The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks directly teach foundational skills to build reading acquisition by providing systematic and explicit instruction in phonological awareness (K-1) and phonics.

Materials do not provide systematic and explicit instruction in syllables, sounds, and spoken words. The materials use students’ names to introduce letters and sounds. Since this instruction is based on the names of students in the classroom and a name the teacher would pull from the Star Jar (a jar that contains all of the students’ names in the classroom), there is no guarantee that the instruction would follow the suggested letter sequence or that all letters and sounds would be taught. Additionally, instruction for each letter and letter sound is not included in teaching materials. In the first session in Unit 1, students are expected to count and name each letter in the class mascot’s name (the name Mabel is modeled), while no instruction in letters names has occurred. In cases where instruction is aligned to grade-level standards, the materials lack repetition and systematic instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read words with the newly taught phonics patterns. While these opportunities may incidentally surface in the context of reading and writing workshops, the writing and reading units do not explicitly support the development of the specific phonics skills through targeted instruction and practice. While the narrative format of the materials provides the teacher with opportunities for the students to learn some phonological and phonics skills, the lessons are designed in an implicit model, and there is no guarantee that the modeled instruction will occur in the classroom. Additionally, some grade-level instruction occurs during some optional Extension activities. The instruction contained in the Units of Study for Reading, Units of Study for Writing, and Units of Study in Phonics do not align, and at times, contradict what is occurring within each unit. For example, in Units of Study Writing, Unit 1, Session 10, students learn to stretch out words to write even more sounds. The model provided includes /r/, /p/, /h/, /n/, /b/, /e/, which does not follow the letter/sound sequence in Units of Study Phonics Unit 1.

Materials recommend 20 minutes of whole group foundational skills instruction and 7-10 minutes of small group instruction. 

• Materials limited contain explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to recognize and produce rhyming words. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 11, the teacher models changing the initial sound in a name to produce a rhyme. The session states: “‘We know that Mabel’s name starts with the letter M /m/.’ I wrote Mabel’s name up on the board. ‘But what if we played around with Mabel’s name a little? What if we took the M and changed it to a B? Hmm, … it’s not /m/-Mabel anymore, now it’s…’ I left space for kids to think about this, and a few chimed in, ‘Babel!’ The teacher then models changing the M to L for Label.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 8, students listen to an audio recording of different sounds to get their ears ready to be good listeners. The teacher uses picture cards of at and in words. The teacher points to the picture card, and students and teacher say the word together to determine which picture cards rhyme with at. 

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 5, students practice singing and drumming familiar songs to hear different rhythms. The teacher explains that words have beats which are called syllables. The teacher returns to the Star Name and coaches students to listen for syllables in the name, clap and stomp them, and compare this Star Name with an earlier Star Name. The teacher points out that all words have beats, and clapping the beats helps students with their writing. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 3, students practice clapping beats in words with their names, then pictures, on the alphabet chart. The teacher models segmenting a word by syllables and blending the syllables into words. The teacher says the syllables of a student’s name, and the students blend the sounds to say the name. The teacher continues with two-syllable words, then the words ladybug, octopus, volcano, and watermelon. 

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 6, the teacher gives students the rime -at and teaches them how to make words with it. The teacher then moves into the -at word part. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 12, students listen for first sounds and word parts in a short word. The teacher models with the word pop, segmenting /p/ and op, then uses hand signals to blend the word back together. Students practice with picture cards for the words pop, cop, mop, hop, top, and stop. 

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 12, the teacher uses the song, “Beginning, Middle, End” to practice listening for sounds in different parts of a word. The teacher models tapping different places on the body to signal where in the word students hear a sound. The teacher says the word man and shows students to tap their shoulders if they hear the sound at the beginning of the word, elbow in the middle, wrist at the end. Students practice the song a few times. Then, the teacher changes which sound they are listening for. As students use their bodies, the teacher points to Elkonin boxes on a chart to model segmenting the word. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 7, the teacher pretends to be clumsy and drops picture cards on the floor. Students help her sort them when they are picked up by medial vowel sounds short e, o and i. The teacher displays the pictures and vowel sounds in the pocket chart and reviews with the students once all the cards are placed. The teacher coaches the students by cueing them to say the word, listen for the middle vowel sound, and check it to see if it matches the sound in the anchor picture on the chart. 

• Materials do not contain explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. All examples for teacher modeling of adding or substituting individual sounds were linked to print or used longer words.

• Materials provide the teacher with limited examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade-level standards. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, “An Orientation to the Unit,” the materials instruct teachers to sequence student names to roughly match a suggested letter introduction sequence. Teachers use student names to introduce syllables and sounds. 

  • In Phonics, Online Resources, the materials provide instructional videos of Units of Study in Phonics lessons to provide the teacher examples for instruction.

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to 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. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 2, the teacher first sings the song “Guess the Name” with the students. Students listen and guess the name of their peer that starts with that letter sound and name. The teacher shows students a sentence strip with a student’s name on it. The teacher coaches students to look at the name to identify letters, count letters, and analyze the size and shape of letters. The teacher models how to cheer the student’s name and say and spell out the letters in the name. The teacher cues students to only look at the first letter of the name and share what sound it makes. The teacher models this sequence several times using different student names.

  • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 2, during a mini-lesson with alphabet pictures that need to be matched to letter cards that have fallen off of the alphabet chart, the teacher picks up the picture of the sun and models how to say the word emphasizing the initial sound. The teacher places the picture underneath the letter Ss on the alphabet chart. The teacher continues this sequence until the missing picture cards are matched to the corresponding letter sound.

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. For example:

  • In Writing, Unit 2, Session 7, the teacher models how to read the vowel chart, saying the name of the letter, the name of the picture, and the short vowel sound for the letter. The teacher models stretching out the word danced and shows students how to find the short /a/ sound on the vowel chart. Students do not associate the long /a/ sound with the short /a/ sound. 

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 31, the teacher reads a poem called “The Case of the Silent E” with VCe words but intentionally reads the words as short vowel words instead of long vowel words. Students listen, and if a word is read wrong, give a thumbs down. The teacher stops and shows how the word in the poem looks with the VCe and without the VCe pattern. The teacher prompts students when they see a word with the e at the end, it is going to make a different sound so that it sounds right. 

• Materials contain limited explicit teacher modeling designed to teach students to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 12, the teacher tells students that changing the middle vowel of a word can help make new words. Students use letter cards with the letters a, e, i, o, u, l, p, b, g, and j to build the word lip. Students replace i with a to make lap. The teacher prompts students to make a new word by saying the word and inviting students to spell it, read it, and check it. Students continue changing one letter at a time to make lag, bag, big, beg, bug, jug, and job. 

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 29, the teacher shares a scenario on writing a grocery list for a birthday party and needing supplies like chips, cookies, plates, and cups. Instead of writing cups on the list, it says caps. The teacher ended up having in the grocery bag baseball caps and skiing caps, but no cups. The teacher uses the story as a segway into writing CVC words and that changing one letter can change the meaning even if we think it looks right. The teacher has students get a whiteboard and listen to words and their sounds. The teacher has them write the word cap on the board and then change it to the word map and discuss which part of the word changed. 

• Lessons provide teachers with limited systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. For example: 

  • In Phonics Unit 4, Session 2, the teacher tells students that every word has a vowel, and writers use vowels when they write. The teacher shares a book “written” by the class mascot and models checking every word for vowels. The book contains the following sentences, with words that are missing vowels: “First, you gt the berries. Next, you put thm in a pt. Then, you mx it up. Lst, you put it in a jar.” The teacher models fixing get. Then, students work with partners to check the rest of the book and fix words without vowels by writing the word on top of the existing word. 

