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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Saxon Phonics & Spelling | ELA
Kindergarten
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
1st Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
2nd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Materials must meet or partially meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.
Usability (Gateway 2)
Report for Kindergarten
Alignment Summary
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials do not meet the expectations for alignment to standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction. Materials contain a defined sequence and explicit instruction for all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters; however there are limited opportunities for students to practice letter identification and print concepts. Materials contain inconsistent explicit instruction of phonics skills and limited modeling of decoding and encoding of phonetically regular words. Materials contain some student opportunities to read decodable words, and there are no opportunities for students to encode words in writing tasks. Materials contain limited explicit instruction in high-frequency words and word analysis skills. The materials utilize memorization of high-frequency words. Materials contain limited opportunities for students to write high-frequency words. Materials provide some decoding opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy.
Kindergarten
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Usability (Gateway 2)
Overview of Gateway 1
Alignment to Standards and Research-Based Practices for Foundational Skills Instruction
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials do not meet the expectations for alignment to standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction. The materials contain a defined sequence and explicit instruction for all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters; however there are limited opportunities for students to practice letter identification and print concepts. The materials have inconsistent explicit instruction of phonics skills and limited modeling of decoding and encoding of phonetically regular words. There are some opportunities to read decodable words. There are limited opportunities to read phonetically spelled words in sentences, and there are no opportunities for students to encode words in writing tasks. The materials provide limited explicit instruction in high-frequency words and word analysis skills. The materials utilize memorization of high-frequency words. There are limited opportunities for students to write high-frequency words. The materials provide some decoding opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy when students read Decodable Readers or participate in the Daily Letter and Sound Review section of the lessons.
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge)
The Kindergarten Saxon materials have explicit instruction of letter identification and some print concepts, however, the materials have limited student practice opportunities, and there is no meaningful application of letter identification and print concepts. The letter formation materials are optional. The materials do not contain explicit instruction of all phonological and phonemic awareness standards. There are multimodal/multi-sensory practice opportunities for students to practice phonological and phonemic awareness.
Indicator 1A
Indicator 1A.i
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1a.i. (K)
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials contain isolated, systematic, and explicit instruction for all 26 upper and lowercase letters. The letter instruction is completed in 104 daily lessons. The instructional routine for recognizing and naming upper- and lowercase letters is consistent throughout the program and occurs on the first day of the four-day lesson sequence. There is a defined sequence for letter identification of all 26 letters. The sequence introduces visually similar letters separately.
Materials contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase).
Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 1, New Increment: The Letter L, the teacher says /l/, and students echo the teacher. The teacher points to the Alphabet Wall Cards. The teacher states, “Every letter has two forms: capital and lowercase. This is a lowercase letter l.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 13, New Increment: The Letter H, the teacher says /h/. The teacher writes a lowercase h on the board and tells students the letter is lowercase h. After students skywrite the lowercase h, the teacher writes H on the board and has students skywrite the letter.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, New Increment: The Letter A, the teacher says short /a/ and writes lowercase on the board. The teacher informs students that the letter is the lowercase a. Students skywrite the lowercase a. The teacher writes A on the board and has students skywrite the letter.
There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Scope and Sequence shows that in Lessons 1-104 students will have the opportunity to recognize and name letters (Ll, Oo, Gg, Hh, Tt, Pp, Aa, Nn, Mm, Ii, Ss, Ff, Rr, Kk, Bb, Uu, Zz, Cc, Ee, Yy, Dd, Vv, Jj, Xx, Ww, Qq) by uppercase and lowercase.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, the Scope and Sequence begins with the letter L in Lesson 1, moving through all letters and ending with letter Q in Lessons 101-104.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Scope and Sequence, visually similar letters are separated. The letter Pp is taught in Lessons 21-24, Bb in Lessons 56-59, Dd in Lessons 81-84, and Qq/Qu combo in Lessons 101-104.
Indicator 1A.ii
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1a.ii (K).
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide students with opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 upper- and lowercase letters. Opportunities to identify lowercase letters are more frequent than identifying uppercase letters. The lessons’ Daily Letter and Sound Review section is limited to lowercase letters through the Letter Deck and Picture Deck.
Materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 lowercase letters and limited opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 uppercase letters.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 9, the Letter G, Warm-Up Alphabet Activity, students use their Alphabet Handwriting Strip and point to each letter as they say the alphabet. During Daily Letter and Sound Review, they review the two learned letters Ll and Oo by naming the letter and providing a keyword and sound; they locate the upper and lowercase letter tiles.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 13, The Letter H, the teacher says, “Look at the letters in the box. Do you see any h’s?” “Circle all of the h’s in the box.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 70, Application and Continual Review, students use Worksheet 70 to match upper- and lowercase letters.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in practice locating all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 32, the Letter N, students use Worksheet 32 and first circle all of the uppercase letter Ns and then the lowercase letter n.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lessons 53-140 has students engaging in practice to identify the letter of the day (K, B, U, Z, C, E, Y, D, V, J, X, W, Q). Students circle the letters or match them as part of homework pages.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 93, School/Home Reinforcement, the students bring home Worksheet 93 and circle all the letter x on the worksheet.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in naming all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 13, The Letter H, New Deck Cards for H, the teacher shows the letter card, and the students name the lowercase letter h. Previously in the lesson, the teacher wrote capital H on the board.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 28, Lesson Warm-Up, Alphabet Activity, page 1, students use their Alphabet Handwriting Strip and point to each letter as they say the alphabet.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 70, Lesson Warm-Up, Alphabet Activity, students recite the alphabet together and then, as a group, arrange letter cards in alphabetical order. The teacher touches each letter card as they say the alphabet together.
Indicator 1A.iii
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the criteria for 1a.iii. (K)
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide worksheets, letter cards, a handwriting alphabet strip, and letter tile activities for letter identification. In the whole group lessons, letter identification and letter naming to meaningful print are not evident.
Materials do not contain tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 uppercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Scope and Sequence, Environmental Print is listed under Print Awareness in Lesson 39. In the lesson on page 4, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher Introduces the following print concepts that may be unfamiliar to children: the pronoun I (found in all level readers), environmental print (found in all level readers), and rebuses (found in the Level A and Level B readers).
Materials do not contain tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 lowercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, materials prompt teachers to introduce environmental print as an unfamiliar concept to students before reading Fluency Reader 2 (Level B). The lesson does not elaborate on the connection between the fluency reader and environmental print.
Indicator 1A.iv
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1a.iv. (K-1)
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials include directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model the correct formation of each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). While there is guidance informing the teacher how to explain and model forming each letter, it is not mandatory that the teacher use it as it is just a suggestion of a method to follow. When students practice skywriting letter formation, students do not verbalize the formation directions. When students practice writing letters, they write on blank paper, which does not include the letter-writing mascots per the guidance line. The Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Resources for Differentiation, provides a list of multisensory methods for students to practice letter formation.
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).
