The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1b.

The materials include opportunities for students to listen to and read both literary and informational texts; however, there is an unequal balance of literary to informational texts. Instead of the 50-50 ratio suggested by the standards, there are roughly 70% literary texts and 30% informational texts. Throughout the year, students listen to and read a variety of genres including explanatory text, fables, folktales, fantasties, realistic fiction, fairy tales, informational texts, myths, poems, and rhyming nonfiction. There are no biographies found within the Grade 2 curriculum. A larger number of literary texts are found in most units. Students have limited opportunities to interact with selections that contain an informational text structure.

• Materials reflect the distribution of text types/genres required by the grade level standards. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, materials include the literary genres of fantasy, poetry, fable, folktale, and realistic fiction. Unit 1 also includes informational text selections, such as a journal entry and an autobiography/narrative nonfiction, though this is written in the style of a story. Examples of text selections include The Mice Who Lived in a Shoe by Rodney Peppe (literary), Ant and Aphids Work Together by Martha E.H. Rustad (literary), and The Final Game by William Roy Brownridge (informational).

  • In Unit 3, the materials include the literary genres of realistic fiction, folktale, and poetry. It also includes two informational texts. Texts include Gross Jobs by Andre J. Parker (informational), Victor’s Journal by Wendy Reyes (literary), and The Stranger and the Soup retold by Elizabeth Hamilton (literary). 

  • In Unit 6, materials include the literary genres of folktale, poetry, realistic fiction, fairy tales, and fables. It also includes two informational texts. Examples include Aesop and His Fables adapted by Lee Nowalk (literary), Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Part 2 retold by Rania Atkinson (literary), and The Art of Storytelling by Karen Hermosa (informational).

• Materials do not reflect a 50/50 balance of informational and literary texts. Examples include 

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 2, students read “Teamwork” by Tanya Anderson (poem) and Ants and Aphids Work Together by Martha E.H. Rustad (informational text). In Unit 1, there are six literary texts and three informational texts. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, students read What Makes the Earth Shake (myth) retold by Chandler Tyrrell, and in Lesson 2, A River of Ice (informational text) by Sue Gibbison. In this unit, there are six literary texts and three informational texts. 

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 4, students read “Our School is Like a City” by Shameka Lee-Shirey (poem) and in Lesson 2, My Community and Me by Lisa Kurkov (informational text). In this unit, there are seven literary texts and two informational texts. 

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, students read “Squirmy, Wiggly Earthworms” by Mike Plutkis (poem) and in Lesson 1, Busy Bees by Brighid Lowe (informational text). In this unit, there are five literary texts and two informational texts. 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, students read A Brand-New American Family by Karen E. Martin (realistic fiction) and in Lesson 4, students read I Pledge Allegiance by Logan Doyle (informational text). In this unit, there are seven literary texts and two informational texts. 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 4, students read “The Big Bad Wolf Speaks” by Daniel R. Colwell (poem) and in Lesson 5, students listen to Storytelling: A Zulu Tradition by MIcah Carter-Fulton (informational text). In Unit 6, there are eight literary texts and two informational texts.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1c.

Instructional materials do not include a text complexity analysis for the texts included in the Grade 2 materials. Most texts in Grade 2 have the appropriate level of complexity according to quantitative and qualitative analysis; however, the associated student task for the majority of the texts is for students to practice various reading comprehension strategies such as prediction, connections, and asking questions on the first read of the text. Materials state, “Students read each selection twice—the first time to practice comprehension strategies, and the second to understand not only the kinds of techniques writers use but also how to access complex text by searching for specific types of information. Before, during, and after both reads of the selection, vocabulary development and application is stressed.” 

While most texts meet the requirement for text complexity, the program does not include a rationale for each text and a quantitative analysis is only provided for some texts, while a qualitative analysis is not provided at all. According to the Program Overview, “In Grades 4-5, where text complexity becomes even more difficult, Preview the Selection in the Teacher’s Edition states the Lexile level of the selection, indicates the level of complexity from simple to complex, and provides the reasoning behind why the text is complex.” However this information is not included in the Grade 2 materials.

Most texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task; however, in Grade 2, students also read the text, as opposed to the text being read-aloud. Some texts placed at the beginning of the year have a high level of complexity towards the end of the Lexile band. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, Lesson 6, students read Volcano Rising by Elizabeth Rusch, which has a Lexile of 760L. Because of the specific content knowledge, the complexity is considered very complex. After reading the text, students make connections, visualize, and clarify. On the second read, students look for the main idea and details and compare and contrast. This text is towards the end of the Grade 2-3 Lexile band. 

• In Unit 3, Lesson 5, students read The Stranger and the Soup retold by Elizabeth Hamilton, which has a Lexile level of 580L, which is appropriate for Grade 2 students. The text is qualitatively complex. It has an implied purpose, figurative language, and multiple themes. The associated tasks include practicing reading comprehension strategies: summarizing and visualizing, discussing the selection, and completing a worksheet on inferences. 

• In Unit 5, Lesson 1, students read A Brand-New American Family by Karen E. Martin, which has a Lexile of 620L, which is moderately complex due to the language. Over the course of the two days students engage with the text by applying the comprehension strategies of predicting and visualizing. Students also make inferences using a graphic organizer. 

• In Unit 6, Lesson 3, students read Cinderlad retold by Erika Alderfer, which has a Lexile of 690L. The qualitative features include events out of chronological order, complex academic vocabulary, and references to other texts. On the first read, students predict and visualize. When rereading the text, students identify temporal words to help them discuss the sequence of the text.

There is no rationale for the educational purpose and placement of texts in the materials. There is a Lexile Reference Guide for texts in the student anthology, but no qualitative analysis is included in the program.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1d.

In Grade 2, each unit begins with an anchor read-aloud text and the other texts included in the unit are read by the students. The materials include complex texts that support students’ literacy skills; however, the complexity level of the texts remain relatively the same, making it difficult for them to support growth over the course of the year. Additionally, reader and task demands on the first read of the text focus primarily on comprehension strategies, such as predicting and making connections that do not align with the standards. The tasks across the year remain relatively the same with students practicing a comprehension strategy and then discussing the text. Comprehension strategies and questions are repeated throughout the year and applied to different texts; however, since the texts stay primarily at the same level of complexity, students do not apply skills and strategies to more complex texts as the year progresses. 

In the beginning of the year, materials prompt the teacher to simply model and in the middle of the year, the teacher models and prompts students for answers. By the end of the year, the teacher prompts students, with scaffolds removed.

