InvestiGator Club Spanish Prekindergarten Learning System

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials are cross-curricular and integrated in an authentic way to support students’ unified experience throughout the day and/or unit.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials include limited specific, intentional, and purposeful cross-curricular connections to create a unified experience for students. There are some examples of cross-curricular connections found in each “Literacy” lesson within the “Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide.” Each lesson under “Objectives” lists a series of multiple domain objectives. For example, in the story Un Día de Nieve, the Objectives include “Understand the concepts of time and temperature,” “Identify characters, plot, events, and resolution,” “Understand book features such as title, author, and illustrator,” and “Recognize that words are separated by spaces.” Through discussions and questioning, the concepts of time and temperature are orally discussed. Although several skills from various domains are named for each “Literacy” lesson, the materials do not consistently provide teachers information describing how to authentically integrate the multiple domains in the lesson. For example, after reading the story De la cabeza a los pies (a story about how our body moves), the teacher asks, “What are some ways you can take care of your body?” which connects to health and wellness. The students also perform the actions as the teacher reads from the book. As the children perform the actions, the teacher observes children and takes anecdotal notes. For the story Soy el agua (I Am Water), there is a superficial science and mathematics connection. The teacher asks, “Does water have its own shape? What shape did the water take in the baby’s bathtub, in the pool, and in the pot? What other ways can you think of to use water?” Again, this lesson does not include a deliberate activity connecting the literary component to science and mathematics. Although there are several opportunities for cross-curricular connections in the materials written in English, there are limited resources in Spanish that allow for this integration. Additionally, the materials do not provide translated scripts for teacher questions. This feature limits the authentic integration of cross-curricular connections since teachers are required to translate tasks on their own. Each teacher translating on their own inevitably causes irregularity, variation, and potential inaccuracy.

The Spanish program also includes six copies of each of six titles of the program’s concept little books for science and social studies (Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers). These little books are used for small groups and develop concept skills and vocabulary. For example, Pasteles de fango from the Splash and Dig Investigation Kit, allows for discussions about science concepts such as properties of rocks, soil, and water. Although these little books are provided, guidance for a Spanish-speaking class is not provided to clearly show how teachers could extend this learning into other areas/activities during the day.

There are 21 “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards” lessons that integrate science, literacy, and mathematics but do not detail specific objectives or skills targeted for each domain within the Spanish materials. For example, in the Spanish Flapboard Story Card “Nuestras cuatro estaciones,” the materials suggest for the teacher to “name and discuss the four seasons” and “ask children to tell about things that happen in the fall.” The materials list pages from the Weather Watchers Teacher Guide for English instructional materials as references for the objectives and further instructions. The Investigation Kits work similarly; they present cross-curricular, integrated opportunities for students, but some materials are written in English; therefore, teachers would need to translate scripts for lessons as well as some student materials. For example, during learning centers in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students build a pattern in Math, draw and color building plans in Social Studies, build with boxes in Art, and create a hardware store in the Dramatic Play center. However, the materials include all instructions for the teacher in English with no script in Spanish. Teachers translating and adapting material written in English to fit Spanish instruction may disrupt the experience for students.

The materials do provide the opportunities for cross-curricular opportunities through the “Start Your Day” portion of the curriculum. The curriculum provides the posters for these activities in Spanish, however the teacher scripts are written in English. For example, in the Weather Watchers Investigation unit the teacher reviews “El estado del tiempo hoy” the students observe and record weather changes. During the “Palabras de la semana” the students learn weather words such as sol, lluvia, nieve, and ventoso. During the attendance portion, the students review who is here and study the letters of their name and their classmates’ names. Although the posters to display are provided in Spanish, the teacher guides does not provide the scripts in Spanish for the teacher. In addition, not all vocabulary is provided in Spanish for the teacher to use the proper terms for Spanish instruction. 

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials utilize high-quality texts as a core component of content and skill integration.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials include a variety of genres of text, including nonfiction readers, fiction books, and multicultural folktales to strategically support content and skill development. However, the materials provide a limited selection of literature and do not identify any other additional texts to extend concepts and connections.

