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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Really Great Reading | ELA
Product Notes
The Really Great Reading materials for grades K-2 partially meet the expectations for alignment to Common Core State Standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction. The materials have a sequence for explicitly teaching all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. However, there is no explicit instruction in letter formation. The materials contain explicit instruction in phonological awareness and have multimodal/multisensory opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness skills frequently. The materials contain explicit, systematic instruction in decoding and encoding phonics skills in isolation. The materials frequently allow students to decode words in decodable phrases, sentences, and passages. For grades K-1, there is a sequence for the explicit instruction of high-frequency words. Decodable passages in Grades K-2 contain high-frequency words, although the high-frequency words do not necessarily align with the sequence. The materials do not contain explicit instruction in rate, accuracy, and expression. However, students have frequent opportunities to practice fluency with phrases, sentences, and passages. The Really Great Reading materials for Grades K-2 partially meet the expectations for implementation, support materials, and assessment. The materials contain a well-defined teacher’s manual as well as supplemental resources. The manual and supplemental resources contain instructional routines and adult-level explanations. The content of the materials can be taught in a school year, although the materials do not include instructional timings for activities. The materials contain a clear, cohesive hierarchy for phonological awareness skills, and they contain a scope and sequence for phonics with a general research-based explanation. The materials contain decodable passages aligned to the phonics’ scope and sequence. However, the decodable passages do not align with the scope and sequence of the high-frequency words. The materials have assessment opportunities for some foundational literacy skills, such as phonological awareness and phonics. The materials contain some resources to support multilingual learners, specifically Spanish resources. The materials contain options for differentiation within lessons. The materials contain digital materials compatible with many platforms and operating systems. Some materials can be personalized and customized.
Kindergarten
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
1st Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
2nd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
Report for Kindergarten
Alignment Summary
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, partially meet the expectations for alignment to standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction and partially meet expectations for implementation, support materials, and assessment. Materials contain a defined sequence and explicit instruction for all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. Materials have limited opportunities for students to practice letter identification and print concepts. Materials have explicit instruction in phonological awareness. For most standards, students have ample practice in phonological awareness. Materials contain explicit, systematic instruction in decoding and encoding phonics skills. Materials have student opportunities for decoding and encoding words in isolation and connected tasks. Materials do not have opportunities for distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the graphemes that differ. Materials contain explicit instruction in high-frequency words and word analysis skills. Materials allow students to read and write high-frequency words in isolation and connected text. Materials provide decoding opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy. Materials contain a well-defined teacher’s manual with instructional routines and adult-level explanations. Materials contain lessons for a school year. However, Units 1-16 only have 15 minutes of instruction. Materials contain a clear, cohesive hierarchy for phonological awareness skills. Materials contain a scope and sequence for phonics with a general research-based explanation. Materials contain decodable passages aligned to the phonics’ scope and sequence. Materials contain decodable passages, which do not align with the scope and sequence of the high-frequency words. Materials have assessment opportunities for some foundational literacy skills, such as phonological awareness and phonics. Materials contain documentation of alignment to Common Core State Standards. Materials contain some resources to support multilingual learners. Materials contain options for differentiation within lessons. Materials contain challenge options and additional units for students who need extensions. Materials contain digital materials compatible with many platforms and operating systems. Some materials can be personalized and customized.
Kindergarten
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Usability (Gateway 2)
Overview of Gateway 1
Alignment to Standards and Research-Based Practices for Foundational Skills Instruction
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, partially meet the expectations for alignment to standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction. The materials contain a defined sequence and explicit instruction for all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters; however, there are limited opportunities for students to practice letter identification and print concepts. The materials have explicit instruction in phonological awareness, and for most standards, students have ample practice in phonological awareness. The materials contain explicit, systematic instruction in decoding and encoding phonics skills. The materials have student opportunities for decoding and encoding words in isolation and connected tasks. However, the materials do not have opportunities for distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the graphemes that differ. Materials contain explicit instruction in high-frequency words and word analysis skills. Materials allow students to read and write high-frequency words in isolation and connected text. Materials provide decoding opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy.
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge)
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, have explicit instruction for letter identification. However, the materials do not contain opportunities for students to practice identifying, locating, and naming all 26 uppercase letters in isolation or meaningful activities. The materials do not have explicit instruction or practice in forming the 26 upper- and lowercase letters. There are ten concepts of print lessons. However, the lessons do not support authentic print concept practice with books.
Indicator 1A
Indicator 1A.i
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1a.i. (K)
Countdown Kindergarten materials provide isolated, systematic, and explicit instruction of all upper and lowercase letters using Countdown Online Name that Sound activities. Instruction is focused on the sound, with the letter symbol representing that sound being introduced after sound mastery. Although letter introduction does not begin in the materials until Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, all letter instruction is introduced and reviewed from Unit 6 through Unit 16 with letter clusters composed mostly of three consonants and one vowel. Letter instruction within the Kindergarten materials can be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year.
Materials contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase).
Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xiii, the materials indicate that by the end of Unit 14, students will have learned all 26 letters (names and most common sounds).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 1, Part 2, pages 112-113, Name That Sound, the teacher opens Countdown Online to Unit 10, Lesson 2, Part 2, which displays a picture of a goat. The teacher asks students what the initial sound of the word goat is. The video shows an uppercase and lowercase Gg, and the teacher says, “This one (point to uppercase G) is called ‘capital G’, and this one (point to lowercase g) is called ‘lowercase g’. This is the one we will see most of the time so we will call it ‘g’.” This process is repeated for letters n, l, and u in the lesson.
In Countdown Guide Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 1, Part 2, pages 188-190, Name that Sound, students identify the upper- and lowercase letters associated with the sounds /y/, /w/, and /z/. The teacher shows the students a picture of a zipper and says. “Do you remember Zach the Zebra? He likes to zip-line over the zucchini fields and the zipline sounds like a zipper? His favorite sound is /z/”. The teacher asks, “So what do you think these letters say? [z] Yes! The name of these letters is Z. This one (teacher points to uppercase Z, is called capital Z and this one (point to lowercase z).” The teacher points to each letter one at a time and reviews the letters and their names.
There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages ix-x, the Scope and Sequence contains the following letter per unit information: Unit 6, Cluster 1 m, t, p, a; Unit 7, Cluster 2 s, h, c, i; Unit 8, Cluster 3 d, f, r, o; Unit 10 Cluster 4 g, n, l, u; Unit 11, Cluster 5 b, k, v, e; Unit 13, Cluster 6 j, w, z; Unit 14, Cluster 7 qu, x, y.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xiv, Alphabetic Principle chart in the upper left hand corner lists the unit, cluster, and letter symbols taught. The defined sequence that begins with Unit 6 and ends with Unit 14 can reasonably be completed during the school year.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, page v, in Countdown’s Broad Structure: Strands and Sub-Strands, a chart is provided with Letter-Sound Instruction information detailing units, letter clusters, and letter symbols taught as follows:
Unit 6, Cluster 1: m, t, p, a
Unit 7, Cluster 2: s, h, c, i
Unit 8, Cluster 3: d, f, r, o
Unit 9: a review of Cluster 1
Unit 10, Cluster 4: g, n, l, u
Unit 11, Cluster 5: b, k, v, e
Unit 12: a review of Clusters 1-5
Unit 13, Cluster 6: j, w, z
Unit 14, Cluster 7: qu, x, y
Unit 15: a review of Clusters 1-7
Unit 16: a review of Clusters 1-7
Indicator 1A.ii
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification.
Countdown Kindergarten materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in the practice of identifying, locating, and naming all 26 lowercase letters in activities such as Which Letter? and Letter Sound Look, Think, Say!. However, there are missed opportunities for students to practice identifying, locating, and naming all 26 uppercase letters.
Materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Concepts of Print 1, Lesson 7, pages 8-10, Capitals vs. Lowercase, the teacher accesses Countdown Online Concepts of Print 1, Lesson 7. The online component displays lowercase letters a, b, c, and d. The teacher tells students they have learned about those letters. The teacher shows uppercase A, B, C, and D and displays the name Adelyn asking students where the capital A is. Later in the lesson, the teacher asks where the capital D is located in the name Dexter, and students respond at the beginning.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 2, Part 2, pages 65-66, This Letter or That, the teacher asks students to sort words that begin with either /r/ or /o/. The teacher asks, “What is the first sound in rabbit?” while pointing to a rabbit. The teacher says, “Remember the sound /r/ is spelled with the letter tile r.” The teacher reads the following list of words for sorting: raccoon, rattle, olives, rooster, ostrich, otter, run, omelet, rollercoaster, October.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 3, Part 1, page 43, in Review Short Vowel Phonemes and Motions, the teacher introduces the CVC pattern of bat: “Do you see a vowel letter in this word? What is the name of the vowel letter?” There is teacher scripting for asking the consonant names in the word. The same procedure is followed for the words net, hip, cup, and mop.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in practice locating all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 98-99, Guess My Word, the teacher provides students with guided practice in choosing correct letters from a soundbank to build CVC words from previously taught letters. Students locate the correct letter by listening for the sound. The teacher states, “Which of these letters spells /h/ like ham?” Students point to the letter and say its name.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 250-251, Which Letter?, the teacher launches Countdown Online for the lesson and tells students they will spell letter sounds for the first or last letter of words. Students view _am as the teacher asks for the first sound of jam, then the letter set v, j, and l appears, and the teacher asks, “Which of these letters spells /j/ like at the beginning of /j/, jam?” Students point to the letter tile that spells /j/ and say its name. There is a practice set of 18 words for student practice in locating beginning letter sounds and names, including the words: elf, yes, jet, bus, log, gum, kid, ant, and ending sound for mix.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in naming all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 38, This Letter or That, the teacher supports students in locating the correct letter that matches the first sound of the picture. The teacher states, “Should we put the /i/ insect under the h like hammer or under the i like itch?” Students respond with the correct letter name.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lesson 1, Part 1, pages 251-525, Letter-Sound Look, Think, Say!, students practice six letter sounds (a, b, c, k, d, e, and f) while playing the game Look, Think, Say!. Teacher scripting for the activity includes, “The letter is (letter name), and it spells the sound (letter sound).”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Concepts of Print 1, Lesson 4, pages 4-5, Letter in Your Name, the teacher accesses Countdown Online Concepts of Print 1 Lesson 4. The teacher clicks and displays the names Frank, Asia, Ember, and Quinn. The teacher asks the first letter the name Asia and has students raise their hands if their names begin with Aa. The teacher does the same with the names Ember and Quinn.
Indicator 1A.iii
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1a.iii. (K)
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain limited tasks and activities for applying letter identification and naming all 26 lowercase letters to meaningful print use. There are missed opportunities for tasks and activities that provide practice with identifying, locating, and naming all 26 uppercase letters.
Materials contain some tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 uppercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing).
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, students practice writing their name in both upper- and lowercase letters on the Upper and Lower Case Name Matching Activity worksheet.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Concepts of Print 1, Lesson 4, pages 4-5, Letter in Your Name, the teacher accesses Countdown Online Concepts of Print 1 Lesson 4. The teacher clicks and displays the names Frank, Asia, Ember, and Quinn. There is teacher scripting for the teacher to ask the first letter the name Asia. The teacher has students raise their hands if their names begin with Aa. The teacher repeats this process with the names Ember and Quinn.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, page Introduction, page xxix, the materials indicate that initially students learn to identify upper- and lowercase letters. However, Countdown states that students will not learn to identify all the uppercase letters because Kindergarten students usually only encounter lowercase letters.
Materials contain some tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 lowercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page viii, the materials indicate that by the end of Book 2, students will have learned all 26 letters (names and most common sounds).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 61, This Letter or That, the teacher supports students in locating the correct lowercase letter that matches the first sound of the picture. The teacher states, “Should we put the /i/ insect under the h like hammer or under the i like itch?” Students respond by naming the correct letter name.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 2, Part 3, pages 224-225, Which Letter?, the teacher launches Countdown Online for the lesson and tells students they will spell letter sounds for the first and last letter of words. Students view bo_ as the teacher asks for the last sound in the word box, then the letter set v, x, and y appears, and the teacher asks, “Which of these letters spells /x/ like at the end of /x/, box? Point to the letter tile that spells /x/ and say its name.” There is a practice set of 18 words for student practice in locating beginning letter sounds and names, including the words: mug, van, net, sit, hug, leg, dog, and ending sound for fox and wax .
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Concepts of Print 1, Lesson 3, pages 3-4, What is a Letter?, the teacher points to a word in the classroom environment and tells students the name of the word then points to an individual letter within that same word. Students look around the room and identify letters and words.
Indicator 1A.iv
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the criteria for 1a.iv. (K-1)
In the Countdown materials, students write letters. However, there are missed opportunities for explicit instruction and modeling to print the 26 upper- and lowercase letters. Additionally, there is no explicit student practice on writing and forming the 26 upper- and lowercase letters.
Materials do not include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages ix-x, the scope and sequence lists the instructional activities of all of the units in the Countdown program. There are no opportunities within these activities to practice forming letters.
Materials do not include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Upper/Lower Blast off Activity, students write words using lowercase letters from an uppercase example. There is a lowercase letter bank, but no letter formation practice based on explicit instruction.
Materials do not include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multisensory methods.
No evidence
Indicator 1B
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1b. (K-early Grade 1).
The Countdown materials contain 10 concepts of print lessons in the Countdown Online Supplemental Resources. There are missed opportunities for instructional support in the authentic practice of print concepts in connection to books. Although the materials include words, phrases, sentences, and passages for students to read, and the teachers are encouraged to use self-selected books from their classroom libraries to teach selected concepts of print lessons, there are no physical books included. The materials provide activities such as Unscramble This and Spell It! for students to represent written language with specific sequences of letters. Although the materials contain the practice of previously learned and cumulative reviews of letter identification, there are missed opportunities for practice of previously learned and cumulative reviews of concepts of print and letter formation.
Materials include some explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing).
Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 15, Launch, there is a lesson on beginning, middle, and end. Students practice naming the location of various pictures by using this vocabulary they will apply in later letters to letter location within words.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Concepts of Print, Lesson 10, pages 13-14, in Concepts of Book Reading 2, the teacher asks students where they should start reading in a teacher selected book. The teacher points to the bottom right of the page, then the top left, asking students to begin reading. Teacher scripting includes, “That’s right! I need to start reading here (point to the first word at the top left of the text on the page). Where should I read next?” (Have one or more students indicate left to right.)” The teacher repeats the question on another page.
