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2023

Really Great Reading

Publisher
Really Great Reading
Subject
ELA
Grades
K-2
Report Release
08/20/2024
Review Tool Version
v2.0
Format
Supplemental: Foundational Skills Only

EdReports 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)
Meets Expectations

Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.

Usability (Gateway 2)
Meets Expectations
Key areas of interest

This score is the sum of all points available for all foundational skills components across all grades covered in the program.

The maximum available points depends on the review tool used and the number of grades covered.

Foundational Skills
196/198

This score represents an average across grade levels reviewed for: integrated reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, and promotion of mastery of grade-level standards by the end of the year.

Building Knowledge
NC = Not Claimed. The publisher does not claim that this component is addressed in the materials.
NC
Our Review Process

Learn more about EdReports’ educator-led review process

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Note on review tool version

See the top of the page to confirm the review tool version used for this report:

Report for Kindergarten

Alignment Summary

The materials for Kindergarten meet the expectations for alignment to research-based practices and standards for foundational skills instruction.

The materials provide a defined scope and sequence for letter recognition instruction that can be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year, which is located in Book 2. The materials include a scope and sequence for phonemic awareness instruction. Materials focus on activities that develop phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness skills with repeated teacher modeling. The materials also include teacher guidance on corrective feedback through Positive Error Correction teacher tips and additional guidance in the margins or at the end of lessons. The materials include daily lessons in phonemic awareness that correlate to the phonics portion of the lesson. The materials include Articulation Videos and Guidewords, Movement, and Proper Articulation of Sounds document, which includes examples for instruction in phoneme articulation. The materials offer systematic assessment opportunities to evaluate students’ understanding of phonemic awareness.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding. The materials provide a clear, evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics scope and sequence. The scope and sequence is intentionally ordered from simpler to more complex skills. Phonics instruction is based on high utility patterns and common phonics generalizations. Instruction starts with letters and corresponding sounds, VCV, digraphs, blends, and two-syllable words with closed syllables. The materials provide appropriate pacing of phonics skills, which are taught daily in 20-30 minute teacher-led whole group lessons, 20-30 minutes daily in small group lessons, and 30-40 minutes of independent practice time each week. Practice activities are provided with one optional activity. There is a weekly cumulative review of the phonics skills for the week on Day 5. Materials review individual sounds and letter names of all letters, and lessons include both decoding and encoding through whole-group instruction and small-group practice on a regular basis. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonics with repeated teacher modeling. The materials contain spelling rules and generalizations aligned to the phonics scope and sequence, and these generalizations are taught in conjunction with reading words that follow these rules. The materials contain decodable texts with phonics aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. The materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessments over the course of the school year where students’ progress in phonics can be measured. 

The materials provide systematic and explicit instruction of Heart Words (high-frequency words) with consistent and explicit instructional routines repeated each week for Units 8-16 and 18-28. The materials provide opportunities for students to read high-frequency words in isolation through the Heart Word Magic Videos and practice activities, including Look, Think, Say!, Pop-Up, 3-Up, and Read a Row. The materials include explicit instruction with teacher modeling for syllable types, including the teacher naming the syllable type during explicit instruction and asking students to name the syllable type during student practice. Students have multiple opportunities to use a routine for breaking written words into syllables. However, the materials do not include explicit instruction in morpheme analysis. The materials provide regular assessment opportunities, both formative and summative, at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The materials also include a Sight Word Assessment to be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.

Kindergarten
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Meets Expectations
Gateway 2

Usability

20/22
0
10
19
22
Usability (Gateway 2)
Meets Expectations
Overview of Gateway 1

Alignment to Research-Based Practices and Standards for Foundation Skills Instruction

Criterion 1.1: Alphabet Knowledge

10/10

Materials and instruction provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice for letter recognition.

The materials provide a defined scope and sequence for letter recognition instruction that can be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year, which is located in Book 2. The materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce alphabet knowledge in isolation and in the context of meaningful print through activities such as Letter-Sound Look, Think, Say!, This Letter or That?, Letter-Sound Review, Touch and Say, and through short stories. The materials provide explicit instruction in letter formation for all 26 letters and daily student practice opportunities. The materials include three benchmark assessments found at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The assessments evaluate students’ letter knowledge of all uppercase and lowercase letters.

Indicator 1A
Read

Alphabet Knowledge

Indicator 1A.i
02/02

Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction in letter names and their corresponding sounds.

The materials provide a defined scope and sequence for letter recognition instruction that can be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year, which is located in Book 2. Materials contain isolated, systematic, and explicit instruction for students to learn all 26 upper and lowercase letters beginning in Unit 6. Letters are taught in clusters, typically containing three consonant letters and one vowel letter. The materials include four review weeks in Units 6-16.

 

There is a defined sequence for letter recognition instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, the materials state that students will learn the following letters:

    • 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

    • Unit 15 - Review Clusters 1-7

    • Unit 16 - Review Clusters 1-7

Materials contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for students to recognize all 26 lowercase and uppercase letters. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 1, the teacher asks, “What is the first sound in soap?” Then, the teacher displays the uppercase and lowercase letter tiles. The teacher says, “Right, soap begins with /s/, and these letters say the sound, or spell, /s/. The name of the letter is S.”

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 3, the teacher asks, “What is the first sound in fish? Remember, the sound /f/ is spelled with the letter f (while pointing to the letter tile f). What is the first sound in octopus? Remember, the sound /ŏ/ is spelled with the letter o (while pointing to the letter tile o).” The teacher continues with the words fireworks, football, olives, omelet, fire, feather, ox, October, fly, ostrich, foot, and otter, guiding students to sort words based on their initial sound.

In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 17, Lesson 1, the teacher says, “There are 26 letters in the alphabet.” The teacher displays all five vowel letter tiles: a, e, i, o, and u. The teacher shows each lowercase letter, and then students name the letters.

Indicator 1A.ii
02/02

Materials provide opportunities for student practice in letter names and their corresponding sounds.

The materials include practice opportunities for students to recognize all 26 letters in lowercase and uppercase. The materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce alphabet knowledge in isolation and in the context of meaningful print through activities such as Letter-Sound Look, Think, Say!, This Letter or That?, Letter-Sound Review, Touch and Say, and through short stories. The materials also provide practice opportunities with cumulative review of previously learned letters. 

Materials include sufficient practice opportunities for students to recognize all 26 lowercase and uppercase letters accurately and automatically. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 1, students review the letters m, t, p, a, s, h, c, i, d, f, r, and o in the activity Which Letter?. The teacher displays a picture of a ham and asks, “What is the first sound in ham?” The teacher displays letter tiles for the letters h, c, and r and asks, “Which of these letters spells /h/ like /h/, ham? Point to the letter tile that spells /h/ and say its name.” The teacher repeats this routine for the word sit and continues the activity using the words sad, rat, cat, pot, hat, map, hop, fit, dip, ram, rip, tap, fat, cot, sip, mad, him, and rot.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 12, Lesson 1, students identify the letter symbol that spells the first sound in a word by playing This Letter or That? During this activity, using the provided technology, two letter symbols alongside the corresponding guideword images appear at the top of the screen as headings and a new image appears at the bottom. Students isolate the initial sound of that new image and then determine which letter symbol produces the sound. The image is then sorted into one of two columns. For this lesson, students work with the letters g, k, u, and e.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 1, students practice recognizing letters with the Look, Think, Say! routine. The lowercase letter is displayed, and students say the letter name, think about the sound, and say the sound. Students practice with six letters. 

Materials incorporate various activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, practice opportunities are built into the scope and sequence through review weeks. After learning new letters for three weeks in Units 6 through 8, a week is spent practicing the new letters in Unit 9. Subsequently, new letters are introduced for two weeks in Units 10 and 11, followed by a week of review in Unit 12. New letters are taught for two weeks in Units 13 and 14, followed by two weeks of review in Units 15 and 16. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 1, the teacher uses the Launch online program for students to review six letters using the Look, Think, Say! routine. The teacher asks students what the letter name is and to spell the sound. Then, the teacher clicks the yellow dot and asks students to think about the sound. Finally, the teacher clicks again, and the students say the sound out loud with the teacher. 

Indicator 1A.iii
02/02

Materials provide explicit instruction and teacher modeling in printing and forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

The materials provide explicit instruction in letter formation for all 26 letters. Instruction for uppercase letters is found in Units 1-5. Lowercase letter formation is taught in Units 6-14. All letter formation routines contain similar, common language to provide consistent explanations for students. The materials include digital animations and teacher modeling of letter formation. The materials include ample opportunities for students to monitor their handwriting and progress, and teacher prompting for corrective feedback is included.

There is a defined sequence for letter formation, aligned to the scope and sequence of letter recognition, to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, the Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Scope and Sequence begins in Unit 1. It has the sequence for teaching all uppercase and lowercase letters by Unit 14. In Units 15-28, students apply the handwriting skills within words and sentences. 

    • Upper Case Formation 

      • Unit 1: A 

      • Unit 2: M, S, L, N, E, F

      • Unit 3: R, V, Z, P, G, O

      • Unit 4: D, T, I, K, C, B, W

      • Unit 5: H, Qu, J, Y, X, U

    • Lower Case Formation 

      • Unit 6: m, t, p, a

      • Unit 7: s, h, i, c

      • Unit 8: d, f, r, o 

      • Unit 10: g, n, l, u

      • Unit 11: b, k, v, e

      • Unit 13: j, w, z

      • Unit 14: qu, x, y

Materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Unit 3, Lesson 1, the teacher explains to students how to make the uppercase R. The teacher says, “What do we say to travel down? What do we do to make our rockets (pencils) travel in a diagonal line? What do we say to make our rockets travel around?” Then the teacher says, “Super, let’s put it all together and start our next mission with the training video on capital R.”

  • In Countdown Online, Unit 4, Lesson 1, the online resource displays the formation for an uppercase D. The resource displays an image with arrows and steps listed for forming the letter. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Teacher Guide, the Units 6-10 Preview resource has a table for all uppercase and lowercase formation verbal pathways.

Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Teacher Guide, the Units 1-5 preview document contains teacher guidance for handwriting instruction. One recommended routine is called Spot on Routine. The routine requires students to look at their letter formation and determine letters that are written correctly and those that need to be rewritten due to incorrect size, poor space, lined up incorrectly, not readable and makes you sad.  

In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Teacher Guide, Unit 2, Lesson 2,  materials prompt the teacher to use the Telescope routine to have students check their writing for errors. This routine provides specific errors to have students look for, including formation, spacing, and whether the letter is readable.

Indicator 1A.iv
02/02

Materials provide opportunities for student practice in printing and  forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

The materials provide daily practice opportunities for letter formation of all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters throughout the year. Every letter is practiced by Unit 15. The student workbook and unit resources have practice pages for students to practice letter formation. Materials also include weekly opportunities to practice and review previously taught letters and cumulative review opportunities to review clusters of letters.

Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 2, students learn and practice M, S, L, N, F, and E. The resources include a practice page for letter formation for each letter. The Resource Guide lists that the Really Great Handwriting (RGH) Student Workbook, pages 6-12, also contains practice opportunities.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 4, Lesson 3, students write uppercase letters D, T, L, B, K, C, W. In Unit 5, they practice writing H, Qu, J, Y, X, U

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Student Workbook, the workbook contains practice pages for Units 1-28 to practice letter formation for all uppercase and lowercase letters. 

Materials include cumulative review of previously learned letter formation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown to Really Great Handwriting Teacher Guide, Units 6-10, Unit 6, Lesson 1, focuses on tracing and learning the proper formation of lowercase m and t. Lesson 2 focuses on a and p. In Lessons 3, 4, and 5, students review and continue working on tracing and learning the proper formation of lowercase m, t, a, and p

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 3, students work on reviewing writing lowercase letters m, t, p, a, s, h, l, c, d, f, r, o from Unit 7, where they practiced lowercase letters s, h, i, and c, and from unit Unit 6, where students learn m, t, p, and a

Indicator 1B
02/02

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of letter recognition and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials include three benchmark assessments found at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The assessments evaluate students’ letter knowledge of all uppercase and lowercase letters. Each assessment includes progressive benchmarks leading to mastery of at least 25 out of 26 letters to be considered on-track. Handwriting assessment is ongoing as materials indicate teachers check for proper formation and adjust review and practice based on need. There is information that supports whether students are low, emerging, or on track for the various times of the year. In addition, there is information teachers can use to support students’ learning depending on where students are at and what time of the year the assessment is given. 