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials, questions, and tasks directly teach foundational skills to build reading acquisition by providing systematic and explicit instruction in phonological awareness based on a research-based continuum (K-1). 

Kindergarten materials provide opportunities throughout the phonics units for students to engage in activities designed to foster phonological awareness skills such as syllables, rhyming, phoneme identification, phoneme addition, manipulation, and substitution. Session lessons provide students with teacher modeling of key concepts during mini-lessons and connections opportunities. Practice opportunities include various activities for phonological awareness, e.g., sorting, singing songs, and using Elkonin boxes. Additional practice is encouraged during independent reading and writing time as part of the Reading and Writing Workshop. Hands-on manipulatives, sound charts, or anchor charts are provided. Small Groups to Support Phonics provides additional specific phonological awareness lessons for students who would benefit from additional support on various skills and concepts. Although A Guide to the Units of Phonics Units of Study explains that the unit “doubles as support for developing phonological awareness and support for learning the alphabetic principle”, there is no systematic and explicit instructional scope and sequence designed to teach foundational skills directly. While the materials cite other programs, there is a lack of a research-based explanation for the order of phonological awareness sequence. 

• Materials do not have an intentional, cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students’ application of the skills. For example:

  • Although there is a scope and sequence listed on the Units of Study website,

it does not appear readily available in the phonics, reading, or writing 

units. Instead, the lessons are organized around an overview 

listing topics to be covered. 

• In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the materials include the strands of early phonics development along with additional information about rhyming, segmenting, and manipulating. 

• In A Guide To the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the materials state that the program follows a hierarchy of skills in phonemic awareness, starting from rhyming and hearing phonemes and moving to blending and segmenting sounds.

• The sequence of instruction that develops across five units includes:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1: Hear and say syllables; identify and produce groups of words that begin with the same sound (alliteration); identify the initial phonemes of spoken words; connect words by sounds, count, pronounce, and segment syllables in spoken words; recognize and produce rhyming words; segment words into syllables; change the beginning phoneme to make a new word; hear and say beginning phoneme; hear salient sounds in words.

  • In Phonics, Unit 2: Identify and produce words that begin with the same sound; identify the initial phoneme in spoken words; match words with the same beginning sound; identify and produce words that start with the same sound; say words slowly and identify salient sounds in words; identify the initial, medial, and final sounds in spoken words; changing initial phonemes to make new words.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3: Say words slowly to hear sounds in words; identify and use initial, final, and salient sounds when writing words (this is not phonological awareness); say words slowly to identify salient sounds in spoken words; recognize and produce rhyming words; blend and segment the onset and rime of single-syllable spoken words; add or substitute individual sounds in simple, one-syllable spoken words to make new words; manipulate the onset and rime of single-syllable spoken words; hear, match and produce rhyming words; segment and blend onset and rime; hear word parts in longer words; hear initial digraphs; identify words with the same initial digraph; isolate initial digraphs. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4: Segment and blend individual phonemes in words; say words slowly to hear sounds in words; isolate and pronounce the initial sounds, medial vowel, and final sounds in spoken words; manipulate individual phonemes to make new words; blend individual phonemes in words; hear, say, segment, and blend syllables in spoken words; blend and segment the onset and rime in single-syllable spoken words; segment individual phoneme in spoken words.

  • In Phonics, Unit 5: segment words to isolate phonemes in unfamiliar words; hear both sounds in a blend; isolate initial blends in words; hear and connect rhyming words; hear, say and clap syllables; hear the ending phoneme in a syllable; hear and divide onsets and rimes; hear and generate rhyming words; generate words with the same initial sound or blend; hear the difference between short /e/ sound and short /i/ sound in words; hear the difference between the short /a/, /e/, /o/, /u/ sounds and the long /a/, /e/, /o/, /u/ sounds in words. 

• Materials contain an explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, materials state the sequence of study of phonics follows research. The materials reference Bear’s Words Their Way, Cunningham’s Phonics They Use, Fundations, Fountas and Pinnell’s Phonics Lessons, or “many other programs”. 

  • In A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, materials state that lessons are based on the research of at least nineteen educators and especially that of Marie Clay’s Reading Recovery. It is noted that researchers have differences of opinion related to the development of phonemic awareness and the order of a phonics curriculum. “This curriculum is based...with a commitment of giving young children the opportunities to take risks, try again, talk, explore, pretend, move, play, question, invent, sing and laugh.” 

  • In A Guide To the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the hierarchy for teaching phonological skills is attributed to the evidence-base of key researchers Bear, Cunningham, Beck, and Fountas and Pinnell. 

  • In A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, materials state that the program follows a hierarchy of skills in phonemic awareness, starting from rhyming and hearing phonemes and moving to blending and segmenting sounds.

• Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness. For example: 

  • In A Guide To the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 3, the materials provide a description of activities and materials used to develop phonological awareness. The sequence of activities begins with a mini-lesson and moves to connections, teaching, active engagement, rug time, and sharing. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 7, students practice rhymes by singing a familiar rhyming song, “Down by the Bay.”

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 3, students clap and snap for consonants and vowels. 

• There are opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness. For example: 

  • Throughout five units of studies, students have opportunities to practice phonological awareness skills after a mini-lesson from the teacher. The units allow for additional extension opportunities, and cues are provided to apply the skills and concepts when students are engaged in Reading and Writing Workshop.

• Materials provide limited opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern.

  • Recognize and produce rhyming words. For example:

    • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 8, the teacher points to a picture card. Students and the teacher say the word together to determine which picture cards rhyme with at. Students give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to indicate whether they hear a rhyme. Partners practice using it and an picture cards. The teacher provides additional practice hearing rhymes by listening for rhymes in familiar poems read by the teacher.

    • In Phonics, Unit 5, Session 12, students change a rhyme and make new rhyming words using blends and digraphs. Students listen to a poem and note which words rhyme. Students produce additional rhyming words using blends and digraphs and then orally produce new stanzas. 

  • Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. For example:

    • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 5, together with the teacher, students practice clapping the beats of their own names and friends’ names. The teacher provides additional practice by going to previously read big books and identifying pictures in the books, and saying the words to determine how many syllables are in the words. There are extension opportunities in which students create a syllable band determining numbers of syllables in words using musical instruments.

    • In Phonics, Small Group to Support Phonics, Small Group 2, the teacher gives partners a stack of picture cards and models for students that one partner says the word using beats like a robot. The other partner will smoosh the beats together and say the whole word. Together the partners look at the picture card to check accuracy. Students continue this sequence until they get through the stack of picture cards to practice saying word parts and blending them together to say the whole word.

  • Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. For example:

    • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 11, the teacher models changing the initial sound of a word to make new names. Students practice using names of students in the class - Ava (A-va, May-va, Tay-va). 

    • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 7, the teacher reminds students about rimes they have learned to make new words. Students use at and /r/ to make a new word. Students identify other letters they can add to -at to make new words. The teacher introduces -it. Students make new words with the -it word part. The process repeats with -an. 

  • Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. Opportunities for student practice as they learn to isolate and pronounce and final sounds is not evident in the materials. For example:

    • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 2, the teacher uses Elkonin boxes to provide additional practice in segmenting and blending the phonemes in words. The teacher models with the word bat. Students practice with the words cap, sip, big, sat, cab, and lid. 

    • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 3, the teacher models how to identify the short vowel sound in pictures of CVC words and sort the words based upon the medial vowel sound. Students work with their club group to sort pictures of CVC words based upon the vowel sound.