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Concepts of Print, Lesson 3, pages 3-4, What is a Letter? the teacher says, “Each letter we write down makes a sound, and those sounds together make up the words we say out loud.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 4, Part 1, page 19, Letters Make Words, the teacher reminds students that letters are sounds that are written down and two or more letters together can spell words. The teacher tells students the word map is spelled with the three letters m, a, and p.
Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
In Countdown Online, PDF Resources, Countdown Concepts of Print, Lesson 8, pages 9-10, Spaces Between Words, the teacher explains that when reading, there are spaces between each word, and that is how to tell when one word ends and another begins.
In Countdown Online, PDF Resources, Countdown Concepts of Print, Lesson 10, pages 13-15, Concepts of Book Reading 2, the teacher reviews the concept of spaces between words to tell where one word ends and another begins.
Materials include frequent and adequate lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 15, in Left to Right & One to One: Directionality and Order, the teacher explains that when looking at pictures or in books, you begin at the top left and move to the right. Students practice by naming pictures in the image from left to right.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3, Part 3, Directionality and Spatial Sequence, pages 16-17, students learn about first, next, last, before, and after by using the words to describe the location of pictures that are in a row.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 54-55, Unscramble This, students see the image of a CVC word out of order, segment the word orally, and use the correct sounds to spell the word correctly.
Materials do not include a variety of physical books (teacher-guided, such as big books) that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts.
The materials do not include physical books.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, pages xiii-xiv, PDF Resources, the materials indicate that teachers may choose to download and print decodables. However, there is no evidence that the materials include a variety of physical books.
Materials do not include sufficient and explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing) in the context of a book.
In Countdown Teacher Guide 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 15, Left to Right and One to One, the teacher introduces students to the concept of left-to-right. The teacher states, “Whether we are looking at pictures, charts or books we always start at the top of the board or page and start looking or reading from the left side. We call this our starting point.” (The teacher points to the top left corner of the book or screen.)
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Appendix, page 195, Environmental Activities, there are recommendations for read alouds that can be used to reinforce concepts of print and solidify skills such as rhyming. These are not provided within the curriculum.
Materials do not include opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Concepts of Print, pages 1-15, Lessons 1-10, The Concepts of Print lessons contain ten lessons. Lesson 1 is Print is What We Read. Lesson 9 is Concepts of Book Reading 1. Lesson 10 is Concepts of Book Reading 2. All advise teachers to select a book from their classroom libraries to teach the lessons. There are no physical books in the materials.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, pages 18-19, PDF Resources, the materials indicate that teachers may choose to download and print decodables. There was no evidence for consistent opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books.
Materials contain some periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade-level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.
In Countdown Online Unit 7, Lesson 1, Part 3, students view a soundbank of previously taught lower case letters (h, c, or t) to choose from to fill in the missing beginning sound of the word hat. Teachers reinforce that the beginning letter is the one missing. Students are not viewing the word hat in the context of a sentence or being explicitly taught the difference between a letter, word, or sentence.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 2, Part 1, page 246, Letter-Sound Review, the teacher and students review all lowercase letters’ names and sounds.
Materials include students’ practice of previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 5, Part 1, pages 52-54, Spell It!, students spell CVC words by segment words orally, then write the letter corresponding to teacher sound in order.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 1, Part 1, pages 113-114, Letter- Sound Look, Think, Say!, students review six lowercase letter names and sounds.
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonological awareness.
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, provide various multimodal/multisensory activities for students to practice phonological and phonemic awareness. The materials contain explicit instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness. While the materials provide ample opportunities to practice phonological and phonemic awareness, the materials do not have practice for counting syllables in spoken words.
Indicator 1C
Materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities during Kindergarten and early Grade 1.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1c.
The Countdown materials provide students daily and ongoing learning activities with frequent practice opportunities to engage in multisensory phonological awareness activities throughout all 28 units of the program. The Countdown program contains a variety of multisensory phonological activities, including Stretch Those Sounds, where students use finger stretching for segmenting and blending words, and Syllable Stomp for segmenting and blending syllables in words. Students have frequent opportunities to engage in and practice phonological awareness skills daily in Kindergarten activities.
Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 1, page 81, Activity 15, Peel that Sound, students receive instruction, modeling, and repeated practice with phonological awareness. During the first round of the activity, the teacher pronounces the word, starting with the isolated beginning sound and students repeat. During the second round, the teacher pronounces the isolated beginning sound the students give the full word. During the third round, the teacher names the picture and students give the isolated beginning sound.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 11, Lesson 3, Part 1, page 149, Stretch Those Sounds, students practice segmenting words using finger stretching beginning with their thumbs to segment each phoneme in a word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 311, Blending Words with Multiple Syllables, the teacher introduces a word from their Mystery Bag. Students use Syllable Stomp to stomp out syllables and then blend the syllables to create words.
There are frequent opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Part 3, pages 23-25, Hear that Rhyme, students look at projected images to create words that rhyme with each image.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 2, page 35, Sound Stories, students listen to an alliterative story and choose words that start with the sound(s).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 52, Stretch Those Sounds, students finger stretch words where they segment each phoneme in a word beginning with their thumb. They pull their fingers back into a fist as they say each phoneme and repeat the word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 268-269, Sound Swap, students turn words into new words by segmenting onset and rime and changing the first sound of the words. For example, students change the word can to pan.
Indicator 1D
Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1d.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide teachers with explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling throughout all 28 units. All phonological awareness lessons provide scripting for teacher use and explicit teacher modeling for actions and gestures needed to deliver each lesson. The materials provide the teacher with detailed examples for each activity within lessons and practice sets for students. There is explicit and systematic modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds, and spoken words.
Materials provide the teacher with systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words.
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Part 3, pages 23-25, Hear that Rhyme, the teacher models rhyming word pairs and for each word pair. Students say rhyming words. The teacher says, “When two words rhyme, the middles and ends of the words sound the same. Only the first sound changes.” The teacher models rhyming word pairs with the following words: jet, net, fox, box, key, bee. The teacher repeats rhyming words with images and then gives students time to remember rhyming words before showing students photos of matching rhyming words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2, Part 3, pages 48-49, Which Words Rhyme?, the teacher displays three images and reminds students they are listening for the two words in which the middle and the end of the words stay the same and only the beginning of the word changes.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 2, Part 3, pages 85-86, Creating Rhymes, the teacher tells students they will try to come up with rhyming words of their own that they do not have to be real words. “Remember, words rhyme when their middles and ends sound the same. Only the first sound changes, so all of the words we come up with have to end with /ig/, just like wig.” Possible answers are provided for the teacher and include the following words: lig, hig, zig, twig.
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Appendix, Environmental Activities, Segmenting Activities, page 197, Stomp It Out!, the teacher says a complete sentence, phrase, or word and stomps it out in a way to demonstrate how to say it segmented. The example provided for word segmenting is kindergarten as kin-der-gar-ten. All Aboard! is another activity provided under Segmenting Activities where the teacher lines students up one for each spoken segment either for words, syllables, or sounds. The example given for syllables is watermelon segmented-wa-ter-me-lon.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 3, pages 39-41, Mystery Bag: Blending Compound Words, students blend syllables in compound words to produce whole words. The teacher tells students they will hold up a fist for each part of a word and then push their fists together to say the entire word. “Listen carefully to my words and repeat after me-book (hold up one fist in front of your body) - (Pause) - shelf (hold up a second fist in front of your body).” The teacher asks the students what word is made when their two fists are put together. The teacher continues to model with rain-bow. There are 28 word samples for practice. In Differentiated Options Extension Activities, the teacher clicks through the compound word images and asks students to segment compound words asking students to say the two syllables without saying the whole word. The teacher guesses the compound word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 284-285, Launch, the teacher talks about how some words are smaller, like eye, and some are longer, like jellybean. The teacher explains how to break longer words in pieces or chunks. Students say jellybean with the teacher. “I could hear three beats in the word, and I could feel my mouth open three times.” The students do the same. The teacher says, “We have a special name for these word chunks. They are called syllables. Let’s say the word syllable and see if we feel our voices turn on as we say it in chunks. syl-a-ble. The lesson continues, and the students practice stomping the syllables in the following words: elbow, juice, sandwich, strawberry, thunder, zucchini, icicle, caveman, rocket, overalls.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 2, Part 2, pages 311-312, Blending Words with Multiple Syllables, the teacher uses the Mystery Bag Syllable Stomp to review blending syllables to make a word. The teacher models the word candles. Students practice with the following words: volcano, yogurt, footprints, dinosaur, leaf, hamburger, eraser, inside, mountain, sunglasses, toothbrush, thunderstorm, upstairs,
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 69-70, Mystery Bag: Blending Onset and Rime, the teacher tells students they will put two parts of a word together to create a whole word. The teacher tells students they will hold up their fists as they say each part then put them together when they say the whole word. The teacher models holding their fists in front of their body as they say each part of the word. The teacher models with mug holding up a fist for /m/ and /ug/ and asks students what word it makes as they put their fists together. The teacher repeats the procedure for the word rat.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 273-274, Sound Swap, the teacher tells students they will turn words into new words by changing the first sound of the words. The teacher states, “What is the first sound in pig? [/p/]. What is the rest of the word? [/ig/].” The teacher asks students to segment the onset and rime of log and prepare to change log into dog. The same segmenting of onset and rime procedure is used for the 18 practice words provided in the activity.
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 4, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 129-130, What's That Word?, students blend phonemes in CVC words. The teacher says, “I’m going to say three sounds, and then we will blend them together to make a whole word.” The teacher asks students to listen as they say the sounds in one of two pictures projected. The teacher holds up their thumb for /p/, index finger for /i/, and middle finger for /g/ and asks students which word was said van or pig.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 17-18, Stretch Those Sounds, the teacher tells students they will separate all of the sounds of some words and begin to model with the word nap. The teacher holds a closed fist against their chest and extends their thumb for /n/, extends their pointer finger for /a/, and extends their middle finger for /p/. The teacher tells students they stretched out each sound in the word as they stretched out a finger for each sound. The teacher uses the finger stretching method to segment the word mug.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 17, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 18-19, Review Stretching Sounds in Words, the teacher models isolating and pronouncing the initial, medial vowel, and final consonants in CVC words, including cat, bat, sick, and fish. The teacher extends a finger for each sound in the word and clicks the display for each sound so that a color tile will be shown.
Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 194-195, Add That Sound, the teacher lets students know they will be adding sounds to the end of some words. The teacher uses finger stretching for the word she and adds a new sound /p/ to the end of the word to create the word sheep. The teacher models with the word lay, finger stretching the word. The teacher adds /k/ to the end of the word to create the word lake. The teacher uses finger stretching as they stretch out all of the sounds in words and uses three fingers for each sound in lake then closes their fist when they say the word lake.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 268-269, Sound Swap, the teacher tells students they will turn words into new words by changing the first sound of the words. The teacher asks students for the onset and rime for the word can. The teacher says, “Right /k/ /an/, can. Now let’s change the first sound to /p/. What word do we get?”[pan]. The teacher models changing the word mix to six using the same procedures.
In Countdown Teacher Guide 2, Unit 16, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 278-279, Sound Swap, the teacher says, “We are turning some words into new words by changing the first sound. Let’s start with the word mitt.” The teacher models changing mitt to sit by asking what the first sound in mitt is and what the rest of the sounds are, then by saying that they will change the first sound of mitt to /s/. The teacher continues modeling with the additional words cod to pod, rose to nose, hot to pot, jet to net by telling students the first sound to change.
Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade level standards.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 52, Stretch Those Sounds, the teacher models stretching the word fox. The teacher tells students they will be separating all sounds in words and to listen as they say the sounds in the word fox. The teacher says fox and holds their fist at their chest then, “/f/ (extend thumb), /o/ (extend pointer finger), /ks/ (extend middle finger)”. The teacher pulls their fingers back into a fist as they say the word. There are additional words provided for finger stretching words practice.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 311, Blending Words with Multiple Syllables, the teacher models blending words with multiple syllables using the word popcorn. The teacher tells students to listen carefully as they have syllables in their Mystery Bag: “pop-(PAUSE)-corn (Stomp your fist on a table or board from left to right for each syllable.)”.
Indicator 1E
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1e.
The Kindergarten Countdown materials provide ample initial, ongoing, and review opportunities for students to practice newly taught sounds and sound patterns daily in phonemic awareness lessons taught throughout all 28 units of the program. The materials include various multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness through body movements in activities such as finger-stretching and Syllable Stomp. However, there are missed opportunities for counting syllables in spoken words in the Kindergarten Countdown materials.
Materials provide ample opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern.
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2, Part 3, pages 48-49, Which Words Rhyme?, students practice listening to three words in 18 other sets and identifying the two rhyming words within each group.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 85-86, Creating Rhymes, students generate rhyming words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 4, Part 3, pages 62-63, Which Words Rhyme, students practice recognizing rhyming word pairs from a set of three images. There are 18 word sets for practice. Word sets include toy/boy/hug and sock/bell/clock.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 4, Part 3, page 101, students create rhyming words, including nonsense words for the images of can, mug, and goat.
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 3, pages 39-41, Mystery Bag: Blending Compound Words, students blend syllables to produce compound words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 55-56, Mystery Bag: Blending Compound Words, students blend compound words from a list of 28 words. Words include eye-ball, lady-bug, and back-pack.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3 Unit 25, Lesson 2, pages 254-255, 2-Sound Consonant Blends, students segment phonemes in single-syllable words, including consonant blends. Using the finger stretch routine, students listen to sounds, identify the number of sounds in a word, blend the sounds and identify the single-syllable words. Words include tent, jump, bump, fast. Last, bend, send, bulb, and milk.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 2, Part 2, pages 287-288, Optional Extension Activity: Syllable Swap, students segment words into syllables before changing the first syllable to create a new word. There are 10 practice words.
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 69-70, Mystery Bag: Blending Onset and Rime, students practice blending onsets and rimes to create new words. Practice words provided include map, shirt, jar, and pig.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 107-108, What’s That Word, students blend the onsets and rimes in one-syllable words and say the whole word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 268-269, Sound Swap, students turn words into new words using onset and rime to segment words. Practice words include bug /b/ /ug/ change first sound to /r/ to create rug. There are 18 practice words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 273-274, Sound Swap, students turn words into new words by changing the first sound. The same segmenting of onset and rime procedure is used for the 18 words provided.
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, Part 1, pages 64-65, Peel and Say, students isolate, identify, and produce initial sounds.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 2, Part 3, pages 34-35, Stretch those Sounds, students isolate, identify, and produce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 11, Lesson 3, Part 1, page 149, Stretch Those Sounds, students practice segmenting words using finger stretching where they use their fingers beginning with their thumbs to segment each phoneme in a word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 52, Stretch Those Sounds, students finger stretch words where they segment each phoneme in a word with their fingers beginning with their thumb, then they pull their fingers back into a fist as they say each phoneme and repeat the word.
Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 194-195, Add That Sound, students add sounds to the end of words. Practice words include bee-been, may-made, and zoo-zoom.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 249-250, Add that Sound, students add a sound to the beginning of a word to form a new word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, Part 1, pages 268-269, Sound Swap, students turn words into new words by segmenting onset and rime and changing the first sound. For example, students change the word can to pan.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, Part 2, pages 291-292, Sound Swap, an image appears on the screen and students swap the beginning sound with a different beginning sound to create a new word. Students practice with the following words: chin-win, bug-rug, goal-boat, house-mouse, fox-box, log-dog, ship-lip, toes-nose, pan-man, cut-nut, hot-pot, thumb-gum, mat-hat, hug-mug, jam-ham, mitt-sit, chop-hop, phone-bone.
Materials include a variety of multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Part 3, pages 23-25, Hear that Rhyme, students look at projected images to create words that rhyme with each image.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 69-70, Mystery Bag: Blending Onset-Rime, students blend the onsets and rimes in one-syllable words and say the whole word. The teacher uses the digital online resource for this activity. Additionally, the teacher says the onsets and rimes, students repeat the onsets and rimes, and students use hand motions to blend the onset and rimes to form one-syllable words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 311, Blending Words with Multiple Syllables, the teacher introduces a word from their Mystery Bag. Students use Syllable Stomp to stomp out syllables and then blend the syllables to create words. In Syllable Stomp, students use their fists on their desks to stomp out words.
Criterion 1.3: Phonics
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, provide explicit, systematic instruction for most phonics standards. There are missed opportunities for distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the graphemes that differ. The materials contain frequent opportunities to decode phonics patterns in isolation and connected text. The materials contain explicit instruction and student practice opportunities for encoding sound-spelling patterns in isolation and connected text.
Indicator 1F
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1f.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain explicit, systematic phonics instruction. There is teacher scripting and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards in Units 6 through 28. There is explicit modeling for teacher tasks with the projections of the lesson materials. Countdown Phonics lessons provide the teacher with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read most newly taught grade-level phonics patterns. There are missed opportunities for explicit instruction of distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of most grade level phonics standards.
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page ix, the Countdown Scope and Sequence is in Countdown Books 1 and 2. Consonant letter sounds in clusters are listed by units: Unit 6, Cluster 1: m, t, p; Unit 7, Cluster 2: s, h, c; Unit 8, Cluster 3: d, f, r; Unit 10, Cluster 4: g, l, n; Unit 11, Cluster 5: b, k, v; Unit 13 Cluster, 6: j, w, z; and Unit 14, Cluster 7: qu, x, y. Units 9, 12, 15, and 16 contain cluster reviews.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 2, Part 2, pages 4-6, Name that Sound Using, the teacher shows a picture of a monkey and asks, “What is the first sound in monkey?” The teacher explains that monkey begins with /m/, shows the letter M and tells students the letter’s name is M, like the beginning of /m/ monkey. The teacher tells the students that the M is called “capital M.” The teacher continues by introducing T, P, and A.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 1, Part 2, pages 58-59, Name that Sound, the teacher says, “Now we are going to see what some new sounds look like when they are written down.” The teacher displays the image of a duck and asks students what the first sound in duck is, then shows the upper and lowercase tiles Dd as they say, “Right duck begins with /d/, and these letters say the sound, or spell, /d/.” The procedure is repeated for consonant letters f and r with fish and rabbit images.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 1, Part 2, pages 216-217, Name that Sound, the teacher says, “Now we are going to see what our sounds look like when they are written down.” The teacher displays the image of a queen and asks what the picture is and what the beginning sound of the word is and displays the upper and lowercase tiles for Qq as they say, “Right queen begins with /kw/, and these letters say the sound, or spell, /kw/.” The teacher tells students that q is always followed by the letter u. The teacher points to the upper and lowercase Qq in the Qu qu letter tiles and tells students they are called the letter q. The teacher introduces sounds and letters x with the word mix and y with yes, along with displayed images.
Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, page xvi, there is the Countdown Scope and Sequence in Countdown Teacher Guide Books 1, 2, and 3. The Scope and Sequence contains the order phonics patterns for short and long vowels are introduced in Units 1-28. Vowels sounds are listed by units: Unit 6, Cluster 1: short a; Unit 7, Cluster 2: short i; Unit 8, Cluster 3: short o; Unit 10, Cluster 4: short u; Unit 11, Cluster 5: short e; Units 12 and 17: Review short vowel; Unit 18: Long vowel sounds; Unit 19: Short a vs. Long a; Unit 20: Short i vs. Long i; Unit 21: Short u vs. Long u; Unit 22: Short o vs. Long o; Unit 23: Short e vs. Long e; Unit 24: Review all short and long vowels.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 81-82, Touch and Say, the teacher says “We are going to read some words by ‘sounding them out’.” The teacher clicks to underline one letter tile at a time while saying its sound, “/h//o//p/.” The teacher also models with the word pad /p//a//d/. The teacher continues with this procedure as students say the letter sounds of each word. The CVC words are rim, dip, mad, ram, hot, and cop.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 2, Part 1-2, pages 33-36, Introduction to Long Vowel Phonemes, the teacher reviews the short vowel sounds with students, using the Short Vowels Poster. The teacher introduces students to the long vowel sounds using the Long Vowel Poster. Students listen for the long vowel sounds in spoken words and use the poster to help determine if the vowel sound is long or short.
Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
No evidence.
Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade level phonics pattern.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 3, Part 2, pages 42-43, Vowel-Consonant Pattern, the teacher tells students they will learn to read words that have a special pattern called Vowel-Consonant pattern: “The pattern we are going to look for is one vowel letter, with one or more consonant letters after the vowel. It’s called a Vowel-Consonant pattern.” The teacher presents the word bat and asks students if there is a vowel, asking for the vowel's name. The teacher asks if there is a consonant after the vowel, asking for the /t/ sound. The teacher points to each letter saying its sound and then says bat. In Part 3, Build Real Words with Vowel-Consonant Pattern, the teacher shows the image of nap and has students stretch the sounds displaying a color tile for each sound. The teacher displays a letter tile under each color tile while saying the sound. Finally, the teacher uses Touch and Say to read the word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lessons 3, Part 2, page 267 Build Real Words with Two-Sound Blends, the teacher displays the image for swim. The teacher stretches the sounds in swim with finger stretching and shows a color tile for each sound as they say the sounds /s//w//i//m/. The teacher prompts students with questions about what sound they hear and what letter spells each sound in swim and displays letter tiles for each sound. The teacher asks students if they see a two-sound blend, they are to respond “yes sw.” The teacher uses Say and Touch to read the word swim.
Indicator 1G
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1g.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide students with frequent opportunities to decode phonetically spelled words. The Countdown materials provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. The materials allow students to review previously learned grade-level phonics in various methods, including Phrase Reading and Word Sorts.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 69-70, Mystery Bag: Blending Onset-Rime, the students blend the onset and rime in a one-syllable word and say the word in a variety of activities, including the use of Mystery Bag and the finger stretching routine to read the following words: map, bug, lick, thumb, nail, leg, jar, hose, pig, whale, check, sheep, box, sun, toes, rug, neck, tape, hair, fox, girl, lime, worn, shirt, leaf, fish, chin.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 81-82, Touch and Say, students decode words by sounding out each projected underlined letter tile one at a time. Students say the sound and blend the words. Students use this procedure to practice words that contain short /a/, /i/ and /o/ with the teacher. CVC words include rim, dip, mad, ram, hot, and cop.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 278-279, Sound Swap, students swap initial sounds of words after segmenting the words using onset and rime to create new words. Student practice words include cod to pod, corn to thorn, and goat to boat.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2 Unit 13, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 205-208, Touch and Say, students practice saying an entire word by decoding words by pronouncing one sound at a time and blending them. The teacher first models. The students practice the following words: web, zig, job, win, bag, tub, wet, Jen, zap, jam, pet, wag, bug, and met.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 49-50, Word Sort, students sort words by the vowel sound in each word then read the words by finger-stretching the words and deciding which vowel sound is used in words. Words in the activity include rug, sit, jet, and sun.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 4, in Parts 1-2, pages 217-218, Detective Work: Mark It!, students read words on workbook page 28. In Part 1, students look closely at words and mark them by underlining letters and saying the sounds they make. Students blend the sounds to create whole words. In Part 2, Detective Work: Read It!, the teacher calls on students to read a row of words aloud to the group. Practice words in both parts of the lesson include digraphs and all word chunks. Student practice words: Part 1 chip, sock tall, call; Part 2 Thad, rush, chip, sock, all, tall.
Materials contain opportunities for students to review previously learned grade-level phonics.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page ix, there is Countdown Scope and Sequence for Countdown Books 1, 2, and 3. In Countdown Book 2, the teacher introduces students to letters by clusters.
Unit 6, Cluster 1: m, t, p, a
Unit 7, Cluster 2: s, h, c, i
Unit 8, Cluster 3: d, f, r, o
Unit 9, students review Letter Clusters 1-3. Review activities include: Stretch Those Sounds, Build a Word, and Touch and Say.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Appendix, page 194, All Instances of Countdown Activities by Strand, students practice Phrase Reading in units and lessons in Countdown Books 1 and 2: 10,5; 11,5; 12,5; 13,5; 14,5; 15,3; 15,5; and 16,3.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 3, Part 3, pages 252-253, Phrase Reading, students practice reading decodable words in three-word phrases. Phrases included in the activity are dog will run and rub my leg.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, pages xiii-xiv (18-19 of 381 online PDF), PDF Resources, the materials indicate that the teacher may choose to download and print decodables and other resources to provide extra practice for encoding and decoding.
Materials contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade level phonics.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 12, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 185-186, Phrase Reading, students read words and phrases projected. Students read words together with the teacher by sounding out black words using Touch and Say, where they touch/point to the letters, sound them out, then blend the sounds to say the complete word. Phrases include hid the mop, be like him and beg for ham.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 76-77, Word Sort: Real vs. Silly Nonsense, students finger-stretch words, then say the entire word, and decide if the word is a real word or silly word. Student practice words include fit, zob, leg, and luf.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 25, lesson 5, Parts 1 and 2, pages 221- 224, Wrap Up and Show What You Know, students participate in a variety of activities to practice previously taught grade-level phonics skills, including Sentences to Read when students read a series of sentences from their workbook. In Spell It!, students use the finger stretch routine to determine the number of sounds in a word and then write the letters for the sounds that they hear.
Indicator 1H
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1h.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words during Phrases to Read, Sentences to Read, and Decodable Passages. There are opportunities for explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence when students read complete Sentences to Read during weekly Lessons 3, 4, and 5.
Materials provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 5, Part 1, pages 80-81, Phrases and Sentences to Read, the teacher tells students they will read phrases and sentences in their workbooks. The teacher has individual students read the phrases and sentences and has the remainder of the students be checkers, giving the reader a thumbs up if they read the words correctly or placing their thumbs to the side if the reader misreads a word. The teacher follows the Positive Error Correction instructions if a student misreads any word. The teacher tells the students the number of words read correctly and prompts a checker to identify the incorrect word by position without saying the word to the reader. The teacher prompts the reader to use Touch and Say to reread the word. Once the reader rereads the word correctly, they reread the entire sentence and are congratulated if they reread the sentence correctly. If they still misread a word, the checkers use Touch and Say to read the word chorally; then, the reader independently uses Touch and Say to read the word, then read the sentence correctly.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 191, Sentences to Read, students read sentences from the workbook on page 22. The sentences provide students with practice decoding words based on the phonics concepts taught within the unit, words containing digraphs sh, th, ch, and wh. Practice sentences include: It had a big mesh top.; Which chip do you like?; That man was rich.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 273, Activity Sentences to Read, students take turns reading a sentence aloud from the student workbook. Sentences contain decodable words and previously-taught heart words marked with a heart. While one student reads aloud, the other students read silently as checkers and give non-verbal feedback on accuracy.
Lessons provide students with opportunities to decode words in a sentence.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 78, Wrap Up and Show What You Know, the materials indicate that Units 19-28 contain a weekly wrap-up activity that asks students to decode words in phrases and/or sentences.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 5, Part 1, pages 301-302, Sentences to Read, students read sentences from the workbook on page 38. The sentences provide students with practice decoding words based on the phonics concepts taught within the unit, words containing two-syllable words with closed syllables. Practice sentences include: The mascot was a dentist.; The milkman will hiccup nonstop.; Delvin said we can chit-chat at the contest.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, and Countdown Passages, students read “Tim and Ted”. This text connects to Unit 18 and contains short vowels. Sentences include: They like to run, jog, and hop.; The dog will run to his bed to nap.; Tim and Ted like to play and have fun!
Indicator 1I
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1i.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain lessons for students to build, manipulate, spell, and encode words using common and newly taught phonics sounds and spelling patterns. The Countdown lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using letter tiles and activities such as Build a Word and Say and Say and Touch to practice common and newly-taught sound and spelling phonics patterns.
The materials contain teacher-level instruction/modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns of phonics.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 3, Part 2, pages 15-17, This Letter or That?, the teacher utilizes the online resources to display pictures starting with m, t, p, and a by asking what the first sound of the picture is and then reminding students what letter spells that sound. The teacher writes the letter and word on the board and invites the students to say the sound and read the word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 100-101, Teach Digraph sh, the teacher explains, “The letters sh are called a digraph. A digraph is two letters that work together to spell just one sound.” In I Do: Build Real Words with Digraph sh, the teacher explicitly models how to build and read the word rash by first saying the word, next by stretching the sounds, saying the sound in rash very slowly. The teacher displays the corresponding letter tiles, one tile at a time, and tells the sound. The teacher models reading the word.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 24, Lessons 3, Part 3, page 214, Build Real Words with Digraph ck, the teacher displays the image of a duck. The teacher stretches the sounds in duck with finger stretching and shows a color tile for each sound as they say the three sounds /d//u//k/. The teacher clicks to display a letter phoneme for each color tile. The teacher uses Touch and Say to read the word duck. The teacher points to ck and says, "I see digraph ck in this word. I know digraph ck has two letters working together to spell one sound, /k/. Digraph ck always comes at the end of a word."
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns of phonics.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 20, Lesson 4, Part 3, pages 130-131, Unscramble This, students look at the letters o, t, p, and the image of a pot and must sound out and manipulate the letters to form the word pot.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lessons 2, Part 1, pages 257-258, Finger Stretch Words with Sound Buddies, students finger-stretch words. The word lash is changed to the word flash by adding f.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lessons 3, Part 2, page 267, Build Real Words with Two-Sound Blends, students use color tiles to sound out each phoneme of a word. They use letter tiles to match a letter to each phoneme to build words to review two-sound phonemes. Students use Touch and Say to read the word.