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of letter recognition, and letter formation.  Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, surveys provided are given three times a year for students to be evaluated on letter knowledge. They are given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. In the Beginning of the Year Assessment, students are evaluated on letter knowledge for lowercase letters a, m, b, v, f, h, j, t. In Sections 25-28, the survey assesses another four letters for students to identify: i, d, z, n. In Sections 29-32, students are evaluated on letters k, p, s, and r

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Letter Knowledge Survey, Form A, students are assessed on the identification of all uppercase and lowercase letters at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. 

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

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, for uppercase and lowercase letter identification, it states at the beginning of the year, students receiving 0 - 6 are low, 7-18 are considered emerging, and 19-26 indicates they are on track. If the assessment is given in the middle of the year, 0 -10 is low, 11-19 is emerging, and 20 - 26 is on track. If it is the end of the year, 0 -16 is low, 17 - 24 is emerging, and 25 - 26 is on track.  

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessment and Grouping,  Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey and Countdown Guide, it indicates results on the beginning of year skills survey groups students into low (0-4), emerging (5-11), and on track (12-16) for letter identification. Each identified group includes instructional suggestions for supplemental lessons and practice.

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in letter recognition and letter formation.  Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, page 79, the teacher is given the instructions to use additional activities for practice on page 200 of Countdown Book 1, focused on Alphabetic Principles. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey and Countdown, it states if a majority of students are low and receive 0-4 in this section at the beginning of the year, the teacher should proceed with the scope and sequence for Countdown, but teachers should also consider progress monitoring to ensure all students acquire the knowledge. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey Overview, it provides general recommendations after the assessment. Recommendations include, “If a smaller group of students score in the low or emerging range,” the teachers should plan differentiated lessons for the particular group, targeting the identified skill needed.

Criterion 1.2: Phonemic Awareness

16/16

Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonemic awareness.

The materials include a scope and sequence for phonemic awareness instruction. Materials focus on activities that develop phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness skills with repeated teacher modeling. The materials also include teacher guidance on corrective feedback through Positive Error Correction teacher tips and additional guidance in the margins or at the end of lessons. The materials include daily lessons in phonemic awareness that correlate to the phonics portion of the lesson. The materials include Articulation Videos and Guidewords, Movement, and Proper Articulation of Sounds document, which includes examples for instruction in phoneme articulation. The materials offer systematic assessment opportunities to evaluate students’ understanding of phonemic awareness.

Indicator 1C
04/04

Scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonemic awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence.

The materials include a scope and sequence for phonemic awareness instruction. Phonemic awareness instruction begins with initial phoneme isolation and then progresses to blending, segmenting, and addition and substitution of phonemes. Materials focus on activities that develop phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks such as rhyming and alliteration. Phonemic awareness activities align to phonics skills. Materials provide an evidence-based explanation for the sequencing of phonemic awareness skills.

Materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence for teaching phonemic awareness skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Research, Notes on our Scope and Sequence, there is a graphic that illustrates a phonemic awareness continuum. It states the instruction intentionally moves along this continuum from the simplest skills of phoneme isolation, then moves to blending, segmentation, addition, deletion, and substitution, which is the most complex phonemic awareness skill. The phonemic awareness instruction is directly tied to written letters and words.  

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Research, Notes on Our Scope and Sequence, there is a clear explanation of the scope and sequence of phonemic awareness skills: “The instruction within Really Great Reading intentionally moves along a continuum from phoneme isolation, to blending, then segmentation, followed by addition and deletion. This continuum goes from simplest skills to most complex skills. The goal with phonemic awareness skill building exercise is to help students develop what’s commonly referred to as ‘Phonemic Proficiency.’ This is the instant, automatic access to phonemes in spoken words (Kilpatrick, 2015). There is emerging evidence that phonemic proficiency is critical to orthographic mapping, or reading words by sight, spelling words from memory, and acquiring vocabulary words from print.”

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students’ immediate application of the skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Countdown Scope and Sequence, pages xv-xvii, the key on page xvi indicates that phonemic awareness activities are taught in the following order:

    • Units 2-5 - beginning sound isolation and blending

    • Units 6-7 - beginning sound isolation, blending, and segmenting

    • Units 8-11 - beginning sound isolation and segmenting

    • Unit 12 - blending and segmenting

    • Unit 13 - beginning sound isolation, blending, and segmenting

    • Unit 14 - beginning sound isolation, segmenting, and manipulation

    • Unit 15 - blending and manipulation

    • Unit 16 - manipulation

    • Units 17-28 - specific skills (vowel sounds, short/long vowels, two-sound blends, blending syllables)

    • Unit 18 - Introduce 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 

    • Unit 25 - Sound buddies, with 2 sound blends

    • Unit 26 - Sound Buddies, with 2 sound blends

    • Unit 27 - Introduce blending syllables 

    • Unit 28 - Review blending syllables 

Materials attend to developing phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Teacher Resources, Home Connection & Other, Countdown Scope and Sequence, the scope and sequence contains Countdown Units 1-28. The scope and sequence has every activity for each unit color-coded by the skill focus. The phonemic awareness skills listed are phonemic awareness: beginning sound isolation, blending, segmenting, and manipulation. Phonemic awareness tasks of beginning sound isolation and blending begin in Unit 2. Phonemic awareness instruction is included in every unit from Unit 2 to Unit 28.   

Materials contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 1, the phonemic awareness and phonics focus is on the letters g, l, n, and u

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 2, the phonemic awareness and phonics focus is on short a vs long a. 

Indicator 1D
04/04

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness with repeated teacher modeling.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness skills with repeated teacher modeling. The materials also include teacher guidance on corrective feedback through Positive Error Correction teacher tips and additional guidance in the margins or at the end of lessons. 

Materials provide the teacher with systematic, explicit instruction in sounds (phonemes). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Appendix, page 196, under the topic Environmental Activities, Activity #4, First Sound Fun, students isolate the beginning sounds in students’ names (/j/ John, /a/ Asia, /d/ Devon, /s/ Sebastian), activities (/k/ calendar time, /s/ circle time, /r/ recess, /l/ lunch), and places (/p/ playground, /t/ table, /k/ carpet, /d/ desks, /k/ cafeteria). 

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 1, in the activity Peel and Say, students are instructed to “peel the first sound off” of words. The teacher clicks the presentation to display images for the words up, umbrella, and oven. Teachers name the words as they point to each image, and students repeat after the teacher. The materials prompt the teacher to ask, “What’s the first sound in up, umbrella, and oven?” The students respond, “/u/.” The process is repeated for sheep, shorts, and shadow (/sh/). Then, students practice the skill with 18 other sets of words.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 2, the teacher displays an image for the word cut. The teacher models finger stretching or segmenting the phonemes. The teacher isolates the vowel sound /u/. The students finger stretch the words mug, hush, nut, shut, duck, cub, and tub. The teacher asks students to isolate the medial vowel sound /u/.  

  • Blend and segment words with two and three phonemes. 

    • Throughout the Countdown lessons, the activity “Stretch Those Sounds” includes segmenting the initial, medial, and final sounds in words. The teacher says a word aloud and models how to segment the sounds using finger-stretching. Then, students repeat the word and the segmenting. For example:

      • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 2, in the activity Stretch Those Sounds, the teacher guides students in separating the word duck to identify all of the sounds in it. The teacher models making a fist while saying duck, extending the thumb while saying /d/, extending the pointer finger while saying /ŭ/, and extending the middle finger while saying /k/. Students practice segmenting duck with the teacher and then continue to practice segmenting the words chess, cube, peas, pig, run, thumb, yawn, yes, worm, van, box, sit.

      • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 3, the teacher displays the sounds/a/ and /t/. The teacher reminds students that when they see a vowel-consonant vowel, it spells short a. The teacher then models blending the word /b/ /aaa/ /t/. The teacher points to each letter tile and models blending the word bat.

  • Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 3, the students add a sound to the beginning of words in the activity Add That Sound. The materials prompt the teacher to say, “Today, we are going to add a sound to the beginning of some words.” The teacher says the word ape and then clicks to add a color tile for each sound. The teacher adds a new sound, /t/, and clicks for a new color tile. The words used to add a beginning sound are edge/ledge, at/bat, ache/take, oat/boat, an/fan, ax/tax, itch/rich, egg/beg, eat/seat, ate/date, on/Ron, ice/nice, in/pin, etch/fetch, use/fuse, add/mad, ill/fill, at/hat

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 2, in the activity Sound Swap, the teacher guides students to identify the beginning sound in the word can and separate it from the rest of the word /ăn/. Then, the teacher guides students to change the /c/ to /p/, asking them what word they have created, pan. The teacher completes another example with students, changing the word mix to six. Students continue to practice with the words chin/win, bug/rug, and goat/boat. 

Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in sounds (phonemes). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 1, the teacher explains that students will learn how to peel off a sound. The teacher points to the picture of a duck and a fish. The teacher says duck, /d/ duck, and then repeats this process with the word fish. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 1, the teacher explains that students will separate all the sounds in some words. The teacher demonstrates saying the sounds in hug. The teacher continues modeling using the words nose, duck, lime, six, feet, man, worm, shark, toes, leaf, jam, bike. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, the materials state, “the digraph th is a consonant digraph phoneme that is produced by placing the end of your tongue between your teeth and blowing air across the top of your tongue. Some students confuse this phoneme with the /f/ phoneme, saying ‘teef,’ instead of ‘teeth.’ The digraph th has an unvoiced phoneme (the vocal chords [sic] are not used), as in thumb, and a voiced phoneme (the vocal chords [sic] are used), as in that.

Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 4, Lesson 2, the teacher is to review the Articulation Videos with students if students are struggling with letter sound articulation. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 2, in the activity Short e vs. Long e, the materials state, “If your students are still struggling to stretch the sounds in words with short e, you may wish to use some of the You Dos as We Dos to provide more guided practice.”

Indicator 1E
04/04

Materials include daily, brief lessons in phonemic awareness.

The materials include daily lessons in phonemic awareness that correlate to the phonics portion of the lesson. The materials include Articulation Videos and Guidewords, Movement, and Proper Articulation of Sounds document, which includes examples for instruction in phoneme articulation.

Daily phonemic awareness instruction correlates to the phonics portion of the lesson and includes letters (phoneme-grapheme correspondence). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 8, Lesson 1, the teacher asks students what the picture is and then asks for the first sound, /d/. The teacher clicks to display the upper and lowercase letters Dd

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 9, Lesson 1, the teacher asks students to name the first sound in the word hammer. In Part 3 of the lesson, the teacher displays _am, and students choose from the letters h, c, or r, to complete the spelling for the word ham. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 13, Lesson 2, the teacher uses the This Letter or That routine to ask students the first sound in words that begin with /j/, /z/, w/, or /h/. In Part 3, the teacher asks for the first sound in jam and then asks which letter spells /j/, giving three choices: j, k, or z. The lesson continues in the same routine with eighteen additional CVC words. 

Materials include opportunities for students to practice connecting sounds to letters. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 7, Lesson 1, the teacher tells students they are going to spell the first letter of some words. The teacher asks what the first sound in the word hat is. The teacher then displays three letter tiles and points to the letter tile that spells /h/.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 12, Lesson 1, the teacher asks students what the first sound in goat is. Then, the teacher reminds students that the sound /g/ is spelled with the letter g, while pointing to the tile g.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 14, Lesson 1, the teacher uses the routine Name that Sound. The teacher says the /kw/ and /ks/ sounds and displays the upper and lowercase letter tiles for Qu and X.

Materials include directions to the teacher for demonstrating how to pronounce each phoneme (articulation/mouth formation). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Instructional Resources, there are articulation videos, including the video “/z/as in Zebra,” which provides an example of how to pronounce the /z/ sound. The instructor in the video states, “When you make this sound, your lips are spread wide, the sides of your tongue are lifted, and the tip points slightly up. Your voice is turned on, and as your breath flows over the middle of your tongue, it hits the back of your teeth and leaks out in a skinny stream. /z/.”