    • In Phonics, Small Group to Support Phonics, Small Group 10, students sort pictures into two jars based on initial sounds. Students say the name of the picture and the initial sound and decide which jar the picture goes in based on the initial sound of either /b/ or /h/. 

  • Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. Student practice is tied to print or does not make new words. Non-examples include:

    • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 5, students sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” using the word cat: /a/, /a/, /a/, /a,/. /a/. Other words could include hen, chick, hog, and bug. Students practice phoneme segmentation for CVC words by playing the Robot Game to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds of other CVC words such as hop, hill, Jill, shop.

    • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 7, the teacher uses magnetic letters to make the word fit and then substitutes s for f to make the word sit. Students then use magnetic letters and word cards at, an, and it as they attempt to add and exchange letters to make new words of their own. 

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1n.iii.

Kindergarten materials include a limited scope and sequence of skills. Although there is no clear scope and sequence related to the standards addressed, A Guide to the Phonics Unit of Study provides an overview of the philosophy principles undergirding the phonics curriculum and an explanation of the skills presented. While the materials cite other programs, there is a lack of a research-based rationale for the order of phonics sequence. Materials introduce letter names first and then associated sounds through student names, focusing on print to sound as opposed to sound to print. Materials provide examples for teachers to use in introducing letter names and sounds; however, they do not include specific instructions and examples for introducing and practicing all letter sounds. Materials include limited opportunities for students to decode phonetically spelled words. Students have limited opportunities to practice reading words using newly taught phonics skills. Practice is usually guided by the teacher with students directed to try the same thing in their independent reading, which does not guarantee that the students will encounter the newly taught skill. The phonics units are loosely paired with the reading and writing units. While these units provide opportunities for application, the transfer of phonics skills to lessons in the reading and writing units is not explicit. The use of a given phonics skill may naturally surface in the context of the Reading and Writing Workshop, but the writing and reading units do not explicitly support the development of the specific phonics skills through targeted instruction and practice. 

• Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words. For example: 

  • 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. For example:

    • In Phonics, Unit 1, Orientation to the Unit, the teacher sequences students’ names to roughly match the suggested sequence of letter introduction, M S T N A R L D F I V P K X E B Z J O C H U W G Q Y. The orientation instructs teachers to provide direct, explicit instruction to introduce each letter that includes the letter name, sound, formation path, and words beginning with the letter; however, materials do not provide explicit instruction for each letter and sound. 

    • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 10, students teach the first letter of their first name to the class by acting as the teacher. A student is selected to show peers how to say and write the letter of their first name. Then, students walk around the room and greet each other, saying their name, the first letter of their name, and words that begin with that sound. Students transition to work in groups and share the first letter of their names with their peers. Students write the letters on whiteboards and share words they know that start with that letter sound.

    • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 2, following a mini-lesson by the teacher on matching picture cards to letter names and sounds, students make the classroom into a big alphabet chart by taking sticky notes of the letters of the alphabet and matching them to items and things around the classroom with that initial sound, e.g., R on the rug, B on the ball. 

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

    • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 12, the teacher celebrates that students have vowel shields filled with vowels they now know: A, E, I, O, U, and leads a vowel power cheer. Students participate in constructing an initial word with a short vowel sound and use consonants to make more words in a pocket chart. 

    • In Phonics Unit 4, Session 13, the teacher explains that syllables in bigger words each have one vowel sound, and they demonstrate by clapping the syllable in the name Mabel. Students look for the long and short vowels in every syllable in a name on the class name chart. 

    • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 14, the teacher sings the “Vowel Shield Song,” singing “A-E-I-O-U” to the tune of “Bingo Was His Name-O.” Students point to the vowels on their vowel shields as they say the letter name. The teacher writes with word sip, and students read the word and point to the letter i on their shields. The teacher and students repeat the song, using short-vowel words peg, chat, cot, thin, and mug. The teacher writes each word, and students read the word and point to the matching vowel on their shields.

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

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 6, the teacher leads a brainstorming session to determine how many words the students can make with the word parts -at and -in. Students work with the whole group to identify and generate similarly spelled words by identifying and changing the letters.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 7, students work with magnetic letters to make words by changing the beginning letter & sound in front of snap words they know: it and an. Students then work in groups with magnetic letters to make words with snap words at and in.

• Lessons provide students with infrequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. Opportunities are not found across the materials. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 8, students read words without pictures. Students read word cards containing -in words and match them to a picture card. Students repeat with -at words. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 8, after a mini-lesson by the teacher on hearing rhymes and matching picture cards of things that rhymed, students watch a brief clip from Sesame Street of monsters pushing onset and rimes together to read words. Students do the same thing with sticky notes with the onset ad and the letters s, b, and m. Students combine the onset and rime to say the whole word. The teacher gives students word cards and picture cards. With a partner, students read the words by blending and matching the word to the picture card.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 10, the teacher shares a book and asks students to use all of their powers - picture power, pointer power, and word part power to read it. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 14, students use vowel power to read complete words. The teacher writes the word lid and chooses a student group to read it before going to centers. The teacher continues with the words did, red, sip, cab, and cob with the remaining student groups. 

• Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to decode words in a sentence. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 13, the teacher displays a rhyming book that contains sentences with op words. Students read the sentences with the teacher, and the teacher pauses to model using the op word part to read new op words. Students read the last two sentences in partners. Then partners read a rhyming book with sentences containing ug words together. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 7, the teacher asks students to find words to add to their sort by hunting for vowels in a song. The teacher distributes copies of “Hickory, Dickory, Dock” and asks students to read the song together and notice when a word has a short e, o, or i in it. 

• Lessons provide students with opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns phonics. Opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns phonics are predominantly found in Unit 3. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 4, the teacher models writing a letter and constructing the sentences, and segmenting sounds to write words. Partners write the next several sentences on whiteboards using their word-part strategies and rereading what they write. The teacher coaches children along in the process by cueing students to stretch out sounds and to listen for beginning and ending sounds. Students extend the learning by using Elkonin boxes and circle magnets to listen for CVC words and how many sounds. Then, students match the letter to the sounds to create the word.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 17, following a mini-lesson about using word power and knowledge of word parts to write words in sentences, students reconstruct sentences from the story shared by the teacher by building the sentences with cut-up word parts. Students work together to construct the sentence and reread it to make sure it looks right and sounds right. 

• Materials do not contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics.

  • No explicit evidence was found. Students are encouraged after each lesson to use what they have learned in phonics to support their independent work in Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop.

• Materials delineate a limited scope and sequence with a sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward application of skills. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, materials list the strands of early phonics development followed by a detailed section explaining each strand. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, the materials explain that kindergarten students develop phonological and phonemic awareness while simultaneously learning the Alphabetic Principle and Concepts of Print. Kindergarteners progress to rimes and digraphs, short vowels, and blends. 

  • Materials include five phonics units: 

    • Phonics, Unit 1 has 17 sessions. “Making Friends with Letters” focuses on studying peoples’ names to get to know each other and the alphabet, learning your own name by heart, and using star names to write. Lessons in Unit 1 focuses on letter-sound correspondences for the letters: M, S, T, N, R, L, A, W, D, O, H. 

    • Phonics, Unit 2 has 18 sessions. “Word Scientists” focuses on studying the alphabet and the alphabet chart, using the alphabet to write.

    • Phonics, Unit 3 has 17 sessions. “Word Part Power” focuses on writing power, word part power, and word parts, and digraphs. 