• The complexity of most anchor texts students read provide an opportunity for students’ literacy skills to increase across the year, encompassing an entire year’s worth of growth; however, the complexity level of the texts remain relatively the same. For example:

  • The texts in Unit 1 include a Lexile range of 500L-720L The qualitative complexity ranges from low to moderate complexity. Associated tasks are moderate tasks. In Unit 1, students spend time on questions that focus on comprehension strategies such as asking and answering questions and making connections. Some of the texts in Unit 1 include:

    • The Bat, Birds, and Beasts by Mary Ann Rodman, which has a Lexile of 500L and has a high qualitative complexity due to the language. The associated tasks are moderate. The overall text complexity is complex.  

    • The Final Game by William Roy Brownridge, which has a Lexile of 720L. The text has a moderate qualitative complexity. The associated tasks range from low to moderate. The overall text complexity is moderate. 

• The texts in Unit 3 include a Lexile range of 580L-710L. The qualitative complexity ranges from low to high. Associated tasks are of moderate complexity. In Unit 3, students spend time on questions that focus on comprehension strategies, such as asking and answering questions, making connections, and classifying and categorizing information. Some of the texts in Unit 3 include:

  • My Community and Me by Lisa Kurkov, which has a Lexile of 710L. The text has a low qualitative complexity. The associated tasks are moderate. The overall text complexity is moderate. 

  • Victor’s Journal  by Wendy Reyes, which has a Lexile of 630L. The text has a high qualitative complexity. The associated tasks are moderate. The overall text complexity is complex. 

• The texts in Unit 6 include a Lexile range of 530L-780L. The qualitative complexity is high across the unit. Associated tasks are of moderate complexity. In Unit 6, students spend time on questions that focus on comprehension strategies such as making, revising, and confirming predictions and summarizing. Some of the texts in Unit 6 include:

  • Cinderella Tales  by Eduardo M. Davaios, which has a Lexile of 700L. The text has a high qualitative complexity. The associated tasks are moderate. The overall text complexity is complex. 

  • The Art of Storytelling by Karen Hermosa, which has a Lexile of 780L. The text has a high qualitative complexity. The associated tasks are moderate. The overall text complexity is complex.

• As texts become more complex, appropriate scaffolds and/or materials are not provided in the Teacher Edition (i.e., spending more time on texts, more questions, repeated readings). Texts remain relatively at the same complexity and scaffolds are removed throughout the year.

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, students read A River of Ice by Sue Gibbison, which has a Lexile of 530L and is qualitatively high. In this unit, the teacher models.

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 2, students read Hungry Little Hare by Howard Goldsmith, which has a Lexile of 600L and is qualitatively moderate in complexity. The teacher moves from modeling to modeling and prompting. 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, students read A Brand-New American Family by Karen E. Martin, which has a Lexile of 620L. The teacher no longer models, and instead, prompts the students by asking questions during the read aloud.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1e.

A variety of texts and genres are included in each of the units in Grade 2. Each unit begins with a read-aloud to introduce students to the theme. However, many lessons provide only one text for students to interact with over the course of five days, limiting the opportunity for students to read a volume of texts. No independent reading routine is found in the curriculum.

• Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in reading a variety of text types and genres. Examples include:

  • According to the Grade 2 Program Guide, “Students have the chance to connect what they have read to a short, cross-curricular selection. This allows students to have multiple opportunities with different text features and with social studies and science content.” 

  • In Unit 2, students read a variety of genres including realistic fiction, informational text, myths, poetry, and fantasy. 

  • In Unit 3, students read a variety of genres including informational text, realistic fiction, poetry, and folktales. Some of the texts include The Little Red Hen by Maria Minnick and Victor’s Journal by Wendy Reyes. In Lesson 2, students read the text My Community and Me by Lisa Kurkov twice in order to apply comprehension skills and fluency skills.

• Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in a volume of reading. Examples include:

  • In Grade 2, students access 33 central texts via shared reading of a Student Anthology. In addition, they listen to a read-aloud to launch each unit. 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 5, students read D is for Democracy by Elissa Grodin many times for different purposes including applying comprehension strategies, practicing fluency, and identifying writer’s craft. Students read this text over the course of five days. 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 5, students read Storytelling: A Zulu Tradition by Micah Carter-Fulton over the course of five days. Students use this text to apply comprehension strategies, engage in  close reading, practice fluency, and analyze writer’s craft.

There is not sufficient teacher guidance to foster independence for all readers.There is no proposed schedule for independent reading. There is no tracking system to track independent reading. Most texts are not organized with built-in supports/scaffolds to foster independence and independent reading procedures are included in the lessons. The materials provide a Home Connection letter for each lesson and an instructional routine for reading a selection, but there is no schedule or tracking system to help support and foster independent reading for students. Possible additional opportunities for students to engage in reading independently include:

• The Resource Library contains “Challenge Novels” for students reading above-level, which gives additional novels for these students to read. 

• Workshop “is the time each day when students work independently, in pairs, or in small groups to review and apply recently learned skills and strategies, practice fluency, work on Inquiry, complete writing assignments, hold peer conferences, and make personal choices.” The goal of this time is to help build student independence but materials suggest that there should be a reading area with books and magazines for students.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1h.

Following the first read of a text, students engage in a whole-group discussion with Discussion Starters provided. Students are encouraged to answer in complete sentences and to build on others’ responses during the Discuss the Selection. At other points in lessons and units, students engage in different forms of speaking and listening tasks. At the end of a unit, students work in small groups to discuss content knowledge and texts they have read in a Theme Wrap-Up and Review discussion. During the Theme Wrap-Up and Review discussion, students retell a favorite selection, review the knowledge learned, and share their thinking with the class. However, students do not have varied opportunities for speaking and listening. The majority of the time, students are speaking and listening during whole group discussions or turn and talk. Because the majority of discussions are done in the whole group with the teacher asking questions, all students may not be engaged in speaking and listening about what they are reading.

• Students have multiple opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading (or listening to) through speaking and listening opportunities, though they are not varied. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 5, after reading The Final Game by William Roy Brownridge, students meet to discuss the text. The teacher engages students in a discussion by asking them questions and encouraging them to build from each other’s conversations. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 6, students meet in small groups for the Theme Wrap-Up and Review and students choose one selection they liked best. Then they retell the selection and explain why they liked it. Students identify what they learned about Earth’s natural forces from the selection and explain how the various text features used in the selections helped them understand the text. 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 6, students meet in small groups and have a collaborative conversation to discuss and review the unit selections. Students can use discussion starters such as, “Identify what you learned about citizenship from the selection,” “Explain how the various text features used in the selection helped 

  • you understand the text,” and “Explain why you liked the selection.” 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 6, students explain how the selections in the unit helped them to answer the Big Idea question, “Why do you enjoy stories?” 