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Unit 21, Lesson 3, the materials state, “the digraph th is a consonant digraph phoneme that is produced by placing the end of your tongue between your teeth and blowing air across the top of your tongue. Some students confuse this phoneme with the /f/ phoneme, saying ‘teef,’ instead of ‘teeth.’ The digraph th has an unvoiced phoneme (the vocal cords [sic] are not used), as in thumb, and a voiced phoneme (the vocal cords [sic] are used), as in that.

Indicator 1F
04/04

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonemic awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials offer systematic assessment opportunities to evaluate students’ understanding of phonemic awareness. Materials include benchmark and progress monitoring assessments throughout the course of the year with recommendations. Materials also include digital games within the Reading Playground that provide data regarding specific skills correlating to each unit. Assessment resources are available both digitally and in print. 

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 phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, the 1st Grade Foundational Skills Survey contains beginning, middle, and end-of-year assessments, which include phonemic awareness. 

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, there is a Phonological Awareness Survey and a Phonemic Awareness Survey. The assessment includes blending three and four phonemes, segmenting three and four phonemes, and adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes. The recommended assessment timeline indicates the survey occurs at the beginning, middle, and end of year.

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, three Reading Playground games for each unit can be used as formative assessments that provide real-time data.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment, Blast Formative Assessment Guide, Unit 13, Game 3, How Many Phonemes indicates students are nearing proficiency with greater than 80%, need practice if scoring 60-79%, and need reteaching if scoring below 60%.

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, Phonological Awareness Survey, the Phonemic Awareness portion states at the beginning of the year, a student is considered low if they score 0-12. In the middle of the year, 0-17 is low, and 0-19 is low at the end of the year. For emerging, at the beginning of the year, the score is 13-22, 18-26 for the middle of the year, and 20-29 for the end of the year. For on track, students who score 23 - 31 is the beginning of the year, 27 - 31 for the middle of the year, and 30-31at the end of the year.

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, the 1st Grade Foundational Skills Survey states at the beginning of the year, if a student scores 0-17, they are low; 18-23, they are emerging; and 24 - 31, they are on track. In the middle of the year, 0-19 is low, 20-26 is emerging, and 27 - 31 is on track. While for the end of the year, 0 - 21 is low, emerging is 22 - 28, and 29 - 31 is on track. 

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Blast Foundations Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 5, after doing the wrap-up formative assessment, teachers use the Progress Monitoring Assessment 1 for students to complete and use the data from the Reading Playground to support students. 

  • In the Blast Foundations Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 6, Lesson 5, the teacher leads students through a review with the Spell It! routine. The margin notes tell teachers to use the data from the Reading Playground game to assess and drive instruction. 

  • In Online Blast, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, a BOY Path for Assessment and Intervention is provided, which provides guidance on using results of the FSS1 BOYb for use in grouping, progress monitoring, and providing instruction based on students’ decoding level.

Criterion 1.3: Phonics (Decoding and Encoding)

32/32

Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding.

The materials provide a clear, evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics scope and sequence. The scope and sequence is intentionally ordered from simpler to more complex skills. Phonics instruction is based on high utility patterns and common phonics generalizations. Instruction starts with letters and corresponding sounds, VCV, digraphs, blends, and two-syllable words with closed syllables. The materials provide appropriate pacing of phonics skills, which are taught daily in 20-30 minute teacher-led whole group lessons, 20-30 minutes daily in small group lessons, and 30-40 minutes of independent practice time each week. Practice activities are provided with one optional activity. There is a weekly cumulative review of the phonics skills for the week on Day 5. Materials review individual sounds and letter names of all letters, and lessons include both decoding and encoding through whole-group instruction and small-group practice on a regular basis. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonics with repeated teacher modeling. The materials contain spelling rules and generalizations aligned to the phonics scope and sequence, and these generalizations are taught in conjunction with reading words that follow these rules. The materials contain decodable texts with phonics aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. The materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessments over the course of the school year where students’ progress in phonics can be measured.

Indicator 1G
04/04

Scope and sequence clearly delineate an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear evidence-based explanation for the order of the sequence.

The materials provide a clear, evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics scope and sequence. The scope and sequence is intentionally ordered from simpler to more complex skills. Phonics instruction is based on high utility patterns and common phonics generalizations. Instruction starts with letters and corresponding sounds, VCV, digraphs, blends, and two-syllable words with closed syllables.

Materials contain a clear evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence for teaching phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Research, Notes on Phonics Suite Scope and Sequences, the materials cite evidence from Hannah (1966), Hodges (1989), Fry (2004), and Kearns (2017). They explain that phonics instruction moves from most frequent to most predictable. They further state that the program teaches 97%  of the teachable, predictable patterns in the English code. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Research, in the article, “Bringing Research to Practice with Foundational Reading Skills Instruction for Beginning Readers,” under “Alphabetic Principle,” the article states, “Really Great Reading’s Countdown lessons first introduce the alphabetic principle to kindergarteners explicitly and systematically. Children learn to isolate and pronounce the short vowel and most common consonant sounds of the English language first. Then, they are systematically introduced to the symbols that represent those sounds. In this way, children are taught how to ‘break the code’ of the English language. In Countdown, letters are introduced in clusters of three or four, allowing children to move quickly to decoding words and reading connected text.”

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Research, Notes on Scope and Sequence, a clear research-based explanation is provided for the order of the phonics sequence: “Really Great Reading phonics scope and sequence is designed around well-documented word-level statistics related to the frequency of spelling and pronunciation patterns in English (Hannah, 1966, Hodges, 1989, Fry 2004, Kearns, 2017). These statistics make it clear not all phonics knowledge is equally impactful. We concentrate our instruction time on the most impactful, most predictable, most teachable patterns in our English code. The phonics sequence moves from most frequent and most predictable to the exceptions. Really Great Reading concentrates instructional time on the more common spellings and chooses not to divert precious instructional time to rare/obscure spellings.” 

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction, from simpler to more complex skills, and practice to build toward the application of skills. The scope and sequence is as follows:

  • Units 1-5 -Word on Alphabetic Principle

  • Unit 6-Cluster m, t, p, a

  • Unit 7-Cluster s, h, c, i

  • Unit 8-Cluster d, f, r, o

  • Unit 9-Review Clusters t, p, a, s, h, c, i, d, f, r, o

  • Unit 10-Cluster g, l, n, u

  • Unit 11-Cluster b, k, v, e

  • Unit 12-Cluster Review

  • Unit 13-Cluster J, w, y, z

  • Unit 14-Cluster qu, x, y

  • Unit 15-Cluster review

  • Unit 16 -Cluster review units 1-7

  • Unit 17 -Review short vowel sounds and motions 

   Review finger-stretching phonemes 

  • Unit 18 -Introduce Vowel-Consonant Pattern (closed syllables)

  • Unit 19-Introduce phrases and sentences to read

  • Unit 20-Digraph sh-Reading and Spelling with all short vowels 

  • Unit 21-Digraph th

  Reading and spelling with all short vowels 

  • Unit 22-Review Digraphs sh and th

  Reading and spelling with all short vowels 

  • Unit 23-Digraphs ch and wh

  Reading and spelling with all short vowels

  • Unit 24-Digraph ck

  Reading and spelling with all short vowels

  • Unit 25-Chunk all and digraph review 

  Reading and spelling with all short vowels

  • Unit 26-2- sound blends (initial and final)

  • Unit 27-Introduce terms “Syllable and Closed Syllable”

  Reading two-syllable words with Closed Syllables 

  • Unit 28-More reading two-syllable words with closed syllables

Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or specific phonics generalizations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lessons 3, 4, and 5, the phonics focus is digraph sh

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lessons 3, 4, and 5, the phonics focus is digraph th.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 23, Lessons 3, 4, and 5, the phonics focus is ch and wh. 

Indicator 1H
04/04

Materials are absent of the three-cueing system.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding.

Indicator 1I
04/04

Materials, questions, and tasks provide reasonable pacing where phonics (decoding and encoding) skills are taught one at a time and allot time where phonics skills are practiced to automaticity, with cumulative review.

The materials provide appropriate pacing of phonics skills, which are taught daily in 20-30 minute teacher-led whole group lessons, 20-30 minutes daily in small group lessons, and 30-40 minutes of independent practice time each week. Practice activities are provided with one optional activity. There is a weekly cumulative review of the phonics skills for the week on Day 5. Materials review individual sounds and letter names of all letters, and lessons include both decoding and encoding through whole-group instruction and small-group practice on a regular basis.  

Materials include reasonable pacing of newly taught phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • Students generally spend a week on phonics skills, with frequent cumulative reviews. For example:

    • In Units 1-5, students learn the alphabetic principle. 

    • In Units 6-17, students learn and practice consonant and vowel sounds and letters in clusters. Students spend 17 weeks learning and applying consonant and vowel sounds with frequent review. Students practice reading CVC closed syllable types in Units 18-19.

    • In Units 20-25, students learn and practice digraphs. 

    • In Units 26-28, students work with blends and two-syllable words. 

The lesson plan design allots time to include sufficient student practice to work towards automaticity. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 2, Lesson 2, students practice decoding CVC words, identifying the letter representing the beginning sound of an orally stated word, and encoding by building an orally stated word. Whole-group instruction lasts 20-30 minutes, small-group instruction lasts 20-30 minutes, and instruction includes additional practice of whole-group activities. Independent practice includes a review by playing Unit 9 games for 10 minutes and practicing new words with Unit 10 games for 10 minutes.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 7, there are 20-30 minutes of direct instruction in the whole group daily, 5-10 minutes of mastery of skill practice, 20-30 minutes of small group instruction, and 30-40 minutes weekly allocated for independent practice. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 3, in the You Do portion of the lesson, practice time is allocated for students to build real words with digraphs. There are 20-30 minutes of allotted time for whole group, which includes 5-10 minutes of student practice. On Day 4, students review and practice the skill during the 20-30 minutes of student practice time.

Materials contain distributed, cumulative, and interleaved opportunities for students to practice and review all previously learned grade-level phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 1, instruction focuses on /a/, /m/ /c/, and /d/; Lesson 2 focuses /c/, /a/, and /t/; Lesson 4 focuses on /i/; and Lesson 5 focuses on /p/, /t/, /i/, /p/, /m/ /a/, and /o/. In Unit 10, Lesson 1, students practice spelling Unit 9 spelling words as a review. Words include map, fit, and cod. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 17, Lesson 1, students review vowel sounds, the information that every word has a vowel, and the letter names for each vowel. They then proceed to review every vowel by sound and letter name. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 5, students are introduced to the sh digraph and practice with /sh/ using sound tiles. Students review words with sh, w, and p in with Wrap-Up and Show What You Know activities, where students read short phrases and sentences and count sounds. 

Indicator 1J
04/04

Materials include systematic and explicit phonics instruction with repeated teacher modeling.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonics with repeated teacher modeling. Lessons provide explicit instruction in blending and segmenting words using consistent routines. In addition, the materials include phrases and sentences that the teacher can use for dictation. The appendix provides guidance to teachers on providing corrective feedback to students. 

Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of newly-taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • 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 the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 6, Lesson 3, the teacher displays two columns with the headings p and a. The teacher then says the sound for /p/ in popcorn and reminds students the sound /p/ is spelled with the letter p. 

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 2, the teacher reminds students to remember the sound /s/ is spelled with the letter s while pointing to the letter tile s. Then the teacher says to remember the sound /k/ is spelled with the letter c (while pointing to the letter c tile). 

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 12, Lesson 1, the teacher has two columns with the letter g, /g/ for goat, and k /k/ for key. The materials state, “Remember the sound /g/ is spelled with the letter g.” 

  • Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 2, using the Long Vowel Poster, the teacher says the long a sounds like saying the letter’s name, so the long a sound is /ā/. This is repeated with each of the long vowel sounds. 

