2nd Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for 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 Fountas & Pinnell materials contain opportunities for students to decode letter sounds and phonetically based words during 23 Letter-Sound Relationships lessons, 17 Spelling Patterns lessons, 28 Word Structure lessons, and 16 Word-Solving Actions lessons. Since Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, Word Structure, and Word-Solving Actions lessons do not occur daily, students do not have daily opportunities to practice decoding sounds and spelling patterns. The materials do not contain a deliberate, systematic review of previously introduced grade-level phonics skills.

Examples of materials that include some daily practice opportunities for students to read words based in phonics include but are not limited to the following:

• Lessons provide students with opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words. 
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 2, page 85, students play a matching word game with phonetically-based words. One student takes two cards from the deck. Without showing the words, the student reads the cards. 
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 1, page 175, students read the words they make with -ap, -eg, -ix, -op and -ug words from their sort. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Structure 2, page 317, students work with partners to say and sort word cards according to the number of syllables they contain. A student reads a word and the partner claps the syllable or parts of the word. 
• Lessons provide students with opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. 
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 6, page 101, students make different words with -eat, -ake, -ike, -ee, -ide, -ight words and practice reading the word list. 
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns, page 211, students say and sort the word cards on the 4 way sort. After sorting the words, students read the list of words to a partner. The words are -are -ath, -end, -ick and -unk phonograms.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Structure 11, page 353, students select twenty words with -ed. Students take a card, say the word, write the word on the list sheet, and add -ed. 
• Lessons provide students with  opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) words using newly taught grade-level phonics pattern.
• Each of the 100 lessons that comprise Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons book Grade 2, provides opportunities for the students to decode words using the newly taught phonics pattern during either the Apply or Shared Reading sections of the lesson.
• Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons book Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships Lesson 23, pages 167-170, the Apply section has students practice reading words with r-controlled vowels by playing a game called Follow the Path. 
• During the Shared Reading section, using poems from the correlated Sing a Song of Poetry book, students identify words from the poem that have an r-influenced vowel. This is followed by reading a Fountas & Pinnell Classroom book selection, Stone Soup: An Old Tale. 

Materials do not contain systematic opportunities for students to review previously learned phonics skills. While Generative Lesson plans contain a structure for teachers to present similar content or concepts to teach a variety of spelling patterns, the intention is not for systematic, explicit review phonics skills with a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics. For example:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 7, page 103, the generative lesson suggestion is: "A generative lesson has a simple structure that you can use to present similar content and concepts. Use this lesson structure to teach children a variety of long vowel sounds in words with silent e."
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Structure 3, page 319, the generative lesson suggestion is:"A generative lesson has a simple structure that you can use to present similar content and concepts. Use this lesson structure to teach children a variety of words with three or more syllables."

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.

The Fountas & Pinnell Grade 2 materials provide opportunities for students to read decodable words in sentences when students read poems during Teach and/or Shared Reading. There are some opportunities for students to explicitly and systematically read phonetically regular words during Word-Solving Actions lessons, but this practice is not consistent throughout the 100 lessons.

Materials provide some explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Meaning/Vocabulary 4, page 294, the teacher writes sentences on the board with homophones and the students read the sentences.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 2, Word-Solving Actions 4, the teacher tells students that they will learn how to use what they know about sounds and letters to check their reading. The teacher guides the students in reading a poem called “Two Little Feet” and helps students decode unfamiliar words throughout the poem. Afterwards, the students apply the knowledge they have learned by reading an additional poem and working through unfamiliar words with a partner. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 2, Word-Solving Actions 11, page 466, the teacher displays “The Greedy Man” or a poem from Sing a Song of Poetry. The teacher reads the poem to students. The teacher points to gobbles. The teacher says, “Let’s say that you don’t know this word. What are some ways you can solve this word?”

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words in a sentence based in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 2, page 180, students read the poem, “Milkman, Milkman.” The poem contains words with short vowels.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 11, page 216, students read the poem, “There was a Young Farmer of Leeds.” Students read words with the following patterns: -eep, -eed, -eet. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 12, page 220, students read the poem, “Good Morning, Merry Sunshine” or “The Moon.” Both poems contain words with oo.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sounds and sound patterns.

The Fountas & Pinnell materials contain some opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and write words based on phonics patterns. Opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode are provided during Teach and Apply within lessons.