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Handwriting Instruction, provides an Overview of handwriting instruction which states that some handwriting masters feature mascots. This technique assists students in orienting their pencils on their papers as they form each letter. The first mascot, Max the Bear, indicates where students should place their fingers or pencils to begin forming letters. There are two more mascots, Leo the Lion and Wriley the Raccoon, which show the second and third steps in letter formation.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 17, The Letter T, it states for the teacher to “Write a lowercase t on the board in the handwriting you want children to learn. (Specific handwriting strokes are described in the Handwriting Instruction booklet, should you choose to follow that method of handwriting instruction).”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, New Increment: The Letter A, the teacher writes a lowercase a on the board using the talk throughs from the Handwriting Instruction booklet. Students skywrite the letter a before they practice writing it on paper. This process repeats for uppercase A.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 61, New Increment: The Letter U, teachers are directed to the Handwriting Instruction booklet for specific letter formation.
Materials include opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 29, New Increment: The Letter N, students skywrite the letter n then practice writing the letter n on an extra sheet of paper.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 50, Spelling Sound Review, students echo 12 sounds they have learned, name the 12 letters, and write the corresponding letters on Worksheet 50.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 78, Application and Continual Review, the teacher can use Handwriting Master 59 for students to practice forming the letter y.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Resource, Volume 1, Lessons 1-50, The New Increment section of the lesson, students practice writing the uppercase and lowercase of Ll, Oo, Gg, Hh, Tt, Pp, Aa, Nn, Mm, Ii, Ss, Ff, Rr.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Resource, Volume 1, Lessons 53-104, The New Increment, students practice writing the uppercase and lowercase of Kk, Bb, Uu, Zz, Cc, Ee, Yy, Dd, Vv, Jj, Xx, Ww, Qq.
Materials include some opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multisensory methods.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 6, The Letter O, there is teacher guidance, “Point to the Oo Wall Card. Move children to an area where they can lie down but still see the Alphabet Wall Cards. This is a lowercase letter o. O is the letter used to spell the /ŏ/ sound. Can you make your body look like a lowercase o?”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 14, Options for Differentiation, the teacher writes Hh on the board. The teacher leads the students in skywriting the letters. Students trace over the letters with dry erase markers and write the letters on their own. Students practice the letters with a paintbrush as they “erase” them by tracing over them with their paintbrushes.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 45, New Increment, students skywrite the letter F.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Resources for Differentiation, Supporting Struggling Readers, provides a list of multisensory methods for students to practice letter formation. The list includes Sensory Tracing using squish bags and sandpaper letters, Constructing Letters using playdough and kinetic sand, and Tray-cing using paint brushes and trays with glitter, sand, or salt.
Indicator 1B
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1b. (K-early Grade 1).
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide some instruction about the organization of most print concepts. The teacher models print concepts, including tracking print through sentences, Decodable Readers, and Fluency Readers. However, the Fluency Readers are optional. Students do not have the opportunity to review all print concepts. Students have the opportunity to review tracking and words corresponding to sequences of letters; however, students have only limited opportunities to learn about and review spacing. Students have the opportunity to review letter identification during the Daily Letter and Sound Review.
Materials include some explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing).
Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson Warm-Up, the teacher uses the Alphabet Handwriting Strip to introduce reading from left to right.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Decodable Reader Print Awareness, the teacher uses Decodable Reader 1 to show students identifying the page they are on: “You can tell that this is the first page because it has the number 1 at the bottom of the page. Each page has a number. Point to the numbers as we turn the pages. Read the numbers aloud with me.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 74, Decodable Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher writes this sentence on the board: “Ben’s pals tell him. ‘Ben is the best!’”. The teacher tracks the print, and the class reads the sentence aloud.
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 12, Application and Continual review, students use their letter tiles to make the word log. The teacher says the word and counts the sounds. The teacher says the first sound /l/, and students echo the sound and move the l letter tile to a new row. The process is repeated with the o and g to spell log.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 59, Spelling Sound Review, the teacher writes the word bat on the board and asks students to say the sounds they hear in the word bat. Next, the teacher says the word bag and asks students for the first sound in the word bag. The teacher writes the letter b on the board and continues the process with the letters a and g.
Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, Decodable Reader: Print Awareness, students say the number of words in the title of Decodable Reader 2. Students tell how they know the number of words, and the teacher then tells them that spaces separate words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Decodable Reader Print Awareness, the teacher uses Decodable Reader 1 to show students spaces between words: “This is the title without spaces between the words. Are they easier to read with spaces or without spaces between them?”
Materials include some lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, uses Fluency Reader 2 to have students practice following words from left to right and top to bottom. According to the lesson, this practice is optional.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 59, Decodable Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher writes three sentences on the board, and the lesson directs the teacher to track the print as the teacher reads the sentences to the students.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 35, Decodable Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher uses Decodable Reader 2 to ask students to determine the number of words they see on the page and the number of spaces between the words. The lesson directs teachers to ask students to point to the spaces between words.
Materials include some physical books (teacher-guided, such as big books) that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Instructional Overview, materials indicate students receive 16 Decodable Readers during the year. There are leveled optional Fluency Readers (16 at each level) included with the materials.
Materials include some explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing) in the context of a book.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, provides explicit lessons on identifying the book’s title, the direction for holding a book, and spacing. The teacher asks, “How many words are in this title? How can you tell?” The teacher writes the title without spaces and states, “This is the title without spaces between the words. Are they easier to read with spaces or without spaces between them? Correct! It is easier to read words that have spaces between them. This is why all printed words are separated with spaces.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 31, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher uses Fluency Reader 1 to narrate and model tracking from left to right. According to this lesson, this practice is optional.
Materials include some opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Instructional Overview, Table of Contents, materials list Decodable Readers and Fluency Readers as the texts students will use. However, Fluency Readers are optional.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, students can use decodable readers for print concepts every other week. For example, each decodable lesson requires students to identify the title, page numbers, meaning of periods, and any other punctuation.
Materials contain some periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 30, The Letter Nn, Lesson Warm-up, the teacher reviews the alphabet with letter identification as they point to each letter as they say the name.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, Daily Letter and Sound Review, materials instruct the teacher to review the Letter, Picture, and Sight Word Decks.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 72, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, the teacher writes a sentence on the board, models reading the sentence aloud, and asks students to read the sentence aloud. While students are reading, the teacher tracks the print.
Materials include students’ practice of some previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 5, Application and Continual Review and optional Handwriting Master 23 are for students to practice forming the uppercase and lowercase Oo.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 24, Daily Letter and Sound Review, the teacher uses Letter Cards 1-6 to ask students to name each letter.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 62, Spelling Sound Review, materials instruct the teacher to use Worksheet 62 for students to review letter sounds and letter formation. The teacher says a sound, students echo the sound, name the letter, and write the corresponding letter using Worksheet 62.
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonological awareness.
