1st Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for  anchor texts (including read-aloud texts in K-2 and shared reading texts in Grade 2 used to build knowledge and vocabulary) are of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading/listening and consider a range of student interests.

Grade 1 materials include anchor texts that are of high interest and engaging to students. Many cultures are represented within the anchor texts and are varied within content areas as well. The anchor texts are examined multiple times for several purposes and are used to expand topics and essential questions, build vocabulary, and prompt writing.

Texts are of high quality, including rich language and engaging content. Accompanying illustrations are of high quality as well, supporting students' understanding and comprehension of the associated text. Examples of texts that fit this category include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, students read Cool Dog, School Dog by Deborah Heiligman. This text is a fantasy story about a dog who follows his friend to school. While the vocabulary is not very complex, children may need support with rhyming lines, nontraditional sentences, and hyphenated adjectives. The rhyming phrases make it more engaging for students. The illustrations support the fun theme. 
• In Unit 1, Week 5, students read Move! by Steven Jenkins and Robin Page. This is an informational text and includes many sentences that begin on one page and end on the next spread of pages. Some vocabulary may be unfamiliar to children (e.g., startled, slithering, rustling, tumbling). The text also includes content vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to children (e.g., prey, mate, colony). 
• In Unit 2, Week 5, students read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. This realistic fiction text explains the relationship of small areas to large areas. The story shows many different types of maps and places. Students may need prior knowledge about how maps work and knowledge of how a town, state, and country relate to one another.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, students read Thomas Edison, Inventor by David Adler. This text is a biography written in chapters and tells about how young Tom Edison was very curious. The biography is written by presenting the facts about the life of this historical figure as a fictional story, so students will have to make the connection that it is a nonfiction biography.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, students read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, by Doreen Cronin. The text structure includes a letter format in some places and complex vocabulary such as impatient, strike, demand, neutral party, ultimatum, emergency, snoop, and exchange. The illustrations are fun, colorful and support the concept. 
• In Unit 6, Week 4, students read Lissy’s Friends by Grace Lin. This is a fiction text that introduces students to the art of origami. The vocabulary is highlighted in the text to draw attention to words such as push and difficult. Students will be able to relate to the theme of loss and making new friends. The illustrations are also vibrant and lend well to students' understanding the text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level. Genres and text types are varied and represented throughout the school year.  Texts include a mix of informational and literary texts, including poetry and fables. 

The following are examples of literature found within the instructional materials:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Cool Dog, School Dog by Deborah Heiligman
• In Unit 3, Week 1, A Second is a Hiccup by Hazel Hutchins
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Creep Low, Fly High by Author Unknown
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Goldilocks by Author Unknown

The following are examples of informational text found within the instructional materials:

• In Unit 1, Week 4, Friends All Around by Miela Ford
• In Unit 3, Week 5, Where Does Food Come From? by Shelley Rotner and Gary Goss
• In Unit 4, Week 5, Koko and Penny by Author Unknown (Time for Kids)
• In Unit 5, Week 2, The Moon by Author Unknown

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for texts (including read-aloud texts and some shared reading texts used to build knowledge and vocabulary) have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade level according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and a relationship to their associated student task. Read-aloud texts at K-2 are above the complexity levels of what most students can read independently. 

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to listen to grade-level appropriate texts during Shared Reading and Literature Anthology. Texts included have the appropriate level of complexity based on their quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and student task. 

Texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task and anchor texts are placed at the appropriate grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Literature Big Book, This School Year Will Be The Best by Kay Winters. This text has a quantitative measure of 440 Lexile. The text has ten challenging words that are important for students to know. According to lexile.com, the early reading indicators of syntactic, semantic, decoding and structure all measure as demanding. 
• In Unit 2, Week 2, Literature Big Book, The 3 Little Dassies by Jan Brett. This text has a quantitative measure of 630 Lexile.  According to lexile.com, the early reading indicators of syntactic, semantic and decoding and structure all range from high demanding to very high demanding. 
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Literature Big Book, A Second is a Hiccup by Hazel Hutchins. This text has a quantitative measure of 630 Lexile. The early reading indicators of structure and syntactic are reported as very high demanding, while the other indicators of semantic and decoding are demanding. 
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Day 3, Literature Anthology, Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. This text has a quantitative measure 380 Lexile. The knowledge demands for this text are high because it entails multiple perspectives. Students also need to infer complex themes to fully comprehend the text. These factors make the text an appropriate level of complexity.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that support materials for the core text(s) provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to support their reading at grade level by the end of the school year. 

The Grade 1 materials provide opportunities for students to engage with a range of texts including nonfiction, realistic fiction, poetry and fables. Throughout a given week, students interact daily with two to three texts about the same topic during whole group and small group instruction, including Shared Reading, Paired Selections for small group instruction, Anchor Texts, Interactive Read-Alouds, Leveled Readers, and Literature Big Books. Materials contain lessons and resources for read-alouds, guided reading, and independent reading. Throughout the week students also engage in a close reading of a text. In a typical week, it is suggested that on Day 1,10 minutes are spent with the literature big book or interactive read aloud,  10 minutes for shared reading, and 65 minutes of small group instruction.On Day 2, students spend 10 minutes with the shared reading and 60 minutes in small group instruction. Then on Day 3, students spend 5 minutes with the literature big book, 20 minutes with the anchor text, and 50 minutes in small group instruction, and on Day 4, students spend 15 minutes with the literature anthology and 50 minutes with small group instruction. Finally, on Day 5, students spend 55 minutes in small groups. 

Instructional materials identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in reading and listening to a variety of texts to become independent readers and comprehenders at the grade level and engage in a volume of reading as they grow toward reading independence in Grade 1. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 5, students engage in reading:
• Literature Big Book (informational text): Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
• Shared Reading: “Move and Grin” (unknown author)
• Interactive Read-Aloud (folktale): “The Monkey’s Fiddle” (unknown author) 
• Anchor Text: “Move It” (unknown author) 
• Paired Selection: “My Family Hike” (unknown author) 
• Leveled Readers: “We Can Move!” and “What’s Under Your Skin?” (unknown author)
• In Unit 2, Week 1, students engage in reading:
• Literature Big Book (fantasy): Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier 
• Shared Reading (realistic fiction): “Good Job, Ben!” (unknown author)
• Interactive Read-Aloud (informational text): “Jobs Around Town” (unknown author) 
• Anchor Text: The Red Hat by Eva Torres
• Paired Text: “Firefighters At Work” (unknown author)
• Leveled Readers: Pick Up Day by Arlene Block, “The Recycling Center” (unknown author), Ben Brings the Mail by Arlene Block, “At the Post Office” (unknown author), At Work with Mom by Arlene Block, “Tools for the School Nurse” (unknown author)
• In Unit 3, Week 3, students engage in reading:
• Literature Big Book (fantasy): Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
• Shared Reading (folktale): “The Nice Mitten” (unknown author) 
• Interactive Read-Aloud (folktale): “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit” (unknown author).
• Anchor Text: The Gingerbread Man by Wiley Blevins
• Paired Text: “Mother Goose Rhymes” 
• Leveled Readers: How Coquí Got Her Voice by Amy Helfer and The Magic Paintbrush by Amy Helfer.
• In Unit 5, Week 4, students engage in reading:
• Interactive Read-Aloud (folktale): “The Squeaky Bed” (unknown author)
• Literature Big Book (realistic fiction): Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The materials provide opportunities for students to engage with the texts. Questions and tasks provide opportunities for students to use text-based evidence when answering  questions or completing tasks correlated with the text they are reading or listening to. These opportunities are included in the Literature Big Book, Shared Read, Interactive Read-Aloud, Reading/Writing Companion, and Paired Selections.

Instructional materials include questions, tasks, and assignments that are mainly text-based over the course of a school year. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 1, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Shared read, A Pig for Cliff by author unknown. In Visualize, the teacher asks the questions:
• "How do you picture Slim’s face on these pages? 
• Why can’t Slim sit with Cliff Cat? 
• Talk about it with your partner.”
• In Unit 1, Week 5, Day 3, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Anchor Text, Literature Anthology, Move It! by author unknown, the teacher asks, "Let’s look at page 89. The boy is catching a ball. What two key details does the text tell us about catching?" 
• In Unit 3, Week 5, Day 3, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Anchor Text, Literature Anthology, From Cows to You by author unknown, the teacher models using the strategy of rereading and teacher think-aloud, "I’m not sure I understand why being a dairy farmer is hard work…”  Students are asked “How are small farms and big farms different?” Both require students to use details from the text.
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 4, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Paired Selection, Literature Anthology, Busy As a Bee by author unknown, the teacher asks, "What details on page 58 tell about queen bees?"
• In Unit 6, Week 5, Day 4, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Paired Selection, Literature Anthology, A Young Nation Grows by author unknown, the teacher asks, “What sentence tells about what happened to the colonies? Underline it. Talk with a partner about why the author included a map.” On page 153, the teacher asks, “Talk with a partner about the numbers on the map. How does the key help you understand the map?”

