Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). (K)

The materials do not contain explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 upper and lowercase letters in isolation. There are many activities that instruct students about letter sounds, and some for the formation of letters, but no lessons exist for the explicit teaching of each specific letter. The instruction sequence is presented as the letters occur in order of the alphabet. In the I Am Ready program, consonant letters are taught one letter a week ending on Day 130. Vowel letters are then taught one letter per week ending on Day 155. The instructional routines for teaching each letter are similar across all 26 letters. Students have opportunities to hear the teacher identify each letter and to find the letter that the teacher names in a book, worksheet, or letter cards. Instruction in uppercase and lowercase letters is sometimes embedded in sound practice. However, for some letters, the focus of instruction is on the sound of the letter and not the letter name itself. For example, while the teacher shows the letter H, the students briefly hear the teacher say the letter name before beginning instruction on finding two words that start with h.

Materials contain limited isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 21-25, in the “I Spy a Letter,” the teacher says, “I spy the letter B.” The lowercase B is located somewhere on the wall. The students find the letter B after the teacher gives three clues and a hint as to the general area where the B is located.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 26-30, the teacher displays the second C sentence page and asks the students if they recognize any of the sentences in the sentence, “I can eat carrots and cake.”
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 41-45, in the whole/small group lesson, the teacher explains to students they will be learning more about the letter F. The teacher holds up a sound card and the students say the name/word and enunciate the sound.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 51-55, in the Whole Class Lesson, the teacher says, “Today we are going to learn about the letter H, and we will be beginning to practice what H looks like, what H most often sounds like, and how to write H.” The teacher points to the H on the alphabet display and says, “H says /h/.” The teacher points to two pictures that start with the letter H.

There is a limited sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. Consonant letters are taught sequentially through the alphabet starting with letter a on Day 1 and ending with letter z on Day 125. Vowels are taught on Days 136-150. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, in the scope and sequence on Days 1-125, students work on learning uppercase and lowercase letters embedded in sound practice.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Scope and Sequence, pages 3-4, all 26 letters are reviewed in lessons 1-25 through Mini-Lessons including Alphabet Sound Songs and Sort by Sound which contain sound-spelling correspondence and in Whole Group lessons including Letter Tap. In Days 1-5, students review the alphabet through Alphabet Sound Songs and Alphabet Aerobics. On Days, 6-10, students review consonant letters: b, c, d, f, g, h. On Days 11-15, students review consonant letters: j, k, l, m, n. On Days 16-20, students review consonant letters: p, q, r, s, t. On Days 21-25, students review consonant letters: v, w, x, y, z.
• The Alphabet Display contains a separate card for each letter of the alphabet, displaying both the upper- and lowercase forms of the letter. It is referenced during Alphabet Song and Alphabet Aerobic activities.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials embed letter identification practice in meaningful print use.

Materials include some activities with letter identification practice in meaningful use. The “I am Ready” lessons provide opportunities for students to identify letters in various ways, such as the letters in a child’s name and in sentence solving activities. There are activities where students are asked to find objects in the environment that start with a particular sound, but not to identify a letter. Additionally, activities require students to focus on the sound of the letter rather than the identification or naming of the letter.

Materials contain limited tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 uppercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g. initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 56-60, the teacher says, “I spy the Letter I.” The students look around the room and find the uppercase letter I.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 91-95, Alphabet Book mini-lesson, students turn to the R page in the book and are instructed to “put their finger on the letter that says /r/”. The teacher asks, “What is the name of that letter?”
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 96-100, in the Mini Lesson, students write the first letter of their names on the “On” sign with a blue crayon.

Materials contain limited tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 lowercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g. initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 66-70, the teacher presents the sentence, “I like to learn,” to students. The teacher points to the word “learn” and asks students what letter they see at the beginning of the word. Sentence Solving is included in almost all of the weekly plans.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 81-85, the teacher explains that during the mini-lesson, students will be working with words that start with p. The students take out their Alphabet Book for p. Students are asked what letters are the same and what letters are different.

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

Students frequently practice letter formation through a variety of sensory and multi-modal experiences. Students have opportunities to practice forming letters with a variety of materials and through large-muscle and small-muscle activities.

Materials provide consistent, specific directions on where students should begin and end their letter formation. There are directions to support the teacher in how to model and write all of the letters. However, multi-modal instruction and practice occurs primarily in center activities, which are flexible. There are activities for students to practice printing uppercase and lowercase letters.

Materials include directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Teacher’s Guidebook, “I am Ready” Program, page 46, the teacher uses the Flower Handwriting activity as a model for “petal”, “root”, and “stem” letters (letters written above, below, or within the lines on a paper), with an explanation for each one.
• In "Ready to Read" Activities Book, "I am Ready" Program, Rainbow Letters, pages 139-235, the directions guide students on how to form both lowercase and uppercase letters.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 46-50, for the letter G, objectives are listed for learning and practicing the correct formation of the letter G in both uppercase and lowercase forms.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 1-5, the teacher models how to form the uppercase and lowercase letter A using a toy car and directions to “drive down diagonally to the left and stop on the red stop sign” for the first letter stroke. The teacher proceeds to explain subsequent letter strokes.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 6-10, the teacher gives specific instruction of how the students write an A, by using a car on a green and red light for upper and lowercase letter A. “The teacher starts the toy at the top right on the green-go-light, Go. Move in a circular motion up to the left, and then down and around, until you reach the green light again.”