The Kindergarten Saxon materials provide various multimodal/multi-sensory activities for students to practice phonological and phonemic awareness, however, the materials do not include explicit instruction of all Kindergarten phonological and phonemic awareness standards.
Indicator 1C
Materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities during Kindergarten and early Grade 1.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for 1c.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials include various activities for phonological awareness with assorted ways for students to respond, including a verbal yes/no, providing a word, clapping, raising a hand, standing and sitting, holding up fingers, tally marks, and rolling a ball. Daily phonological/phonemic awareness activities during the Warm Up are listed for each of the 140 lessons in the scope and sequence. Some lessons identified as Phonological/Phonemic Awareness are connected to print, such as students using their letter tiles during this time. The materials do not provide time allocations for the Phonological/Phonemic Awareness section of each lesson.
Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 6, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the teacher provides students with two words and asks students to stand if the words rhyme.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 19, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher reviews compound words, gives the compound word to students, and asks them to omit the last part of each word for the following words: toothache, fingernail, dugout, baseball, treetop, raincoat.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 35, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher provides students with a word and asks students to echo the word. Students use their fingers to show the number of phonemes in the word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 51, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the teacher provides students with a word, asks students to echo the word, and then asks students to jump each time they hear a syllable.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 60, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher divides the class into three teams: Beginning, Middle, and End. Each team sits in a different area of the room. The teacher says words, and teams stand up if they hear their team's position. They practice the activity with the word rub. The teacher asks the beginning team if they hear /b/ in rub at the beginning of the word, and this is repeated for the middle-of-the-word and end-of-the-word groups. The End Team responds “yes” and stands up. There are nine other words with /b/ in various places in the activity, including bell, about, and lab.
There are frequent opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Scope and Sequence, beginning on page 2, students practice phonological awareness daily through each lesson’s Phonemic/Phonological Awareness section.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Lesson 30, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher reviews compound words by saying two-syllable and three-syllable words. Students echo the words, clap the syllables, and identify how many parts/syllables.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 28, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, students practice saying the sound they hear at the end of the words bat, rug, sit, mill, fall, nap, map.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 51, students count syllables.
Indicator 1D
Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1d.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials do not consistently provide the teacher with systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in each phonological awareness standard. There is evidence that the teacher explicitly models pronouncing and blending syllables; however, there is no evidence that the teacher explicitly models segmenting syllables. There is no evidence that the teacher explicitly models blending and segmenting onsets and rimes. There is no evidence that the teacher explicitly models isolating and pronouncing the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three-phoneme words. There is no evidence that the teacher explicitly models adding or substituting individual phonemes in simple, one-syllable words. While there are examples for the teacher in the daily phonological awareness activities, sometimes there is only one example broken down for teachers on how to implement that activity. Some phonological awareness lessons include printed letter tiles, which is not phonological awareness.
Materials provide the teacher with some systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words.
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 5, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher informs students that rhyming words end with the same sound. The teacher provides students with sample words such as bat, cat, sat, and mat.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 12, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1 and 2, the lesson objective is to recognize rhyming words; to recognize words with the same rime. The teacher says two words. If the words rhyme, the students stand up. If they do not rhyme, they sit down. The students practice with best/pest and red/flip. The activity continues with four other pairs of words, slip/flip plop/slop bring/frog still/stand.
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 40, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1-2, the lesson objective is to practice blending two-syllable words. The teacher says two word parts separately (tea cher) and then blends them into a word (teacher). The students tell what word the teacher blended. The activity continues with the students, in the same way, using six two-syllable words,
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 59, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1- 2, the lesson objective is to separate words in compound words. The teacher tells students that a compound word is two words that come together to form one new word. The teacher encourages students to say the definition with them. The teacher says a compound word, and students clap the syllables and hold up fingers to show how many syllables. The teacher claps with students for the word houseboat. The activity continues with six other compound words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 32, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the teacher uses their fists to model blending two syllables to form one word. The teacher models and blends syllables for the word paper.
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
No evidence was found.
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 18, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the lesson objective is to identify, isolate, and pronounce the initial sound in words. The teacher says a word and then rolls the ball to a student. The teacher tells the student that they will tell the beginning sound in the word after they catch the ball. The teacher demonstrates using the word lid.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 41, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1-2, the lesson objective is to isolate and pronounce the final sound in words. The teacher tells students that a word will be said. If students can tell the sound they hear at the end of the word, they will stand up. The teacher says the word rub and asks a volunteer what the sound is at the end of rub. After /b/ is given, the students sit down, and the activity is repeated with six other words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 89, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the lesson objective is to isolate and pronounce the medial sounds in words. The teacher has students echo the word cup and asks what sound they hear in the middle of the word.
Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, there are only two lessons for adding phonemes in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. In Lesson 115, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1-2, the lesson objective is to manipulate sounds in words. The teacher makes the long /e/ sound and asks students to add /sh/ to the beginning to make a whole word. The teacher repeats this for five more words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volumes 1 and 2, there are only three lessons for substituting phonemes in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. In Volume 2, Lesson 131, page 2, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the lesson objective is to substitute individual sounds in words to make new words. Students echo the word mad. The teacher tells them to say mad but to change the /m/ to /s/. This is repeated for nine other words where the initial sound is substituted.
Materials provide the teacher with some examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade level standards.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 30, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher reviews that a compound word is two words that come together to form one new word. Students say the definition with the teacher. The teacher gives an example of the compound word doghouse and tells students that each word became part of the new word. The teacher and students clap the new word and identify how many parts there are. Next, the teacher explains that other words that are not compound words have parts. The teacher uses the word teacher as an example. The parts are clapped together, and the teacher tells the students that each part is called a syllable. Students repeat the word syllable. The teacher states that, “Words are made up of parts called syllables. If the word has two parts, it has two syllables.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 31, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher models word parts called syllables. The teacher models clapping as students echo the word. The teacher models with the word recess (re cess) and asks the students how many syllables are there in the word. The teacher continues this activity with students on the words candy, circus, friend, hopscotch, carnival, bicycle, vacation, hamburger, and kindergarten.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 51, page 2, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher has students jump to the syllables of the word. The example is for the word label (la bl), and the teacher asks students, “How many times did you jump?” The example shows the teacher that the answer is two.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 84, page 1- 2, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher says words, and students must identify the /d/ sound in the spoken words. The words for the teacher are door, hello, mister, window, kitten, dog, and flip dishrag. The messages on the left border of the Teacher’s Manual remind the teacher to have the students say the word ding-dong, to stress the /d/ sound.
Indicator 1E
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1e.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide some, but not ample, opportunities for practice with rhyming words, counting, blending, pronouncing, and segmenting syllables into spoken words, and isolating initial, medial, and final sounds in CVC words. There is a phonological awareness practice opportunity in each daily whole-class lesson; however, the time spent on practice and review is limited, often working with six to nine words. There is minimal practice for blending and segmenting onsets and rimes of words, and there are limited opportunities for adding phonemes in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. The materials have multimodal/multisensory activities for student phonological awareness practice, including oral responses, raising hands, thumbs up/thumbs down, standing and squatting, clapping, rolling a ball, and echoing.