    • Phonics, Unit 4 has 19 sessions. “Vowel Power” focuses on vowels in every word, distinguishing short vowel sounds; and vowels in bigger words.

    • Phonics, Unit 5 has 20 sessions. “Playing with Phonics” focuses on playing with sounds, writing longer words, playing with phonics poems, and phonics projects.

• Materials have a limited research-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, the materials state decades of research are used as the base of the phonics sequence.

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, the materials state the sequence for study of phonics in the materials follows research. Materials reference Bear’s Words Their Way, Cunningham’s Phonics They Use, Fundations, Fountas and Pinnell’s Phonics Lessons, or “many other programs”. 

• Materials provide limited opportunities for students to develop orthographic and phonological processing. For example:

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, introductory materials explain that each phonics unit is designed to be taught concurrently with a writing and a reading unit of study. The writing and reading units of study use a Writer’s and Reader’s workshop structure to create daily opportunities for students to apply phonics lessons to authentic reading and writing; however, these opportunities are not explicit in the materials, and students may not have opportunities to develop orthographic and phonological processing skills fully. 

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1o.

Materials provide teachers with a sequence of letter instruction and a consistent routine for explicit instruction for all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. While the sequence and routine are explained in the teacher materials, the actual lessons in the units do not explicitly include instruction for all letters. Although the phonics scope and sequence for letter knowledge lists some of the letters: a, d, k, l, m, n, o, r, s, t, w to be taught in Kindergarten and there is an assessment, the teacher is directed to use students’ names to guide the introduction of letters and to repeat lesson activities and ideas for instruction for the rest of the letters of the alphabet as needed for students. Small Groups to Support Phonics provides some additional instructional opportunities for specific alphabet and letter knowledge for students who would benefit from additional support. Materials lack frequent opportunities for students to practice identifying, locating, and naming all 26 letters. While this practice may naturally occur in the Reading and Writing Workshop context, explicit links to ensure student practice of these skills are largely absent. Print concepts lessons are limited in frequency and do not explicitly address all print concepts standards. Lessons within the materials include limited references to print concepts, such as spacing, left to right reading, top to bottom reading but are missing opportunities to teach students the importance of each of these skills and how to use them in their reading. Opportunities are limited for students to have direct, explicit instruction in the concepts of print skills of how a book works, reading words from left to right, parts of a book, and the concept of a word with spaces between words in print. Instruction for concepts of print is presented implicitly, and students are encouraged to engage with books during reading unit sessions and Reading Workshop.

• Materials provide students with limited opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). For example: 

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 11, the teacher gives students letter cards for all 26 letters and a picture from the alphabet chart matching each letter. Partners touch each letter, say the letter’s name and sound, and match the letter to its picture. 

• Materials provide opportunities to engage in practice locating all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 6, the teacher conducts a mini-lesson having students compare and contrast letters in children’s names. Students practice looking at names and comparing the names to the elephant puppet’s name Mabel. For Rug Time, students search the room for words and compare the letters to the star names. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 7, the teacher tells students they can use an alphabet chart to find letters quickly when writing. The teacher says the word puppy and asks students to point to the letter on the alphabet chart they would need to start writing puppy. The teacher continues with picture cards. The teacher holds up the card, and students point to the first letter in the word. Students practice with partners. 

• Materials provide opportunities to engage in naming all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 17, the teacher holds up a few magnetic letters, asking students to read the letter, make the letter’s sound, and point to someone whose name starts with that sound. Students sing the alphabet song. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 1, the teacher leads students in reading the alphabet chart naming only consonants. The teacher points to each letter, skipping vowels, and students name the letter. The teacher and students repeat the process naming only vowels.

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group12, the teacher shares with students that the alphabet chart is a tool to find out how to make letters and identify letters and their sounds. The teacher gives students an alphabet chart and magnetic letters. Students choose a magnetic letter, say the letter name and sound, and place it on the chart. 

• Materials do not contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase). For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Orientation, materials instruct teachers to use their students’ names to introduce all 26 letters, roughly following a suggested sequence. Teachers will follow a routine of identifying each new letter’s name, sound, and formation pathway and generating words that begin with that letter. The routine is explicitly included in lessons for the letters M, S, T, N, and W. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 3, the teacher posts a capital and lowercase M card onto the easel. The teacher and students say, whisper, and shout the letter’s name together. The teacher models the M phoneme for students. The teacher tells students that now they will learn to write the letter in two ways, as an uppercase and lowercase letter. The teacher models how to write the capital M in the air, and students follow along. Students write the letter in the air with their invisible markers. The teacher asks students to imagine the times they would write the letter m. 

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 8, materials outline the routine for learning new letters using the letter V. The teacher coaches students through naming the letter, saying the sound, writing the uppercase and lowercase, and generating words that begin with the same sound. 

• There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. For example: 

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Orientation, materials state, “The way that the unit unfolds is that you’ll use your children’s names and the letters in those names, to teach phonics concepts. You’ll draw names from a ‘Star Jar’, doing some quiet machinations so that you control the sequence of names and in the way, challenge your class to study letters in a sequence that roughly matches one we argue for in the Phonics Units of Study, Grades K-1.” The suggested sequence is listed as M S T N A R L D F I V P K X E B Z J O C H U W G Q Y

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the recommended sequence prioritizes letters used frequently when writing. 

• Materials include frequent and adequate tasks and questions about how to follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page. For example:

  • In Reading, Unit 1, Session 4, the teacher tells students they will learn that when readers read books, they should read the cover first, then the first page, and continue reading the pages until they get to the end of the book. The teacher models reading the cover, turning to the title page and the first page, and reading each page until they get to the end of the book. During conferring and small group work time, the teacher can assess students’ concepts about print skills using a chart that includes book handling, pictures vs. print, left to right/top to bottom, page sequencing, letter vs. word, return sweep, and 1:1 matching, punctuation, letter name ID, letter sound, and high-frequency words. 

  • In Reading, Unit 2, Session 2, materials direct teachers to observe students’ understanding of directionality during workshop time. To support directionality, the teacher coaches students to put a finger in the top-left corner of the page then models left to right directionality with a return sweep. Materials suggest additional support of placing a sticker or star on the page to remind students where to start reading.

• Materials include frequent and adequate tasks and questions about how to recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. For example:

  • In Reading, Unit 1, Session 1, the teacher takes the Kindergarten class into the hallway to point out the environmental print to explain that words are composed of letters written in a sequence. Working in pairs, students try reading words in different parts of the school building, e.g., Bathroom, Paper Towels, Hand Dryer, Wash Your Hands. 

  • In Reading, Unit 1, Session 8, the teacher supports students in reading words by connecting the word, sound, and letter. Students are encouraged to search for the word in other places on the page. 

• Materials include frequent and adequate tasks and questions about how to understand that words are separated by spaces in print. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 1, the teacher models writing a sentence, leaving spaces between words. The teacher coaches students as they write sentences on their whiteboards. Possible coaching moves noted for the teacher include: don’t forget to leave spaces. Students then line up, and the teacher tells students they are like a sentence, reminding them of the importance of leaving a space between words. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 5, Session 1, students line up in a single-file line. The teacher tells students that the line is like a sentence, then the teacher “reads” the sentence by pointing to each child and saying their name. The teacher tells students that the spaces between children in the line are important and models reading the names garbled together without spaces. Students practice “reading” the names in the line, leaving spaces between names.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1p.

