The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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:

• Oranges on Golden Mountain by Elizabeth Partridge
• Firestorm by Jean Craighead George
• Ricki & Henri by Jane Goodall
• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
• The Mystery of the Box in the Wall by Tisha Hamilton
• Ode to the Giant Redwood by Tisha Hamilton
• The Hatchling by Ann Weil
• Weird Animals by Ann Weil
• Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights by Debbie S. Miller
• Nate Murphy and the Mystery Sauropod by Julia Wolf and Nate Murphy
• Grand Canyon by Linda Vieira

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.

• Two Homes by Alice McGinty
• Vertebrate or Invertebrate - What’s my ID? By Ruth Silbert
• The Black Blizzard by Jo Zarboulas
• Morning Light a translated version of a traditional Papago chant
• Nate Murphy and the Mystery Sauropod by Julia Wolf and Nate Murphy

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 are not complex enough for students to be reading independently and the majority of the reading is done by the teacher. The reader and task demands for each story are the same throughout the entire program. Students answer questions, often in small groups, or with a partner, that are not always text dependent. Many of the post-reading questions are about personal connections, the use of a reading strategy, or applying the word study or grammar skill of the day verse analysis or evidence from the text.

Students are read to from modeled readers throughout the year in Grade 4; however, many of the texts do not provide adequate complexity to support students in growing their reading skills, and the read-aloud texts fall short of the recommended complexity. For example, in Unit 3, Theme 5, Week 1, Lesson 1, the story Fire Storm by Jean Craighead George has a Lexile of 650, which is in the bottom range of the 4th grade Lexile band. In Unit 5, Theme 10, students hear the story Exploring Explorers, which is within the Lexile range for fourth grade, but due to the simple sentences and vocabulary and the ideas clearly and explicitly stated, the qualitative features are only slightly complex. Similarly, The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry is the modeled read aloud in Unit 6, Theme 11, Week 1, Lesson 1, and has a Lexile of 590, which is below the Lexile Band for fourth grade. The qualitative features of this text are only slightly complex, with an exception of knowledge demands, which is moderately complex. Students hear the persuasive essay, Buy! Buy! Why?, which has a Lexile of 750, which is in the quantitative range for fourth grade, but two of the qualitative features (purpose and knowledge demands) are only slightly complex. The Mystery of the Box Inside the Wall, which is read the first week of the program has a Lexile of 550, but qualitative features in the slightly complex range.

The small group reading texts are the only texts that students read independently. According to the publishers of Literacy by Design, the leveled readers include readers that are used for intervention, on level, and enrichment. Enrichments texts are considered R - T, which is above the grade level band. For example, a Level R text is The Sun Above and the River Below (870 L), Level S text is A Night at the Beach by Diane Bair and Pamela Wright (1100 L), and a Level T text is Bugs Beware! by John Maos and Lisa Klobuchar (1120 L). There are, however, texts below the grade level band that are considered M or N texts. For example, the level M text is Semi’s Beads by Jane Langford, which is a 630 L, and the level N text is Woodland People, Desert People, by Jacqueline D. Green, which is a 640 L, which is only slightly below the grade level hand.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks address grade-level CCSS for foundational skills by providing explicit instruction and assessment in phonics and word recognition that demonstrate a research-based progression.

Literacy by Design materials provide explicit instruction and assessment in phonics and word recognition that demonstrate a research-based progression, but the progression begins with foundational skills from prior grade levels. Instruction in irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition are limited when whole group time instruction is focused on prior standards. There is an assessment calendar that provides the teacher opportunities to assess students weekly on some skills, monthly on other skills, and twice a year for other reading assessments. Students are provided explicit instruction in strategies to use word solving approaches. Opportunities to further Grade 4 students’ word analysis are missed in the early Themes because the materials contain whole class review foundational skills. Materials contain limited opportunities for explicit instruction of word solving strategies (graphophonic and syntactic) to decode unfamiliar words.

