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

In Level 2 Fundations, high-frequency words are called Trick Words.  According to the Level 2 Fundations manual, there are 81 high-frequency words taught throughout the year.  Words are selected from the Fry and American Heritage Word Frequency Lists.  According to the Level 2 Word List from the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC), students in Level 2 learn 84 Trick Words. 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 17 through three Learning Activities (Dictation/Trick Words, Dictation/Sentences, & Trick Words). 

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words, the teacher writes the Trick Word, both, on the Whiteboard in large letters. The teacher asks, “Does anyone know this word?” After getting a student response, the teacher explains why the Trick Word is tricky. The teacher and students sky write the Trick Word twice (eyes open, eyes shut). The students write the Trick Word on their Gel Word Boards with the Magic Pens. The teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards, and students quickly read the words.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 2, Day 1, Teach Trick Words, the teacher writes the Trick Word, city, on the Whiteboard in large letters. The teachers asks, “Does anyone know this word?” After getting a student response, the teacher explains why the Trick Word is tricky. The teacher and students sky write the Trick Word twice (eyes open, eyes shut). The students write the Trick Word on their Gel Word Boards with the Magic Pens. The teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards, and students quickly read the words.
• In Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 17, Week 1, Day 1, Teach Trick Words, the teacher writes the Trick Word, couple, on the Whiteboard in large letters. The teachers asks, “Does anyone know this word?” After getting a student response, the teacher explains why the Trick Word is tricky. The teacher and students sky write the Trick Word twice (eyes open, eyes shut). The students write the Trick Word on their Gel Word Boards with the Magic Pens. The teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards, 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:

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 135, the teacher dictates a Trick Word. The teacher states, “Let’s write it with your finger on the table, Ready?” The teacher and students state the Trick Word and spell the word, while writing the word with one finger on the table. Students then write the word on their Dry Erase Writing Tablet.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation (Composition Book), page 307, the teacher dictates a Trick Word. The teacher states, “Let’s write it with your finger on the table, Ready?” The teacher and students state the Trick Word and spell the word, while writing the word with one finger on the table. Students then write the word in their Composition Books.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 15, Week1, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 453, the teacher dictates a Trick Word. The teacher states, “Let’s write it with your finger on the table, Ready?” The teacher and students state the Trick Word and spell the word, while writing the word with one finger on the table. Students then write the word on their Dry Erase Writing Tablet.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 4, Trick Word Practice, the teacher writes the Trick Word on the board in large letters. The students sky write the word twice, saying each letter as they write it. Students write the word on their Gel Word Boards, saying the letters as they write. The teacher shows the Trick Word Flashcards pack, and students quickly read the words.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 1, Teach Trick Words, page 235, the teacher displays the Trick Word Flashcards for eight, large, and change. A student is selected to say the word or the teacher tells the students the word. The teacher points out the word part that is “tricky” and writes the word in large letters. The teacher models skywriting the word and asks students to sky write while naming the letters. Students then sky write, naming the letters with their eyes closed while picturing the word in their minds. Next, students write the word with the Magic Pen on their Gel Word Boards naming the letters as they write. They then erase the letters from the board as they name the letters. Students must be sure to say word, spell it, and say the word again. The students then review previously taught Level 2 Trick Words using flashcards.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 3, Trick Word Practice, the teacher writes the Trick Word on the board in large letters. The students sky write the word twice, saying each letter as they write it. Students write the word on their Gel Word Boards, saying the letters as they write. The teacher shows the Trick Word Flashcards pack, and students quickly read the words.