Indicator 1J
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1j. (mid K-Grade 2)
In the Countdown Kindergarten materials, there are opportunities for the teacher to explicitly and systematically teach how to use phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Countdown Kindergarten materials student application for encoding words in phrases and sentences based on common and newly taught phonics patterns through activities and tasks. There are three Countdown Dictation Sentences for Units 19-28 within the Supplemental Resources.
Materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Countdown Writing Activity, the teacher models sentence writing. “The teacher creates an oral sentence about their drawing, using the written label words…Once again, the teacher asks the students to help spell out their sentence, and then the teacher models conventional spelling. Once the sentence is written, the teacher models left to right tracking by moving their finger across the writing left to right, emphasizing the sounds.
Lessons provide students with frequent activities and tasks to promote the application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught phonics patterns.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, Countdown Dictation Sentences can be found. There are three dictation sentences provided for Units 19-28. In Unit 19, students encode, I hug the pup.; Zip up the top.; Sam ran with Tom.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, Countdown Dictation Sentences, Unit 24, students encode, Pack the red mug.; Jog up to the dock.; Thad will lock the shed.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, Countdown Dictation Sentences, Unit 28, students encode, The fresh pumpkin got stuck.; Do not unzip the fabric tent.’ Check my backpack for the napkin.
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, provide explicit and systematic instruction in high-frequency words. While the materials allow students to read and write high-frequency words in isolation and connected text, there is no explicit instruction or practice in using student-friendly reference materials and resources. The materials have word analysis instruction and student practice.
Indicator 1K
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1k.
The Kindergarten Countdown materials contain systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words through Heart Word videos. The materials include teacher modeling of spelling and reading high-frequency words in isolation. Students practice reading and identifying high-frequency words in isolation with activities such as Where’s That Heart Word and Heart Word Pop-Up. There are 60 high-frequency words that are explicitly introduced throughout Units 8-16 and 18-28.
Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words.
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 3, Part 1, pages 69-70, Where’s That Heart Word?, the teacher models how to read the “Heart Words” in isolation: the, in, my. Teachers ask students to identify the word that is first, next, last, after, before, at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the list of words. Alternative options suggest that the teacher read the words as they are pointed to and have the students read them in random order.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 1, Part 3, page 115, in Look, Think, Say; Pop-Up; 3-Up, the teacher tells students they will learn to read new Heart Words. There is teacher scripting and modeling for the teacher to explain the process. They display the word I, one red dot, and two empty dots. The teacher tells students when they see the red dot they are to stop and listen to the word, “This word is I, as in ‘I will go to the doctor if I feel sick.’” The yellow dot is remembering to think about the word and remember it. The green dot is to say the word out loud. “Say the word with me, I.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 1, Part 5, page 58, in Heart Word Look, Think, Say!, the teacher says, “Now we are going to learn to read new Heart Words.” The teacher points to the projected red dot reminding students it means to stop and listen to the word, “This word is say, as in, “We say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.” The teacher projects the yellow dot telling students it means to think about the word. The teacher projects the green dot telling students, “Say the word with me, say.”
Materials include frequent opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of high-frequency words in isolation.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 1, Part 2, page 87, in Look, Think, Say, the teacher models reading the Heart Words a, is, and for displaying the red dot for Look, yellow dot for Think and green dot for students to Say the words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 1, Part 2, page 242, in Look, Think, Say, Pop-Up, 3-up, the teacher displays and reads the word did, and uses did in a sentence. The teacher tells students that they know the sounds in did and points to each letter while saying the sound, but says it would be easier to remember the word. The teacher guides students through the Look, Think, Say process. The teacher repeats with the words too and will, saying the sounds and pointing to each letter in the word will.
In Countdown Online, Unit 27, Lesson 1, Heart Word Magic video, the teacher in the video sounds out the high-frequency word make using a color tile for each sound in the word. Three color tiles are placed under the word, then letters m a k are added under each color to write out the word. The video explains the long /a/ is spelled using two letters (a & e). The teacher in the video spells out the letters m a k e and says the word make.
Students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation.
Materials include a sufficient quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxxi, in WYNTK: Sight (High Frequency) Words, it states that Heart Words are taken from the Dolch 220 word list. As of Unit 8, students learn to read three sight words per unit, Units 8-16 and 18-28.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, pages v-vi, in Sight Words/High-Frequency Words (Heart Words), the following 60 high-frequency words are listed by units: Unit 8: the, in, my; Unit 9: a, is, for; Unit 10: I, am, here; Unit 11: and, at, go; Unit 12: it, like, be; Unit 13: to, not, can; Unit 14: you, are, do; Unit 15: did, too, will; Unit 16: with, all, me; Unit 18: was, no, so; Unit 19: say, now, have; Unit 20: said, come, down; Unit 21: they, that, this; Unit 22: ate, our, who; Unit 23: where, what, must; Unit 24: we, he, she; Unit 25: but, want, there; Unit 26: saw, own, please; Unit 27: make, good, new; Unit 28: out, one, two. It also states in the back of the Student Workbook contains all 220 Dolch list words to give teachers the flexibility to focus on words from the entire list.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 119, Where’s That Heart Word?, the teacher uses the online module to display four different sets of three heart words arranged in different orders, including a total of six different Heart Words. The teacher reads the words left to right. Then students identify the words in response to position prompts like, “Which word is in the middle of the row?”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 1, Part 2, page 252, Heart Word Read a Row, students read a row of Heart Words aloud, and the other students read the words silently to monitor accuracy. The students use a thumbs up or thumbs to the side to provide feedback on accuracy.
Indicator 1L
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1l.
The Kindergarten Countdown materials provide students with frequent opportunities to read grade-level high-frequency words (Heart Words) in sentences. Students have opportunities for writing grade-level high-frequency words. However, there is no repeated, explicit instruction in using student-friendly reference materials and resources. Dictation sentences with grade-level high-frequency words (Heart Words) are in the Supplemental Resources.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read grade-level high-frequency words in a sentence.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 5, Part 3, pages 134-135, Phrase Reading, students read phrases that contain Heart Words and other decodable words. There are nine phrases. Three of the nine phrases are sentences: Here I am; I am sad; Tom is mad.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 3, Part 3, Page 276, Phrase Reading, the teacher uses the online module to display the Heart Words did and my and the decodable word job one at a time. Students read each word, then the teacher shows the three words together, and students read them as a phrase. Students repeat the phrase at least three times. Students continue the process with the following phrases: let him go, all had fun, will hug me, did get ham, my dog too, men do not, fix the mop, ran like us, a big web.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 22, Lesson 5, Part 2, page 164, Sentences to Read, students use workbook page 18 to read high-frequency words in sentences. Practice sentences include Shut the read lid.; Who shut the red pot?; and I get the thin rod if I win.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 323, Sentences to Read, students use sentences in workbook page 42 to practice reading high-frequency words in sentences. Practice sentences include She said we can chitchat in the attic. Beth will panic and smash the insect with a dishpan.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to write grade-level high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-appropriate high-frequency words.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, in Countdown Dictation Sentences, three dictation sentences are provided for Units 19-28. Sentences in Unit 20 include Shut the red tin. Sam ran with Tom.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, in Countdown Dictation Sentences, three dictation sentences are provided for Units 19-28. Sentences in Unit 22 include Did Dad have cash? Do not rub that rash.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities and Spelling Lists, in Countdown Dictation Sentences, three dictation sentences are provided for Units 19-28. Sentences in Unit 25 include Jack will kick the ball there. The shack is a mud hut.
Materials do not provide repeated, explicit instruction in how to use student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading high-frequency words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries).
No evidence.
Indicator 1M
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1m.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide lessons that explicitly teach word analysis strategies, including teacher scripting and modeling. The materials have student practice opportunities for word analysis in the unit lessons. The Countdown materials provide multiple and varied opportunities over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies through Countdown Online video animations and teacher modeling in I Do, You Do, and We Do lesson formats along with student activities such as Touch & Say, Detective Work, Word Sorts, Nonsense Words, and Phrase Reading.
Materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 5, Part 2, page 26, Touch and Say, the teacher displays the letter tiles m, a, t and says, “We are going to read some words by ‘sounding them out’, which means saying them one at a time. Let’s get started with this word. Watch how I sound it out.” The teacher clicks underlining one letter at a time as they sound out each letter /m//a//t/. The teacher clicks to slide an arrow from left to right under the word as they say mat.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 4, Part 2, page 244, Detective Work, the teacher guides students to be “letter and sound detectives,” paying attention to each letter in a word, then reading the word. The teacher models the Mark It activity, underlining letters in a word and saying each letter's sounds. The teacher reminds students to keep digraphs and the word part all together. The teacher models marking the word shut, then reading the word shut, and students repeat in their workbooks. The teacher and students repeat with the following words: fall, rich, sock, whiz, pal, Thad, call, pick, tall, chip, rush.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 3, Part 2, pages 291-292, Teach Reading Two Syllable Words, the teacher presents students with the word cabin. The teacher tells students, “This word is different from all the words we have read so far because it has two vowels, not just one. It has an a and an i.” The teacher explains, “Since the word has two vowels and the vowel letters are not next to each other, I know this word has two syllables.” The teacher uses Syllaboards and writes a vowel on each Syllaboard, then adds consonants, explaining that both syllables in cab/in are closed syllables.
Materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 3, page 95, Activity Nonsense Words, the teacher tells students they will read silly words. The teacher displays the nonsense word cac and models decoding it using knowledge of CVC patterns. The teacher repeats with the words com, tus, and ic using the Touch & Say routine to guide students to decode each nonsense word. The teacher rearranges the nonsense words to form the words cactus and comic. The teacher tells students that many big words are made up of smaller nonsense words and that reading small silly words can help them read bigger words. The teacher models reading cactus and comic syllable by syllable.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 4, Part 1, page 134, Detective Work: Mark It!, the teacher models reading the word math in the student workbook on page 12. The teacher tells students they will underline the letters and make the sounds the letters make, then blend the sounds to make a word. The teacher reminds students when they see the digraph th, they are to underline both letters with one line because together they spell one sound /th/. The teacher clicks three times underlining each phoneme and says each sound /m//a//th/ then says math. The teacher uses the same procedure for the other words on the student workbook page.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 181, Teach Digraph ch, the teacher projects the image of a chin and displays the digraph tile ch. The teacher says, “When we see c and h together, they work together like a team to say one sound. They don’t say /k/ or /h/ like they do when they are by themselves. They say a brand new sound.” The teacher introduces the sound /ch/ as they tap their chin repeatedly while repeating /ch/ as they tap.
Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 3, Part 2, page 252, Activity Phrase Reading, the teacher displays three-word phrases that contain both Heart Words and decodable words. The teacher tells students that Heart Words are red and decodable words are black. The teacher guides students to read the phrase, the hot tub, using the Touch & Say routine to decode the words hot and tub sound by sound. The teacher and students repeat with the following phrases: Jen did hum, the fox too, dog will run, you can win, are not wax, rub my leg, a pig pen, is so fun, zig and zag.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 4, Part 3, page 135, Activity Word Sort, the teacher tells students that in this sort, they will identify the vowel sound in words and determine whether each word contains the digraph th. The teacher models with the first word, thud, as students follow along. The teacher reads and finger stretches the word thud, and students identify the middle vowel sound and the letter that makes the vowel sound. The teacher and students circle the image for up, which matches the vowel sound in thud. The teacher guides students to identify and circle the digraph th in the word. Students complete the word sort independently, reading each word, identifying the vowel sound and circling the corresponding image, and circling instances of the digraph th.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lessons 3, Part 2, pages 314-316, Reading Two-Syllable Words, in the We Do portion of the lesson, the teacher and students work together to read the word finish using the same procedure as the teacher modeling; looking for vowels and breaking the word into syllables using Syllaboards. Words for practice include tennis, pigpen, suntan, and uphill.
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency
Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding in K and 1, and rate, expression, and accuracy in mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, provide systematic, explicit instruction and practice in decoding accuracy and automaticity. While the materials have Countdown Passages for students to practice reading with purpose and understanding, the materials do not have explicit instruction or think-alouds to model how to engage with a text with understanding.
Indicator 1N
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1n. (K-1)
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice with fluency by focusing on accuracy with Phrases and Sentences to Read using the Positive Error Correction instructions. The materials contain systematic and explicit instruction for automaticity in decoding at the word level and sentence level. The materials provide students with opportunities to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy at the word and sentence levels with Detective Word: Read It! and Sentences to Read activities. The materials provide additional decodable passages with instructions for fluency practice.
Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 22, Lesson 5, Part 1, Page 164, Activity Sentences to Read, the teacher tells students to take turns reading a sentence out loud. The other students read the sentence silently, giving nonverbal feedback on accuracy. The teacher provides positive error corrections if the reader misreads a word. The instructions for the activity state that the goal is for students to read each sentence accurately the first time.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 5, page 163, Description, teacher instructions state, “In Sentences to Read, students read short sentences out loud to the class. Their goal is to read each sentence accurately the first time.” In Lesson 5, Part 1, page 164, in Sentences to Read, the teacher tells students they will call on a student to read a sentence. When that student is a Reader, the other students are to be Checkers touching words as the Reader reads aloud, giving the Reader a thumbs up if they read their sentence correctly or a thumb to the side if it is incorrect. The teacher is to follow Positive Error Correction instructions.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Appendix A, page 341, Positive Error Correction for Phrases and Sentences to Read, the teacher tells the students the total number of words read correctly and prompts a Checker to identify the incorrect word by position without saying the word for the Reader. The teacher encourages the Reader to use Touch & Say to reread the word. Touch & Say is where the Reader touches each letter while saying its sound, then students blend the sounds into a word. Once the Reader rereads the word correctly, they reread the entire sentence and are congratulated if they reread the sentence correctly. If they still misread a word, the Checkers chorally use Touch & Say to read the word. The Reader independently uses Touch & Say to read the word and then read the sentence correctly.
Materials provide opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 4, Part 2, pages 187-188, Detective Work: Read It!, the teacher calls on students one at a time to read a row of words aloud to their classmates. The teacher selects a student to be a Reader, and the other students are Checkers, putting a thumb up if the Reader reads the row of words correctly or sideways if a word is misread and they need to try again. Students practice reading words with blends ch and wh.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, “As students develop mastery and automaticity with the skills taught in Countdown, the Countdown Passages can be used to reinforce these skills, to provide opportunities for practice, and, ideally, to build fluency.”