Materials provide some opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern.
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 6, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the students stand up if they can say a word that rhymes with the one they stated. The teacher repeats the process for students with the words man/fan, rock/tick, pop/mop, fit/pat.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 12, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, students stand up if they can say a word that rhymes with the one they stated: best/pest and flip/red. The teacher repeats the process for students with the words slip/flip, bring/frog, plop/slop, still/stand.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 36, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, students produce words that rhyme. Words are rim, mat, hot, pan, flip, lap, chip.
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 31, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, students echo, clap, pronounce, and count syllables for words. The words are candy, hopscotch, vacation, circus, carnival, hamburger, friend, bicycle, kindergarten.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 32, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, students say parts of a word then blend them. The words are window, yellow, fourteen, twenty, winter, market.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 51, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, students echo, pronounce, and segment syllables in words. The words are gum, nineteen, five, purple, puppet, orange, six, hungry, student.
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 97, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, students add a rime to an onset. Students blend onsets and rimes to form wax, wind, wad, wade, waltz, warm, wet, wall, wood.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 109, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the teacher asks students to echo a word, omit the initial sound (onset), then say the remaining part of the word (rime). The words are beach, cat, mitt, call, ditch, fad, cow, box, march, door, fin, pin.
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 18, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher asks individual students to say the sound they hear at the beginning of a word by rolling a ball to students. The teacher poses the words gum, hat, log, ten, list, ox, game, ostrich, hen, hair, top, tale. The words list, ox, and ostrich do not align with standard RF.K.2d.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 28, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the teacher says a word and asks students to say the final sound in the word. The teacher poses the words bat, rug, mill, nap, sit, fall, map.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 89, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 1, the teacher asks students to echo words and say the medial vowel sound they hear in words. The teacher poses the words pat, rob, fly, shin, sub, ant, play, nap, got. The words fly and play do not align with standard RF.K.2d.
Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 115, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1-2, the students add /sh/ to the beginning of the long /e/ to make a whole word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 131, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the students echo a word and substitute the initial sound to make a new word. Students substitute /s/ for /f/ in fit, /m/ for /t/ in tan, /b/ for /h/ in hat, /m/ for /k/ in kiss, /r/ for /p/ in pat, /c/ for /l/ in lab, /j/ for /w/ in wiggle, /m/ for /k/ in kitten, and /c/ for /b/ in base. The word wiggle and kitten do not align with RF.K.2e.
Materials include a variety of multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher tells students to stand up if they can say a word that rhymes with the one they give. The teacher repeats the process with the words sip, pig, tot, fan, log, gag, pin, pal, hat.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 31, Lesson Warm-up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, students clap and echo the words they hear to break word parts into syllables. They practice with the words recess, kid, candy, circus, friend, hopscotch, carnival, bicycle, vacation, hamburger, kindergarten.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 60, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, page 2, the class is divided into three teams: Beginning, Middle, End. The teacher says a word with /b/ in it. If the team hears that sound in their position, they stand up. They practice with the word rub and repeat with nine other words containing /b/.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 85, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1- 2, students stand for the first syllable in a spoken word, squat for the second syllable, and stand again if the word has a third syllable.
Criterion 1.3: Phonics
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.
The Kindergarten Saxon materials provide inconsistent explicit instruction of phonics skills. There is limited modeling of decoding and encoding of phonetically regular words. There are some opportunities to read decodable words, and there are limited opportunities for students to read phonetically spelled words in sentences. There are no opportunities for students to encode words in writing tasks.
Indicator 1F
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1f.
In the Saxon Phonics and Spelling K lessons, some, but not all lessons, contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. Several lessons have the teacher model an example, then students practice with a few words/sounds and move to worksheet practice. Many lessons do not have repeated teacher modeling over time. Some lessons ask the students to figure out the letter-sound patterns rather than the teacher explicitly teaching the letter-sound patterns.
Materials contain some explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards.
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 9, New Increment: The Letter G, pages 3-4, the teacher says the sound /g/, and students echo. The teacher makes sure students give the short, crisp sound of /g/ and do not add a short /u/, as in /gŭh/. The teacher tells the students, “/g/ is one of the sounds the letter g makes.” Students write both the uppercase and lowercase Gg and name the letter each time they write it. Letter Card 3 (g) is added to the deck. The teacher introduces Picture Card 3 (g, goat). The teacher says, “When you see this card, say ‘goat, /g/.’” “The keyword ‘goat’ helps us remember the /g/ sound because it begins with /g/.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 21, New Increment: The Letter P, pages 3-4, the teacher says the sound /p/, and students echo. The teacher makes sure students give the short, crisp sound of /p/ and do not add a short /u/, as in /pŭh/. The teacher tells the students, “/p/ is the sound the letter p makes.” Students skywrite both the uppercase and lowercase Pp and name the letter each time they skywrite it. Letter Card 6 (p) is added to the deck. The teacher introduces Picture Card 6 (p, pig). The teacher says, “When you see this card, say ‘pig, /p/.’ The keyword ‘pig’ helps us remember the /p/ sound because it begins with /p/.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 29, New Deck Cards for N, page 3, the teacher uses Picture Card 8 to show the grapheme n and say /n/. The teacher uses Spelling Card 8 to ask students to echo /n/, asks students what letter represents the /n/ sound, and writes the letter on line one of Worksheet 29.
Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, pages 2-3, New Increment: The Letter A, the teacher says the short /a/ and has students echo. The teacher says, “/ă/ is the short sound of the vowel ‘a.’” Students skywrite both the uppercase and lowercase Aa and name the letter each time they skywrite it. Letter Card 7 (a) is added to the deck, and the teacher asks students if it is a vowel or consonant. The teacher introduces Picture Card 7 (a, apple). The teacher says, “When you see this card, say ‘apple, /ă/.’ The keyword ‘apple’ helps us remember the /ă/ sound because it begins with /ă/. The ‘a’ on this card has a breve on it to help us remember that /ă/ is the short sound of ‘a.’”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 112, pages 1-2, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the lesson objective is to identify vowel sounds. The teacher divides the class into five groups, and each group has a different vowel tile. The teacher tells students, “Look at your group’s vowel tile. Each vowel has at least two sounds, a short sound and a long sound. Remember, the long sound of a vowel is simply the vowel’s name.” Each group of students tells their vowel’s short and long sounds. If a group hears their vowel sound, they hold up their Letter Tile and say that sound. The class practices with the word sun. The activity continues with tap, fit, mop, net, tape, weed, most, hive, cube.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 127, New Increment, page 2, the teacher says the words strike, mine, and kite and asks students for the sound in the middle position of the words. Next, the teacher writes the words on the board and asks students for the letter that represents the long /i/ sound. The teacher asks students to look for a Sneaky E. Then, the teacher reminds students that a Sneaky E is responsible for the long vowel sound.
Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 83, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, the teacher writes the words did and dig on the board and asks students how the words are similar and different. The teacher circles the letters d and i. The teacher asks students to identify each word’s final letter and sound. The teacher asks students if the final sound is the same. Finally, the teacher repeats the initial question by asking students how the words did and dig are similar and different.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 138, Lesson Warm-Up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, pages 1-2, the teacher writes the word ham on the board. Students read the word. The m is erased and replaced with t. Students read the new word. The teacher continues to change the final letter to d (had) and g (hag). The initial h is continually changed with consonants (t, b, l, w, r, g, j, n, s) and blends (br, dr, st, fl, sn, cr).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 139, pages 1-2, Lesson Warm-Up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher writes word fit on the board. Students read the word. The f is erased and replaced with an l. Students read the new word. The teacher changes the initial letter with consonants (b, k, h, n, p) and consonant blends (sl, sp, spl). The teacher changes the initial letter s for the word sit. Using sit, the procedure is repeated, changing the final sound (ll, p, s, x, ft, ly, ck, lk).
Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 45, New Increment: The Letter F, pages 2-3, students echo /f/. The teacher makes sure students give the short, crisp sound of /f/ and do not add a short /u/ sound, as in /fŭh/. The teacher tells students that is the sound that the letter f makes. The teacher writes a lowercase f on the board. Students skywrite f a few times and then write on paper. As they write, students name the letter each time it is written. The writing process is repeated with F. The teacher introduces Letter Card 12, f. Students say that f is a consonant. Picture Card 12 shows that the keyword fish is paired with the sound /f/and letter name. During the Application and Continual Review portion of the lesson on page 4, students use Worksheet 45 to locate and circle all lowercase fs.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 85, New Increment: The Letter V, pages 2-4, students echo /v/. The teacher ensures the students give the short, crisp sound of /v/ and do not add a short /u/ sound, as in /vŭh/. The teacher tells students that is the sound that the letter v makes. The teacher writes a lowercase v on the board. Students skywrite v a few times and then write on paper. As they write, students name the letter each time it is written. The writing process is repeated with V. The teacher introduces Letter Card 22, v. Students say that v is a consonant. Picture Card 21 shows that the keyword vest is paired with the sound /v/ and its letter name. During the Application and Continual Review portion of the lesson on pages 3 and 4, students use Worksheet 85 to locate and circle the lowercase vs.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 109, New Increment, page 2, the teacher says sick, luck, and stack. The teacher asks students to say the sound in the final position of the words. Next, the teacher writes the three words on the board and asks students what letters represent the /k/ sound. The teacher underlines the digraph in each word. Later, in the New Deck Cards for Digraph ck section of the lesson, students write the digraph ck on line one of Worksheet 109. Later in the Application and Continual Review section of the lesson beginning on page 4, the teacher codes the three words and asks individual students to read each word.
Indicator 1G
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1g.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide students with limited opportunities to decode and read phonetically spelled words during Application and Continual Review Lessons and the Classroom Practice Lessons. In many lessons, the teacher asks a limited number of students a few words to decode for the class. Students have some opportunities to practice reading complete words using the Reading Practice sheets and in the Classroom Practice section of lessons. However, lessons do not guide support and feedback for the teacher to monitor and correct students’ reading of the words. For example, the lessons suggest that the teacher check off a student’s reading of recently introduced words before sending home the Worksheet. Yet, the materials do not guide a teacher to successfully plan for this task with each student. Students have the opportunity to review previously learned grade-level phonics during the Daily Letter and Sound Review and Spelling Sound Review sections of lessons. Various methods are provided to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics, including Kid Cards, worksheets, Caterpillar Word Wall, and Decodable Readers.
Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset, and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 37, Application and Continual Review, page 4, students use item 5 on Worksheet 37 to code and read the word pig. Students code and read the words pin and lip on items 6 and 7 of Worksheet 37.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 72, Application and Continual Review, page 3, students use Worksheet 72 to code, read, and match a picture for the words cut, can, lip, cup, cat, cast.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 63, pages 3 and 4, Application and Continual Review, Worksheet 63, #1, with the teacher, students identify the vowel in the word hug and code together. A volunteer reads the word, and then together, students blend the sounds. Students draw a line from the word to the picture of the hug. This is repeated in #2 (sun), #3 (mug), #4 (top), #5 (hog) and #6 (bug).
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 42, page 4, Application and Continual Review, Worksheet 42, #1, a volunteer reads the word stop. If necessary, the teacher helps students blend the sounds. This is repeated for #2 (spin), #3 (last), and #4 (slip).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 64, Classroom Practice, page 4, the teacher adds words (bug, grump, gum, mumps, and up) to Caterpillar Word Wall. Students read and add their initials to the newly added words to the Caterpillar Word Wall if they can read the word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 138, pages 1-2, Lesson Warm-Up, Phonological/Phonemic Awareness, the teacher writes the word ham on the board. Students read the word. The m is erased and replaced with a t. Students read the new word. The teacher continues to change the final letter to d (had) and g (hag). The initial h is continually changed with consonants (t, b, l, w, r, g, j,n,s) and blends (br, dr, st, fl, sn, cr).
Materials contain opportunities for students to review previously learned grade-level phonics.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 23, Lesson Warm-up, Daily Letter Sound Review, students name each letter, keyword, and sound from Letter Cards 1-6.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 28, Application and Continual Review, students circle all the letter a on the worksheet and code the vowel as a short vowel.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 53, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, students take turns selecting a Letter Tile and saying its sound. The rest of the class echoes the sound and chooses the Letter Tile that matches the original sound.
Materials contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Instructional Overview, page 18, includes Worksheets/Homework to reinforce learning, and page 19 includes Decodable Readers as practice opportunities.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, page 6, students alternate reading Decodable Reader 1 with the teacher while the teacher periodically stops to ask comprehension questions.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 57, Classroom Practice, page 4, students use Reading Practice 7 to practice reading words with short /a/, short /i/, short /o/, blends, and the word to.
Indicator 1H
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1h.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials do not provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Students have the opportunity to practice reading complete words in a sentence using the Decodable Readers and Fluency Readers. There are 16 Decodable Readers in the program. Students have their first opportunity to read a Decodable Reader in Lesson 27. The opportunity continues once in every five-lesson sequence except Lessons 136 to 140, where students have the opportunity to read two Decodable Readers. There are also 15 optional Fluency Readers for each of the three levels in the program. Students have the first opportunity to read a Fluency Reader in Lesson 31. The opportunity continues approximately once in every five-lesson sequence. The materials also indicate students may use the Fluency Reader during independent reading.
Materials do not provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Application and Continual Review, Decodable Reader, page 5, the teacher writes “A log got hot.“ on the board. The teacher runs a finger under the sentence as it is read. Students reread the sentence with the teacher. The teacher's directions do not call for the students to decode the phonetically regular words in the sentence.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, Optional Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, page 4, the teacher writes “Am I Lill?” on the board. The teacher tracks the print while reading aloud with the students. Decoding of individual words in the sentence is not included in teacher directions. There is a teacher reminder: “Children who find the readers too difficult might need more one-on-one instruction in decoding and word recognition, which you can provide through practice with the fluency word lists.”