• Speaking and listening work requires students to marshall evidence from texts and sources.  Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 3, students compare and contrast The Bats, Birds, and Beasts retold by Chad Clark to different versions by different authors, such as the traditional Aesop’s Fable and Bat’s Big Game by Margaret Read MacDonald. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, students compare and contrast texts in this unit and the use of turtles as a character. The teacher asks, “What makes the turtle a fitting animal for these stories?”

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, students are asked, “How do you know that Mother Hare was right? Did you learn this from the text or the illustrations?” after reading Hungry Little Hare by Howard Goldsmith.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1j.

Grade 2 students participate in writing activities each day across the Language Arts block. Students write opinion, narrative, and informative genres and a variety of types within the genre. Informational writing makes up almost half of all writing assignments, with narrative and opinion writing accounting for less time. Opinion writing is taught in the beginning and end of the year and narrative writing happens in the middle and end of the year. Informative writing is distributed throughout the year. At times, writing assignments are connected to the texts. The teacher may remind students about a text they have read, but there are limited opportunities for the teacher to analyze a text as an exemplar to help students develop their craft. Students also respond to literature, but this occurs more in the second half of the year.

• Materials provide opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes/types of writing, but it does not reflect the distribution required by the standards.  Different genres/modes/types of writing are not evenly distributed throughout the school year. For example: 

• Students have opportunities to engage in opinion writing roughly only 12% of all writing lessons, though roughly 28% of instructional time. Opinion writing takes place mostly at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, students write opinion pieces, for example, about money.

  • In Unit 6, students write a persuasive piece.

• Students have opportunities to engage in informative/explanatory writing roughly 44% of the time. These pieces are written at the beginning, middle, and end of the year and include a variation in type including book reports and biographies. Examples include: 

  • In Unit 2, students write about a career, a book, an animal, and a relative.

  • In Unit 4, students write a compare and contrast about animals. 

  • In Unit 5, students write a response to literature and a summary.

  • In Unit 6, students write a response to literature. 

• Students have opportunities to engage in narrative writing with six of the 25 process writing pieces being narrative. This accounts for roughly 24% of writing. Narrative writing is found in the middle and end of the year. Examples include: 

  • In Unit 3, students complete narrative writings, including an action tale, a realistic story, a personal narrative, and a fantasy.

  • In Unit 5, students write personal letters, a formal letter, and a narrative.

  • In Unit 6, students write a couplet and haiku and a personal narrative. 

• Where appropriate, writing opportunities are connected to texts and/or text sets (either as prompts, models, anchors, or supports). Examples include:

  • In Unit 5, the theme is Citizenship. The big idea for the unit is “What makes a good citizen?” In Lesson 5, students draft a summary on the importance of being a good citizen. 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 2, students choose a fiction reading selection from the Student Anthology 2 and use it to answer the question, “What is the plot of the story?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the expectations of Indicator 1k.

Materials provide limited opportunities for students to practice evidence-based writing; however, many opportunities do not require students to write using a text. In the Look Closer activities students are asked to refer to information from the text, but the writing prompts still require them to share a personal opinion many times. In the process writing tasks, there are few opportunities to work with evidence from a text, and the few opportunities are writing summaries of a shared text. Additional opportunities are  part of the final inquiry presentation in each unit, but a writing prompt is one option students can choose to demonstrate their knowledge.

• Materials provide some opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 1, after reading The Mice who Lived in a Shoe by Rodney Peppe, students describe a time when they demonstrated helpfulness at school, which is not an evidence-based writing prompt. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, after reading What Makes the Earth Shake? retold by Chandler Tyrrell, students create their own story about what causes an earthquake, which is similar to the story they read.

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 2, after reading My Community and Me by Lisa Kurkov, students describe some special interests or talents that they have discovered in school, which is not an evidence-based writing prompt. 

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 1, after reading Flower Power by Julia Wall, students are asked, “Describe the outcome of the plant experiment. Did all of the plants grow? Which plant grew the tallest?” 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, after reading A Brand-New American Family by Karen K. Martin, students imagine that they are a member of the Flores family. They then write what they would do to celebrate their new citizenship. Students do not need to comprehend or refer to the text in order to answer this writing prompt. 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 3, after reading Cinderlad retold by Erika Alderfer, students imagine that they are Cinderlad in the meadow. They describe what they see, hear, and how they feel when the rumbling begins.

• Some writing opportunities are focused around students’ recall of information to develop opinions from reading closely and working with evidence from texts and sources. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Getting Started, Day 1, students write a response after reading Little Red Riding Hood. The Teacher Guide states that students can write about “what they think of a character or characters and why” or “they might explain whether or not they thought the story was interesting or entertaining...” There is no specific prompt; therefore some students might write and refer to the text, while others might not. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 5, after reading In my Own Backyard by Judi Kurjian, students write about which story’s time they think would be the most fun to visit and why. 

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 2, after reading A Brand New American Family by Karen E. Martin, students respond to the text by answering the questions, “Who is one of the main characters in A Brand-New American Family? What words does the author use to describe the character?” 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 3, students write a persuasive piece. Teachers remind students that, “when writing a persuasive text, it is important to be sure they have solid reasons to support their opinions.” The reasons do not have to come from a text.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1l.

Materials provide explicit instruction of the grade-level grammar and usage standards through the instruction and guided practice sections of the day’s activities that direct the teacher on wording and examples to teach the skill. Most grammar and convention standards are addressed in Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics. There is a missed opportunity for explicit instruction and repeated student practice for forming and using the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs. Opportunities are missed for students to learn how to consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings. There are opportunities for students to apply grammar and conventions skills to in-context tasks.

• Materials include explicit instruction of most grammar and conventions standards for the grade level. For example:

  • Use collective nouns (e.g., group).

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 2, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays the ePresentation to show collective nouns. The teacher explains that collective nouns describe a group of people, animals, or things. The teacher writes collective nouns on the board and students make sentences using one of the collective nouns.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 2, Day 5, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher reviews collective nouns. The teacher lists animal-related collective nouns on the board. The students select two collective nouns and make a sentence with subject-verb agreement.

  • Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish).

