1st Grade - Gateway 3
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Teacher and Student Supports
| Score | |
|---|---|
Gateway 3 - Meets Expectations | 88% |
Criterion 3.1: Teacher Supports | 11 / 13 |
Criterion 3.2: Student Supports | 4 / 4 |
Criterion 3.3: Intentional Design |
The Wilson Fundations materials meet expectations for Gateway 3 by providing coherent teacher supports, embedded student supports, and intentional design features that facilitate effective implementation of foundational skills instruction. Materials include point-of-use guidance, detailed instructional routines, and adult-level explanations that support consistent delivery of phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and fluency. Lessons follow a structured, research-based design with coordinated whole-group and small-group instruction, embedded review, and guidance for reteaching, though pacing varies across some units and may require teacher adjustment to ensure full coverage of grade-level skills. Instructional tools and family-facing resources are clearly defined and support consistent implementation and home–school connections. Student supports include small-group guidance, embedded differentiation, and visual and oral-language scaffolds, including supports for multilingual learners, while representation in texts is primarily surface-level with limited guidance for incorporating students’ cultural and community backgrounds. Digital tools and visual design features support instruction through aligned teacher-directed and student-interactive resources, though some inconsistencies in organization and access require additional navigation. Foundational skills standards are not embedded within lesson-level materials or assessments and are instead provided through separate alignment resources. Overall, the materials provide strong, coherent support for instructional delivery, teacher understanding, and student access, with some limitations in pacing consistency, culturally responsive guidance, and ease of access.
Criterion 3.1: Teacher Supports
Materials include embedded guidance to support effective implementation of foundational skills instruction and build teacher knowledge of grade-level expectations.
The Wilson Fundations materials meet expectations for Gateway 3 by providing coherent teacher supports, embedded student supports, and intentional design features that facilitate effective implementation of foundational skills instruction. Materials include point-of-use guidance, detailed instructional routines, and adult-level explanations that support consistent delivery of phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and fluency. Lessons follow a structured, research-based design with coordinated whole-group and small-group instruction, embedded review, and guidance for reteaching, though pacing varies across some units and may require teacher adjustment to ensure full coverage of grade-level skills. Materials also include family-facing resources written in accessible language to support understanding of foundational skills and reinforce learning at home. Instructional tools and manipulatives are clearly identified and aligned to specific purposes within lessons, supporting consistent implementation across routines.
However, foundational skills standards are not embedded within lesson-level materials or assessment documents, and alignment is provided through separate crosswalk resources. Overall, the materials provide strong, coherent support for instructional delivery and teacher understanding, with some limitations in pacing consistency and direct standards alignment.
Indicator 3a
Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to supporting students’ foundational literacy development.
The teacher guidance in Wilson Fundations meets the expectations for Indicator 3a. Materials provide well-defined resources for presenting content and instructional routines, including detailed explanations of learning activities that outline procedures, materials, timing, targeted skills, and expected student outcomes. Daily lessons consistently identify the unit and week and include structured plans with step-by-step instructional guidance and embedded supports such as review and current word lists and corrective feedback. Materials also include point-of-use annotations and suggestions within lessons that support implementation aligned to specific learning objectives. Additional reference tools, such as Activity Cue Cards, provide support for consistent implementation of instructional routines.
Materials provide a well-defined, teacher resources for presenting content and instructional routines.
In the Teacher’s Manual, materials present instructional routines with explanations and rationales for teacher implementation. These explanations can be found in several places:
The Learning Activity Overview provides a list of the Fundations Learning Activities in alphabetical order. The teacher is guided to prepare for an activity by reading the Learning Activity Overview prior to the lesson within which they will present that activity until the students reach automaticity with the Learning Activity routines.
For example, for the Learning Activity Dictation/Words (Multisyllabic Words), the Learning Activity overview provides a suggested time frame for the activity, a synopsis of the activity, the activity procedure, corrective feedback, and differentiation to provide students during the activity. The Learning Activity also provides a summary of the activity within a box titled “In a Nutshell.” In this box, the teacher can find a quick snapshot of activity procedures, the materials needed for the teacher and students to implement the activity, and the student outcomes that the activity is meant to support. Finally, the activity also includes a summary of the specific skills this activity targets within the box titled “Skill Focus.” According to the materials, this particular activity focuses on the literacy skills of phonological and phonemic awareness as well as word recognition and spelling. Each Fundations Learning Activity overview includes similar levels of detail that support the teacher presenting content and instructional routines with fidelity.
Each daily lesson clearly identifies the unit and week and includes a structured daily plan with student learning goals, required teacher materials, and step-by-step instructional guidance. Lessons outline consistent instructional routines that guide teachers through instruction and targeted practice. For example, in Grade 1, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 1, the lesson includes routines such as Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, Word Play, and Introduce New Concept, during which students are taught base words and the suffix -s. Instruction includes explicit guidance for marking words, recording learning in the Student Notebook, and using word resources to support application. Materials also include embedded supports such as review and current word lists and corrective feedback to support instructional delivery throughout the lesson.
Activity Cue Cards can be found in the Appendix and serve as a reference for activities and instructional routines that are presented in each lesson. The materials suggest that the teacher have the Cue Cards available during a lesson for quick reference.
Materials include annotations and suggestions to support implementation, presented in the context of specific learning objectives.
In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the materials include a note for the teacher that supports implementation of the activity as aligned with the learning objective of introducing glued sounds ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, and unk. The note reminds teachers that “when saying the letter-keyword-sound for glued sounds, say each letter individually when saying the letter(s).” The note provides the example of the teacher saying a n and g separately, saying the keyword fang, and then saying the glued sound /ang/.
In Unit 9, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the materials include a suggestion for the teacher that supports implementation of the activity as aligned with the learning objective of introducing closed syllables and open syllables. Within the context of the activity, the materials guide the teacher to “avoid using h, r, y, and wat the end [of a word] (ah, bar, bay, saw). These are not closed syllables. Do not explain them yet, just avoid them!”