Materials include some opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Teacher Guidebook, “I am Ready” Program, Handwriting, pages 250-275, Handwriting Practice Sheets are provided for students to practice writing each letter of the alphabet.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 6-10, the teacher and students sing a song, “A says /a/, A says /a/,” and then the teacher says two words. The students are given wait time to write which words start with A and B on their pages.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 91-95, students practice writing uppercase and lowercase R.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35, the teacher provides students with flower handwriting displays to indicate where students form letters on lined paper. Students practice writing letters by identifying which are “petal”, “root”, or “stem” letters (letters written above, below, or within the lines on a paper). All lowercase letters are written in this lesson.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 36-40, page 173, students complete the Flower Letter Sorting Sheets. Before they glue the letter down, they trace the uppercase or lowercase letter.
• In Road to Writing and Rainbow Letters lessons are repeated for every letter of the alphabet. In the Rainbow Letters center, students practice tracing uppercase and lowercase letters multiple times, using a different crayon color each time.

Materials include some opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multi-modal and/or multi-sensory methods. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 81-85, the teacher calls out a letter of the alphabet and whether the letter is to be uppercase or lowercase. Students write an invisible, large letter with their finger pointing in the air, forming the letter with correct directionality. This activity is repeated on Days 86-90 and Days 116-120.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 26-30, students practice “writing in the correct formation in the air with a finger, an arm, a leg, or toes.”
• Other multi-sensory and multi-modal activities are available in centers. However, centers are supplemental and optional, so students might not have the opportunity to participate in these activities.

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

There are many instructions for teachers to use when teaching general concepts of print, such as initial lessons on word spacing and directionality in reading left to right. However, the Kindergarten materials do not contain explicit instruction for teaching all print concepts. There are limited experiences for students to learn about print concepts with actual books, including Class Books and Phonics Readers. While the materials do provide some opportunity for review of print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation, the review is not systematic or frequent.

Materials include some instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 1-5, the teacher is given directions on modeling how to hold a book (right-side up, starting at the front cover, turning one page at a time, being careful with the pages).
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 1-5, the teacher demonstrates tracking from left to right and from top to bottom.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35 objectives listed for the whole class lesson are to practice proper book handling skills and tracking while reading.

Materials provide students limited opportunities to recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 11-15, the teacher models tracking the words to demonstrate the concept of spoken words connecting to written words
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 16-20, the directions for the Whole Class Lesson prompts the teacher to ask students if they know any of the letters in the long word or any of the sounds of letters.

Students have limited opportunities to understand that words are separated by spaces in print.Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 6-10, in the Whole Class Lesson, the students point to the first letter in the sentence while the teacher indicates that the first letter is always a capital letter. The students point to the end mark while the teacher indicates that a period “signals the end of a sentence.”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 41-45, in the “Sentence Solving” activity, the students count the number of words in the sentence.

Materials include limited lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 1-5, there are directions on book handling, tracking words left to right, and word spacing.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 11-15, there are centers and a whole group activity on book handling skills.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 16-20, the teacher is prompted to read a book from the classroom library to students while tracking her finger left to right and from the top of the page to the bottom.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, students point to the first letter in the sentence.The teacher instructs students that this letter is always uppercase.

Materials include limited physical books (teacher-guided, such as big books) that are suitable for the teaching of print concepts. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 1-5, the teacher guides students to use books from the classroom library to explore the inside of a book.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 41-45, as the teacher reads the book to students, she points to the words as students track in their own copy. The Alphabet Book is read every time a new letter is introduced.

Materials include limited instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing) in the context of a book. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 1-5, the teacher guides students to use books from the classroom library to explore the inside of a book. The teacher introduces “Word Walking” to students as a way to track print from left to right. In addition, there are explicit directions to show students that words are separated by spaces in print.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 41-45, students track print from left to right as the teacher reads the sentence and later, when students “read” the sentence to the teacher. Students count words in the sentence to practice understanding that words are separated by spaces.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 21-25, refers to a routine to be completed for sentence solving. Students get a copy of a sentence and count the words. The teacher models how to track left to right when reading. The teacher models how to blend the word “am”. Students read and point to the A while saying /a/ and the M while saying /m/.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35, the directions for the short /ă/ book has the teacher read the book out loud while students track with their fingers and follow along.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, Step 1 Book: Bug Has a Hut, in the lesson plan, the directions instruct the teacher to read the book with students, helping students to track the sentences while reading, to say sounds according to letter to sound correlations, to find the sight words and use prior knowledge to read those words, and to pause reading at end marks and understand where sentences begin.

Materials consistently include some opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 151-155, the teacher reads the book to students while students track with their finger.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 156-160, the teacher reads the book to students while students track with their fingers.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, students have a copy of the book, Dog Is. Students are instructed to discuss the cover and title, holding the book upright, and tracking words as they are read. This is a routine used with eight student books in Step 1
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 66-70, Step 1 Book, Cat Can, the teacher directions state that it is important for students to begin reading with the black and white reader in order to set them up for success in reading the color version of the phonics book. Students manipulate and highlight parts of the black and white reader to help them identify how to read the text properly and then can move to the color book for practice without support.