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 5, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher presents the ePresentation to show sentences with singular and plural nouns. The teacher explains the rules for changing singular nouns ending in s, x, z, ss, ch, sh, y, f. The teacher displays singular nouns on the board for students to change to plural nouns. Nouns include girl, foot, box, child, baby, fox, wolf, tooth, man, mouse, sheep, fish.

    • In Unit 6, Lesson 3, Day 4, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays a list of nouns (fox, baby, fish, child, hen). The students write the plural of each noun.

  • Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 3, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays a sentence with the reflexive pronoun, “Ari cleans the snake’s cages by himself.” The teacher explains the use of reflexive pronouns. 

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 3, Day 4, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays sentences. Students identify the nouns that can be replaced with pronouns and reflexive pronouns.

  • Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher uses an ePresentation to explain verb tenses with irregular verbs. In Apply, students change sentences to show past tense, present tense, or future tense.

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 6, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays a friendly letter. Students identify three past-tense verbs (sent, got, yelled).

  • Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 4, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays an ePresentation with three sentences. The teacher points out the adjectives and the modified noun. Then students identify adjectives in three different sentences.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 1, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays an ePresentation with sentences and points out the adverbs. Then students identify adverbs in three different sentences. Students determine if the adverb tells how, when, or where.

  • Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy).

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 4, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher explains conjunctions. In small groups, students write sentences using an, or, or but.

    • In Unit 6, Lesson 3, Day 1, the teacher displays sentences. The students combine the sentences and then rearrange the sentences if needed.

  • Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher shows sentences and identifies the proper nouns. Students list product names on the board and capitalize the names.

    • In Unit 3, Lesson 3, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher shows sentences with days, months, holidays, cities, states, and geographic names. The teacher explains that those proper nouns are capitalized. The teacher shows four other sentences with holidays, cities, and states that are not capitalized. Students edit the sentences and capitalize the proper nouns.

  • Use commas in greetings and closings of letters.

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays a friendly letter. The teacher points to the commas in the greeting and closing. Students correctly write the greetings and closings on their paper.

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, Day 5, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher reminds students about commas in greetings and closings. The students correct mistakes in greetings and closings.

  • Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher displays three sentences with contractions. The teacher explains contractions as two shortened words. The teacher shows three sentences with no contractions. The teacher shows the contraction to be made. Students identify which letter/letters the apostrophe replaced.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 5, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, the teacher shows three sentences and points out the possessive nouns and pronouns. The teacher explains a possessive noun and shows four sentences for students to identify possessive nouns and pronouns.

  • Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage → badge; boy → boil).

    • In Unit 1, Lesson 2, Day 1, Spelling, the teacher gives students a spelling pretest. Words on the test have /j/ spelled dge, /k/ spelled ck, and /ch/ spelled tch.

    • In Unit 3, Lesson 2, Day 3, Dictation and Spelling, the teacher uses Routine 7 and Routine 8 to spell words and sentences. Words include long e spelled with e, ee, ee, ea, ie, y, ey.

    • In Unit 6, Lesson 2, Day 1, Spelling, the teacher gives students a spelling pretest. Words on the test have silent letters. Students spell words such as castle, answer, rhino.

  • Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.

    • In Unit 1, Lesson 4, Day 1, Apply, students revise and edit their opinion writing. The teacher tells students that they should consult reference materials.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, Day 2, Apply, students edit their informative/explanatory writing. Students are told to use “reference materials, including beginning dictionaries.”

    • In Unit 6, Lesson 6, Day 3, Apply, students edit their personal narratives. The directions to the teacher state, “Tell students that they should consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, to check and correct spellings.”

  • Compare formal and informal uses of English

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 5, Day 2, Writing to Inform, the teacher reminds students to use formal language since the audience is the teacher. The teacher models revising a draft to eliminate informal language. Students complete Skills Practice I to identify the informal and formal language.

    • In Unit 3, Lesson 3, Day 1, Narrative Writing, the teacher tells students that dialogue should sound realistic with informal language. Students make suggestions for other realistic dialogue to be added to the teacher’s narrative draft.

• Materials include opportunities for students to demonstrate application of skills both in- and out-of-context. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 2, Day 1, Apply, the students add adjectives and adverbs to four sentences. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, Apply, students make sentences with product names and names with abbreviated titles.

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 3, Day 3, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, Apply, the students write three sentences from the board. The teacher asks students to have two sentences with reflexive pronouns.

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 5, Day 3 Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics, Apply, students write two sentences with possessive nouns. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria of Indicator 1m.

Vocabulary activities occur daily in Grade 2. During each first read or close reading of an anchor text, students learn new words. They are then asked to apply their understanding of those words to familiar scenarios or to new contexts with different meanings. Students learn word-attack strategies, such as considering part of speech, using antonyms or synonyms, or looking up words in glossaries. Some vocabulary words are central to the meaning of an anchor text; however, vocabulary words are not repeated across multiple texts.

• Materials provide teacher guidance outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. For example: 

  • Routine 11 is the Selection Vocabulary Routine which consists of five steps. Develop and Practice occur before, during, or after reading text. Apply and Extend have students read the same words in a new text created specifically for this program and complete practice activities to solidify their understanding of the meaning. The fifth step, Review, occurs throughout the program. 

  • Before reading the selection, the teacher orally introduces the definitions of vocabulary words essential to understanding the text. After reading, the teacher introduces additional vocabulary words. 

  • In Grade 2, students begin analyzing vocabulary words or study word relations to help understand the vocabulary word more quickly and efficiently.

• Vocabulary is repeated in contexts, yet not often found across multiple texts. For example: 

  • In Unit 1, Getting Started, the words approached and scrambling are introduced for the read-aloud, Little Red Riding Hood. These words are not referenced after reading or in other texts. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 1, Day 2, before reading the text Mattland by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Hert, students learn the word modify. After reading the text, students review the word and are asked to discuss how the word relates to this selection. Students learn an additional 11 vocabulary words found in the text. On Day 3, the teacher reviews the vocabulary words and asks questions and students respond with a vocabulary word such as, “Which word names places where water drains? - culverts.” 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 4, students learn the words unfortunately and compelled in the text Cinderella Tales and apply their understanding of those words in examining the poem “The Big Bad Wolf Speaks” by Daniel R. Colwell.

• Attention is paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and to high-value academic words. For example:

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 2, students learn the words tender and hind. Students go into the text Hungry Little Hare by Howard Goldsmith to define the words. 

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 1, students learn the words meanwhile, spark, bazaar, polished, fortune, sultan, procession, word, acquainted, extraordinary, spectacular, and lord. Students then use context clues to help determine the meaning of the words.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1n.i.

