The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 partially meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.

The read-aloud modeled reading texts are of publishable quality and worthy of careful reading; however, the other texts, including those found in shared reading and interactive reading are not all of publishable quality. Many of the well-known anchor texts are only included as modeled reading in the Teacher Edition. There is very limited representation of well-known authors or widely-accepted works of children's literature except for the modeled reading at the start of each theme. Expository texts provide interesting information or engaging illustrations around the theme, but the highest quality texts are those in the modeled readings

Below are examples of publishable, high quality texts. These texts are worthy of students' time and attention, and worthy of multiple readings. Texts are engaging, contain strong content and academic vocabulary, and are thought-provoking. Examples include:

• Dangerous Crossing by Stephan Krinsky
• Papa's Mark by Gwendolyn Battle
• Firestorm by Jean Craighead George
• Moretti on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully
• A Statue Comes Down by Melissa Blackwell Burke
• “Chato’s Kitchen” by Gary Soto
• “Papa’s Mark” by Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert
• And Away We Go by David Dreier
• Women of the Revolution by Alice Leonhardt
• Ocean Census Half Completed by David Drier
• Famous Firsts by Ernestien Glesecke
• Amazing Bamboo by Nicole Zern

Below are examples of texts that are not considered publishable, high-quality texts. The majority of these texts are simple, with explicit language and themes, and a predictable storyline. Because of these features, the texts are not appropriate for rereading.

• Women of the Revolution by Alice Leonhardt
• Gram's Declaration of Independence by M.J. Cosset
• An Important Debate by David Dreier
• Into the Deep by Abby Jones
• From Sea to Shining Sea by M.J. Cosson
• Something to Sneeze About by Tisha Hamilton

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 partially meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task.

Many of the texts in the Sourcebook are read alouds and are below grade level or at the bottom of the band consistently. While the illustrations are engaging and students can relate, the majority of the texts are not complex. Because the majority of the applications involve making connections, students can complete the tasks, with little understanding. The questioning after many of the texts are text connection questions rather than critical analysis questions. While many of texts fall within the grade level quantitative scale for Grade 5, the qualitative features are, for the majority of texts, slightly complex. The reader and task demands are also not complex, as every time a student finishes a text, he/she answers questions about the text with a partner or in a small group, and the rigor of the questions does not increase. Many of the questions are about word study, grammar, or a reading strategy, instead of about the evidence or analysis of the text.

The Modeled Reading texts are in the Grade 5 Lexile band. Students begin the year by hearing On Boston’s Freedom Trail, which is a personal narrative with a Lexile of 850, but contain slightly complex qualitative features (text structure and meaning) to moderately complex (language features and knowledge demands). Similarly, in Unit 3, Theme 5, Week 1, the humorous fiction text A Not Very Well-Kept Secret has a Lexile of 850, but only contains slightly complex qualitative features. In Unit 4, Theme 7, students hear the story Squid Attack, which has a Lexile of 850 but slightly complex qualitative features, with the exception of its language features, which is moderately complex. While Hank, Make Your Bed, comes later in the year (Unit 7, Theme 14), the Lexile is a 750 and the qualitative features are slightly complex.

The informational texts have a slightly lower quantitative range than the literary texts and some informational texts fall below the grade level Lexile band. For example, in Unit 5, Theme 9, students hear From Sea to Shining Sea, with a Lexile of 550 and only slightly complex qualitative features. The qualitative features remain the same in Unit 7, Theme 13 with the text Cast Your Vote for the Future, which has a lexile of 550. In Unit 7, Theme 14, the Lexile of Bill Gates is 650, which is at the lower end of the Lexile band, and contains only slightly complex qualitative features.

The materials provide leveled texts for small group reading, which is the only time students read independently. The Grade 5 Small Group Reading texts include Levels P - W. The program considers P - Q as on level and U - W as above-level. None of the included texts in Levels P and Q have a below-grade level Lexile, even though the program considers them below grade level. The Longest Shortcut by Early Ayder is a Level P or Lexile 780 while Castles in the Air by Celia Warren is a Level Q or a 920L. Both of these fall above the Grade 5 Lexile band. An example of a Level U text, which is considered an enrichment text, is The Return of the Wolf by Margaret Su; however, it only falls at a Lexile of 750. Making a Difference by Janet Coburn, labeled as a level V, but has a Lexile of 1080.