Indicator 3b
Materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program so teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.
The adult-level explanations in Wilson Fundations meet the expectations for Indicator 3b. Materials contain full, detailed explanations of foundational skills concepts so the teacher can strengthen their knowledge of the content as needed. Teacher-facing resources describe the research base of the program, outline key foundational skills components, and explain how these skills develop across instruction. Program resources also explain the linguistic reasoning behind instructional approaches and describe how grade-level skills are introduced and practiced within the instructional sequence.
Complete, detailed adult-level explanations are provided for each foundational skill taught at the grade level.
According to the Teacher Manual Preface under the section “Skills and Procedures Taught in Fundations,” the materials provide adult-level explanations of the foundational skills addressed in Grade One. These explanations define each skill, explain its linguistic basis, and describe how it is systematically taught within the program. The prefatory sections include the following, but are not limited to:
Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness:
The materials define phonological awareness as a broad term related to the sounds of language and explain the hierarchy of awareness, including word awareness, syllable awareness, and phoneme awareness. The prefatory section further defines a phoneme as the smallest unit of sound in a language that can be distinguished from another sound. It explains that phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are comprised of individual phonemes that can be combined to form whole words in oral language, segmented to isolated individual sounds, and manipulated within spoken words.
Alphabet Knowledge and the Alphabetic Principle: Key Linkages Between Letter Name, Sound, and Formation:
The materials explain the relationship between letter names, sounds, and correct letter formation and describe how these components are explicitly connected during instruction to support understanding of the alphabetic principle.
Phonics and Word Study: Instruction for Decoding, Word Recognition, and Spelling:
The section provides a rationale for systematic phonics instruction, explaining how students progress from simple to more complex word structures and how decoding and encoding are intentionally integrated.
Fluency:
The materials explain the role of accuracy and automaticity in developing fluent reading and describe how connected text reading supports expression and prosody.
Detailed examples of the grade-level foundational skills concepts are provided for the teacher.
According to the Unit Introductions, Learning Activity Overviews, and the Fundations Readers Teacher Guide, the materials provide instructional examples illustrating how foundational skills are enacted in daily lessons.
Learning Activity Overviews:
Each activity includes a synopsis explaining the instructional focus and detailed procedures for implementation. For example, in Dictation/Words for single-syllable words, the synopsis explains that students segment sounds and spell words to develop independent spelling and reinforce understanding of word structure through marking up words. The procedure directs the teacher to say a word selected from the unit resources and hold up a visual cue for Echo as students repeat the word. Students tap the sounds in the word, such as /m/ /a/ /t/ for mat, and rather than blending the word again, students keep the word segmented and determine the letter or letters that correspond to each tap before writing. For words containing a suffix, the procedure directs students to identify whether the word includes a suffix, state and spell the base word first, tapping if necessary, and then add the suffix. The overview explains that isolating phonemes orally before writing emphasizes phoneme segmentation and supports accurate spelling of both base words and inflected forms.
Unit Introductions:
Unit introductions provide detailed descriptions of the specific phonics concepts taught and explain the linguistic reasoning behind instructional routines. For example, in Unit 3, the materials explain that digraphs wh, ch, sh, th, and ck consist of two letters that work together to represent one sound and therefore appear on one card. The introduction clarifies that the digraph th represents two sounds, including the unvoiced /th/ as in thumb and the voiced /th/ as in this, and specifies that students are first taught the unvoiced /th/ because it is more common. The materials provide the keyword thumb and the corresponding sound to support consistent instruction. These explanations provide the teacher with examples of how phonics concepts are introduced, modeled, and linguistically framed within the unit.
Fundations Readers Teacher Guide:
The guide explains the instructional purpose of decodable texts and provides a structured Teaching Plan framework for initial and subsequent readings. The materials describe teacher modeling during first reads, including reading fluently with expression and prosody, supporting comprehension, promoting enjoyment, checking vocabulary understanding, and demonstrating concepts of print such as left-to-right tracking and return sweep. Subsequent readings include echo, choral, paired, and independent formats to support fluency development.
Indicator 3c
Foundational skills lessons are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Content can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.
The lesson design and pacing in Wilson Fundations partially meet the expectations for Indicator 3c. Materials use a structured lesson format that organizes instruction through multiple learning activities aligned to foundational literacy skills and guided by principles of explicit, sequential, cumulative, and multimodal instruction. Lessons incorporate both whole-group and small-group instructional components, and unit learning plans outline the sequence of daily activities within each lesson. The scope and sequence is designed to be completed within a regular school year and includes guidance for extending instruction when students do not demonstrate mastery. However, some units include variable pacing ranges. As a result, the teacher may need to determine pacing adjustments to ensure all foundational skills are completed within the instructional year.
Lesson plans utilize effective, research-based lesson plan design for early literacy instruction.
In the Teacher’s Manual, Skills and Procedures Taught in Fundations, the materials state that each Fundations lesson consists of 2-5 Learning Activities. In Figure 2: Fundations Level 1 Learning Activities and Skills, each Fundations Learning Activity is aligned with at least one Foundational Literacy Skill (e.g. Print Concepts, Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Word Recognition and Spelling, and Automaticity/Fluency). For example, the Fundations Learning Activity Word of the Day is said to align with the foundational skills of print concepts, word recognition and spelling, and automaticity/fluency.
In the Teacher’s Manual, Principles of Instruction, the materials state that core instruction is “explicit, sequential, cumulative, and multimodal.” The materials then go on to explain each of these components. For example, as an illustration of how to provide targeted positive and corrective feedback in alignment with these principles, the materials state that the key to providing aligned feedback is “to provide the feedback immediately and efficiently to maximize the learning opportunity.”