Teacher materials provide support for planning and implementation of text-dependent writing, speaking, and activities. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 3, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Anchor Text, Flip by Ezra R. Tanaka, students fill in a graphic organizer. The teacher asks, “What details have we read? Flip is the girl’s pet. Flip is big. This is a key detail. Think about the words and pictures on these pages. What are some key details?” The students work with a partner to decide what is the most important key detail. Then they add it to their chart. The teacher models, “I want to know what key details are on this page. I will look at the words and pictures. What is a key detail on page 55?”  The students look at pages 58–60 and answer the question, “How does the author help you know Flip’s plan?”
• In Unit 1, Week 5, Day 4, Teacher Edition, Reading Writing Companion, My Family Hike by author unknown, students respond to the question and prompt, ”What clues help you know how Otto feels? Circle the clues in the story. Then reread the text and talk with a partner about how he feels. Talk with a partner about why the word another is in bold print.”
• In Unit 3, Week 4, Day 3, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Anchor Text-Literature Anthology, Long Ago and Now by Minda Novek, students fill in the online Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer as the teacher reads. The teacher asks, ”How does the author organize the information? How do the photos help you understand the information in the text? Authors have a reason for organizing the text in a certain way. What do you understand because of the way the author organizes the information and details?”
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 2, Teacher Edition, Whole Group, Comprehension, Reading/Writing Companion, The Story of a Robot Inventor by author unknown, the teacher models by filling in the first box of the graphic organizer. “We read that he had to build a robot that could swim. This is the problem. Write that in the first box.” Students are then guided to write about the steps Takahasi took to solve the problem.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials containing sets of high-quality sequences of text-based questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding (as appropriate, may be drawing, dictating, writing, speaking, or a combination).

Throughout the program, the materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-based questions and activities that build to a culminating task. In each week of a unit, students are given the opportunity to reflect on their learning from the week. Each week has a final performance task, called the Weekly Wrap-Up. It is designed to help students demonstrate their understanding of the essential question. Students complete the Weekly Wrap-Up in their Reading/Writing Companion. This culminating task is the same each week.

Some specific examples of what students learn and how they demonstrate their knowledge of the topic at the end of the week include:

• In Unit 2, Week 3, students spend the final day reviewing the essential question and discussing the different texts from the week. Students look at an image in their Reading/Writing Companion and discuss what the painting shows about where birds live and how the forest in the painting is different than the pond they read about in “The Best Spot" (no author). Then students work with a partner to compare the painting and At a Pond by Nancy Finton. They talk about how the birds building the nest in the image relate to the animals that live at the pond. Questions throughout the week that support this task include, “Which animals live in nests? What do frogs do at the pond? How are the selections similar?”
• In Unit 3, Week 3, students learn about folktales. Students review the essential question before comparing a picture in their Reading/Writing Companion with the text The Gingerbread Man by Wiley Blevins. Students compare the characters in the picture to the characters from the story. Then students compare the image with the characters in "The Nice Mitten" (no author). Students record their notes using a foldable and work with a partner. Then students reflect on what they learned throughout the week in writing. Questions throughout the week that support the culminating task include, “How are the animals in ‘The Foolish, Timid Rabbit’ like the animals in ‘The Nice Mitten’? What happens in the beginning of the story?” In addition, students complete the sentence starter, “‘The Nice Mitten’ is like other folktales because...”. 
• In Unit 5, Week 4, students learn about sounds. On the last day, students hear a song called "I Have a Car" and then students compare the sound words in the song with the sound words in the text, "Now, What's That Sound?" (no author). Students work with a partner to compare the sounds in the song with the sounds that they learned about in "Shake! Strike! Strum!" (no author). Finally, students reflect on the essential question in the Reading/Writing Companion by writing what they learned about sounds. Questions throughout the week that support the culminating task include, “What is Peter’s problem? Has he tried to change or solve his problem?” Students also complete the sentence stem, “The sound ______ is made by ...”. 

In Week 6 of every unit, students complete a spiral review and show what they know from the entire unit versus just the one week. Examples of this include:

• In Unit 2, students learn about realistic fiction. Students read the selection, “Where is Rex?” quietly to themselves and then answer questions that demonstrate their understanding from the unit such as, “How can you tell the story is realistic fiction? Where do Beth and Mom like to jog? Why does Rex run and run?”
• In Unit 4, students learn about folktales. Students begin Week 6 by reviewing "Little Red Hen" and then answer questions such as, "How do you know this story is a folktale? What does Little Red Hen do after she plants the wheat?" Students write about the lesson in the folktales and what Little Rabbit learns.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions (small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class) that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

The materials provide students opportunities to engage in evidence-based discussions using academic vocabulary in whole class, small groups, and peer-to-peer. Opportunities are seen throughout the units in the Think-Aloud, Talk About It, Collaborative Conversations, and Vocabulary Picture Cards routines.

For example: 

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1: Talk About It, teachers are prompted to say “Listen Carefully: As students engage in partner, small-group, and whole-group discussions, encourage them to: always look at the speaker, respect others by not interrupting them, and repeat others’ ideas to check understanding.” 
• In Unit 3, Week 3, Collaborative Conversations, as students engage in partner, small group, and whole group discussions using the Reading/Writing Companion, they are encouraged to: “always look at the speaker, respect others by not interrupting them, and repeat others’ ideas to check understanding.”
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1, Shared Read, A Team of Fish by author unknown, using the Reading/Writing Companion, students are asked to, “point to the idiom snapped up. Read and have students repeat. Snap your fingers. Say: I can snap. Explain that snapped up has a different meaning. Snapped up means “grabbed quickly.” Ask: What do you think happens to a fish that gets snapped up? (The fish gets eaten by a bigger fish.) Have partners talk about what causes a fish to get “snapped up.”
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1: Talk About It, Be Open to All Ideas, “As children engage in partner, small group, and whole group discussions, remind them: that everyone’s ideas are important and should be heard, not to be afraid to ask a question if something is unclear, and to respect the opinions of others.”
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Talk About It, English Language Learners Scaffold, teachers use the Talk About It routine and say “Point to the garden. Say garden and have children repeat. Provide a sentence frame: This is a garden. Intermediate - Help students describe what they see in the photo. Provide sentence frames: This is a garden. I see plants. Advanced/Advanced High - Encourage partners to talk about what they see in the picture. Ask: What do plants need to grow? Plants needs water to grow.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading (or read aloud) and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

The materials provide opportunities for students to partake in listening and speaking activities about what they are reading through responding to evidence-based questions prompted by the teacher, as well as whole group and partner share. Collaborative conversations are encouraged throughout each unit. Students also have opportunities to discuss what they are researching. 

For example: 

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Big Idea, students “say hello to your partner. Talk about each photo. Circle someone in the photo who is trying something new. Talk about what these friends at doing. Talk about ways friends can get along.”
• In Unit 1, Week 2, Days 1-5, Whole Group, Shared Read, Six Kids, on Day 3, the teacher prompts, “This is an important key detail because it shows Pip’s action. Let’s add it to the Key Details chart….What key details do we see and read on these pages? What is Pip doing? Let’s add these details to our chart.”  
• In Unit 2 Week 3, Day 2, Whole Group, Interactive Read-Aloud, “Animals in the Desert” by author unknown, students discuss the animals and habitat in the selection. The teacher guides the children to share what they discussed, and adds the students’ ideas to the class Essential Question Chart.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 5, Whole Group, Independent Writing, Write About the Anchor Text, students review their final drafts about the Anchor text. The teacher reviews the listening and speaking strategies: "speak in complete sentences, support their opinion using describing details, listen to and think about what the presenter is saying, and wait until the presenter has finished to ask questions."  Students work with a partner to practice presenting their writing to each other. Students  present their final drafts in front of the class. Students can ask and answer questions to clarify information. The teacher is encouraged to record children as they share so they can self-evaluate.
• In Unit 5, Week 6, Day 1-2, Whole Group, Academic Vocabulary: captions, inventions, reliable, Reading Digitally, Time for Kids, Great Ideas, for the academic vocabulary word, inventions, the teacher instructs students to “Scroll back to the top, and read the article aloud. As you read, ask questions about the inventions and what they do.”  The teacher then models taking notes using the Main Idea and Details Graphic Organizer #51. After each section, the children discuss what they learned about the invention with a partner. The teacher encourages them to use text evidence. 
• In Unit 6 Week 4, Day 1, Whole Group, Interactive Read-Aloud, “Let’s Dance” by author unknown, after the teacher reads the interactive read aloud, the children retell the text.  The teacher prompts the students to discuss the traditions that they learned about by asking, “What do people do at a powwow to celebrate Paiute history and traditions? Where might you see people doing the Hora dance?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing grade-appropriate writing (e.g. grade-appropriate revision and editing) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

Instructional materials provide students with opportunities for students to write daily. For example, on Days 1 and 2, students are active participants in both shared writing and evidence based independent writing using the texts from the week. On Days 3, 4, and 5, students work through the writing process where they using practice application of  a writing skill, citing textual evidence, revising, editing, and publishing a piece of writing.