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 2, the teacher tells students they are going to finger stretch some words that have a long i sound. The materials state, “Listen while I say the sounds in bike, as in ‘I love to ride my bike to the park.’ bike.” The teacher then tells students that bike has three sounds and explains that he/she hears the name of the letter i in bike, so the vowel sound is long.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 2, the teacher reviews the short u, /ŭ/, in isolation and within words such as up, mug, and cut. Then the teacher reviews long u, and students identify the /ū/ in the words huge, mute, use, mule, and cute. The teacher reminds students that the long u is the first phoneme in the word unicorn. The teacher then tells students that the symbol for the long u is /yoo/. The teacher models the long u movement and then stretches the sound for the word cube.

  • Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 2, students sound out the word mass, touching the letter tiles as they say the sounds. Then, the teacher adds the letter k to the end to create the word mask. Students touch the tiles while saying the sounds and then discuss how the letters have their own sounds. The activity continues with the words den/dent/tent, jump/bump, fast/last, and bend/send.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 26, Lesson 2, the teacher finger-stretches the word lap and builds the word with letter tiles. Then, the teacher adds the/k/ sound at the beginning and adds the letter tile c to build the word clap. The activity continues with the words lash/flash.  

Lessons include blending and segmenting practice using structured, consistent blending routines with teacher modeling. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 2, the teacher displays an image of jam with the letter tiles m, j, a. The teacher says jam and stretches the sounds in jam. Then, the teacher clicks on the letter tiles to move each letter tile in the correct position, as the teacher and students say /j/ /a/ /m/. The following words/images are used for the activity: mug, nap, rug, six, rat, van, yes, pig, bug, bed, jet, can, fox, and hug.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 17, Lesson 4, the teacher models finger-stretching the word cat and displaying a letter tile for each sound while saying the phonemes /k/ /a/ /t/. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 2, the teacher models how to segment the word sap, and then students segment the word cat along with the teacher. The teacher then models segmenting the words gate and tape. Students segment the word wave with the teacher and then segment the words game, ape, shape, vase, whale, and ace on their own. 

Lessons include dictation of words and sentences using the newly taught phonics pattern(s). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Spelling, Dictation, and Writing, the Dictation Phrases and Routine resource provides teachers with ten dictation phrases for all Units 10-16 and three dictation sentences for all Units 19-28.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, students build words with the digraph th. The teacher displays an image of a word, dictates the word, and students build the word independently with letter tiles. Students build the words path, thin, thud, and math. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 24, Lesson 5, students practice spelling words with sound-spelling patterns learned in the workbook activity Spell It! The teacher says the word neck and uses it in the sentence, Uncle Jim wore a tie around his neck. The students then write the word. This process is completed with the following words: lick, back, sick, and duck.  

Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Appendices, Routines and Procedures, Positive Error Correction procedures are provided for Build a Word, Touch and Say, Reading Multisyllabic Words Using SyllaBoards, Student Practice, Detective Work, Read It!, and Responding to Self Corrections. The routine for Touch and Say is listed below: 

  • Positive Error Correction for Touch and Say: If a student reads a word incorrectly using Touch and Say, provide the following Positive Error Correction.

    • Tell student which sounds were said correctly.

    • Prompt student to: 1. Touch the tile that represents the sound that was incorrect and try to say the sound again. 2. Touch each tile again while saying each sound. Then, have the student blend the sounds into a word. 

    • If necessary, you or other students use Touch & Say to read the word. Then, have the student repeat.

    • Prompt student to independently use Touch & Say to read the word correctly. 

    • Always finish with the student independently using Touch and  Say to read the word. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 3, it says that the teacher should use Positive Error Correction. They should identify the sounds the student spelled correctly, repeat the word, have the student repeat, and listen for the misspelled sound. Then, have the student independently use Touch and Say to read the word correctly. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 4, the materials state, “Be sure to use Positive Error Correction if students misread any words in Read It! Positive Error Correction steps can be found on p. 106.”

Indicator 1K
04/04

Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode and encode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns.

The materials include opportunities for students to decode phonetically spelled words in lessons throughout the units. Decoding practice focuses on both automaticity and accuracy. In addition, students have opportunities to encode in each unit, which involves segmenting sounds using sound-spelling patterns. Encoding routines include using letter tiles to build words.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words with taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 2, students continue practicing decoding gum, fan, run, and nine additional CVC words. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 11, Lesson 2, the teacher displays letter tiles n, v, a, and rearranges them to spell van, and asks students to decode the word. The teacher continues the routine by asking students to decode bed, leg, bat, and eleven additional CVC words. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 15, Lesson 2, the teacher displays letter tiles, m, j, a, and says the word jam. The teacher and students stretch the sounds out and arrange the letter tiles to spell jam. The teacher and students continue this routine with fourteen additional words.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to encode words with taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 16, Lesson 4, the teacher and students build the word wax with letter tiles. This practice continues with the words zip, net, hot, bag, mug, pan, yes, sit, and elf.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 18, Lesson 3, students practice building vowel consonant patterns. The teacher models with the word bat, and then students spell the words net, hip, cup, mop, on, us

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, students build words with the digraph th. The words they build are path, thin, thud, math.

Student-guided practice and independent practice of blending sounds using the sound-spelling pattern(s) is varied and frequent. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 3, teachers build the word /r/ /a/ /sh and use Touch and  Say to read rash. The students and teacher build and read the word ship in the We Do portion. Students continue with the You Do portion of the lesson, where they spell and read the words dish, hush, dash, shed.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 4, the teacher uses a routine to underline letter sounds and then read whole words. The teacher displays the word math, clicks to underline /m/, /a/, /th/ sounds, and then reads the whole word; the teacher repeats the process for eleven additional words. Students are called on one at a time to read words from a list.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Unit 26, Lesson 2, the teacher has students touch each tile for the word lap. Then, students add a /k/ to the word lap, making the new word clap. Students say the new word. 

Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in word-level decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 18, Lesson 3, Small Group Instruction, students read a decodable passage, “Tim and Ted,” recording their accuracy percentage on a chart.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 4, individual students decode a word, and classmates and the teacher give the Reader a “thumbs-up” if they read the word correctly and a “thumbs-to-the-side” if the student needs to try to reread the word.

Indicator 1L
04/04

Spelling rules and generalizations are taught one at a time at a reasonable pace. Spelling words and generalizations are practiced to automaticity.

The materials contain spelling rules and generalizations aligned to the phonics scope and sequence, and these generalizations are taught in conjunction with reading words that follow these rules. There are in-depth explanations of how words follow these generalizations, and students have sufficient opportunities to practice these rules. The weekly spelling lists correspond to these rules or generalizations. Students also have the opportunity to practice spelling words with various activities, including building words with letter tiles, and in small-group spelling practice on Lesson 5 each week during the “Spell It!” routine. 

Spelling rules and generalizations are aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 6, the focus is on the letters m, t, p, a, concentrating only on the short vowel sound for a. The spelling words for Unit 6 include the words tam, map, tap, tamp, and apt.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 14, the focus is on the letters qu, x, y. The spelling words for Unit 14 include the words quiz, yum, mix, yet, pod, quest, swim.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 3, students learn the digraph sh. In Lesson 5, students spell words with sh, including ship, shut, dish, rash, shot

Materials include explanations for spelling of specific words or spelling rules. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 23, Lesson 3, the phonics focus is on the digraphs ch and wh. The materials state digraph ch spells the sound /ch/, the digraph wh spells the sound /w/, and wh is generally used only at the beginning of words or syllables in compound words. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 3, after reviewing the /ŏl/ sound, the teacher states, “Let’s say the sounds in all together: /ŏl/. All is a special word. Even though it also follows our Vowel-Consonant pattern with one vowel and consonants after the vowel, the letter a makes a different sound. When we see a-l-l together, it always spells /ŏl/, so instead of using three letter tiles, we put all three letters on one tile, and we call it a ‘chunk.’ Now we are going to build a few real words with the letters a-l and the chunk a-l-l. Students practice building the words call, pal, ball, tall, gal, fall throughout the lesson.

Students have sufficient opportunities to practice spelling rules and generalizations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 14, Lesson 2, students practice identifying the letter symbol that spells the first or last sound in a word. The students practice with words such as mix, ax, six, ox, vacuum, van, Max, vase, fox, volcano, wax, vehicle. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 5, students spell words with vowel-consonant patterns and closed syllables during the Spell It! Routine. The words that students spell are pat, run, pit, log, bed, and optional challenge words ax, elf, kid, act, zap.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 20, Lesson 5, students spell words with the digraph sh during the Spell It! Routine. The words that students spell include ship, shut, dish, rash, and shot, and optional challenge words shed, wax, cap, hush, and bed.

Indicator 1M
04/04

Materials include decodable texts with phonics aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings.

The materials contain decodable texts with phonics aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. The decodable texts begin in Unit 8, with one every week until the final unit. The phonics skill is taught on Day 3, and the decodable text is used on Days 4 and 5. Students have opportunities to practice with the decodable text in Practice-to-Mastery and Small Group Instruction. The majority of repeated rereadings occur during small-group instruction. 

Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 15, students review all letter sounds and short vowels. The decodable passage “The Vet” features words with all consonants and short vowel sounds. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, students read the decodable text “Tim and Ted.” The phonics skill for the week is closed syllables. Words from the text include Tim, ten, six, fun, sun, quit, and hat.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, students practice reading the passage “The Rush Down the Path.” The phonics patterns in the passage align with the phonics skills being taught, which include short u and long u and digraph th. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 24, students learn the phonics concept digraph ck and read the decodable text “Tick Tock.”

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address acquisition of phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 3, students read the decodable passage “The Map.” In Lesson 4, in Practice-to-Mastery, the teacher and students do a scaffolded reading of “The Map,” and then later, in small groups, students practice reading “The Map” again. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 3, students read the decodable text “The Pet Bat” as a cold read during small group instruction. In Lesson 4, students read “The Pet Bat” again during the Practice-to-Mastery portion of the lesson. In Lesson 5, students read the decodable text during small group instruction.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, students complete a cold read of the decodable passage “The Rush Down the Path.” In Lesson 4, in Practice-to-Mastery, the teacher and students do a scaffolded reading of “The Rush Down the Path,” and later, in small groups, students practice reading “The Rush Down the Path” again. In Lesson 5, in Practice-to-Mastery and during small groups, students have another opportunity to read the passage. 

Reading practice occurs in decodable texts (i.e., an absence of predictable) until students can accurately decode single-syllable words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Resources, Alternative Start, Passages, & Book Reading, the Countdown Decodable Passages (with Fluency Instruction) contain the decodable passages for the units in Countdown along with a scaffolded decodable passage reading lesson plan to use with the current unit’s decodable passage. The passages include:

    • Unit 8: “Tom and Cat” 

    • Unit 9: “The Map” 

    • Unit 10: “Nat and Dog” 

    • Unit 11: “Gus” 

    • Unit 12: “A Big Red Bug” 

    • Unit 13: “The Pet Bat” 

    • Unit 14: “The Red Van” 

    • Unit 15: “The Vet” 

    • Unit 16: “The Cat in the Box” 

    • Unit 17: “Max and Sam” 

    • Unit 18: “Tim and Ted” 

    • Unit 19: “Kim the Pig” 

    • Unit 20: “On the Ship”

    • Unit 21: “The Rush Down the Path” 

    • Unit 22: “A Pet Dog” 

    • Unit 23: “A Hen and a Pig” 

    • Unit 24: “Tick Tock” 

    • Unit 25: “The Fall” 

    • Unit 26: “Our Land” 

    • Unit 27: “The Potluck” 

    • Unit 28: “The Attic” 

Indicator 1N
04/04

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).

The materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessments over the course of the school year where students’ progress in phonics can be measured. The Reading Playground, an online tool, has assessment opportunities for each lesson in a game format for the students. There are also additional assessment resources found in the online teacher resources, including the Letter Knowledge Survey, which provides diagnostic assessment data about each student’s letter sound and name knowledge. Teachers and students are provided with information on students’ skill levels and mastery and understanding of phonics skills. Instructional materials provide teachers with suggestions for reteaching based on assessment results.