The effective lesson design structure includes both whole group and small group instruction.
In the Teacher’s Manual, Fundations for Whole Class General Education Instruction, the materials state that the Fundations curriculum “provides all students with a solid foundation for reading and spelling.” The standard lesson occurs daily and consists of 30 minutes of “explicit instruction in foundational skill areas” within a whole-class setting. The materials state that “additional practice of up to 20 minutes for individual students or small groups with aligned Fundations products round out the complete Fundations lesson plan.” Those materials include:
FUN HUB practice, which is an interactive, online platform that provides weekly practice aligned with Fundations lessons;
Fundations Readers, which are at least 95% decodable texts aligned with unit concepts; and
Practice Books, which contain focused exercises aligned to weekly instructional goals.
According to the Fundations Level 1: 50-Minute Implementation Guide, all students should receive a 30-minute whole-class instruction and 20 minutes of small-group, focused instruction that takes place within centers, small-group settings, or independently.
The pacing of each component of daily lesson plans is clear and appropriate.
In the Teacher’s Manual, each unit includes a Student Learning Plan which provides an overview of each lesson within the unit and each Learning Activity that will occur within each lesson.
For example, each lesson within the two-week sequence of Unit 9 includes at least three, and no more than five, Learning Activities. Although the materials do not provide timing suggestions for the Introduce New Concepts section of a lesson, it is reasonable to assume from the other timings suggested in the Learning Activity Overview that each lesson would not exceed 30 minutes. This aligns with the time that the materials suggest for whole-group instruction.
According to the Fundations Level 1 Learning Community, Resource Library, Lesson Planning, Fundations Small Group Instruction Guidelines, in addition to the core lesson, the materials include guidance for an additional 20-minute targeted practice block, which may extend up to 30 minutes, during which the teacher implements small-group instruction and independent practice or centers. The materials direct the teacher to first deliver the 30-minute whole-group lesson, followed by the targeted practice block to provide additional instruction and reteaching based on student needs. This structure outlines a clear daily pacing model that organizes instruction into whole-group and small-group components within a 50-minute instructional block.
The suggested amount of time and expectations for maximum student understanding of all foundational skills content can generally be completed in one school year and should not require modification.
According to the Teacher’s Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, the Level 1 sequence is distributed as follows:
Unit 1: 2-3 weeks
Unit 2: 2-4 weeks
Unit 3: 2 weeks
Unit 4: 2 weeks
Unit 5: 1 week
Unit 6: 3 weeks
Unit 7: 3 weeks
Unit 8: 2 weeks
Unit 9: 2 weeks
Unit 10: 3 weeks
Unit 11: 3 weeks
Unit 12: 3 weeks
Unit 13: 3 weeks
Unit 14: 2 weeks
Each week within a unit includes five days of instruction. Therefore, the Fundations Level 1 sequence is designed to be completed within 33–35 weeks (165–175 days) of instruction. The materials suggest that if a class does not achieve mastery on a unit test (i.e., 80 percent of the class scoring 80 percent or better), the teacher should extend the time within the unit. The design of the sequence supports this opportunity for extension. While the scope and sequence can be completed within one school year, several units include variable pacing ranges (e.g., two to four weeks). As a result, the teacher may need to determine adjustments to ensure all skills are completed within the instructional year.
For those materials on the borderline (e.g., approximately 130 days on the low end or 200 days on the high end), evidence clearly explains how students would be able to master ALL the grade-level foundational skills standards within one school year.
According to the Level 1, Unit 1 Overview, the materials provide guidance for adjusting pacing based on students’ prior instruction. The overview explains that if students previously completed Fundations in Kindergarten, Unit 1 may be reduced to two weeks because the content functions as review. If students did not complete the Kindergarten level, the materials direct the teacher to follow the three-week plan and review skills frequently as instruction progresses through subsequent units.
Additional differentiation guidance addresses pacing when the materials are used with students who require more intensive support. The materials explain that the teacher may slow the introduction of letters, sounds, and letter formation by spending at least two days or more on each set of letters and providing additional practice with both new and previously taught letters. The guidance also emphasizes consistent verbalization of letter formation routines to support automatic letter production.
According to the Fundations Level 1 sequence, each unit includes five days of instruction, resulting in approximately 165-175 days of instruction across the year. The materials establish a mastery benchmark in which at least 80 percent of students must score 80 percent or higher on the unit assessment. When this benchmark is not met, the teacher implements a Reteach Learning Plan, using assessment data to target instruction over an additional two to five days.
According to the Fundations Level 1 Learning Community, Resource Library, Lesson Planning, Reteaching Learning Plan, Tier 1 reteaching targets specific skill gaps identified through dictation or unit test errors using a structured set of activities within a lesson block. These activities include a two-minute Drill Sounds warm-up, a ten-minute Introduce New Concepts to Reteach, a five to ten minute Word Talk activity, and/or a ten-minute Echo/Find Letters and Words activity or a ten-minute dictation/dry erase activity. These structured reteaching routines provide targeted support within a defined timeframe and allow the teacher to address unfinished learning while continuing progression through the scope and sequence.
Indicator 3d
Materials contain strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the foundational skills program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.
Materials contain jargon-free resources and processes to inform families and caregivers about the foundational skills taught at school. Resources include introductory family letters, a Parent Orientation letter describing the program’s instructional approach, unit-based parent letters outlining current skills, explanations of foundational skills terminology, teacher guidance for distributing home support materials, and recommendations for additional family reading resources. Materials also provide stakeholders with strategies and activities to support practice of foundational skills at home. Home support resources include unit-aligned take-home materials and guidance for practicing phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, spelling, sentence conventions, and early fluency. These resources support coordinated home–school communication and reinforce foundational skills instruction..
Materials contain jargon-free resources and processes to inform all stakeholders about foundational skills taught at school.