Materials contain periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 21-25, the teacher presents a simple sentence to students. Students track the print while the teacher reads and then later track again while “reading” the sentence to the teacher. Teachers ask students to identify letters in new words presented.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 166-170, the teacher reviews book handling skills at beginning of lesson. Students track words with their fingers as teachers read the book.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 26-30, instructs the teacher to choose letters that students need to review and practice letter formation. The teacher gives explicit instruction on how to form the letters chosen for students to practice.

Materials include limited students’ practice of previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Lesson Planner, Center #4: Handwriting Practice Sheets, Days 166-170, Handwriting Practice Sheets are stapled together in a book for students to practice writing the letters, to learn and practice correct spacing of letters in words and sentences, and to further practice letter recognition for all 26 letters in uppercase and lowercase forms. Students work on this packet at their own pace.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 81-85, the teacher asks students to point to letters in the sentence, particularly in unfamiliar words.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Step 2 and Step 3, Days 96-100, students practice spelling and writing the letters of each word.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials have daily opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities through Kindergarten and early Grade 1.

There are limited opportunities for students to engage in activities and practice phonological awareness. While there is practice of skills such as beginning sounds, onsets, rimes, and rhyming words, activities often involve sound cards which contain graphemes, or sorting sounds to letter names, focusing on phonics skills rather than phonemic awareness. Materials do not include a variety of activities for phonological awareness in both the “I am Ready” Program and Steps 1-5. In the Gray Space activities, students say rhyming words, they blend words, and they identify sounds in the middle of the word. Students practice these skills every day during some weeks. However, the Gray space activities are supplemental and optional. Therefore, there is no assurance that students will participate in these activities.

Materials include limited activities for phonological awareness. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 11-15, the teacher flips a card with a picture on it for the class to see. Students say three to five rhyming words for each card flipped. The teacher repeats this activity five to ten times.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35, the teacher explains that the vowel sounds can be at the beginning of the word, but they are inside the word. The teacher says short words with medial short vowel sounds, and students do a specific body movement if they hear the short /ĭ/ in the middle.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, the teacher says a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word, and the students change the middle vowel sound to a different one to create a new word.

There are limited opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 41-45, Whole Class Lesson, the teacher segments a word by saying it “in pieces,” and students blend the word together. Suggested words that the teacher might segment include fan, bat, tub, pig, and sit.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, the teacher thinks of a word, and students practice naming a word that rhymes with that word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 36-40, the teacher explains that a vowel sound can be at the beginning of a word, but they are most often inside in the word. Students come up with examples of short /ŭ/ sounds. When students hear a word with a short /ŭ/ in the middle, they do a specific body movement. They do a different motion if they don't hear the /ŭ/ sound in the middle of the word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-64, the teacher tells students, “I’m going to say a word in three sounds. You need to blend the sounds together.” The teacher gives students an opportunity to pause between each sound. Students say the word at that time or on the count of three.

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

Materials provide limited systematic and explicit instructions for phonological awareness. Materials include some instructions for counting and segmenting syllables, for blending sounds into words, and for blending onsets and rimes into words; however, no explicit instructions are provided for phoneme isolation, phoneme addition, or phoneme substitution. Many activities are included in Gray Space Activities or given as options for the teacher to choose. Because these activities are optional, the activities may not be presented to all students. Some activities are identified as Listen and Blend where students are asked to listen and blend words from individual phonemes; however, the examples provided do not align with instruction and the option to blend onset/rime is also present in the materials. Sound activities include a grapheme when students complete activities. Materials do not systematically advance students through the development of phonological awareness skills. In the Yellow Teacher Planner,"I am Ready" Program, materials present one sound a week with the matching grapheme.

Materials provide the teacher with limited systematic, explicit modeling for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• Recognize and produce rhyming words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 11-15, Whole Class Lesson, the teacher or student flips over a picture card, and the teacher prompts the students to produce a rhyming word. There is no explicit instruction for teaching students how to rhyme or what rhyming is.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 46-50, Whole Class Lesson, the teacher displays Sound Cards: ball, doll, bat, bug, banana. The teacher states, “Which one rhymes with TALL?”
• Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Mini Lesson: “Word Wiggles”, Days 76-80, the teacher explains words have one or more syllables by saying, “Every time your chin drops down when you say a word is a syllable.” The teacher says multi-syllabic words and asks the students to wiggle each time they see the teacher’s chin drop down. The teacher asks the students how many syllables were in the spoken word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, Mini-Lesson: “Word Wiggles”, page 281, the teacher explains that words have one or more syllables by saying, “Every time your chin drops down when you say a word is a syllable.” The teacher says multi-syllabic words and asks the students to wiggle each time they see the teacher’s chin drop down. The teacher asks the students how many syllables were in the spoken word. Materials state for teachers to, “point to the word;” however, Clip art is provided with no words.
• Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. This is presented as an optional task when blending individual phonemes.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 81-85, Mini-Lesson, the teacher has the option of presenting the onset and rime to students and having students blend the word. Instructions include, “Put your finger on the circle, /r/-pause-/at/.”
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Gray Space Activities, “Listen and Blend”, Days 46-50, the teacher tells students the teacher will say a word in three sounds. Students blend the sounds together to make a word. While materials provided the example of blending individual phonemes, the option to blend onset/rime is also provided.
• Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with l,r, or x.)
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, Gray Space Activities, the teacher says a short word out loud. If the student hears the target sound in a specific place, such as in the beginning, they do a specific movement, such as putting their hands on their heads. If they do not hear that target sound in the desired place, they do another movement, such as touching their knees.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 106-110, Gray Space Activities, the teacher says a simple word with one long or one short vowel. Students make a motion to indicate if the word has a long or short vowel, and students repeat the medial vowel sound in the word.
• Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 91-95, Gray Space Activities: “Switch a Sound”, the teacher says a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word and tells students to change the middle vowel sound for a different one to create a new word. The teacher calls on one student or has students respond in unison.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and Step 3, Days 111-115, Gray Space Activities, students are instructed to change the word crack to black. The teacher models segmenting the blend, and students use letters to build and change the words.

Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade level standards. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 146-150, there is a list of possible rhyming groups to use with the Sound Card activity.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 91-95, page 412, Gray Space Activities, materials provide examples for changing initial, medial, and final sounds. Initial: man/pan, pet/vet. Medial: pan/pen, bad/bed, mop/map, cat/cut, cap/cop. Final: dog/dot, mug/mud, bat/bag.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 56-60, Mini-Lesson, the teacher instructions include instruction for students: “Words have one or more syllables. A syllable is one unit of a sound and has a vowel. Every time our chin drops down when you say a word is a syllable.”
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 111-115, the teacher directions include an explanation of how to segment a word: “Teachers leave at least one second for the pause between sounds (phonemes)” and “Teachers then blend together the blend but still leave the word segmented.”

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

Materials include limited multi-modal/multi-sensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness. Routines for multi-modal/multi-sensory activities are not consistent over the course of the year. Students have some opportunities to use body actions and their senses to practice skills, such as letter sounds. Opportunities are limited for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern. Additionally, many of the opportunities to practice multi-modal and multi-sensory activities are found in the Gray Space Activities, which are optional and therefore may not be presented to all students. Limited examples are provided for the teacher and materials often prompt the teacher to find additional examples to use in lessons. While students have opportunities to count syllables, materials include limited opportunities for students to pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words and isolate and pronounce final sounds in words with three phonemes.

Materials provide some opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern called for in grade-level standards. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• Students have opportunities to recognize and produce rhyming words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 11-15, Gray Space Activity: Rhyming Words, students are asked to state a word that rhymes with a word spoken by the teacher. The sentence stem provided for the teacher states: “I can think of a word. _______. Can you rhyme with the word you heard?” The word mop is provided as an example.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 46-50, the teacher says, “I am going to say a word and you need to circle the picture of the word that rhymes. We will do this as a class.”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, page 50, Gray Space Activity, students put their hands on their head if they think of a word that rhymes with bat.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 16-20, students are presented with picture cards and are asked to think of three to five rhyming words for each card.
• Students have limited opportunities to count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Mini Lesson: “Word Wiggles”, Days 106-110, the teacher says each syllable of a word slowly, placing a hand beneath the chin. Students wiggle each time they see the teacher’s mouth open and the chin drop down. The teacher asks how many syllables are in each word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 81-85, the teacher orally states words, and students wiggle with each syllable spoken. Students are asked to count the syllables.
• Students have opportunities to blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 81-85, the teacher has the option of presenting the onset and rime to students and requesting students blend the word. Instructions include, “Put your finger on the circle, /r/-pause-/at/.”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 26-30, page 129, the teacher has the students put their fingers on the circle, then the triangle, heart, square and then the moon, which is two sounds: onset and rime. The teacher has the students share their answers.
• Students have opportunities to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.(This does not include CVCs ending with l,r, or x.)
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Mini Lesson: “Sound Card Sort”, Days 91-95, the teacher has sound cards with words that begin with r and 10-15 that do not. The teacher says the picture name, and students repeat the word. The teacher enunciates and stresses the beginning sound, then asks which category the Sound Card belongs.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, Gray Space Activity, the teacher says the word pat. The teacher tells students to change the a to an o. After wait time, the students say what sound they hear.
• Students have opportunities to add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 121-125, after the students build the word yam, the teacher says, “What would I do if I wanted to make the word yak?” The teacher explicitly states, “I only need to change one of the letters. Listen to the two words, yam and yak. Which sound is different?"
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, page 234, Gray Space Activity, the teacher says a CVC word and tells students to change the middle vowel to create a new word. The teacher states, “The word is pat. Change the /a/ sound for /o./ What word do you hear?”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 91-95, after the teacher says a word, the student practices changing the middle vowel sound for a different one to create a new word.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 101-105, Gray Space Activity: “Switch a Blend”, the teacher says a word with a blend and tells students to change the blend for a different one to create a new word. The substitution can occur at the beginning or ending of a word. Suggestions include clock/block, truck/cluck, and duck/dump.

Materials include limited multi-modal/multi-sensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 86-90, Gray Space Activity: “Word Wiggles”, the teacher says a word, and students wiggle each time they see the teacher’s chin drop to count syllables. Students count the number of wiggles in each spoken word.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 136-140, the teacher says a word, and the students find all of the pictures that rhyme with the word in the box.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 36-40, Whole Class Lesson, the teacher states short words with medial short vowel sounds. Students do a decided-upon body movement when they hear short /o/. Examples include: “Put your hands on your head if you hear short /o/ in the middle of the word” or “Put your hands on your knees if you do not hear the short /o/ sound.” As an extension, the teacher may select movements that require more advanced large motor skills when students hear a chosen sound.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.