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 phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The Countdown Online, Teacher Resources, the Recommended Assessment Timeline and Flowcharts outlines the assessments that should be given over the course of the year and the timeline in which they should be given. The assessment schedule is as follows:

  • Fall Benchmark: 

    • Countdown Beginning of Program Baseline Assessment in the Countdown Reading Playground (with 1:1 oral decoding) 

    • Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, Form BOYKa

  • Fall Progress Monitor:  

    • See the “Using the Countdown Reading Playground as Formative Assessment” document for formative assessment options and instructional recommendations. 

    • Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, Form BOYKb

  • Winter Benchmark:  

    • Countdown Middle of Program Mid-Interval Assessment in the Countdown Reading Playground (with 1:1 oral decoding) 

    • Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, Form MOYKa

  • Winter Progress Monitor:  

    • See the “Using the Countdown Reading Playground as Formative Assessment” document for formative assessment options and instructional recommendations. 

    • Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, Form MOYKb

  • Spring Benchmark: 

    • Countdown End of Program Summative Assessment in the Countdown Reading Playground (with 1:1 oral decoding) 

    • Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, Form EOYKa

  • Assessments are given regularly after each unit. For example:

    • In The Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 5, students are given a spelling assessment on short vowels /a/, /i/, /e/, /o/, and /u/.

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 24, Lesson 5, students spell words on the spelling assessment with digraph ck

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Resources, Spelling, Dictation & Writing, Countdown Spelling Lists and Resources, a resource contains a list of words for Units 6-28. The resource lists different ways the teacher can use the Countdown Spelling Lists with students, including a spelling test at the end of the unit. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment, the materials contain a resource called Countdown Formative Assessment Guide that explains how to use Reading Playground as a formative assessment. Three Reading Playground games from each unit can be utilized as formative assessments. The goal of these games is not to provide a grade but to inform the teacher of the most appropriate next steps for each student.

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

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Teacher Resources, Assessment and Grouping, Grouping Matrix Decoding Levels, information is provided about how The Grouping Matrix places students into the following decoding levels: At or Above Expectations/Strong Decoder, Slow Reading Rate, Specific Decoding Deficits, Slightly Below Expectations, or Mild Decoding Deficits, Moderately Below Expectations, or Moderate Decoding Deficits, Significantly Below Expectations, or Significant Decoding Deficits, Severely Below Expectations, and Emergent Readers. Decoding level descriptions are listed for all of the different levels that students are placed in. For example, the description of the specific decoding deficits group states, “This student exhibits strengths with basic decoding skills (short vowels, closed syllables, digraphs, blends) yet has deficits in reading words with advanced vowels and/or words with multiple syllables. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment section, information is provided on the Reading Playground. The Countdown Formative Assessment Guide lists the standard(s) the game assesses and states scores of ≥80% are nearing proficiency, scores of 60%-79% mean needing practice, and scores below  ≤59% mean students need to be retaught the material.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Teacher Resources, Assessment and Grouping, a resource called the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey Overview gives an overview of the Kindergarten Foundations Skills Survey. Once the teacher administers the Kindergarten Foundation Skills Survey, they can determine the next steps for grouping, diagnostic assessing, and instructional support. Students are placed into one of three skill levels: low, emerging, or on track. 

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment, the Formative Assessments in the Reading Playground video provides a guided tour of the formative assessment supports on the Teacher Dashboard for the Reading Playground. In the Countdown Formative Assessment Guide, there is a chart with information for each unit that includes the unit numbers, game numbers and names for each unit, benchmark scores for each proficiency level, and lesson reviews and Practical recommendations with information such as additional activities and games to practice and specific workbook pages. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Teacher Resources, Assessment and Grouping, the Intervention Flowcharts provide more guidance on how to group students based on intervention data. Each skill is categorized as low, emerging, or on track, to help the teacher determine which students may need additional support.  

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Teacher Resources, Assessment and Grouping, the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey Overview gives an overview of the Kindergarten Foundations Skills Survey and Countdown. In the overview, it explains that “If the majority of your class scores LOW in letter knowledge at the beginning of the year, proceed with the standard Countdown Scope and Sequence, but consider progress monitoring to ensure all students’ acquisition of all letter names and sounds.”

Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis

10/12

Materials and instruction support students in learning and practicing regularly and irregularly spelled high-frequency words.

The materials provide systematic and explicit instruction of Heart Words (high-frequency words) with consistent and explicit instructional routines repeated each week for Units 8-16 and 18-28. The materials provide opportunities for students to read high-frequency words in isolation through the Heart Word Magic Videos and practice activities, including Look, Think, Say!, Pop-Up, 3-Up, and Read a Row. The materials include explicit instruction with teacher modeling for syllable types, including the teacher naming the syllable type during explicit instruction and asking students to name the syllable type during student practice. Students have multiple opportunities to use a routine for breaking written words into syllables. However, the materials do not include explicit instruction in morpheme analysis. The materials provide regular assessment opportunities, both formative and summative, at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The materials also include a Sight Word Assessment to be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.

Indicator 1O
02/02

Materials include explicit instruction in identifying the regularly spelled part and the temporarily irregularly spelled part of words. High-frequency word instruction includes spiraling review.

The materials provide systematic and explicit instruction of Heart Words (high-frequency words) with consistent and explicit instructional routines repeated each week for Units 8-16 and 18-28. The materials include videos that contain explicit instruction in spelling the Heart Words while connecting the phonemes to the graphemes. Teacher guidance provides instructions on how to model reading the Heart Words. Materials provide explicit steps for the teacher to model connecting the phonemes to graphemes and discuss the irregular part of the word. Beginning in Unit 8, three Heart Words are taught each week for Units 8-16 and 18-28. Unit 17 does not include Heart Words. There are a total of 60 Heart Words taught throughout the year. 

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words with an explicit and consistent instructional routine. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Heart Word Magic, Heart Word Magic Compilations by Unit, there are video links for Units 8-16 and Units 18-28. Each video introduces the Heart Words for that particular week and explains the pronunciations and tricky parts of each word. The videos are consistent from week to week and are explicit in instruction.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 1, the teacher tells students they will learn some Heart Words and will be able to say them right away. The teacher uses Heart Word Magic and the Look, Think, Say! routine.

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 11, Lesson 1, students watch the Heart Word Magic video to learn the words and, at, and go. The first word and is sounded out while showing the letters and placing a rectangle to represent each phoneme. The explanation is that students can use their phonics knowledge to sound out the word and. The next word at is sounded out while showing the letters and placing a rectangle to represent each phoneme. The explanation for this word is that students can use their phonics knowledge to sound it out. The last word go is sounded out, and then a heart is placed over the letter o because that is the tricky part of the word. The first sound is represented with a grapheme students know based on learned phonics skills but for the letter o, the students only know the short vowel sound. All three words are placed on the screen again with a heart over the o in the word go. The video is 1:38 in length. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, in Lesson 1, Heart Word Look, Think, Say!, the teacher says, “Now, we are going to learn to read some new Heart Words.” The teacher displays the Heart Word say, and says, “Remember, this red dot tells us to stop what we are doing so we can listen to the word. The word is say, as in, ‘We say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.’ Say the word with me, say.” The teacher repeats the routine with the words now and have

  • In Countdown Online, Countdown Heart Words, Countdown Heart Word Magic Cards. There are word cards for all words instructed each week, beginning with Unit 8 (Unit 17 does not have Heart Words). The word cards for each unit can be distributed to students after the initial instruction on Day 1 of the unit. The format of the cards matches the format students see in the Heart Word Magic videos. Hearts appear above the tricky parts of the Heart Words. If a sound-spelling has not been taught by the unit in which the Heart Word is introduced, it is marked with a heart. Color tiles represent expected sound-spelling correspondence. The word is given in a contextual decodable phrase or a sentence.

Materials include teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of high-frequency words that includes connecting the phonemes to the graphemes. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Heart Word Magic, Heart Word Magic Spelling, the materials contain teacher directions for an activity for students to phoneme-grapheme map the Heart Words. There is an explicit sample teacher script attached for the words said, have, from, and the. The sample teacher scripting begins with the following: 

    • This is the word said 

    • Said rhymes with head and bed 

    • Said has three sounds (teacher fills in three dots while saying the sounds /s/ /e/ /d/)

    • Touch the dots and say the say the sounds (/s/ /e/ /d/) blend together and say the word said  

    • The first sound I hear in said is /s/, the next sound I hear is /e/, and finally I hear the /d/

    • We all know that /s/ is spelled with the letter s and /d/ is spelled with the letter d. Now let’s take a look at the letters that are spelling /e/. It is not an e that is spelling /e/, it is ai. That is the part we must know by heart. Let’s touch and say together…

    • Now, let’s review the word said

Materials include a sufficient quantity of high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The Countdown Online, Heart Word Magic, the Countdown Heart Words by Unit outlines the Heart Words in the Countdown Program. Beginning in Unit 8, there are three Heart Words taught each week for Units 8-28, with the exception of Unit 17.

  • In HD Word Online, Supply Room, Heart Word Magic, HD Word Heart Words, a resource lists the heart words for each unit in HD Word. The words are:

    • 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

Indicator 1P
02/02

Instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and gain decoding automaticity of high-frequency words.

The materials provide opportunities for students to read high-frequency words in isolation through the Heart Word Magic Videos and practice activities, including Look, Think, Say!, Pop-Up, 3-Up, and Read a Row. The materials provide decodable texts containing high-frequency words, which provide opportunities for students to read the words in context. The students have a template to write Heart Words and to mark the irregularly spelled part of the word. The units contain dictation sentences that include Heart Words. Materials also include sentences containing Heart Words previously taught.

Students practice decoding high-frequency words in isolation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 8, Lesson 3, students use the Look, Think, Say! routine for the Heart Words the, in, and my

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 3, students use the Look, Think, Say! routine for the Heart Words to, not, and my. For the routine, the teacher has the students say each phoneme for the grapheme in the word.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 1, Heart Word Pop-Up, students read the Heart Words: no, so, and was, which are the words for the unit. Students also read words all and am. The words are read in isolation. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 22, Lesson 1, Heart Words Pop-Up, students read the Heart Words ate, out, who, they, that, and this. The words are read in isolation. 

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode high-frequency words in context. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 19, Instructional Resources, the decodable text “Kim the Pig” contains the Heart Word was four times. The Heart Word was is one of the three Heart Words explicitly taught in Unit 18. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 5, students read phrases and sentences that contain the Heart Words say, now, and have.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 5, students read phrases and sentences containing the Heart Words they, that, and this.

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 24, Instructional Resources, the decodable text “Tick Tock” contains the Heart Word he three times, which is explicitly taught in Unit 23. 

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to encode high-frequency words in tasks, such as sentences, in order to promote automaticity of high-frequency words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Heart Word Magic, Heart Word Magic Dissect a Word, the PDF document provides suggested directions for the teacher in guiding students to spell Heart Words. The materials state that the activity allows students to practice dissecting Heart Words (high-frequency words) with irregular letter-sound relationships by listening to the individual phonemes in a word and then filling in the corresponding spellings. Students fill in a heart above the irregular part of the word that must be learned “by heart” and write that tricky part again.

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 24, Lesson 5, students write the Unit 24 dictation sentences. The three sentences are: Pack the red mug., Jog up to the dock., and Thad will lock the shed. The sentences contain the Heart Words: the, to, and will. The Heart Words explicitly taught in this unit are he, she, and we. The Heart Words in the three practice sentences were taught in previous units. 

Indicator 1Q
02/04

Materials include explicit instruction in syllabication and morpheme analysis and provide students with practice opportunities to apply learning.

The materials include explicit instruction with teacher modeling for syllable types, including the teacher naming the syllable type during explicit instruction and asking students to name the syllable type during student practice. Students have multiple opportunities to use a routine for breaking written words into syllables. However, the materials do not include explicit instruction in morpheme analysis. 

Materials contain explicit instruction of syllable types and syllable division that promote decoding and encoding of words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 3, the teacher teaches closed syllables, demonstrating with the word mug. The teacher states mug is a vowel-consonant pattern and refers to the pattern as a closed syllable. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 5, the teacher displays the word public, showing each closed syllable separately and asking students to write each syllable starting with the vowel and adding the consonants. The teacher reads each syllable with the students and then reads the whole word. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 3, the teacher reviews closed syllables by modeling breaking the word contest into syllables using Syllaboards to blend and read the word. The teacher and students follow the same routines for the word finish. The lesson sequence concludes with independent practice using tennis, pigpen, suntan, and uphill. 