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 99, Application and Continual Review, Decodable Readers: Print Awareness, page 4, the teacher writes this sentence on the board: “‘Get set to spin,’ the man said.” The teacher points out the quotation marks and comma and the speaker's words from the speaker tag. The teacher's directions do not call out for the students to decode the phonetically regular words in the sentence or reread the sentence.
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to decode words in a sentence.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, page 6, students read Decodable Reader 1 with the teacher while the teacher periodically stops to ask comprehension questions.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 47, Fluency Practice (Optional), page 5, students independently read Fluency Reader 3 based on their independent reading level.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 74, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, page 4, students independently read Decodable Reader 7 before the teacher asks comprehension questions.
Indicator 1I
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1i.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials contain limited teacher-level instruction/modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns during Daily Letter and Sound Review and Spelling Sound Review. There is no evidence of guidance for the teacher during the Spelling Sound Review section of the lessons when students build, manipulate, or spell words using Letter Tiles. The lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns.
Materials contain limited teacher-level instruction/modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns of phonics.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 22, Classroom Practice, it includes teacher guidance that new rimes and onsets are available for practice as new letters are taught. The materials inform the teacher that words for the activity can be found in Reading and Spelling Word Lists.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 56, Application and Continual Review, page 3, it includes guidance in the lesson for the teacher to model counting the number of phonemes in the word hop before asking students to do the same. Then, students write the word on line 5 of Worksheet 56.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 57, Lesson Warm-up, Spelling Sound Review, the teacher has students tell them how to spell the first sound in the word it and write it on the board as they do.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 37, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, students use Letter Tiles to build words from the Spelling Word List. Students build 24 words from skills learned in Lessons 11, 13, 17, 21, 25, 27, 29, and 33. Later, in the Application and Continual Review section on page 4, students use Worksheet 37 to write the letter corresponding to the beginning sound of a picture. Students write three letters on lines 2, 3, and 4.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 57, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, students manipulate words using Letter Tiles to substitute the initial sound in five words. Later, in the Application and Continual Review section on page 4, students use Worksheet 57 to write the letter corresponding to the beginning sound of a picture. Students write three letters on lines 2, 3, and 4.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 111, Spelling Sound Review, page 3, students use Letter Tiles to build words from the Spelling Word List. Later, in the Application and Continual Review section on page 4, students use Worksheet 111 to write the words sack, sock, clock, stick and match the word to the picture.
Indicator 1J
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the criteria for 1j.
Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials do not include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in a sufficient amount of writing tasks. Students encode some sounds and whole words using their Letter Tiles, but they do not write during those activities. There are limited opportunities when the students write one to three words on a worksheet, and the teacher walks them through how to check the word for spelling/writing accuracy. Also, the materials do not include frequent student activities and tasks to promote the application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or phrases based on common and newly taught phonics patterns.
Materials do not include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 43, Lesson Warm-Up, page 2, Spelling Sound Review, the teacher reviews the Spelling Deck. Students echo the sounds, name the letters that make them, and move the appropriate Letter Tiles to another row. The teacher makes sure students move the correct tiles. The teacher selects words from the Spelling Word List that students can spell using their tiles.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 119, New Increment, Handwriting Digraph th, page 3, the teacher asks students to echo the words thick, theft, thin. The teacher writes the words on the board. The teacher codes the digraphs and discusses voiced and unvoiced sounds. The teacher codes and reads the rest of the words. The materials do not direct the teacher to model writing words with digraphs even though the section title indicates the section will include handwriting.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 128, New Increment, page 2, the teacher asks students to echo the words cube and fume before having students identify the medial vowel sound. The teacher reviews Vowel Rule Wall Card 3 and writes the words on the board. The teacher codes the words cube and flame. The materials do not direct the teacher to model writing VCe words.
Lessons do not provide students with frequent activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught phonics patterns.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 24, Application and Continual Review, page 3, students use Letter Tiles to build hop, top, pot. Students write the words on numbers 4, 5, and 6 of Worksheet 24.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 125, Application and Continual Review, page 5, students write the words gate, wave, cane for numbers 5, 6, and 7 of Worksheet 125.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 132, Application and Continuous Review, page 2, students write the word chip on the first line of Worksheet 132. The teacher unblends the sounds if any student needs help. Students draw a line to the appropriate picture. This is repeated on lines 2-6 for tooth, fin, tree, duck, block.
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis
The Kindergarten Saxon materials provide a sufficient number of high-frequency words. There is limited explicit instruction in high-frequency words and word analysis skills as the materials require students to view the high–frequency words and memorize the spellings. Opportunities to write high-frequency words are limited to optional materials.
Indicator 1K
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1k.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials include limited explicit instruction of high-frequency words. The materials use the phrases Sight Word and High-Frequency Word. The materials limit the explicitness of the lesson to the teacher writing the word on the board, telling students the word once, and asking students to read the word from a Sight Word Card. The teacher reads a sight word when introducing it in the New Increment section of the lesson. The teacher does not model spelling the word. Students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation when written on the board, when the teacher uses the Sight Word and High Frequency Word Card decks, and on worksheets. It is optional for the teacher to have students individually read the high-frequency words on the worksheet. There are 23 sight words in the Sight Word Card deck and 87 high-frequency words in the High-Frequency Word Box in the worksheets throughout the program. All 23 sight words are in the High-Frequency Word Box in the worksheets.
Materials include limited systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words.
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, New Increment: Sight Words, page 2, the teacher writes the word the on the board, tells students it is a sight word, says the word, and informs students they must memorize the word. The teacher shows students Sight Word Card 1 and asks students to read the on the card. Later, in the Application and Continual Review, page 3, the lesson’s directions suggest the teacher listen to students read the words the, a, and at from the High Frequency Word Box of Worksheet 27.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, New Increment: Sight Word “To”, the teacher writes the word to on the board, tells students the word, and asks them to use it in a sentence.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 87, New Increment: Sight Word “have”, page 2, the teacher writes the word have on the board. The script states, “This word is ‘have.’ This sight word does not follow our rules, so we must memorize it. Who can use the word ‘have’ in a sentence? (various answers) You’ll see this sight word often, so you must be able to recognize it. This word will be in your reader today.” Teacher directions include: “Show Sight Word Card 10 and have children read the word. Add the new card to the Sight Word Deck.” In Application and Continual Review, page 3, the teacher may call students during the day to read five high-frequency words from Worksheet 87. One of the words is have.
