1. Scott Foresman Basal Critique Katelyn Mielke, Amy Walker, Harper Parkey, and Katherine Rodgers

2. Overview Of All Grades ●Phonemic Awareness ●Phonics and Decoding ●Phonics ●Fluency ●Vocabulary ●Comprehension ●Fry Readability Analysis ●Program Strengths ●Program Weaknesses

3. Phonemic Awareness Kindergarten and First Grade: ❖ This program does a wonderful job of teaching students how to blend, segment, and substitute phonemes. Starting in first grade, the units begin to focus more and more on phoneme segmentation, then eventually by unit 4, the students are able to segment phonemes and even replace them with different sounds. This skill is important for students to understand rhyming words and for students to understand that they can sounds within words to make different words.

4. Phonics and Decoding Kindergarten: ❖ This program had a great process for teaching students the letters of the alphabet. With each letter that was being taught, students were able to look at words with that certain letter and to find a way to connect to each letter. The process for teaching was straight forward, but teachers could put their own creativity into it if desired. The program really set the stage to help students with decoding words later on in school. First Grade: ❖ Throughout the program for first grade are many strategies for teaching different phonics instruction. There is a lot of content and new concepts to teach/learn, but many of them tie together, like consonant blends and digraphs, vowel digraphs, CVCe’s, etc.. This allows students to scaffold their learning of different phonics instruction.

5. Phonics Second Grade and Third Grade: ❖ Phonics and spelling is explicitly taught and follows the same general pattern each week. The weeks begin with a pre test on day one, dictation of the spelling words by the teacher on day two, opportunities for student practice on day three and four, and then finally an assessment on day five. ➢ Focus on a different topic each week ➢ Working on prefixes, suffixes, digraphs, and blends in second grade! ➢ Working on all those plus syllables in third grade!

6. Fluency Second Grade: ❖ This program does a great job embedding fluency into instruction. Instruction focuses on punctuation, steady voice, and expression. Third Grade: ❖ Third grade has tons of awesome fluency activities that are embedded into instruction or they can be used as enhancement activities. Students work on punctuation, pacing, and expression too but they also add in characterization. ❖ Fluency is definitely a strong point of the program!! It is rather engaging too!

7. Vocabulary Kindergarten: ❖ The students learn new vocabulary by writing new words, identifying letters and sounds, and writing sentences with the new words. The teachers build on prior knowledge and experiences. The teacher may introduce new words informally and orally by demonstrating several examples and sentences through picture cards. First Grade: ❖ The students learn new vocabulary such as their amazing words through the Sing with Me Big Book. The teacher may also introduce new words informally and orally by demonstrating several examples and sentences that relate to familiar songs and picture cards. Letter tiles are used often to build vocabulary as well!

8. Vocabulary Continued Second Grade: ❖ It really emphasizes teaching vocabulary in context instead of just teaching vocabulary to be memorized as a definition. Students are guided to make connections to vocabulary words through their own experiences and apply the words to what they already know. Since they are taught the words in context, students tend to understand the words instead of just knowing them which is definitely a strength. Third Grade: ❖ Third grade vocabulary is taught completely in context and does a wonderful job of making sure that the students know HOW to use the word instead of just knowing WHAT the word means. Vocabulary instruction is very comprehensive with just a few weaknesses.

9. Comprehension Kindergarten: ❖ The teacher may build background knowledge and provide context through the use of the “Talk with Me, Sing with Me Chart,” books, and picture cards related to students’ interests in the classroom. The teacher may also incorporate comprehension skills such as compare and contrast, visualization, and prediction within stories read aloud and during practice opportunities together as a class. First Grade: ❖ The teacher may incorporate strategies such as visualization and prediction in familiar stories read together as a class to build background knowledge and to provide context in the lesson.

10. Comprehension Continued Second Grade: ❖ The program guides the teacher through comprehension instruction and helps with different questions according to Bloom’s levels. Students are given plenty of opportunities to read the texts on their own during independent reading time as well. Third Grade: ❖ The program guides the teacher through comprehension instruction and helps with different questions according to Bloom’s levels. Students are given plenty of opportunities to read the texts on their own during independent reading time as well.

11. Fry Readability Analysis Grade 3 Unit 2 Penguin Chicks By: Betty Tatham # of sentences: 12.1 sentences # of syllables: 120 syllables Grade level: 2 Grade 3 Unit 4 Fly, Eagle, Fly! By: Christopher Grerorowski # of sentences: 9 sentences # of syllables: 127 syllables Grade level: 4

12. Program Strengths Kindergarten: ❖ Phonemic Awareness: This program does a wonderful job of reinforcing different letter sounds and teaching students how to segment words into letter sounds and how to blend letter sounds into different words. ❖ Phonics and Decoding: The way vowels and letters were introduced and taught was very strong and consistent. This also helped to lead to better decoding later on by knowing all of the letters. ❖ Vocabulary: The program focused on the writing of new words, identifying the letters and sounds, and forming new sentences. The teacher may also use picture cards to relate to students’ experiences as well. ❖ Comprehension: The teacher models various skills such as prediction, recall, main idea, and compare and contrast before providing practice opportunities. The program conforms well to a before-during-after reading structure!