According to the Fundations Home Support Pack and Parent Orientation materials, the program provides clear, accessible communication to families about the foundational skills taught in Grade 1. Materials include, but are not limited to:
An introductory letter to families explaining that Fundations is used to teach foundational reading and spelling skills and describing the shared partnership between teacher and family in supporting student progress.
A Parent Orientation letter explaining that research supports systematic and explicit phonics instruction and clarifying that Fundations provides a structured phonics-based approach combined with reading literature.
Unit-specific parent letters that outline what students will learn in clear, family-friendly language. For example, the Unit 2 letter explains that students will develop phonemic awareness skills, blend, read, and spell short-vowel three-sound words, learn trick words, and practice capitalization, punctuation, and word spacing in sentence dictation.
Clear explanations of terms such as trick words, defined as words that contain irregular spelling or untaught elements and must be recognized automatically rather than sounded out.
Guidance for the teacher on how to distribute home support materials in structured unit-based packets, including signing introductory letters and including writing grid homework sheets.
A recommendation for families to access the brochure Helping Your Child Learn to Read: A Parent Guide: Preschool Through Grade 3, which further explains foundational reading concepts in accessible language.
These materials inform families about the instructional focus of Grade 1 foundational skills using clear explanations and structured communication processes.
Materials provide stakeholders with strategies and activities for practicing print concepts, phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, and fluency that will support students in progress toward and achievement of grade-level foundational skills standards.
According to the Fundations Home Support Pack and unit parent letters, families are provided with structured activities aligned to current classroom instruction. These supports include:
Unit-aligned take-home packets corresponding to the skills taught in class.
Writing grid homework sheets for practicing spelling and sentence dictation.
Directions for practicing the sound-tapping procedure to support blending and segmenting of phonemes.
Instructions for creating and practicing trick word flashcards to build automatic word recognition.
Suggested phonemic awareness word games, such as “I’m Thinking of an Object” and “Change That Word,” to support sound manipulation.
Guidance for practicing capitalization, punctuation, and word spacing during sentence writing.
Encouragement to support oral language development through retelling stories with detail and sequencing events.
The materials emphasize coordinated home–school practice by aligning take-home activities to the current unit of instruction and reinforcing phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, spelling, sentence conventions, and early fluency skills taught during Grade 1 instruction.
Indicator 3e
Note: Content for this indicator is fully addressed in 3b, which covers adult-level explanations and examples of foundational skills concepts. No separate scoring is required.
Indicator 3f
Materials embed consistent teacher guidance for the use of instructional tools and supports necessary for foundational skills instruction.
The teacher guidance for using instructional tools in Wilson Fundations meets the expectations for Indicator 3f. Materials consistently identify the physical tools used across foundational skills lessons and name them directly within routines so the teacher knows what to use and when. Tools are clearly referenced within lesson plans and daily routines and are aligned to specific instructional purposes across phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding, and fluency. Lesson-level annotations and program resources provide explicit guidance on how and when to use each tool, including directions for incorporating classroom materials and manipulatives within instructional routines.
Materials consistently identify tools (e.g., Elkonin boxes, letter tiles, sound walls, mirrors) within lesson routines and instructional steps.
In the Orientation, Teach the Writing Grid, the materials clearly identify how to use the writing grid to support letter formation. On the classroom board, the teacher explains all of the names of the different lines on the Writing Grid and asks students to point to each line of the grid (e.g. “Point to the sky line”, "Point to the grass line”).
In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 5, Make It Fun, the materials clearly identify the tools necessary to engage in the activity. As part of the Daily Plan box, Teacher Materials are identified. Within the specific activity, two tools are identified and explained within the instructional steps:
Standard Sound Cards: used as visual cue for student identification of letter name and sounds, as well as brainstorming words that start with the sound the letter makes; and
Baby Echo: used as a tool for students to identify Standard Sound Cards.
Materials provide teacher-facing guidance on how and when to use these tools to support instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, and encoding.
In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 4, Teach Trick Words - Reading, the materials provide teacher facing guidance for using Sentence Frames. The teacher begins by stating the sentence, “Do you like candy?” Students repeat the sentence and the students place the Sentence Frames as needed to identify where the sentence begins and ends, as well as how many words are in the sentence and what kind of punctuation should close the sentence.
The Literacy Leader letter, included with the Fundations Sample Kit physical materials, identifies and provides a description, purpose, and explanation of how each of the following items the Fundations Classroom Set should be is used. Only one example is provided in the list below.
Student Materials
Letter Board K-1
Magnetic Letter Tiles
Dry Erase Writing Tablet
Description: This is a dry erase board with two sides: one side contains the large Fundations Writing Grid for letter formation practice, and the other side has a smaller Fundations Writing Grid for dictation word.
Purpose: The Dry Erase Writing Tablet is used for letter formation practice on the large grid and for writing words on the smaller grids.
How it’s used: The Dry Erase Writing Tablet is used in activities such as Echo/Letter Formation to practice letter formation and Dictation Dry Erase for spelling activities, writing letters to match sounds, and spelling words.
Student Notebook 1
Teacher Materials
Baby Echo
Word of the Day Cards 1
Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1
Large Sound Cards 1
Standard Sound Cards 1
Trick Word Flashcards 1
Indicator 3g
Materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessments and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.
Materials do not include denotations of the foundational skills standards within formative or summative assessment materials. Assessment materials identify the skills being measured but do not label specific foundational skills standards by number or designation within the assessment documents themselves. Publisher-provided alignment documentation is available through separate crosswalk resources, which correlate foundational skills standards to units, activities, and locations within the Teacher’s Manual. However, standards are not embedded within lesson plans, tasks, questions, or assessment items, and alignment is not provided at the level of individual assessment items. Teachers must reference separate alignment documents to determine standards alignment.