Materials do not include opportunities for the teacher to explicitly model the spelling and reading of high-frequency words in isolation.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 39, New Increment: Sight Word, page 3, the teacher writes the word to on the board and tells students the word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 55, New Increment: Sight Word, page 2, the teacher writes the word from on the board and tells students the word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 88, Daily Letter and Sound Review, page 2, students spell have, said, and from with their Letter Tiles. The teacher reminds them to refer to the Caterpillar Word Wall if necessary.
Students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 41, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, all students read words from the Sight Word Deck as the teacher presents the deck to the class.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 53, Application and Continual Review, page 4, students may have the opportunity to read the words if, his, as, is, and in to the teacher if the teacher invites individual students to read the words to them from the High Frequency Word Box of Worksheet 53.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 100, Classroom Practice, Caterpillar Word Wall, page 3, the teacher adds the word was to the Caterpillar Word Wall. Students have the option of initialing the words they can read on the word wall.
Materials include a sufficient quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Worksheets, Volume 1, High Frequency Word Box, there are 23 sight words in the Sight Word Deck and the program includes 87 high-frequency words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Scope and Sequence, the first sight word the is introduced in Lesson 27. The remaining words are listed in this order: Lesson 39: to, Lesson 47: of, Lesson 55: from, Lesson 63: four, Lesson 71: into, Lesson 74: one, Lesson 79: you, Lesson 83: said, Lesson 87: have, Lesson 90: do, Lesson 95: love, Lesson 99: was, Lesson 103: what, Lesson 107: my, Lesson 111: two, Lesson 115: when, Lesson 119: they, Lesson 124: who, Lesson 127: come, Lesson 131: where, Lesson 135: are, and Lesson 139: eight.
Indicator 1L
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1l.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide students with some opportunities to read grade-level high-frequency words in an occasional sentence written on the board and more frequent opportunities in the 16 Decodable Readers. Students have the opportunity to practice writing individual sight words in the Optional Handwriting Practice section of lessons. Students do not have the opportunity to write sight words in sentences. The Caterpillar Word Wall is the student-friendly reference material in the program. Students’ first experience with the Caterpillar Word Wall is in Lesson 20. The lesson does not provide instructions on how students can use the word wall.
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read grade-level high-frequency words in a sentence.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 27, Application and Continual Review, Decodable Reader, page 5, the teacher writes “A log got hot.” on the board and points to the word A. The teacher runs a finger under the sentence as it is read. Students reread the sentence with the teacher. A is a sight word.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 83, Application and Continual Review, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, pages 4 and 5, using Decodable Reader 8, a volunteer reads the title of the book. The teacher and students choral read pages 1-3. Students independently read pages 4-5, and the rest of the book is chorally read. The reader contains 12 high-frequency words and seven sight words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 139, Application and Continual Review, Decodable Reader, pages 4-5, students read Decodable Reader 15 with the teacher. The last page of the book notes that the non-decodable sight word eight was introduced. There is nothing in the lesson plan instructing the teacher to call attention to the sight words or high-frequency words. The reader contains 21 high-frequency words and 12 sight words.
Lessons do not provide students with frequent opportunities to write grade-level high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-appropriate high-frequency words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 65, Application and Continual Review, page 4, students practice writing the words four, to, and from using Handwriting Master 65 found in Volume 3. The lesson includes Handwriting Master 65 as an optional activity.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 129, Application and Continual Review, Worksheet, page 4, students practice writing the words come, they, and love using Handwriting Master 80 found in Volume 3. The lesson includes Handwriting Master 80 as an optional activity.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 3, optional Handwriting Masters 61-83, as homework, the family is asked to have the student trace each sight word and then write it on the lines. The sight word two is not practiced. The sight words are, eight, who are practiced once. The sight words do, my, they, was, when, where are practiced two times. The remaining sight words are practiced three to ten times over the course of the year.
Materials provide some instruction in how to use student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading high-frequency words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 20, Lesson Preparation, page 1, beginning with this lesson, the teacher builds a word wall in the form of a caterpillar. The first circle is a caterpillar head and two antennae. On the successive circles, the teacher writes each new word in large letters using a marker. For sight words, either a separate color marker or circle is used to distinguish the sight words from the phonetic words. As new letters and sight words are introduced, more word circles are added to the caterpillar until it weaves around the classroom and possibly into the hallway. Students read these words whenever time permits. For example, in Lesson 39, New Increment: Sight Word “To”, page 3, the sight word to is added to the Word Wall, and the teacher tells students that if they need help reading the word, they can also look at the caterpillar word wall.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 41, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, students use Letter Tiles to spell the sight word to. The teacher informs students they can use the Caterpillar Word Wall to spell the word to, if necessary.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 93, Spelling Sound Review, page 2, students use Letter Tiles to spell the sight words do, have, and four. The teacher informs students they can use the Caterpillar Word Wall to spell the words if necessary.
Indicator 1M
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1m.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials contain some explicit instruction of word analysis strategies. The teacher models one explicit example in many lessons and asks students to practice and apply the skill to the corresponding worksheet. Coding begins with short a in Lesson 25 and continues through the remaining lessons. Students learn phoneme-grapheme relationships for individual letters, long and short vowels, vowel r combinations, and several digraphs. Students have multiple and varied opportunities over the year to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies during Boardwork, Worksheets, and Decodable Readers and other Application and Continual Review activities or Warm-Up activities.
Materials contain some explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis).
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 25, New Increment: The Letter A, pages 3-4, students receive their first lesson in coding. The teacher shows Picture Card 7 and uncovers the picture on the Wall Card. “When you see this card, say ‘apple’, /ă/. The keyword ‘apple’ helps us remember the /ă/ sound because it begins with /ă/. The ‘a’ on this card has a breve on it to help us remember that /ă/ is the short sound of ‘a.’” The teacher shows Spelling Card 7. Students echo /ă/ and write a lowercase a on their worksheet.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 41, New Increment, page 2, the teacher reviews the definition of a blend, writes the sl blend on the board, and asks students to say words that begin with the sl blend. The teacher writes five additional s-blends on the board, says a word, and asks students to identify the blend. The teacher writes slam, last, and split on the board and asks students how they would code the words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 105, New Increment: The Rule v̄ →, pages 2-4, students echo the words he, be, we and state what sound they hear in the final position. The teacher writes the words on the board and says, “Look at these words. What letter do you see that might make the /ē/ sound? [e] Is there a consonant after the e? [no] When a vowel is not followed by a consonant, it is long. The /ē/ sound is the long sound of the vowel e. A long vowel has the same sound as the vowel’s name. When a vowel has a long sound, we code it by putting a straight line over the vowel. We call this mark a ‘macron.’” The teacher codes he by placing a macron over the e. A student reads the word, and the procedure is repeated with the words be and we. The class reviews the long sound for all vowels written on the board and codes each long vowel sound. The words so and hi are coded. Vowel Rule Wall Card 2 is explained and posted. The teacher encourages students to refer to it when they need help.