The materials reviewed for Grade 5 partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks addressing grade-level CCSS for foundational skills by providing explicit instruction and assessment in phonics and word recognition that demonstrate a research-based progression.

Materials provide consistent, explicit instruction in word study over the course of the year, however, irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition are not explicitly taught. The assessment system provides ongoing assessment of word study (synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, multiple-meaning words) through the Theme level tests as well as the mid-year and end-of -year tests. Fix-It sections (only 2 all year) do address word solving strategies explicitly, but only about the Read-on strategy. Opportunities to further Grade 5 students’ word analysis are missed because the materials contain whole class review foundational skills.

Materials contain explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition consistently over the course of the year. Early to mid-year themes contain foundational skills from prior grade levels. Examples include:

• The introduction to the Small Group Reading Teacher’s Guide at Grade 5 states that phonics and word study are correlated to reading levels. The levels for grade 5 are P-W. There is explicit instruction of word study in every lesson of the small group guide, but explicit instruction is not about irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition. Meaning (word study) including prefixes and suffixes, contractions, multiple-meaning words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, plurals, syllabication, idioms, and abbreviations occur in Levels N-W. For example:
  • In Level R, Small Group Reading, Lesson 1, the focus is on antonyms, inflected endings, and contractions. Students review the definition.
  • In Level W, in the text, “Myths of a Different Feather,” students learn about the suffix -able. Students discuss how words from the story were changed by the suffix (uncomfortable, remarkable, acceptable).
• In Theme 2, Week 2, Lesson 6, the focus is on word families, including -ap, ig, op, ug, at, en, it, ot and un. These are primary grade level standards.
• In Theme 3, Week 1, Lesson 1, students move into a long vowel word review and silent e. These are primary grade level standards.
• In Theme 5, Week 2, Lesson 8, students review the definition of multiple meaning words on page 151 of their sourcebook. Students write sentences and then talk about the meanings of the words.
• In Theme 8, Week 1, Lesson 1, students learn about inflected endings in order to decode words, ed, ing, and -s. These are primary grade level standards.
• In Theme 9, Week 1, students are taught the prefix un. The students look up the word unexplored on page 268 of their sourcebook. They then find the root word.

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year to inform instructional adjustments of phonics and word recognition to help students make progress toward mastery. Examples include:

• The Assessment Guide for Grade 5 contains Theme Progress Tests and test practice aligned to the Comprehensive Teacher’s Guide units. Word study is included in each of the theme progress tests, which are given on the last day of each theme. For example:
  • In Theme 1, there are multiple-choice questions on review of short vowels and initial consonants, “Which of these lists contains words that all have the same initial consonant? It also asks the students to select the correct word that has a short i sound. This is assessment of a primary grade level standard.
  • In Theme 9, the assessment includes 5 questions about prefixes. “Which prefix do you add to the complete to create a new word that means “not complete?”
  • In Theme 14, the assessment includes 5 questions about suffixes. “What suffix do you add to the word delight to make it mean in a way that is full of delight?
• Mid-year and End-of-Year review tests are cumulative. The mid-year test contains questions about synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms and multiple-meaning words. “Which of these words is an antonym of properly?” The end-of-year review tests synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.

Materials contain explicit instruction of word solving strategies (graphophonic and syntactic) to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include:

• In Small Group Reading Guide, Level T, “The Great Escape,” students focus on the Fix-Up Strategy, Decoding and Word Analysis. “Tell students that when they come to a word they do not know they can figure it out by using the sounds of the letters or by breaking the word into smaller parts.” The teacher then gives the following example, “Some words such as caregiver are made up of two smaller words. Model the target skill: My grandpa hired a caregiver. I know that care can mean “help” and a giver is someone who gives, so I think my grandpa hired someone who gives help.”
• In Small Group Reading Guide, Level W, “Countdown to a Space Shuttle Launch” - The Target skill is "Use Fix-Up Strategies: Decoding Word Parts," the teacher is instructed to explain the skill to students, "Tell students that to understand an unfamiliar word, they can use what they know about the sounds of letters and break the word apart to help understand its meaning. Looking at the parts of a compound word can provide the word's meaning." The teacher is then instructed to model the skill for students, "Write ongoing on the board. Then model the target skill: I can break this word into on and going. The tells me that the action is continuing."