Materials include denotations of the foundational skills standards being assessed in the formative assessments.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, Standards Alignment, assessment materials identify skills being assessed; however, specific foundational skills standards are not labeled by standard number or code within the formative assessment items themselves.
Materials include denotations of foundational skills standards being assessed in the summative assessments.
According to the Fundations Learning Community Standards Alignment documents, benchmark and unit assessments identify skills measured; however, specific foundational skills standards are not labeled within the assessment documents themselves. The teacher must reference separate alignment documentation to determine standards alignment.
Alignment documentation is provided for all tasks, questions, and assessment items.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, Standards Alignment, publisher-produced crosswalk documents are provided by state. These crosswalks correlate specific state standards to units, activity names, and page numbers within the Teacher’s Manual. However, alignment is not provided at the individual question or assessment item level. The documentation connects standards to broader units and activities rather than to specific assessment questions or tasks.
Alignment documentation contains specific foundational skills standards correlated to specific lessons.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, Standards Alignment, The state-specific crosswalk documents identify foundational skills standards and correlate them to particular units, activity names, and page numbers within the Teacher’s Manual. However, the Teacher Guide itself does not embed standards within lesson plans, and standards are not listed directly within individual lessons or assessments. Teachers must reference the separate crosswalk documents for standards alignment.
Indicator 3h
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Indicator 3i
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Criterion 3.2: Student Supports
Materials are designed for each child’s regular and active participation in grade-level foundational skills content and include embedded supports for student access, engagement, and differentiation.
The Wilson Fundations materials meet expectations for Criterion 3.2 by supporting students’ regular and active participation in grade-level foundational skills content and including embedded supports for access, engagement, and differentiation. Materials include guidance for organizing small-group instruction and provide structures for reteaching through centers, independent practice, and targeted group instruction aligned to assessment data. Embedded supports within core routines, including modeling, visual and tactile scaffolds, and structured practice, allow students to engage with grade-level skills while receiving targeted support, enabling multiple pathways toward mastery. Materials also include supports for multilingual learners, such as visual scaffolds, sentence stems, oral-language routines, and guidance for making cross-linguistic connections that link decoding to meaning.
Materials include visual representation of varied backgrounds through illustrations in decodable and connected texts. Representation is primarily surface-level, as cultural and community contexts are not developed within the text. Guidance for incorporating students’ cultural, linguistic, and community backgrounds into foundational skills instruction is limited. Overall, the materials provide structured supports for differentiation and language development, with more limited emphasis on culturally responsive instructional guidance.
Indicator 3j
Materials provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards.
The strategies and supports for reteaching in Wilson Fundations meet the expectations for Indicator 3j. Materials provide guidance for using small-group instruction, centers, and independent practice to support reteaching of foundational skills. Unit overviews include recommendations for focused small-group instruction using program resources and reference additional intervention guidance available through the Fundations Learning Community. The materials also include guidance for scaffolding and adapting instruction to support students who need additional support in accessing grade-level foundational skills.
Materials provide opportunities for small group reteaching.
Each unit overview provides recommendations for how to use centers, small groups, and independent practice within the unit, including focused instruction for reteaching. Small group work for focused instruction recommendations “require the teacher to facilitate and guide students through the activities and can be found on the Fundations Learning Community.”
In the Unit 1 Unit Overview, the materials guide the teacher to choose activities for small group instruction that “support students’ mastery of letter-keyword-sounds for consonants and short vowels, letter formation for lowercase letters, and alphabetical order.” The materials guide the teacher to the resources of the Fluency Kit, Fundations Practice Books, and Fundations Readers for this targeted practice.
In the Unit 11 Unit Overview, the materials guide the teacher to choose activities for small group instruction that “support students’ mastery of the vowel-consonant-e syllable type and long vowel sounds.” The materials guide the teacher to the resources of the Fluency Kit, FUN HUB Practice, Fundations Practice Books, and Fundations Readers for this targeted practice.
Materials provide guidance to the teacher for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak or listen below grade level in accessing grade-level foundational skills standards.
Each unit overview provides recommendations for differentiating instruction for students who need additional support.
In the Unit 4 Unit Overview, the materials suggest that some students may have difficulty remembering the letters that get a bonus (i.e. double when present at the end of certain words). The teacher is instructed to refer these students to the last letter in each row of their Letter Boards which are f, l, s, and z.
In the Unit 12 Unit Overview, the materials suggest that some students may have difficulty breaking words into syllables. The teacher is instructed to use the Syllable Frames and the Standard Sound Cards to visually support these students. The example provided for the word catnip emphasizes that the syllables are identified by their vowels (highlighted a different color from consonant Standard Sound Cards).
Indicator 3k
This indicator is not assessed in reviews of K-2 ELA foundational skills supplements.
Indicator 3l
This indicator is not assessed in reviews of K-2 ELA foundational skills supplements.
Indicator 3m
This indicator is not assessed in reviews of K-2 ELA foundational skills supplements.
Indicator 3n
This indicator is not assessed in reviews of K-2 ELA foundational skills supplements.
Indicator 3o
Materials provide a range of representation of people and include detailed instructions and support for educators to effectively incorporate and draw upon students’ different cultural, social, and community backgrounds to enrich learning experiences.
The Wilson Fundations materials include decodable and connected texts that provide visual representation of people from varied racial, gender, and ability backgrounds. Illustrations in Level 1 readers depict characters with different physical abilities and children of varied racial backgrounds participating in shared activities. Representation is primarily conveyed through illustration; characters’ cultural contexts, traditions, or identities are not developed within the text. Materials include general guidance acknowledging cultural and linguistic differences and encouraging respectful classroom environments. However, the program includes limited instructional guidance for the teacher on intentionally incorporating students’ cultural, linguistic, or community backgrounds into foundational skills instruction.
Decodable and connected texts provide a range of representation of people, ensuring a broad range of cultural, racial, gender, and ability backgrounds are accurately and authentically represented.