Materials include a mix of both on-demand and process writing that covers a year’s worth of instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Independent Writing, Teacher Edition, students are given the opportunity to choose from three writing prompts: 
• “Do you have any pets? What makes them special?”
• “How are different pets special?”
• “How can we help the pets in our lives?”
• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 5, Whole Group, Independent Writing, students write about the anchor text, The Pigs, the Wolf and the Mud, by Ellen Tarlow. The students are prompted to find clues to help write directions for the pigs to follow.  The students use clues from the story and illustrations to describe the specific steps the pigs will need to take to build their new hut. The teacher provides sentence frames to students as needed. 
• In Unit 3, Week 2, Day 4, Independent Writing Literature Anthology, Write about the Anchor Text, Edit and Proofread, students are directed to look for specific language in their writing and editing using proofreading marks. Focus questions are: “Does the response include evidence from the text? Specific Words - Does the response contain specific words to help readers form a clear picture in their minds?” Peer editing is practiced.
• In Unit 4, Writing and Grammar, pages 158-167, Poetry, students use a model to plan, draft, and revise their own poetry. 
• Poetry - Plan. Student model Go, Tiger, Go!, page 158-161. Draw and write about an animal. Write about what it can do. Think about words that rhyme.
• Poetry - Draft. Focus on descriptive words. Page 162-163
• Poetry - Revise and Edit. Focus on verbs and adverbs. Page 164-165
• Poetry - Share and Evaluate. Students use a checklist and a peer conversation to evaluate their writing. Students write to answer the question “What did you do well in your writing?” and “What do you need to work on?” Page 166-167.
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, Teacher Edition, Shared Writing, after reading the Shared Read, A Bird Named Fern by author unknown, students respond to the prompt, “What did Fern do in A Bird Named Fern?” Students respond in complete sentences as the teacher dictates their responses.
• In Unit 6, Teacher Edition, Writing Process, after reading a persuasive text, Be a Volunteer! by author unknown, students create their own persuasive writing. Students start by choosing a topic and planning their writing using the Reading/Writing Companion pg. 160. Students write their draft. The teacher models and provides an example. Students then revise their drafts, edit and proofread. Once they have written a final draft, students publish, present, and evaluate their writing.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing (year-long) that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to write narrative, opinion, and informative writing pieces. Each writing lesson has a purpose for writing, a teaching and model section, and examples/rubrics to guide students through shared and independent writing. Materials provide opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes of writing.

Examples of narrative writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, the shared writing prompt requires the class to write a new story of “A Pig for Cliff” (unknown author) where he brings home a different pet. Students also complete a personal narrative in their Reading/Writing Companion. 
• In Unit 2, Week 2, students write directions for the pigs to follow when building their hut, after listening to “The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud” (unknown author) in their Literature Anthology. 

Examples of opinion writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students choose a book and write what they liked about it in Extend Your Learning section of the Reading/Writing Companion; however, this is optional and no instruction is provided. This writing prompt is also given in Units 4, 5, and 6. 
• In Unit 2, Week 1, students respond to the prompt, “Would you like to have Jen’s job? Describe what you would like or not like and why.” after listening to the text The Red Hat by Eva Torres in the Literature Anthology. Students learn that opinion writing contains the opinion, as well as the reasons for the opinion. 
• In Unit 3, Week 4, students look at the photographs and illustrations in “Life at Home” and respond to the prompt, “Would you rather wash things as we do now or as people did long ago? Why?” 
• In Unit 4, Week 2, students complete a shared writing about what are some of the good and bad things about being a little fish. Then students independently respond to the prompt, “Which animal team do you think is most interesting? Why?” after hearing the anchor text Animal Teams by Rachel Mann. 
• In Unit 5, Week 1, students listen to the text In a Lost Button by Arnold Lobel and  write whether they think Frog or Toad was the best friend and why. 
• In Unit 6, Week 5, students learn about persuasive writing and in their Reading/Writing Companion, students write a persuasive text on a topic of their choosing. 

Examples of informational writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 5, students “use the words first, next, then, and last to describe the steps needed to make one of the motions in ‘Move It!’”
• In Unit 4, Week 3, during shared writing, students hear the story, “Go Wild” (unknown author), and write about how animals use their body parts to help them find food. 
• In Unit 4, Week 5, students independently write about the benefits Koko gains by learning sign language in the text “Koko and Penny” (unknown author).       
• In Unit 5, Week 2, students respond to the prompt, “Why couldn’t Kitten drink the milk in the sky? How do you know?” after hearing Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. Students use text evidence to make inferences to answer this writing prompt. 
• In Unit 5, Week 3, after listening to the story, “The Story of a Robot Inventory” (unknown author), the students complete a shared writing about what makes a good inventor based on text evidence. 
• In Unit 6, Week 4, after listening to the story “A Spring Birthday” (unknown author), students complete a shared writing by writing a letter from Marco explaining to his parents why he wants to start a new tradition. In the letter, students must describe the new tradition. Students learn how to use text evidence to support their ideas in the letter.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials including regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level.

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to write and support their writing with evidence for the texts that they are reading. During shared writing, students learn and practice new writing skills and how to provide support using evidence from the text. Students also write opinions on books they have chosen to read and use text evidence to explain their opinion.  

Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 5, Days 1-5, Reading Writing Companion, Move and Grin! by author unknown, the teacher rereads the text and takes notes to help find text evidence.  For example, on page 136, “The text tells me that Scott’s frog can hop and jump. I see the frog doing a big jump in the photo.”  The teacher reminds students to use their first note to remember information to use for their writing. Students then write a sentence using the evidence they recorded.   
• In Unit 3, Week 4, Independent Writing, Long Ago and Now by Minda Novek, students respond to the prompt, “Do you think being a kid is better now, or was it better in the past? Why?”  The teacher states, “To respond to the prompt, you need to find text evidence and make inferences to form your opinion about whether it was better to be a kid long ago or if it is better to be a kid now.” Students find text evidence to help them respond to the prompt. As students begin working on their writing, they are instructed to form their opinion and find reasons and inferences from the text to support that opinion.
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1, Language Arts, Shared Writing, the teacher and students work together to respond to the prompt, “Why do fish swim in schools?" The teacher states, “To respond to this prompt, we need to look at the text and photographs in A Team of Fish. Students find text evidence to support their writing in the prompt. 
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 3, Anchor Text, after students read the text, Animal Teams by Rachel Mann, students write a fact about an interesting animal in their Response Journals. A sentence frame is provided, “An interesting animal I know is a ____ . It can ____ .” On the same day, students complete an independent writing prompt about the anchor text, “Which animal team do you think is most interesting? Why?” The teacher states, “The first part of this prompt is asking for your opinion about which animal team from the selection Animal Teams is most interesting. The second part of the prompt asks you to explain why you have that opinion. You will use facts from the text to explain your opinion.” Students find text evidence using the words and photos to write to the prompt. 
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 3, Independent Writing, students analyze the prompt, “What can you tell about what made Thomas Edison a good inventor?” The teacher reminds students they can use the evidence about things Thomas did as a child to see if he was a good inventor. Students complete a draft using notes, details, and evidence from the text to write to the prompt.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials include explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of context. 

Instructional materials provide opportunities for teachers to explicitly teach grammar, language, and handwriting skills and provide guided practice. Materials include multiple opportunities for students to independently practice each new skill. Students have opportunities to practice new skills during whole group and partner share. All grammar and conventions standards are covered over the course of the year and most standards are revisited throughout the year in increasing complexity, such as application to the text. Students have opportunities over the course of the year to apply newly learned skills both in and out of context; however, opportunities are missed for students to learn printing letters a, i, n, r.