Materials include explicit instructional routines for Sound-by-Sound Blending, Whole-Word Blending, Blending Sentences, Sounds-in-Sequence Dictation, Whole-Word Dictation, Sentence Dictation, Closed Syllables, Open Syllables, and Words with Prefixes and Suffixes. These consistent routines provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. Sound/Spelling Cards are used for many activities. Routines are consistent for introducing each new sound pattern, and students can hear, say, encode, and read each pattern within the same lesson. While materials address the majority of grade-level standards, there are missed opportunities for students to learn to distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled words; particularly long and short e vowel sounds. 

• Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. Examples include:

  • Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 1, Day 1, the students practice contrasting long and short a. The teacher tells students that the final silent e signals the letter a to make /ā/. Students read tap, cane, tape, and cane.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 1, Day 3, the students practice contrasting long and short i. The teacher tells students that the final silent e signals the letter a to make /ā/. Students identify the vowel sound in bit, strip, bite, and stripe. The teacher does not explicitly teach why the vowel sound changes.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 3, the students practice contrasting long and short o. Students identify the vowel sound in not, cop, note, and cope. The teacher does not explicitly teach why the vowel sound changes.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 3, the students practice contrasting long and short u. Students identify the vowel sound in cut, mutt, cute, and mute. The teacher does not explicitly teach why the vowel sound changes.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 1, Day 5, the teacher is to review long a and long i using the Sound/Spelling Cards 27 and 29. Then students read the word lines and sentences.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 4, Day 2, the teacher writes the sentences on the board. Students read the sentence aloud to distinguish the short and long vowel sounds. The teacher tells students to identify which word has short e and which has long e. The teacher does not explicitly teach short e and long e distinction. 

  • Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, Day 1, the teacher introduces the vowel team oo. The teacher asks students to identify and read words spoon, spool, stool, stoop, mood, choose. 

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 1, the teacher introduces the vowel team ou_. The teacher asks students to identify and read words with that sound.

    • In Unit 6, Lesson1, Day 1, the teacher explains that ough has many different sounds. The teacher shows the word brought, says the word, and has students repeat the word several times.

  • Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, Day 1, Phonics and Decoding / ī/ spelled i, i_e Blending, the teacher introduces / ī/ spelled i and i_e using Sound/Spelling Card 29. The teacher uses Routine 5, the Open Syllables Routine, to discuss open syllables with students. The teacher reminds them that every syllable must have a vowel sound and a vowel spelling. The teacher points to the word final and has students identify the vowel spellings in the word (i, a). The teacher writes a V under each vowel spelling. Then students identify the consonant spelling between the vowels and write a C under the consonant spelling. The teacher tells students that when they see a vowel-consonant-vowel spelling pattern, they usually should divide the word before the consonant spelling. 

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 1, Day 1, Phonics and Decoding, Decoding, the teacher introduces the long /o/ using Sound/Spelling Card 30 and uses the decoding word list (e.g., rowboat, ozone, homegrown) to show identifying the vowel team.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 2, Day 1, Phonics and Decoding, Decoding, the teacher introduces the /ū/ spelled ew and ue using Sound/Spelling Card 31 and asks students what spellings for /ū/ they have already learned. u and u_e. The students read the words in the lines. (spew, hew, nephew, curfew, cue, cup, hue, hug, fuel, dispute, puny, accuse, continue, January, distribute, pewter. In About the Words, students identify the target sound/spelling in each word: continue, January, distribute, pewter.

  • Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 3, Day 3, the teacher uses Instructional Routine 10 to introduce the prefixes dis- and un-. Students decode the words dislike, disagree, dishonest, disrespect, unkind, unwritten, unfair, unwise, and four additional words with each prefix. 

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, Day 3, the teacher uses Instructional Routine 10 to introduce the prefixes non- and re-. Students decode nonfat, nonstick, nonprofit, nonsense, rebuild, rewind, recheck, reappear, and add four additional words with each prefix.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, Day 3, the teacher uses Instructional Routine 10 to introduce the suffixes -er, -or, and -ness. Students decode the words runner, actor, kindness, softness, and twelve additional words. 

  • Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 5, Day 3, students identify the words meet, meat, and heal, heel. Students identify the spelling of each word. 

    • In Unit 3, Lesson 4, Day 3, Phonics and Decoding, Blending, the teacher introduces /j/ spelled ge and gi_ using Sound/Spelling Card 10. The teacher asks students what they think the letters e and i do to the consonant g. They signal g to make /j/. The teacher uses Routine 2, the Whole-Word Blending Routine, to have students blend and read the words in the first line (gentle, magenta, strange, engage). Then the students read the rest of the words, stopping to blend only the words they cannot read fluently and automatically. 

    • In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 3,  Phonics and Decoding, Decoding, About the Words, the directions tell the teacher to have students identify the /aw/ in each line with various spellings such as aw, au, augh, ough, all, and al.

• Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. Examples include:

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 1, Days 3-4, Phonics and Decoding, Blending, the teacher reviews the long /a/ using Sound/Spelling Card 21. Then, the teacher guides students in decoding a wordlist with common spellings of long /a/ such as a_e, ai, and _ay. Next, the teacher engages students in dictation and spelling with Routine 7 and 8 with words with the long /a/.  

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 1, the teacher introduces the /ow/ spelled ow and ou_ asks students to identify the spelling in words, read words, and dictates words for students to spell. 

  • In Unit 5,  Lesson 4, Days 1-2, Phonics and Decoding, the teacher directs students to listen for the /aw/ with spellings such as aw, au, augh, and ough. Then, the teacher guides students in decoding a wordlist with common spellings of /aw/.  Next, the teacher engages students in dictation and spelling with Routine 7 and 8 with words with the /aw/. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1p.

There are multiple opportunities over the course of the year for students to read on-level texts for understanding. However, there is minimal evidence about reading for a purpose. Students read the various decodable stories and also passages on Skills Practice pages. The materials provide some opportunities for students to hear explicit, systematic instruction in reading elements such as accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression. Fluency is modeled infrequently by the teacher. Routine 9 focuses on having students read the decodable text. Therefore teacher explicit instruction and modeling are limited. Materials include directions for teachers to direct students to use sentence features, such as punctuation, to guide reading fluently. The Core Decodables provide opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader or peer. The Skills Practice Pages and Routine 9 for Core Decodables provide various resources for explicit fluency instruction. The materials provide systematic instruction of high-frequency words with words introduced throughout the year. Although the teacher writes or displays the high-frequency words, there is an inconsistency of direction regarding the spelling of each word. There are references that a list of high-frequency words is on the inside back cover of each decodable, but this was not noted in the eBooks for teachers or students. Fewer than half the words are irregularly-spelled words.