Materials include repeated teacher modeling of each newly taught letter and sound by providing consistent instructional routines to learn the letters and sounds. Students are introduced to each letter and sound through the display of letter cards, sound songs, and identifying pictures that begin with the focus letter in a picture find book. However, some phonics skills do not consistently include explicit instruction and contain limited examples and limited modeling of the skill from the teacher. Lessons do not fully provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade level phonics pattern because there is not always explicit practice with hearing, saying, writing and reading the phonics skills for each week.

Materials contain some explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of grade level phonics standards. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 21-25, the teacher tells students that every letter makes one sound or multiple sounds. The teacher says, “We are going to continue learning those sounds. B says /b/. Your lips start curled in and are forced out by the sound.” The teacher enunciates and stresses the beginning sound when showing a picture to students.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 71-75, the teacher points to the Mm Alphabet Display card and gives the example of “M says /m/ like mouse and mitten.” In the Whole Class lesson, the teacher uses the Alphabet Book for the m page. The teacher points to the word mad and says the sound for each letter, blending in an exaggerated manner.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 16-20, the teacher holds up a picture and says the name of the picture, stressing the beginning sound. Then the teacher places the three index cards with p, qu, and r and says the letters and sounds of the three cards for students.
• Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 16-20, the teacher tells students that every letter makes one sound or multiple sounds. The teacher says, “The first sound is short /a/.A is a vowel and is often found INSIDE a word, but we will be practicing the times we find it at the beginning of a word. /A/ has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound says /ā/ and says its own name. The short sound is the sound we will practice and it says /ă/.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 36-40, the teacher tells students that every letter makes one sound or multiple sounds. The teacher says, “We are going to continue learning those sounds. Ee has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound says /e/ and says its own name. The short sound is the sound we will practice and it says /e/.”
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 56-60, the teacher tells students that every letter makes one sound or multiple sounds. The teacher says, “Ii has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound /ī/ and says its own name. The short sound is the sound we will practice and it says /ĭ/.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 76-80, the teacher displays the letter Oo and states “Oo has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound says /o/ and says its own name. The short sound is the sound we will practice, and it says /o/.”
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 106-111, the teacher displays the letter Uu. The teacher states, “Uu has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound says /ῡ/ and says it own name. The short sound we will practice and it says /ŭ/.
• Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 36-40, the teacher guides students in making the word bed with letter cards. Then the teacher says, “We are going to make a new word, but we are going to keep all the letters on our mat. We are ONLY going to change ONE. If we want to build the word bad, we only need to change ONE letter. Can you hear which sound is different, the beginning, middle, or end?”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, the teacher instructs students to “substitute a letter to help students make a new word.” Students change map to mop, identifying the middle sound and substituting the letter o for the letter a.

Lessons provide teachers with some systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade level phonics pattern. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 61-65, the teacher introduces the letters Jj and Kk and their corresponding sounds. Students sing the alphabet song to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell.” They are instructed to stop at the j and k, and the teacher points to the letters and says the sounds of /j/ and /k/. Students produce words that begin with /j/ and /k/. The routine is consistent for all letters and sounds in previous and subsequent lessons.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, students complete the Wonder Word activity where the teacher says the letters for each word and says a sound for each letter. The students create the word on the mat. The example word is cab.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 36-40, students practice writing the letter o. Then students color or circle the pictures that contain short vowel /o/ sounds. Students label each picture that contains a short /o/ with a letter o.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, after practicing writing words during the whole-group lesson, students practice writing words for a second time on the practice writing sheets. They practice writing sentences using those words. The word list contains the following words: fox, job, got, fog, not, nod, top, pop, mop, and lot.

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

Materials include opportunities for students to decode phonetically regular words in the sentence-solving activities, which occur one time per five day instructional sequence. Some instructional guidance is available for teachers to help students in self-correcting procedures; however, there is a lack of direct, systematic practice for decoding words. Throughout the Step 1 Program, the sentence solving activities indicate, in bold lettering, that students will read the sentences from memory and “are not expected to decode or read this sentence independently yet.” Also, teachers are instructed to decode words with the students, which does not provide opportunities for students to decode words on their own. The Step 1 program provides decodable books for students to practice decoding words in a sentence. The teacher models reading the book, and then students practice on their own.

Materials provide limited explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 76-80, in the pre-teaching section, the teacher sets up the material and uses a sample paper and teacher materials to demonstrate how to do the activity. The teacher picks one Bug word and one Frog word to place on the sentence strip. The teacher models how to decode each word, one at a time, recognizing the word the at the beginning of the sentence.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 81-85, the students read the book, Pig Has a Pet. The teacher is directed to help students track sentences, to say sounds according to the letter to sound correlations, to find the Sticky Words, and to use prior knowledge to read those words.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, the teacher decodes words get, up, and in with students. The teacher asks students for a word that might be in the classroom on the chart. The teacher points out the word, stressing the beginning sound, asking students to name some of the sounds, and explaining to students that the word will be decodable in the future. The teacher reads the sentence again for/with the students as they point to each word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 16-20, students are given the sentence, “I am a kid” on a strip of paper. The teacher points to the word kid and explains that the k says the same sound as hard c (/k/). The teacher points to each letter in the CVC word and says each sound for students. The teacher says the sounds faster to model decoding and blending the CVC word.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words in a sentence. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 71-75, students practice reading words ending with the /s/ and /ll/ sounds in the book, Dog Gets a Job.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 91-95, students draw a picture to respond to the sentence, “I get to school by …,” and then they read the sentence.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 56-60, students read the book Bug Gets Wet. Students first read the book with the teacher, and then they read the book a second time by taking turns, in partners, switching off by page, or in small groups.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 96-100, students read the book, Duck and his Mom and practice with a pattern, switching off reading sentences in the book out loud.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials include daily practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and sound patterns.