The materials reviewed for Grade 5 partially meet the criteria for materials, lessons, and questions provide instruction in and practice of word analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Literacy By Design materials include opportunities for students to complete tasks in order to learn word analysis skills. The skills are similar in nature each week and include brief instruction. There are opportunities for students to complete activities that are in- and out-of-context. Assessments are provided in the materials such as the Theme assessments, but reviewers were unable to evaluate all the assessments for word analysis in-context including evaluating word analysis in Rigsby Reads.

Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis skills in connected texts and tasks. Examples include:

• In Theme 5, Week 1, students listen for synonyms and antonyms while the teacher reads aloud a feature on The Constitution of the United States.
• In Theme 10, Week 1, students practice finding words with the prefixes re- and pre- in the context of a text from the sourcebook.
• In Theme 13, Week 2, students learn about the suffixes -ful, -able and -less. “Work with students to create sentence pairs that demonstrate how suffixes change words and their meaning.”
• Meaning (word study) including prefixes and suffixes, contractions, multiple-meaning words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, plurals, syllabication, idioms, and abbreviations occur in levels N-W. All are addressed within the context of the readings themselves. For example:
  • Level P, Small Group Reading, focuses on idioms and compound words.. Students review the definition and find idioms from the words in the reading. They also study suffixes -ly and -fully and the prefix dis- in the context of the readings.

• Level Q, Small Group Reading, focuses on the prefix -un. They also study suffixes -ly, -fully-ion, and -tion, in the context of the readings.
• In Level R, Small Group Reading, focuses on antonyms,inflected endings, and contractions, and the prefix dis-. Students review the definition and then identify inflected endings from the reading.
• Level T, Small Group Reading, focuses on prepositions, pronouns, and idioms. Students review the definition and identify prepositions from a group of words on the board. They also study suffixes -ness, and -ment in the context of the readings.
• Level U, Small Group Reading, focuses on homonyms, antonyms, and multiple-meaning words. They also study suffixes -ful and -less in the context of the readings, as does Level V.
• Level W, Small Group Reading, focuses on suffix -able, in the context of the readings.

Materials include word analysis assessment to monitor student learning of word analysis skills. Examples include:

• There is a benchmark book assessment where the teacher listens for students word analysis skills when they are reading text. This is completed 3 - 4x a year or as necessary.
• Every two weeks students are assessed with theme progress assessments that measure students’ comprehension, phonics, and word study skills.
• In Theme 5, the assessment includes 6 questions about synonyms and antonyms and multiple-meaning words. “Which meaning does the word rights have in this passage?” “Which sentence contains an antonym of the word ridiculous?”
• In Theme 9, the assessment includes 5 questions about prefixes. “Which prefix do you add to the complete to create a new word that means “not complete?”
• In Theme 14, the assessment includes 5 questions about suffixes. “What suffix do you add to the word delight to make it mean in a way that is full of delight?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 5 partially meet the criteria for instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and achieve reading fluency in oral and silent reading, that is, to read on-level prose and poetry with accuracy, rate appropriate to the text, and expression.

Literacy By Design materials include opportunities for students to have access to small group readers where they practice a variety of fluency strategies. Students have opportunities to practice oral and silent reading. Also, included are different assessments in order to help the teacher identify how students are doing in overall fluency. Opportunities to practice and apply re-reading and self-correction are limited. Opportunities to practice and build fluency with poetry are limited.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy and fluency in oral and silent reading. Examples include:

• In Theme 1, Week 1, lesson 3, students learn to use punctuation to inform meaning as the fluency methodology.
• In Small Group Guided Reading Manual, Appendix A27, teachers are provided with three different fluency routine ideas. These ideas include: Reader’s Theater, Partner Reading, and Repeated Reading. Explicit instructions are provided for each routine. For example, for partner reading the steps include: “1. Organize students into partners of mixed abilities. 2. Have partners select a familiar text to read together. 3. Have one student finger point to the text as the partners read aloud in union. 4. Have partners switch roles and read the text together again.”
• In the Small Group Reading Teacher’s Guide, it states on page T14 that fluency skills are modeled in whole class instruction, and that systematic and explicit fluency instruction exists in every small group reading lesson. There are Fluency Readers for independent reading and practice and Fluent Reader software for repeated practice and assessment. (I don’t have these). All the fluency lessons are grounded in the readings. For example:
  • In Levels P, Q, and R, there are fluency lessons on changing voice to reflect characters, conveying emotion and meaning, using punctuation to inform meaning, and reading in phrases. For example, the teacher models reading the first sentence on page 2, stopping at periods and pausing at commas. Students then take turns reading their own text sections.
  • In Level S, the teacher introduces a fluency focus on stressing words with special type treatment and reading in phrases. The teacher models chunking a reading into phrases for smoother reading. Students then take turns reading the text section they have practiced. This is continued in Levels T and U.
  • In Level W, “Myths of a Different Feather,” the fluency focus for this books is “stress words with special type treatment.” The teacher discusses the skill, “Explain that sometimes words are italicized or written in all capital letters to let the reader know that these words should be read with special feeling. Reading these words with a louder voice or more emotion can help you better understand the story or how a character is feeling.”The teacher then models using this skill.

Materials support reading or prose and poetry with attention to rate, accuracy, and expression, as well as direction for students to apply reading skills when productive struggle is necessary. Opportunities were missed over the course of the school year to have students pay attention to rate, accuracy and expression when reading poems. Examples include:

• In Theme 2, Week 2, when students read the poem “Independence Day,” the focus of the lesson is on onomatopoeia and the teacher is instructed to “Have partners of mixed abilities read the poem softly together. After reading, have them discuss any onomatopoeic words they found.” An opportunity was missed to have students practice rereading the poem with their partner to build fluency.
• In Theme 8, Week 2, when students read the poem “Going, Going, Gone?” the focus of the lesson is on simile. There is no mention made of having the students reread the poem to work on accuracy, rate or expression.

Materials support students’ fluency development of reading skills (e.g., self-correction of word recognition and/or for understanding, focus on rereading) over the course of the year (to get to the end of the grade-level band). Opportunities are modeled by the teacher, but student practice opportunities are limited. Examples include:

• In Theme 5, Week 1, Monitor Understanding, Teacher Think Aloud, “The story says that voting posters were hammered on every house and tree and even hung around animals’ necks. I don’t understand why. If I reread the passage, I see that Election Day was near and they wanted to get the word to everyone. Now I understand the passage better.”
• In Theme 8, Week 1, Use Fix-Up Strategies, Teacher Think Aloud, “I don’t know what the word microscopic means. I think I’ll get an idea of the meaning from the words and phrases around it when I read on. I read that the arrow worm, which is less than a quarter of an inch long, “swallows the tinier dinoflagellate” so microscopic must mean something that is very, very small.”

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current fluency skills and provide teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery of fluency. Examples include:

• With the Fluent Reader Software, students choose from five text passages, three from fluency readers and two that are unseen. Students listen and read along. Then students record themselves reading, and they listen to the playback, comparing their recordings to the fluent reader.
  • The software evaluates students initial reading rates and measures their progress up against the words per minute goal. The teachers use a fluency rubric to assess where students are at in this area.
• In the Small Group Guided Reading Manual, Appendix A28, instructions are provided for completing a fluency assessment. The instructions tell teachers to use a text from guided reading group that the student has already read. Specific fluency passages are not provided. A benchmark chart is included that provides teachers with the number of words per minute a student should be able to read correctly at the end of their grade level. A fluency assessment rubric is also provided that helps the teacher score a student’s expression, accuracy, punctuation, phrasing, pace and comprehension.
• Teachers use the RIgby READS diagnostic test for reading level placement. This includes fluency as one of the five-pillars.
• There are no fluency questions in any of the 16 Theme Progress Tests or in the mid-year or final year exams.
• A benchmark assessment and evaluation kit is mentioned on page T17, which includes information about student reading accuracy.