Indicator 1Q
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1q.
There are opportunities in the Countdown Kindergarten materials for students to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding. Students read decodable passages, and there are comprehension questions with each passage. There are missed opportunities for explicit directions of think-alouds where teachers model how to engage with a text, emphasizing reading for purpose and understanding.
Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (K) for purpose and understanding.
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, students read “Max and Sam”. There are comprehension questions to check students’ understanding. In Unit 17, questions include, What hit Max in the rib? Why do you think Max was sad?
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, students read “A Hen and a Pig”. There are comprehension questions to check students’ understanding. In Unit 23, questions include, Where is the hen’s shed? Why do you think the pig begs for a fig and a yam?
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, students read “The Potluck”. There are comprehension questions to check students’ understanding. In Unit 27, questions include, When will the class have a potluck? Why do you think they will need to rest at the top?
Materials do not contain explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
No evidence.
Overview of Gateway 2
Implementation, Support Materials & Assessment
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, partially meet expectations for implementation, support materials, and assessment. There is a well-defined teacher’s manual with instructional routines, lesson objectives, and adult-level explanations. The materials contain lessons for a school year. However, Units 1-16 only have 15 minutes of instruction. The materials contain a clear, cohesive hierarchy for phonological awareness skills. The materials contain a scope and sequence for phonics with a general research-based explanation. The materials contain decodable passages aligned to the phonics’ scope and sequence. The decodable passages do not align with the scope and sequence of the high-frequency word. There are opportunities to assess some foundational literacy skills, such as phonological awareness and phonics. The materials contain documentation of alignment to Common Core State Standards. The supplemental resources provide only resources for students who read, write, speak, and listen to Spanish. Within the lessons, there are options for differentiation. There are challenge options and additional units for students who need extensions. The materials contain digital materials compatible with many platforms and operating systems. Some of the materials can be personalized and customized.
Criterion 2.1: Guidance for Implementation, Including Scope and Sequence
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, contain a well-defined teacher’s manual with instructional routines for foundational skills. The materials have adult-level explanations and examples of foundational skill content. While the foundational skills content and lessons can be completed in a school year, the materials do not have an appropriate amount of time (15 minutes) allotted for foundational skills in Units 1-16. The materials contain an evidence-based explanation for teaching phonological awareness with a cohesive sequence. The materials contain a scope and sequence for phonics with a general research-based explanation. The materials have strategies for informing stakeholders. There are Parent Crash Course Videos explaining concepts, activities, and procedures.
Indicator 2A
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2a.
The materials contain Countdown Teacher Guides with introductions that provide an overview of the program and provide a well-defined teacher resource with teacher-scripted lessons, sidebars, and prompting for when and how to use the Countdown Online student-facing digital materials. The Countdown Teacher Guide Books contain detailed information and instructional routines to help the teacher effectively implement foundational skills.
Materials provide a well-defined, teacher resource (teacher edition, manual) for content presentation.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction Overview on pages ix-x, there is an organized chart of the Countdown Scope and Sequence. The chart lists the unit and the focus for each of the five corresponding lessons in each of the three Countdown Teacher’s Guides. On pages xi-xvi, each of the strands and sub-strands presented is clearly defined and includes functional vocabulary, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, and high-frequency words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Components and What’s In This Book, page xx, there is an overview of what a teacher can find in each of the three Teacher Guides and states these Guides will provide “step by step instructions for delivering Countdown with fidelity.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxii, the guide provides the explanation that the first two teacher guides consist of weekly units with five daily lessons made up of three individual parts with each part containing individual activities. However, in Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, there are five lessons, a lesson for each day of the week, which contain connected instructional routines.
The teacher resource contains detailed information and instructional routines that help the teacher to effectively implement all foundational skills content (i.e. phonological awareness, print concepts, letters, phonics, HFW, word analysis, decoding).
In Countdown Teacher Guide 1, Introduction, pages xxii-xxiii, Lesson Design, the Guide lists the first 16 units as having “five lessons with three independent instructional activities or ‘parts’.” There is a diagram of lesson components with a visual example. More detailed descriptions of the activities utilized in the 16 units are on pages xl-xliv.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages viii-xiii, Overview of Countdown’s Scope and Sequence, Units 1-16 provides information on activity routines in each foundational skill area. For example, in Which Words Rhyme?, the students determine which two of three images on the screen rhyme. In the Countdown Scope and Sequence on page iv, the Which Words Rhyme? activity is used in Lesson 2 and Lesson 4 in Unit 2.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, pages xi-xvi, Countdown’s Broad Structure: Strands & Sub-strands, the teacher resource contains information and instructional routines on Letter-Sound Instruction, Sight Words/High Frequency Words (Heart Words), Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics that help the teacher to effectively implement all foundational skills content.
Any technology pieces included provide support and guidance for the teacher and do not create an additional layer of complication around the materials.
In the Countdown materials, technology resources accompany each lesson. There is clear documentation of support for navigating these resources in the Teacher Guide for the accompanying lesson. For example, in the Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Launch, pages 7-8, there is a script for the teacher as well as instructions for when to click to advance to the next slide so the student-facing digital materials aligns with the teacher’s script.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Appendix, pages 313-314, any technology pieces including videos and animations used to teach/review concepts along with interactive resources of letter tiles and heart word/letter-sound generator provide support and guidance for the teacher and do not create an additional layer of complication around the materials.
In the Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 2, Part 1, Launch, page 34, in the Review Short Vowel Phonemes and Motion activity, the teacher uses the online display and then click through the lesson by pointing to the short vowel poster and saying the scripted lesson as written.
Indicator 2B
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2b.
The materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program. Teachers can use the materials to improve their own knowledge of the subject because the Countdown materials provide adult-level explanations and examples of foundational skills concepts in the What You Need to Know section in the Introduction. Within the What You Need to Know sections of each lesson, there are detailed explanations of the concepts, routines, and procedures for teachers. The materials provide the teachers with the pedagogy needed to explicitly teach the program. There is a Glossary of Terms associated with foundational skills definitions in the Appendix. The definitions are accompanied by detailed examples of those grade level foundational skills concepts.
Complete, detailed adult-level explanations are provided for each foundational skill taught at the grade level.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, pages xxiii-xxxi, Introduction, in Lesson Design, Countdown Strands: What You Need to Know includes terminology associated with foundational skills with detailed explanations. Terms included are rhyming, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, and sight words. The rhyming explanation contains definitions and examples of the concepts onset and rime.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Countdown’s Broad Structure: Strands and Sub-stands, pages xi-xvi, detailed adult-level explanations are provided for foundational skills including key vocabulary, rhyming, phoneme awareness, alphabetic principle, high-frequency words (Heart Words).
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Appendix, Glossary of Terms, pages 315-317, foundational skill definitions are included for the following terms: accuracy, consonant blend, fluency, grapheme, long vowel, phonemic awareness, phonics, phonological awareness, short vowel, and syllable.
Detailed examples of the grade level foundational skill concepts are provided for the teacher.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Broad Structure Strands and Substrands, pages xi-xvi, each heading has specific examples. For example, in Segmenting, teachers utilize the example of segmenting the word fudge as /f/ /u/ /j/.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Lesson 3, Part 1, page 14, the sidebar reviews the purpose of the lesson and serves as a reminder to segment the first sound of each word as a model of the beginning sound isolation for the students: “You should segment and pronounce the beginning sound of each word before saying the whole word, as in /w/, watermelon.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Appendix, Glossary of Terms, page 315, closed syllables are defined and examples are provided: “Examples of Closed Syllables are cat, pick and robot.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 2, What You Need to Know, page 118, the concepts of short and long Uu are referenced. It provides the symbols for short /u/ and long /u/ phonemes. There are word examples for short and long /u/ such as, “Short u is the first phoneme in the word up. Long u is the first phoneme in the word unicorn.”
Indicator 2C
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2c.
Countdown Kindergarten materials include content that can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding. The Countdown program utilizes lesson plans with a limited research base, including foundational concepts, such as phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, phonics, and high-frequency words. The program is intended to be taught in whole group lessons. Materials provide assessments to identify if students need to use the program as a small group intervention. In Units 1-16, Countdown lessons are designed for 15 minutes daily, which is not an appropriate amount of time for foundational skills. In Units 17-28, the lessons are designed for 15-25 minutes. Countdown contains 28 weekly units, which can be completed in one school year without modifications.
Lesson plans utilize some effective, research-based lesson plan design for early literacy instruction.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, What You Need to Know, Countdown in General, page xxiii, the program describes the speech-to-print approach. Sounds are taught first, and then the symbols represent those sounds.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Lesson Design, page xxii, there is a labeled diagram of the different components of the lesson, which includes a connection alignment to the strand of learning with lesson activities.
In Quick Links, Research Alignment, Early Literacy White Paper, pages 1-3, “According to the report issued by the National Reading Panel (NRP) (2000), to successfully teach children how to read, there are five areas in which children must be provided direct and systematic instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.”
The effective lesson design structure includes whole group and some small group instruction.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, page xxxiv, Introduction, Whole Class instruction states that Countdown is to be taught as a whole group lesson. The benefits of teaching Countdown once a day as a whole group lesson allows lower students to learn from higher students and only one teacher is needed.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Whole Group and Small Group Instruction, page xxxiii, it states that although Countdown is designed for whole-class instruction, it can be used in small groups of struggling students. Under the subheading Tip, there are suggestions for delivering instruction to the whole class, including using a Smartboard or whiteboard to enable content to be viewed in a whole-class setting.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments & Groupings, there are recommendations for supporting and reteaching students. Small Group Instruction with Really Great Reading’s Phonics Suite states, Countdown, Blast, and HD Word lessons can be taught in small to medium-sized groups to provide intervention for students who are “at risk” or have weaknesses in their foundational skills and are within the intended grade range of the program.”
The pacing of each component of daily lesson plans is clear; however, the amount of time for foundational skills is not appropriate.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, Countdown’s Unit and Lesson Structure, page xix, the instruction states that Units 1-16 contain five daily lessons in each weekly unit consisting of three parts. Each part should take about five minutes for the teacher, and all three components are expected to take 15 minutes. Therefore, each daily lesson should be taught in 15 minutes.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Lesson Design, page xxii, the three individual lesson components that make up the whole lesson are labeled on a lesson plan template to allow teachers to see where these parts are located within the lesson plan.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, pages vi-viii, there are five lessons, a lesson for each day of the week, which contain connected instructional routines. In Units 17-28, lessons no longer have three different parts and can be taught as one continuous lesson, which should take approximately 15-25 minutes. The lessons have a specific focus. Students receive a total of explicit foundational instruction for 75-100 minutes a week.
The suggested amount of time and expectations for maximum student understanding of all foundational skill content (i.e., phonological awareness, print concepts, letters, phonics, HFW, word analysis, decoding) can reasonably be completed in one school year and should not require modifications.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, How Much Time Will it Take to Complete Countdown, page xxxii, it states that Countdown provides 28 weeks of instruction (approximately 140 days).
Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, the Countdown Scope and Sequence, no page numbers, details the five weekly lessons in Units 1-28, each unit taking a week to complete.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Appendix, in Alternative Scope and Sequence, page 289, the lessons for three introductory weeks are provided if a teacher prefers to utilize three introductory weeks instead of one. This would increase the 28-week program to 30 weeks of instruction.
For those materials on the borderline (e.g., approximately 130 days on the low end or 200 days on the high end), evidence clearly explains how students would be able to master ALL the grade level standards within one school year.
N/A
Indicator 2D
Indicator 2D.i
Scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence. (K-1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2d.i.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide a delineated sequence for phonological awareness skills to be taught within the year. The Kindergarten materials contain a clear evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills in the following progression found in the Introduction: rhyming, beginning sound isolation, blending compound words, onset rimes, individual phonemes, segmenting phonemes, and culminate with adding/substituting and deleting phonemes. The materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction and practice to build toward students’ application of skills that build in complexity.
Materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills.
In Research Alignment, Early Literacy White Paper, page 4, research in the paper states, “Tolman said instruction should begin with the early phonological awareness skills of syllables, alliteration, and onset-rime, and then move down toward the narrower part of the hourglass, reaching basic phonemic awareness; this is where students segment and blend individual phonemes, or the individual sounds, they hear in words.” Really Great Reading states Countdown phonological and phonemic awareness instruction is taught orally and auditorily through a variety of activities with word play, stories, rhyming, and blending and segmenting words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xvii-xviii, the Skills Taught by Activity chart contains information on skills, activities, and first instances by unit. The chart, Recognize Rhyme, first appears in Unit 1, Lesson 2, Part 3, and Segmenting Phonemes first appears in Unit 6, Lesson 2, Part 3.
Materials contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice based on the expected hierarchy.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 1, page 33, students engage in the Peel That Sound activity where students isolate the beginning sounds of words. In Unit 2, Lesson 2, Part 1, page 42, students engage in the Peel and Sort activity where students sort words by beginning sounds.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 4, Lesson 4, Part 1, pages 132-133, Peel and Sort, alignment with the scope and sequence is displayed in the Overview on pages 8-9. The teacher begins the lessons by saying, “Today we are going to sort words by their beginning sounds.” The teacher models by pointing to the column headings, duck and lion. The students sort pictures based on the beginning sound of pictures, including dog, ladder, let, dinosaur, lime, doughnut, lick, ladybug, door, leaf, and deer.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 5, Lesson 5, Part 1, pages 177-178, Peel and Match, alignment with the scope and sequence are found in the Introduction on pages 8-9. The teacher states, “Today we’re going to decide which words have the same beginning sound.” The teacher introduces /ch/. The teacher displays an image of a dog and asks, “Which word begins the same as chin?” The students respond correctly, and the students continue to compare the following set of words to determine which image in each set has the /ch/ sound: check & hat, sled & cheese, lion & chocolate, eyeball & chalk, and church & football.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 11, Lesson 3, Part 1, page 172, students engage in the Stretch Those Sounds activity where they stretch words by individual sounds. In Unit 11, Lesson 5, Part 1, page 181, students engage in the Count the Sounds activity where they stretch words to count the phonemes in a word.
Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students’ application of the skills.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page ix, there is a Countdown Scope and Sequence for Countdown Books 1, 2, and 3. In Countdown Book 1, Unit 1, Hear That Rhyme activity is listed for Week 3, Lessons 2 and 4. In Countdown Book 1, Unit 2, Which Words Rhyme? activity is listed for Week 3, Lessons 2 and 4. In Countdown Book 1, Unit 3, Creating Rhymes activity is listed for Week 3, Lessons 2 and 4.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xvii, a Skills Taught by Activity chart contains skills, activities, and first instances for Rhyming, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness and Phonemic Awareness strands in Units 1-16 and Units 17-28 with the following information:
Rhyming: Recognize Rhyme activities initially found in Units 1 and 2: Hear That Rhyme, Which Words Rhyme? Producing Rhyme activities initially found in Unit 3: Creating Rhymes.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Beginning Sound Isolation activities initially found in Units 1 and 2: Peel That Sound, Sound Stories, Peel and Sort, Peel and Say, Peel and Match, This and That? Blending Compound Words, Onset Rimes and Individual Phonemes activities initially found in Units 1 and 2: Mystery Bag, What’s That Word? Segmenting Phonemes initially found in Units 6 and 9: Stretch Those Sounds, Count The Sounds Adding/Substituting Phonemes initially found in Units 13 and 16: Add That Sound, Sound Swap.
Phonemic Awareness in Units 17-28: Beginning Sound Isolation-Isolating, Counting, Segmenting Phonemes-Finger-stretching activities, Blending-Blending Phonemes-Phoneme Blending activities, Segmentation-Segmenting Phonemes- Finger-Stretching activities, Manipulation-Adding, Deleting, Substituting Phonemes-Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition, Phoneme Substitution activities.
Indicator 2D.ii
Scope and sequence clearly delineate an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear explanation for the order of the sequence.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2d.ii.
Countdown materials have a delineated scope and sequence. In addition to the Scope and Sequence in the Introduction, more detailed information about the strands and sub-strands is in each lesson in the What You Need to Know section. Countdown strands include rhyming phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, sight words, and functional vocabulary. The materials provide instruction and practice to build toward the application of the skills based on evidence and research. There is insufficient research on the particular sequence of phonics skills in the Scope and Sequence.
Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward the application of skills.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages ix-x, a detailed Scope and Sequences lists the unit, the instruction, and focus area for each of the five lessons in an orderly fashion with related practice for phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics instruction.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xvii, a Skills Taught by Activity chart contains skills, activities, and first instances for Alphabetic Principle strands in Units 1-16 and Units 17-28 with the following information:
Letter Naming and Letter-Sound Correspondence activities:
Initially found in Unit 6: Letter-Sound Into, Name That Sound, This Letter or That?, Find That Letter, Connect That Letter
Initially found in Unit 7: Which Letter?
Initially located in Unit 15: Letter Sound Review
Decoding activities:
Initially located in Unit 6: Letters Make Words, Touch and Say
Initially located in Unit 10: Phrase Reading
Encoding activities:
Initially found in Unit 7: Guess My Word, Unscramble This
Initially located in Unit 9: Build a Word
Alphabetic Principle strands in Units 17-28:
Recognizing letter-sounds with automaticity activities: Look, Think, Say, Pop-Up 3-Up, Read a Row
Encoding spoken one-syllable words with accuracy activities: Build a Word, Spell It!
Decoding closed syllable words (digraphs, two sound consonant blends) with accuracy in isolation, short phrase and sentence activities: Detective Work, Word Sort, Phrases and Sentences to Read
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, page xvi (from the table of contents), there is the Countdown Scope and Sequence for Countdown Books 1, 2, and 3. The Scope and Sequence contains the order phonics patterns are introduced in Units 1-28:
Unit 6, Cluster 1: m, t, p, a
Unit 7, Cluster 2: s, h, c, i
Unit 8, Cluster 3: d, f, r, o
Unit 9, Review Clusters 1-3
Unit 10, Cluster 4: g, l, n, u
Unit 11, Cluster 5: b, k, v, e
Unit 12, Review Clusters 1-5
Unit 13, Cluster 6: j, w, z
Unit 14, Cluster 7: qu, x, y
Units 15 and 16, Review Clusters 1-7
Unit 17, Review short vowel sounds
Unit 18, Long vowel sounds and closed syllables
Unit 19, Short a vs. Long a
Unit 20, Short i vs. Long i; digraph sh
Unit 21, Short u vs. Long u; digraph th
Unit 22, Short o vs. Long o; digraphs sh and th
Unit 23, Short e vs. Long e; digraphs ch and wh
Unit 24, Review all short and long vowels; digraph ck
Unit 25, Sound Buddies two-sound blends; digraph review
Unit 26, Sound Buddies two-sound blends; two-sound blends initial and final
Unit 27, Introduce blending syllables; read two-syllable words with closed syllables
Unit 28, Review blending syllables; read two-syllable words with closed syllables
Materials have a limited research-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence.
In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, pages 7-8, the paper provides the following information: “Perhaps the most important goal, in the interest of giving students a productive knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, is to convey to them the basic alphabetic principle, or the idea that words are made of sounds and that letters represent those sounds in a systematic way (Paulson & Moats, 2010).” Countdown states that they put research into practice, “As they learn each cluster of letter sounds, Countdown students immediately apply their alphabet knowledge to encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading) simple, controlled, one-syllable words using the letter sounds they have explicitly been taught.” The paper states that teachers begin to scaffold students decoding and encoding of words as early as week six of instruction with CVC words such as, map, pat, and tap. Students learn to represent phonemes with color tiles then match letter tiles to color tiles.
In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Papers, page 7, it states all of the Really Great Reading’s programs have a major instructional focus on the decoding and the encoding of words to facilitate students’ reading fluency and comprehension over time. It states, "Pflaum, Walberg, Karegianes, and Rasher (1980) determined that the application of letter-sound knowledge to the decoding of words should happen immediately once students have been taught enough letters to read such words (as cited in Shanahan, 2005). Thus, explicit letter-sound instruction should segue into explicit phonics instruction." The program states it helps students move from learning individual letter sounds to putting the sounds together to encode and decode simple words as quickly as possible.
In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Papers, page 8, it states, "Works Clearinghouse recommends that students begin reading connected text as soon as they have a rudimentary grasp on decoding a few words (Foorman et al., 2016)." The paper states after students have learned only 16 letters in Countdown, they begin to engage in simple phrase reading, and by the end of Unit 16, most students are, with support or without support, begin to read simple phrases, for instance, “in the van”. They also get ready to move on to more complex phonics concepts.
Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations.
In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, page 8, in the Phonics section, it states that after students have learned 16 letters, they begin reading simple phrases. As students complete Unit 16, most students read simple phrases with or without support, such as in the van. In the second half of Countdown, students review letter sounds and begin applying their phonics knowledge to decoding single-syllable words inclusive of digraphs and two-sound blends, and move on to decoding simple multisyllabic words containing two closed syllables.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page vi, Specific Curricular Goals, the goals are explained. The first half of the year (Units 1-16) pre-decoding skills, understanding letter-sound relationships are presented in a manner designed to help ensure that students can read and understand the structure of high utility patterns and common generations found in CVC words. In the second half of the year (Units 17-28), the program focuses on skills needed to decode more complex words in isolation and connected text. The focus in this section is based on the structure of single-syllable and closed syllable words such as dust, hush, smash, west, and two-syllable words where both syllables are closed, such as sunset and picnic.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xvi-xvii, in Countdown Scope and Sequence shows in Unit 17, students review short vowel sounds, and in Unit 18, they begin an introduction to long vowel sounds. In Unit 20, they begin work with digraphs, and by Unit 27, they start blending syllables and reading two-syllable words with closed syllables.
Patterns and generalizations are carefully selected to provide a meaningful and manageable number of phonics patterns and common generalizations for students to learn deeply.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction pages ix-- x, Countdown Scope and Sequence, it shows a pattern of phonics and related generalizations beginning with simple common patterns related to rhyming and phonological awareness. This leads to letter-sound correspondence and applying this knowledge to encoding and decoding using segmenting and blending skills to read simple patterns. The second half of the year focuses on more complex consonant structures, including digraphs and two-sound blends. By the end of the year, two-syllable words are presented.
In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, page 8, the paper states, “The scope and sequences for Countdown, Blast Foundations, and HD Word progress from simpler to more difficult concepts. Students begin by learning short vowel sounds and the closed syllable spelling pattern and gradually progress to more challenging long vowel sounds and the multiple spellings of those sounds.”
Indicator 2E
In the Kindergarten Quick Link materials, Home Connection Activities section, teachers and parents view Teacher and Parent Crash Course Videos to understand the concepts, activities, routines, and procedures in the Really Great Reading Program. In the videos, teachers and parents see activities, routines, and procedures. There are additional Skills and Activities pages in the Countdown Teacher Guide Book where teachers can see how foundational skills are aligned with the activity name and what lesson they can be found in.
Materials contain jargon-free resources and processes to inform all stakeholders about foundational skills taught at school.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 1, page 80, the objectives for the lesson are clearly stated for the teacher at the beginning of the lesson in the box describing the activity, “Students will practice isolating the beginning sounds in words.”
In Quick Links, Teacher’s Tool Kit, Home Connection Activities, Tools and Resources, Teacher/Parent Crash Course Video, there are concepts, activity routines, and classroom procedures in a 20-minute video. Concepts introduced, defined, and modeled are letters and sounds, finger-stretching, building words with color tiles then adding letters to the tiles, closed syllable words, digraphs using three-color tiles due to the digraph, blends definitions using color tiles, long vowel sounds and their spelling, silent e vowel-consonant-e, open syllables, vowel teams, multisyllabic words with a post-it note for each vowel, and how to lose the rules way if the word does not make sense.
Materials provide stakeholders with strategies and activities for practicing phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, and print concepts that will support students in progress towards and achievement of grade level foundational skills standards.
In Quick Links, Teacher’s Tool Kit, Home Connection Activities, Tools and Resources, Heart Word Magic, What is Heart Word Magic a video, it provides an explanation and methodology behind Heart Words which include high-frequency words. The Student Introduction video contains a student-level explanation of Heart Words. The Heart Word Magic Animations library includes Heart Word activities for students to review. There are student practice activities such as Heart Word Magic Spelling.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Tables for Strands, Skills and Activities, pages xvi-xvii, the teacher sees how foundational skills align with the activity name and what lesson they can be found. The chart is color-coded to give teachers visual support in understanding the foundational skill area of each lesson component.
Criterion 2.2: Decodable Texts
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, contain decodable passages. The passages align to the sound-spelling patterns per unit. Decodable passages are available for Units 17-28. The decodable passages contain high-frequency words. However, the high-frequency words in the passages do not align with the scope and sequence of the high-frequency words.
Indicator 2F
Indicator 2F.i
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2f.i.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain opportunities for student use and repeated readings of program phonics aligned decodable texts. Countdown Online decodable passages in Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources.
Materials include decodable texts to address securing phonics.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, there are 12 fictional Countdown Decodable Passages. The materials state the Countdown Passages are strictly controlled stories that align with the phonics skills, although some passages contain Heart Words before they are taught. The decodable passages begin with Unit 17 and then provide one for each unit through Unit 28. The Countdown Passage for Unit 20, “On the Ship”, includes Words to Preview: we, look, there, new, must. The passage contains 117 words and includes words with digraph sh. One sentence included in the passage is, “I can get a new rod if I dash to the shop.”
Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are aligned to each unit’s phonics skills. For example, in Unit 17, students learn short vowels. The passage, “Max and Sam” contains short vowels.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are aligned to each unit’s phonics skills. For example, in Unit 21, students learn digraph th. The passage, “The Rush Down the Path” contains words with digraph th.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are aligned to each unit’s phonics skills. For example, in Unit 27, students learn two-syllable words. The passage, “The Potluck” contains two-syllable words.
Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing phonics skills.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, there is a table explaining the Words to Preview and Diffentiation Suggestions. The Countdown Passage for Unit 26, “Our Land”, includes Words to Preview: look, out, new. For Differentiation Suggestions, it states, “Students should underline each letter in the blend separately since each letter in a blend spells its own sound.”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, it states, “The Countdown Passages can be used in the classroom, in small groups, or sent home for practice. Students can begin practicing with a passage after Lesson 5 of the corresponding unit in Countdown has been taught. Students should practice with words, phrases, and sentences in the Lesson 5 student workbook activities for their current unit before moving on to read the passage. The passages can be read as part of the Countdown lesson or at another time, such as at the beginning of guided reading groups or at a teacher-led center.”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Passages, it lists additional activities such as “Underlining a new phonics concept in words, such as digraph th or 2-sound blends. Highlighting words containing a certain feature, such as short a or digraphs.”
Indicator 2F.ii
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2f.ii.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials have opportunities for student use and repeated readings of decodable texts with high-frequency words. However, the passages do not fully align with the program’s scope and sequence. Passages contain up to five additional words that have not been explicitly taught in Countdown. The Countdown Online does provide decodable passages with Heart Words in Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources.
Materials include decodable texts that utilize high-frequency/irregularly spelled words.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, there are 12 fictional Countdown Decodable Passages. The materials state the Countdown Passages are strictly controlled stories that align with the phonics skills, although some passages contain Heart Words not explicitly taught. The decodable passages begin with Unit 17 and then provide one for each unit through Unit 28. The Countdown Passage for Unit 20, “On the Ship” includes Words to Preview: we, look, there, new, must. The passage contains 117 words and has words with the digraph sh. One sentence in the passage is, “I can get a new rod if I dash to the shop.”
Decodable texts contain grade-level high-frequency/irregularly spelled words. However, the high-frequency/irregularly spelled words are not fully aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages, it states, “The high-frequency words used in the passages fall into one of two categories: 1) Heart Words that students have been explicitly taught in the current and previous Countdown units; 2) up to 5 additional words per passage, not explicitly taught in Countdown, from the Dolch 220 Pre-Primer and Primer lists (these are included in a “Words to Preview” section in the standard and differentiated versions of the passages since they may be unfamiliar to students).”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are not aligned to the scope and sequence. For example, in Unit 18, students learn was, no, so, however, none of those words are in the passage for Unit 18. The passage, “Tim and Ted” contains out, which is not taught until Unit 28.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are not aligned to the scope and sequence. For example, in Unit 22, students learn ate, our, who, however, none of those words are in the passage for Unit 22. The passage, “A Pet Dog” contains must and he, which are not taught until later units.
Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing reading high-frequency words/irregularly spelled words in context.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, there are Countdown Decodable Passages. The Countdown Passage for Unit 26, “Our Land” includes Words to Preview: look, out, new. For the instruction of Heart Words, the materials state, “Heart Words the students have already learned in Countdown are not marked in the standard versions of the passages. If a student struggles with a Heart Word, remind him or her this is a Heart Word he or she has learned and, if necessary, encourage the student to look at, think about, and say (Look, Think, Say) the word, or provide the word for the student.”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Decodable Passages, the directions state, “The teacher should review these words [Words to Preview] with the students several times before reading the passage. Since students are not expected to know these words, the teacher may read these words to the students when they are encountered in the passage if necessary. Optionally, the teacher may consider devoting some instructional time to teaching words that frequently appear in the passages.”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Decodable Passages, the Additional Activities suggests, “Circling the Heart Words.”