According to the Level 1 Decodable Reader, the materials include narrative texts with character illustrations that reflect a range of backgrounds and abilities.For example:
The decodable text The Color Cover includes an illustration of a character using a wheelchair, representing varied physical abilities.
The decodable text Camping, Skunks, and New Pals includes character illustrations of children of different racial backgrounds and genders engaging together in a shared camping experience.
These texts provide visual representation of people from different backgrounds and professions within connected reading contexts; however, representation is primarily conveyed through illustration, and characters’ cultural contexts, traditions, or identities are not substantively developed within the text.
Materials provide some instructions and support for teachers on incorporating and drawing upon students’ different cultural, social, and community backgrounds to enrich learning experiences.
According to the Fundations Teacher Manual, the Differentiation Support section states that fostering a positive learning environment that reflects awareness of cultural and linguistic differences is an important part of differentiated instruction. The materials explain that:
Students should be provided opportunities to respond in ways that make them feel comfortable.
Students benefit from acquiring language and skills through listening and doing.
The teacher should recognize that errors are a natural part of the learning process.
The more comfortable students feel in the classroom, the more able they are to learn.
The materials further note that some cultures may focus less on verbal interaction with young children. As a result, students may require additional support with vocabulary development or guidance in adjusting to classroom norms such as actively engaging with adults. The guidance directs the teacher to honor students’ backgrounds while helping them navigate school expectations.
This language provides acknowledgment of cultural and linguistic differences and offers general guidance for supporting students respectfully within the classroom context.
Indicator 3p
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Indicator 3q
This is not an assessed indicator in ELA.
Indicator 3.MLL
Materials provide embedded supports to help multilingual learners (MLLs) develop foundational reading and writing skills. Instruction draws on oral and home language resources and reflects the interdependence of language and literacy development.
The Wilson Fundations materials provide language and visual scaffolds to support multilingual learners, including guidance for using pictures, gestures, sentence stems, modeling, and contextual examples to support access to foundational skills instruction. Materials include guidance for cross-linguistic comparisons of sounds, word structures, and morphological patterns across languages and reference linguistic accommodation resources available through the Fundations Learning Community. Oral language development is supported through structured routines such as read-alouds, discussion prompts, peer interaction, and scaffolded speaking opportunities connected to decoding and vocabulary. Materials include guidance acknowledging that nonsense words may present challenges for MLL students and direct the teacher to clarify when words do not have meaning. Guidance also supports connecting decoding to meaning through discussion, prediction, and comprehension routines during connected text reading.
Materials include embedded language and content, and visual scaffolds (e.g., pictures, graphic organizers, anchor charts) that help MLL students access grade-level foundational skills instruction.
In the Teacher’s Manual, Learning Activity Overview, each activity provides scaffolding suggestions specifically to engage MLLs. For example, in the activity Word Talk, the materials ask the teacher to “highlight cognates when present, clarify false cognates, and use multiple contextual examples for abstract words.” The teacher is also encouraged to incorporate multimodal techniques “such as pictures and gestures.” MLLs should be encouraged to respond to prompts like, “What is this sentence telling us?” with time to rehearse their responses during the activity.
In the Fundations Learning Community, Level 1 Linguistic Accommodations for MLL digital resource, the materials provide examples of verbal, procedural, and instructional scaffolds to support MLL students to access grade-level foundational skills instruction. Activity specific scaffolds are further divided based on a student’s level of proficiency.
For example, during the Word of the Day activity, if a MLL student is at an intermediate level of proficiency, the materials suggest that the teacher “pre-teach vocabulary” in a small group setting. If a MLL student is at an advanced level of proficiency, the materials suggest the teacher use “guided questions to assist with sentences” during the activity.
Throughout the curriculum, the materials provide teacher guidance for feedback as well as scaffolds that support MLL students' access to grade-level foundational skills instruction.
Materials include modeling and cross-linguistic comparisons of phonemes, graphemes, and sound-symbol correspondences where English and home language patterns differ.
In the Fundations Learning Community, Cross-Linguistic Connections and Fundations: Level 1 digital resource, the materials provide examples of Fundations activities to make morphological comparisons across languages.
For example, in the Word of the Day activity in Units 6, 10, and 13, the materials state that “students begin to add endings to base words” and this process of adding a suffix to base words “will look different from their primary language."
In the Unit 5 Unit Overview, MLL Connections, the materials provide teacher guidance on how to deepen MLL students’ “understanding of glued sounds through the nasalized vowels introduced in this unit.” The materials state that vowels influenced by nasals are common across languages and cite examples from Spanish and Mandarin. The materials guide the teacher to encourage MLL students to “connect to [their] home language and prompt MLLs to think of words they know with similar sounds.”
Materials include tasks or routines that develop oral language as a bridge to literacy (e.g., structured speaking, listening, and vocabulary development).
In the Fundations Readers Teacher Guide, the materials note that teacher read-aloud during the initial reading is especially supportive for MLL/EB students, as it allows the teacher to activate background knowledge and support vocabulary and comprehension. Materials also recommend strategic peer pairing during echo reading and encourage use of observational and assessment data to monitor MLL progress.
In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 2, Make It Fun, the materials outline an activity where students rhyme a word that the teacher dictates with the glued -ng sound.
For example, if the teacher says the word thing, students should provide a word with the glued -ng sound that rhymes with thing and then repeat the sound that is glued in both words (i.e. ing). The materials provide a note to the teacher that “MLLs may find it difficult to identify rhyming words independently.” If this is the case for a teacher, the materials suggest that the teacher scaffolds the activity by providing choices, rather than having the student generate rhymes on their own. The materials suggest that the teacher ask, “Do kind and ring rhyme?” to support MLL students’ understanding.
Materials avoid the use of nonsense words in instruction or assessment for MLLs and may acknowledge that unfamiliar real words can function as nonsense words for these students.