The materials contain limited teacher-level instruction and modeling for building, manipulating, spelling, and encoding words using common and newly-taught sounds and spelling patterns. Students are routinely presented with Wonder Word mats in a whole class format where they are guided through building words and sounding the words out. Lessons provide students with several opportunities to build, manipulate, spell, and encode words; however, this practice is not provided on a daily basis. Starting in Step 1, the Wonder Words activity continues until days 51-55, when Express Spelling is introduced. Express Spelling has seven practice pages in which to practice the words for the week.

The materials contain limited teacher-level instruction/modeling for building, manipulating, spelling, and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns of phonics. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 141-145, the teacher says a letter name, and students find the letter on the Wonder Words Mats. The teacher then says the sound of the letter, and students echo the teacher as they build CVC words. The routine is repeated with different CVC words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 161-165, students are provided Wonder Words mats and letters of the alphabet. The teacher says a letter name, and the student places the letter on their mat, saying the name of the letter and the sound of the letter. The teacher guides them through saying the sounds of each letter in the CVC word, and the students echo back.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, the teacher asks students to name the five vowels. The teacher has students say the short vowel names when holding up the Wonder Word Letter Cards. The teacher reminds them that long vowels say their own name. The teacher shows students two motions, holding hands out wide to the side to depict long vowels and hands clapped together to show short. The teacher holds up the correct Long or Short Bug Card.

Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words in isolation based in common and newly-taught phonics patterns. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 16-20, students build the words pot, bus, and bug. The teacher says a letter name and has the students point to the letters. The students read the CVC words and echo back to the teacher after they create the word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 36-40, students sound out and read each word on the mini-book and then practice writing the word on the blank line. Students put the short /a/ and short /i/ sound book together.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 41-45, students practice writing short /e/ words.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, students are given a list of words to read, pretend to type, then practice writing each word on the practice writing sheets.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials promote application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid Kindergarten-Grade 2)

Materials provide limited opportunities for application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. There is limited evidence of explicit, systematic instruction and modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Materials include limited activities and tasks that promote application of encoding words in sentences. Activities frequently involve drawing or coloring pictures that match sentences or words requiring decoding. There are limited opportunities for students to write words and/or sentences using encoding or phonetic spelling.

Materials include limited explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, Silly Sentences, the teacher models how to write sentences using a Bug card word and a Frog card word, with an emphasis on the initial uppercase letter and ending punctuation at the end of the sentence.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 66-70, the teacher pre-teaches the skill and writes the sentence, “The red box is on a mat.”
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 106-110, the teacher draws words from two piles to create a sentence. The teacher demonstrates writing the sentences, modeling the uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, correct word spacing, and ending punctuation.

Lessons provide students with limited activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught phonics patterns. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 96-100, the students receive a copy of the sentence, “I get to school by _____” and phonetically try to spell words for the blank about what method they use to get to school.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, students complete the sentence writing page, writing a short sentence for four of the words with /o/.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 66-70, students copy the sentence they created from Silly Sentences. They practice using an uppercase letter to start a sentence, an end mark at the end of the sentence, and leaving finger space between each word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, students complete the Problem and Solutions page. Students write a sentence phonetically to describe each drawing on the lines provided.

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

Materials include a list of high-frequency words called Sticky Words for each step of the program. Although students are introduced to these words, there is an absence of explicit instruction regarding reading the words in isolation and spelling the words. Students are routinely asked to listen for specific high-frequency words when reading stories or to locate a high-frequency word heard orally. Practice pages for writing Sticky Words are included in the student activities books, and instructions are included in center activities. However, these activities are optional and supplemental. Students in Kindergarten are taught about 23 Sticky Words, as some of the Sticky Words are repeated in Steps 1-3. If students do not progress to Steps 2 and 3, they would only be introduced to 17 high-frequency words.

Materials include some systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 31-36, the teacher points to the word play. The teacher explains that this is a Sticky Word. Materials state: It is a word that is too hard to sound out right now, and students will need to memorize and practice this word.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 41-45, the teacher explains to students that there are Sticky Words in the sentence. The teacher explains that Sticky Words are words that they may not be able to read yet using decoding and knowledge of letter sounds.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, the teacher displays all the Sticky Word displays cards for Step 1 and points to the word go. The teacher reads any book from the class library, and students are instructed to put their hands on their head if they see or hear the word go. Students are given all of the Sticky Words flashcards to keep.