Kindergarten materials provide explicit instruction in high-frequency words and regular opportunities across Phonics, Reading, and Writing units for students to practice identifying, spelling, and writing high-frequency words in isolation. Materials include a sufficient number of high-frequency words called snap words. A standard process for learning new snap words includes, “Read it! Study it! Spell it! Write it! Use it!” Materials have a limited selection of emergent-reader texts in the form of poems, songs, and a selection of decodable texts. Reading of the provided emergent texts is often done through Shared Reading opportunities in which the text is displayed on a document camera. However, student practice of what is taught by the teacher in Shared Reading includes students using books provided in their book bags, which may not contain the newly taught words. Students reread trade books by memorization as well as by using letter and picture clues. While the materials include explicit instruction in applying letter-sound knowledge to decode words, there are limited opportunities for students to explicitly practice decoding skills using decodable texts to build toward automaticity and accuracy. The reading units mainly utilize a cueing system for solving unknown words that focus on the initial sound and meaning cues rather than on decoding strategies. 

• Limited opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read emergent-reader texts. For example:

  • Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

    • In Reading, Unit 3, Session 2, following a mini-lesson on using a pattern when reading a book to help read almost every page and know what the book is about, the teacher engages students in a Shared Reading of a teacher-selected Level C text that has a pattern. Students read in unison and then whisper read the text as they discover the pattern presented in the text and use the pattern to decode. Students are encouraged to notice and use patterns as they read from their book bags for the Reading Workshop. 

    • In Reading, Unit 3, Session 5, the teacher models monitoring for meaning and structures when reading “Cat and Mouse”. Students practice reading a page with a partner and ask themselves if what they read makes sense and sounds right. The teacher invites students to read, and they are reminded to check their reading and try to fix it when it does not make sense or sound right. 

• Materials do not support students’ development of automaticity and accuracy of grade-level decodable words over the course of the year. Minimal evidence is found in the materials, for example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 14, the teacher leads students in “The Vowel Shield Song.” At the end of each verse, the teacher writes a CVC word, and students read the word and point to the matching vowel on their vowel shields. 

• Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 13, the teacher introduces the process for learning new high-frequency words or snap words. The teacher writes the word me and reads it to students. The teacher shows students the “How to Learn a Word” anchor chart and reads through the following steps: “Read it! Study it! Spell it! Write it! Use it!” The teacher guides students to practice each step with the word me. Students read the word, observe and share characteristics of the word, spell it orally, pretend to write it with their finger while the teacher models the letter formation pathway for each letter, then find a place in their writing to use the word. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 3, the teacher introduces the snap words look, at, and see. The teacher follows the routine for learning high-frequency words: “Read it! Study it! Spell it! Write it! Use it!” 

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 1, the teacher introduces the new snap word can. The teacher uses the familiar process of learning snap words: “Read it! Study it! Spell it! Write it! Use it!” 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 18, the teacher introduces the snap word for. The teacher displays the anchor chart, “How to Learn a Word” and guides students to practice each step with the word for. Students read the word, observe and share characteristics of the word, spell it orally, pretend to write it with their finger while the teacher models the letter formation pathway for each letter, and then generate a sentence using the word and share it with a partner. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 5, Session 1, the teacher introduces new snap words: come, are, too, from. The teacher uses the familiar process of learning snap words: “Read it! Study it! Spell it! Write it! Use it!” 

• Students have opportunities to read and practice high-frequency words in isolation. For example:

  • Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

    • In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 11, the teacher adds new snap words to the class snap word chart. The teacher leads students in a choral reading of the snap word chart, pointing to each word as they read. The teacher challenges students to read the snap words in a different order and changes the order of the word cards on the chart. A student leads the class in a choral reading of the words, pointing to each word as they read. The teacher and students repeat the process. 

    • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 2, the teacher introduces a game to practice reading and writing snap words. In partners, one student chooses a snap word from their snap word pouch and reads the word. The other student spells the word on a whiteboard. The reader and writer compare and the writer makes any needed corrections to their spelling. Students switch roles and continue.

• Materials include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress. For example:

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the materials indicate that the Kindergarten materials explicitly teach about 50 high-frequency words. The order of words prioritizes high-utility words for emergent reading and writing. 

  • Kindergarten materials include:

    • Unit 1: me, a, the, I, like, my

    • Unit 2: look, at see, here, is this, it, in, an, and

    • Unit 3: can, to, do, we, be, me, got, went, was, she, he

    • Unit 4: am, did, how, you, on, up, fun, get, day, play, say, for

    • Unit 5: come, are, too, love, all, ball, had, will, go, so, no, by, has, as, her, him

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Kindergarten materials provide instruction and practice in encoding words in connected tasks. As new word recognition and analysis skills are introduced, both the Phonics and Writing units provide opportunities for students to apply skills to writing sentences. Materials include opportunities to learn about one-to-one correspondences, syllable segmentation, rime and onset recognition, long and short vowel spellings, and identification of letter sounds and practice skills in isolation. The materials contain some opportunities to apply word recognition and analysis skills to decoding in connected texts. Materials include student copies of a limited selection of songs, poems, and emergent-reader texts to support instruction. Students are cued to practice newly learned concepts during Reading Workshop using their individual bags of books. However, it is unknown what text students read to connect and apply concepts. While the materials state that a leveled library with decodable texts is important, the materials do not provide these texts. 

• Materials support students’ development to learn to demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant in connected text and tasks. For example: 

  • In Reading, Unit 2, Session 8, the teacher models using “sound power” to tackle tough words. The teacher explains that using sound power means that students use the sound of the first letter to help read the word. The teacher models using the first sound to help read a demonstration text. Students practice using the first sound of a word when reading pages in a demonstration text. The teacher encourages students to use sound power when reading their texts.  

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 4, the teacher introduces the letter S. After following the routine to learn a new letter, the teacher models revising writing to include the newly-taught letters M and S. The teacher points out words and pictures in a piece of shared writing that contain the /m/ and /s/ sounds, then adds the letters to the pictures or words. Students check their writing and add M and S as needed to their writing.

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 3, the teacher demonstrates writing the word folder by saying the word slowly, listening for and identifying each sound, and recording fldr on a chart. Using sentence strips and a marker, students work with partners to record the letter sounds they hear in words that the teacher dictates, e.g., fountain, sink, counters, computer, whiteboard, bookcase.

• Materials provide limited support for students' development to learn to associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels in connected text and tasks. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 4, the teacher tells students that when they write a word, they say each sound in the word and listen for the vowel. The teacher models using CVC words to write a sentence that means something. The teacher uses letter cards to build the word dad, then orally generates the sentence, “I see Dad dig.” The teacher guides students to write the sentence, focusing on the medial vowel sounds. Partners continue the story, adding sentences, and focusing on medial vowel sounds in words. Students do not practice the long vowel sound in this activity. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 4, Session 9, students use picture cards of CVC words to generate and write sentences using CVC words. The teacher models saying the sentence, counting the words, then writing the words, focusing on the vowel sounds. Students do not practice the long vowel sounds in this activity. 

  • In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 31, the teacher reads a poem called “The Case of the Silent E”  with VCe words but intentionally reads the words as short vowel words, not long vowel words. Students give a thumbs down if a word is read wrong.  When cued, the teacher stops and shows the word in the poem and how it looks with the VCe not VCV pattern. The teacher prompts students when you see a word with the e at the end, it’s going to make a different sound. The teacher models the words without an e and with an e for students to see the difference. Students reread the poem with a partner. 

• Materials provide limited support for students’ development to learn to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ in connected text and tasks. For example:

  • In Phonics, Unit 1, Session 1, the teacher uses the song, “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” to practice changing the initial sound of a word. Materials include student copies of the song lyrics. The teacher leads the class through the song multiple times, changing the lyrics to rhyme with a student’s name. Students say the student’s name by changing the initial sound to match a student in the class. 