Materials include explicit instruction of all grammar and conventions standards for the grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to print most upper- and lowercase letters. In Unit 0, 22 letters are taught. Instruction is missing in printing letters a, i, n, r. 
• In Unit 0, Week 1, Day 2, at the end of the Phonics lesson, teachers are directed to use the models in the back of the Reading/Writing Companion to show students how to write the letters p and t. The teacher points out that when we write, we move from left to right. The teacher traces the letters with his/her finger, moving in the direction of the arrows. Students do the same. The teacher is directed to use the online handwriting models for additional instruction and practice. 
• Students have opportunities to use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
• In Unit 2, Week 3, Day 1, the teacher explains to students that writers use an apostrophe and the letter s at the end of many nouns to say that someone or something owns something. The teacher displays the following sentences: "Meg’s dog is wet! The dog’s bed is red." The teacher explains that Meg’s and dog’s are possessive nouns and that in the first sentence, the dog belongs to Meg. In the second sentence, the bed belongs to the dog. The teacher displays similar sentences and reads them aloud. The teacher prompts students to chorally reread them. Students work with a partner to circle the possessive noun in each sentence and underline what item is owned.
• In Unit 2, Week 4, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that a common noun names a person, place, or thing and begins with a lowercase letter and a proper noun names a particular person, pet, place, or thing and begins with a capital letter. The teacher displays the following sentences: "Seth has a drum. This is West School. My dog Bing runs fast." The teacher points out that Seth, West School, and Bing are proper nouns, and drum and dog are common nouns. Students identify which proper noun names (1) a person, (2) a place, (3) a pet. The teacher writes and reads aloud similar sentences. The teacher prompts students to chorally reread them. The teacher guides pairs to take turns identifying the proper nouns. Students edit their drafts in their Writer’s Notebook for common and proper nouns.
• Students have opportunities to use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop).
• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher reminds students that a singular noun names one person, place, or thing and that plural nouns name more than one person, place, or thing. The teacher explains that most times you add -s to the end of a noun to make it plural, except when nouns end in -x, -s, or -ss, add -es to make it plural. The teacher writes the following sentences on the board: "Six (cub/cubs) build a (hut/huts). A (cub/cubs) has (stick/sticks)." Students then work with partners to orally generate sentences with singular nouns and change them into plural nouns. Students review the Shared Writing and identify correct singular and plural nouns.
• Students have opportunities to use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their, anyone, everything).
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher reviews that a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea and explains that pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. The teacher displays a paragraph and reads it aloud. The students identify the pronouns. "We got fruit at the farm stand. (we) They will make a fruit pie. (they) You can help, too. (you) She cuts up a plum. (she) He makes the crust. (he) I know it will taste good! (I, it)"

Partners use their own names in oral sentences and then replace them with the pronoun I and make sentences using you, he, she, it, we, and they.

• Students have opportunities to use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
• In Unit 3, Week 2, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher reviews that a verb is an action word and explains that a present tense verb tells about an action happening now. The teacher displays and reads: "Spike hikes up the hill." The teacher explains that when a present tense verb tells about one noun, it ends in -s. The teacher displays the sentences: "Jan and Dave wipe off the plates. I ride my bike. You ride your bike." The teacher explains that when a present tense verb tells about more than one noun, like Jan and Dave, it does not end in -s and that when the naming word is I or you, the present tense verb does not end in -s. The teacher writes and reads aloud similar sentences and guides the students to identify present tense verbs and explain why they do or do not have an -s at the end. 
• In Unit 3, Week 3, Day 4, in the Grammar part of the lesson, the teacher reminds students that past tense verbs tell about action that already happened and future tense verbs tell about something that will happen. The teacher asks,  "What do you do to most verbs to show that it happened in the past? What can you do to a verb to show that an action will happen in the future?" Partners work together to change past tense to future and future tense to past. 
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring adjectives.
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that an adjective is a word that describes a noun and that adjectives tell number, color, size, or shape. The teacher explains that they also tell how things look, sound, feel, smell, or taste. The teacher displays the following sentences: "A big crow floated in the sky. I feel the hot sun on my face." The teacher explains that big and hot are adjectives. The teacher points out that big describes size and hot tells how something feels. Partners work together to identify the adjectives in similar sentences. 
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that two complete sentences can be joined together with a joining word and that the words and, but, and or are used to put two sentences together, separated by a comma. 
• Students have opportunities to use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).
• In Unit 5, Week 4, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that the words a and an are special adjectives called articles. The teacher explains that we use a before a word that begins with a consonant sound (a hound). We use an before a word that begins with a vowel sound (an ape).  The teacher writes similar sentences and reads them aloud. Students identify the articles.
• Students have opportunities to use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
• In the Teacher Edition, Unit 5, Week 5, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher displays the following sentence: "The brown mole is in the ground." The teacher explains, "The word in connects the words the brown mole and the phrase that tells where the mole is—the ground. The teacher explains that a preposition connects a noun or pronoun to another part of a sentence and a prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. The teacher displays and reads similar sentences. The teacher prompts students to chorally reread them. Partners identify the preposition in each sentence.
• Students have opportunities to produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative (command), and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.
• In Unit 1, Week 4, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that a question asks something and ends with a question mark. The teacher explains that an exclamation shows strong feeling or excitement and ends with an exclamation mark. Partners orally generate questions, exclamations, and commands. The students review the Shared Writing and point out and/or correct the use of questions and exclamations. If questions and exclamations are not in the Shared Writing, the teacher and students work to add them, and reread the response together.
• Students have opportunities to capitalize dates and names of people.
• In Unit 2, Week 4, Day 2, in the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher reminds students that names of particular people, pets, places, and things are called proper nouns and that a proper noun begins with a capital letter. Students work with a partner to orally generate sentences with common and proper nouns, challenging them to create sentences that include at least one common and one proper noun.
• Students have opportunities to use end punctuation for sentences.
• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that a sentence is a group of words that tells a whole idea, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a punctuation mark. The teacher points out the capital letters and periods in sample sentences. Students count the number of words in the sentence. Students work in partners to orally generate complete sentences. The teacher and students review the Shared Writing and point out the capital letters and periods. 
• Students have opportunities to use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
• In Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, during the Grammar portion of the lesson, the teacher reminds students that when a writer uses three or more nouns in a list, there is a comma after all but the last noun. The teacher displays sentences with punctuation errors and reads each aloud. The students work together to fix the sentences. Students can have additional practice with commas in a series in the Practice Book page 94 or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 3, during the Spelling portion of the lesson, the teacher displays index cards for -un, -ut, -ug and forms three columns in a pocket chart. The teacher holds up the run Spelling Word Card from page 101 of the online Teacher’s Resource Book. The teacher says and spells it. The teacher pronounces each sound clearly: /r/ /u/ /n/. The teacher blends the sounds, stretching the vowel sound to emphasize it: /ruuun/. The teacher repeats this step with fun. Both words are placed below the -un card. The teacher reads and spells each spelling word. The students repeat each word. The teacher asks, “What do you notice about these spelling words? They have the /u/ sound, and they rhyme because they both end with /un/ spelled u-n.” The students are given the Spelling Word Cards from page 101 of the online Teacher’s Resource Book. The students say and spell -un and each word in the word family and repeat the process with the -ut and -ug words. In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 4, during the Spelling portion of the lesson, the teacher provides pairs of students with copies of the Spelling Word Cards. While one partner reads the words one at a time, the other partner orally segments the word and then writes the word. After reading all the words, partners switch roles. Students correct their own papers and sort the words by ending spelling pattern: -un, -ut, -ug, or no short u ending.
• Students have opportunities to spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 1, during the Spelling portion of the lesson, the teacher gives a pretest for the spelling words from the week. The teacher pronounces each spelling word, reads the sentence, and pronounces the word again. The students are asked to say each word softly, stretching the sounds, before writing it. After the pretest, the teacher displays the spelling words and writes each word as the letter names are said. Students check their words using the Practice Book page.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that materials, questions, and tasks directly teach foundational skills to build reading acquisition by providing systematic and explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle, letter-sound relationships, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness (K-1), and phonics (K-2) that demonstrate a transparent and research-based progression for application both in and out of context.

Grade 1 materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness and phonics. This includes teacher modeling, guided practice and opportunities for students to practice the skills independently. Students are given ample opportunities to build, blend, and manipulate letters and sounds to make words. Within the Word Work part of lessons, explicit instruction is given in phoneme addition, deletion, and substitution. 

Students have frequent opportunities to learn and understand phonemes (e.g. distinguish long and short vowels, blend sounds, pronounce vowels in single-syllable words, and segment single-syllable words). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 1, the teacher tells the students they can categorize short words by whether they have long or short vowel sounds. The teacher says, "Listen as I say three words: bait, cake, hand. Which word doesn’t belong? Yes, bait and cake have long a sounds, but hand has a short a sound. Hand does not belong." The teacher and students work together to identify the word that is not in the same category or does not belong. If students need additional practice categorizing phonemes, they can use the Practice Book or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 3, during the Phonemic Awareness portion of the lesson, the teacher places markers on the Response Board to represent sounds. The teacher says, "I’m going to put one marker in each box as I say each sound. Then I will blend the sounds to form a word. The teacher places a marker for each sound as the teacher says: /s/ /a/ /d/. The teacher then says: This word has three sounds: /s/ /a/ /d/. Listen as I blend these sounds to form a word: /saaad/; sad. The word is sad." The teacher and students practice together. The teacher provides corrective feedback as needed.
• Students have opportunities to isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
• In Unit 5, Week 4, Day 2, during the Phonemic Awareness portion of the lesson, the teacher says, "Listen carefully as I say a word: out. What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word? /ou/. The word out has the /ou/ sound at the beginning." The teacher repeats for the medial /ou/ in gown and the final /ou/ in cow. Students practice isolating initial, medial, and final phonemes. The teacher says, "Listen carefully as I say a word. Tell me the sound you hear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word." The teacher guides students as they practice and provides corrective feedback as needed. If students need additional practice isolating sounds in words, they can use Practice Book page 386 or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
• In Unit 3, Week 2, Day 3, during the Phonemic Awareness portion of the lesson, the teacher uses the Response Board to show the students how to segment the individual sounds in words. The teacher says, "I am going to say the sounds in the word slide: /s/ /l/ /ī/ /d/. The first sound is /s/. The second sound is /l/. The next sound is /ī/. The last sound is /d/. I’ll place a marker in a box on the Response Board for each sound I hear. This word has four sounds: /s/ /l/ /ī/ /d/, slide." The teacher asks students to do some similar work using their Response Boards. The students and teacher practice with the additional words.

