2012

Wilson Fundations

Publisher
Wilson Language Training
Subject
ELA
Grades
K-2
Report Release
11/13/2019
Review Tool Version
v1.0
Format
Supplemental: Foundational Skills Only

EdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.

Alignment (Gateway 1)
Partially Meets Expectations

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

Usability (Gateway 2)
Partially Meets Expectations
Key areas of interest

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

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

Foundational Skills
132/202

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

Building Knowledge
NC = Not Claimed. The publisher does not claim that this component is addressed in the materials.
NC
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Additional Publication Details

Title ISBN
International Standard Book Number
Edition Publisher Year
Sentence and Syllable Frames 978-1-56778-182-3 Wilson Language Training 2012
Magnetic Letter Tiles 1 978-1-56778-200-4 Wilson Language Training 2012
Magnetic Strips 978-1-56778-226-4 Wilson Language Training 2012
Standard Sound Cards 1 978-1-56778-233-2 Wilson Language Training 2012
Large Sound Cards 1 978-1-56778-329-2 Wilson Language Training 2012
Manuscript Letter Formation Guides 978-1-56778-408-4 Wilson Language Training 2012
Letter Board K-1 978-1-56778-441-1 Wilson Language Training 2012
Alphabet Wall Strip 978-1-56778-459-6 Wilson Language Training 2012
Fundations Student Kit 1 978-1-56778-466-4 Wilson Language Training 2012
Fundations Teacher?s Kit 1 Second Edition 978-1-56778-470-1 Wilson Language Training 2012
Desk Strip 978-1-56778-479-4 Wilson Language Training 2012
Dry Erase Writing Tablet 978-1-56778-480-0 Wilson Language Training 2012
Classroom Poster Set 1 (7 posters) 978-1-56778-481-7 Wilson Language Training 2012
Vowel Extension Poster 978-1-56778-494-7 Wilson Language Training 2012
Composition Book 1 978-1-56778-506-7 Wilson Language Training 2012
Student Notebook 1 978-1-56778-517-3 Wilson Language Training 2012
Teacher's Manual 1 978-1-56778-521-0 Wilson Language Training 2012
Fluency Kit 1 978-1-56778-525-8 Wilson Language Training 2012
Home Support Pack 1 978-1-56778-526-5 Wilson Language Training 2012
Trick Word Flashcards 1 978-1-56778-528-9 Wilson Language Training 2012
Activity Cue Cards 1 978-1-56778-531-9 Wilson Language Training 2012
Word of the Day Cards 1 978-1-56778-535-7 Wilson Language Training 2012
My Fundations Journal 978-1-56778-538-8 Wilson Language Training 2012
Stories Set 1 (6 books) 978-1-56778-542-5 Wilson Language Training 2012
Large Letter Formation Grid 978-1-56778-616-3 Wilson Language Training 2012
Large Dictation Grid 978-1-56778-617-0 Wilson Language Training 2012
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Report for 1st Grade

Alignment Summary

The Fundations Grade 1 materials reviewed partially meet the criteria for alignment to standards and research-based practices for foundational skills instruction. The instructional materials provide explicit instruction and practice for lowercase letters, but do not provide instruction for uppercase letters. Though some concepts of print, including identifying the features of a sentence are modeled, there is a lack of sufficient, explicit practice of these print concepts within the context of a book. Materials provide some modeling and practice of phonemic awareness skills for phonological awareness during daily lessons as well as limited systematic, explicit instruction and practice in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. Materials partially meet the criteria that materials emphasize phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling. There are frequent opportunities for students to decode and encode words, including common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and to review previously taught grade-level phonics; however, materials include limited opportunities for students to learn about common vowel teams and to decode phonetically regular words in a sentence. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. Students have opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in tasks (sentences); however, students are not given opportunities to read sentences independently or without prior teacher modeling. Materials provide opportunities for explicit word analysis strategies instruction. Students are taught how to tap out sounds and decode unfamiliar words. Materials provide limited opportunities for students to practice decoding to develop accuracy and fluency and to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding. Materials include some instructional opportunities for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency. Explicit instruction addresses expression and phrasing, but does not model for students how to read with appropriate rate and accuracy. Materials do not provide opportunities for students to practice using confirmation or self-correction of errors.

1st Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Partially Meets Expectations
Gateway 2

Usability

34/52
0
25
46
52
Usability (Gateway 2)
Partially Meets Expectations
Overview of Gateway 1

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

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten provide explicit instruction and practice for lowercase letters, but do not provide instruction for uppercase letters. Though some concepts of print, including identifying the features of a sentence are modeled, there is a lack of sufficient, explicit practice of these print concepts within the context of a book. Materials provide some modeling and practice of phonemic awareness skills for phonological awareness during daily lessons as well as limited systematic, explicit instruction and practice in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. Materials partially meet the criteria that materials emphasize phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling. There are frequent opportunities for students to decode and encode words, including common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and to review previously taught grade-level phonics; however, materials include limited opportunities for students to learn about common vowel teams and to decode phonetically regular words in a sentence. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. Students have opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in tasks (sentences); however, students are not given opportunities to read sentences independently or without prior teacher modeling. Materials provide opportunities for explicit word analysis strategies instruction. Students are taught how to tap out sounds and decode unfamiliar words. Materials provide limited opportunities for students to practice decoding to develop accuracy and fluency and to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding. Materials include some instructional opportunities for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency. Explicit instruction addresses expression and phrasing, but does not model for students how to read with appropriate rate and accuracy. Materials do not provide opportunities for students to practice using confirmation or self-correction of errors.

Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge)

02/04
Materials and instruction provide embedded support with general concepts of print, and systematic and explicit instruction and practice for letter recognition.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten provide explicit instruction and practice for lowercase letters, but do not provide instruction for uppercase letters. There is periodic cumulative review of previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation. Though some concepts of print, including identifying the features of a sentence are modeled, there is a lack of sufficient, explicit practice of these print concepts within the context of a book.

Indicator 1A
Read
Letter Identification
Indicator 1A.iv
01/02
Materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).(K-1)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide instruction in letter formation of all 26 lowercase letters in Unit 1 using the Sky Write/Letter Formation procedure. Materials include clear directions for the teacher to explain how to use Wilson font to make each of the 26 lowercase letters lowercase. Methods for explicit teaching and student practice include Skywriting and Dry Erase Writing Tablets. The Level 1 Teacher's Manual does not include explicit instruction in the lesson plans for the 26 uppercase letters. The Manuscript Letter Formation Guides include uppercase formation descriptions, but the materials do not explicitly guide the teacher to plan lessons for the uppercase letters. In the Level 1 Teacher’s Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, it states: “In Level 1, only lowercase letter formation is directly taught. In Level K, students were taught uppercase letters. You will need to note whether or not a student needs direct instruction to master uppercase letters.”

Examples of materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning explanation and modeling correct formation of each of the 26 letters (lowercase) include:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, page 70, Sky Write/Letter Formation, the teacher teaches t, b, and f formation, linking formation with letter name, keyword, and sound. The teacher follows the activity procedure and has students Sky Write letters. The teacher emphasizes that these letters are sky line letters, so they begin on the sky line. To teach letter formation for the letter t, the teacher tells students that, “t is a sky line letter. It starts on the (sky line). Point to the sky line. Go down to the grass line. Cross it on the plane line.” The teacher says t-top-/t/, and students repeat. 
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 4, page 77, Echo/Letter Formation, the teacher dictates sounds, /c/ and /o/. Students repeat sound and name letter. The teacher uses verbalizations to direct them to make each lowercase letter. Students then say letter-keyword-sound.  
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 2, Day 4, page 86, Sky Write/Letter Formation, the teacher teaches p and j formation, linking formation with letter name, keyword, and sound. The teacher emphasizes that these letters are plane line letters, so they begin on the plane line. To teach letter formation for the letter p, the teacher tells students that, “p is a plane line letter. It starts on the (plane line). Point to the plane line. Go down to the worm line. Trace back up to the plane line, and curve all the way around to the grass line.” The teacher says p-pan-/p/, and students repeat.

Examples of materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice formation of the 26 letters (lowercase) include:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 4, Echo/Letter Formation, page 77, students write the letters c, o and 2-5 other letters (n, u, b, m, f, i) on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets as the teacher directs the letter formation verbalizations.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 3, Day 3, Echo/Letter Formation, page 95, students write the letters y, x and 2-5 other letters (t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, k, o, a, g, d, s, e, f, p, j, l, h, v, w) on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets as the teacher directs the letter formation verbalizations.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher’s Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, Echo/Letter Formation, p. 113, students write letters on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets as the teacher directs students with the letter formation verbalizations. 

Examples of materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice letter formation using multimodal and/or multi-sensory methods.

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 3, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 75, students face the Large Letter Formation Grid and use arms out “straight as a pencil” with two fingers to form the letters i and u in the air.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 2, Day 1, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 81, students face the Large Letter Formation Grid and use arms out “straight as a pencil” with two fingers to form the letters a and g in the air.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 3, Day 2, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 92, students face the Large Letter Formation Grid and use arms out “straight as a pencil” with two fingers to form the letters v and w in the air.
Indicator 1B
01/02
Materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1).

The Level 1 Fundations materials include instructional supports related to the print concepts of the first word of a sentence being capitalized and ending punctuation. This is modeled by the teacher, and students practice applying capitalization and ending punctuation to their writing during various Learning Activities in the materials. The Level 1 Fundations program does not provide opportunities for students to interact meaningfully with books or to identify, practice, and/or reinforce print concepts to books.  Materials do not include explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts in the context of a book. Materials include only short passages that students use as connected text for the Storytime section. There are opportunities for the teacher and students to review previously learned lowercase letter formation. 

Examples of materials that include some explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g. recognize features of a sentence) is as follows:  

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 5, page 115, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher shows sentences are made up of words. The teacher writes the words on the sentence frames and adds a punctuation mark at the end. The teacher is instructed to use the high cut frame for the first word in the sentence. The teacher explains to students that this is for a capital or uppercase letter, which always starts a sentence. The teacher asks who is here today and writes a sentence using that information. The teacher then explains that this is a sentence. The teacher tells students that every sentence puts together words to say something. “When we write sentences, we always start with an uppercase or capital letter and end with a period.”

Examples of materials include some lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g. recognize features of a sentence). 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 3, Day 3, Make It Fun Activity, page 225, students unscramble sentences and add correct punctuation marks.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 245, students are asked why the word Stop! is capitalized in the story, “King Sam.” Later, students are asked to circle quotation marks, highlight exclamation points, box glued sounds, and draw a tall frame around words with a capital letter.

Materials do not include a variety of physical books (teacher-guided, such as big books) that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts.

Materials do not include sufficient and explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g. recognize features of a sentence) in the context of a book.

Materials do not consistently include opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books. Opportunities to practice print concepts in the context of a text include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, pages 166-167, Storytime, the class reads a short story, “The Big Mess”  written on large chart paper or using the phrased story from the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC). Students circle the quotation marks. The teacher reminds students that the first word in a quotation is capitalized. The teacher then makes a capital letter frame around words that have a capital letter and discuss the purpose for the capitalizations. 

Materials contain periodic cumulative review opportunities which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade-level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 70, the teacher reviews formation for t, b, and f and links the formation to the letter name, keyword, and sound. The teacher faces the Large Letter Formation Grid, extends the writing arm straight out, points with two fingers and states:
    • b is a sky line letter. It starts on the sky line. Point to the sky line. Go down to the grass line. Trace up to the plane line, and around to the grass line. Say b - bat - /b/; have students repeat.”
    • f is a sky line letter. It starts on the sky line. Point to the sky line. Trace back to the sky line, and then way down to the grass line. Cross it on the plane line. Say f - fun - /f/; have students repeat.”
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 2, Day 4, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 86, the teacher reviews formation for p and j and links the formation to the letter name, keyword, and sound. The teacher faces the Large Letter Formation Grid, extends the writing arm straight out, points with two fingers and states: 
    • p is a plane line letter. It starts on the plane line. Point to the plane line. Go down to the worm line. Trace back up to the plane line, and curve all the way around to the grass line. Say p - pan- /p/; have students repeat.”
    • j is a plane line letter. It starts on the plane line. Point to the plane line. Go all the way down to the worm line, and make a curve. Add a dot. Say j - jug - /j/; have students repeat.”

Examples of materials include some students’ practice of previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 2, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 72, the students repeat the teacher’s verbalizations for making n and m. In Echo/Letter Formation, students write /n/ - n and /m/ - m on Dry Erase Writing Tablets as the teacher directs them with the letter formation verbalization.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 2, Day 3, Echo/Letter Formation, page 85,  students write /t/ - t, /b/ - b, /f/ - f, /n/ - n, /m/ - m, short /i/ - i, short /u/ - u, /c/ - c, short /o/ - o, short /a/ - a, /g/ - g, /d/ - d, /s/ -s, short /e/ - e, /r/ - r.

Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness

06/12

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

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 provide some modeling and practice of phonemic awareness skills for phonological awareness during daily lessons as well as limited systematic, explicit instruction and practice in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words.

Indicator 1C
02/04

Materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities during Kindergarten and early Grade 1.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in oral language activities to practice phonological awareness through Kindergarten and early 1st grade.