  • In Phonic, Unit 5, Session 11, the teacher conducts a mini-lesson to generate word lists using the rimes ick, ell, uck, ow, and og. The teacher first shares a rhyming word poem with the students and has students snap their fingers when they hear a rhyme in the poem. Together with the teacher, students produce a list of words that rhyme with cow, and the teacher creates a short poem using the words created. Then, partners list words that rhyme with duck to make a poem.

• Materials provide opportunities to read high-frequency words in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Reading, Unit 2, Session 4, the teacher conducts a mini-lesson on using a pointer to read snap words while reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear. The teacher models stopping reading at the snap word you and shows students how as a reader, the teacher recognized that word in a snap. The teacher continues reading with the students and stops to connect the word see as one of the snap words on the word wall. The teacher emphasizes how the words on the class word wall can be found in a text, and students know them in a snap. Students read copies of a familiar text, such as a class book, and use their pointer under snap words they read. 

• In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 3, the teacher displays the poem, “I Look Closely.” The teacher asks students to notice snap words in the poem, then reads the poem, pointing under each word. Students give a thumbs up if they hear a snap word. Students read the poem. 

• In The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 11, materials explain that the program is designed in a manner that provides Kindergarten students with  frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words in their trade books baskets and related games and activities.

• Lessons and activities provide students many opportunities to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills while encoding (writing) in context and decoding words (reading) in connected text and tasks. For example:

• In Phonics, Unit 2, Session 12, the teacher displays a letter “written” by the class mascot. The letter contains four words that are missing the final sound, indicated by a blank line replacing the final letter at the end of the words bear, best, friend, and school. The teacher reads the letter with students, and students fill in the missing letters to complete the words. 

• In Phonics, Unit 5, Session 4, the teacher shares copies of the poem “I Speak, I Say, I Talk”. The teacher leads students in a shared reading of the title and first four lines of the poem, asking students to pay attention to blends and give a thumbs up when they read a word with a blend. As students read, the teacher highlights the blends. Students continue reading the poem with partners, highlighting blends as they read. 

• In The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 11, materials explain that the program is designed in a manner that expects Kindergarten students to participate in daily teacher-led interactive writing to help children “problem solve” new words together. 

• Materials include decodable texts that contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. For example:

  • In Phonics, “A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study,” Chapter 2, the materials state that a leveled library that includes decodable texts will be important for students to practice decoding CVC words. The materials do not include these decodable texts. 

  • Five decodable readers for cumulative review are available online in Unit 3. 

    • Story #1 Mabel's Cat

    • Story #2 Mabel's Kit

    • Story #3 The Wigs

    • Story #4 The Pop

    • Story #5 Mabel's Dog

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 10, the teacher displays the decodable book “My Win” and models applying phonics skills to read the text. The teacher models identifying and blending onset and rime to decode words on the cover and the first page. Students read individual copies of “My Win” with partners, pointing to each word as they read. 

  • In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 13, students read the decodable rhyming book, The Bug Hug with partners. The teacher models decoding the title. Students read the three pages of the book with partners. The rhyming words in the book are decodable. The book also contains words with long vowel patterns that have not yet been introduced. 

• Materials do not include decodable texts that contain grade-level high-frequency/irregularly spelled words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

  • The program does not include a series of decodable texts designed to provide students with many controlled opportunities to read high-frequency/irregularly spelled words aligned to the scope and sequence. 

  • In Reading, Unit 3, Session 14, the teacher is prompted to “rally the class around reading more challenging texts by relying heavily on high-frequency words.” The teacher selects a familiar text that is at or above benchmark and does not have a pattern. The materials direct the teacher to use this book to demonstrate how readers can use high-frequency words when reading. The teacher models recognizing high-frequency words when reading and guides students to do the same thing with the next two pages of the demonstration text. Students read independently and use their high-frequency word power to read.  

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for Indicator 1r.

Kindergarten materials include assessments in print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and decoding, and word recognition. The materials include benchmarks for proficiency and an “If/Then” chart correlated to the assessments that provides information about which lessons, extensions, or small group lessons to use to reteach skills to students not meeting the benchmark score. The word recognition assessment includes overall attainment goals for the year but does not include benchmarks for proficiency. The materials provide the teacher with a recommended schedule of which assessment to administer that corresponds to when a particular unit of study is introduced and taught. The teacher is often encouraged to utilize the assessments as necessary to support instructional decision-making based on each student’s individual needs. Some assessments are recommended to only use parts as deemed necessary for each student. The Units of Study for Teaching Reading and Units of Study in Phonics materials sometimes present conflicting information about how and when to assess different skills. The teacher is encouraged to conduct running records during Reading Workshop to assist the teacher and student in book selection and lesson plan implementation based on student needs. Forms for running records assessments are included in the online resources, but the materials indicate that the books for these assessments must be purchased separately. Additionally, materials include general guidance on what to look for in foundational skills when completing a running record. The focus is primarily on reading comprehension and miscue analysis that focuses on MSV (meaning, structure, and visual cues). While conferring during Readers and Writers Workshop is discussed in the materials, specific guidance concerning how and when to include students' current skills and level of understanding is not provided. 

• Assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills. For example: 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, materials include five assessments for every Kindergarten student. If students “test out” of those five assessments, two assessments are to be used for Grade 1 students, and two assessments to be used for Grade 2 students. Some students will need to be tested on the suggested Kindergarten assessments beyond Kindergarten. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the text indicates assessment tools for each grade, followed by a more detailed explanation of each assessment. Some assessments include an asterisk, indicating that the assessment is also recommended in the Units of Study for Teaching Reading. The text states, “Of course, we also hope you are conducting other reading and writing assessments, including especially running records of your children’s reading and informal inventories of their writing particularly their on demand writing.”

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, materials include Kindergarten assessment tools:

    • Assessing Letter-Sound Correspondence: “Do You Know Your ABCs?” Identifying letter names of upper and lower case letters and identifying sound(s) associated with each letter. 

    • Assessing Digraph-Sound Correspondence: “Do You Know Your Digraphs?” Identifying sound(s) associated with each digraph.

    • Assessing Concepts About Print: “Help Your Teacher Read a Book”: Demonstrating knowledge of the “rules of the word” of print: text orientation, directionality, return sweep and letter versus words.

    • Assessing Phonological Awareness: Blending and Segmenting & Assessing Phonological Awareness: Rhyming, Blending, Segmenting, and Manipulating: Recognizing and producing rhymes, combining or blending parts of compound words, syllables in words, and individual phonemes into a whole word; segmenting compound words, syllables in words, and individual phonemes in words, manipulating: adding, deleting, and substituting.

    • Assessing Developmental Spelling: “Help Mabel Label a Picture Book: A Birthday Party” Recording initial consonants, final consonants, medial short vowels, and blends and digraphs when writing labels for items in pictures of a wordless book.

    • Assessing Snap Words: “Emptying Your Snap Word Pouch” Recording high-frequency and other important words with automaticity and writing high-frequency and other important words with automaticity.

    • Assessing Phonic Blending: CVC Words, CCVC words. (*The use of the word “Phonic” is a direct quote from the materials)

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of print concepts. For example:

  • In Reading, Unit 1, Session 4, during conferring and small group work time, the materials remind the teacher to informally assess students’ concepts of print by using observation and watching students’ book handling skills while moving around the room. Materials provide an example of a data sheet with key characteristics of concepts of print in a checklist. The teacher can put a checkmark next to each student demonstrating those characteristics, e.g., book handling; pictures vs. print; left to right/top to bottom; page sequence; letter vs. word; return sweep; 1:1 match; punctuation; letter name ID.