In the Spanish instructional materials, the “Storytelling Classics: Multicultural Folktales” include six coordinating stories that the teacher uses to teach classic literature that reflects diverse traditions. The folktales represent different countries, such as Los tres cerditos from England, La sopa de piedra from France, El león y el ratón an Aesop's fable, De cómo la mosca salvó el río from Ojibwa, Johnny Appleseed a Tall Tale, and El viento y el sol a Folk Tale/Fable from India. The folktales are connected to specific lessons to support content and skills development. For example, La Sopa de Piedras is a folktale from France that aligns with the “Healthy You” theme of the instructional materials. In this story, people from the town pitch in to add meat and vegetables to a soup for all to enjoy. The materials included a recommended, multicultural text example “Cuentos Que Contaban Nuestras Abuelas” by  F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada. This text includes twelve sto­ries from var­ied roots of His­panic cul­ture that come together in a col­lec­tion that includes talk­ing ants, magic bag­pipes, danc­ing goats, and fly­ing horses. In some cases the tales empha­size a moral, such as look­ing for the good in any bad sit­u­a­tion as in “Catlina the Fox.” In oth­ers, the story illus­trates the impor­tance of friends, as in the case of “The Bird of One Thou­sand Colors.” 

In addition, fiction concept books and nonfiction readers are included in the materials to be used throughout the school year. For example, the “Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers” correspond with the six investigation lessons offered in the Teacher Guide. These readers mostly focus on science concepts. The readers consist of titles such as ¡Construir una perrera!, ¿Qué es el estado del tiempo?, and Mis Cinco Sentidos. The materials also list which science concepts are taught through each title. For example, the teachers can use the Mis Cinco Sentidos nonfiction reader, which aligns with the “Healthy You” investigation, to teach “the five senses; name, location, and relationship of body parts.” 

The book selection provides some quality, age-appropriate texts written in Spanish that represent a diverse classroom through the different topics and real-life pictures of children. The pictures represent people of differing abilities and from various backgrounds, cultures, races, and ethnicities. However, there is evidence that some of the materials are a direct translation that could hinder proper development of syntax and grammar in Spanish. For example, the title ¿Qué es el estado del tiempo?, part of Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers, ends the book by asking students to look out the window and identify the weather. The question reads: “¿Qué es el estado del tiempo?” The correct translation should be: ¿Cuál es el estado del tiempo?

The materials also include the text El abecedario de Dilly to support the students’ development of letter knowledge. The text includes two words accompanied by visuals for each letter of the Spanish alphabet. However, the English version of this text also includes two sentences to support the letter sound correspondence. For example, for the letter Dd the book reads: “Rosalita is a daisy. She dips and dances.” The scene for each page of the alphabet also includes other visuals that start with that letter such as a diamond, doctor’s outfit, deep sea diver, dolls, and duck. The Spanish version of the text simply includes two pictures with the same beginning letter. Therefore, students in a Spanish speaking classroom would not be able to have an expanded conversation on the letter-sound correspondence as the English students would.

Evaluation for 2.3
Materials support developmentally appropriate practice across all content domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The English “Research and Professional Guide” contains sample schedules with full-day and half-day options to include direct and indirect instruction as well as large and small group activities matched to children’s attention spans. “Reading,” “Writing,” “Math,” “Science,” “Social Studies,” “Art,” “Technology,” “Sand and Water,” “Blocks,” and “Dramatic Play” learning centers provide playful lessons based on the kit’s theme. Students apply what they are learning in whole groups through independent learning in centers. The materials summarize how to connect all domains of play; materials discuss various types of play, such as make-believe, constructive play, sensory play, large motor play, fine motor play, artistic play, language play, and rough-and-tumble play. In the table of contents for each of the “Investigation Kits,” the materials clearly delineate which lessons and activities are meant for whole, small, or independent instruction.