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide limited practice of phonemic awareness skills for phonological awareness during the daily lessons. Based on the scope and sequence, phonological awareness activities do not begin until Unit 2. There is no recommended time allocated for phonemic and phonological awareness in the daily lesson plans. In Units 1-8 of Level 1, there is a limited emphasis for students to distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words. It is not until halfway through Level 1 that phonemic awareness work with vowels is explicit. Oral language activities are infrequent with little variety and are not included on a daily basis. Oral language exercises are accompanied by letter or word visualizations. In the Fundations Home Support Pack 1 Second Edition, there are a variety of oral language activities provided for parents/guardians to do at home; however, those phonological awareness activities are not emphasized in the 30 minutes of instruction at school.

Examples of oral activities that are admixed with elements of phonics or are missed across the continuum of phonological awareness are as follows:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, Echo/Find words activity, page 135, the teacher dictates a word with a digraph. The teacher taps out the sound and students repeat. The teacher finds the Standard Sound Cards and places them together to form a word. The teacher dictates a word, and students try tapping out sounds.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 3, Introduce New Concepts, page 306, vowel teams are introduced using Baby Echo and the Vowel Teams poster. The Vowel Teams poster includes graphemes.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 1, Day 1, page 328, the activity begins with students saying the letter(s)-keyword-sound for vowels and for new or challenging sounds.
  • In the Fundations Home Support Pack 1 Second Edition, Unit 2, Week 1, students find and cut out pictures from magazines based on a beginning sound they are given. Explicit instructions are provided for the parent/guardian. An example is as follows: “I am thinking of something that starts with /d/.” Families are reminded to be sure to give the sound (phoneme) of the letter and not the letter name.
Indicator 1D
02/04

Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include phonological awareness instruction through systematic modeling. Phonological awareness concepts are included in the materials but are not consistently explicitly taught or explained to students across the entire phonological awareness instruction continuum. Explicit instruction through systematic modeling and practice of phonemes, blending, and segmenting is provided. A Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Activity is included in each lesson that provides phoneme review, but students see the letters on the Large Sound Cards. Instruction and/or practice for students to segment a spoken word into phonemes in isolation, without seeing the letter/letters, is not consistently provided. Explicit instruction opportunities are missed for sound manipulation activities such as distinguishing long from short vowel sounds.

Materials provide the teacher with limited systematic, explicit instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. Examples include:

  • Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 3, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher states nut. The teacher says, “Tap out the sounds in nut.” The teacher taps the word with students.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher states a current word such as fill. The teacher has students tap the word, and the teacher is to explain that the word only has three taps.
  • Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teach Tapping to Spell, the teacher states the word,  map. The teacher taps out the three separate sounds without the cards. The teacher models with lip and mat.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Make It Fun, page 287, the teacher models using blank cards to build shred. The teacher dictates shred and shows students how to use blank cards to spell this word. 
  • Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Word Talk, page 124, the teacher asks how to tap a selected word from the Word of the Day. The teacher questions students about the following: how many letters, how many sounds, the vowel sound and if there is a “buddy letter” in the word.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 4, Echo/Find Letters & Words, the teacher dictates ng words. Students tap out the words.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 3, Day 1, Echo/Find Letters & Words, the teacher dictates words with suffixes. Students tap out the base words.

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

  • In the Professional Learning Community (PLC), Level 1 Sound Demonstrations, the teacher is provided with sound demonstrations for the consonants, vowel sounds, and the digraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck). 
  • In the PLC, Level K Activity Demonstration Videos, Level 1 Tapping/Marking Demos, the teacher is provided with a video demonstration tapping for Closed Syllable, v-e Syllable, Words with a Suffix, and Multisyllabic Words.
  • In the PLC, Level K Activity Demonstrations Videos, Level 1 Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher is provided with a video demonstration for stating a word and segmenting the word with tapping the word.
Indicator 1E
02/04
Materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band. 

The Level 1 Fundations materials include phonological awareness practice for students. Practice of recognizing phonemes, blending, and segmenting is provided. A Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Activity is included in each lesson that provides. There is practice of all previously introduced sounds, but Drill Sounds/Warm-Up includes graphemes. Practice opportunities are missed for sound manipulation activities such as distinguishing long from short vowels. The instruction includes a multi-sensory method of blend words called finger-tapping. 

Materials provide some opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern called for in grade-level standards.

  • Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher states a Unit Word. Students repeat the word and tap out the sounds.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 279, the teacher dictates a word with a blend in the word. Students repeat the word, tap the word, and spell the word orally.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 305, students echo and tap words from Unit 9 and then find the blank tiles to build the words.
  • Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Echo/Find Letters & Words, students repeat the word lap and tap out the sounds.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Make It Fun, page 287, the teacher dictates words from Week 1 and Week 2. A student uses blank Standard Sound Cards to model the phonemes of the word.
  • Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teach Tapping to Spell, a student comes to the front and taps out the following words: nap, mud, sat.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 4, Echo/Find Letters & Words, page 281, the teacher dictates a word. Students repeat the word, tap out the sounds, and build the word with the Letter Tiles.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 1, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher states stunt. The students repeat the word and tap out the individual sounds.

Materials include a variety of multimodal/multi-sensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness. Examples include: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Phonics, page 4, it states, “Students learn how to blend words with the finger-tapping procedure used so successfully in the Wilson Reading System. For example, to blend the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ into a word, students are taught how to say each sounds as they tap a finger to their thumb.”
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Echo/Find Words (Single Syllable Words), the teacher states a word and says, “Elbows up. Let’s tap ___." Students tap the sounds of the word with the teacher.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 2, the teacher dictates a word. Students tap and spell the base word, then add a suffix.

Criterion 1.3: Phonics

16/20

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

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria that materials emphasize phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling. There are frequent opportunities for students to decode and encode words, including common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and to review previously taught grade-level phonics; however, materials include limited opportunities for students to learn about common vowel teams and to decode phonetically regular words in a sentence. 

Indicator 1F
02/04
Materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for the expectation that materials emphasize phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.

The Fundations Level 1 materials provide many opportunities for teacher modeling and student practice of phonics skills. There are varying activities for learning and practicing. Students have daily opportunities to practice new sounds with the corresponding letter through the Daily Drill Sounds/Warm Up. Phonics instruction is modeled by the teacher with students echoing. Students read words spelled with Standard Sound Cards on the board. In Unit 9, students learn about common vowel teams such as ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oi, and oy, but students do not write or read words with the vowel teams.  The materials support the essential elements of multisyllabic reading and spelling but do not support the instruction of common vowel teams beyond stating common vowel teams during Drill Sounds/Warm-Up. In Unit 12, the instruction focus shifts from sounds to syllables.

Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. Examples include:

  • Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
    •  In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 132, the teacher explains that wh, ch, sh, th, ck are consonants that stick together. The teacher shows Large Sound Cards for wh, ch, sh, th, ck and states each keyword and sound. The teacher models tapping once per digraph sound.
  • Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 106-107, the teacher instructs students on how to blend words with three sounds by tapping. The teacher displays a word using the Standard Sound Cards and taps out the words using the sounds. The teacher models, and students repeat using 8-10 other word examples from Unit Resources, Week 1.
  • Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 1, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, page 368, teachers instruct the response to “What says /ā/?” (a-consonant-e). The teacher reviews with the Standard Sound Cards that e helps to change a vowel from a short sound in hop to a long sound in hope. The teacher models by tapping hope out showing that the e is not heard. The teacher demonstrates that o says /ō/ when it is followed by a consonant and an e. The teacher uses a blank card between the Standard Sound Cards of o and e and cover the blank card with various consonants to have the students read: ote, ome, ope, ofe.
    • In the Fundations Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 4, Introduce New Concepts, page 308, the teacher teaches the vowel team of ee, ea, ey  through the Vowel Teams Poster. The teacher points to the poster and states the letter-keyword-sound such as ee-jeep-long /e/. Students echo.
  • Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
    • In the Fundations Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts pages 404-405, syllables are taught as one push of breath. Syllables are then written on white syllable frames.
  • Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher uses the word limit to teach syllable division. The teacher explains that if there is only one consonant between two vowels, the consonant will go with the first syllable. The teacher puts the syllables (lim & it) on syllable frames to show breaking apart two closed syllables.
  • Read words with inflectional endings.
    • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 3, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 348, the teacher instructs reading words with a suffix (-ed and -ing).  The teacher reviews base word and suffix using the word rent. The teacher explains that by adding -ing, rent is happening now and by adding -ed, rent already happened. 

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

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 132, students have opportunities to hear, say, and read the digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, and ck.  
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, pages 170-171, the teacher builds chill with Standard Sound Cards. Students tap and read the word. The teacher builds several unit words for students to tap and read. During Dictation (Dry Erase), students repeat Unit 4 words, tap the sounds, and spell orally before writing the words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, pages 378-379, the teacher builds swipe with Standard Sound Cards. Students tap and read the word. The teacher builds several unit words for students to tap and read. During Dictation (Composition Book), students repeat Unit 11 words, tap the sounds, and spell orally before writing the words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 3, Day 3, Word of the Day, page 428, the teacher makes the following word on the board with syllable frames: plastic. Students read the word, syllable by syllable. A student marks the word for the syllable types. The teacher makes more unit words on the board with syllable frames, and students read the word. Students help scoop and mark the multisyllabic words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher builds the word, invents,  on Syllable Frames and a Suffix Frame. Students read the base word and then read the whole word with the suffix. The teacher changes the suffix, and students read the base word then the entire word.
Indicator 1G
04/04

Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to read words through decoding grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught grade-level phonics skills.

The Fundations Level 1 materials provide opportunities to decode grade-level phonics. The opportunities to decode grade-level phonics activities are brief with 2-5 words at a time and students usually fully state the entire word after decoding. Beginning in Unit 2, opportunities for decoding words increase. Instruction includes teacher-centered activities with students echoing or repeating the decoding of words. The Level 1 Fundations materials include daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Learning Activity for students to review sounds selected by the teacher. This provides students with daily opportunities to review letters and sounds. A resource list is provided for letter sounds and words to choose from at the teacher’s discretion. 

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play, page 134, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to make unit words. The teacher makes each word, says the word, and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. The teacher blends the sounds by dragging the thumb across fingers and says the word. The teacher then points under each card and says each sound, drags a finger under all three cards, and blends the sounds to read the words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 3, Make It Fun, page 146, students are digraph detectives. Students find all the digraphs in words listed on the classroom board and underline them. The class then reads the list of words together.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 4, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, page 190, students practice the /am/ and /an/ sound with Large Sound Cards. Teachers model these by showing the Large Sound Cards and saying letter-keyword-sound. Students echo.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 213, the teacher builds the word of the day, shells, and talks about the word’s meaning. The teacher reviews base word and suffix to discuss plurals. The teacher makes several unit words and reminds students to read the base word first and then the whole word. Students add Word of the Day to their notebook with a sentence.
  • In Fundations Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 404, VCCV syllable division is taught with opportunities to decode bathtub, napkin, sunfish, catnip, and cactus.

Lessons provide students with opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 5, Word Talk, page 124, the teacher shows students the Word of the Day Cards. Students read the words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 239, the teacher builds the Word of the Day, wing. Students tap and read the word. The teacher builds other Unit 7 words, and students tap and read the word.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 1, Day 2, Dictation (Composition Book), page 331, the teacher states a Unit 10 word. Students repeat the word, tap the sounds, and orally spell the word.

Examples of materials contain some frequent opportunities for students to review previously learned grade-level phonics include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, page 30-31, it explains that every lesson starts with a quick warm-up sound drill. This activity helps students master the Alphabetic Principle of letter-sound associations.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, starting in Unit 1, Week 1, Day 2, the students practice phonics during daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up. The teacher uses Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards to review letter-keyword-sound, and students echo.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 4, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, page 290, the teacher selects a student to be the drill leader for the Standard Sound Cards. The teacher reviews r-controlled vowels with the students.

Materials contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 3, Dictation, page 163, the teacher dictates 3 sounds, 2 review words, 2 current words, 2 trick words, and 1 sentence from the unit resources. Students repeat each dictation. One student writes on the Large Dictation Grid. For unit sounds, the students repeat the letter sound and name before writing. For unit and review words, the student repeats the word, taps the sounds, and spells orally before writing. Students mark up the words. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, pages 38-39, it explains that every lesson starts with a quick warm-up sound drill. This activity helps students master the Alphabetic Principle of letter-sound associations.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 4, Word Talk, page 291, the teacher uses the Standard Sound Cards and Suffix Frames to make 3-4 words from the previously taught Word of the Day cards practice pack. Students decode words. Students then quickly read the Word of the Day cards and any additional words on cards. The teacher places selected word cards in a pocket chart and asks questions about the meaning of the words and their structure. Students mark up selected words with dry erase markers.
Indicator 1H
02/04
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials promote frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide some opportunities for students to decode phonetically regular words in a sentence based on grade-level phonics. Students begin to decode sentences in Unit 3, but there are limited opportunities for decoding throughout the remainder of the units. Sentences are typically echoed, chorally read, practiced by a single student, or read silently. Opportunities are missed for students to individually practice decoding words in a sentence. Students read Trick Word sentences, usually repeating what the teacher says first and the sentences that are not decodable for a Grade 1 student. 