  • In Reading, The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 6, materials recommend administering the 13-point Concepts of Print assessment located in the online resources at the beginning of Kindergarten. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the materials recommend against administering to all students the same Concepts of Print assessment recommended in A Guide to the Reading Workshop. The Phonics materials suggest assessing print concepts through informal observation, then using the full assessment for students about whom the teacher has concerns. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the materials encourage the teacher to gather data about students’ print concepts. The teacher is told it is unnecessary to provide the complete assessment of concepts of print to all students. The whole concept of print assessment with 13 questions created by Marie Clay is available to the teacher on the TCRWP website and in the online resources for Units of Study in Phonics. The materials direct the teacher to use a condensed version of the full concepts of print assessment with four questions to ask individual students after teaching the first reading unit. The teacher is cued to administer the mini-assessment again to students who only got two out of four correct in a month. If students still cannot answer the four questions by December in the Kindergarten school year, it is recommended to administer the whole Marie Clay concepts of print assessment. Guidance to the teacher includes, “Even if your students come to school unsure how to handle books, chances are they’ll pick up this concept and so much more, simply by immersion in their daily work.”

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness. For example:

  • In Reading, The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 6, materials state that phonological awareness should be assessed informally by observing students during conferences and shared activities.

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, there is a recommended schedule for assessment in Kindergarten. After Unit 1, the teacher is prompted to use the phonological awareness quick assessment for blending and segmenting. The assessment allows the teacher to gather data on the student’s ability to blend two syllables, blend onset-rime, and blend phonemes. The materials direct the teacher to start assessing a skill that they believe they would like more data on. Materials state the teacher is to decide whether to assess segmenting based on the data collected on blending to make words. The teacher is cued to reassess students within a few weeks as necessary. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, materials provide assessments for assessing phonological awareness, including: 

    • Rhyming: Includes a procedure for rhyme recognition and rhyme production. To score the assessment, the teacher places a checkmark in the column if students can correctly recognize rhyming words and can produce rhyming words. Students are asked if these words rhyme with five options included. Students are also orally given words and asked to state a rhyming word - 5 words. The teacher records the date of the assessment. No scoring guidelines are included. 

    • Blending and Segmenting: “Robot Talk” includes a procedure for administering blending and segmenting assessments. To score the assessment, teachers place a checkmark in the column if students can correctly blend or segment words and include the date the student demonstrated proficiency. When students can blend/segment the word from row 6, the assessment does not need to be given again. 

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics and decoding. For example:

  • In Reading, The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 6, the teacher is told they will “want to find out which, if any, letter names and letter sounds each child can identify.” Materials tell teachers to use a “simple letter-sound identification assessment, which is available from many sources including TCRWP.” 

  • In Reading, The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 6, materials recommend informally assessing letter-sound knowledge during conferences and observations of student work by noting which letters students can identify. The materials recommend assessing students more formally in this skill if observations indicate a need.

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, materials indicate that the following assessments should be formally administered to all students: Letter-Sound Correspondence (after Unit 1, then as needed), Digraph-Sound Correspondence (after Unit 3, then as needed), Phonic Blending - Short Vowels (after Unit 4, then as needed), and Phonic Blending - Digraphs and Blends (after Unit 5). 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, materials provide an assessment for assessing letter-sound correspondence, “Do You Know Your ABC’s.” Assessment materials, procedure, scoring, interpreting the score, and letter-sound identification benchmarks are included. The teacher asks students to identify the name and sound of each letter. Benchmarks are included for letter identification and letter-sound for September, November, January, March, and June. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, materials contains an assessment for assessing digraph-sound correspondence, “Do You Know Your Digraphs.” Assessment materials, procedure, scoring, and implications for teaching are included. The teacher asks students to identify the sound of the following digraphs: sh, th, ch, wh, and ph. No benchmarks are included. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, the materials contain an assessment for blending and segmenting. It is noted that the assessment is not meant as a formal diagnostic tool but as a way to identify students who would benefit from additional support with blending or segmenting. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, the materials include an assessment for phonics blending: CVC and CCVC. The teacher sits one-on-one with the student and asks the student to read both real and nonsense words. If the student is able to decode the CVC words, directions indicate the teacher should move on to CCVC words. 

• Materials include assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis. For example: 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, materials provide a Kindergarten assessment for developmental spelling. For this assessment, the teacher gives a copy of the paper booklet called “A Birthday Party” to the student. The teacher asks the student to write their name on the back of the booklet. The teacher uses the story guide sheet and reads the transcript of the story repeating the noted words and asking the student to write those words where indicated on the booklet. Students write the words by slowly listening for the sounds. The teacher collects the booklets and scores them using the Developmental Spelling Scoring Assessment Sheet. Students earn points for various words based on the phonetic skill presented in the word they had to write, e.g., initial consonants, final consonants, short vowels, digraphs, blends. The teacher refers to a benchmark chart for the time of year the assessment is given and the desired scores. Benchmarks and administration are recommended after Unit 2, after Unit 3, and after Unit 5 of the Phonics Units of Study.

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, materials contain a Kindergarten snap words assessment to be given after Unit 3, as needed after Unit 4, and after Unit 5. For this assessment, the teacher should use the student’s individual bag of snap words. The teacher presents a word to the student and asks the student to read it aloud. If read in a snap, the teacher places a dot in the corner of the card. If the word card already has a dot in the corner, the teacher asks the student to write the snap word. If the word is written correctly, it is removed from the student’s snap word bag. The goal for Kindergarten is to read about 50 words with automaticity and write about 35 words with automaticity. 

• Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current skills/level of understanding. For example:

  • In Reading, The Guide to the Reading Workshop, Chapter 6, the materials encourage the teacher to conduct running records during Readers Workshop. Materials explain that when running records are conducted correctly, the teacher can share with students areas of strength, needs, and reading level that are used to guide book selection and lesson plan implementation. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the materials explain that the teacher needs to figure out norms against which the assessments gauge progress. The text states that determining if a child is “on track” depends on whose standards you are using. Materials say that Kindergarten is optional in some states and that Common Core Standards are no longer widely accepted across the United States, and that states that do use the standards have revised them. Materials state that one way to think about expectations is to “think about the levels of text complexity that students are able to handle at certain grade levels, and the implications those levels have on what students need to know and be able to do in phonics.” A chart details the “big work” readers need to do at corresponding phases of development and reading levels. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the materials state, “the purpose of these assessments is to check whether a child is developing phonics skills, and whether the skills are developing progressively so that you can shift your vigilance to other aspects of development. It is not really all that important to mark the difference between proficient and highly proficient phonics skills - those who are skilled with phonics will be putting most of their attention to reading and writing itself rather than AP level phonics achievements. Therefore, for students for whom reading, writing, speaking and listening appear to be progressing at pace, a detailed analysis of each minute portion of that child’s knowledge of phonics is usually not necessary. On the other hand, it is helpful for you to be able to see when phonics instruction isn’t sticking so that you can give that youngster an extra hand now, rather than waiting. If a student’s progress is worrying or puzzling you, you will want to conduct more detailed assessments to better understand what is going on. Chances are good you can make a world of difference.”

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, Assessing Concepts About Print, the teacher is told, “If children can answer these four questions soon after you teach the first unit, don’t worry, their concepts about print understanding is on track. If a child is able to answer three out of the four assessments, you might wait a month then assess again, using a different book, and these same four questions. For children who only answer one or two of the questions correctly the first time you give the assessment, or who are not able to answer all four questions by early December, you might consider giving them the full thirteen point assessment to pinpoint specific areas of confusion. With these results, you can plan small group intervention to support these children.”