Materials contain explicit instruction in morpheme analysis to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • No evidence was found.

Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Student Workbook, Unit 27, Page 37, students circle the number of syllables in a word and draw a line between syllables, if appropriate. Words include picnic, step, radish, jump, insect, and five additional one or two-syllable words.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 27, Lesson 2, students practice stomping and blending syllables. The teacher pulls out a word and says it in parts. The students stomp the syllables and then say the word. 

  • In the Countdown Student Workbook, Unit 28, Page 40, students read two-syllable words by circling the vowels and drawing a rectangle around each syllable.  

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 28, Lesson 5, the practice to mastery sidebar includes spelling two-syllable words using the Unit 28 Spelling list found in the Countdown Spell It template. Students listen for the word, count the syllables, put a dot for the first syllable and the second syllable, and then write each syllable sound in the template.

Indicator 1R
04/04

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials provide regular assessment opportunities, both formative and summative, at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The materials also include a Sight Word Assessment to be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The materials provide the teacher with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis.

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition and analysis. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Teacher Resources, the materials provide a map of games, their purpose, and what skills they measure. In Unit 27, Game 1 provides students with practice and the teacher with a formative assessment of syllable segmentation and syllable counting. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Teacher Resources, there are Sight Word Surveys. The directions say to give the sight word assessments to all Kindergarten and Grade 1 students who you expect are not making progress.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 20, Lesson 4, students read a row of words out loud, and the teacher and students listen for accuracy. The teacher provides error correction if the student reads incorrectly.

  • In Countdown Online, Book 3, Unit 19, Lesson 1, students practice reading Heart Words, which is used to measure how well students acquire letter-sound and Heart Word Fluency.

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

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Grouping Matrix Decoding Levels, the teacher is instructed to use the Grouping Matrix Student Scores Report and click on a specific column heading, such as Short Vowels, Digraphs, or Blends. The matrix indicates if the student is proficient, nearing proficiency, or well below expectations.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment, and Countdown Formative Assessment Guide, materials indicate that Unit 16, Games 2 and 3 assess open syllables. Students scoring less than 60% need re-teaching, students scoring between 60 and 79% need practice, and students scoring 80% or above are proficient.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Sight Word Skill Level states that students in the middle of the year for Kindergarten when reading pre-primer sight word lists are low, emerging is 45-75%, and greater than 75% is on track. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, the Foundational Skills Survey provides the following information about decoding for Kindergarten students at the end of the year: if they score 0-5, they are low; 6-11 is emerging; and 12-16 is on track.

Materials support the teacher with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Formative Assessment, Countdown Formative Assessment Guide, materials indicate Unit 16, Games 2 and 3 assess open syllables and provide instructional reteach suggestions, including Unit 16, Lesson 3 and Unit 16, Games 6 and 8 in the Reading Playground.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Appendices, page 211, materials advise the teacher to use game mapping guides and whole group activities to determine students’ mastery.

Overview of Gateway 2

Usability

The materials provide a well-defined teacher resource for content presentation, including a Table of Contents sectioned by Unit, Lesson, and Appendix. There are three teacher guides provided for the Countdown materials. The online materials in the Supply Room contain additional resources and instructional materials for teachers to utilize. The Countdown materials provide detailed examples of the foundational skill concepts for the teacher within the Teacher Guide lesson plans, Appendices, and Supply Room resources. The materials include a research-based lesson plan design that provides whole group and small group instructional minutes that support practice to mastery. Lesson pacing is designed to be completed within a year. The materials provide an alignment document for formative and summative assessments and an extensive alignment document for all foundational skills tasks. 

The materials provide support for multilingual learners through instructional videos, an alternative scope and sequence, crosslinguistic lessons, and recommendations and tips for using, accommodating, and delivering curriculum components. General statements regarding MLL learners and instructional strategies or supports can be found in the Unit Planners and the Introduction and Appendices of the Teacher Guides; however, resources are limited to Spanish-speaking students. There are missed opportunities for MLL resources in other languages. The materials provide guidance to the teacher for scaffolding and adapting lessons found in the Supply Room and in the Teacher Guides, with supports embedded within the lessons or in the margins. The Teacher Guide contains a Differentiation Option that includes information for scaffolding and adapting lessons to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level.

The materials include twenty-eight decodable passages, which are utilized throughout the units. Several characters are animals; however, there is more reference to male animals or characters than females. There are some non-discrepant animals that do not reference gender or use pronouns. With the exception of reference to male or female pronouns, references to characters’ gender, culture, ethnicity, linguistic background, or other distinct characteristics are absent. The materials include a Spanish Supports Scope and Sequence, which provides cross-linguistic referencing between English and Spanish. A Cross-linguistic Alphabet Letter Cards User Guide is also provided, which contains cognates that list shared and unshared graphemes and phonemes between English and Spanish; however, additional guidance on how to draw upon students’ home language other than Spanish is absent from the program. In addition, the materials do not include resources for students who speak a dialect different than Standard classroom English. It is important to note that the English Language Teacher Supports Guide states, “We will be periodically adding more languages throughout the school year.” 

The materials integrate technology with interactive tools. Materials include presentation tools for daily lessons. Materials also include digital resources for students to review articulation and phoneme motions. Materials include a tool called the Letter-Sound Generator that can be customized to meet the needs of specific students. The materials also contain digital technology and interactive tools such as data collection tools, which can be found online through the Supply Room, Grouping Matrix, and Reading Playground. Students can use interactive resources on the Reading Playground or through daily lessons presented by the teacher. The materials contain clear and consistent formats that do not distract focus from the intended objective or concept. The predictable layout of teacher materials occurs within lessons and across each unit. Each book contains an overview, scope and sequence, unit planners, and appendices. The organization of each unit and lesson supports student understanding of topics, text, and/or concepts. The teacher presentation slides are colorful and relay information supporting students’ skill practice. The materials include a Supply Room with teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology.

Criterion 2.1: Guidance for Implementation

14/14

Materials are accompanied by information that provides the teacher with guidance for implementation of daily lessons and information to enhance teacher knowledge of foundational skills.

The materials provide a well-defined teacher resource for content presentation, including a Table of Contents sectioned by Unit, Lesson, and Appendix. There are three teacher guides provided for the Countdown materials. The online materials in the Supply Room contain additional resources and instructional materials for teachers to utilize. The Countdown materials provide detailed examples of the foundational skill concepts for the teacher within the Teacher Guide lesson plans, Appendices, and Supply Room resources. The materials include a research-based lesson plan design that provides whole group and small group instructional minutes that support practice to mastery. Lesson pacing is designed to be completed within a year. The lesson plan design consistently follows an I Do, We Do, You Do lesson structure. The planner for each unit follows a structured weekly routine and indicates the amount of time for explicit instruction, practice to mastery, small group instruction, and independent practice. The materials provide an alignment document for formative and summative assessments and an extensive alignment document for all foundational skills tasks.

Indicator 2A
04/04

Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials to support students' literacy development.

The materials provide a well-defined teacher resource for content presentation, including a Table of Contents sectioned by Unit, Lesson, and Appendix. There are three teacher guides provided for the Countdown materials. The Introductory and Appendix sections are well organized to display the content for easy navigation. In addition, each unit begins with a Unit Planner that outlines the parts of the lesson, time limits, instructional resources, and more. The Introduction, Appendix, and Lesson materials provide detailed information and instructional routines that help teachers implement all foundational skills content effectively. The online materials in the Supply Room contain additional resources and instructional materials for teachers to utilize. 

Materials provide a well-defined, teacher resource for content presentation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Each Countdown Teacher Guide includes a table of contents that displays information by unit and lesson and a location for the Introduction and Appendix. The manual also provides tabs for each Unit and the Appendix for easy transition to the parts of the manual that are needed.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, the Unit 1 Planner provides a weekly overview of the concepts that will be taught that week in Direct Instruction, Practice to Mastery, Small Group Instruction, and Independent Practice. Instruction is outlined for each day of the week and includes the lesson to be taught, the page numbers, the handwriting skills to cover in direct instruction, resources for ELs, and descriptions of activities. This occurs in each book and each unit. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Countdown Planner, Unit 4, there is a five-day lesson plan with time frames for lessons. It is outlined with each component of the unit for each day, including which skill is being taught.

  • In Countdown Online, Heart Word Magic, the Countdown Heart Words by Unit resource outlines the Heart Words (high-frequency words) in the Countdown Program. 

The teacher resource contains detailed information and instructional routines that help the teacher to effectively implement all foundational skills content (i.e., alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness, phonics, irregularly spelled words, word analysis). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, the activity Peel that Sound contains a description for the teacher. The description states, “This activity consists of three rounds. During the first round, the teacher pronounces the imaged word, starting with the isolated beginning sound, and the students repeat. During the second round, the teacher pronounces just the isolated beginning sound of each word, and the students give the name of the image. During the third round, the teacher names the image, and students say the isolated beginning sound.” This activity is found throughout the program.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 2, in the activity Stretch Those Sounds, the teacher is provided with clear, step-by-step directions on how to guide the students in segmenting the phonemes in three-phoneme words using finger-stretching. The teacher is provided instructions in modeling how to segment the word duck by making a fist while saying duck, extending the thumb while saying /d/, extending the pointer finger while saying /ŭ/, and extending the middle finger while saying /k/.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 3, in the activity Phonics Concept: Digraph th, What You Need to Know, the materials state, “The digraph th is a consonant digraph phoneme that is produced by placing the end of your tongue between your teeth and blowing air across the top of your tongue. Some students confuse this phoneme with the /f/ phoneme, saying ‘teef,’ instead of ‘teeth.’ The digraph th has an unvoiced phoneme (the vocal chords [sic] are not used), as in thumb, and a voiced phoneme (the vocal chords [sic] are used), as in that.

Indicator 2B
04/04

Materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program so teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

The materials contain detailed, adult-level explanations of foundational skills concepts. The Countdown materials provide detailed examples of the foundational skill concepts for the teacher within the Teacher Guide lesson plans, Appendices, and Supply Room resources. 

Complete, detailed adult-level explanations are provided for each foundational skill taught at the grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Resources, Research, the RGR Foundational Reading Skills Instruction for Beginning Readers White Paper contains complete, detailed explanations of the key skills necessary for proficient pre-decoding and decoding, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, phonics, and sight words. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, the Appendix includes an explanation that encoding allows students to understand that a word can be segmented into its component sounds and that students must understand letter-sound relationships. It further explains that encoding is meant to show how print and sounds map onto each other. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Introduction, WYNTK Phonemic Awareness, there is an explanation of phonemic awareness and the connection to research. Countdown focuses on four essential phonemic awareness skills: Phoneme isolation, Phoneme blending, Phoneme segmentation, and Phoneme manipulation. Each of the four essential areas contain a detailed explanation of that skill and examples to know what practice or instruction in that skill would include. 

Detailed examples of the grade-level foundational skill concepts are provided for the teacher. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Appendix, Guidewords, Movements, and Proper Articulation of Sounds, there is a chart that lists the short vowel sounds, consonant sounds, long vowel sounds, and digraph sounds. For each sound, there is a corresponding letter, a symbol for the sound, a guide word to illustrate what the sound is, a movement to teach students to help them learn the sound, and teaching or articulation tips to use when teaching students about the sound. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Introduction, WYNTK: Phonemic Awareness, WYNTK: Beginning Sound Isolation (BSI), there is a description that beginning sound isolation is a technique where the students are taught to pronounce the first phoneme in a word and then say the whole word. The examples are provided for the teacher: /b/ bear, /a/ apple, /ch/ chin

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Sound Stories provides detailed notes in the margin of the lesson plan. One note says, “the alliterative sound stories feature the repeated use of words that begin with the same sound, as in Michael is a monkey from Minneapolis, Minnesota.” Another note in the margin says, “Be careful not to add a vowel sound after the consonant; e.g., /muh/. If students call out the letter m, say, That could be a letter we see that shows this sound. Right now, let’s talk about the sound we hear and feel.”