Materials provide some explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 3, Introduce New Concepts, page 147, the teacher states a sentence, Did Ed get that duck?. The teacher writes the sentence on Sentence Frames. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 282, the teacher displays the passage, “The Pink Dress.” The teacher reads aloud 2-3 sentences while students read the sentences silently.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 3, Day 1, Word Play, page 386, using the Unit Resources, the teacher is directed to write sentences on Sentence Frames and scoop into phrases. A student then circles the trick words and tap out other words. The sentence is read together with the teacher modeling fluency as the sentence is scooped into phrases. A student is selected to read the sentence, and the class repeats it.

Examples of some student practice of decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 141, the teacher utilizes a phrased story, “Cod Fish.” Students are asked to read the title silently, tapping words to decode if needed. The students read the story one sentence at a time. They first read silently, tapping if needed. Then one student reads the sentence aloud using proper expression and phrasing. The whole class repeats the sentence. After completing the story in this manner, the story is read chorally. The lesson ends with students marking words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play, page 160, the teacher is directed to write a sentence on the board and scoop it into phrases after decoding five to six unit words. The students try to read each word in the sentence to themselves. The teacher then calls on a student to read. After each word is decoded, the sentences read chorally. The teacher is instructed to do two to three sentences.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 375, the teacher utilizes a phrased story, “Jake the Whale.” Students  read the title silently, tapping words to decode if needed. The teacher reads 2-3 sentences at a time, and students read silently. Then one student reads the sentence aloud using proper expression and phrasing.
Indicator 1I
04/04
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and sound patterns.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sounds and sound patterns.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some opportunities for students to encode in activities and tasks. Building/manipulating/spelling and encoding are often modeled by the teacher during Introduce New Concepts, Word of the Day, and Word Play sections.  Students practice encoding using a Dry Erase Writing Tablet or using their letter tiles during Dictation and Echo/Find Letters & Words. Encoding activities include writing on the Dry Erase Writing Tablet, the Large Letter Formation Grid, the Student Notebook, and the Fundations Letter Board and Magnetic Letter Tiles. There are opportunities for students to encode in activities and tasks independently during the weekly Dictation Check Up on Day 5.

The materials contain teacher-level instruction and modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns grade-level phonics. Examples include: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to build fix. The teacher models tapping and blending to read the word. The teacher makes other unit words to model reading, tapping, and blending to read words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher uses the green Standard Sound Card with the yellow consonant Standard Sound Card to make bam. The teacher demonstrates tapping /b/ (tap index finger to thumb) /am/ (tapping together middle and ring fingers to thumb. The teacher models building other words with glued sounds such as: Sam, ran.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 3, Day 1, Word Play, the teacher uses the Standard Sound Cards to make 5-6 unit words (words with VCe). The teacher makes the word, says the word, and taps each sound. 

Lessons provide students with daily opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns grade-level phonics. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, Dictation, page 113, the teacher dictates 3 sounds and 3 current unit words. Students encode the words on their Dry Erase Writing Tablet.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 274-275, students are introduced to consonant blends. In the Teach Spelling section of this activity, students learn to pull apart four sounds as the teacher demonstrates using the Standard Sound cards and tapping above each card. The teacher takes away the cards and says the same word. Students are instructed to tap sounds, visualizing the cards in their minds. This is repeated with several current Unit words. Students write words in their Student Notebook. Next, the teacher dictates a word and has the students repeat the word and tap it out. Students are asked to try and picture the cards in their mind as they say each sound separately. They find the Letter Tiles to correspond. Four to five words are dictated from the Unit Resources.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 14, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play: Review Spelling, page 483, students use their Letter Board and Tiles and are reminded that they have learned several things to assist with spelling. The teacher dictates six word cards that reviews a particular concept. The concept is discussed; the word is dictated; students build it, and then review the concept again. The concepts reviewed are as follows: Bonus letter spelling rule, Spelling words with glued sounds, Name and spell base word first, Spell by syllable, and Spell by syllable/spelling ic.
Indicator 1J
04/04
Materials provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid K-Grade 2)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials promote application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include opportunities for teachers and students to encode phonics skills in activities and tasks. During Days 1-5, the teacher models encoding in activities and tasks during the Word of the Day routine. Students copy a sentence into their Student Notebook. In Dictation/Sentence, a student is selected to encode the sentence on the Sentence Frames for the class as a model. Students practice encoding using a Dry Erase Writing Tablet or writing in their composition book during Dictation/Sentences. During Dictation/Sentences, a student is selected to encode the sentence on the Sentence Frames. There are limited opportunities for students to encode in activities and tasks independently or in any other way than whole class. The exception is during the Dictation Day 5 Check-Up, which provides an independent opportunity to apply and encode without peer or teacher support. Dictation Day 5 Check-Up begins in Unit 4.

Materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 5, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher models writing sentences on Sentence Frames. After teaching students to read the sentence with fluency, the teacher writes the following sentences on the board: Rob sat in the sun.  The rat sat in the sun.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 5, Word of the Day, the teacher introduces the Word of the Day, quick, based on the new learning of digraphs. The teacher writes a short sentence on the board using quick. Students write the sentence in their Student Notebooks.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 4, Word of the Day, the teacher introduces the Word of the Day, bluffs, based on the learning of suffixes. The teacher writes a short sentence on the board using bluffs. Students write the sentence in their Student Notebooks.

Lessons provide students with frequent activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught grade-level phonics patterns. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 355, the teacher dictates a sentence to students. Students write the words on the Sentence Frames. The teacher selects one student to change one word in the sentence. The teacher demonstrates sounding out the word to check the student’s new spelling. The teacher repeats the process with 4 decodable words to change the sentence.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher’s Manual, Unit 10, Week 2, Day 5, Dictation (Day 5 Check-Up), page 347, the teacher is directed to dictate one sentence from the Unit 10 Resources. The teacher is directed to follow the sentence dictation procedure with students writing the sentence independently and scoop the sentence into phrases.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 2, Day 1, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher dictates one sentence with phrasing and students repeat. A student places Sentence Frames, and circles any frame with a trick word. Students write the sentence. Student scoop the sentence into phrases, and read it with fluency. The teacher leads the students through proofreading the sentence.

Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis

06/08
Materials and instruction support students in learning and practicing regularly and irregularly spelled high-frequency words.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. Students have opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in tasks (sentences); however, students are not given opportunities to read sentences independently or without prior teacher modeling. Materials provide opportunities for explicit word analysis strategies instruction. Students are taught how to tap out sounds and decode unfamiliar words.

Indicator 1K
01/02
Materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.

In the Level 1 Fundations, high-frequency words are called Trick Words. According to the Level 1 Fundations manual, there are 107 high-frequency words taught throughout the year. Words are selected from the Fry and American Heritage Word Frequency Lists. According to the Level 1 Word List from the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), students in Level 1 learn 93 Trick Words, although 27 of the words were learned in Level K. The materials do not address a sufficient quantity of irregularly spelled words to help students make adequate reading progress toward being an independent reader. Trick Words are taught and practiced in Unit 2 through 14 through four Learning Activities (Dictation/Trick Words, Dictation/Sentences,Teach Trick Words - Reading, & Teach Trick Words -  Spelling). 

Examples of materials include systematic and explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words are as follows:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words - Reading, page 117, the teacher introduces the following Trick Words: the, a, and. With the, the teacher states the following sentence: Meg had the red hat. Students repeat the sentence. A student places sentence frames on the board. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and circles the. The teacher states, “I am going to circle this word (circle ‘the’). Listen to the sentence and see if you can tell me the word I circled.” The teacher writes the Trick Word on the board. After teaching all the Trick Words, the teacher shows the Trick Word Flashcards, points to each word, states the words, and has students repeat.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher’s Manual, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 3, Teach Trick Words - Reading, page 205, the teacher introduces the following Trick Words: are, were. With are, the teacher states the following sentence: Jack and Maria are sad. Students repeat the sentence. A student places sentence frames on the board. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and circles are. The teacher states, “I am going to circle this word (circle ‘are’). Listen to the sentence and see if you can tell me the word I circled.” The teacher writes the Trick Word on the board. After teaching all the Trick Words, the teacher shows the Trick Word Flashcards, points to each word, states the words, and has students repeat. The teacher presents the Trick Words, and students quickly read the words.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 1, Day 4, Teach Trick Words - Reading, page 373, the teacher introduces the following Trick Words: friend, other, another. With friend, the teacher states the following sentence: She is my friend. Students repeat the sentence. A student places sentence frames on the board. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and circles friend. The teacher states, “I am going to circle this word (circle ‘friend’). Listen to the sentence and see if you can tell me the word I circled.” The teacher writes the Trick Word on the board. After teaching all the Trick Words, the teacher shows the Trick Word Flashcards, points to each word, states the words, and has students repeat. The teacher presents the Trick Words, and students quickly read the words.

Examples of materials include frequent opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of irregularly spelled words in isolation are as follows:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 4, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 149, the teacher writes the new Trick Word (or) on the board and asks, “Does anyone know this word?” The teacher shows the students what the tricky part of the word is. The teacher demonstrates how to sky write the word. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 339, the teacher writes the new Trick Word (down) on the board and asks, “Does anyone know this word?” The teacher shows the students what the tricky part of the word is. The teacher demonstrates how to sky write the word. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 2, Day 2, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 417, the teacher writes the new Trick Word (been) on the board and asks: “Does anyone know this word?” The teacher shows the students what the tricky part of the word is. The teacher demonstrates how to sky write the word. 

Examples of students practice identifying and reading irregularly spelled words in isolation are as follows:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1, Dictation (Composition Book), page 169, students write Trick Words dictated with 2 fingers on their desktop before writing in Composition Books. The teacher also dictates a sentence with phrasing, and students repeat. A student places the Sentence Frames on the whiteboard. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and circles any frame with a Trick Word. Students write the sentence in their Student Notebooks. Students can look up Trick Words in their Student Notebooks as needed.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation (Composition Book), page 319, students write Trick Words dictated with 2 fingers on their desktop before writing in Composition Books. The teacher also dictates a sentence with phrasing, and students repeat. A student places the Sentence Frames on the whiteboard. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and circles any frame with a Trick Word. Students write the sentence in their Student Notebooks. Students can look up Trick Words in their Student Notebooks as needed.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 377, students sky write the newly learned Trick Words (none, nothing). Students write the Trick Words on their desk with one finger. The teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards, states the word, and students say the Trick Word. 

The materials do not include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress. In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, pages 22-23, high-frequency words are addressed in the following:

  • Unit 2 (2-4 weeks):  the, a, and, is, his, of
  • Unit 3 (2 weeks): as, has, to, into, we, he, she, be, me, for, or
  • Unit 4 (2 weeks): you, your, I, they, was, one, said
  • Unit 5 (1 week): from, have, do, does
  • Unit 6 (3 weeks): were, are, who, what, when, where, there, here
  • Unit 7 (3 weeks): why, by, my, try, put, two, too, very, also, some, come
  • Unit 8 (2 weeks): would, could, should, her, over, number
  • Unit 9 (2 weeks): say, says, see, between, each
  • Unit 10 (3 weeks): any, many, how, now, down, out, about, our
  • Unit 11 (3 weeks): friend, other, another, none, nothing
  • Unit 12 (3 weeks): people, month, little, been, own, want, Mr., Mrs.
  • Unit 13 (3 weeks): work, word, write, being, their, first, look, good, new
  • Unit 14 (2 weeks): water, called, day, may, way
Indicator 1L
01/02
Materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in tasks (sentences).

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some opportunities for students to read irregularly spelled words in sentences. During the Teach Trick Words-Reading, the teacher reads a sentence to students, and students repeat (echo), therefore the teacher is reading the words. Beginning in Unit 2, Week 2, there is at least one sentence dictated twice a week that students write. Students are given frequent opportunities to see Trick Words utilized in sentences, although students are not given opportunities to read sentences independently or without prior teacher modeling. During the Dictation Learning Activity, which begins in Unit 2, the teacher dictates one sentence which contains a Trick Word. Students have opportunities to write the Trick Words in sentences and in their Student Notebooks. Students are encouraged to use their Student Notebooks if they need to review how to spell a Trick Word. 

Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read grade-level irregularly spelled words in a sentence include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Composition Notebook), page 147, the teacher dictates a sentence. A student places sentence frames, and the teacher circles Trick Words. Students write the sentence, looking up Trick Words in their Student Notebooks as needed. Students scoop the sentence into phrases and read the sentence fluently.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Composition Notebook), page 251, the teacher dictates a sentence. A student places sentence frames, and the teacher circles Trick Words. Students write the sentence, looking up Trick Words in their Student notebooks as needed. Students scoop the sentence into phrases and read the sentence fluently.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Week 1, Day 2, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 445, a sentence is dictated with phrasing, and students repeat it. A student places the Sentence Frames. Any frame with a trick word is circled. Students then write the sentence, looking up Trick Words in their Student Notebooks as needed. Students then scoop the sentence into phrases and read it with fluency. 