Lessons and activities provide students opportunities to learn grade-level phonics skills while decoding words (e.g. spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, know final-e and long vowels, syllable and vowel relationship). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
• In Unit 2, Week 5, Day 1, during the Phonics portion of the lesson, the teacher displays the cheese Sound-Spelling Card. The teacher models the sounds /ch/ spelled ch and -tch using cheese and match. The teacher says, "This is the cheese Sound-Spelling Card. The sound is /ch/. The /ch/ sound is spelled with the digraph ch. This is the sound at the beginning of the word cheese: /ch/ /ē/ /z/. Sometimes at the end of a word the /ch/ sound is spelled with the trigraph -tch, as in match." The students practice connecting the digraph ch and the trigraph tch to /ch/ by writing them. Students practice blending words with digraphs and trigraphs and can use Practice Book page 147 or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 1, during the Phonics portion of the lesson, the teacher displays Word-Building Cards g, o, a, t. The teacher says, "This is g. It stands for /g/. These are o and a. Together they can stand for /ō/. This is t. It stands for /t/. Listen: /gōōōt/." The teacher continues with: load, row, toe, and most. The teacher displays the Day 1 Phonics Practice Activity and guides the students as they practice, reading each word in the first row. The teacher provides corrective feedback as needed. If students need additional practice blending words with long o, they use the Practice Book or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, during the Phonics portion of the lesson, the teacher displays the train Sound-Spelling Card. The teacher models /ā/ spelled a_e using the words ate and made. The teacher models writing the word at and adding an e to make ate. The teacher says, "This is the train Sound-Spelling Card. The sound is /ā/. Today we will learn one spelling for the /ā/ sound. Look at this word: at. This word has the short a sound /a/. I’ll add an e to the end. The new word is ate. The letters a and e work together to make the sound /ā/. Listen as I say the word: /āt/. I’ll say /āāāt/ as I write the word ate several times." The teacher models again using the word made. The students practice connecting the letters a_e to the sound /ā/ by writing words with the sound-spelling. If students need additional practice blending words with long a, they use the Practice Book or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
• In Unit 3, Week 4, Day 3, during the Structural Analysis portion of the lesson, the teacher says the word pancake and asks students to listen closely to hear the vowel sounds. The teacher points out the /a/ sound in pan and the /ā/ sound in cake. The students tell how many syllables they hear in pancake. The teacher writes the word pancake and draws a line between the syllables. The teacher underlines a and e and explains, "The letters a_e in cake act as a team to stand for the /ā/ sound. This is a vowel-consonant-e syllable." The teacher blends and decodes: classmate, bedtime, complete, invite, dislike, sunrise, onstage, and nickname. The students tell how many syllables they hear in each word and divide the word into syllables. Students practice decoding words with CVCe syllables using the Practice Book or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
• In Unit 3, Week 4, Day 4, during the Structural Analysis portion of the lesson, the teacher writes the words update, sunshine, and awoke on the board and reads them with students. The teacher reminds students that words are made up of smaller parts called syllables and that one vowel sound is heard in each syllable. When students see a vowel-consonant-silent e spelling, they should know that this is one syllable and these letters should be kept together. The teacher writes the following words: excite, escape, reptile, hopeful. Students work in pairs to divide each word into syllables, read the words, and then write sentences with each word.
• Students have opportunities to read words with inflectional endings.
• In Unit 6, Week 4, Day 2, during the Structural Analysis portion of the lesson, the teacher writes and reads aloud stretch, stretched, and stretching. The teacher underlines the -ed and -ing and helps students decode. The teacher repeats with scrape, scraped, scraping and scrub, scrubbed, scrubbing. The teacher reminds students of the rules they learned for dropping final e and doubling final consonants. The teacher writes the following words on the board: thrill, splash, strip, scrape. The students add -ed and -ing to each word, and then use each word in a sentence. If students need additional practice decoding words with inflectional endings, the students use the online activity.

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction to build toward application. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Grade 1 Scope and Sequence, the Phonemic Awareness sequence provides a scaffolded and cohesive sequence of difficulty that spirals Phonemic Awareness skills in each unit and becomes more complex:
• Smart Start: Phonological Awareness: Onset and Rime, Sentence Segmentation, Rhyme; Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Isolation, Phoneme Identity, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation
• Unit 1: Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Blending, Alliteration, Phoneme Categorization, Phoneme Segmentation, Phoneme Deletion, Identify and Generate Rhyme
• Unit 2: Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Isolation, Phoneme Segmentation, Phoneme Categorization
• Unit 3: Phonemic Awareness: Alliteration, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Segmentation, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Isolation
• Unit 4: Phonemic Awareness: Identify and Generate Rhyme, Phoneme Categorization, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, Phoneme Identity, Contrast Vowel Sound, Phoneme Substitution, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition
• Unit 5: Phonemic Awareness: Identify and Generation Rhyme, Phoneme Substitution, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Categorization, Phoneme Addition, Phoneme Isolation, Phoneme Segmentation
• Unit 6: Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Identity, Phoneme Segmentation, Identify and Generate Rhyme, Syllable Deletion, Phoneme Substitution, Phoneme Categorization, Phoneme Reversal, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, Syllable Addition, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonics instruction to build toward application. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the Grade 1 Scope and Sequence, the Phonics focus is listed for each unit of study. The materials begin with short vowels, inflectional endings with -s and beginning two- consonant blends. As the units progress, the materials move into long vowel and vowel teams, inflectional endings -ed and -ing and three-consonant blends. The units culminate with two-syllable words.
• Smart Start: identify and blend (m, s, a, p, t, n, r, i), identify and blend (c, f, o, d, h, s, e, b, l, ll), identify and blend (k, ck, u, g, w, x, v, qu)
• Unit 1: short a, short i, beginning consonant blends with r and s, short o
• Unit 2: short e (e, ea), short u, ending consonant blends (-nk, -nd, -nt, -st, sk, mp), consonant digraphs (sh, th, -ng) consonant digraphs (ch, -tch, wh, ph)
• Unit 3: long i (i_e), soft c, soft g (dge), long o, u, and e (Vce), variant vowel digraphs (oo, u)
• Unit 4: long a (a, ai, ay), long e (e, ee, ea, ie), long o (o, oa, ow, oe), long i (i, igh, y, ie),  long e (y, ey)
• Unit 5: r-controlled vowels (or, ir, ur, er), r-controlled vowels (or, ore, oar), diphthongs (ou, ow), diphthongs (oi, oy)
• Unit 6: variant vowels (oo, ou, u_e, ew, ui, ue, u), variant vowels (au, aw, a, augh, al), silent letters (wr, kn, gn), three-letter consonant blends (scr, spl, spr, str, thr, shr), r-controlled vowels (air, are, ear)

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that materials, questions, and tasks provide explicit instruction for and regular practice to address the acquisition of print concepts, including alphabetic knowledge, and directionality, and function (K-1), structures and features of text (1-2).

Grade 1 materials provide explicit instruction in print concepts, text structure, and text features to assist in comprehension of the text.  Print concepts are taught within the Concepts of Print lessons. Within the Reading/Writing Companion lessons, explicit instruction is provided in the words that authors use that allow the reader to determine the structure of the text in an effort to better understand the text. In addition, during the Literature Anthology lessons, explicit instruction and attention are given to the text features that aid in understanding the text. Anchor charts are created by the teachers and students to record this information.

