2nd Grade - Gateway 2

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)

The Teacher’s Guide provides four pre-assessments and four post-assessments throughout the 36-week instructional program. Assessments measure letter-sound relationships and spelling pattern skills but with limited applicability. However, assessments do not provide immediate information on when concepts need to be retaught or reviewed and do not provide ongoing data collection. Opportunities are missed for assessments to provide in-depth assessment of a student’s syllabication skills or their ability to systematically apply a strategy to encode multisyllabic words in or out of context. 

Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 373, students complete the Say, Spell, Sort activity in which they say the word, sort the word by header, and then spell it. The teacher is directed to use this as an informal assessment and to help students identify the relationship between pairs of words with the same prefix. 
• The Teacher’s Guide provides four pre-tests throughout the 36 weeks of instruction.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 3, provides Pre-Assessment 1, Initial Spelling Check, to be given at the beginning of the program. According to the guide, the Initial Spelling Check measures spelling patterns taught in Grade 1, one-to-one letter-sound correspondences, knowledge of consonants, digraphs, blends, short vowels, and long vowels. There are no items that measure phonemic awareness through oral formats. 
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 207, provides a pre-test on parts of speech during which students identify which part of speech a word represents.  
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 269, provides an encoding pre-test on suffixes and prefixes.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 365, provides a spelling check pre-test on homophones, compound words, and contractions. 
• Each of the other two pre-assessments (Teacher’s Guide, page 129; Teacher’s Guide, page 257) state that they are spelling checks that focus on spelling patterns, knowledge of short, long and r-controlled vowels, and knowledge of syllable breaks. 
• The Teacher’s Guide provides four post-assessments. Each assessment is labelled as a spelling check to test knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, knowledge of consonants, digraphs, blends, short and long vowels, r-controlled vowels, and knowledge of syllables. 
• Assessments provide limited data on accuracy and no data on fluency with encoding skills or the use of these skills in context.
• Post-Test 2, Teacher’s Guide, page 252, is a post-test on spelling words with the schwa sound, r-controlled vowels, and irregular vowels.
• Post-Test 3, Teacher’s Guide, page 349, is a post-test on identifying parts of speech.
• Post-Test 4, Teacher’s Guide, page 504, is listed as a summative spelling check.

Materials offer limited assessment opportunities to determine students’ progress in phonics that are implemented systematically. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 77, students complete a spelling check based on their differentiated groups for silent letters kn, wr, mb, and consonant patterns. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 221, students complete the word ladder activity in which they manipulate words turning the word cube into tube, tube into tooth, tooth into booth, booth into blew, blew into threw, threw into pew, pew into pupil, pupil into poodle, and poodle into noodle. 

Limited assessment opportunities are provided for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. Examples include:

• There are three pre-assessments that occur during Concepts 1, 5 and 6 that assess word endings, knowledge of consonants, short vowels, digraphs, r- controlled, long vowels, and irregular vowels. The final pre-assessment assesses students’ knowledge of prefixes and suffixes. 
• There are four post-assessments that students complete at the end of Concepts 3, 5, 6, and 8. The first one assesses consonant patterns, short vowels, and long vowels. The second one assess students knowledge of r-controlled vowels, schwa, and irregular vowels. The third one assesses parts of speech, and the fourth one is a summative assessment. 
• The spelling checks include a limited sample of words and one sentence in dictation. There are no regular assessments of encoding skills or assessments for generalization to words not previously taught. Some activities provide opportunities to practice but no data is recorded to indicate whether students are mastering the skills being practiced.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with limited information that students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 436, students complete a spelling check. The teacher is able to determine which phonics sounds the students are able to do in the area of prefixes and suffixes. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 462, students complete a sort using the Pictures and Word Cards Routine in which they organize the words based on the header they fit under. The focus is on homophones. 
• There is no data collected and analyzed based on the spelling assessments given each week. 

Materials provide limited opportunities to measure students’ progress to support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• The pre-assessments determine which word list a student uses. In the Teacher’s Guide, page 207, Concept 5, students take the pre-assessment for parts of speech. The materials prompt teachers to use the results to form word study groups. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)

The Teacher’s Guide provides four pre-assessments and four post-assessments throughout the 36-week instructional program. Assessments measure letter-sound relationships and word recognition skills but with limited applicability.  Assessments do not provide immediate information on when concepts need to be retaught or reviewed and do not provide any direct measures of decoding skills. Assessments are completed with the same procedure in which the teacher says a word and the student writes the word. The pre- and post-assessments are given four times during the year. There is limited information given to the teacher based on the assessment data, and there is no evaluation of students’ understanding of high frequency words. 