• Some opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read on-level text. Examples include:

  • Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.

    • In the Student Edition, Skills Practice pages, Lesson 6, Days 2, 3, and 4, of each unit, there is a passage 1-2 pages long for students to read. These do not include a purpose for reading.

    • In Unit 1, Lesson 6, Day 2, Skills Practice pages 21 and 22, students have a passage to read, “A Trip,” and a Fluency Checklist that reminds them that as they read, to make sure they pause longer at a period or other ending punctuation, raise their voice at a question mark, use expression when coming to an exclamation point, pause at commas, think of the character and how they might say their words when there are quotation marks, read at a pace that makes sense to a listener, and to stop and reread something that does not make sense. The Fluency Checklist makes no linkage to the purpose of reading.

    • In Unit 9, Lesson 2, Day 4, Checking Comprehension, the teacher discusses the story with students and answers any questions students have after reading the story. Students identify any difficult words in the book. Students retell the story. The teacher asks students questions, and students answer in complete sentences and use the high-frequency words they have learned. 

• Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy, rate, and expression in oral reading with on-level text and grade-level decodable words. Examples include:

  • Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

    • In Unit 1, Lesson 3, Day 4, Fluency: Reading a Decodable Story, the teacher reviews punctuation marks with students. The teacher models reading “A Lunch List” aloud to show reading at an appropriate rate.

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 3, Day 2, the materials provide a definition to teachers about automaticity. 

    • In Unit 3, Lesson 1, Day 5, the teacher gives students a copy of Decodable Stories, Book 4, Story 29. The teacher tells students to read aloud within groups. The teacher circulates among the groups to monitor whether students are reading accurately.

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 4, Day 2, students read a decodable text, and the teacher tells students to attend to punctuation as it will assist with proper expression.

    • In Unit 6, Lesson 2, Day 4, Fluency, students get into small groups to practice reading fluently using Decodable Stories, Book 7, Story 51. They read aloud within the groups. The teacher monitors whether students are reading fluently.

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 1, Day 5, Decodable Story 11, “The Red Star,” is available electronically for students to read independently or listen to the story being read to them. Students can also listen to individual words they may need support with when reading independently.

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 2, Day 3, Phonics and Decoding, Reading a Decodable, the teacher models how to read with expression by reading pages 18 and 19 aloud to students.

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 5, Day 4, students read a passage in a skills practice workbook. The teacher reads the first three paragraphs to model reading, emphasizing expression, dialogue, and using different voices for different characters.

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 6, Day 4, the EL suggestion in the bottom margin proposes pairing English learners with fluent readers to practice their reading as a great way to help them become more fluent readers. 

• Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of irregularly-spelled words. Examples include:

  • Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

    • In Unit 1, Lesson 6, Day 1, the teacher introduces the high-frequency word live, pronounced with a short /i/ sound. The teacher displays the word, reads it, asks students to repeat the word orally, and explains the meaning. 

    • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 3, Blending, the teacher introduces the high-frequency words buy, goes, paste, and zero. The teacher displays the words, says the words, and asks students to repeat the words. The students practice reading the words in sentences. 

    • In Unit 4, Lesson 6, Day 2, Phonics and Decoding, Fluency, assigns students Skills Practice pages 87-88. The two-page selection, “Ocean Life,” helps students build fluency and has at least 20 irregularly-spelled words in it. The teacher points out that some of the words in the selection might be unfamiliar and explains that when they encounter these words, they should sound out the pronunciation, reread the sentence, and then continue reading the passage.

•  Students have opportunities to practice and read irregularly spelled words in isolation. Examples include:

  • In Unit 1, Lesson 2, Day 4, Phonics and Decoding, Fluency: Reading a Decodable Story, the new High-Frequency words are never and under. The reviewed high-frequency words are how, like, over, walk, water, and would. The teacher reviews the high-frequency words in the story before using Routine 9, the Reading a Decodable Story Routine. The students read the high-frequency words in the text.

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 3, Blending, the teacher introduces the high-frequency words buy, goes, paste, and zero. The teacher displays the words, says the words, and asks students to repeat the words. 

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 4, Day 1, the teacher displays the words because and does, says the words, and asks students to repeat the words.

• Materials include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly-spelled words for students to make reading progress. Examples include:

  • The Teacher Edition, Appendix, Scope and Sequence, pages 6-9, indicates that 15 high-frequency words are introduced in the Getting Started Unit. The first new words, give, may, these, are introduced on Day 2. Unit 1 introduces 21 new words, Unit 2 introduces 24 new words, Unit 3 introduces 17 new words, Unit 4 introduces 11 new words, Unit 5 introduces 10 new words, and Unit 6 introduces two new words. 

  • In the Teacher Edition, Appendix, page 21, High-Frequency Word Lists, Section 4, lists 100 high-frequency words for Grade 2. Fewer than half the words are irregularly spelled words. 

  • In Unit 1, the teacher introduces the high-frequency words far, upon, much, start, which, never, under, eight, nine, bring, thank, think, seven, use, why, better, first, learn, animal, black, live.

  • In Unit 5, the teacher introduces the words warm, wash, full, picture, mouse, ought, small, always, laugh, once.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1q.

The materials include the use of decodable texts aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Students have multiple opportunities to reread decodable texts independently and in partnership with their peers to build fluency. The materials include decodable texts with high-frequency words aligned to the scope and sequence. Students use a consistent routine when reading the decodables and re-read the decodable during each routine. The materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds through word-building, in which students use letter cards to match the word the teacher wrote on the board. There are opportunities for students to encode sounds to letters and words. Students have frequent opportunities that apply phonics as they encode words into sentences or phrases through the dictation and spelling part of a day’s activities through Routines and words/sentences read aloud by the teacher. Students have limited practice, if any, for writing high-frequency words in context.

• Materials support students’ development to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g., apply spelling-sound relationship on common words, decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels, decode words with common prefixes and suffixes) in connected text and tasks. Examples include:

  • In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Day 1, Skills Practice pages 27-28, students apply /ō/ spelled o and o_e. After doing the first two items together, students complete the pages independently.

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 1, Day 1, Phonics and Decoding /ā/ spelled ai_ and _ay Blending, the teacher introduces /ā/ using Sound/Spelling Card 27. The teacher asks students what the blanks mean in each spelling. The blanks indicate that a consonant must come after ai and before ay. The teacher asks students which spellings for /ā/ they have already learned (a and a_e). In Routine 2, the Whole-Word Blending Routine, and Routine 3, the Blending Sentences Routine, students blend and read the words and sentences from the ePresentation Resources.