Materials include frequent, adequate lessons and tasks/questions about the organization of print concepts (e.g. recognize features of a sentence). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).
• In Unit 0, Week 1, Day 2, during the Concepts of Print portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that sentences are made up of words and shows students six sentences. The teacher points to and reads each word in the first sentence. The teacher asks, "How many words are in this sentence?" Students volunteer to count the words. The teacher makes sure that students count the words in each sentence, moving left to right and from top to bottom, as appropriate.
• In Unit 0, Week 1, Day 4, during the Concepts of Print portion of the lesson, the teacher selects a book from the classroom library large enough to display. The teacher explains to students that when you read, you read the left page first, then you read the right page. The teacher shows the front and back covers. The teacher then reads the front cover and explains to students that they can find the title, the author, and the illustrator on the front cover. The teacher reads and reviews Parts of a Book on Practice Book page 517. 

Students have frequent and adequate opportunities to identify text structures (e.g. main idea and details, sequence of events, problem & solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 0, Week 1, Day 4, during the Comprehension portion of the lesson, the teacher displays page 56 of the Reading/Writing Companion. The teacher explains that informational texts can include a main idea and key details and that the main idea is what the text is mostly about. Key details give information about the main idea. The teacher models filling in the first detail on page 57 by finding a key detail. The teacher models how to write the detail in the first detail box. The teacher guides students to copy what they wrote on page 57 of their own Reading/Writing Companion and displays page 49. 
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, during the Reading/Writing Companion portion of the lesson, the teacher displays page 24 of the Reading/Writing Companion. The teacher says, "A character is a person or an animal in a story. The setting is where and when a story takes place. The plot is the series of events that take place in the story. These events give the story a beginning, middle, and end." The teacher explains that knowing the characters, setting, and plot can help them to better understand the story. The teacher models filling in the first box on page 25 by identifying an event at the beginning of the story. The teacher guides the students to copy what the teacher wrote in the graphic organizer on page 25 of their own Reading/Writing Companion. 
• In Unit 4, Week 1, Day 2, during the Reading/Writing Companion portion of the lesson, the teacher displays page 26 of the Reading/Writing Companion. The teacher says, "Sequence is the order of the main events in a story. The main events are the most important events. The sequence explains what happens first, next, then, and last." The teacher further explains that understanding the sequence of main events can help readers better understand the story. The teacher models filling in the first box on page 27 by finding the first main event. The teacher says, "On page 15, Snail and Frog decide to race to school. This is the first main event." The teacher writes this event in the first box. The teacher guides students to copy what the teacher wrote in the graphic organizer on page 27 of their own Reading/Writing Companion.
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Day 2, during the Reading/Writing Companion portion of the lesson, the teacher displays page 56 in the Reading/Writing Companion. The teacher says, "A cause is what makes something happen. An effect is the event that happens. All events in a story make up the plot." The teacher models filling in the first row of the graphic organizer on page 57 by finding a cause and an effect. The teacher says, "On page 46, Fern stretched her wings and took off. This is the effect, or what happens. She took off because she wanted to ride on the big white boat she thought she saw in the sky. This is the cause." The teacher writes the cause and effect in the first row. Students copy the information on page 57 of the Reading/Writing Companion. 

Materials include frequent and adequate lessons and activities about text features (e.g. title, byline, headings, table of contents, glossary, pictures, illustrations). Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 4, during the Literature Anthology portion of the lesson, the teacher focuses on the photographs in the text. The teacher explains that the text explains that rules keep us safe. The teacher asks the students to identify what they see in the photo. The teacher asks how the individuals in the photo are staying safe.  
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 4, during the Literature Anthology portion of the lesson, the teacher explains that nonfiction text often has bold print—letters in dark, heavy print, and that authors use bold print to point out important information. The teacher displays Teaching Poster 13 and points to the drawing on the right and reads the text underneath it. The teacher says, "The word night is in bold print. The letters in that word are heavier and darker than the other letters. The illustration shows a scene at night. The text tells us it is night and then tells us what happens at night. The author put the word night in bold print to show us it is the most important idea of the illustration and the text." The teacher and students read together the text underneath the first illustration. The teacher guides the students to identify the word in bold print. The teacher asks, "Why did the author put this word in bold print? What is the most important idea of the illustration and the text?" The teacher repeats the process for the second illustration. The students look for bold print in nonfiction selections.
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Day 4, during the Paired Selection portion of the lesson, the teacher explains during the Read-Aloud Anthology, that a heading is the name of part of a text and that it gives you an idea of what that part of text is about. The teacher reads the heading with students and asks, “What do you think page 128 is about?” The teacher reads the main text and looks at the pictures to find out. The teacher models a Think-Aloud: "To find out what page 129 will be about, I read the heading: Fun Insect Facts. This tells me I will learn insect facts here."
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Day 4, during the Literature Anthology portion of the lesson, the teacher conducts a Think-Aloud:
  When I read selections with photographs, I read the captions with the photographs. The captions give information about the photographs. The caption on page 197 explains the size of the Moon as we see it in the sky." The teacher asks students what information is in the caption that the main text does not have. What information do the main text and the caption tell that helps us understand the different Moons in the photograph? The teacher guides students to discuss the information in the caption. The students look for captions as they read nonfiction text.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and gain decoding automaticity and sight-based recognition of high-frequency words. This includes reading fluency in oral reading beginning in mid Grade 1 and through Grade 2.

Throughout the course of the year, students have frequent opportunities to purposefully read on-level text during Shared Reading, where the teacher sets a purpose for reading and students return to the purpose during the reading discussion. Students are provided frequent opportunities to read text with fluency during Reader’s Theater. The teacher first models reading the text with fluency for students and then students are provided multiple opportunities during the week to practice the text for their assigned role with fluency, including accuracy and rate.  Students also have opportunities to read with fluency during Small Group instruction. During Word Work lessons, that are included in daily instruction, students have opportunities to read, spell, and write high-frequency words and words with inflectional endings.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to purposefully read on-level text. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, during Shared Reading, the teacher sets the purpose for reading “Jack Can.” The teacher says, "Let’s read to find out what Jack can do." After reading, the students talk with a partner about what Max and Jack can do.
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, during Shared Reading, the teacher sets the purpose for reading “Nate the Snake is Late.” The teacher says, "Let’s read to find out why Nate is late." After reading the teacher says, "Let's talk about why Nate doesn't want to be late. What does this tell you about him?"

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy, rate, and expression in oral reading with on-level text and decodable words. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
• In Unit 1, Week 6, Day 1, during Reader’s Theater, the teacher models reading the play with fluency. The teacher states the name of each character and reads the part, emphasizing the appropriate phrasing and expression. The teacher assigns roles. Students chorally read their parts, focusing on accuracy and rate.
• In Unit 2, Week 6, Day 1, for Reader’s Theater, the teacher explains that I Speak, I Say, I Talk is a play that tells about the sounds different animals make and the ways children can communicate with their voices. Students chorally read their parts, focusing on accuracy and rate.
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Day 3, during the Fluency part of the lesson, the teacher explains to students that as they read the selection from the Shared Read, they will pause slightly when they get to a comma. “A comma separates a list of items or ideas in a sentence, so you pause to show the separation. A comma is also used in dialogue, or the words that a character says. The comma helps show when the character’s words end and the narrator’s words start again.” The teacher models reading. Students reread the sentence chorally and the teacher reminds them to pause when they get to commas. Students practice fluency using the online Differentiated Genre Passage, The Tomato Adventure.

Materials have limited support reading of texts with attention to reading strategies such as rereading, self-correction, and the use of context clues. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students have opportunities to practice and read irregularly spelled words. Examples include, but are not limited to:
• In Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, during the Word Work portion of the lesson, the teacher writes the words spell and spelled on the board and models decoding them for students. The teacher reminds students that when -ed is added to an action word, the ending sound of the new word can be /t/, /d/, or /ed/. The teacher also reminds them that adding -ed to some words adds a word part, or syllable, as in the words head and headed. The teacher writes the following words: smell, trick, pack, sweat, dress. Students work in pairs to construct words that tell about actions in the past. Students decode each of the new words and write sentences with each word. Students practice decoding words with inflectional endings using Practice Book page 90 or the online activity.
• In Unit 3, Week 3, Day 4, during Word Work, the teacher writes the words dance, danced, and dancing on the board and reads them to the students. The teacher reminds students that when -ed or -ing is added to a word that ends in final -e, the e is dropped before adding the ending. The teacher writes the following words: trace, change, dodge. Students work in pairs to construct words that tell about actions in the past and actions happening now by adding the inflectional endings -ed and -ing. Students write sentences with each word. If students need additional practice, they can complete Practice Book page 202 or the online activity.
• Students have opportunities to recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, during the Word Work portion of the lesson, the students work on reading, writing, and spelling does, not, what, and school. During the Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level Groups use leveled readers that include the high-frequency words does, not, what, and school.
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, during the Word Work portion of the lesson, the students work on reading, spelling, and writing: away, now, some, today, way, why.  During the Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level Groups use leveled readers that include the high-frequency words away, now, some, today, way, and why.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Day 1, during the Word Work portion of the lesson, the students work on reading, writing, and spelling the following words: answer, brought, busy, door, enough, eyes. During the Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level Groups use leveled readers that include the high-frequency words answer, brought, busy, door, enough, and eyes.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks providing systematic and explicit instruction in and practice of word recognition and analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Grade 1 materials provide students multiple opportunities to apply word analysis and word recognition skills to connected tasks through the use of decodable readers and Shared Reading. During Shared Reading lessons, teachers often model and point out current phonics skills that students are working on as well as model fluent reading. Decodable readers provide students with an opportunity to decode words with current and past phonics skills as well as high-frequency words. Students participate in a Shared Writing activity that allows them to apply phonics skills and high-frequency word practice. Students often respond to a prompt related to the text and complete these in their Reading/Writing Companion. 