Materials provide a limited variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition (high-frequency words or irregularly spelled words) and analysis. Examples include:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 269, prior to Concept 6 ending, the teacher gives students the assessment on prefixes and suffixes. The teacher says the words and the students write what they hear. 
• The Teacher’s Guide provides four pretests throughout the 36 weeks of instruction.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 3, provides Pre-Assessment 1, Initial Spelling Check, which is to be given at the beginning of the program. According to the Teacher's Guide, the assessment measures spelling patterns taught in Grade 1, one-to-one letter-sound correspondences, knowledge of consonants, digraphs, blends, short vowels, and long vowels. 
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 207, is a pre-test on parts of speech. Students identify which part of speech a word represents.  
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 269, is a spelling pre-test on suffixes and prefixes.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 365, is a pre-test on homophones, compound words, and contractions.
• The Teacher’s Guide provides four Post-Assessments, and three of the four are labelled as spelling checks to test knowledge of letter-sound relationships. The materials do not provide direct assessment of decoding skills taught throughout the program and do not provide accuracy or fluency data for students.
• Post-Test 2, Teacher’s Guide, page 252, is a post-test on spelling words with the schwa sound, r-controlled vowels, and irregular vowels.
• Post-Test 3, Teacher’s Guide, page 349, is on identifying parts of speech.
• Post-Test 4, Teacher Guide, page 504, is listed as a summative spelling check.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with limited information concerning  students’ current skills/level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 207, students take a pre-assessment to determine their understanding and skill level around root words. The teacher says the word, and students write down what they hear. 

Materials provide limited support to teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

• The teacher is able to group the students based on the pre-assessment. Students use differentiated word lists in their sorting activities throughout the week. There are other differentiation strategies suggested to the teacher to use if students are struggling. 
  

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized. 

There is a document on the companion website for Puzzle Piece Phonics that identifies the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, conventions of standard English, and vocabulary acquisition and use) that align with Grade 2 of Puzzle Piece Phonics in general; however, there is no alignment to CCSS provided by the publisher to indicate which standards are being addressed by specific questions, tasks, assessments or routines. The materials contain a publisher-produced alignment document; however, it is not tied to the standards. The teacher would need to look up which standards they are teaching and find the connection between the learning and the standards. 

Alignment documentation is not provided for all tasks, questions, and assessment items.  Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-62, there is a scope and sequence resource. According to the Word Study Sound Pacing, the teacher would teach students the digraphs ch, th, sh, wh, and ph using differentiated Separate Picture and Word Cards Sort.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-64, Concept 7 teaches students prefixes and suffixes. In Week 26, instruction is provided on the prefixes: -re, -ex, pre-. This instruction is aligned to a differentiated word sort to practice the skill.

Alignment documentation does not contain specific standards correlated to specific lessons. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• The alignment document provided on the companion website for Grade 2 Puzzle Piece Phonics lists the standards addressed but does not connect them to a specific lesson, task, or instructional routine included in any of the lessons.  
• The Teacher’s Guide, Introduction, pages I-1 through I-63, does not reference CCSS in terms of specific tasks or routines.

Materials do not include denotations of the standards being assessed in the formative pre-assessments. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-15 & I-16, four pre-assessments are described as formative assessments to be used throughout the program. They are given prior to the start of a new concept and challenge students to write words with patterns that have not yet been formally taught. The Teacher's Guide states that the information can help teachers form student groups for word sorting , etc., and help determine the focus of lessons for each group. However, the materials do not clearly identify which standards are being addressed.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 3, the first pre-assessment covers knowledge of consonants, digraphs, blends, short and long vowel sounds, controlled vowels, irregular vowels, and syllable breaks. The instructions tell teachers what to look for and provide tips for scoring, but the assessment does not correlate to standards.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 207, the second pre-assessment covers knowledge of common word endings, rules when adding common endings, and irregular past tense verbs. The assessment does not correlate to standards.
• The third and fourth pre-assessments follow the same format. They provide what to look for, tips for scoring, and suggestions on how students can be grouped based on the assessment, but do not specify correlation to specific standards. 