Materials contain some explicit instruction of word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 11, New Increment, page 2, the teacher writes the word log on the board, asks students to identify the vowel, and shows students how to code CVC words using a breve. Students blend the phonemes to read the word log.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 101, New Increment: The Letter Q; Combination qu, pages 3-5, the teacher introduces qu. The students echo the sound and identify the qu combination in words written on the board. The teacher shows Letter Card 26 (qu) and Picture Card 26 (quilt). During Application and Continual Review, pages 4 & 5, using Worksheet 101, make an arc under the qu in the words quilt and quill and code the short /i/ with a breve.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 125, New Increment, page 2, the teacher introduces VCe words using the Sneaky E skit. The teacher writes the word bake on the board, asks students to echo the word, and asks students to identify the Sneaky E. The teacher shows students how to code words with a Sneaky E before displaying and posting Vowel Rule Card 3.
Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 17, Application and Continual Review, page 4, students write the letter for the first sound of the picture names: tiger, hay, gate.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 59, Decodable Reader, page 3, students have the opportunity to apply word analysis strategies to Decodable Reader 5. Students chorally read all pages of the reader with the teacher as the teacher periodically stops to ask students comprehension questions.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 113, New Increment, page 2, students learn the digraph sh then practice and apply the digraph to code words in Boardwork and Worksheet sections of the lesson on pages 3-4. The teacher prompts students to code the words shut, shin, and shop written on the board. An individual student reads the word. Students circle the words cash, flesh, she, wish, and shop on Worksheet 113.
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency
Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding in K and 1, and rate, expression, and accuracy in mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).
The Kindergarten Saxon materials provide some decoding opportunities for students to practice automaticity and accuracy when students read Decodable Readers or participate in the Daily Letter and Sound Review section of the lessons. The materials provide 16 emergent texts, however, the materials do not set a purpose for reading the texts.
Indicator 1N
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 1n. (K-1)
In the Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials, there is no evidence in the primary materials or optional Fluency Readers that systematically and/or explicitly focus on accuracy and automaticity in decoding words in a text. The Fluency Instruction manual in Volume 1 provides a script for the teacher to use to model fluent reading; however, the manual and the lessons do not indicate when the teacher should use the script. Lessons limit modeling to the Fluency Reader: Print Awareness section of lessons and focus on expression and pausing. According to the materials, the Fluency Practice section of lessons is optional. Students have the opportunity to engage in practice focused on accuracy and automaticity during the Daily Letter and Sound Review section of lessons when the teacher presents the Review Deck Cards. Students have opportunities to reread Decodable Readers and optional Fluency Readers, but no information is provided to the teacher to focus on accuracy or automaticity, nor are strategies supplied for them to utilize should they choose to focus on fluency with the Decodable Readers.
Materials do not provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Instructional Overview, page 11, Reading Fluency is addressed only through Fluency Readers and Fluency Masters. The Instructional Overview notes: “The Fluency Instruction booklet guides teaching fluency, including modeling fluent reading, guiding children through repeated readings, and providing opportunities for independent reading. Finally, tips for at-home support are provided.” Fluency instruction is optional.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 31, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, page 5, the lesson instructs the teacher to model reading one sentence from Fluency Reader 1 Level B. The sentence includes a boldface word that the teacher should read with emphasis. This section of the lesson is optional.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 71, Fluency Reader: Print Awareness, page 5, the lesson instructs the teacher to model reading a sentence with a blank. The lesson asks the teacher to read the sentence, “It is a _______.” from Level C of Fluency Reader 6. This section of the lesson is optional.
Materials provide opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice. However, the opportunities are not focused on accuracy and automaticity.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 41, Classroom Practice, the teacher distributes Reading Practice 4. The objective is to practice recently introduced words as they read them on their practice sheet.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 43, Application and Continual Review, page 4, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, the teacher and students read aloud Decodable Reader 3. They stop after pages 3, 5, and the end to discuss comprehension questions. Students reread the book independently. The teacher reminds students to keep the book handy as they may be asked to read it to the teacher. There are no instructions to the teacher to focus on accuracy or automaticity when they read with the student.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 115, Lesson Warm-Up, Daily Letter and Sound Review, page 2, the teacher has the class quickly review Letter, Picture, and Sight Word Decks.
Indicator 1Q
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the criteria for 1q.
The Saxon Phonics and Spelling K materials provide opportunities over the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (16 Decodable Readers) for understanding during the Application and Continual Review, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, lessons. However, when students read the Decodable Readers, the teacher does not set a purpose for reading. There are comprehension questions the teacher asks for understanding. The Understanding the Story questioning is done orally with the whole class, and there is no evidence of checking individual student comprehension. The materials do not contain explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (K) for understanding. However, lessons do not emphasize purpose.
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 1, Lesson 43, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, Decodable 3, students read pages 1-3 aloud together and then answer the following comprehension questions: “What does Stan have in his truck? Look at the picture on page 3. What is Stan’s problem?” The lesson does not set a purpose for reading.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 83, Decodable Readers: Understanding the Story, the teacher has students open their book and read pages 1-3 aloud together and then asks, “What is the boy doing? Why does the boy have to stop?” The lesson does not set a purpose for reading.
In Saxon Phonics and Spelling K, Teacher’s Manual, Volume 2, Lesson 107, Application and Continual Review, page 4, Decodable Reader: Understanding the Story, students read pages 1-3 of Decodable Reader 11 to check for understanding, The teacher asks “How can you tell which boy is Stu and which is Bo? Why does Stu call Bo on the telephone?” The teacher reads pages 4-5 with the students and follows with five oral comprehension questions: “On page 4, what question does Stu ask? How can you tell that this sentence asks a question? Where is Bo? Has anyone here ever had the flu or known someone who had the flu? The flu makes you feel hot and sick. Why is Bo in bed?” The teacher finishes reading the book with the students and asks three final oral comprehension questions: “How does Stu feel when he hears that Bo has the flu? Look at the picture on page 8. What is Stu doing? Do you think a letter is a good idea? Explain.” The lesson does not set a purpose for reading.
Materials do not contain explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
No evidence was found.
Overview of Gateway 2
Implementation, Support Materials & Assessment
Criterion 2.1: Guidance for Implementation, Including Scope and Sequence
Indicator 2A
Indicator 2B
Indicator 2C
Indicator 2D
Indicator 2D.i
Scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence. (K-1)
Indicator 2D.ii
Scope and sequence clearly delineate an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear explanation for the order of the sequence.
Indicator 2E
Criterion 2.2: Decodable Texts
Indicator 2F
Indicator 2F.i
Indicator 2F.ii
Criterion 2.3: Assessment and Differentiation
Indicator 2G
Indicator 2G.i
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1).
Indicator 2G.ii
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-1)
Indicator 2G.iii
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics in- and out-of-context (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)
Indicator 2G.iv
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)
Indicator 2H
Indicator 2I
Differentiation for Instruction: Materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding grade-level standards.
Indicator 2I.i
Materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen in a language other than English with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.
Indicator 2I.ii
Materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.
Indicator 2I.iii
Materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level.