Materials support students’ development learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills (e.g. spelling-sound correspondences of digraphs, decode one-syllable words, syllable and vowel relationship, decode two-syllable words, read words with inflectional endings) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 5, Day 1, during Word Work, the teacher introduces r- blends and s- blends. The teacher reads each word in the first row, blending the sounds; for example: /frooog/. The word is frog. Students blend each word with the teacher. The teacher prompts students to read the connected text, sounding out the decodable words. If students need additional practice blending words with r-blends and s-blends, they use Practice Book page 67 or the online activity.
• In Unit 4, Week 5, Day 1, during Shared Reading, the teacher reviews the high-frequency words found, near, woman, hard, would, and write and reviews that the letters –y and -ey stand for the long e sound. The teacher guides them to blend the sounds to read the words and then displays the story words guide, person, family, year, learn, trainer, eyes, ears, hear, owners, and their. Students spell each word and model reading it and then read the words as the teacher points to them. The teacher tells students that From Puppy to Guide Dog is a nonfiction text, which tells about real people or things and can use photos to give information. The teacher revisits the nonfiction text anchor chart created previously and reviews characteristics of the genre with students. As students read the selection, they may take notes in the boxes provided, for example: 
• writing the letters y or ey.
• writing a word with a long e or a high-frequency word.
• write about or draw something from the story.

Students read each page and teacher reads aloud the prompts.As they read, students circle and read words with long e as well as underline and read aloud the words near, woman, and hard.

• In Unit 6, Week 3, Day 3, during Word Work, the teacher displays the Day 3 Phonics Practice Activity. The teacher says, "Let’s blend the letter sounds to read each word: /r/ /ī/ /t/ /s/; / rrrīīītsss/. The word is writes." Students blend each word on the first line with the teacher. The teacher guides practice as needed with lines 2–7. The teacher prompts students to read the connected text, sounding out the decodable words and provides corrective feedback as needed. If students need additional practice blending words with consonant digraphs wr, kn, gn, they use Practice Book page 460 or the online activity. If necessary, students read Miss Wright’s Job and Know About Snowstorms to practice decoding words in connected text. 

Materials provide frequent opportunities to read irregularly spelled words in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 1, during Word Work, the teacher displays the High-Frequency Word Cards be, come, good, pull and uses the Read/Spell/Write routine to teach each word. The teacher points to and says the word be. The teacher says, "This is the word be. Say it with me: be. There will be ten children at the party. The word be is spelled b-e. Spell it with me. Let’s write the word in the air as we say each letter: b-e." The teacher follows the same steps to introduce come, good, and pull. As the students spell each word with the teacher, the teacher points out the irregularities in sound-spellings, such as the /u/ sound spelled o_e in the word come. Students work with a partner to create sentences using each word. Students read the sentences. The teacher prompts them to identify the high-frequency words in connected text and to blend the decodable words.
• I will be back.
• Can you come here?
• He had a good hit.
• I can pull it up.

For additional practice with high-frequency words, students complete the online activities for high-frequency words. On Day 5, the teacher displays Visual Vocabulary Cards be, come, good, and pull. Students Read/Spell/Write each word. Students write a sentence with each word. If students need assistance reading high-frequency words, they practice reading independently using the Take-Home Story in the Practice Book on pages 47–48 or using online resources.

• In Unit 2, Week 5, Day 1, during Shared Reading, the teacher reviews the high-frequency words: around, by, many, place, walk, as well as consonant digraphs ch, wh, and ph, and the trigraph -tch. The teacher displays the words lake, letter, each, people, shows, and town, spelling each word and modeling reading. Students read as the teacher points to each word. The teacher explains to students that “Which Way on the Map?” is a nonfiction text, which tells about real people, places, things, or events by presenting facts and information about them. It sometimes uses maps to give information. The teacher starts a nonfiction anchor chart and asks students to name characteristics of the genre and add them to the chart. As students read the selection, they may take notes in the boxes provided, for example: 
• writing the letters ch, -tch, wh, and ph.
• writing a word with a digraph, trigraph, or a high-frequency word.

Students read each page and then the teacher reads aloud the prompts one at a time. Students also may circle and read words in the title with the /wh/ sound like in when as well as underline high-frequency words walk, around, and place.

• In Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, during Word Work, the teacher displays High-Frequency Word Cards another, climb, full, great, poor, and through and uses the Read/Spell/Write routine to teach each word. The teacher points to and says the word another. The teacher says, "This is the word another. Say it with me: another. I need another pencil. The word another is spelled a-n-o-t-h-e-r. Spell it with me. Let’s write the word in the air as we say each letter: a-n-o-t-h-e-r." The teacher repeats the same process to introduce climb, full, great, poor, and through. As students spell each word with the teacher, the teacher points out the irregularities in sound-spellings, such as the silent letter b at the end of climb. Partners create sentences using each word. Students read the sentences. The teacher prompts them to identify the high-frequency words in connected text and to blend the decodable words. 
• The cat will climb another tree.
• The glass is not full!
• The poor dog needs more water.
• This park is great, so let’s walk through it

For additional practice with high-frequency words, students complete the online activities for high-frequency words. On Day 5,  the teacher displays the print or digital Visual Vocabulary Cards. Students Read/Spell/Write each word and write a sentence with each word. If students need assistance reading high-frequency words, they can practice reading independently using the Take-Home Story in the Practice Book on pages 365–366.

Lessons and activities provide students many opportunities to learn grade-level word recognition and analysis skills while encoding (writing) in context and decoding words (reading) in connected text and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Week 2, Day 4, during Independent Writing, students proofread and edit their writing. The teacher reviews the online proofreading marks with students and models how to use each mark. Students edit for the following:
• Plural nouns are correctly formed.
• Words with short u are spelled correctly.
• High-frequency words are spelled correctly.
• Apostrophes with contractions are used correctly.

Partners exchange drafts and take turns reviewing them using the online proofreading marks. The teacher encourages them to discuss and fix errors together.

• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 4, during Independent Writing, students proofread and edit their writing. The teacher reviews the online proofreading marks with students and models how to use each mark. Students edit for the following:
• Go and do are used correctly.
• Words with long o: o, oa, oe are used correctly.
• High-frequency words are used correctly.
• Capitalization and end marks are used correctly.

Partners exchange their drafts and take turns reviewing them using the proofreading marks. The teacher encourages them to discuss and fix errors together as they read.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria for materials support ongoing and frequent assessment to determine student mastery and inform meaningful differentiation of foundational skills, including a clear and specific protocol as to how students performing below standard on these assessments will be supported.

Instructional materials provide opportunities throughout the entire program on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to assess students’ mastery of foundational skills and to progress monitor student growth. Students are assessed at the end of each unit using a summative unit assessment of designated skills taught during that unit that include phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and fluency. Teachers are provided with guidance on how to use the data from the assessment to provide flexible grouping and differentiated learning experiences. Teachers are instructed to use running records every four to six weeks to monitor students’ word reading fluency and application of decoding skills. Teachers are also provided a detailed assessment guide that describes the purposes and uses of all assessments in the program that are available to determine student proficiency. 

