used throughout the entire lesson series. The Audio Hub in Teacher Resources also provides audio versions of the big books and texts in the student books.

For example, a week of instruction may include:

Day 1: Read-aloud text, Big book, word cards, vocabulary reader

Day 2: Big Book, word cards, reader’s notebook, student textbook

Day 3: Big book, Paired selection, student textbook, word cards

Day 4: Big book, student text book, read-aloud text

Day 5: Big book, word cards, literacy guide, student textbook, reader’s notebook

Each lesson also includes interactive literacy visuals and projectables to aid in literacy development. While maintaining a close balance between informational and literary texts, the materials also provide students a range of genres such as illustrative texts, narratives, realistic fiction, fantasy, poetry/song, fables/folktales, fairy tales, readers’ theater, and biographies. Texts are organized by topics such as family, friendship, animals, pets, weather, science, self, careers, technology, geography, food, and letters

Materials provide suggestions for teachers that give attention to oral reading skills and offer ways for teachers explicitly teach foundational skills. Differentiation options are provided which includes extra reading materials, audio recordings, and fluency practice.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations of questions, tasks, and assignments being text-based and 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). Students are asked text-based questions throughout the daily lessons. These questions are included in the teacher read-aloud, big book reads, and the paired selection read.

The following are examples of text-based questions:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 2, students are asked, “Look at the children on these pages. How are the children different from one another?”
• In Unit 2, Lesson 9, students are asked, “What do the words say about the cement mixer?”
• In Unit 3, Lesson 11, students are asked, “What do the photographs show about how the seeds scatter? Look carefully at both photos.”
• In Unit 3, Lesson 15, students are asked, “How are the things in the sky on these pages different from what we have seen so far?”
• In Unit 4, Lesson 20, students are asked, “What happens when George tries to help? Are the people happy?”
• In Unit 5, Lesson 23, students are asked, “What animal can you see in the garden in this story?”
• In Unit 5, Lesson 25, students are asked, “What does the baker make in this story?”
• In Unit 6, Lesson 26, students are asked, “What can George do?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation of materials, including a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects incorporating digital resources where necessary. The Common Core standards for Kindergarten call for students to combine drawing, dictating, and writing to be able to compose complete sentences or short pieces in which they state an opinion, explain a topic, or write about a single event. Each weekly lesson provides students the opportunity to meet these standards by moving from shared writing to guided writing and culminating with an independent writing task. Students perform tasks such as responses to literature, drawing and writing about the topic, literacy centers, a writer’s handbook, and a reader’s notebook. Lessons provide Teach/Model sections for students to engage with the teacher in learning or reviewing the writing process before working independently or with a group. Students also use their Reader’s Notebook and Writer’s Handbook frequently to complete lesson-aligned and text-based writing tasks.

The Writer’s Handbook provides structured response sheets for students that align with each lesson. The Teacher’s Guide for the Writer’s Handbook offers instructional support and strategies that follow a gradual release of responsibility (I Do/We Do/You Do/Evaluate) pattern. The lessons typically end with students sharing their work with a peer or the class for the evaluation portion which is equivalent to a revision/editing process. Most writing lessons have a Focus Trait included as well. In addition to the handbook, lessons are accompanied by projectables that offer further models/examples and texts for student writing.

Lessons are accompanied by a digital platform called myWriteSmart in which students can engage in game-like writing activities and answer prompts provided or constructed by the teacher. The writing is published to the teacher’s dashboard to be reviewed/scored. The Kindergarten access is more limited than other grades due to the complexity of maneuvering a digital literacy dashboard.

Throughout the year students move from writing or drawing simple words or phrases to crafting complete sentences. After extended practice in writing sentences with or without sentence stems, students move into writing narrative, explanatory, or opinion pieces aligned to the grade appropriate expectations of the standards.

The following are examples of the writing expectations to build independence across the units.

Unit 1 focuses on narrative writing in the form of learning to write names, label pictures, and writing captions for pictures. Student writing practice depends more on drawing and dictating as students are in the early stages of literacy learning and letter formation. An example task after a read aloud in Unit 1 is “Ask children to draw and write about the steps the boy and his dad take to build the school” after which students share their compositions with the class.

Unit 2 focuses on Informative writing and building complete sentences. Students write or dictate sentences from stems about the texts or topics they are studying. Students focus on building descriptive sentences from stems to share information about the images they see or draw related to their texts.

Unit 3 focuses on narrative writing with an emphasis on understanding how sentences form complete thoughts. Grammar lessons focus on the two parts of a sentence: naming and action. Students take on more independent responsibility for building story sentences to form a whole thought about images or texts. Teachers model collecting evidence on flip charts as a class. An example task after reading about the seasons and collecting: Draw and write about your favorite season.

Unit 4 turns toward opinion writing. Now that students have had more practice with writing complete sentences, they engage in writing thank-you notes, friendly letters, and opinion sentences. Each of these lessons starts with a teacher model with the whole class and then moves toward independent practice. The Writer’s Handbook provides students with the frames and stems to complete these tasks. Students also share their work with peers for evaluation and complete presentations in class. Materials suggest that they publish their work digitally or through myWriteSmart.