Examples of lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to write grade-level irregularly spelled words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-level irregularly spelled words are as follows:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 121, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing and students repeat. A student places the sentence frames. The teacher circles any frame with a Trick Word. Students write the sentence, looking up the Trick Word in their Student Notebooks as needed. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 175, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing and students repeat. A student places the sentence frames. The teacher circles any frame with a Trick Word. Students write the sentence, looking up the Trick Word in their Student Notebooks as needed. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Composition Book), page 419, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing and students repeat. A student places the sentence frames. The teacher circles any frame with a Trick Word. Students write the sentence, looking up the Trick Word in their Student Notebooks as needed. 

Materials provide repeated, explicit instruction in how to use student- friendly reference materials and resources and reading irregularly spelled words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries). In Teach Trick Words-Spelling, the directions to the teacher say: "Have students add new trick words to their Student Notebooks and hold them accountable for spelling throughout the day, using their Student Notebooks as reference."  Examples include the following: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 2, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 187, the teacher writes the new Trick Word on the board and discusses it. Students say the word, sky write the word, say the word first with eyes open and then with eyes closed while writing on their desk with their finger. Students then add new Trick Words to their Student Notebooks. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 3, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 289, the teacher writes the new Trick Word on the board and discusses it. Students say the word, sky write the word, say the word first with eyes open and then with eyes closed while writing on their desk with their finger. Students then add new Trick Words to their Student Notebooks.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words - Spelling, page 377, the teacher writes the new Trick Word on the board and discusses it. Students say the word, sky write the word, say the word first with eyes open and then with eyes closed while writing on their desk with their finger. Students then add new trick words to their Student Notebooks.
Indicator 1M
04/04
Materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide students with frequent practice opportunities to apply word analysis strategies.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide frequent practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide opportunities for explicit word analysis strategies instruction. Students are taught how to tap out sounds and decode unfamiliar words. Students are taught to mark up words. Students mark bonus letters, digraphs, blends, glued/welded sounds, base words, suffixes, and syllable types. Instruction in identifying digraphs, r-controlled vowel sounds, glued/welded sounds, and suffixes are included. Students are introduced to the concept of syllables in multisyllabic words, and students are also taught syllable division rules. 

Examples of materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g. phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 201, the teacher teaches the base word and the -s suffix. The teacher instructs students to mark words. Students are instructed to underline the base word, circle the suffix or scoop the base word, and circle the suffix. Students should also identify the sound of the suffix above the suffix.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation, page 291, the teacher dictates unit words and asks students to determine if the word has a blend, digraph blend, suffix. Students say the base word. Students repeat the whole word and say the base word independently. Students tap and spell base word and add suffix. Students mark up these words. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 404-405, the teacher shows syllable division with a CVVC word and instructs students to divide between the two vowels.

Examples of materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 170, the teacher builds chill with Standard Sound Cards. Students tap and read the word together. The teacher shows students how to mark up the word by underlining the ch and putting a star above the second l.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teach Closed Syllable Concept, the teacher explains that words have parts that go together called syllables. “A syllable is part of a word that can be pushed out in one breath.” The teacher builds closed syllable words and models decoding the words. The teacher marks the vowel in closed syllables words with a breve.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 2, Day 5, Word Talk, page 422, teachers use the Standard Sound Cards, Syllable and Suffix Frames to make 4-5 words from previously taught Word of the Day Cards Practice Pack. Students decode the words. Students discuss the meaning and structure of each word. The teacher has a student mark the word, provide synonyms and antonyms of the word, or use the word in a sentence.

Examples of student opportunities to learn, practice and apply word analysis strategies include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teach Digraphs, pages 132-133, the teacher introduces digraphs wh, ch, sh, th, and ck. After saying the letter-keyword-sound with students repeating, the teacher and students tap out the sounds. Students learn how to mark words, by underlining the word. Students color pictures on the digraph page in their Student Notebooks. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 213, the teacher builds the word of the day and discusses the meaning. The teacher reteaches base word and suffix and discusses plurals or the bonus letter. The teacher uses standard sound cards and suffix frames to make unit words. The teacher shows students the Word of the Day Card and has students use the word in a sentence. The student writes a short sentence, scoops it into phrases, and reads the sentence. The students add the word to the word of the day and the vocabulary section of their Student Notebooks. The card gets added to the Word of the Day Card Practice Pack. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 3, Day 1, Echo/Find Letters and Words, page 257, the teacher dictates ng and nk words, some with and without a suffix. The students repeat the word and look for a suffix. If there is a suffix, the students should then say the base word. Students repeat the whole word, say the base word and then build the word using the yellow suffix tile to represent the suffix. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 2, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 315, teacher builds the Word of the Day and discusses the word meaning. The teacher reteaches base word and suffix, blends, and bonus letters. Then teacher re-teaches the concept of closed syllable for the base word, reminds students that if it is a closed syllable, the vowel is short. Students mark up the blend and bonus letter, and then mark the word as a closed syllable.

Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency

10/16

Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding in K and 1, and rate, expression, and accuracy in mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 provide limited opportunities for students to practice decoding to develop accuracy and fluency and to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding. Materials include some instructional opportunities for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency. Explicit instruction addresses expression and phrasing, but does not model for students how to read with appropriate rate and accuracy. Materials do not provide opportunities for students to practice using confirmation or self-correction of errors.

Indicator 1N
04/04
Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. The teacher models reading accurately and automatically frequently throughout the program with the students echo reading. Choral reading is often used during the Storytime activity. Students may read aloud individually if selected to model a sentence. Students have opportunities to practice reading flashcards for Trick Words and Words of the Day. The strategy of tapping out words is frequently suggested as a strategy to decode words. Students are provided decoding opportunities with echoing and choral reading. Students can use the Standard Sound Cards, letter tiles, and tapping. Students are instructed to tap words, if necessary, when reading silently. Students have multiple opportunities to engage in decoding practice to develop fluency. Additionally, teachers are directed to move outside of the core materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students in Tier 2 for timed practice opportunities for students to decode sounds, real words, nonsense words, trick words, phrases, and stories individually with the teacher.

Examples of materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding. Examples include the following: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Fluency, page 6, the text details how fluency is taught in the program. In order to develop fluency and speed of reading, students echo and choral read text. During an echo read, the teacher reads a sentence, and students respond. When chorally reading, the teacher and students read together. Teachers help students with phrasing by scooping sentences.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play, page 134, the teacher makes different words from the Unit Resources with the Standard Sound Cards. The teacher says and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation, Sentence, page 217, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing, and students repeat. A student places the sentence frames. The teacher circles any frame with a trick word. Students write the sentence. Students then scoop the sentence into phrases and read it.

Examples of materials provide opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 375, the teacher writes the story “Jake the Whale” on chart paper with phrases scooped. The students are instructed to read the title silently. The teacher directs the students to tap words when reading silently, if necessary. The title is discussed and predictions are made. Students silently read 2-3 sentences at a time. A student is selected to come and read the sentences with the Baby Echo pointer. If the student does not use proper expression and phrasing, the teacher models it.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Week 1, Day 4, Word Talk activity: Real Word of the Day Cards Practice Pack, page 449, students quickly read the Word of the Day Cards and additional words on cards (without tapping). Teachers make additional words from the Unit Resources on extra cards provided or on index cards.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Fluency Kit 1, Second Edition, page 1, outlines that the Fluency Kit, develops/accuracy and automaticity of single word reading with word lists for regular/phonetically-controlled words, nonsense words, and high-frequency irregular (trick) words. The materials in this kit include sound cards, real word cards, nonsense word cards, Trick Word cards, phrase cards, and stories. Students are able to practice decoding with automaticity and accuracy while being timed individually or in small groups. Cards relate to subjects taught in the units.
Indicator 1O
02/04
Instructional opportunities are built into the materials for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency. (Grades 1-2)

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

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some instructional opportunities for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in fluency. Explicit instruction addresses expression and phrasing, but does not model for students how to read with appropriate rate and accuracy. Fluency instruction is provided during Storytime, Word Play, and Word of the Day activities. The teacher frequently models phrasing by scooping the phrases. There is limited explicit instruction on how or when to scoop phrases. Students are told where to mark the phrases or read passages/sentences that are already scooped by the teacher. Texts used are sentences dictated by the teacher or short passages the teacher writes on chart paper or prints from the online companion, the Prevention and Intervention Community (PLC). Storytime learning activities begin in Unit 3 and provide opportunities for students to see and hear the teacher model fluent reading. The Level 1 Fundations Home Support Pack (Second Edition) provides further opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader outside of core instruction. Teachers are directed to move outside of the core materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students in Tier 2. While this kit includes practice opportunities for students in timed fluency practice for sounds, real words, nonsense words, Trick Words, and phrases, as well as through the use of decodable books, it is not explicit instruction nor intended for all students during whole-class instruction.

Materials include some opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in fluency elements using grade-level text. Examples include the following: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 141, the teacher writes a story with phrases scooped on chart paper. After the entire story has been read, the teacher leads the class in chorally reading the story while scooping the phrases.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, pages 166-167, the teacher writes a story on chart paper and scoops the phrases. Students read the title silently and tap out words, if necessary. The teacher shows students the exclamation point at the end of a sentence, tells students about an exclamation point and explains how it changes the voice expression. The students read one or two sentences at a time. The teacher selects a student to read the sentence, making sure the student uses proper expression and phrasing. Teacher models, if needed. The class repeats. Once the story has been read, the class chorally reads the story again, scooping phrases.  
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 4, Word Play, page 216, the teacher writes sentences on sentence frames and scoops into phrases. Students circle trick words and tap out other words. The teacher reads the sentence with the class, modeling fluency while scooping phrases. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 2, Word of the Day, page 239, the teacher builds the word of the day and discusses the word's meaning. The teacher writes a short sentence on the board, scoops it into phrases, and reads the short sentence with phrasing. 

Examples of materials provide opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 193, the teacher and students read the decodable passage, “Pam and Dan,” chorally together as the teacher uses Baby Echo to scoop the phrases.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 2, Day 5, the teacher and students read the decodable passage, “The Pink Dress,” chorally together as the teacher points using Baby Echo.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 2, Day 5, page 384, the teacher and students read the decodable passage, “Jake the Whale,” chorally together as the teacher uses Baby Echo to scoop the phrases.

Examples of materials include some resources for explicit instruction in fluency include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Units 3-14, the teacher uses short passages from the PLC for fluency instruction. The passages are narrative or informational.
  • In the Fluency Kit (intervention instruction) includes Contains controlled sound drills, real and nonsense words, trick words, phrases, and controlled-text stories (phrased and unphrased).
Indicator 1P
02/04

Varied and frequent opportunities are built into the materials for students to engage in supported practice to gain oral reading fluency beginning in mid-Grade 1 and through Grade 2 (once accuracy is secure).

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for varied and frequent opportunities are built into the materials for students to engage in supported practice to gain oral reading fluency beginning in mid-Grade 1 and through Grade 2 (once accuracy is secure).

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some opportunities for students to engage in practice to gain oral reading fluency. Students practice fluency through various Learning Activities. Storytime Learning Activities provide students with the opportunity to read passages. Storytime begins in Unit 3, and students read the same passage more than once in the Unit. There are missed opportunities to address appropriate rate within the whole group Fundations materials. The whole group materials do not provide teachers with guidance or suggestions for supporting all students’ fluency. Teachers are directed to move outside of the whole group materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students in Tier 2. While the Fluency Kit includes practice opportunities for students in timed fluency practice for sounds, real words, nonsense words, Trick Words, and phrases, as well as through the use of 6 decodable texts, the Fluency Kit and 6 decodables are not intended for all students during whole group instruction. There are missed opportunities to provide varied opportunities with core materials during Tier 1 instruction.

Examples of some varied, frequent opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to gain oral reading fluency include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Fluency, page 6, it is stated that “In Fundations, students have multiple opportunities to develop quick and automatic word recognition. They also work to develop prosody and expression. To develop fluency and speed of reading, students learn how to read in thought groups, or phrases that connect meaning. Students do both echo and choral reading of stories to help develop fluency.”
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 141, the teacher writes a story with phrases scooped on chart paper. Students read it silently one sentence at a time. One student reads the sentence aloud with the pointer. The teacher models using proper expression and phrasing, if needed. The whole class then repeats the sentence. After the entire story has been read in this manner, the teacher leads the class in chorally reading the story while scooping the phrases.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 4, Word Talk, Read Word of the Day Card Practice Pack, students quickly read words on cards.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 2, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, page 304, the teacher presents review and current Trick Word flashcards. Students quickly read the cards. Trick Words can be removed from the packet when mastered.  

Examples of materials contain opportunities for students to participate in repeated readings of a grade-level text to practice oral reading fluency include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Weeks 1-3, students read a passage called “Mack and Bugs”. Each week, they read the passage during one lesson. Students read with proper phrasing and expression.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Weeks 1-2, students read a passage called “Fred the Frog”. Each week, they read the passage during one lesson. Students read with proper phrasing and expression.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Weeks 1-3, students read a passage called “Jackson”. Each week, they read the passage during one lesson. Students read with proper phrasing and expression.