Materials include some opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of high-frequency words in isolation. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 96-100, the teacher has the students underline the Sticky Words cards, I and to. The teacher points to each word, and the students repeat the word. When the students are done illustrating their sentence, the teacher has them practice reading the sentence with the Sticky Words in it.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 121-125, the teacher tells the students the Sticky Word in the sentence, “The yak eats the yams,” is the. The teacher asks the students if they remember that word from anywhere before. The teacher points to the word, says the word, and then has students repeat the word. The students find the word and underline it on their page.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, the teacher reads all of the Step 1 trace words. Students are instructed to trace the Sticky Word with a crayon and continue to choose additional colors to trace the word multiple times.

Students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 61-65, the teacher displays the Sticky Word cards, to and for. Students are given the Sticky Word activity book for the word to. Students first scan and track through the words to find and color any Sticky Words. Students count how many times they find the word and write the number in the box. Students find the words to and for, and color each box that contains the word. Once the student colors in all of the boxes, a hidden picture is revealed. Students trace the Sticky Words at the top and practice writing them on the lines below.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 76-80, students use the book to go on a Sticky Word hunt. They color all of the Sticky Words in the book with a yellow crayon.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 81-85, the teacher displays the Sticky Word cards for the words I and when. The teacher points to the words and then has students repeat the words.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 151- 155, the teacher places Sticky Words on the floor. The teacher says a word, and the students jump to that word. The teacher calls out the words in varying orders and the students hop to them.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 161-165, the students use Step 3 Sticky Words flash cards. The students line up the flashcards, and the teacher calls out one of the words. The students slap or tap the word being read aloud.

Materials include a minimal quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Teacher Guidebook, "I am Ready" Program, provides a table that lists all sight words introduced in the phonics books and the corresponding grade levels. Transitional Kindergarten (TK) words include two words, I and a. Kindergarten was identified as corresponding to Steps 1-3. Step 1 includes nine words (be, for, from, go, he, the, to, too, was), Step 2 includes seven words (come, does, have, like, of, put, see) , and Step 3 includes five words (all, are, good, she, where).
• In Student Activities Book, Steps 1-5, students are provided with flash cards for all Sticky Words in Steps 1-3.

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

There are multiple opportunities for students to read high-frequency words through the use of decodable books and sentence solving activities; however, materials lack opportunities for students to write high-frequency words in sentences. Students are provided opportunities to write sentences as they complete sentence starters; however, the completed sentences may or may not contain high-frequency words.

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read grade-level high-frequency words in a sentence. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 16-20, each student receives a copy of the sentence, “I am at school,” along with an additional paper where the student will glue the sentence and draw a picture that corresponds to the sentence. Students count the number of words in the sentence. The teacher reads the sentence for or with the students as they point to each word.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 96-100, students read the decodable book Duck and His Mom. The Sticky Words in the book are see, the and go. Students are told to color the Sticky Words in the book with a yellow crayon. The teacher reads the book with the students.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 121-125, students read the short story, Frog and The Plant. The story contains Sticky Words that are underlined in the text.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 161-165, students color the Sticky Words on the practice page. Students read the entire text before beginning the practice page, and then they return to each sentence and read it again.

Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to write grade level high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade appropriate high-frequency words. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 81-85, students complete the sentence starter, “I am happy when...” by completing the sentence in writing. The student traces the high-frequency word I at the beginning of the sentence.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 106-110, students pick words from the Bug and Frog Box. The teacher models decoding each word at a time and recognizing the word, the. Students create silly sentences and write them on their paper. Sticky words are a part of the silly sentences.
• In Blue Teacher Planner, Steps 2 and 3, Days 111-115, the students practice writing the words on Step 2 Spelling List #4. There are two Sticky Words on the right that students write.

Materials provide limited instruction in how to use student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading high-frequency words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Student Activities Book, Steps 1 -5, Step 1, page 27, there are Sticky Words display cards that can be printed for students.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, the directions state, “Teachers give each student a copy of the Sticky Words Flash Cards to cut and keep in the desk/at their table for activities or to take home for practice.”

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

Materials provide limited explicit instruction in word analysis strategies. Instruction for phoneme/grapheme recognition through introducing letters and sounds occurs simultaneously. Students learn syllabication through an activity that requires students to wiggle each time the teacher’s chin drops when saying a word. Students are provided opportunities to apply word analysis strategies by changing the onset and to read rhyming words as well as learning how to blend sounds when reading CVC words. No evidence was found for multiple and varied opportunities provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Instead, the same routines are repeated over the course of the year for these skills.

Materials contain limited explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g. phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis). Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 101-105, the teacher explains that every letter makes one sound or multiple sounds and focuses on the /t/ sound for the letter t. Students sing through the “Alphabet Song,” naming each letter and letter sound while the teacher points to the corresponding letter.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 6-10, the teacher holds up a picture of an object and says the name of the object, stressing the beginning sound. The teacher places three index cards with the letters f, g, and h and says the names and sounds of these letters. The teacher says the name of different pictures, and students choose the beginning letter of that object"s name.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35, the teacher provides instruction on segmenting the sounds in words. The teacher displays a card and indicates that the students are going to say a word in pieces, then put the word together. The teacher provides the example of saying “/b/-pause-/u/-pause-/g/,” and students blend the word together. The teacher explains that individual sounds make up a word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 56-60, the students count the number of words in the sentence, “I can sit on the rug.” The teacher puts her finger on the word can and asks students to put their finger on the letter that says /k/ on their Sentence Solving Strip. The students say the sounds with the teacher. They repeat this process with the letters a and n and with the word sit.

