1st Grade - Gateway 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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.

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.