Materials do not include guidance and feedback suggestions to the teacher for supporting students’ gains in oral reading fluency. The Fundations Fluency Kit includes instructions on how to use the materials as an intervention. Students are able to practice decoding with automaticity and accuracy while being timed individually or in small groups. Cards relate to subjects taught in the units. The kit includes 14 sets of 20 nonsense words for students to practice. In Units 2-14, the kit materials include a word page with two-word phrases. The PLC includes fluency templates for words, short phrases, or long phrases. Specific feedback suggestions to the teacher are not included.

Indicator 1Q
02/04
Materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors (Grades 1-2) and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include minimal guidance for teachers to support students as students confirm or self-correct errors. For example, when students read flashcards to practice for automaticity and accuracy, there is no guidance for teachers if students read words incorrectly. There is no guidance for teachers to help students recognize if the words students are reading are correct or incorrect. There is no guidance provided to the teacher as to how to teach students to self-monitor and self-correct. The Level 1 Fundations materials provide some opportunities for students to listen and read for understanding through Storytime activities. The teacher focuses on retelling the story by talking about characters, setting, and main events and creates drawings to assist in the retelling process. Students retell stories and create mental images with listening comprehension while reviewing elements of fiction and nonfiction in order to understand the text. For some Storytime activities, short passages are provided.

Materials do not provide explicit lessons for the teacher in confirming and self-correcting errors in fluency.

Materials do not provide opportunities for students to practice using confirmation or self-correction of errors.

Examples of multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to read on-level texts (Grades 1-2) for purpose and understanding include the following:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 5, Storytime, page 176-177, the teacher displays a story read previously. Students read the title and remember what the story is about. A student describes the story by telling, referring to picture notes. The class reads the story chorally as the teacher points with Baby Echo and determines the accuracy of the retelling. The class then discusses how to make a movie in their heads.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 337, the teacher writes a short story, “The Skunk,” on chart paper. The teacher discusses the title and helps students to predict what the story will be about. The teacher reads 2-3 sentences at a time while students read silently. The teacher selects a student to read aloud using proper expression and phrasing. The teacher creates a three-column chart labeling characters, setting, and main events. The teacher asks questions about the characters, setting, what happened first, next, and at the end  The teacher draws a quick sketch to answer each of the questions and uses the chart to retell the information. Students are asked a question and are required to find the exact sentence in the text that answers the question.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Week 2, Day 5, Storytime, page 460, the teacher displays “Brad’s Lost Glasses.” The teacher asks students to try and remember the story in their minds. A student describes the story by retelling it. Chorally, the class reads 2-3 sentences. Students “make a movie” in their heads.
Overview of Gateway 2

Implementation, Support Materials & Assessment

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 provide a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials, including information to support the teacher’s knowledge and understanding of foundational skills. Lessons are clearly structured and the pacing is appropriate to achieve maximum student understanding within the space of a school year. The scope and sequence for the program lists the phonological awareness and phonics skills included (including the research-based sequence in which they should be taught), but does not contain detailed information regarding phonemic awareness instruction. The materials also include strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the Foundational Skills program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement. The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for the inclusion of decodable texts that include phonics and high-frequency words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings. Materials do not include opportunities to assess phonological awareness skills and fluency. Teacher supports for reteaching are not consistently available throughout the program. The instructional materials contain notations about standards alignment, however the individual assessments are not labeled with those alignments. Supports are regularly provided for students performing below grade level, though supports for English language learners and students performing above grade level are limited. The instructional materials reviewed include web-based resources, compatible with multiple Internet browsers, are platform neutral, follow universal programming style, and allow the use of tablets and mobile devices. All digital materials are for teacher use only. The design of the materials is clear and easy to read and do not provide unnecessary visual distraction.

Criterion 2.1: Guidance for Implementation, Including Scope and Sequence

18/20
Materials are accompanied by a systematic, explicit, and research-based scope and sequence outlining the essential knowledge and skills that are taught in the program and the order in which they are presented. Scope and sequence should include phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, and print concepts.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 provide a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials, including information to support the teacher’s knowledge and understanding of foundational skills. Lessons are clearly structured and the pacing is appropriate to achieve maximum student understanding within the space of a school year. The scope and sequence for the program lists the phonological awareness and phonics skills included (including the research-based sequence in which they should be taught), but does not contain detailed information regarding phonemic awareness instruction. The materials also include 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.

Indicator 2A
04/04
Materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

The Level 1 Fundations materials have annotations and suggestions in the Fundations Teacher's Manual on how to present the content in the student materials. Routines are presented in detail at the beginning of the Teacher's Manual including what the teacher does and states. The program includes a comprehensive Learning Activities Overview that provides teachers with explicit directions for each learning activity and differentiation suggestions. Throughout the Teacher's Manual, a computer icon indicates where items can be found on the companion website, the PLC. There is an online resource called the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC) that includes teacher guidance for use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning. The PLC provides how-to videos for classroom routines and lesson plan templates.

Materials provide a well-defined, teacher resource (teacher edition, manual) for content presentation.

  • The Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual provides implementation information, principles of instruction, Learning Activity overviews, and unit lesson plans with unit resources.
  • The Fundations Companion Website includes resources for instruction.

Examples of the teacher resource contains detailed information and instructional routines that help the teacher to effectively implement all foundational skills content (i.e. phonological awareness, print concepts, letters, phonics, HFW, word analysis, decoding) includes:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, page 9, there is a section titled Principles of Instruction. The section includes types of instruction used in the program such as explicit instruction and multi-sensory instruction.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Orientation, plans are included showing the teacher how to teach each routine including: how to echo, how to teach how to echo, how to use the writing grid, how to follow verbalizations, and how to use pencil grip/tracing.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, plans are included showing the teacher how to teach each Learning Activity including: alphabetical order, dictation/sounds, dictation/words, dictation/multisyllabic words, dictation/trick words, dictation/sentences, drill sounds/warm up, echo/find letters, echo/find words, echo/find multisyllabic words, echo/letter formation, letter-keyword sound, sky write/letter formation, teach trick words/reading, teach trick words/spelling, word of the day, word talk, and additional activities. For each activity, a synopsis, procedure, and differentiation options are included.  A table is included listing a brief summary of the activity, the teacher materials needed, where to view the activity on the PLC, and an estimated activity time. The manual details what the teacher does and what the teacher states.
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, each Unit of Instruction is divided into varying number of weeks. Each week is broken down into days. Each day has a guided plan. For example: In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, pages 132- 133, there is a Student Learning Plan and Teacher & Student Materials list. The lesson begins with Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, followed by the introduction of a New Concept: Digraphs wh, ch, sh, th, ck, and Trick Words Reading & Spelling.
  • The Fundations Level 1 Activity Cue Cards Second Edition are supplied in the teacher kit. Each activity card provides an activity synopsis, teacher materials, student materials, estimated time on activity, at a glance information, and learning plan notes. 

Technology pieces included provide support and guidance for the teacher and do not create an additional layer of complication around the materials.

  • The Prevention/Early Learning Community (PLC) provides downloadable documents, videos, word structure and analysis animations, and a discussion board.
  • In the PLC, Demonstrations, Level 1, there are demonstration videos for full lessons, sounds, activities, and tapping/marking.
Indicator 2B
04/04
Materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program so teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for the expectation that materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills included in the program, so teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

The Fundations Level 1 program and materials include information, explanations, and examples for the teacher to improve their own knowledge of foundational skills.  Overview information is detailed in the Teacher's Manual and through the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC). Foundational skills are summarized and a description of the reasons students need the various skills for learning to read are included. 

Examples of complete, detailed adult-level explanations are provided for each foundational skill taught at the grade level includes:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, pages 2-8, an overview of the various skills covered in the program are listed with a detailed description of the term and its impact on learning to read is provided for teachers. Skills listed include, but are not limited to: 
    • Phonological awareness
      • It is the understanding that spoken language consists of parts:
        • A spoken sentence consists of separate words. (Word awareness)
        • A word consists of separate syllables. (Syllable awareness)
        • A syllable consists of separate sounds, or phonemes (Phoneme awareness)
    • Phonemic awareness and the Alphabetic Principle
      • English is an alphabetic language--that is--words are constructed in print with letters to represent sounds.
    • Phonics
      • Sound mastery is a key component of phonics.
    • High-Frequency “Trick” Words
      • High-frequency words are the words that appear most often in print.
    • Fluency
      • Automaticity is a term that refers to quick and automatic recognition of words in isolation.
    • Automaticity of handwriting
      • To write a letter, a child must identify the letter by name, memorize the formation of it, and quickly retrieve this form from memory (Edwards, 2003).
  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, page 28, the Synopsis includes a description of the letter/dictated sound activity with an explanation of its importance. “This activity supports the development of the Alphabetic Principle and helps students solidify both sound-symbol correspondence and letter formation.”
  • In PLC, Collaboration, several resources further explain foundational skills' concepts and Common Core Language are included.
  • In PLC, Level 1 Implementation Guide, Print Awareness is described: “Students also systematically learn punctuation, capitalization, and proofreading skills.”

Examples of detailed examples of the grade-level foundational skill concepts are provided for the teacher includes:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, pages 2-8, an overview of the various skills covered in the program are listed with detailed examples.
    • Phonemic Awareness and the Alphabetic Principle.
      • The word map, for example, has three sounds or phonemes: /m/ /a/ /p/.
      • Sound mastery
        • In segmenting the sounds in the word mat, the sound of the letter m /m/ should not be said /mu/ and the sound of the t /t/ should not be said /tu/. Thus segment the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/, not /mu/ /a/ /tu/.
    • Phonics
      • For example, to blend the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ into a word, students are taught how to say each sound as they tap a finger to their thumb. 
  • In the PLC, Level 1 Implementation Guide, fluency is taught with phrasing.  Example is as follows: “Additionally, phrasing is modeled and practiced during the Teach Trick Words - Reading activity, with sentences written on sentence frames. One day, Echo sat on a branch, deep in the forest.”
  • In the PLC, Level 1 Implementation Guide, it states about high frequency words, “Circle the new Trick Words, out and about.”
Indicator 2C
04/04
Foundational skills lessons are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Content can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for 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 Level 1 Fundations materials are designed to be implemented to a whole group of students according to a clear structure. Whole group instruction is planned for 30-35 minute daily lessons during 32-33 weeks. Weeks per unit vary according to content taught during the unit. Lesson times are provided for the learning activities, which become routine. Units are designed to be covered within a given amount of time, and each lesson should take one day. The week-to-week instruction is consistent and the skills taught within each lesson build on each other. This format demonstrates a structure which controls the day-to-day pacing. Whole group lessons utilize gradual release of responsibility are used within lessons and within the Learning Activities. Plans are included for changing pacing for students needing additional support and those that are able to accelerate through units. Small group instruction lesson planning for Tier 2 (intervention) is in the Professional Learning Community online companion under Intervention Guidelines.

The Level 1 materials can extend from 165 days to 180 days based on time needed for the completion of Unit 1 (2-3 weeks) and Unit 2 (2-4 weeks), when the additional time planned is used for students not having Level K experience with Fundations. As most schools are in session for more than 32-33 weeks, this instructional plan is reasonable and allows for appropriate pacing of teaching, reteaching, or reviewing as needed for maximum student understanding.  
The pacing of each component of daily lesson plans is clear and appropriate. 

  • Each Learning Activity includes estimated activity times. For example:
    • Dictation/Trick Words is 2-3 minutes.
    • Word of the Day is 5-10 minutes.
    • Word Talk is 5-10 minutes.

Examples of lesson plans utilize effective, research-based lesson plan design for early literacy instruction include: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Student Success, page 10, the manual details how the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model is used in the learning activity sequence on a given day or within a week moving students from 
    • 1.) “I Do It” - Teacher Demonstration
    • 2.) “We Do It” - Guided instruction/practice
    • 3.) “You Do It Together” - Collaborative Learning
    • 4.) “You Do It Alone” -  Independent Success 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Scope and Sequence, pages 22-23, the manual details the 14 units with the number of weeks needed and content covered during each unit.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Orientation Guide, pages 61-65, the manual takes the teacher through the new concepts and materials as well as the planned time in the unit.  
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, the scope and sequence for each lesson is very similar. For example:  In Unit 4, Week 1, Day 2, pages 160-161, there are the following activities:  the Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, Word Play, Trick Words - Reading, Trick Words - Spelling, Dictation. These same activities, and others, are cycled through every lesson throughout the year.
  • According to the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Implementing Fundations, “Fundations provides all students with a foundation for reading and spelling. It is part of the CORE language arts instruction, delivered to all students in general education classrooms,  30-35 minutes per day as a supplemental program. Fundations instruction emphasizes phonemic awareness, phonics-word study, high-frequency word study, fluency, vocabulary, handwriting and spelling. 
  • The effective lesson design structure includes both whole group and small group instruction.
  • Through the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), Getting Started Section, lesson plan templates are included for accelerated lesson planning and reteach learning plans.
    • In PLC, General Guidelines, Fundations Levels 1 & 2 Intervention, there is an explanation and details of small group Tier 2 instruction lesson planning. Levels 1 & 2 intervention lessons are recommended to occur 3 to 5 days per week with a minimum of 30+ minutes of additional instructional support. The lesson plan guidelines for Beginning to Mid-Year are as follows:
      • Day 1 Activities include Warm-Up, Build Words, Word Talk, Fluency Drills.
      • Day 2 Activities include Warm-Up, Fundations Fluency Drills (from Fundations Teacher Kit)
      • Day 3 Activities include Warm-Up, Build Words, Echo/Find Letters & Words

The suggested amount of time and expectations for maximum student understanding of all foundational skill content (i.e. phonological awareness, print concepts, letters, phonics, high frequency words (HFW), word analysis, decoding) can reasonably be completed in one school year and should not require modifications. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Scope and Sequence, pages 21-23, the teacher is provided an overview of the amount of time needed to complete each unit:  
    • 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) 
    • 36 weeks or 32 weeks in accelerated cycle to complete the program.
  • Through the online companion, Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), an accelerated 2 week cycle for Units 1 and 2 is available when students received Level K Fundations instruction.  
  • In PLC, lesson plan templates are included for any units that need to be retaught.  Teachers are directed to use the reteaching lesson plans if students score less than 80% on the unit assessment.
Indicator 2D
Read
Order of Skills
Indicator 2D.i
02/04

Scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence. (K-1)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for the criteria that the scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include a general scope and sequence for phonological awareness for segmenting and blending. To determine the exact focus of the phonemic awareness part of the lesson, the teacher must look at specific lessons.  The scope and sequence references the phonemic awareness hierarchy as outlined by Marilyn Adams; however, the materials present phonemic awareness activities inconsistently with elements of phonics. Phoneme segmentation is taught through marking words and/or using Sound Cards. Opportunities are missed to isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in spoken single syllable words.