Criterion 2.3: Assessment and Differentiation
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, contain some assessment opportunities. There are no assessment materials for print concepts. The materials contain assessments for phonological awareness skills. However, the assessments do not contain instructional adjustments to help students progress toward mastery. There are assessments of phonics skills in the Reading Playground Formative Assessments, which provide information about students’ phonics skills. The phonics assessments do not assess students' phonics skills in context. The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys and Reading Playground Formative Assessments provide information regarding students’ high-frequency word knowledge. The materials have a standards alignment documentation with tasks and assessments. In the Supplemental Resources, there are resources to support students who read, write, speak, or listen to Spanish. However, there is limited support for multilingual learners. The materials contain Differentiation Options in lessons. However, there are no specific lessons within the materials for small group instruction. For students needing extensions or more advanced opportunities, the materials have Differentiation Options, Optional Challenge options, and additional units.
Indicator 2G
Indicator 2G.i
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1).
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the criteria for 2g.i. (K-1)
The Countdown materials offer limited assessment opportunities to measure student progress through mastery of print concepts and a Letter Knowledge Survey. The materials suggest how to assess students formatively; however, there are no regular or systematic assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts. While assessments within the supplemental resources of Countdown align with what has been taught and what will be taught within the materials, these assessments do not adequately address print concepts and printing letters. There are missed opportunities for regular and systematic assessment for print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.
Materials do not regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Letter Knowledge Survey, page 3, the Overview states the Letter Name Survey utilizes lowercase letters and uppercase letters for students to identify and name all 26 letters of the alphabet. There is a recording and scoring form with the skill levels Low, Emerging, and On Track.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xxxiii, the materials indicate that teachers can download and assess students using the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Observing Skills Mastery in Countdown, page xxxv, the materials indicate that teachers may have difficulty observing skills mastery since the whole group does all lessons. Countdown recommends that teachers “observe” students’ responses during movement activities to determine mastery.
Assessment materials do not provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Assessments, and Groupings, a BOY assessment is titled “Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown.” This resource suggests that the teacher use activities from the materials to assess students on their proficiency with the task to help gauge proficiency. Since the activities are focused on phonemic awareness and application to the identification level of letter recognition, there are no assessments on print concepts or letter formation.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Letter Knowledge Survey, page 6, the Recording and Scoring Form provides three performance levels Low, Emerging, and On Track. There is a form for lowercase letter identification and uppercase letter identification. Low is between 0-16, Emerging 17-24, and On Track 25-26.
Materials do not support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.
In Countdown Online, Unit 1, Lesson 1, Part 3, it mentions utilizing the supplemental resource BOY assessment.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Assessments and Groupings, a BOY assessment is titled “Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown.” This resource suggests that teachers use activities from the materials to assess students on their proficiency with the task and provide benchmark skills to help gauge proficiency. Since many of the activities focus on phonemic awareness and application to the identification level of letter recognition, there are no assessments on print concepts or letter formation.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Letter Knowledge Survey, page 15, in Benchmarks by Grade and Phase of Year, there is a table with the phase of the years and skills levels. However, suggestions for the next steps are not provided.
Indicator 2G.ii
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2g.ii.
The Kindergarten Countdown materials provide a Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, which is given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. It contains a Phonological Awareness section assessing rhyming, blending compound words and onset-rime, isolating sounds in spoken words, and blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and manipulating phonemes. The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey provides teachers and students with current skill level and next step instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. A Phonological Awareness Survey provides teachers and students with their current skill levels. However, there are missed opportunities for instructional suggestions to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. The Beginning of Year (BOY), Middle of Year (MOY), and End of Year (EOY) Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys are listed as optional in the Recommended Timeline Flowcharts if teachers have access to the Reading Playgrounds but recommended for teachers/students without access to the Reading Playgrounds. The Reading Playground provides formative assessments for each unit. The first three games in each unit can be used as formative assessments. The Reading Playground formative assessment games include phonological awareness skills. The Reading Playground Formative Assessment games provide teachers with students' current skill level and next step instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. The BOY, MOY, and EOY Reading Playground assess phonological awareness skills and provide teachers with students' current skill levels; however, those assessments have missed opportunities for instructional suggestions to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness.
Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonological awareness.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xxxii-xxxiii, the teacher may download and assess students using the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey. There is information about each subsection and how to use the results.
In Countdown Optional Foundational Skills Surveys, Overview, page 3, Purpose, it explains three surveys for kindergarten. Each survey is designed to correspond to one phase of the kindergarten school year. Form A is used for the initial assessment, and Form B is used for progress monitoring throughout the school year at three times during the school year: beginning, middle, and end of the year. Foundational skills with 50 items each are designed to help teachers make informed instructional decisions; these can measure growth in functional vocabulary, phonological phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, decoding, and high-frequency word reading.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, pages 2-4, contains a Phonological Awareness/Phonemic Awareness section to measure students ability to “hear, identify, and produce sounds.” Skills assessed in this portion of the assessment include: recognizing and producing rhymes, blending compound words, blending onset and rime, identifying beginning sounds, blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes. The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys are given at the year's beginning, middle, and end. The assessment can be given with hard copies or digitally.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, certain concepts are targeted in the assessment games, including phonemic awareness. Each game assesses skills taught within that unit. The first three games are used as formative assessments in each unit. In Reading Playground formative assessment for Unit 3, Game 1, the student hears similar words with one different sound. The student needs to touch the first, middle, or last color tile where the words are different. For example, students are to touch the middle color tile to show the different phonemes in shock and shack.
The EOY Summative assessments include games with counting phonemes, identifying vowel sounds, segmenting phonemes, blending phonemes, and counting and blending syllables.
Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonological awareness.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, page 8, Interpretation of Results, there is a table about determining students’ skill level in areas assessed in the survey. In the phonological and phonemic awareness portion of the survey, there is the following information: “Students scoring 5-10 are considered emerging at the beginning of the year and students scoring 7-12 are considered emerging at the end of the year.”
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Phonological Awareness Survey, page 29, a Skills Level Guidelines provides information on how to determine students levels based on the scoring of recording forms data. The scoring and recording forms are supplied for Form A and Form B of the Phonological Awareness Survey and the Phonemic Awareness Survey, including Part I and Part II. On the Skills Level Guidelines for the phonological awareness portion of the survey, if students at the beginning of the year score 5-9, they are on track. If they score 3-4, they are emerging, and if they score 0-2, they are considered low. At the end of the year, kindergarten students scoring 8-9 are on track. If students score 5-7, they are emerging, and if they score 0-4, they are considered low. In the phonemic awareness portion of the survey, students scoring 5-31are on track at the beginning of the year. If they score 2-4, they are emerging, and they are low if they score 0-1. At the end of the year in Kindergarten, in the phonemic awareness portion of the survey, students scoring 23-31 are on track. Students scoring 13-22 are emerging, and students scoring 0-12 are considered low.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, the materials provide Countdown Benchmark Scores, which have the unit, game number and name, and mastery along with Lesson Reviews and Practical Recommendations. Benchmark Scores for all games are as follows: 80% or greater is listed as nearing proficiency, 60-79% is listed as practice, 59% or lower is listed as reteach.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds EOY Summative Assessment for Countdown, it states teachers can go to the Reading Playgrounds Teacher Dashboard to review students’ scores in either Summary or Detailed by Games reports. There are scores for each game. Scores can be sorted from low to high or high to low, and percentages are color-coded.
Materials minimally support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonological awareness.
In Countdown Online, OPTIONAL Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, page 9, there are General Recommendations for Instruction if the majority of students in a class score in the Low or Emerging range in a particular skill, the teacher is advised to plan whole-group lessons that target the skill students are lacking with direct, explicit instruction of that skill. The teacher is also advised to follow up with small-group instruction to provide more intensive instruction in the area of deficit.
No instructional suggestions are provided for the Phonological Awareness Survey.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown Lesson Review and Practical Recommendations, it lists all three formative assessment games in each unit. The Lesson Review and Practical Recommendations include lesson review and practice and animations, Additional Activities for Practice, Reading Playground games, and Workbook practice in units where workbook work is available. In Unit 11, Lesson Reviews and Practice include Unit 11, Lesson 4, Part 3 and Unit 11, Lesson 2, Part 1. Reading Playground games Unit 11 Game 1 and Game 4 are a recommendation.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds EOY Summative Assessments for Countdown, scores can be used to determine the student's level of mastery. However, no specific next steps are provided for BOY, MOY, or EOY Reading Playground assessments.
Indicator 2G.iii
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics in- and out-of-context (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2g.iii.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials regularly and systematically provide assessment opportunities that measure student progress in phonics out of context as indicated with the program scope and sequence with Reading Playground Formative Assessments. The Reading Playground Formative Assessments provide teachers and students with information about their current levels. The Reading Playground Formative Assessment materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students progress toward phonics mastery. However, there are missed opportunities for regular and systematic assessment opportunities of phonics in context. The Recommended Assessment Timeline references the Foundational Skills Survey, but it is optional and may not be given to all students.
Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, page 1, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, it states there are three games from each unit, including phonics that can be used as formative assessments and will focus on newly acquired knowledge first. On pages 5-10, it lists the first three games from each unit used as formative assessments.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide three Reading Playground Assessments that measure student proficiency over the year in decoding CVC words, identifying words with correct short vowel sounds, identifying digraphs in words, building words with short vowels, digraphs, and two-letter blends, using syllables to spell spoken words, and matching the correct word to a spoken word.
Materials offer assessment opportunities to determine students’ progress in phonics that are implemented systematically.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, the materials indicate that three Reading Playground Games from each unit can be used as formative assessments. The Reading Playground assessments include, but are not limited to, newly-taught phonics skills from the unit and are intended for use in each unit.
In Countdown Online, Reading Playground, Unit 10, students begin to complete words using letters in a bank of three graphemes by listening to the word and finding the missing letter to complete the words. Words provided in the formative assessment for the Unit 11 game include hug/h_g and tip/ti_. In the Unit 24 game, graphemes to choose from include c/ck/k, and incomplete words included in the formative assessment are duck/du_, can/_an, and peck/pe_. Each Reading Playground assessment includes ten questions.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide three Reading Playground Assessments that measure student proficiency in a selection of phonics skills over the year. The Recommended Assessment Timeline indicates teachers should administer these assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.
Multiple assessment opportunities are provided regularly for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. However, the assessments do not provide in-context phonics.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Groupings, Reading Playground, Units 10-28 provide phonics letter/grapheme assessment opportunities.
In Countdown, Assessments, the materials provide beginning, middle, and end of year assessments to measure progress in phonics skills, using the Optional Foundational Skills Surveys and/or the Reading Playground Assessments. The materials provide assessment opportunities focusing on newly-taught skills for each unit using the Reading Playground Formative Assessments.
Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, pages 5-10, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, there is a chart of Countdown Benchmark Scores which lists Benchmark Scores categories for each formative assessment game. Scores of greater than or equal to 80% as nearing proficiency; scores of 60-79% as practice; and scores equal to or less than 59% as re-teach.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials indicate that teachers can use student scores on the beginning, middle, and end of year Reading Playground Assessments as percentages correct in each assessed skill.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, Pages 3-10, the Benchmark Scores chart provides a percentage score aligned with the following three categories: Nearing Proficiency, Practice, Reteach. The chart is organized by game name and lists the correlating Common Core standards assessed by each game.
Materials genuinely measure students’ progress to support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in phonics.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, pages 5-10, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, there is a chart of Countdown Benchmark Scores. The chart includes Lesson Review/Practical Recommendations: Lesson Review and Practice Animations, Additional Activities for Practice and Reading Playground materials and lessons. Unit 20 Lesson Review/Practical Recommendations includes Game 2, Build a Word with Digraph sh, supplemental resources include Vowel Sound for short i and long i, and Unit 20 Lesson 3 Digraph sh Animations. Lesson Review and Practice lists Unit 20 Lesson 3, Optional Challenge: Build Silly Words Game 2.
In Countdown, Assessments, Grouping Matrix, the materials indicate that the Grouping Matrix tool provides instructional recommendations for groups of students, including Really Great Reading materials. Instructional Recommendations include the sections Decoding Level, Suggested Instruction, and Suggested Max Group Size. The sample account provides the following student examples:
For students with a Significant Decoding Deficit, Phonics Boost is suggested with a maximum group size of six.
For students with a Moderate Decoding Deficit, HD Word Foundations, or Phonics Blitz is suggested with a group eight.
For students with Slow Reading Rates, Fluency Support and monitoring decoding accuracy are suggested. The group size is none.
Indicator 2G.iv
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2g.iv.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys and Reading Playground Assessments which provide teachers with opportunities to assess high-frequency word knowledge (recognition and analysis). These assessments provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills or level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis. Instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis are in the Countdown materials Grouping Matrix Tool and Benchmark Scores Chart from the Reading Playground Assessments that provide specific instructional recommendations matched to assessment items. Countdown Kindergarten materials provide optional Sight Word Surveys and Foundational Skills Survey as noted in the Recommended Assessment Timeline Flow Charts. However, there is no reference for administering the Sight Word Fluency Surveys throughout the year, although the Sight Words Skills Levels contain tracking data at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.
Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition (high-frequency words or irregularly spelled words) and analysis.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, the materials indicate that three Reading Playground Games from each unit can be used as formative assessments. The Reading Playground assessments include, but are not limited to, newly-taught word analysis skills from the unit.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide three Reading Playground Assessments for the beginning, middle, and end of the year that measure student proficiency in identifying Heart Words and building words using closed syllables after determining the number of syllables in a spoken word.
Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials indicate that teachers can access student scores on the beginning, middle, and end of year Reading Playground Assessments as percentages correct in each assessed skill.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, Pages 3-10, the Benchmark Scores chart provides a percentage score aligned with the following three categories: Nearing Proficiency, Practice, Reteach. The chart is organized by game name and lists the correlating Common Core standards assessed by each game.
Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis.
In Countdown, Assessments, Grouping Matrix, the materials indicate that the Grouping Matrix tool provides instructional recommendations for groups of students, including Really Great Reading materials.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, Pages 3-10, the Benchmark Scores chart provides specific instructional recommendations matched to assessment items in the following categories: Animations, Lesson Review/Practice, Workbook, Reading Playground.
Indicator 2H
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2h.
The Countdown Kindergarten Common Core Standards Alignment documentation contains specific standards aligned to lessons and tasks within the Teacher Guidebook. The materials include denotations of standards being assessed in the Reading Playgrounds End of Year (EOY) summative assessment and Reading Playgrounds formative assessments regarding the questions and tasks asked of the students.