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 6, Day 1, the teacher reviews the long /o/ spelled o, oe, ow, and oa_. The decodable includes Sue, Joan, slowly, yellow, showed, hoses, and additional decodable words.

• Materials provide frequent opportunities to read irregularly-spelled words in connected text and tasks.

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 2, Day 4, Reading a Decodable, Fluency, the lesson builds students’ fluency by having them read “Granddaddy Spider” with a partner. The partners reread the story aloud several times. The decodable contains the high-frequency words believe and carry.

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, Day 2, Reading a Decodable, Fluency, the lesson builds students’ fluency by having them read “Look How Pets Adapt” with a partner. The partners reread the story aloud several times. The decodable contains the high-frequency words warm and wash.

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 2, Day 2, Phonics and Decoding, Reading a Decodable Story, Building Fluency, students reread “Chinatown in San Francisco” with a partner. This text reviews the following high-frequency words: are, every, one, their, and very.

• Lessons and activities provide students some opportunities to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills while encoding (writing) in context and decoding words (reading) in connected text and tasks. Examples include:

  • In Unit 3, Lesson 1, Day 1, Phonics and Decoding, Dictation and Spelling, students write the following sentence from dictation, “Did Ray say he could sail in the rain?”

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 6, Day 5, Word Analysis, Writing, students create fill-in-the-blank sentences using ten different words from the word lines. The teacher tells students that the sentences should be complete and make sense except for the missing word. The sixteen words on the Word List either have the prefix pre- or mis-.

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 3, Day 1, Guided Practice, students copy the sentence “Steve will be here.” and choose a sentence to copy that matches pictures. Similarly, in Unit 8, Lesson 3, Day 4, Guided Practice, students copy the sentence “Roy has a new toy train.” Students practice writing them correctly on the lines. These copying activities happen infrequently.

•  Materials include decodable texts that contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include:

  • The Core Decodables contain seven books with decodable texts for students to practice phonics skills. The Takehome Books have 55 books with decodable texts. The Practice Decodables include 55 books with decodable texts.

  • The Core Decodables Book 2 contains texts aligned to the graphemes: ch, edge, ing, er, and ore. The Core Decodables Book 4 has texts aligned to: ay, igh, ce, ie, and ge. The Core Decodables Book 6 contains texts aligned to graphemes: oo, ow, oy, oi, and au. These books are aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

• Materials include decodable texts that contain grade-level high-frequency/irregularly spelled words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include:

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 5, Day 2, new high-frequency words are knew, new, something, and sorry. The two corresponding decodable texts include each of the new high-frequency words. 

  • In Unit 4, Lesson 1, Day 2, Reading a Decodable, Book 5, Story 38, “The Boat Show,” students learn the new high-frequency words: own, show, and review the high-frequency words: come, every, into, saw, want, water, your.

  • In Unit 5, Lesson 1, Day 2, Reading a Decodable, Book 6, Story 44, “Look How Pets Adapt,” the students learn the new high-frequency words warm, and wash, and review the high-frequency words: are, how, now, put, their, your.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1r.

The materials include various assessment opportunities, such as diagnostic, benchmark, unit, and daily assessments in which students demonstrate their mastery of decoding skills. Materials do not include assessment results guidance in the following area: concrete instructional suggestions on supporting students’ progress toward mastery. Points of assessment are indicated in the Unit Planner and Teacher Edition. Assessments are in the Assessment Book, Diagnostic Assessment Book, and the Benchmark Assessment Book. The Assessment Blackline Masters provide student copies of each assessment. The materials provide teachers with both a Student Assessment Record and a Class Assessment Record. Students use eActivities and eGames for informal assessment. There is a Teacher Resource Book with interventions, but it is not cross-referenced with each assessment. The materials provide multiple assessment opportunities for fluency, as noted in the Unit Planner of each unit. In the Assessment Book, each of the six units includes an Oral Fluency Assessment. The assessments score reading rate and accuracy and also reading prosody. The Diagnostic Assessment can be used with an individual student or groups of students, and the Oral Reading Fluency strand measures reading rate, accuracy, and prosody. The Benchmark Assessment is administered three times per year and measures oral fluency with passage reading fluency. There are also differentiated teaching ideas in the teacher edition, but there is a lack of direct, explicit information on how to provide intervention based on each assessment. Multiple assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills.

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics and decoding. Examples include:

  • In the Assessment Book, the phonics assessments cover decoding and encoding. Decoding ability in context is measured under Reading Prosody in the Oral Fluency assessments.

  • The Diagnostic Assessment Book includes phonics and decoding. The Oral Reading Fluency assessments rate decoding ability under Reading Prosody.

  • In the Diagnostic Assessment, there are two Phonics and Decoding assessments. Students identify the given word in a word list and two Oral Reading Fluency assessments.

  • In the Benchmark Assessment, Test 1, Phonics, students select words with the same sound as the given word.

  • In the Benchmark Assessment, Test 2, Oral Fluency Passage Reading, students read a passage with 201 words.

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis. Examples include:

  • The Unit Planner per unit indicates when assessments are conducted. For example, Unit 2, Unit Planner, Lesson 5, Day 5 indicates when Assessment pages 26-27 will be given.

  • In the Foundational Skills Benchmark Assessment, each benchmark assessment has a word analysis assessment occurring three times throughout the year.

  • In the Assessment, Units 4-6 have a word analysis reading assessment.

  • In Unit 6, Lesson 2, Day 5, Monitor Progress, Formal Assessment, pages 87-88, assesses Phonics: Silent Letters (island, answer, shine, build, listen) and Word Analysis: Prefixes dis-, un-, and non-.

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of fluency. Examples include:

  • In the Assessment Book, each of the six units includes an Oral Fluency Assessment. The assessments score reading rate, accuracy, and prosody. 

  • In the Assessment Book, the Diagnostic Assessment has an Oral Reading Fluency component. The Diagnostic Assessment can be used as an initial screener with an individual student or groups of students. 

  • The Benchmark Assessment is administered three times per year and measures oral fluency through passage reading.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding. Examples include:

• In the Performance Expectations: Lesson and Unit Assessments, 80% mastery is considered an acceptable level of mastery (e.g., four out of five items correct).