Unit 5 focuses on explanatory/informative writing. With teacher modeling, students share writing and practice independent writing to create lists, invitations, and reports. The lists are created by pulling details from the texts or topics they are studying. The Focus Trait for the lessons on lists and invitations is organization, which includes how to use text structures such as numbers. Students then move into gathering evidence from the text to prepare for report writing. The unit finishes with students writing about a real-life topic that they want to know more about. Students move throughout the process of prewriting (using a K-W-L chart), gathering evidence from a chosen source, writing a draft, revising with peers, and publishing a final draft digitally.

Unit 6 returns to opinion writing but with more demand on students to perform independently as they respond to literature and learn to write journals. The Focus Trait for this unit is development, and students continue to practice writing complete sentences and study subject-verb agreement. After writing about texts they have read, students finish the year with a reflection journal and publish it as a report on this prompt: “Draw and write about your favorite part of Kindergarten.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation for Indicator 1l because materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing (year long) that reflect the distribution required by the standards. The Common Core standards for Kindergarten call for students to combine drawing, dictating, and writing to be able to compose complete sentences or short pieces in which they state an opinion, explain a topic, or write about a single event. Each lesson consists of a daily writing component with a process of shared, guided, and independent practice in a mode of writing. The distribution of the types of weekly writing tasks are fairly balanced with two units (10 lessons) per type of writing: narrative, informative, and opinion. At the Kindergarten level the focus is on building words and then sentences based on the texts read in class or the topics they are studying. By the end of the year, students are writing multiple sentences on a single topic or event.

The majority of the weekly writing tasks are not text dependent; however, they are connected to the topics studied in the read-alouds and big books. The shared and guided practice tasks are generally more text-dependent as students engage with what they are reading. For example after reading and working with multiple texts about seasons, students then draw or write about their favorite season.

The Common Core Writing Handbook accompanying the series contains 60 additional writing mini lessons for teachers to use. Note: this is a supplemental resource and is not part of the Teacher Edition’s weekly planning. There are 20 mini lessons of each type of writing.

The following are examples of the different text types of writing across the units.

Unit 1 (narrative writing) Students learn to write their names, label pictures, and write captions for pictures.

Unit 2 (informative writing) Students work toward building complete/descriptive sentences using sentence stems as starters.

Unit 3 (narrative writing) Students practice writing sentences to form complete thoughts and take on more independent responsibility for building story sentences about images or texts.

Unit 4 turns (opinion writing) Students engage in writing thank-you notes, friendly letters, and opinion sentences. Students use templates and stems to complete these tasks.

Unit 5 (informative writing) With teacher modeling, students share writing and practice independent writing to create lists, invitations, and reports with a focus on text features. Students also work through the entire writing process with prewriting (using a K-W-L chart), gathering evidence from a chosen source, writing a draft, revising with peers, and publishing a final draft digitally.

Unit 6 (opinion writing): Students perform more independently as they respond to literature and learn to write journals to publish and share with the class. This is a reflective unit for students to consider their journey through Kindergarten.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet expectations for explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of the context. Each unit has a daily direct instruction lesson specifically titled, “Grammar”.

Each week focuses on specific grammar skills and conventions as well as language features such as figurative language. Each day, explicit grammar instruction takes place, and students practice the skill in context with the texts/writing types used in class as well as completing tasks in the Reader’s Notebook and Writer’s Handbook. There are also supporting materials labeled Projectables that teachers can click on the right from the digital Teacher Edition that provide examples, images, and tasks to practice the grammar lesson. Most of the grammar lessons extend across several days and may be reviewed in later units.

The following grammar and convention topics covered in each unit:

• Unit 1: Nouns for people, places, animals, and things; present tense action verbs; capital letters; antonyms/synonyms
  • Lesson 1, students are taught nouns for people.
  • Lesson 4, students are taught action verbs.
  • Lesson 5, students are told good writers check that all sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark.
• Unit 2: Word placement in a sentence; adjectives for color, numbers, size, and shape; synonyms
  • Lesson 6, students are taught to write the letter a.
  • Lesson 7, students are taught that the author of Mice Squeak, We Speak, used periods and exclamation points. Students point to and name end punctuation.
• Unit 3: Sentence parts- subject/verbs; figurative language; past tense verbs; capitals and periods
  • Lesson 15, students practice forming complete sentences with the Vocabulary in Context Words.
• Unit 4: Question words; proper nouns, future tense verbs; present/past tense verb review; antonyms/synonyms
  • Lesson 20, students are told to use their knowledge of letter-sound relationships to spell words.
• Unit 5: Pronouns; antonyms; punctuations; questions; proper nouns; exclamation marks
  • Lesson 21, students learn to form regular plural nouns
  • Lesson 24, students are taught how to write question words.
• Unit 6: Singular/plural nouns; antonyms/synonyms; subject-verb agreement; figurative language, prepositions
  • Lesson 29, students are taught frequently occurring prepositions: for, to, with, from, and of.