Materials include denotations of the standards being assessed in the formative assessments.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other and Home Resources, Reading Playgrounds Game Mapping for Countdown, there are the game number skills and standards. The formative assessments are the first three games denoted in blue. In Unit 11, Game 2, the standards RF.K.3, RF.K.3.a, and RF/K.3.b are assessed as students identify graphemes as they drag letters down to complete words.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other and Home Resources, Reading Playgrounds Game Mapping for Countdown, there are the game number skills and standards. The formative assessments are the first three games denoted in blue. In Unit 20, Game 2, the standards RF.K.2 and RF.K.3. are assessed as students build words with digraph sh.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessment & Grouping, Reading Playgrounds for Formative Assessments, the formative assessment materials provide a document citing the correlating Common Core standard for each Reading Playground assessment game.
Materials include denotations of standards being assessed in the summative assessments.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds EOY Summative Assessment for Countdown, a chart contains the Reading Playgrounds game number, the content assessed, and the standards alignment. In Game 9, the standards RF.K.3.d and RF.K.3.d are tested with short vowels, digraphs, and two-sound blends.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessment & Grouping, Reading Playgrounds BOY, MOY, and EOY Assessment for Countdown, the summative assessment materials provide a document citing the correlating Common Core standard for each Reading Playground assessment game.
Alignment documentation is provided for all tasks, questions, and assessment items.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other and Home Resources, Reading Playgrounds Game Mapping for Countdown, there are game name skills and standards for all games for each unit. In Unit 12, Game 6, students practice identifying graphemes for standard RF.K.3.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds MOY Assessment for Countdown, page 2, a chart contains the Reading Playgrounds game number and the content assessed and the standards alignment. In Game 7, the standard RF.K.3.d is tested with CVC words; in Game 8, the standard RF.K.3.c is tested with Heart Words.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessment & Grouping, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide documentation of CCSS alignment for each assessment task.
Alignment documentation contains specific standards correlated to specific lessons.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other and Home Resources, the Countdown Common Core Standards Alignment provides the domain, cluster, standard, expectation, and three to five citations within lessons. The chart provides the following information: standard RF.K.3.b is in Unit 7, Lesson 1, Part 3, page 33, where students practice one-to-one letter-sound correspondence by identifying short vowel sounds with the Which Letter? activity.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other and Home Resources, the Countdown Common Core Standards Alignment provides the domain, cluster, standard, expectation, and three to five citations within lessons. The chart provides the following information: standard RF.K.3.a is in Unit 6, Lesson 2, Part 2, page 270, where students practice one-to-one letter-sound correspondence by identifying the primary sounds for all consonants with This Letter or That? activity.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Other Resources, Countdown Common Core Standards Alignment, the materials include an alignment document that provides each foundational skills standard and the lessons or supplemental materials that teach each standard. Each standard includes one to four lessons or supplemental materials from the curriculum, and the materials indicate when additional lessons address the standard, though not all lessons are specified.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Other Resources, Reading Playgrounds Game Mapping for Countdown, the materials include a document that describes each learning game in the Reading Playground and names the corresponding standard by number.
Indicator 2I
Differentiation for Instruction: Materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding grade-level standards.
Indicator 2I.i
Materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen in a language other than English with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials support Multilingual Learners (ML) in Supplemental Resources; however, there are missed opportunities to help ML students who read, write, speak, and listen in a language other than English or Spanish.
Materials provide support for English Language Learner (ELL) students. However, the resources are limited to students who read, write, speak, and listen to Spanish.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other Resources, Really Great Reading for English Language Learners, the materials provide a research-based overview of how the program’s overall instructional approach matches ML students' needs.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Spanish Resources, there are articulation videos for short and long vowels.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Spanish Resources, there are videos for Phonemes & Finger-Stretching in Espanol, Closed Syllables in Spanish, and digraphs.
General statements about ELL students or strategies are noted at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the Teacher Edition are then implemented by the materials throughout the lessons.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Phonics Suite Espanol., each unit has resources available in Spanish. Resources may include animations, articulation videos, word work, or instructional routines.
Indicator 2I.ii
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.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2i.ii.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials guide teachers in scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level. The materials provide Ways to Simplify suggestions in the Differentiation Options boxes in lessons to differentiate foundational skills grade-level standards and online resources. There are missed opportunities for small group reteaching within Teacher Guide Book lessons.
Materials provide limited opportunities for small group reteaching.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxxiv, Whole Class Instruction, instructions state: “Countdown is designed to be delivered in whole group settings.” In Small Group Instruction, it states, “You may wish to augment your full class Countdown instruction with small group instruction for students who are struggling.” It states there are additional practice activities provided in the Supplemental Activities in Countdown Online that can be used for extra small groups. It adds that for small group settings, teachers may choose to give the Countdown lessons three times a day to various homogenous groups or to use a “walk to read” method where students move to various areas based on their instructional needs.
In Countdown, Assessments, Foundational Skills Survey, page 79, the table “Applying Results of Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey to a Response to Intervention System Using Additional Countdown Activities” indicates that in the areas of decoding and high-frequency words, after the Middle of Year assessment, additional small group instruction should use Additional Activities for Practice on Page 200 of Book 1, focused on decoding.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities & Spelling Lists, the materials provide additional practice lessons in the following areas: rhyming, sound isolation, blending, segmenting, letter identification, and encoding. The Teacher Guidebook indicates that these additional lessons are designed for small groups of students struggling with grade-level content.
Materials provide 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.
In Countdown Teacher Guidebook 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 3, Page 40, Activity Mystery Bag, the materials indicate that to simplify the Mystery Bag activity, the teacher should decrease the length of pauses between word parts to make it easier for students to blend.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 2, Part 3, page 40, Guess My Word, students observe the ending of a word and then blend the sounds. There is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Simplify. The suggestion is for students struggling to blend sounds, the teacher should blend the sounds with students first, then have the students repeat the teacher.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 4, Part 3, page 105, Build a Word, students finger-stretch or sound out words, then build a word with letter tiles. There is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Simplify. There are two ways to simplify for the teacher. One suggestion is to lengthen the pause between the phonemes in the word provided to allow students additional time to think about the corresponding letters for each sound. The other suggestion is to elongate vowel sounds more than the consonant sounds when producing phonemes and use hand motions to reinforce vowel sounds due to vowel sounds being more difficult to identify.
Indicator 2I.iii
Materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 2i.iii.
The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide multiple opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth through suggestions in Differentiation Options boxes with Ways to Challenge and Optional Challenge opportunities. Many recurring instructional routines include teacher instructions for making the activity more challenging and include examples for the teacher. The materials provide additional units for students in need of more challenges.
Materials provide multiple opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 1, Part 3, page 245, Touch and Say, there is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Challenge. There are three options for the teacher to challenge students. The first option is to have students pronounce each sound and blend the words independently as they underline the letters. The second option provides the teacher with additional words for students to use the Letter Tile Free Play or whiteboards and markers in the Supplemental Materials for the Touch and Say activity. The third option provides words with two-sound consonant blends for use with Letter Tile Free Play or whiteboards and markers for Touch and Say.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, Parts 2-3, page 132, Part 2, students build real words with digraph ph. In Part 3, the Optional Challenge is to build silly words with digraph th.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 5, Part 2, page 249, Spell It!, there are words for students to spell which contain digraphs sh, th, ch, wh, and ck at the beginning or end of each word. Challenge words in student practice are chick and which.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Extension Units, the materials provide three extension units that contain lessons on spelling two-syllable words, open syllables, and vowel-consonant-e syllables. The teacher guidebook introduction indicates that these units are for students who have completed all 28 units of Countdown and need an extra challenge.
There are no instances of advanced students simply doing more assignments than their classmates.
In Countdown Teacher Guidebook 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2, Part 2, Page 47, Activity Sound Stories, the materials provide an optional advanced sound story for the /s/ sound. The advanced story contains more complex vocabulary and sentence structure, and the materials indicate that the advanced story can be used to provide additional challenges.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 5, Part 2, page 54, Touch and Say, there is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Challenge. The first suggestion is to have students pronounce individual sounds and blend sounds independently. There are four words with two-sound consonant blends for students to work on using Letter Tile Free Play or whiteboards and markers.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 3, Parts 2-4, pages 314-317, Read Two-Syllable Words, Part 3, it provides an Optional Challenge, where students read two-syllable silly words, and Part 4 provides the Optional Challenge to read three-syllable words.
Criterion 2.4: Effective Technology Use and Visual Design
The Really Great Reading materials, Countdown, are web-based. They can be opened with multiple internet browsers and are compatible with operating systems, inclusive of Windows and Apple. The materials integrate technology effectively. The Reading Playground materials are interactive and engaging for students. The materials have some opportunities for personalization. The Reading Playground can be personalized when teachers unlock students’ access to different games. The materials contain limited opportunities for customization. A teacher can customize lessons with the Heart Word Generator and Letter-Sound Generator. The visual design of the materials is not chaotic or distracting.
Indicator 2J
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain digital materials for teachers and students that are web-based and compatible with multiple Internet browsers, including Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. The Countdown web-based materials are also “platform neutral”, compatible with operating systems inclusive of Windows and Apple, follow universal programming style and allow iPad and Amazon Fire tablets and iPhone mobile devices. The instructional videos for the games do not load on the iPad.
Examples include but are not limited to:
In Reading Playground FAQs, the site states that Reading Playgrounds has “responsive capabilities, so it can be used across multiple devices and platforms.” It states that “with a minimum of 200 students in your district or school, you can request rostering through the Clever or Classlink.” Further, the site states that it is “FERPA and COPPA compliant.”
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxi, it states that “this web-based companion (Countdown Online) to Countdown can be accessed on any device, including an interactive whiteboard, LCD projector, laptop, tablet, or standalone computer.”
Indicator 2K
The Countdown Kindergarten materials integrate technology through Countdown Online with animation videos referenced within Teacher Guide Book lessons for teachers to introduce and practice skills with students throughout all Countdown Units. The Countdown Online activities are colorful, most activities include a built-in auditory component, and all activities require student interaction. Reading Playground is the online component of the program for independent student practice. The Reading Playground contains interactive games with activities for independent student practice in phonics, phonemic awareness, and high-frequency words. Reading Playground games are interactive, engaging, and colorful. There are no texts in the Countdown online components.
Examples include but are not limited to:
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxi, it states that “Countdown Online is a teacher presentation tool and an essential online companion piece to the Teacher Guide Set.” The online supplemental resources ”(including additional web-based and printable practice activities, decodable passages, videos, posters, and more) to further enhance and support your Countdown instruction.”
In Countdown Online, Unit 10, Lesson 5, Part 3, Phrase Reading, the teacher clicks each word to appear to create the phrase cut the ham for the teacher and students to read. The black words are words the students can sound out, and the red words with a heart on top of them are Heart Words, high-frequency, or sight words.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 2, Part 1, page 221, Guess My Word, the teacher opens Countdown Online to Unit 14, Lesson 2, Part 1, where the students see the letters x, m, i. To create the word mix, the teacher clicks to move the letters into the correct position as they say each sound /m/, /i/, /ks/. The teacher clicks to show the image for mix.
In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 1, Part 1, pages 85-86, Letter-Sound, Look, Think, Say!, the teacher opens Countdown Online to Unit 20, Lesson 1, where students see letters and practice letter sounds. The students first see a letter with a red dot, indicating they are to look at the letter; then they see a yellow dot, indicating they are to think about the sound of the letter; finally, they see a green dot, indicating they are to say the sound out loud.
In Countdown Reading Playground, Unit 17, Game 6, students see one picture on the left and three letters on the right. Students touch the correct initial sound/letter associated with an image they are given. Students see a sad dog with a chewed-up shoe and hear the word bad. Students are to pick the correct letter from the letter b, d, and a in circles.
Indicator 2L
The Countdown Kindergarten materials include some opportunities for teachers to personalize learning for all students through the student online component Reading Playground. The Reading Playground provides students with independent practice in phonics, phonemic awareness, high-frequency words, encoding, and decoding. The Reading Playground provides teachers with access to their students’ accounts, so teachers can personalize individual student learning by unlocking or locking games by unit for students to complete.
Examples include but are not limited to:
The Countdown Reading Playground (online component) allows the teacher to unlock the games/activities for students in each unit as they complete the unit. Teachers can lock units as needed. Each unit contains nine games.
In Countdown, the digital materials include letter tile freeplay. The digital materials have Letter Sound Generator and Heart Word Generator that allow teachers to customize instructional content.
In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, the materials indicate how to use the data from the Reading Playground Games. The PDF document, Using the Countdown Reading Playground as Formative Assessment, includes alignment information for the assessments (games) and materials from the Countdown teacher guides and student materials (units and lessons) that align to the assessments (games) and standards. The assessment data is used to personalize learning for students in the Reading Playground.
Indicator 2M
The Countdown Kindergarten materials contain limited materials to be easily customized for local use. The Countdown Kindergarten materials provide a Heart Word Generator, allowing teachers to customize high-frequency words for local use in Heart Word lessons. The materials have a Letter Sound Generator, allowing teachers to customize letter sounds taught and practiced in Letter Sound-Fluency lessons. Although the Countdown Kindergarten materials provide opportunities to customize the Reading Playground by unlocking and locking games by units for individual students, the games themselves are not customizable.
Examples include but are not limited to:
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Interactive Resources, the Heart Word Generator allows teachers to select five Heart Words to teach Heart Word lessons. It will enable teachers to choose five Heart Words to practice in Heart Word lessons.
In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Interactive Resources, the Letter Sound Generator allows teachers to select three letters to teach in Letter Sound-Fluency lessons. It will enable teachers to choose three letters to practice in Letter-Sound Fluency lessons.
The Countdown materials include alternate introductory units, writing extensions, environmental play options, additional practice activities, optional spelling lists and spelling sentences, a distance learning guide, optional additional assessments, and differentiation options.
Indicator 2N
The Countdown Kindergarten materials reviewed include a visual design (whether in print or digital) that is not distracting or chaotic. The visual design engages students thoughtfully with foundational skills. The Countdown Kindergarten materials student digital platform, Reading Playground, and the teacher materials digital platform, Countdown Online, incorporate animation and color. The Countdown Teacher Guide Books and Student Workbook print materials are organized.
Examples include but are not limited to:
The Countdown Teacher Guide Books include digital and print materials organized by units, lessons, and parts.
The Countdown Online animation videos have color and animation.
The Countdown Student Workbooks are organized by units. The print of headings, activities, and use of color is not distracting.