Indicator 2C
04/04

Foundational skills lessons are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Content can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.

The materials include a research-based lesson plan design that provides whole group and small group instructional minutes that support practice to mastery. Lesson pacing is designed to be completed within a year. The lesson plan design consistently follows an I Do, We Do, You Do lesson structure. The planner for each unit follows a structured weekly routine and indicates the amount of time for explicit instruction, practice to mastery, small group instruction, and independent practice.

Lesson plans utilize effective, research-based lesson plan design for early literacy instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In Blast Online, Supply Room, the “Really Great Reading Instructional Block” document states that it is based on a 90-minute reading block that was influenced by research with the National Research Council (1998). 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, the “Really Great Reading Instructional Block” document states that the instructional block should integrate principles from Gough and Tunmer’s Simple View of Reading model (1986) and Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) while also incorporating National Reading Panel (2000).

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Blast Scope and Sequence, each unit outlines the lesson progression that builds on letter-sound fluency and phonemic awareness, and ends with phonics instruction and practice of decoding and encoding.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, pg. xx Lesson Design, eight components are outlined that include a concept overview, a list of student and teacher materials, background knowledge for the teacher, an online lesson introduction that is teacher-led through Blast Online, teacher sidebar notes, student workbooks to practice skills, lessons that follow I Do, We Do, You Do and unit planner guidance with additional resources that include visuals, notes, and next steps for practice to master, small group, and independent practice. 

The effective lesson design structure includes both whole group and small group instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Guide, there is both whole group and small group instruction daily. For example:

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 13, Lesson 3, the planner states the whole group instruction is for 20-30 minutes, and small group instruction of Unit 13 decodable passage, “The Pet Bat,” should be 20-30 minutes daily. 

    • The Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 3 includes 20-30 minutes of whole-group explicit instruction and 10-20 minutes of small-group instruction focused on a cold read of a decodable passage and spelling words. 

    • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 25, Lesson 4 includes 20-30 minutes of whole group explicit instruction and 15-25 minutes of small group instruction focusing on a practice read of a decodable passage and spelling.

The pacing of each component of daily lesson plans is clear and appropriate. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 2, Lessons 1-5 structure includes:

    • 20 - 30 minutes daily for explicit instruction

    • 5 - 10 minutes of Practice to Mastery

    • 20 - 30 minutes of small group instruction 

    • 30 - 40 minutes weekly of independent practice

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 10, Lesson 5 includes 20-30 minutes of explicit instruction, five-10 minutes of whole group practice to mastery, 11-16 minutes of small group instruction, and 20 minutes of independent practice.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 21, Lesson 5 includes 20-30 minutes of explicit whole-group instruction, five-10 minutes of practice to mastery, 15-20 minutes of small-group instruction, and 20 minutes of independent practice. The Unit 21 Planner indicates specific times in bold print.

The suggested amount of time and expectations for maximum student understanding of all foundational skills content can reasonably be completed in one school year and should not require modifications. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The Countdown materials include 28 Units with five lessons in each unit equalling 140 lessons. An alternative scope and sequence provides an additional three beginning units, or 15 days, equalling 155 lessons. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Introduction, it states that in the first half of the units, Units 1-16, students work on building familiarity, and there are five days of lessons. Then, Units 17-28 contain explicit instruction with guided and independent practice built in. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Introduction, Countdown Activities Units 1-16 indicate that the first two books develop pre-decoding and decoding skills in 44 units. A table lists foundational skill strands and the first instructional lesson for the skill, which includes phonological awareness, encoding, and sight words.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Introduction, Shift in Focus, page iv indicates students begin to practice skills and provides a progression in Units 6-28 of phonics from decoding single-syllable to two-syllable words. 

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 foundational skills standards within one school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The materials include 140 days of instruction, with an option to add 15 additional lessons.

Indicator 2D
02/02

Materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessments and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

The materials provide an alignment document for formative and summative assessments and an extensive alignment document for all foundational skills tasks. The Reading Playground Countdown Formative Assessment Guide notes the foundational skills being assessed and the standards to which they are aligned. The Program Assessment Document for the Beginning, Middle, and End of the Year denotes each skill that is being assessed and the standards to which they are aligned. The Program Assessment notes routines and lessons and the standards to which they are aligned. 

Materials include denotations of the foundational skills standards being assessed in the formative assessments. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground Countdown Formative Assessment Guide Unit 1, Game 1 assesses standards RF.K.2 and RF.K.2.a. Students are assessed on beginning, middle, and end sounds.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground Countdown Formative Assessment Guide Unit 4, Game 2 assesses standard RF.K.2.d and RF.K.3. Students are assessed on blending sounds.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Formative Assessment, Countdown Formative Assessment Guide, Unit 23, Game 1 assesses vowel sounds, including short e vs. long e, and aligns to standards RF.K.3 and RF.K.3.b. 

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

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Program Assessments in the Countdown Reading Playground Unit 10 assesses standards RF.K.1.d, which is letter identification.

  • In the Countdown Online, Supply Room, Beginning, Middle, and End of Year Program Assessments, Summative Assessment Content and Standards Alignment, the materials indicate Game 9 assesses digraphs, which aligns with RF.K.3.a according to program documentation. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Beginning, Middle, and End assessments, Game 10, the summative assessment in phonics assesses short vowels, digraphs, and two-sound blends. There are five items, and the standard alignment is RF.K.3.

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

  • Materials include various alignment documentation for all tasks, questions, and assessment items. For example: 

    • The Program Assessments in the Countdown Reading Playground, the materials provide alignment to questions and tasks. In Unit 7, Lesson 2, Part 3, students practice blending sounds with the Mystery Bag routine. The document states it is aligned with standards RF.K.2 and RF.K.3.

    • The Countdown Formative Assessment Guide provides alignment information for Unit 23, Game 1. It states it assesses vowel sound short e vs. long e and aligns to standards  RF.K.3, RF.K.3.b.

Alignment documentation contains specific foundational skills standards correlated to specific lessons. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Closet, Countdown Benchmark Scores, Unit 4, Lesson 3, Lesson 1, and Lesson 2, materials include documentation that the lessons are aligned to standards RF.K.2, RF.K.2.d, RF.K.2.d, RF.K.3 RF.K.2, and RF.K.2.d.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Closet, Countdown Benchmark Scores, Unit 2, materials include documentation that the lesson is aligned to standards RF.K.2, RF.K.2.d, RF.K.2, RF.K.2a, RF.K.2, and RF.K.2.c.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Game Mapping for Countdown, Unit 5, materials include documentation that Game 7 is aligned with standards RF.K.2 and RF.K.2.d.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Game Mapping for Countdown, Unit 7, materials include documentation that Game 5 is aligned with standards RF.K.2 and RF.K.2.d.

Indicator 2E
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Materials contain strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the foundational skills program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.

The materials include resources to inform all stakeholders about foundational skills included in the program, including explanations of educational terminology used in the program. Resources include Home Connection letters, videos presented by a teacher, letters including pictures of activities, and a link to a website for additional support. The resources provide stakeholders with strategies and activities for practicing print concepts, phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and fluency at home.

Materials contain jargon-free resources and processes to inform all stakeholders about foundational skills taught at school. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Home Connection, there are Parent/Guardian letters. The first letter includes information about the program, including the different program components and their purpose. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Home Connection, there are links to the Introduction to Really Great Reading video explaining terms and additional program components for use in the home. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Home Connection, the Dear Parents, Guardians, and Special Caregivers letter provides information on the main components of the program, including instructional vocabulary, sounds in words, print concepts, and the alphabetic principle. 

Materials provide stakeholders with strategies and activities for practicing print concepts, phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and fluency that will support students in progress toward and achievement of grade-level foundational skills standards. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, CD Parent Letter, and Home Activities, there is information for families that includes descriptions of the skills that students will learn at school, such as instructional vocabulary, sounds in words (phonological and phonemic awareness), print concepts, and letters and their sounds (alphabetic principle). In addition, this resource includes Early Literacy Home Activities that families can use at home to support their children in literacy.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Home Connection, there are links for parents to use at home to support their children in literacy. Some links include using letter tiles for spelling, Heart Word magic, and a glossary of terms. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Home Connection, there is a letter to parents that has activities they can do at home, such as reading out loud to students or asking them questions. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Beginning Sound Isolation, there is a recommendation for parents to play I Spy and Sound Hunt with their students for beginning sound isolation activities.

Criterion 2.2: Student Supports

06/08

The program includes materials designed for each child’s regular and active participation in grade-level/grade-band/series content.

The materials provide support for multilingual learners through instructional videos, an alternative scope and sequence, crosslinguistic lessons, and recommendations and tips for using, accommodating, and delivering curriculum components. General statements regarding MLL learners and instructional strategies or supports can be found in the Unit Planners and the Introduction and Appendices of the Teacher Guides; however, resources are limited to Spanish-speaking students. There are missed opportunities for MLL resources in other languages. The materials provide opportunities for small group instruction daily in a 25-30 minute small group block. The materials provide guidance to the teacher for scaffolding and adapting lessons found in the Supply Room and in the Teacher Guides, with supports embedded within the lessons or in the margins. The Teacher Guide contains a Differentiation Option that includes information for scaffolding and adapting lessons to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level.

The materials include twenty-eight decodable passages, which are utilized throughout the units. Several characters are animals; however, there is more reference to male animals or characters than females. There are some non-discrepant animals that do not reference gender or use pronouns. With the exception of reference to male or female pronouns, references to characters’ gender, culture, ethnicity, linguistic background, or other distinct characteristics are absent. The materials include a Spanish Supports Scope and Sequence, which provides cross-linguistic referencing between English and Spanish. A Cross-linguistic Alphabet Letter Cards User Guide is also provided, which contains cognates that list shared and unshared graphemes and phonemes between English and Spanish; however, additional guidance on how to draw upon students’ home language other than Spanish is absent from the program. In addition, the materials do not include resources for students who speak a dialect different than Standard classroom English. It is important to note that the English Language Teacher Supports Guide states, “We will be periodically adding more languages throughout the school year.”

Indicator 2F
02/04

Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards to regularly participate in learning English language arts and literacy.

The materials provide support for multilingual learners through instructional videos, an alternative scope and sequence, crosslinguistic lessons, and recommendations and tips for using, accommodating, and delivering curriculum components. General statements regarding MLL learners and instructional strategies or supports can be found in the Unit Planners and the Introduction and Appendices of the Teacher Guides; however, resources are limited to Spanish-speaking students. There are missed opportunities for MLL resources in other languages.

Materials provide support, such as embedded language and content scaffolds, for multilingual learner (MLL) students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, EL Resources, Teacher Resources, there are instructional supports for teachers to use within the classroom. Some of these supports include a Countdown Spanish Supports Scope and Sequence, a resource called Leveraging the Reading Playgrounds for English Language Learners, and a Free EL Best Practices & RGR con Español Virtual Implementation Trainings (VITC).

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, EL Resources, Student Resources, there are several instructional resources for students, including an EL Strategies Anchor Chart in English, an EL Strategies Anchor Chart in Español, a Crosslinguistic Alphabet Cards User Guide, Crosslinguistic Alphabet Cards, and English Picture Vocabulary Cards.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, EL Resources, Spanish Articulation Videos, there are several instructional videos in Spanish on different consonant, vowel, and digraph sounds.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, EL Resources, there are Spanish Instructional Animations that provide sound stories in Spanish, short stories in Spanish, Short Vowel Movement videos, and long vowel movements in Spanish. 

General statements about multilingual learner (MLL) students or strategies are noted at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the teacher edition. Teacher guidance is also provided for implementation of MLL instruction throughout the lessons. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 3, Lesson 1, the teacher is prompted with the following supports: “Use phoneme /r/ articulation video and the Basic English Pictorial cards. Use phoneme /r/ articulation in Español video.”