Materials contain an evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Scope and Sequence, page 21, the text details what students will be able to do by the end of Level 1. The topic listed related to phonemic awareness is:  
    • Segment syllables into sounds (phonemes) - up to 5 sounds

Materials do not contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice based on the expected hierarchy. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Scope and Sequence, page 22, the text details what topics are covered in each of the 14 units. Phonemic awareness is listed in:
    • Unit 2 (2-4 weeks): Phonemic awareness skills: sound manipulation (initial, final, medial)
    • Unit 3 (2 weeks): Phoneme segmentation
    • Unit 10 (3 weeks): Segmenting and blending up to 5 sounds
    • Unit 12 (3 weeks): Concept of syllables in multisyllabic words

Materials have a limited cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students' application of the skills. Examples include: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 2, Introducing New Concepts, pages 108-109, finger tapping is taught to read words utilizing the sound cards for /s/, /a/, /d/. Instructions direct students to say each sound separately, blend the sounds together by tapping their index finger to their thumb for each while saying each individual sounds.  Then students blend sounds and say the word as they drag their thumb across their fingers.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 3, page 278, digraphs and r-controlled vowel sounds are presented as one sound for the letter combination on the sound cards and the R-controlled vowel poster. Students orally practice digraphs and r-controlled vowel sounds as one sound with visual cues.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 302-303, closed syllables are taught with short and long vowel sounds. Standard sound cards are used to form the word to blend.
Indicator 2D.ii
04/04

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

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for the expectation that scope and sequence clearly delineate an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear explanation for the order of the sequence.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include a general scope and sequence. The scope and sequence outlines how phonics will be taught and the progression beginning with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words in the Level K curriculum and increase to future levels of words with more complex patterns including long vowels, multisyllabic words, and vowel team patterns. Phonics skills are listed in the scope and sequence. The materials focus on teaching sounds in two directions: letter to sound and sound to letter. Explanation of the material’s phonics layout is provided on the online companion, the Prevention/ Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC).  

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward application of skills. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Phonics, pages 4-5, phonics instruction is explained to the teacher. A routine is established for learning letter names and sounds. The sequence used is to say the letter, keyword, and sound (d-dog-/d/). Fundations teaches sounds in two directions - letter to sound (see letter and identify sound) and sound to letter (hear sound and identify the letter). In addition to sound-symbol instruction, students learn how to blend sounds into words. The Level 1 materials progress from the Level K materials that begin with blending CVC words with continuous consonant sounds. Additional levels progress from CVC words to words with 4 then 5 sounds to words with more complex patterns including multisyllabic words and all vowel patterns. Vowel-consonant-e syllable is not introduced until Unit 11.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, page 21, the text details what students will be able to do by the end of Level 1. Topics listed related to phonics include: name and write letters when given sounds for consonants, consonant digraphs, and short/long vowels; distinguish long/short vowel sounds; use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words, spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions,identify word structures such as blends, digraphs, base words, suffixes, syllable types; read and spell CVC, CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, CVCe words, read and spell compound words and other words with two syllables by breaking them into syllables.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, page 66, the single letter/sound sequence is listed.
    • Week 1: Day 1: t  b  f  Day 2: n  m   Day 3: i  u   Day 4: c   o 
    • Week 2: Day 1: a  g  Day 2: d   s  Day 3: e   r   Day 4: p  j 
    • Week 3: Day 1: l  h  k   Day 2: v  w   Day 3: y  x  Day 4: z   q
  • In PLC, Printable Resources, Getting Started, Fundations Program Information is located. It explains the layout for sounds mastery and key linkages as well as phonics/word study and advanced word study. This document explains the incorporation of teaching the six syllable types, the utilization of the six syllable types, and a break down of phonics skills taught in each level of the Fundations program. 

Materials have a clear research-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. Examples include:

  • According to the Teacher's Manual, page 3, “Students learn the letter name, its formation, and its sound simultaneously. This creates an important link and uses motor memory learning to associate letters with their sounds. This multi-sensory approach helps to form a tight association with the letter, its sound, and how it is formed. When a student learns how to write a letter, and simultaneously names the letter and says the sound, it helps them to ‘bind the visual, motor, and phonological images of the letter together at once’ (Adams, 1990, page 355).”
  • According to the Teacher's Manual, page 3, “In Fundations, the sequence of letters presented is based upon these principles (ease of production of the letter, continuity of stroke, similarity of strokes to those letters previously taught, ease of perception and production of the sound associated with the letter) for an integrated and multi-sensory approach. (Wolf, 2011, p. 191)”.

Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations. Examples include:

  • In Level 1 Fundations, the materials include glued sounds.
    • In Unit 4, students learn all - ball - /all/.
    • In Unit 5, students learn am - ham - /an/ and an - fan - /an/.
    • In Unit 7, students learn ang - fang - /ang/, ing - ring - /ing/, ong - song - /ong/, ung - lung - /ung/, ank - bank - /ank/, ink - pink - /ink/, onk - honk - /onk/, unk - junk - /unk/.
  • In Level 1, Unit 7, students learn ar - car - /ar/, or - horn - /or/, er - her - /er/, ir - bird - /ir/, ur - burn - /ur/.
  • In Level 1, Unit 9, students learn ai - bait - long/a/, ay - play - long/a/, ee - jeep - long/e/, ea -  eat - long/e/, ey - key - long/e/, oi - coin - /oy/, oy - boy - /oy/.
  • In Level 1, Unit 10, students learn oa - boat - long/o/, oe - toe - long/o/, ow - tow - long/o/, ou - trout - /ou/, ou - soup - /ou/, oo -  book - /oo/, oo -  school - /oo/, ue - blue - /ue/, ue - rescue - long/u/, ew - chew - /ew/, au - August - /au/, aw - saw - /au/

Patterns and generalizations are carefully selected to provide a meaningful and manageable number of phonics patterns and common generalizations for students to learn deeply. Examples include:

  • In Fundations Level 1, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, page 145, the teacher teaches the spelling of -ck. Instructions to the teacher are to explain that ck is used only at the end of words right after the short vowel. Instruction is also that c says /k/, but c does not end words.
  • In Fundations Level 1, vowel team sounds are introduced in Unit 9 -ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oi, oy and in Unit 10- oa, oe, ow, ou, oo, ue, ew, au, aw.
    • In Unit 9, Week 2, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, page 314, vowel teams for /oi/ sound spelled oi, oy. The teacher says the letter-keyword-sound (coin, boy), and students echo. The vowel team poster is reviewed with the letter-keyword-sound process. 
  • In Fundations Level 1, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 302-303, explicit instruction on the closed syllable concept includes that words have parts that go together called syllables and are defined as a part of a word that can be pushed out in one breath. The closed syllable has one vowel only and must be enclosed. A closed syllable gives the vowel the short sound.
  • In Fundations Level 1, Unit 11, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 366-367, vowel-consonant-e syllable instruction uses the Standard Sound Cards to make h-o-p. Students tap out hop. The teacher taps the word hope, explains that it has three sounds but the o says its name like in octopus. Using the Standard Sound Cards, teachers add an e and explain how it is the busiest letter and “keeps its mouth closed” while it works.
Indicator 2E
Read
Materials contain strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the Foundational Skills program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for the expectation that the materials contain strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the ELA/literacy program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement. 

The Level 1 Fundations program includes detailed home support packs to inform students, parents, and caregivers about the program and suggestions for how to support student progress and achievement at home. Home support packs are included for overview information, routines and orientation, and for each unit of the program. The instructions for home support are detailed in parent-friendly language. Activities and practice pages included in the home pack are available for all units. Through the online companion, Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), student progress and reading achievement support are provided for school administration and school leaders. 

Materials contain jargon-free resources and processes to inform all stakeholders about foundational skills taught at school. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Home Support Pack, support pack sheets are included and organized by the lesson/week. The Orientation Letter welcomes families to the program and promotes home support. The letter details how the teacher will keep families informed of what students are working on in the classroom and suggestions for parents to guide what can be done at home. 
  • In PLC, Collaboration, Printable Resources, a document is included for Principal Walk-Throughs. The document lists components that should be in place in Fundations classrooms and general implementation components. 

Materials provide stakeholders with strategies and activities for practicing phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, and print concepts that will support students in progress towards and achievement of grade-level foundational skills standards. For example: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Home Support Pack, Unit 1, the Homework Guide informs parents/caregivers what glued sounds were taught and four steps for parents to help support the learning of the glued sounds at home.  Words to be dictated on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are listed. A note is included with a book that could be read at home that may help. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Home Support Pack, Unit 9,  the Homework Guide tells parents they should review closed syllables for the next two weeks following the given five steps. Words are listed for each day for the next two weeks. An answer key is included at the bottom of the letter. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Home Support Pack, Unit 14, Week 2, a detailed weekly homework plan with directions is provided. The activity is to add suffixes to base words. The instructions remind parents to: “Check the word and have your child underline or scoop the syllables in the base word and circle the suffix”. An example is provided.
  • In PLC, Collaboration, there are several resources to guide building and PLC discussions as well for Principal Walk-throughs.

Criterion 2.2: Decodable Texts

04/08
Program includes work with decodables in K and Grade 1, and as needed in Grade 2, following the grade-level scope and sequence to address both securing phonics.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for the inclusion of decodable texts that include phonics and high-frequency words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings.

Indicator 2F
Read
Aligned Decodable Texts
Indicator 2F.i
02/04
Materials include decodable texts with phonics aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials include decodable texts with phonics aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some decodable texts for students to read. There are six decodable books included in the Fundations Level 1 Fundations Teacher Kit. The Teacher's Manual does not include explicit instruction when to use the illustrated readers except the inside cover directions state: “Use this book for repeated reading practice--paired reading or individual practice focusing on accuracy and then reading aloud with expression.” Each book includes decodable words from several Units. On the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), there are 12 decodable passages to use with students during Storytime. The Storytime Learning Activities begin in Unit 3 (approximately 4-7 weeks into the year) and are included once a week on Day 5. Storytime activities included on Day 5 have teachers using either a projected story of a few sentences or ask the teacher to select a separate book. During Storytime activities, students read silently and then students echo back. Choral reading follows echo reading. There are opportunities to teach students how to supply phonics skills with chart stories during Storytime activities. Some Storytime chart stories align to the Fundations Level 1 Scope and Sequence, but others do not. 

Materials include decodable texts to address securing phonics.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 141, the teacher writes “Cod Fish” onto chart paper, scooping phrases. The teacher asks students to read the title silently, tapping out if needed. The students read one sentence silently and then the teacher selects a student to read a sentence aloud. The class repeats the sentence. After reading the story, the class reads it chorally together. Students are asked to mark capital letters and underline digraphs.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 192, the teacher writes “Pam and Dan” on chart paper.  The teacher asks the students to read the title silently, tapping if needed. Students read the story, one or two sentences at a time, silently at first followed by one student reading aloud to the class with the class repeating. When finished, the class reads the whole story chorally. Students mark quotation marks, glued sounds, and bonus letters.

Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 5, page 244, new sounds are introduced (ang, ing, ong, ung). The decodable story “King Sam” is introduced also on Day 5 includes three words using one of the new spelling patterns. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Overview, page 270, blends and r-controlled vowels are introduced. In Unit 8, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, pages 282-283, the charted story, “The Pink Dress,” includes three words with blends.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing phonics skills.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, pages 166-167, the teacher writes “The Big Mess” passage on chart paper. The teacher has students read the title silently. The teacher discusses the title with students, and students predict what they think the story is about. The teacher shows students the exclamation point at the end of the first sentence. The teacher lets students know how an exclamation point changes the voice expression. Students read silently. The teacher selects a student to read a sentence or two aloud while using Baby Echo to point to the words. The class repeats the sentences. After the first reading of the passage, the class reads the passage chorally. The teacher asks questions about the characters, the setting, and the main events. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 2, Day 5, Storytime, page 423, the teacher displays the passage, “Jackson.” The teacher has students read the title silently. The teacher has a student retell the story. The teacher and students read the passage chorally. After every two to three sentences, the teacher stops for students to “make a movie” in their head, practicing the skill of visualization. After finishing the story, the teacher models retelling. 
Indicator 2F.ii
02/04
Materials include decodable texts with high-frequency words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials include decodable texts with high-frequency words/irregularly spelled aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

The Level 1 Fundations materials include some decodable texts with irregularly spelled words for students to read. Storytime activities that begin in Unit 3 (approximately 4-7 weeks into the year) may include Trick Words (high-frequency/irregularly spelled words) that relate to the program’s scope and sequence and are included once a week on Day 5. Storytime activities included on Day 5 have teachers using either a projected story of a few sentences or ask the teacher to select and identify a text. The teacher is required to self-select an appropriate decodable text that relates or aligns to the program’s Trick Words (high-frequency/irregularly spelled words) scope and sequence. During Storytime activities, students read silently, and then students echo back what another teacher reads. Choral reading follows. There are opportunities to practice Trick Words with chart stories during Storytime activities, but the opportunities do not consistently align to the Fundations Level 1 high-frequency/irregularly spelled words (Trick Words) Scope and Sequence. The Fundations materials include six illustrated readers for students to read in book form. The Teacher's Manual does not include explicit instruction when to use the illustrated readers except the inside cover directions state: “Use this book for repeated reading practice--paired reading or individual practice focusing on accuracy and then reading aloud with expression.” Each book includes Trick Words from several units.

Materials include decodable texts that utilize some irregularly spelled words. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 209, the chart story, “Mack and Bugs” contains only one of the eight introduced Trick Words for Unit 6. The Trick Words, were, are, who, what, when, where, there, and here, are introduced in the unit. Only the word there is included in the text. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 245, the chart story, “King Sam” does not include any of the high-frequency/irregularly spelled words (Trick Words) introduced in the current unit: why, by, my, try, put, two, too, very, also, some, and come.

Decodable texts contain some grade-level irregularly spelled words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. For example: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 5, Storytime, page 310, the chart story, “Fred the Frog” is used. The text has the following Trick Words: the, to, and, over, he, is, two, I, do, where, now (which is not introduced until Unit 10), between and see (which are current Unit 9 words.) The trick words say, says, and each are Unit 9 Trick Words, but are not contained in the text.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing reading irregularly spelled words in context. For example: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 1, Day 5, the decodable passage is read aloud by different students 2-3 sentences at a time. The teacher asks questions about the characters, setting, and main events. Students make words, but not the Trick Words. Trick Words in “The Skunk” from Unit 10 include out and down.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 2, Day 5, the decodable passage, “The Skunk,” is read aloud chorally. After 2-3 sentences, students "make a movie" in their heads. Students read in pairs to practice fluent reading.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 3, Day 5, the decodable passage, “The Skunk” is used to remind students about a narrative. The passage is a cold-read.

Criterion 2.3: Assessment and Differentiation

12/24
Materials provide teachers resources and tools to collect ongoing data about student progress on the Standards. Materials also provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so that students demonstrate independence with grade-level standards.

The instructional materials do not provide consistent opportunities to measure student progress in print concepts, phonics, word recognition, and word analysis. Materials do not include opportunities to assess phonological awareness skills and fluency. Teacher supports for reteaching are not consistently available throughout the program. The instructional materials contain notations about standards alignment, however the individual assessments are not labeled with those alignments. Supports are regularly provided for students performing below grade level, though supports for English language learners and students performing above grade level are limited.

Indicator 2G
Read
Regular and Systematic Opportunities for Assessment
Indicator 2G.i
01/02

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1).

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1). 

The Level 1 Fundations program does not explicitly assess print concepts. There are missed opportunities for explicitly teaching print concepts and monitoring the acquisition of these early reading skills through progress monitoring and ultimate student mastery assessment. Materials provided by the program do not measure student progress of print concepts. According to the scope and sequence in Level 1, Units 2, 3, and 4 include instruction in distinguishing features of a sentence. However, those unit tests, do not assess print concepts. The Unit 1 Test does include assessment of students’ skills to write/form the lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Materials do not regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of print concepts and letter formation.

  • In the Level 1 Composition Book, beginning on page 79, boxes are provided for Unit Test Grading Grid for capitalization and punctuation on unit tests, but those skills are not included in the actual grade and not tracked in the Unit Test Trackers.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 2, Day 5, on page 321, there is an indication that it is important to check student mastery of skills such as legibility, capitalization, punctuation, and phrasing of sentences, although those skills are not scored on the Unit 9 Test.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, page 99, the Unit 1 Test includes a section where the teacher dictates letters, and students write the letters in their Composition Books. The Unit Test 1 recording form includes all 26 lower case letters. The Teacher's Manual indicates that if students do not score at least 80% on letter formation, the student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. 

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of print concepts and letter formation (only in Unit 1 and lowercase letters). Print concepts is not assessed in Level 1.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, page 99, the Unit 1 Test includes students forming the letters in their Composition Books. The Unit Test 1 recording form includes all 26 lower case letters. The teacher manual indicates that if students do not score at least 80% on letter formation, the student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. 

Materials support teachers with general instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in print concepts and letter formation.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, page 99, the Unit 1 Test includes students forming the letters in their Composition Books. The teacher's manual indicates that if students do not score at least 80% on letter formation, the student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. 
Indicator 2G.ii
00/02

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-1)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria for the expectation that the materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress of phonological awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

 The Level 1 Fundations materials do not include opportunities to assess phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness is not formally assessed other than during one section of the progress monitoring assessments in the beginning to mid-year probe from the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC). Opportunities are missed to assess phonological awareness progress with no oral reading or sound manipulation during unit tests. None of the assessments call for students to orally produce sounds during a one-on-one setting. All assessments are administered whole class. Assessment opportunities are not offered comprehensively, regularly, or systematically to measure overall phonological awareness progress.

Materials do not regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonological awareness. 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations, PLC, Beginning to Mid Year Progress Monitoring, phoneme segmentation probes are included. The teacher says a word and the student segments (17 probes). These assessments are not intended for all students.

Assessment materials do not provide teachers and students with information concerning  students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonological awareness. 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1 test, page 100, students in Part 1, write letters in alphabetical order. In Part 2, students write the letter for the sound the teacher produces (phonics).
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3 test, pages 151-152, the students underline digraphs in words, but not orally produce the digraph sound.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9 Test, page 321, the students write letters for one consonant sound, two short vowel sounds, one consonant digraph (4 were taught), and one glued/welded sound (11 were taught). Students write five dictated words and then underline the base word, circle the suffix, and mark the closed syllable words. Two sentences for students to write are also dictated.

Materials support teachers with limited instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonological awareness.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Unit Test, page 177, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. The assessment does not include phonological awareness.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Unit Test, page 293, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. The assessment does not include phonological awareness.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Unit Test, page 357, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. The assessment does not include phonological awareness.
Indicator 2G.iii
01/02

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics in- and out-of-context (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress of phonics (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). 

The Level 1 Fundations materials include limited opportunities to measure student progress of all grade-level phonics taught. Assessment questions for students to write dictated sounds and words are included on unit tests. Students are asked to encode sounds, combinations of letters, and words. Assessment opportunities do require students to decode and read phonetically-based words. Through the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), progress monitoring probes are included to address decoding of words. The Teacher's Manual indicates that any student scoring below 80% on a given skill should meet with the teacher individually for additional support, but the materials do not detail what support should be provided. The unit tests do not include a full assessment of all phonics taught. Assessments do not provide a complete measure of student progress. 

Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Examples include:

  • In the Teacher's Manual, there are Unit Tests, Unit Test Answer Keys, and student testing paper.
  • In PLC, the Fundations Progress Monitoring Tool for Level 1 includes the following components:
    • Teacher Guide: Directions for Progress Monitoring and Guidelines for Instruction (one per teacher)
    • Teacher Record (one per student is needed)
    • Student Probes (one copy re-used for all students)
  • In PLC, Unit Test Assessments, there are Test Recording Forms, Whole Class Test Trackers, and Individual Test Trackers.

Materials offer assessment opportunities to determine students’ progress in phonics that are implemented systematically. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5 Test, page 193, students are asked to write given words (quick, man, fan, shell, ham). 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7 Test, page 265, students write the following sounds: /ank/, /z/, /ung/, short /e/, and /ink/. Students write words with /ank/, /ink/, /ing, and /ong/. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10 Test, page 357, the teacher dictates sounds, and students write in composition books (/sh/, /ks/, short /e/, /onk/, /am/). Students write five words (slant, twist, slumps, blended, trusting). 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 14 test, page 499, the teacher dictates sounds, and students write in their composition books (/ong/, /b/, long /e/, /ch/, /kw/). Students write five words (admit, thrilling, clockwise, expected, dislikes). 

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided regularly for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. There are 14 Unit assessments with opportunities for students to write letter sounds and phonetically- based words.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with some information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1 Test, the teacher learns if a student knows the following letter sounds: f, m, h, l, p, t, i, v, a, z.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6 Test, the teacher learns if a student can encode the following words: tells, ships, chins, quits, walls.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11 Test, the teacher learns if a student can encode the following words: mule, brave, joke, grades, smiles.

Materials support teachers with limited instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Unit Test, page 125, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Unit Test, page 265, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Unit Test, page 433, the manual states to extend the time in the Unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test. If an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced.
Indicator 2G.iv
01/02

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (K-2)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). 

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide limited opportunities for assessment of word recognition and analysis. Students are asked to write high-frequency words in dictated sentences and are able to reference Student Notebooks for assistance. Students are asked to identify different word parts in written words/sounds. There are no unit assessments that include students reading high-frequency words and applying word analysis skills to decode words. Assessments have students writing sounds, words, and sentences. Progress monitoring probes are included to address sight word knowledge in the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC). Materials provide limited explicit support to teachers in regards to instructional adjustments to help students make progress. Level 1 assessments do not require students to read all of the learned high-frequency words addressed in the Level 1 materials. 

Examples of materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition (high-frequency words or irregularly spelled words) and analysis include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Unit Test, page 125, the teacher dictates two sentences to students. Sentences include five Trick Words (his, and, a, is, the). The teacher places Sentence Frames for the sentences and circles those that will have a Trick Word. Students are able to use their Student Notebooks as a reference.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Unit Test, page 229, the teacher dictates five sounds and five phonetic words with bonus letters, digraphs, and suffix -s. For the five phonetically based words (tells, ships, chins, quilts, walls), students underline the base word, circle the suffix, star bonus letters, and box the glued sounds. For the sentences, the teacher places the Sentence Frames and circles the Frames that contain the Trick Words (who, said, where, are, your).
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Unit Test, page 471, the teacher dictates five sounds and five phonetic words with suffixes to students. Students are asked to scoop the syllable into multisyllabic words, to underline base words and circle suffixes. Students write two dictated sentences, which contain Trick Words (they, that, little, their, has, new).

Examples of assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Unit Test, page 193, the teacher dictates five sounds and five words to students. Students record the sounds and words. Students are asked to circle the “buddy letter” with its best buddy. Students are also asked to put a box around the glued sounds and underline digraphs. Finally, students are asked to put a star above the bonus letters. Students are then asked to write two dictated sentences, which contain Trick Words they, from, the, of, does, she, have, for
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10 Test, page 357, students write five words (slant, twist, slumps, blended, trusting). Students underline blends with two lines, underline base words, and circle suffixes. Students record two dictated sentences, which contain Trick Words (how, could, I, about, the). 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 14 Test, page 499, students write five words (admit, thrilling, clockwise, expected, dislikes). Students underline or scoop syllables, circle suffixes, and mark all closed and v-e syllables.

Materials support teachers with limited instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Unit Test, page 152, the manual states to extend the time in the unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test and if an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item. If  a student does not score 80%, this student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Unit Test, page 321, the manual states to extend the time in the unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test and if an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item.  This student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. 
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Unit Test, page 471, the manual states to extend the time in the unit if 80% of the class does not demonstrate 80% mastery on the unit test and if an individual student does not score at least 80% on any given item. This student will need additional assistance with the assessed skill. The teacher is instructed to meet with struggling students individually to discuss errors and explain areas that need to be further practiced. 
Indicator 2G.v
00/02
Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress in fluency (as indicated by the program scope and sequence). (1-2)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the criteria for materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress in fluency (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The Level 1 Fundations materials include limited opportunities to measure student progress in fluency. The available fluency assessment is in the materials designated for the progress monitoring which is included as part of the online companion, the Prevention/Early Learning Community (PLC) for students receiving intervention. The Level 1 Teacher's Manual does not direct teachers to use the progress monitoring with all students. These materials would provide the only opportunity for teachers to individually measure the students’ ability to read fluently. The Level 1 unit tests do not include opportunities for students to be assessed for oral reading fluency. After teachers are directed to move outside of the core materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students in Tier 2, fluency progress monitoring is built in when recording real words, nonsense words (to measure decoding skill fluency), and phrase drills. Students’ fluency progress is otherwise not assessed (including rate). 