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, the materials give guidance on interpreting the developmental spelling assessment. Materials state: “Benchmarks for proficiency with each feature vary, depending on the time of year you give this assessment. The chart below will help you set expectations and know when to plan additional support for students, depending on when you give this assessment.” 

• Materials provide limited support to teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. For example:

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 5, the materials state “these efficient assessments will give you the information you need, in most cases, while still being realistic in their demands on your and your students’ time. From there, you’ll be better able to use the Units of Study resources to support particular students in targeted ways. We’ve constructed an “Assessment If/Then” resource in the Appendix that can guide you from the area of need to targeted instruction. 

  • In Phonics, A Guide to Phonics Units of Study, Appendix, after administering the phonics blending assessment of CVC words, the teacher is provided a paragraph sharing implications for teaching. Materials state that “if a student is having difficulty on the phonic blending CVC assessment they will require more support. The teacher might include a phonic-blending exercise as a warm-up for shared reading by selecting words from the shared reading text and leading the student in guided practice of phonic blending.” The materials direct the teacher to address the readers' needs during conferences by coaching the student to practice decoding individual phonemes they encounter in print and blending them back together.

  • In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Unit of Study, Chapter 5, the materials indicate that the teacher should use the results of the letter-sound correspondence assessment to determine the pacing of Unit 1, moving more quickly if most students know most letters and sounds. However, the recommended schedule for assessment calls for this assessment to be used at the end of Unit 1.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills, so all students achieve mastery of foundational skills. 

Kindergarten materials provide some opportunities for the teacher to differentiate instruction for students. In the mini-lessons for phonics instruction, the teacher is often cued to support students by scaffolding their learning through provided prompts during rug time practice. Most rug time and extension activities are completed with a partner or small group. Materials indicate differentiation occurs through students practicing and applying skills and concepts in their independent reading books at their individual reading level. The teacher directs students to take learning from the lesson for that day and use it during the Reading and Writing Workshop, where students are reading books from their own book bag and writing independently. It is unclear whether every student has the opportunity to reach mastery before moving on to the next lesson’s concepts. While the reading and writing units provide small group instruction for each lesson that can be used to differentiate and support individual student needs, the phonics unit materials do not include small group instruction within each individual session. The Small Groups to Support Phonics resource is the same book for Kindergarten and Grade 1. The If...Then….Curriculum is designed for Kindergarten - Grade 2. Because the resources span grade levels, there is a limited number of lessons for specific concepts, and not all skills have an additional lesson to support students with varying needs. The Guides to the Units of Study include limited information on supporting students who are English Language Learners and students performing below grade level, but these supports are not explicitly included in lessons within Units of Study. While opportunities for acceleration for students working above grade level may occur naturally in the Reading and Writing Workshop format, there is no guidance for supporting above-level students. The materials call for students to have access to texts at their reading level as a means of differentiation, but these texts are not included with the materials; and leveled reading would not guarantee students are practicing the skills taught during foundational skills instruction. 

Materials do not provide strong strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

• Materials include online Spanish resources, which have teaching points for each session written in Spanish and anchor charts translated into Spanish. 

• In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 4, the materials explain that the teacher will lead small group lessons daily during reading and writing workshop time to give students who need it more practice with foundational skills. The small group lessons are detailed in a Teacher Guide, Small Groups to Support Phonics, and determined by the assessments indicated in the assessment schedule. Materials suggest that, among others, students who are English language learners and students with dyslexia will benefit from small group foundational skills instruction in addition to whole-group instruction. 

• In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, the materials state, “The most important thing you can do is listen when your ELL speaks to assess the sounds that he or she is confusing and coach immediately. Ask the child to study your mouth and even the placement of your tongue as you make a sound--invite him or her to copy you and practice isolating the tricky sound. Even a small bout of deliberate, multisensory oral practice, either tucked into a one-on-one conference or as part of small-group work, will reap tremendous benefits in helping with pronunciation.”

Materials provide limited strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

• In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics K-1, Orientation, materials state that the provided small group lessons occur during Reading and Writing Workshop, and the main goal of the 5-7 minute small group lessons is to transfer all that the teacher teaches during phonics time into their reading and writing. Small group lessons are also recommended to individualize instruction based on assessments to support phonics learning. 

• In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, the materials indicate the teacher should provide students with flexibility in expressing what they know by offering alternatives to whiteboards such as magnetic letters, iPads, or voice-activated technology when appropriate. 

• In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 1, materials state that the whole-group nature of the phonics lessons means that “utterly crucial” differentiation for individual students will take place in small group work during the writing workshop, reading workshop, “choice time, and other stolen moments throughout your day.” Small group work is guided by the assessment-driven Small Groups to Support Phonics.

• In Phonics, A Guide to the Phonics Units of Study, Chapter 2, materials state, “There will inevitably be children for whom additional, explicit instruction is needed. If you find that a student, even with much small-group support, is not developing a strong foundation of phonological awareness, you might decide to collaborate with an Orton-Gillingham trained specialist, to provide that student with additional support using specialized techniques such as multisensory instruction.” Materials suggest students who have been diagnosed as dyslexic be provided a small group phonics curriculum that is “especially designed for that youngster instead of participating in your whole class units. Wilson Phonics is one good place to look for help with this.” 

• In Reading, If...Then...Curriculum, Introduction, it is recommended that the teacher looks across more than one grade level’s curriculum to meet students’ needs. It is also suggested that teachers support students by providing extra reading time each day to provide intervention and extra time for reading for all students. 

• In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Introduction, materials state lessons are not meant to be progressed through in a chapter by chapter fashion, but to be used for the teacher to “dip in and out of these chapters in ways that respond to your children’s needs and interests.” 

• In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 2, the teacher leads a small group of students who have not demonstrated proficiency in concepts of print or rhyming. The teacher compares blending syllables to making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The teacher models saying and clapping the syllables in the word lollipop, then using a hand gesture like squishing a sandwich together to blend the syllables into the word. Students practice in partners with their names. The teacher gives students the following picture cards: cupcake, birthday, brownie, rabbit, flashlight, basketball, dinosaur, butterfly, banana, watermelon, caterpillar, and alligator. Students practice segmenting and blending the syllables of the words.

• In Phonics, Unit 3, Session 3, the teacher models, and students practice saying a word slowly, listening to and recording the sounds. Possible coaching moves are included in the sidebar for teachers to use to support students, as needed. The guidance includes: Say the word slowly. Say it again; Catch that sound in your mouth. Which sound do you hear? What letter makes that sound? Look at the alphabet chart if you’re not certain. You heard a few sounds in that word. Say it again, slowly, and try to hear more sounds. Think about where that sound goes. Does it go at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word? 

Materials do not regularly provide extensions and/or advanced opportunities to engage with foundational skills at greater depth for students who read, write, speak, and/or listen above grade level.

• While the materials offer extensions for each daily lesson, extensions are not designated to be for students to engage with foundational skills at a greater depth. Additionally, extensions do not consistently align with the lesson focus and, at times, introduce a new skill. Materials do not indicate how or when to use extension activities. 

• In Phonics, Small Groups to Support Phonics, Small Group 17, the teacher activates letter-sound knowledge with magnetic letters. Students then become word wizards and add labels to their writing. It is suggested that teachers can replicate this lesson with sentences. Possible coaching moves are included in the sidebar.