13. Program Strengths Continued First Grade: ❖ Phonemic Awareness: This program does a wonderful job in teaching students how to add suffixes to the end of words and how to substitute different syllables to create rhyming words. ❖ Phonics and Decoding: This program does a phenomenal job of teaching phonics and decoding in first grade. There are many great strategies to use to teach phonics and decoding throughout as well. This program had great reveiw throughout the units and lessons which was great in case a student was behind or didn’t quite grasp one of the concepts. ❖ Vocabulary: The teacher refers to the amazing words, a question of the week, and the provided sing-a- long book to reinforce and to apply new vocabulary terms. ❖ Comprehension: The teacher incorporates a variety of comprehension skills such as compare and contrast, prediction, summarization, and main idea within the lessons to provide context and practice in applying these skills.

14. Program Strengths Continued Second Grade: ❖ Phonics and Decoding: This program does a wonderful job of establishing a routine and teaching phonics and decoding regularly and with a specific goal in mind. There are lots of resources for the teachers to use and it makes it very accessible for the students to learn. ❖ Fluency: It is very fun and engaging for the students. It is embedded nicely into instruction, but there are also several opportunities for practice outside of the whole group instruction. ❖ Vocabulary: One of the strongest aspects of vocabulary instruction is that it really emphasizes teaching vocabulary in context instead of just teaching vocabulary to be memorized as a definition. Students are guided to make connections to vocabulary words through their own experiences and apply the words to what they already know. ❖ Comprehension: The program guides the teacher through comprehension instruction and helps with different questions according to Bloom’s levels. Students are given plenty of opportunities to read the texts on their own during independent reading time as well.

15. Program Strengths Continued Third Grade: ❖ Phonics and Decoding: Like second grade, this program does a wonderful job of establishing a routine and teaching phonics and decoding with a specific goal or specific strategy in mind. It is very teacher friendly and comes with lots of resources for the teachers and students to use. ❖ Fluency: It is embedded into classroom instruction but not as much as second grade. It is still really engaging tough, and children are given opportunities to practice expression as well as characterization, which can be really engaging and done in several different ways. ❖ Vocabulary: Third grade vocabulary is taught completely in context and does a wonderful job of making sure that the students know HOW to use the word instead of just knowing WHAT the word means. Vocabulary instruction is very comprehensive with just a few weaknesses. ❖ Comprehension: The program guides the teacher through comprehension instruction and helps with different questions according to Bloom’s levels.

16. Program Weaknesses Kindergarten: ❖ Phonemic Awareness: Very few weaknesses for kindergarten, but my only concern would be working on word recognition within context. Students can break down words and build words, but we are not sure that they have much practice using the words in context of a sentence. ❖ Phonics and Decoding: This program was a little confusing to figure out spelling and decoding in terms of the phonics. There was not much decoding or spelling listed, but it could be figured out on one’s own. ❖ Vocabulary: One weakness of the program was teaching vocabulary orally by demonstrating the definition and having the students write a sentence with the new word. The students could have participated in learning the vocabulary words in more interactive activities. ❖ Comprehension: The teacher taught the skills with minimal resources when others could have been implemented for higher-level thinking opportunities and further engagement. It was not consistent and did not conform well to a before-during-after reading program.

17. Program Weaknesses Continued First Grade: ❖ Phonemic Awareness: Students have few opportunities to practice applying their phonemic awareness skills by creating words within a sentence. They often can add and delete syllables, but we are not sure that they have tons of opportunities to practice what the word really means in terms of a sentence. ❖ Phonics and Decoding: Again, there was not too much decoding and spelling listed in first grade curriculum. Although there is not much a person can do about this, there was a lot of content thrown at the first graders and not all of it seemed to be aligned or in order. ❖ Vocabulary: The teacher reviewed the vocabulary embedded within the song during instruction, provide a kid- friendly definition, and have the students repeat all together. The vocabulary content could have been expanded through more engaging activities with the students. ❖ Comprehension: There was a lot of thinking aloud during discussion. The skills could have been taught in a more interactive, hands-on, engaging manner.

18. Program Weaknesses Continued Second Grade: ❖ Phonics and Decoding: The program was great for spelling and decoding, but there did not seem to be many opportunities for practice. All of the activities were very low level activities and did not really challenge the students to think very deeply about the words. ❖ Fluency: If anything, students could be challenged more with fluency and have opportunities to work with plays or fluency poems. Awesome opportunities for students who are on track, but for students who need challenges, there are not as many opportunities. ❖ Vocabulary: The teacher only taught the words orally, but there was not a master list of the words to be taught. The vocabulary instruction was embedded in the program, but unfortunately, there were no additional materials to practice vocabulary, nor was there a summative test to take at the end of the week. ❖ Comprehension: The instruction is done with minimal resources and is almost completely taught orally. While the program does have a before-during-after structure, it is often only done through communication.

19. Program Weaknesses Continued Third Grade: ❖ Phonics and Decoding: The content is great and it is taught well, but it is all very low level skills. Students can easily group words, but having them apply their knowledge to create words would be even better. ❖ Fluency: The only suggestion that I have would be having more varied options to work with. Students are still reading passages, but by third grade they are more than capable of working with poems, plays, and more dramatic readings. ❖ Vocabulary: The teacher only taught the words orally, but there was not a master list of the words to be taught. The vocabulary instruction was embedded in the program, but unfortunately, there were no additional materials to practice vocabulary, nor was there a summative test to take at the end of the week. ❖ Comprehension: Most instruction is done orally, and there are few resources for students to practice comprehension. By the time students reach third grade, they are capable writers and should be given opportunities to practice putting their comprehension into writing.