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of foundational skills. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Placement and Diagnostic Assessment, page xvii, the materials explain that beyond the initial placement of students into the appropriate Wonders level of materials, students need to be tested periodically to determine whether they are progressing on a grade-level or at a faster pace. The program suggests that teachers administer these progress monitoring or benchmark tests on a regular schedule throughout the year: fall, winter, and spring, or over a regular period of time, such as every four to six weeks. A chart is provided for general testing scheduling guide.
• In Unit 2, Week 6, Lesson 5, Summative Assessment, teachers are provided a summative unit assessment that evaluates all the key foundational skills taught in that unit. 
• Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Isolation, Identity, Categorization, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Substitution, Phoneme Segmentation, Phoneme Addition
• Phonics: Short Vowels e, u, Ending Consonant Blends, Consonant Digraphs, Inflectional Endings -ed and -ing, Contractions with ‘s, -es with Plural Nouns, Closed Syllables
• High-Frequency Words
• In Unit 6, Week 6, Lesson 5, Summative Assessment, teachers are provided a summative unit assessment that evaluates all the key foundational skills taught in that unit.
• Phonics: Variant Vowels, Silent Letters, Three-Letter Consonant Blends, Suffixes, Vowel-Team Syllables, Compound Words, Inflectional Ending -er, r-Controlled Vowels and Vowel Syllables
• High-Frequency Words

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information on students’ current skills/level of understanding. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Placement and Diagnostic Assessment, page x and xi, the materials explain how to group students based on students' results for the Grade 1 Placement Assessments: Phonemic Awareness Subtests and Letter Naming Fluency Assessment. Students who score 80% correct or higher on the Phonemic Awareness Subtests AND at or above the appropriate benchmark for the Letter Naming Fluency Assessment begin instruction with Wonders On Level materials. Beyond Level materials are for students who score high on placement assessments and easily complete On Level assignments. Students who score 60–79% correct on the Phonemic Awareness Subtests AND At or above the appropriate benchmark for the Letter Naming Fluency Assessment should begin instruction with Wonders Approaching Level materials. For students who score Below 60% correct on the Phonemic Awareness Subtests OR below the appropriate benchmark for the Letter Naming Fluency Assessment. these students require focused, intensive instruction. Students are placed in Wonders Approaching Level materials and use intervention materials based on placement tests results.
• In Unit 2, Week 5, Day 1, during Word Work, the teacher follows the Spelling Dictation routine to help students transfer their growing knowledge of sound-spellings to writing. After dictation, the teacher gives the spelling pretest in the Practice Book on page 149. The teacher pronounces each spelling word and reads the sentence and pronounces the word again. Students say each word softly, stretching the sounds, before writing it. After the pretest, the teacher displays the spelling words and writes each word as they say the letter names, pointing out digraphs and trigraphs. Students check their words using the Practice Book page.

Materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in foundational skills. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In every unit, week, and day, there are Small Group Differentiated Instruction lessons for students who are placed in Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level for phonemic awareness, phonics, high-frequency words and leveled reading.
• In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 5, during Word Work, the teacher administers formal progress monitoring assessments to students in the following areas: 
• Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Blending and Phoneme Substitution
• Phonics: Beginning Consonant Blends: l-blends
• Structural Analysis: Plural Nouns with -s
• High-Frequency Words: be, come, good, pull
• Informal Progress Monitoring:
• Phonemic Awareness: Practice book, digital activities
• Spelling: Practice book, word sorts, digital activities
• Speaking/Listening/Research: Checklists, Rubrics
• ORF: Conduct group fluency assessments using the Letter Naming, Phoneme Segmentation, and Sight Word Fluency assessments

Teachers should make data-based grouping decisions by using the following reports to verify assessment results. For additional support options for students, refer to the reteaching and enrichment opportunities.

• Beyond Level small group lessons include suggestions for additional activities in the following areas to extend learning opportunities for gifted and talented children:
• Leveled Readers
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Workstation Activities
• Leveled Library Reader Online
• In Unit 2, Week 3, Day 5, after administering progress monitoring assessments, teachers are provided reteaching opportunities with intervention to use with students who may not have mastered a skill.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the criteria that materials, questions, and tasks providing high-quality lessons and activities that allow for differentiation of foundational skills, so all students achieve mastery of foundational skills.  

Instructional materials provide opportunities for the teacher to differentiate foundational skills lessons through the small group differentiated instruction for each unit, week, and lesson. Students are provided multiple opportunities throughout daily experiences to practice foundational skills and concepts learned throughout the whole group instruction and opportunities to apply learning during small group differentiated instruction. Foundational skills are differentiated with the leveled text selection for each group that include On Level, Approaching Level, Beyond Level, and ELL. 

Materials provide high-quality learning lessons and activities for every student to reach mastery of foundational skills. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, during Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in each level participate in lessons that teach foundational skills that include scaffolding of the skill using I Do, We Do, You Do. In the Approaching Level Group, during phonological awareness, students participate in activities to identify and generate rhyme. Students participate in a phonics activity to connect /a/ to a. During high-frequency words work, students participate in the Read/Spell/Write routine with the words does, not, school, and what. Students in the On Level Group participate in a phonics lesson where they read and build words with short a. Students in the Beyond Level Group participate in a vocabulary lesson for synonyms. 
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Day 1, during Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in each level participate in lessons that teach foundational skills that include scaffolding of the skill using I Do, We Do, You Do. In the Approaching Level Group, during phonemic awareness, students participate in a phoneme categorization activity using one-syllable, long i words. Students participate in a phonics activity to connect i, y, and igh to long i. During high-frequency words work, students participate in the Read/Spell/Write routine with the words caught, flew, know, laugh, listen, and were. Students in the On Level Group participate in a phonics lesson where they read and build words with long i: i, y, igh, ie. Students in the Beyond Level Group participate in a vocabulary lesson for synonyms and their shades of meaning. There is also an activity extension for students who may be considered “Talented and Gifted.” Students act out the shades of meaning for each word. Students extend the activity by finding words in their writer's notebook to use in sentences with synonyms.
• In Unit 6, Week 2, Day 1, during Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in each level participate in lessons that teach foundational skills that include scaffolding of the skill using I Do, We Do, You Do. In the Approaching Level Group, during phonemic awareness, students participate in a phoneme blending activity using /ô/ words. Students participate in a phonics activity to connect a, aw, au, augh, and al to the sound /ô/. During high-frequency words work, students participate in Read/Spell/Write routine with the words brother, father, friend, love, mother, and picture. Students in the On Level Group participate in a phonics lesson where they read and build words with words with /ô/ spelled a, aw, au, augh, al. Students in the Beyond Level Group participate in a vocabulary lesson to determine word meaning using context. There is also an activity extension for students who may be considered “Talented and Gifted.” Partners tell each other about a person they respect and explain why. Students share with the group what their partner said.

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support each student’s needs. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Day 1, during Whole Group Phonics Instruction, students blend words with short i. During Small Group Differentiated Instruction, for students in the Approaching Level Group, the teacher models recognizing alliteration with words that include short i. The teacher guides students to recognize alliteration. Then the students work independently to recognize alliteration. Students in the On Level Group participate in an activity where the students read and build short i words. Students and the teacher work to read a short i word together. Students build and blend short i words independently.
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Day 1, during Whole Group High-Frequency Words Instruction, the teacher uses the Read/Spell/Write routine with the words caught, flew, know, laugh, listen, and were. During Small Group Differentiated Instruction, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level read Leveled Readers that include these books. 
• Approaching Level reads Where’s My Home? 
• On Level reads The Hat
• Beyond Level reads Come One, Come All

 Students have multiple practice opportunities with each grade-level foundational skill component in order to reach mastery. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Week 2, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level have the opportunity to practice reading the words could, live, one, then, and three both in and out of context on Day 1 through Day 4 during Small Group Differentiated Instruction. 
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 1, during Small Group Beyond Level Vocabulary, the teacher explains to students that base words are words that you can add word parts, like prefixes, to in order to form new words. Directions state: "Say the word behavior. Students recall its meaning. Then say: The word behave is the base word in behavior. Behave means “to act.” In the word behavior, behave is a base word."
•  We Do: The teacher models using the words behave and behavior in a sentence,  "Mom told Dan to behave in school. Now his behavior is wonderful." The teacher says the word misbehave and explains that mis- is a prefix that means “bad.” The teacher guides students in figuring out the meaning of misbehave.
• You Do: Partners work together to create and share oral sentences for behave, behavior, and misbehave.
• Students write about a selection they read this week. The teacher challenges them to use the words behave, behavior, and misbehave. Students repeat the activity by finding words in their writer’s notebook to use in sentences with base words and prefixes.
• In Unit 4, Week 3, students in the Approaching Level, On Level, and Beyond Level have the opportunity to practice reading the words find, food, more, over, start, and warm both in and out of context on Day 1 through Day 4 during Small Group Differentiated Instruction.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 3, during Phonics, the teacher models and displays Word-Building Cards s, p, or, t. The teacher models how to blend the sounds. Directions state: "This is the letter s. It stands for /s/. This is the letter p. It stands for /p/. These are the letters o, r. Together they stand for /ôr/. This is the letter t. It stands for /t/. I’ll blend the sounds: /ssspôrt/. The word is sport." The teacher continues the same process by modeling the words score, stork, and roar. The teacher provides guided practice and additional practice by displaying the Day 3 Phonics Practice Activity. The teacher says, "Let’s blend letter sounds to read each word: /s/ /t/ /ôr/ /m/; /ssstôrmmm/. The word is storm." They blend the remaining words together. Students read the connected text, sounding out the decodable words. The teacher provides corrective feedback as needed. If children need additional practice blending words with r-controlled vowels or, ore, oar, they use the Practice Book or the online activity. If necessary, have children read “Born to Learn” and “A Board That Can Soar” to practice decoding words in connected text. See pages T251 or T260 for instruction in building and reading words with or, ore, and oar.