Materials do not include denotations of standards being assessed in the summative assessments. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• The Teacher’s Guide, page I-16, delineates four post-assessments used as summative assessments throughout the program. The Teacher's Guide states the information gained from the post-assessments can help teachers determine whether students have mastered the second grade spelling and word study patterns that have been formally introduced.  While the materials state that each post-assessment tests the second grade standards, they do not identify which standards are being addressed .
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 253, provides the second post-assessment, which covers knowledge of schwa sounds, r-controlled vowels, and irregular vowel spellings. The instructions tell teachers what to look for and provide tips for scoring, but the assessment does not correlate to standards.
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 505, provides the fourth and final post-assessment which covers knowledge of: long vowels, short vowels, digraphs, blends, schwa sounds, r-controlled vowels, homophones, prefixes and suffixes, but the assessment does not correlate to standards.
• Post-assessments one and three follow the same format. They provide what to look for, tips for scoring, and suggestions on how students can be grouped based on the assessment, but do not specify correlation to specific standards. 
  

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards. 

Skills introduced on Day 1 are practiced through Day 5 of a concept week, providing some opportunities for reteaching and review. The comprehension passages from the Learner’s Notebook and scripts from the Fluency Notebook are read/practiced  repeatedly throughout the week. The opportunities for small group teaching do not include support or guidance for teachers. Word lists are not scaffolded for struggling students who are not on grade-level. Scripts are also not scaffolded for struggling students who are not on grade-level. Some scaffolding occurs within a lesson and across the weeks’ lessons from sounds first being introduced in the phonemic awareness section of the lesson, moving into Supported Blending and Formation: Writing of Letters, followed by sorting activities, and finishing in Fluency Notebook readings.   

Materials provide some opportunities for small group reteaching. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-10 through I-59 describe the teaching routines and practice activities that make up each day’s lesson. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 113, the teacher is prompted to circulate as students work on the Quick Color, Careful Cut, Highlighter Hunt, Sorting with Words, and Take Home List activities and coach as needed. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 284, during the fluency portion, when students are reading, the teacher is encouraged to circulate and support students as needed.
• At the beginning of each week’s lesson plan, the Teacher’s Guide provides a section called Tips for Management and Differentiation. These provide broad guidelines for accommodating students who might need additional practice:
• The Teacher’s Guide, page 32, provides a section called Tips for Phonemic Awareness, which instructs the teacher, “If your students are very familiar with ch, th, and sh, then change the phonemic awareness focus to wh and ph.” However, no words are provided for the teacher to make this modification. 
• Throughout the lessons for Days 1-5, there is no specific mention of modifications, reteaching, extended modelling, or remediation for students who are experiencing difficulties in mastering grade-level standards. During the Fluency section of lessons teachers are told that they should “Circulate and listen to students read” or “gather a small group of students who need additional support.” 

Materials provide some guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 32, in Tips for Say, Spell, Sort, and Word Ladders, the materials state that if the teacher has students who are having a difficult time remembering ph or wh words, write common words on index cards or sentence strips and attach them to the dolphin piece and the whale piece.
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 123, the materials state that if students do not understand when to use each spelling of long i, then keep the blending lines simple. Materials further state that the teacher not include words with endings or compound words, until students are ready. 
• Differentiated instruction comes at the end of the lessons during the independent practice word sorting activity and the fluency passages. 
• Beginning in Teacher’s Guide, page 54, practice activities in the Learner’s Notebook and the Fluency Notebook introduce differentiated words lists and passages for Group 1 and Group 2. 
  

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level. 

While there are some pre-assessments incorporated into the Puzzle Piece Phonics Grade 2 Program, there are no recommendations for how that information can be used to accelerate students through the instructional program if they are performing above grade-level and have already demonstrated mastery of the skills assessed. All students complete every lesson, regardless of prior knowledge, and are assigned the same independent work activities. While there is some differentiation in reading levels for Groups 1 and 2 within fluency readings and word lists, it is limited. The materials do not provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level.  There are on grade-level and above grade-level fluency passages for each week, but this is the only place where there are opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth.

Materials provide some opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 169, on the Tips for Fluency, the above grade-level instruction is embedded in the Reader’s Theatre story for the Narrator 1 and 2 part of the story, “Superstar and Bummer.”
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 285, during the spell check, students who are above grade-level complete words from Group 2 list: knife, heroes, knives, crises, aircraft, couches, octopi, ounces, waitresses, and women. 
• In the Fluency Notebook, page 222, the Above Grade Level Passage provided is “What are Homes Like Around the World?”
• In the Fluency Notebook, page 145,  the Above Grade Level Passage provided is “How to Make Rice Cereal Treats”

There are some instances of advanced students simply doing more assignments than their classmates. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 85, students complete the Sorting with Words Hunt with their list of words utilizing either Group 1 or 2 words. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, page 304-305, students read the Reader’s Theatre, "Records vs. Downloads", which is for above grade-level students.