Materials do not include a sufficient quantity of new grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words for students to make reading progress. In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, pages 25-26, high-frequency words are addressed in:

• Unit 2 (2 weeks): shall, pull, full, both, talk, walk
• Unit 3 (1 week): wild, find, cold, colt, post
• Unit 4 (2 weeks): again, please, animal, sure, use, used
• Unit 5 (2 weeks): against, knew, know, always, often, once
• Unit 6 (2 weeks): only, house, move, right, place, together
• Unit 7 (3 weeks): eight, large, change, city, every, family, night, carry, something
• Unit 8 (1 week): would, answer, different
• Unit 9 (2 weeks): picture, learn, earth, father, brother, mother
• Unit 10 (2 weeks): great, country, away, America, school, thought
• Unit 11 (2 weeks): whose, won, son, breakfast, head, ready
• Unit 12 (1 week): favorite, early, ocean
• Unit 13 (2 weeks): Monday, Tuesday, cousin, lose, tomorrow, beautiful
• Unit 14 (2 weeks): Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, bought, brought, piece
• Unit 15 (2 weeks): January, February, July, enough, special, December
• Unit 16 (1 week): August, laugh, daughter
• Unit 17 (2 weeks): trouble, couple, young

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

The Level 2 Fundations materials include opportunities for students to read and write irregularly spelled words in sentences written by the teacher. Students have opportunities to write irregularly spelled words in dictated sentences. Each Unit Resource List provides several sentences with Trick Words. Sentences are dictated two to three times a week when students write one dictated sentence per lesson. Students have few opportunities to read sentences with irregularly spelled words other than reading the dictated sentence they heard and printed. Students are encouraged to use their Student Notebook for spelling Trick Words during any Learning Activity that involves Trick Words.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 4, Dictation (Composition Book), the teacher dictates a sentence with Trick Words. Students repeat the sentence, and write the sentence. Students scoop the sentence, and read it with fluency. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher dictates a sentence with Trick Words. Students repeat the sentence, and write the sentence. Students scoop the sentence, and read it with fluency. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 15, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher dictates a sentence with Trick Words. Students repeat the sentence, and write the sentence. Students scoop the sentence, 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:

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 4, Dictation (Composition Book), page 137, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing. Students repeat and write. The sentence contains a Trick Word. Students scoop the sentence and read it with fluency. Teachers and students proofread the sentence together following the Learning Activity procedures.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, the Unit 4 Resources, page 170, there are 33 sentences containing Trick Words that teachers can select from for sentence dictation.  In Unit 4, Week 1, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 153, the teacher dictates one of the 33 sentences. Students repeat the sentence and write the sentence. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 13, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Composition Book), the teacher dictates a sentence with Trick Words. Students repeat the sentence and write the sentence.

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 the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 2, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 115, the teacher dictates unit sounds, unit words, Trick Words, and a sentence. Students write the sounds, words, Trick Words, and a sentence. When writing the Trick Words, students first write the word with 2 fingers on the desktop before writing on their dry erase writing tablet. Students are encouraged to refer to their Student Notebooks as needed.  
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 6, Week 2, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 221, the teacher dictates unit sounds, unit words, Trick Words, and a sentence. Students write the sounds, words, Trick Words, and a sentence. When writing the Trick Words, students first write the word with 2 fingers on the desktop before writing on their dry erase writing tablet. Students are encouraged to refer to their Student Notebooks as needed.  
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 14, Week 1, Day 4, Dictation (Composition Notebook), the teacher dictates unit sounds, unit words, Trick Words, and a sentence. Students write the sounds, words, Trick Words, and a sentence. When writing the Trick Words, students first write the word with 2 fingers on the desktop before writing on their dry erase writing tablet. Students are encouraged to refer to their Student Notebooks as needed.  