Materials contain explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition consistently over the course of the year. Examples include:

• The introduction to the Small Group Reading Teacher’s Guide at Grade 4 states that phonics and word study are correlated to reading levels. The levels for grade 4 are M-T. Word study including prefixes and suffixes, multiple-meaning words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, plurals and syllabication occur in levels N-W. For example:
  • In Level M, Small Group Reading, page 11, students work on consonant patterns ink and ack. This is a foundational skill from a prior grade level.
  • In Level P, Small Group Reading, page 136, students work on reading and identifying compound words. The teacher gives some examples and then students name and define the smaller word.
• In Theme 7, Week 2, Thinking Like a Scientist, the teacher starts by providing students with a definition of inflected endings. “Tell students that an inflected ending is a letter or group of letters that is added to a word to change its meaning. Write the root word walk on the board. Then write the words walked, walking, and walks. Ask volunteers to tell what was added to change the root word (endings -ed, -ing, and -s) and to use each new word in a sentence that shows the meaning of the word.” The class then discusses examples of when they have used inflected endings.
• In Theme 8, Week 2, the teacher provides students with a definition of a prefix, “Explain to students that a prefix is a letter or group of letters that can be added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. The prefix un- means “not.” Provide examples, such as untie, undo, unclear, and so on.”
• In Theme 13, Week 1, students learn about the suffixes -ful, -able and -less.
• In Theme 13, Week 2, students learn about the suffixes -ness, -ion, -tion, and -ment.
• In Theme 14, Week 1, students learn about the suffixes -ly and -fully.
• In Theme 16, students learn consonant doubling. “Work with a partner to add endings to a list of words. Think of words with which you could use the double consonant rule.”

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 4 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, includes multiple-choice questions on review of short vowels and initial consonants, “Which of these lists contains words that all begin with a consonant?) It also asks the students to select the correct word that both starts and ends with a consonant. This is assessment question is below grade level.
  • In Theme 14, the assessment includes 2 questions about suffixes. “What suffix do you add to the word silent to make it mean in a silent way?”
• Mid-year and End-of-Year review tests are cumulative. The mid-year test contains questions about synonyms and antonyms and multiple-meaning words. “Which of these words is an antonym of started?” The end-of-year review texts antonyms and multiple meaning words.
• Materials include Rigby READS diagnostic assessment in order to get a baseline of data for students’ reading.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 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, using the context of a text from the sourcebook, students practice finding synonyms and antonyms for words such as ascend, summit, ancient and huge.
• In Theme 5, Week 2, students complete the following activity on multiple meaning words, “Read the television show synopsis It’s Plain to See that “Plain Truth” is a Hit on page 150 aloud. Have students listen for words that have multiple meanings (place, run, plain, show, set, hit, stars, block, spring). Then have partners complete Multiple-Meaning Words in Context on page 151 of the Sourcebook.”
• In Theme 6, Week 1, students listen for homonyms in the context of a text from the sourcebook. Homonym pairs students listen for include: mussels/muscles, to/two, assistance/assistants, pier/peer, tide/tied.
• In Theme 7, Week 2, Thinking Like a Scientist, the teacher starts by providing students with a definition of inflected endings - “Tell students that an inflected ending is a letter or group of letters that is added to a word to change its meaning. Write the root word walk on the board. Then write the words walked, walking, and walks. Ask volunteers to tell what was added to change the root word (endings -ed, -ing, and -s) and to use each new word in a sentence that shows the meaning of the word.” The class then discusses examples of when they have used inflected endings.
• In Theme 8, Week 2, the teacher provides students with a definition of a prefix, “Explain to students that a prefix is a letter or group of letters that can be added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. The prefix un- means “not.” Provide examples, such as untie, undo, unclear, and so on.”
• In Theme 16, Week 1, Lesson 5, students learn the skill of consonant doubling in order to read words they are unfamiliar with. The teacher has students complete Activity 3 in their sourcebook on page 485. Students explore words with consonant doubles , then they work together in partners in order to add endings to words such as - er, -ed, -est and -ing. Then they create a list of their own words with consonant doubling and share the list with the peers in the group. They then look back at a paragraph on erosion and write their own paragraph that outlines the steps of erosion and then a partner finds all of the words they used that have consonant doubling in them.
• Meaning (word study) including prefixes and suffixes, contractions, multiple-meaning words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, plurals, syllabication, idioms, and abbreviations occur in levels N-W at fourth grade. All are presented in the context of the readings in that section. For example:
  • Level N, Small Group Reading, focuses on homonyms. Students review the definition and create homonym sentences from the words in the reading. They also look at multiple-meaning words by deciding which words in the story are multiple-meaning words. Level N also includes the suffixes -ly and -fully.
  • Level O, Small Group Reading, addresses compound words, within the context of the Mystery of the Missing Book. It also addresses contractions in The Story of the Hoover Dam. In My BIrd Journal, students focus on the prefix un-, which is continued in Level P.
  • Level P, Small Group Reading, addresses suffixes -ion and -tion in the context of We’ve Got Mail.
  • Level Q, Small Group Reading, addresses the prefixes re- and pre-, within the context of the Wind at Work. It also addresses suffixes -ness and -ment.
  • Level S, Small Group Reading, focuses on irregular verbs, inflected endings, prefixes non-, in-, and dis-, suffixes -ly and -fully, and compound words.