In the Unit 3, Week 2, Day 1, Word Play, the materials state that “MLLs may struggle to understand that nonsense words are not meaningful.” In this situation, the teacher is encouraged to reiterate, before the activity, that these words do not have meanings. The materials further suggest that the teacher can “make a silly face or provide a visual cue to alert [students] to the nonsense words.”
Although nonsense words are included in assessment and instruction, the teacher is directed to note when a word is a nonsense word.
Materials support meaning-making through early literacy instruction, rather than emphasizing isolated decoding alone.
In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, the teacher guides students through a reading activity with the story “Cod Fish.” The teacher is instructed to ask the students to read the title of the story and then engages the students in a discussion of the title. Students are also encouraged to predict what the story might be about. The teacher then continues to work through the story with the students, analyzing characters, setting, and main events and marking words (e.g. underline digraphs, marking when and why words have capital letters) to encourage meaning-making in context.
Criterion 3.3: Intentional Design
Materials include a visual design that is engaging and supportively organized, and integrate digital technology, when applicable, with guidance for teachers.
The Wilson Fundations materials include digital technology and visual design features that support foundational skills instruction, with accompanying guidance for teachers. Digital resources, including FUN HUB Practice, provide interactive, lesson-aligned activities that reinforce phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition, and spelling, with features for assigning tasks, providing immediate feedback, and tracking student performance. Additional tools, such as InterActivities and the Unit Test Tracker, support teacher-led instruction and data analysis through interactive materials and reporting dashboards. Student engagement with digital materials occurs through both guided use and independent practice aligned to the scope and sequence.
The visual design of both print and digital materials supports learning without distraction. Consistent layouts, routines, and organizational features help students and teachers navigate lessons and reinforce instructional structures. Materials include guidance for integrating technology that explains how to access and use digital tools for instruction, practice, and data tracking; however, some inconsistencies in naming conventions and the placement of key information require navigation across multiple sections. Overall, the integration of digital resources and visual design supports instructional clarity and implementation, with some limitations in ease of access.
Indicator 3r
Materials integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.
The Wilson Fundations materials include digital technology and interactive tools that support foundational skills instruction. FUN HUB Practice provides students with access to interactive, skill-aligned activities that reinforce phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition, and spelling, along with immediate feedback and performance tracking. Additional digital tools, including InterActivities and the Unit Test Tracker, support teacher modeling and data analysis through interactive materials and reporting dashboards. The platform includes customization features that allow the teacher to assign activities, adjust settings, and monitor student performance based on instructional needs.
Digital technology and interactive tools, such as data collection tools, simulations, and/or modeling tools are available to students.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, FUN HUB digital platform, the materials include multiple integrated digital instructional and data tools aligned to Fundations instruction. These include:
FUN HUB Practice, which provides weekly interactive literacy activities aligned to the Fundations scope and sequence. The teacher can assign activities by Unit and Week.
Four weekly digital practice activities designed to reinforce targeted literacy skills taught during classroom instruction.
Real-time reporting dashboards that display student performance on completed activities.
Itemized Scoring Reports that allow the teacher to review prompts, targeted concepts, correct responses, and student errors.
Student-facing login access with individual usernames and passwords for completing assigned activities.
Student voice recording functionality embedded within specific activities.
The Unit Test Tracker (UTT), a digital data tool for entering, analyzing, and reporting End-of-Unit assessment results.
Skills Reports within UTT that display class and student performance across literacy skill sections over time using color-coded indicators.
Fundations InterActivities, which provide digital versions of Teacher’s Kit materials, including Standard Sound Cards and Word of the Day, for interactive use with smart board technology.
These digital tools provide both student-facing interactive practice and teacher-facing modeling and data analysis tools.
Digital tools support student engagement in foundational skills.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, FUN HUB Practice and InterActivities descriptions, digital tools support student engagement through interactive, skill-aligned activities and recording features. These include:
Weekly interactive literacy games aligned to targeted concepts and literacy skills within each unit.
Activities that provide immediate feedback and track student performance.
Visual performance dashboards displaying red, yellow, and green proficiency indicators.
Student voice recording features embedded within activities such as Not So Tricky, Make a Change, Sound Alike Scramble, and World of Words.
The ability for students to log in independently using teacher passcodes and complete assigned activities.
Interactive smart board tools that allow the teacher to model sound cards, manipulate word-building tools, and display digital materials during whole-group instruction.
These digital tools engage students in practicing phonemic awareness, phonics patterns, word recognition, and spelling skills aligned to Grade 1 foundational standards.
Digital materials can be customized for local use (i.e., student and/or community interests).
According to the Fundations Learning Community, FUN HUB platform and Unit Test Tracker guidance, digital materials can be customized in several ways:
The teacher can assign specific activities by Unit and Week and select individual students or entire classes for assignments.
Assignment start and end dates can be adjusted.
The teacher can enable or disable student voice recording features at the class or individual student level.
The teacher can modify student passwords and manage class rosters.
Dashboard data can be filtered by Unit, Week, and Class.
Assignment and performance reports can be exported as CSV files or saved as PDF.
Unit Test Tracker reports allow the teacher to view class-level and student-level skill performance and identify benchmark status.
These features allow the teacher and administrators to tailor digital practice, monitor performance, and adjust implementation based on local instructional needs.
Indicator 3s
This indicator is not assessed in reviews of K-2 ELA foundational skills supplements.
Indicator 3t
The visual design (whether in print or digital) is not distracting or chaotic, but supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject.
The Wilson Fundations materials include images, graphics, and models that support student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. Visual tools such as the Mark My Words Poster, Vowel Teams Poster, and Welded Sounds Poster clearly represent phonics patterns and word analysis concepts through consistent and structured design. Teacher and student materials maintain a consistent layout and structure across lessons and units, supporting predictable instructional routines. Organizational features are generally accurate and clearly labeled; however, inconsistencies in naming conventions and the placement of key information, such as activity timing, require navigation across multiple sections of the materials, which may limit ease of use.