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 partially 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 2 Fundations materials provide teaching and modeling of explicit word analysis strategies. Students are taught to tap out sounds to decode unfamiliar words. The use of syllable types is taught as a word analysis strategy for decoding unknown words. Students mark bonus letters, digraphs, blends, glued/welded sounds, base words, suffixes, and syllable types. Students are taught to analyze words for consonant blends, digraphs, glued sounds, r-controlled vowels, base word with suffixes, multisyllabic words with suffixes, and syllable division rules. There are missed opportunities for explicit instruction and practice using word analysis about prefixes.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 102, the teacher teaches bonus letters (ff, ll, ss) and glued sounds (all). After teaching, students tap words and then learn to mark the words. Students are reminded that they can put a star over the bonus letters. The teacher builds words with bonus letters and asks a student to mark the bonus letter in front of the class. Students should also put a box around the all glued sound. Students add examples to the ff, ll, and ss bonus letter page in the spelling rules section in their Student Notebooks. Students should put a star above each bonus letter.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 146-147, the teacher reviews the concept of base word and suffixes (-s and -es). The Suffix Frame is used to teach the suffixes, and students identify the base word and suffix.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Level 2, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, pages 234-235, open syllables are taught using Standard Sound Cards. The teacher instructs students that the vowel can say its name because there is nothing closing it in and that an open syllable has only one vowel and ends with the vowel. Marking of open syllables is also taught.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 11, Week 2, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, pages 358-359, the teacher reviews syllable types. After making words with the Standard Word Cards, students read the words and mark the words. The class discusses the syllable type. Students build another word for each type of syllable and mark it. The teacher then makes nonsense syllables. Students read and mark the syllable type, discussing the vowel sound for each syllable.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, Syllable Syllable Division, pages 176-177, the teacher explains that words are made up of parts called syllables. The teacher states, “To read or spell words, you just have to read or spell one syllable at a time.” The teacher builds mascot and shows students how to divide the word between the consonants.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 8, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teacher R-Controlled Sounds, the teacher shows the Large Sound Cards for ar and or. The teacher builds car and horn and has students tap car and horn. The teacher explains that normally these words would be closed syllables, but when an r follows the vowel, the r controls the sound of the vowel.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 12, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, Introduce Sounds, page 374, the teacher shows the Large Sound Cards for oi and oy. Using the Standard Sound Cards, the teacher builds coin and boy. The teacher lets students know that oi and oy get one tap like other vowel teams. The teacher has a student mark up the syllable type in coin and boy.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 3, Introduce New Concepts, Student notebook entry, page 183, the students add the spelling of ic to the spelling rules section in their Student Notebooks.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Week 1, Day 5, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, page 242, the teacher chooses 4-5 suffixes to review. The leader points to the yellow Suffix Frame, spelling and reading the suffix, and then students repeat.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 10, Week 2, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts - Teach Combining Double Vowel Syllable with other Syllable Types page 329, the teacher uses the Syllable Frames, writes the word remain, putting one syllable on each frame. Students read the word. A student underlines or scoops the syllables and marks them. The same is done with the word relay. In the Spelling Multisyllabic Words With Spelling Options, teachers say the word complain. Students echo and break the word into syllables then draw a line for each syllable on their Letter Boards. Teachers write com on the first Syllable Frame and pl_n on the second frame. Students build the word with their Letter Tiles on the syllable line on their Letter Boards. Students use a blank salmon tile to represent the /a/ sound. Students use the dictionary and/or spell checker to find the correct spelling.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 14, Week 1, Day 3, Make It Fun, page 424, the lesson provides an opportunity for students to read words with /ou/. The teacher writes 18 words on the board. Students chorally read the list with the teacher. Volunteers are asked to act out a word from the board that is written on the card that only the student sees. The class guesses which word is being acted out.

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

The Level 2 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 of the Day activities, and Dictation/Sentences. The teacher frequently models phrasing by scooping the phrases. There is limited explicit instruction on how or when to scoop phrases as students are often told where to mark the phrases or read passages/sentences that are already scooped by the teacher. Storytime Learning Activities provide opportunities for students to see and hear the teacher model fluent reading. During the Dictation/Sentence activity, the teacher models reading the sentence in phrases. Students read it back in phrases. 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, the kit is not explicit instruction nor intended for all students during whole group instruction.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 2, Storytime, page 105, the teacher reads aloud the story, “Skip is Sick.” The teacher follows the scoops to model phrasing and fluency. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 9, Week 1, Day 3, Storytime, page 295, the teacher reads aloud the story, “The Red Planet.” The teacher follows the scoops to model phrasing and fluency.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 15, Week 1, Day 3, Storytime, page 453, the teacher reads aloud the story, “The Rescue Team.” The teacher follows the scoops to model phrasing and fluency.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 2, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 115, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, Word of the Day, Student Notebook Entry, page 135, the teacher shows students the Word of the Day Card and asks students to use the word in a sentence. The teacher writes a short sentence on the board, scoops it into phrases, and reads it. 
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 16, Week 1, Day 2, Word of the Day, Student Notebook Entry, page 478, the teacher shows students the Word of the Day Card, and students use the word in a sentence. The teacher writes a short sentence on the board, scoops into phrases, and reads it. 