Examples of materials that include regular opportunities for student learning in building/manipulating/spelling and encoding using sound and spelling patterns include but are not limited to the following:

• The materials contain teacher-level instruction/modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 10, page 116, the teacher writes words with ch, sh and th on chart paper. The teacher says the word and the students tell the teacher what column the word goes in. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 1, page 174, the teacher models writing a list of words that end with the same spelling pattern, such as flap, map, snap, tap, and clap.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 3 page 182, the teacher writes the words: hop, cane, kit, can, hope, cub, kite and cube on the whiteboard. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Structure, 26, page 413, the teacher writes the following words on chart paper: baby, motor, tiny, open, secret. The teacher breaks the words into syllables by saying each word and clapping the number of syllables. The teacher guides students with rewriting the word with a dash to show the syllable division (e.g., ba-by).
• Lessons provide students with some opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words in isolation based in common and newly taught phonics patterns.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 16, page 141, students complete two different sorts based on beginning consonant sounds: a two-way sort of words that begin with c and a three-way sort with words that begin with ch. After sorting words, students write examples of the words.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 1, page 175, students make words by matching word cards with beginning consonants and rime cards with ending spelling patterns. Students write twenty of the words on a list sheet.
• In Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Structure 1, students help build double consonant words on a magnetic board. Next, students put together word parts to make a whole word such as dol + lar is  dollar. After making a real word with two word parts, students write the word on a list sheet.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, students practice taking apart and putting together words with prefixes. Students write a word in big letters on a word strip. Then students break the word into prefix and base word by cutting up the word into pieces. Students trade cut-up words with a peer and reassemble the words they receive.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid K-Grade 2)

The Fountas & Pinnell materials provide students with limited opportunities to encode phonetically-based words in activities and tasks during Interactive Writing and Independent Writing of Letter-Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, and Word-Solving Actions lessons. There are some opportunities to practice encoding phonetically based words during Apply in lessons. There are missed opportunities for the teacher to consistently and explicitly teach and/or model encoding phonics in activities and tasks.

Materials include some explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 7, page 200, during Interactive Writing, the instructions are to “invite children to help you write words that end in -ass, -ell, -ess, -ill, and -uff, or have them use a known word containing one of these patterns to write a new word.” In Independent Writing, the instructions say “when conferring with children, help them spell words by using their knowledge of patterns, such as -ass, -ell, -ess, -ill, and -uff.” 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 13, page 224, during Interactive Writing, the instructions say, “When children want to include a word with the VVC pattern, invite the child to contribute either the beginning letters or the ending spelling pattern.” In Independent Writing, the instructions say to “Draw children’s attention to the VVC words that they have spelled accurately. Encourage children to talk about what they knew and what they did that helped them write the word.”
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, page 232, the teacher writes a summary of five long-vowel patterns on chart paper for students to review, think, and compare. The teacher begins by writing two or three word endings, -ay, -eam, -ight, -old and -ue. In the Interactive Writing, the teacher guides students to use spelling patterns they know to help them write an unknown word. The teacher is asked to “Revisit completed pieces to search for words containing specific patterns that you are reviewing.”

Lessons provide students with limited 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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Spelling Patterns 16, page 236, during Independent Writing, the teacher points out words with -ar, -ark, -arm, -art to help students notice when a word they want to write as a pattern that appears also in another word they know.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Meaning/Vocabulary 6, page 303, during Apply, students select lesson word cards of homographs. Students write and illustrate four pairs of sentences. Some words are phonetically-based.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Meaning/Vocabulary 7, page 307, during Apply, students select four word cards and then write and illustrate a sentence for the meaning of the word. Some words are phonetically-based.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.

The Fountas & Pinnell Grade 2 materials contain nine High-Frequency Word Lessons. Since all nine lessons are generative lessons, the materials suggest that the teacher repeat the lesson several times with new words selected by the teacher. The program does not specify an exact sequence of instruction. In the Master Lesson Guide, Lesson #43 (High-Frequency Word Lesson 2), it indicates the goal for Grade 2 is instant recognition of 200 high-frequency words. High-frequency lessons are not frequently addressed over the course of the year with lessons occurring in #42, #43, #44, #45, #46, #64, #65, #66, and #67 of the Master Lesson Guide. Each lesson suggests the use of the Words to Know Instructional Procedure, which contains five steps including explicit instruction by the teacher and opportunities for students to understand the principle. 

Examples of materials that include systematic instruction of irregularly spelled words and practice opportunities for students include but are not limited to the following:

• Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Words to Know Instructional Routine is described with 5 steps 
• 1. Show a group of high-frequency words, reading each one while running your pointer finger under it, left to right. 
• 2. Children look at each word to see if they recognize it. 
• 3. Help children understand the principle. 
• 4. Children work with high-frequency words to apply the principle.
• 5. Summarize the learning by restating the principle. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 7, page 267, the teacher uses letter boxes to help students learn about high-frequency words (moon, name, made, end, every). The teacher says the word, has the students say the word, then draws four letter boxes on paper. The teacher tells students to think about how it looks. The teacher goes letter by letter, saying the sounds to write the word. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 1, page 244, the teacher holds up a word card and modeling for students, “This word is anything. Say anything. What do you notice about the word anything? This word combines two words, any and thing. Let’s use anything in a sentence: I don’t want anything to eat. Now you say the sentence.”
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 9, page 276, the teacher is prompted to select high-frequency words that are challenging. The teacher makes the first word using magnetic letters and then talks to students about what they notice. The teacher writes the word using word boxes. 
• Materials include frequent opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of irregularly spelled words in isolation.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 2, High-Frequency Words 3, page 252, the teacher makes a word (become) using magnetic tiles. The teacher does this same procedure with wrong, happy, everything, almost, take, seen, gave, good, enough, begin, does. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 4, page 256, the teacher builds the following words: come, would, there, where using magnetic tiles. The teacher says the word in a sentence. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 2, High-Frequency Word 5, page 260, the teacher places a high-frequency word in the pocket-chart, asks the students to say the word, then asks the students what they notice about the word about (e.g., it has two parts, it has the word out in it, etc.) The teacher demonstrates writing and checking the word, each time enunciating the word and providing an example sentence. No review practice of words introduced here is incorporated into other lessons.
• Students practice identifying and reading irregularly spelled words in isolation.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 5, page 260, the teacher introduces close, how, each, happy, should in isolation during Teach and then students practice reading, making, and writing the words during Apply.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Grade 2, High-Frequency Word 7, pages 267-271, the students are instructed to read the high-frequency word aloud and then use the letter boxes to write the word.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 9, page 277, students are provided copies of the letter boxes sheet and the lesson’s word cards. The first student reads the word out loud and the second student writes the word in the word boxes. 
• Materials include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress.
• There are a total of nine high-frequency lessons in the Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Lessons Grade 2. There is a high-frequency word list in Ready resources with the 200 words on it. While the teacher is provided a list of high-frequency words, the program does not specify an exact sequence of introduction or exactly how many of the words should be mastered at any specific point in time.
• The Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2 book advises teachers to “select some more challenging words that most children in the class do not know, and also include a couple of words that are more familiar to the children.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).

In the Fountas & Pinnell materials, Grade 2 students have opportunities to hear and read high-frequency words in the context of sentences during Teach and/or Shared Reading of the High-Frequency Word lessons. The teacher models reading poems that contain high-frequency words from Sing a Song of Poetry, and students are encouraged to join the teacher after one or two repetitions. During Interactive Writing, there are various opportunities for students to write high-frequency words out of context in order to check their spelling on the word wall, but there is no systematic practice on writing high-frequency words in sentences. In some of the Independent Writing sections, the teacher encourages students to use the high-frequency words list from their Writing Workshop folders to check the spelling of words when they write independently. 

Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read grade level irregularly spelled words in a sentence. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 1, page 246, during Shared Reading, students read the poem, “Cradle Song,” from Sing a Song of Poetry, The students locate high-frequency words while they are reading the text. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 3, page 254, during Shared Reading, students read the poem, “The Secret,” from Sing a Song of Poetry. Students use highlighter tape to locate high-frequency words they’re currently studying. 
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 5, page 262, during Shared Reading, students read the poem, “My Shadow,” from Sing a Song of Poetry. The students use highlighter tape to highlight high-frequency words. 

Lessons provide students with few opportunities to write grade-level irregularly spelled words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-level irregularly spelled words. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 1, during Interactive Writing, students write sentences with the teacher, and the teacher strategically chooses newly learned high-frequency words, while pointing out that these are words that the children have studied.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 1, during Independent Writing, as students are writing, they are encouraged to write high-frequency words quickly rather than copying them from somewhere. Students can use their high-frequency word lists from their Writing Workshop folders to check the spelling.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 5, page 262, during Independent Writing, students write high-frequency words and use their Writing Workshop folders to check spelling. 

Materials provide some instruction in how to use student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading irregularly spelled words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries). One example of this practice is found in Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, High-Frequency Words 1, page 246, during Independent Writing, students write high-frequency words in their sentences and use their Writing Workshop folders with high-frequency words to check for spelling.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially meet the criteria for instructional opportunities are built into the materials for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency (Grades 1-2).

The Fountas & Pinnell Grade 2 materials do not contain resources for frequent explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements. Students do have opportunities to hear the teacher read some grade-level text during Shared Reading and Interactive Reading of Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2. The teacher reads aloud poetry from Sing a Song of Poetry.

Materials provide some opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Letter-Sound Relationships 1, page 82, students hear the teacher read “My Father Is Extremely Tall” or “Miss Polly Had a Dolly” from Sing a Song of Poetry.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, Word Meaning/Vocabulary 2, page 284, students hear the teacher read the poem, “The House That Jack Built,” “I Like Silver,” or “Seasons” from Sing a Song of Poetry.
• In Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Lessons Grade 2, page 304, students listen to the teacher read the poem, “Clouds” or “ I Live in the City” from Sing a Song of Poetry.