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

• There is a benchmark assessment and evaluation kit. This assessment is said to give teachers ongoing progress monitoring for students in the area of word study and comprehension. Teachers individually administer this assessment several times a year and the texts are fiction and nonfiction.
• There is another assessment called Rigby Reads that is an evaluation and diagnostic tool to help the teacher evaluate students word analysis skills. This assessment is given at the beginning and end of the year or when a new student moves into the teachers class. This provides teachers with information about a students word analysis skills in order for them to access books at their reading level. This assessment is used twice a year rather than for monitoring and adjusting instruction of word analysis skills.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 13, Week 1, Teach Fluency: Read in Phrases, “Discuss how good readers read the words in a phrase together without pausing to make the reading sound smooth. Use echo reading as you reread a portion of page 392. Model reading in phrases as students echo read and follow your use of phrasing.”
• In Theme 15, Week 1, Teach Fluency: Use Read in Phrases, “Explain to students that good readers often read in phrases without pausing to make the reading sound as though they are talking. This also helps them with the text’s meaning. Use echo reading as you reread a portion of page 454, modeling reading in phrases.”
• In Theme 16, Week 1, Teach Fluency: Use Punctuation to Inform Meaning, “Discuss how good readers use punctuation as they read aloud to help establish a serious, excited or questioning tone. Use choral reading as you reread a potion of page 484. Before reading, point out the end punctuation. Then have students practice a serious, questioning, or excited tone as you read together.”
• The Small Group Reading Teacher’s Guide 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. All the fluency lessons are grounded in the readings. For example:
  • In Levels M, N, and O, there are fluency lessons about changing one’s voice to reflect characters, conveying emotion and meaning, using punctuation to inform meaning, and reading in phrases. For example, the teacher models reading page 3 of the text, changing her own voice to reflect the characters. Students then take turns practicing reading the character parts.
  • In Level N, Lesson 2, students are encouraged to practice fluency through phrasing. Students read the text and the teacher listens to ensure students are reading phrases with fluency.
  • In Level P, 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 Level T.

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 the Sourcebook, page 278, students read the poem, “Morning Light.” Students practice symbolism while reading this poem.
• In Theme 3, Week 2, students read the poem, “Vertebrate or Invertebrate - What’s My ID?,” students work on identifying abbreviations in the poem, but no mention is made of working on rate, expression or accuracy when reading the poem.
• In Theme 5, Week 1, Lesson 3, students read the story, “The Superstition Mountains.” The teacher uses echo reading to show students how to read a section on page 138, to model and convey emotion and meaning through expression.
• In Theme 14, Week 1, students read the poem “Sunday at the Farmer’s Market.” The focus of the lesson is on repetition of language and there is no mention of rereading the poem to build fluency, work on expression or accuracy.

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 13, Week 1, Think Aloud, Use Fix-Up Strategies: Read On (during a teacher read aloud of the story A Band of Angels.- “The narrator of the story tells us “those nine young singers faced many hardships.” I do not know what the narrator means by “hardships,” so I read on to figure out the meaning. I learn that by “hardships” the narrator means the difficult situations that the singers had to deal with, like getting turned away from restaurants and hotels because of the color of their skin.”
• In Theme 14, Week 2, the class revisits the strategy “Read On,” “Remind students of last theme’s strategy, Use Fix-Up Strategies: Read On.” On the following day, students should be ready to summarize their reading and discuss how they used the read on strategy to uncover meaning.”

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 component, 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.
• 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.