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Units 2-17, the teacher uses short passages from the PLC for fluency instruction. The passages are narrative or informational.
• The fluency kit (intervention) contains controlled sound drills, real and nonsense words, Trick words, phrases, and controlled-text stories (phrased and unphrased).

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 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 2 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 2. 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 students’ fluency. Teachers are directed to move outside of the whole group materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students who struggle with fluency during Tier 2 time. The Fluency Kit includes practice opportunities for students in timed fluency practice for sounds, real words, nonsense words, Trick Words, and controlled text (phrased and unphrased). These intervention materials provide independent practice in fluency and opportunities to receive guidance or feedback from the teacher. These activities can be timed. 

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:

• In the Level 2 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 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, Dictation, Sentences, the teacher dictates a sentence with phrasing. Students repeat and write it. Students scoop the sentence, and read it with fluency.  
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 5, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, page 156, the teacher presents Trick Word Flashcards and has students quickly read them.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 15, Week 2, Day 2, Storytime, page 461, Reading Fluently (10 minutes), students have a copy of “The Rescue Team.” The teacher explains to students that they will work on fluently reading the story and that it is important to do that in meaningful phrases. Students read silently (This can be done paragraph by paragraph). Students can read orally with phrasing and fluency. This can be done in a variety of ways: Class can read each paragraph chorally; Teacher can choose students to read and alternate readers by sentence, paragraph, etc; Students can work in pairs to read the story chorally.

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

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Weeks 1-2, students read a passage called “Skip is Sick.” The passage is read during three lessons. Students read with proper phrasing and expression.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 7, Weeks 1-3, students read a passage called “Adjectives are Handy.” The passage is read during three lessons. Students read with proper phrasing and expression.
• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 16, Week 1, students read a passage called “The Sock Mystery.” The passage is read during two lessons. 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 materials 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 the material taught in the units. In Units 1-17, the kit materials include a word page with two-word phrases. Each word page contains 20 phrases. Specific feedback suggestions to the teacher are not included.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 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 2 Fundations materials include minimal guidance for teachers to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors. For example, when students read flashcards to practice for automaticity and accuracy, there is no guidance for what teachers should do 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 2 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:

• In the Level 2 Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 4, Storytime, page 137 utilizes the story, “The Lost Colt,” from the online companion, Prevention/ Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC) to utilize making predictions. After discussion of the title and making predictions, students read the story silently and visualize while they read. Students then read the passage orally, discussing events after each paragraph. The teacher assists students with retelling by modeling as needed.
• In the Fundations Level 2 Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 3, Storytime, page 163, students are provided copies of, “Wish Come True.” The teacher provides cues to direct students to re-picture the story. Students use that movie in their mind to retell it referring to illustrations drawn in a previous lesson. The teacher asks comprehension questions that require students to dig deeper into the text. Students indicate the exact words of the text that led them to their answers.
• In the Fundations Level 2 Teacher's Manual, Unit 14, Week 1, Day 4, Storytime, page 427, the teacher asks students to read the title of the provided passage. The teacher asks what students remember about it. The teacher selects students to read a paragraph and the teacher repeats, stopping to allow students to picture it. The teacher asks questions to help them. The teacher draws simple sketches on chart paper to represent the main ideas in the story and facilitates understanding. The teacher uses pictures to retell the story and asks students to do the same.