Examples of intervention assessment opportunities provided over the course of the year in materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of fluency include:

  • In PLC, Level 1, Intervention tab, progress monitoring materials related to fluency are included with Word Identification, Nonsense words, and oral reading passages. The student is timed for one minute while reading the word list or story. Materials include a student tracking sheet.
  • In the Fundations Fluency Kit 1 states the kit is to be used with students who need additional practice. Fluency Drills in the kit include phrases and stories. Word drills are 20 seconds and phrase drills are 60 seconds. Fun Stories are not timed. The stories are to emphasize reading with ease and expression for understanding.

Examples of intervention assessment materials provide teachers and students with information about students in Tier 2 for current skills/level of understanding of fluency include:

  • In the Fundations Fluency Kit 1, timed drill cards for high- frequency/irregular words, nonsense words (to measure decoding skill fluency), and phrases are included. There is one phrase card per unit, two high-frequency/irregular words per unit, and one nonsense word per unit. The kit includes graphs for students to chart their progress.
  • In the Fundations Fluency Kit 1, it suggests a teacher orally record students’ first reading and then re-record after practice. The teacher has the students listen to both recordings and discusses accuracy and prosody improvement.

Materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students in intervention make progress toward mastery in fluency.

  • In the Fundations Fluency Kit 1, the kit suggests when teaching reversals, give students hints when they are practicing drills. For example, students can highlight all the b's or all of the d's before reading.
  • In the Fundations Fluency Kit 1, it suggests to pair students up to practice drills. The reacher is to remind students that the goal is to improve both speed and accuracy. “However, most important, remind them to read with expression and meaning so that the listener will understand.”
Indicator 2H
01/02
Materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for assessment materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

The Level 1 Fundations curriculum and materials include a publisher-produced alignment document that states the standards and where in the program those standards are addressed, including material/unit/page number through the online companion, Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC). Standards are not listed in the daily lesson plans or teacher materials. Beyond reference in the Preface, the standards are not identified throughout the Teacher's Manual. The Level 1 Fundations materials do not provide a clear identification of the foundational skills standards featured within the program provided assessments. The unit tests list general topics as part of the assessment with no standards denoted. The teacher must determine which part of each assessment relates to a standard. There is a Common Core alignment guide provided with the Publisher’s documents, but the alignment document does not include the assessments. The Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, where the program’s assessments are found, does not include an alignment to the standards. 

Materials do not include denotations of the standards being assessed in the formative assessments.

Materials do not include denotations of standards being assessed in the summative assessments.

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, page 100, the Unit 1 assessment does not provide alignment to CCSS.
  • In PLC, Level 1 Unit Test Trackers (Class) do not contain alignment documentation to CCSS.

An alignment documentation is provided for some tasks, questions, and assessment items. For example:

  • In the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Preface, page VI, “Fundations provides specific measurable learning objectives which are aligned to the College and Career Ready Standards (Common Core State Standards CCSS).”

Alignment documentation contains specific standards correlated to specific lessons. For example: 

  • In PLC, Printable Resources, Getting Started, there is a Common Core Standards for English Language Arts Correlations for Levels K-3 document. The document reviews how Fundations addresses Common Core State Standards and Foundational Skills. Standards are listed, per grade level, with material/unit/page number where the standard is addressed in the program.
Indicator 2I
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Differentiation for Instruction: Materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding grade-level standards.

Indicator 2I.i
02/04

Materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen in a language other than English with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the criteria for materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen in a language other than English with extensive opportunities for reteaching meet or exceed grade-level standards. 

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide some differentiated instructional guidance for teaching students who are English Learners (EL). The introductory Student Success section of the Teacher's Manual provides research, a rationale, and principles appropriate to teaching EL students. Materials provide limited differentiated instruction suggestions described for EL students and less additional materials provided for EL students to be successful. The Teacher's Manual suggests that teachers provide additional supports in vocabulary and background knowledge by showing students pictures or using props and gestures.  This creates opportunities for students to practice new vocabulary as well as use open-ended questions. These suggestions are unmet with examples and therefore cannot be guaranteed for consistency nor quality. The text states that EL students benefit from principles of instruction built into Fundations, including the teacher modeling and multi-sensory approach. There are missed opportunities for daily plans to identify specific suggestions for English Learners.

Materials provide limited support for EL students. For example: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Student Success, Differentiated Instruction, page 12, “ELs, as well as students with language-based learning disabilities, may have more difficulty retrieving the words to express concepts during the lesson. They may need to be given a choice of responses (such as ‘Is this a digraph or a blend?’) instead of asking open-ended questions (such as ‘What is this called?’). 

General statements about EL students or few strategies note at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the teacher's edition are then implemented by the materials throughout the curriculum.

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Student Success, Differentiated Instruction, page 12, states that the key principles in Fundations critical for EL students are:
    • Integration of listening, speaking, reading and writing
    • Explicitly modeled skill and strategy instruction
    • Verbal explanation for concepts enhanced by visual, physical and kinesthetic involvement
    • Opportunities for student interaction in supportive groups
    • Procedures that ensure student engagement with hands-on activities
    • Clear and consistent directions and cueing systems
    • Ample opportunities to reinforce skills
    • Scaffolded instruction
    • Repetition of vocabulary, including vocabulary of word structure (such as digraph, short vowel)
    • Assessment of current knowledge that is performance rather than language-based
Indicator 2I.ii
04/04

Materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade-level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards. 

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide some differentiated instructional principles for students who are below grade level using this program. The Teacher's Manual suggests how Learning Activities can be differentiated to support struggling students at the introduction of each unit. Differentiation ideas are not included in daily lesson plans. The Fluency Kit is provided for students below grade level and provides additional instruction in fluency outside of the core program. Materials from the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), provide additional lesson support activities to be used as interventions or in a small group setting for students identified below grade level outside of the core program. The Teacher's Manual, the PLC, and the Fluency Kit provide instructional scaffolding techniques and additional opportunities for additional practice and/or reteaching to below grade level students to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

Materials provide opportunities for small group reteaching. Examples include:

  • In the PLC, Intervention, Intervention Resources, resources are included to support the instruction of students below grade level including:
    • A list of activities/supports is included indicating additional activities a teacher can do with a struggling student. Activities can be done in a smaller group or one to one to work on specific skills. Teachers can look at errors on probes to determine what instruction is needed.
    • Intervention Weekly Planners, a weekly planner for K through Level 3 is included. The weekly planner is blank, and teachers can fill in based on student needs.
    • Intervention Learning Plan Template, a template is included for teachers to plan daily intervention lessons. The template is blank for teachers to fill in based on student need. There is a completed learning plan for teachers to view.

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Echo/Find Words (Single Syllable Words), Differentiation, page 42, teachers are directed to be aware of students’ trouble spots and circulate the room when dictating unit words. The teacher should provide additional assistance to struggling students by helping them repeat and tap the word again or with questions that will guide them.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Overview, Differentiation, page 102, suggests students who are having difficulty blending should be given additional practice with the easier initial consonants. The teacher should teach students to hold onto the consonant to the vowel sound and slide their finger under the cards to read the words.  It is also noted that the Fluency Kit provides opportunities for students in need of further practice to apply the new skill.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Introduction, Differentiation, page 270, reminds teachers that some students will need a lot of practice with this unit, as blends can be challenging. Teachers are directed to identify the blends that are most difficult for any struggling student. The teacher is to focus on students’ trouble spots and discuss it directly with them.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Introduction, Differentiation, page 298, teachers are directed to manipulate cards, including blank cards, to teach struggling students how to recognize that a syllable with one vowel followed by at least one consonant is closed.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Introduction, Differentiation, page 438, teachers are directed to be sure to help students isolate the base words, spell one syllable at a time before adding the suffix, and to use questioning to guide students until they can do this independently.
  • In the PLC, Intervention, Intervention Resources, resources are included to support the instruction of students below grade level including:  An intervention inventory report, general lesson guidelines, additional lesson support activities, intervention learning plan template, completed intervention learning plan template, intervention weekly planners, intervention activity strips, and fluency videos/practice templates.
Indicator 2I.iii
02/04

Materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade-level.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet  the criteria for materials regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level. 

The Level 1 Fundations materials provide some opportunities for extensions and advanced opportunities for students who are working above grade level. The Fundations Teacher's Manual shares brief suggestions for how to differentiate learning activities used throughout the program materials as well as ideas for differentiating each unit. The instructional suggestions shared are brief and do not involve the student going beyond the material presented. Opportunities are missed for advanced students to dive deeper into grade-level standards. Differentiation ideas for advanced students are not included in daily lesson plans.

Materials provide some opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth. Examples include:

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Student Success, Engaging Students in Rigorous Work, page 11, teachers are directed to engage students in rigorous work by asking questions to guide higher-order thinking and to use the guidelines for differentiation to challenge more advanced students.  
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Drill Sounds/Warm up, Differentiation, page 38, the teacher is directed to make the advanced student a drill leader and select more challenging sounds. Additionally, the teacher could ask the student to tell about selected sounds.  
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3 Overview, Differentiation, page 128, advanced students can be challenged with additional sentences and can independently read them with fluency. The teacher can assist with tapping and phrasing as needed.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Overview, Differentiation, page 324, the teachers are directed to offer differentiation options for advanced students throughout Unit 10. The text states that teachers should be sure advanced students can segment all sounds, but they do not have to tap these words if they can read them with automaticity.
  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Introduction-Differentiation, teachers are directed to challenge advanced students with word meanings that can be both plural and action words such as the word, brushes.

There are some instances of advanced students simply doing more assignments than their classmates. Examples include: 

  • In the Level 1 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Introduction, Differentiation, page 128, it suggests: “Advanced students can be challenged with additional sentences and can independently read them with fluency.”

Criterion 2.4: Effective Technology Use and Visual Design

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Materials support effective use of technology and visual design to enhance student learning. Digital materials are accessible and available in multiple platforms.

The instructional materials reviewed include web-based resources, compatible with multiple Internet browsers, are platform neutral, follow universal programming style, and allow the use of tablets and mobile devices. All digital materials are for teacher use only. The design of the materials is clear and easy to read and do not provide unnecessary visual distraction.

Indicator 2J
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Digital materials (either included as a supplement to a textbook or as part of a digital curriculum) are web-based, compatible with multiple Internet browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.), “platform neutral” (i.e., are compatible with multiple operating systems such as Windows and Apple and are not proprietary to any single platform), follow universal programming style, and allow the use of tablets and mobile devices.

The digital materials (either included as supplementary to a textbook or as part of a digital curriculum) are web-based, compatible with multiple Internet browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.), “platform neutral” (i.e., are compatible with multiple operating systems such as Windows and Apple and are not proprietary to any single platform), follow universal programming style, and allow the use of tablets and mobile devices. 

The Levels K through 2 Fundations supplemental teacher materials located on the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), are web-based and compatible with multiple Internet browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. The PLC follows a universal programming style and allows the use of tablets and mobile devices. The PLC was successfully accessed on Apple Macbook, Windows PC, Microsoft Surface Tablet, Apple iPad, Google Chromebook, Android phone, and iPhone. While the PLC is compatible on mobile devices, the PLC is not responsive to mobile devices. On a mobile device, it continues in full website mode.

Indicator 2K
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Materials support effective use of technology to enhance student learning.

The Level 1 Fundations digital materials located on the online companion, the Prevention/Early Literacy Intervention Learning Community (PLC), are intended for teacher use only. Students do not have access to this digital resource unless the teacher is projecting the Large Letter Formation Grid for Sky Write/Letter Formation or Echo/Letter Formation on the Interactive Whiteboard. The PLC contains teacher resources or printables for students. Stories for Units 3 through 14 are located on the PLC for teachers to display or print during the Storytime lesson activities. Stories are found under My Resources, Printable Resources, Activity Resources, Storytime Resources, Level 1 stories. 

Indicator 2L
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Digital materials include opportunities for teachers to personalize learning for all students, using adaptive or other technological innovations.

The Level 1 Fundations supplemental teacher materials located on the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), are intended for teacher use. The PLC provides teacher resources under the Intervention tab, and teachers are able to download an editable lesson plan template for reteaching lesson plans. A completed lesson plan template is available for teachers to review. Other resources that can be personalized include a Unit Test Tracker which student names and dates can be added. There is not a student learning technology program within or in addition to the digital platform to personalize learning for students.

Indicator 2M
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Materials can be easily customized for local use.

The Level 1 Fundations digital teacher materials located on the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), provide teacher resources that can be customized. On the PLC under My Resources, Printable Resources, and Planning tabs, for Level 1, a fillable daily plan is provided along with sample learning plans, a blank template for a learning plan for reteaching, which includes the amount of time allotted for each activity. The remaining resource materials provided on the PLC are in pdf form and can not be customized.

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

The Level 1 Fundations visual design is not distracting or chaotic. The digital teacher materials located on the online companion, the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), are for teacher use and are user-friendly. Other printable resources on the PLC are simple and engaging. Student print materials are not distracting. Materials, such as Letter Board, Magnetic Letter Tiles, Dry Erase Writing Tablet, Student Notebook, Composition Notebook, My Fundations Journal, Desk Strip, and Echo Pointer are simple, yet engaging and free of distracting graphics or unnecessary information.