Images, graphics, and models support student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. Images, graphics, and models clearly communicate information or support student understanding of topics, texts, or concepts.
Student-facing images, graphics, and models in the materials support student learning without being visually distracting. The following are some, but not all, of the examples of these materials.
The Mark My Words Poster is a clear reference chart that supports the word analysis methods students learn in various activities throughout Fundations Level 1. For example, the chart highlights that students should underline digraphs like sh in shop or -th in bath. It also reminds students to place a star above the bonus letters they may find, like the second s in kiss. Although the teacher is not explicitly guided to use this resource within the lesson plans presented in the Teacher’s Manual, students are instructed to mark up words in various activities and assessments–such as in Unit 4, Week 2, Day 5, Unit Test–and such a resource could prove supportive of students’ understanding of word analysis.
The Vowel Teams Poster is a clear reference chart that supports the identification of vowel teams. This resource is referenced in the Drill Sounds/Warm Up activity. The resource shows the vowel team, organized by sound, with an illustration of the keyword that is meant to represent that vowel team in action. For example, on the third line of the Vowel Team Poster, the /oi/ sound is represented through the vowel teams oi and oy. Above the oi vowel team, there is an image of a coin and the word coin. Above the oy vowel team, there is an image of a boy and the word boy.
The Welded Sounds Poster is a clear reference chart that supports the identification of welded, or glued, sounds throughout Fundations Level 1. For example, below the welded sound an, there is an illustration of a fan. Below the illustration, there is the word fan and below the word, there is the sound representation of /an/. This format continues for welded sounds like all, am, and ong. Although the teacher is not explicitly guided to use this resource within the lesson plans presented in the Teacher’s Manual, students are introduced to welded sounds in Unit 4 and such a resource could prove supportive of students’ understanding of the concept.
Teacher and student materials are consistent in layout and structure across lessons/modules/units.
The design and layout of teacher and student materials remain consistent across the Level 1 program. Each unit has a unit overview which provides the teacher with an orientation on the core skills that are targeted within the unit, how to differentiate instruction, and how to engage multilingual learners. Each unit includes a Student Learning Plan that provides a daily snapshot of each lesson within each week of instruction. Finally, most lessons begin with the Drill Sounds/Warm Up routine, demonstrating a general consistency across lessons in the Level 1 program.
Organizational features (Table of Contents, glossary, index, internal references, table headers, captions, etc.) in the materials are clear, accurate, and error-free.
The materials are labeled and free of errors in internal references and captions. However, naming conventions and organizational features are not consistently applied across components, which may make navigation more challenging.
For example, In Unit 12, Week 1, Day 2, the lesson plan references “Unit Sounds” and “Dictation (Dry Erase),” while the Learning Activity Overview lists related activities as “Dictation/Sounds” and “Dictation/Words,” each with associated timing ranges. Activity Cue Cards provide a third variation, labeling these routines as “Dictation Procedures (Sounds | Trick Words | Sentences)” or “Dictation Procedures (Words).” Timing information is also located in the Learning Activity Overview and is not consistently embedded within the daily lesson context. While all necessary information is present, inconsistencies in naming and placement require teachers to navigate across multiple sections to locate specific details.
Indicator 3u
Materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.
The Wilson Fundations materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning. Guidance includes directions for accessing and navigating FUN HUB, implementing InterActivities for teacher-led instruction, and assigning and managing FUN HUB Practice activities aligned to classroom instruction. Materials also include detailed support for monitoring student progress through dashboards, reports, and student recordings, as well as guidance for using the Unit Test Tracker to analyze assessment data. Additional resources, including the FUN HUB Practice Teacher’s Guide, provide implementation guidance for integrating digital tools into instruction across a range of settings.
Teacher guidance is provided for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, Fundations Level 1 FUN HUB administration guide, materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning. Guidance includes:
Step-by-step directions for accessing FUN HUB, selecting Level 1, and launching platform components.
Instructions for using Fundations InterActivities, a digital app designed for smart board technology that includes digital versions of Teacher’s Kit materials such as Standard Sound Cards and Word of the Day and supports engagement during daily instruction aligned to the Fundations scope and sequence.
Detailed guidance for implementing FUN HUB Practice, including:
Creating classes and adding students.
Generating and sharing teacher passcodes for student login.
Creating assignments by class, unit, and week.
Previewing activities and reviewing targeted concepts and pedagogical overviews before assigning.
Assigning activities to the whole class or selected students.
Directions for enabling or disabling the student voice recording feature for individual students or entire classes and reviewing recordings within student reports.
Guidance for interpreting dashboard data, including filtering by unit and week, reviewing class averages, analyzing student performance categories, and exporting reports.
Instructions for using the Unit Test Tracker to enter assessment results, review benchmark indicators, analyze skills reports, and access class and student performance data over time.
According to the Fundations Learning Community, the FUN HUB Practice Teacher’s Guide is provided as a separate resource and includes:
An overview of FUN HUB Practice and its alignment to weekly classroom instruction.
A “Getting Started” section
Detailed activity descriptions for each digital activity, including:
Targeted literacy skills.
Pedagogical overviews.
Estimated time for gameplay.
A monitoring student progress section that includes:
Progress bars.
Student scores.
Class averages.
Itemized scoring reports.
Student-level reports.
Implementation suggestions for integrating FUN HUB Practice into instruction, including:
At-home practice.
Small-group instruction.
Independent work.
Substitute teacher assignments.
Transition activities.
The materials provide comprehensive procedural guidance for teachers to implement digital instructional tools, assign and monitor student practice, and analyze performance data to support instructional planning.