Materials contain limited explicit instruction of word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 141-145, the teacher explains that a word family is a family of words that have the same vowel sound and ending consonant sound. The teacher gives each student the /op/ and /ug/ cards and a stapled stack of different beginning sounds. Students flip through the stack and read the rhyming words.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 146-150, the teacher draws three circles on the board and writes one letter in each circle, spelling out a CVC word. The teacher practices with students how to tap each button, say the sound, and blend to make a word. The teacher chooses from the words bed, hen, jet, net, pen, and ten.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 11-15, in the Extra Activity Sound Hunt, students walk around the room with crayons or colored pencils and draw pictures of words that have i, j, k, l, m, n or o at the beginning of the word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31-35, the teacher says, “I’m going to say three words in pieces, and you need to blend them together.” The words are cat, bug, and mop.

Limited varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 21-25, the teacher says the word bat, leaving at least one second between each sound. Students blend the sounds to say the word bat.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, students practice reading the book Pig is Sad. The teacher reads the book with the students as the students track along.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 66-70, students are given Spelling List #4. The teacher guides students to decode or take turns decoding the ten words on the list
• In Green Teacher Planner Step 1, Days 86-90, students point to the first letter in the sentence, “I get up in the morning.” Students practice decoding the other words in the sentence.

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

Materials provide opportunities for students to practice decoding after the teacher has modeled decoding by pointing to sounds and blending the sounds together to read a CVC word. The instruction lacks explicit instruction on accuracy as well as specific checks of accuracy when students are practicing. Whole group Wonder Word lessons focused on decoding CVC words occur during each five-day instructional sequence with students decoding three words. The instructions call for teachers to check the spelling of words on a mat rather than the ability of the student to read the word aloud. There are minimal explicit instructions to demonstrate fluency and accuracy which occur during center activities. The resources advise teachers to instruct students to read Slow Down words and to avoid reading in a monotone voice. Practice focuses on rereading and does not allow students to specifically practice automaticity.

Materials provide some systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 141-145, Whole-Class Lesson: Word Family Flip Charts, students practice decoding phonetically regular words (CVC words). The teacher explains that a word family is a family of words that have the same vowel sound and end consonant sound.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 146-150, Whole-Class Lesson: "Buttons", the teacher has a list of six CVC words. The teacher draws three circles on the board and writes one letter in each circle, spelling out one of the CVC words. The teacher models how to decode by putting the finger on each circle and saying the sound of the letter.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 76-80, students read the book Dog Gets a Van. The teacher reads the book first with students, helping them to track sentences while saying sounds according to letter-to-sound correlations, to find Sticky Words and to use prior knowledge when reading these sounds.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 81-85, the teacher instructions state that when the teacher is reading the book Pig Has a Pet, the teacher should model how to read with accuracy, rereading a sentence once they have decoded the words, and reading with proper rate, not too fast or too slow.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, the teacher instructions state that the teacher should help students decode each word in the book Dog and the Gum, and then reread the sentences for meaning once they have read the words.

Materials provide some opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 141-145, students practice decoding phonetically regular words (CVC words) by changing the onset to the rimes /op/ and /up/ and blending each word. Each student has pre-cut word family cards.
• In Yellow Teacher Planner, "I am Ready" Program, Days 146-150, the teacher has a list of six CVC words and models how to decode one of the words. Students practice the remaining five words and draw a picture to illustrate the word.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, students reread the book Pig was Hot. Once they read the sentences, the students draw a picture to make the sentence true.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 91-95, students reread the text Cup and the Nap. Students either read the book with a partner or in small groups.

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

Materials provide opportunities for students to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding. However, the directions do not explicitly address having the teacher share with students reading for purpose for each reading. There is a lack of evidence regarding explicit modeling of thinking aloud and modeling by the teacher of their thought process for purpose and understanding to students.

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (Kindergarten) for purpose and understanding. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Yellow Teacher Planner, “I am Ready” Program, Days 161-165, students practice reading I am Bug and I am. Students take a Sequencing Base and Sequencing Strip and decide the order of the story.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 51-55, the teacher reads Pig is Sad with students. The teacher asks students to recall all of the things that make Pig unhappy. The teacher asks student to recall what makes Pig happy.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 71-75, the teacher provides students with the text, Dog Gets a Job. The objectives include, “to engage students in oral language and discussion of text being read.” The teacher is provided with example questions to ask students such as, “Who is the main character?” and “How do you think Dog feels when he realizes he can dig a den for a pal?”

Materials contain limited explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 31 - 35, the teacher reads the short /a/ book for students. The teacher explains what Sticky Words are: “Those words are called Sticky Words because they are easy to get stuck on.”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 66-70, the teacher asks the students to predict what the text, Cat Can, is about.
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 76-80, the students are provided the text, Dog Gets a Van. The teacher asks students to predict what the book is about by looking at the picture on the cover. The teacher asks questions after the book is read such as: “What color is Dog’s van? Why does the van need gas?”
• In Green Teacher Planner, Step 1, Days 86-90, students read the text, Pig Was Hot. The teacher explains that stories always have some problem that needs to be fixed and, after reading the book, asks students what they think the problem was.