• In Performance Expectations: Oral Fluency Assessment, students must meet the following benchmarks to meet grade-level expectations: 84 (Unit 1), 92 (Unit 2), 100 (Unit 3), 109 (Unit 4), 116 (Unit 5), and 124 (Unit 6). 

• The Diagnostic Assessment Book provides help to teachers to identify student strengths, weaknesses, and areas of concern in the following areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Decoding, Spelling, Oral Reading Fluency. The Diagnostic Assessment can be used as an initial screener with individual students or groups of students who might be lacking the prerequisite skills for the grade level. The information from the Diagnostic Assessment can then be used to inform instruction in those specific areas. 

• The Benchmark Assessment Book, pages iii and v, notes that the Benchmark Assessment “...has two major components: 100-Point Skills Battery and Oral Fluency. The 100-Point Skills Battery component samples skills from three strands within the grade-level curriculum: Phonics, Word Analysis, and Spelling... Because each of the Benchmark Assessments is equivalent in difficulty and format, they provide a means for measuring the progress of all students in a classroom over the course of the academic year. Improving total scores on the Benchmark Assessments indicate a student’s increasing mastery of the foundational skills curriculum.”

• The Foundational Skills Benchmark Assessment, Benchmark Assessment Record Sheet, provides the teacher with the goal for each benchmark assessment (i.e., 30).

• The Assessment Book, page vi, notes expected fluency (words correct per minute) for each unit. The end-of-year expectation for students for prosody is four of five prosody elements in the average range.

• The Benchmark Assessment, page iv, provides cutoff points for the three assessment periods for high-frequency word reading fluency and oral passage reading fluency. On page v, Diagnosis, it is noted that if a student falls below the cutoff score on the Oral Fluency assessments, they should be considered for intervention and should be closely monitored. Page iv notes, “The Oral Fluency portion of the Benchmark Assessment is a direct measure of students’ reading fluency. It also serves as a general, overall indicator of a student's reading competence. For example, students who score poorly when reading text aloud in a fixed time are the same students who have poor decoding skills, whose ability to recognize words automatically is adequate, who have limited vocabularies, and who have difficulty understanding what they read.”

Materials provide limited support to teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Examples include:

• In the Benchmark Assessment, SRA Open Court Reading Foundational Skills Benchmark Assessment Overview, Diagnosis, the directives state that if students score below the cutoff for any Benchmark Assessment, the teacher should use one or more of the following general suggestions to help students get back on track: reteach students who need extra help, practice opportunities are available to students within the Skills Practice Workbooks, Decodable books, eGames, and Language Arts Handbook, differentiate Instruction during Workshop, and intervention should be assigned to students who need more intensive help.

• In the Diagnostic Assessment, page iii, students who score below the expected level on any technical skill areas will need to remedy this through additional scaffolding and support provided in Intervention. These are only general suggestions.

• In Unit 2, Lesson 1, Day 2, Phonics and Decoding, Fluency: Reading a Decodable Book, Differentiated Instruction, the directions tell the teacher if students need extra practice, have them read “A Fake Snake.”

• In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 2, Phonics and Decoding, Fluency: Reading a Decodable Book, Building Fluency, Teacher Tip, the directions tell the teacher if students are not ready to read the story without structure, revert to using Routine 9.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1s.

The materials include suggestions for differentiating instruction to support English learners (ELs). Photocards have first language support by providing vocabulary in ten languages. A guide for teachers includes pictures of how the mouth forms each sound in English. Materials also include board games for students to play in competitive or cooperative groups. The materials guide teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level or at the OCR “Approaching Level.” Each digital lesson has a toggle that can be switched on for differentiation support strategies and lesson extensions/adaptations. These activities are also in the Differentiated Instruction Guide in the Resource Library. The Program Overview refers to small groups as part of Workshop time, but there is no guidance in the Foundational Skills Kit explaining how or when to do Workshop small groups. Although the program overview indicates that  differentiated instruction occurs in small group settings, and differentiated instruction guides are provided in daily lessons, no mention of changing from the whole group to small group exists in the digital guide. The materials also provide a Supplemental Word List in the Appendix found in the Resource Library to extend learning in the lesson. The Program Overview references lessons containing detailed suggestions for differentiated instruction for those Beyond Level. Although there is a toggle switch for differentiated learning in the digital teacher edition, differentiation for Beyond Level was noted in the printed teacher edition at the bottom margin. The differentiated activities for Beyond Level are only evident in the print Teacher Edition, not the digital Teacher Edition. Many of the above-grade-level activities are not seen as doing more than their classmates rather different activities based on skill level.

Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards. Examples include:

• In the English Learner Teacher’s Guide, Contrastive Analysis Chart for Speakers of Other Languages: Phonemes, there is a correlation chart that compares English phonemes to those of other languages.

• In the Resource Library, English Learner Photo Library provides cards to enhance the learning of English language learners. Cards include real photographs of items, definitions, and vocabulary words in ten languages. 

• In the Resource Library, ELD board games introduction and table of contents explains eight board games designed for supporting ELs, Games include differentiated vocabulary to adjust to the language proficiency of the players. 

Materials provide some strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level foundational skills and to meet or exceed grade-level standards. Examples include:

• The Resource Library, Program Overview, page 7, refers to Workshop time to allow for small groups, but there is no elaboration of this in the lessons.

• The OCR Foundational Skills Kit, Grade 2, Teacher Edition, Resource Library, Program Overview, page 21, indicates that differentiated instruction tips in the teacher guide should be used in small groups. However, these do not show up in the lessons.

• In Unit 5, Lesson 2, Day 1, the teacher introduces decoding and the /ow/ spelled ow and ou_ in the whole group lesson. Materials include a differentiated instruction guide with explicit instructions for the teacher to give reminders, use whole-word blending and blending sentence routines, and provide syllabication for words. 

Materials provide extensions and/or advanced opportunities to engage with foundational skills at greater depth for students who read, write, speak, and/or listen above grade level. Examples include:

• The Resource Library, Appendix, Supplemental Word List can be used in several ways to extend the lessons. Words are listed by beginning sounds, ending sounds, and medial vowel sounds.

• In the Resource Library, Program Overview, every lesson contains detailed suggestions for differentiating instruction for the following groups of students: Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level (this is seen in the print materials, but not the online materials).

• In Unit 3, Lesson 2, Day 1, printed version, Beyond Level students list other words with long /e/ spelled -i.e., _y, and _ey.

• In Unit 5, Lesson 5, Day 1, printed version, students Beyond Level extend sentences with /oi/ words, while On Level students rewrite sentences with words from the lesson.