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 4, Unit Planner, Resources for ELs provides an Articulation video for /d/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /w/, and Basic English Pictorial Vocabulary Cards and Reading Playground Unit 3 Visual Supports.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 14, Unit Planner, there is a section called Resources for ELs. The following resources are found in this section: 

    • Day 1 - /kw/ and /ks/ Articulation videos 

    • Day 2 - /y/ Articulation videos 

    • Day 3 - /kw/, /ks/, and /y/ Articulation videos 

    • Day 4 - /kw/, /ks/, and /y/ Articulation videos 

    • Day 5 -/kw/, /ks/, and /y/ Articulation videos 

Indicator 2G
04/04

Materials provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards that will support their regular and active participation in learning English language arts and literacy.

The materials provide opportunities for small group instruction daily in a 25-30 minute small group block. The materials provide guidance to the teacher for scaffolding and adapting lessons found in the Supply Room and in the Teacher Guides, with supports embedded within the lessons or in the margins. The Teacher Guide contains a Differentiation Option that includes information for scaffolding and adapting lessons to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level.

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

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 8, Unit Planner, the following guidance is found in the small group instruction area on the Unit Planner:

    • Day 1 - Additional high-frequency word practice as necessary using Heart Word Magic activities 

    • Day 2 - Use additional examples from the Teacher Guide and/or Countdown Additional Activities packet as needed (in the Supply Room)

    • Day 3 - Unit 8 decodable passage “Tom’s Cat” cold read, Unit 8 Spelling Words practice using the Spell It! Template

    • Day 4 - Additional practice with Unit 8 decodable passage, Unit 8 spelling words, additional multisensory practice 

    • Day 5 - Heart Word practice with Heart Word Magic templates, Unit 8 spelling words, additional multisensory practice

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 14, the following guidance is found in the small group instruction area on the Unit Planner: 

    • Day 1 - Additonal high-frequency word practice as necessary using Heart Word Magic activities

    • Day 2 - Use additional examples from the Teacher Guide with your small group

    • Day 3 - Unit 14 decodable passage “The Red Van” cold read, Unit 14 Spelling Words practice using the Spell It! Template

    • Day 4 - Unit 14 decodable passage “The Red Van” practice read, Unit 14 spelling words practice, Unit 14 challenge words practice using the Spell It! template

    • Day 5 - Unit 14 decodable passage “The Red Van” warm read, Unit 14 spelling words additional multisensory practice, additional practice with Unit 14 dictation phrases with color and letter tile support.

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

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 1, Unit 2, Lesson 3, in the “Differentiation Option” on page 15, the guidance states, “Isolate the beginning sound of each on the right side of the screen before asking students to determine the matching beginning sound: Point to each image and say /m/, match; /g/, goat.” 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 1, there is a differentiation option box that states that educators can simplify the learning by isolating the beginning sound of the given words before asking students to identify the first sound: say “/h/, hat.” It also states teachers can point to each of the three letter tile options and provide the sound for that letter or compare each to the first sound in the target word. 

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 3, Unit 18, Lesson 5, in the “Differentiation Option” on page 54, the guidance states, “If you want to have students Build a Word with letter tiles and color tiles prior to putting pencil to paper, it may increase their understanding of the spelling concept.”

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Differentiation Resources, there are resources that support students who read, write, speak, and listen below grade level. The following resources are available: 

    • Really Great Reading for Students with Dyslexia

    • Countdown for Students with Special Needs

    • Really Great Reading for English Language Learners

    • Phonics Suite Small Group Instruction

Indicator 2H
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Materials provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.

The materials include twenty-eight decodable passages, which are utilized throughout the units. Several characters are animals; however, there is more reference to male animals or characters than females. There are some non-discrepant animals that do not reference gender or use pronouns. With the exception of reference to male or female pronouns, references to characters’ gender, culture, ethnicity, linguistic background, or other distinct characteristics are absent. 

Decodable and connected texts depict individuals with different or varying cultures, genders, races, ethnicities, linguistic backgrounds, abilities, and other characteristics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown Decodable Passages, 28 decodable passages are provided. There are 22 references to male characters and three references to dads. There are six female characters and four references to moms. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown Decodable Passages, nine of the 28 decodable passages contain animal characters, including a hen, pig, dog, cat, and bat.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Countdown Decodable Passages, there is one picture of a girl with darker skin and curly hair. 

Decodable and connected texts balance positive portrayals of different or varying characteristics. Materials avoid stereotypes or language that might be offensive to a particular group. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The decodable texts avoid stereotypes or language that might be offensive to a particular group. Passages with images are mostly of objects related to the story or animals, and little depiction of various demographic and physical characteristics exists.

Indicator 2I
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Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning.

The materials include a Spanish Supports Scope and Sequence, which provides cross-linguistic referencing between English and Spanish. A Cross-linguistic Alphabet Letter Cards User Guide is also provided, which contains cognates that list shared and unshared graphemes and phonemes between English and Spanish; however, additional guidance on how to draw upon students’ home language other than Spanish is absent from the program. In addition, the materials do not include resources for students who speak a dialect different than Standard classroom English. It is important to note that the English Language Teacher Supports Guide states, “We will be periodically adding more languages throughout the school year.” 

Materials include a contrastive analysis document establishing cognates in more than one language (e.g., Spanish, French, Mandarin, German). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The program only includes a contrastive analysis document in Spanish. The resources in the program include:

    • A language reference column in each unit that highlights the differences and similarities between English and Spanish that are useful to be aware of when teaching emerging bilingual students. Shared traits between the two languages are emphasized through cross-linguistic referencing. 

    • The Cross-linguistic Alphabet Letter Cards User Guide explains shared letters and cognates and lists shared and unshared graphemes and phonemes between English and Spanish. 

Materials include a contrastive analysis document with a description of morphemes based in more than one language. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • No evidence was found.

Materials provide support for speakers of English language varieties. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • No evidence was found.

General statements about speakers of English language varieties 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. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • No evidence was found.

Criterion 2.3: Intentional Design

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The program includes a visual design that is engaging and references or integrates digital technology, when applicable, with guidance for teachers.

The materials integrate technology with interactive tools. Materials include presentation tools for daily lessons. Materials also include digital resources for students to review articulation and phoneme motions. Materials include a tool called the Letter-Sound Generator that can be customized to meet the needs of specific students. The materials also contain digital technology and interactive tools such as data collection tools, which can be found online through the Supply Room, Grouping Matrix, and Reading Playground. Students can use interactive resources on the Reading Playground or through daily lessons presented by the teacher. The materials contain clear and consistent formats that do not distract focus from the intended objective or concept. The predictable layout of teacher materials occurs within lessons and across each unit. Each book contains an overview, scope and sequence, unit planners, and appendices. The organization of each unit and lesson supports student understanding of topics, text, and/or concepts. The teacher presentation slides are colorful and relay information supporting students’ skill practice. The materials include a Supply Room with teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology.

Indicator 2J
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Materials integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.

The materials integrate technology with interactive tools. Materials include presentation tools for daily lessons. Materials also include digital resources for students to review articulation and phoneme motions. Materials include a tool called the Letter-Sound Generator that can be customized to meet the needs of specific students. The materials also contain digital technology and interactive tools such as data collection tools, which can be found online through the Supply Room, Grouping Matrix, and Reading Playground. Students can use interactive resources on the Reading Playground or through daily lessons presented by the teacher. 

  

Digital technology and interactive tools, such as data collection tools, simulations, and/or modeling tools are available to students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, the Grouping Matrix is a student data management system that groups students according to the type and depth of their decoding strengths and weaknesses.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Assessments and Grouping, the ePanels resource allows the teacher to choose the grade for the assessment. The teacher chooses the assessment to administer and the form that the teacher will use. This resource displays each part of the assessment digitally instead of printing a student copy of the assessment. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Interactive Resources, Letter-Tile Freeplay allows the user to use computerized tiles with letters, consonant blends, prefixes, suffixes, and chunks to build words.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Interactive Resources, the Sound-Spelling resource has a basic vowel valley, basic consonant canyon, advanced vowel valley, and advanced consonant canyon. This resource displays sound spelling cards that represent a phoneme. When the teacher clicks on the card, an articulation picture is displayed with a mouth articulating how to pronounce the sound and sound-spelling examples. 

Digital tools support student engagement in foundational skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Videos, there are videos for all of the long and short vowels. The videos are under one minute and emphasize the phonemes, the movement of the sound, and instructional resources for determining whether the vowel is short or long. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, the Sound Story Videos provide students with video support to further solidify letter sound knowledge. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Interactive Resources, Letter Tile Freeplay includes digital technology that allows students to engage in foundational skills and phonics concepts. Students can build words each week that align with the phonics skill or make Heart Words and build words with previously learned skills. 

  • In Countdown Online, the Reading Playground resource contains interactive games for the students to play. The games provide students with instructions on how to play. When the students are playing the games, they are told if they have made errors, provided with modeling, and allowed to try again.

Digital materials can be customized for local use (i.e., student and/or community interests). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Reading Playground, in the diagnostic and assessment programs, teachers can input their students’ names in the assessments and administer assessments to students to ascertain their reading level and mastery of skills.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Resources, Interactive Resources, the Letter-Sound Generator allows teachers to choose which three-letter sounds to practice and teach. 

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Resources, Interactive Resources, the Heart Word Generator includes digital technology that allows teachers to customize the Heart Words students are learning. Teachers can customize by choosing five-10 words that specific students are working on and use the customized lesson with specific groups of students.

Indicator 2K
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The visual design (whether in print or digital) is not distracting or chaotic, but supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject.

The materials contain clear and consistent formats that do not distract focus from the intended objective or concept. The predictable layout of teacher materials occurs within lessons and across each unit. Each book contains an overview, scope and sequence, unit planners, and appendices. The organization of each unit and lesson supports student understanding of topics, text, and/or concepts. The teacher presentation slides are colorful and relay information supporting students’ skill practice. 

Images, graphics, and models support student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. Images, graphics, and models clearly communicate information or support student understanding of topics, texts, or concepts. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Countdown Online, Teacher Presentation Tool, Unit 2, Lesson 2, Part 1, at the top of the page, there is a picture of a monkey on one side of a t-chart and a picture of a hammer on the other. Pictures appear at the bottom of the screen to sort by beginning sound and include monster, mittens, house, horse.

  • In Countdown Online, Reading Playground, Unit 4, Game 9 Touch the Beginning Sound, three colorful images are shown. Students click a speaker and click on the picture with the same beginning sound. 

  • In Countdown Online, Unit 8, Lesson 2, Part 1, there are pictures representing words for students to practice stretching the sounds to identify the first sound in words that name each picture. Examples include rat, pan, sheep. 

Teacher and student materials are consistent in layout and structure across lessons/modules/units. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Student Workbook, each page has consistent fonts, pictures, and unit information.

  • In the Countdown Student Workbook, each page contains a heading with the activity purpose, the activity title, and the corresponding unit number.

  • In Countdown Online, each unit is clearly labeled with five lessons and three parts per lesson. A drop-down menu navigates the user between units. 

Organizational features (Table of Contents, glossary, index, internal references, table headers, captions, etc.) in the materials are clear, accurate, and error-free. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, each unit, lesson, and activity are labeled at the top of each page.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Books 1-3 contain a scope and sequence that is color-coded to align with the strands around which Countdown is built.

  • In the Countdown Teacher Guide, Book 2, weekly lesson formats are clearly labeled with headings, and a lesson design graphic is numbered to show the location of each detail. 

Indicator 2L
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Materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.

The materials include a Supply Room with teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology. The digital technology provides opportunities for the teacher and students to collaborate through various instructional videos, animations, and other guiding resources. The resources ensure that both teacher and student participate and engage in the instructional learning and tasks.

Teacher guidance is provided for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Instructional Resources, Letter Tile Freeplay, guidance for use of the interactive tool is included. The guidance provides teachers with the ability to choose to control this tool with touch, trackpad, or a mouse. The user can build words with letter tiles and digraphs. There are options to mark on the tiles and change the vowel color.  

  • In Countdown Online, Supply Room, Reading Playground, Whole Class Activities, Reading Playgrounds Build a Word Online, guidance for the use of this resource includes the steps for the teacher to start a live Build a Word Online (BAWO) activity session with the class in the Reading Playground. The teacher will model how to build a word with interactive letter tiles, and then the students participate with the teacher to build a word with the tiles online.