The English Research and Professional Guide also provides teachers some information on how to connect learning to play. The materials list several ways for children to “play with purpose.” The guide states, “With the ongoing professional development, teacher guides, and resources that are used throughout the InvestiGator Club®, teachers become intentional in their use of a variety of approaches and strategies to support children’s ‘playful learning,’ interest and ability in each learning domain.” A list of features in the provided material defines and clarifies purposeful play in the classroom: learning centers provide free exploration and personal choice; open-ended activities spark students’ imagination and curiosity; “Investigation Stations” let children explore, experiment, and apply knowledge. Many of these activities are provided in English and not translated into Spanish. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, the gradual-release model is implemented during a small group math lesson where the teacher writes a numeral on the board and has the students say it aloud, holding up the correct number of fingers. The teacher models how to form the numeral; students practice writing it in the air and on their palms. However, none of the teacher script or student-facing materials for this activity are written in Spanish. While this is a Math lesson, the lesson is to be conducted in a Spanish-language classroom; in this sense, the activity is not fully appropriate for the content and skill development, nor does it completely reinforce the learning objectives.

The recommended activities within the Spanish materials provide some opportunities for children to broaden and deepen their knowledge through play. For example, the “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge” section of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide offers activities that integrate concepts and play. In one activity, the teacher uses “El libro grande del alfabeto” to teach and reinforce letters of the alphabet. The teacher “places the big book flat on the floor.” The children “take turns tossing a token on the pictures.” The “child names the picture and letter that begins the name.” The children continue the game. The lessons in the Spanish materials seem to be mostly designed for large group instruction. The units or themes provide limited recommendations of center activities that evolve and change throughout the year with each unit or play-to-learn type activities.

In another activity, teachers create a class picture dictionary with each child's name and photograph in the album, arranged in alphabetical order. The guidance instructs teachers to “write each child's name on the index card and place it near the book. Then display the front of the Center Card. Point to and read the title, ‘Picture Dictionary.’ Then read or explain the three illustrated steps: 1. Read the dictionary and find your picture; 2. Match the name card to the names in the dictionary; and 3. On your page, draw your favorite thing to do in school.” The materials direct the teacher to read the English steps as written to students in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom. In this case, the teacher guidance does not sufficiently ensure teachers set up and facilitate the activity to meet the learning objective. If teachers translate these prompts and tasks and make mistakes, they could unintentionally provide students developmentally inappropriate or academically inaccurate practice. 

The Spanish materials include direct (explicit) instruction and student selection from purposefully planned learning center choices, but the instruction is not consistently appropriate for content and skill development. For example, the “Literacy” lessons in “The Investigator’s Club” follow a pattern of structured lesson components, but the Spanish script is not detailed enough to include modeling or teacher think-alouds to show what good readers do. Each lesson has the following components: “Set the Stage,” “Get Started,” “Read the Story,” and “Make Connections.” In the Get Started part of the lesson of “De la cabeza a los pies,” teacher guidance states: “Ask children what kind of animal is on the cover. Then ask: Where is the gorilla pointing? Then turn to the title page and show the illustration of the child pointing to this head and toes. Ask: Can you point one hand to your head and one and to your toes too?” During Read the Story, the guidance states: “Have children help you find the first word you should read on each page. Track the print to model reading from left to right and top to bottom. Encourage children to perform the actions as you read.” Last, during the Make Connections part of the lesson, the materials state: “As you look back through the book, have children name the different animals shown in the illustrations and mimic their actions. Ask questions such as these: Can animals really talk? Can they move like they do in the story? What animals have you seen before?” While lessons provide a structure to follow and multiple questions that encourage thinking, the materials do not clearly direct teachers to model good Spanish reading skills or extend activities for additional practice in small groups or play-based centers. As previously mentioned, most lessons contain teacher questioning that is written in English. This guidance requires translation before delivering to students whose primary language is Spanish and does not adequately support teachers for Spanish prekindergarten facilitation.

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide includes a limited number of activities for learning centers. For example, the materials suggest the following: “As each new letter/sound is introduced, place El libro grande del alfabeto in the Art Center with the book open to that letter. Invite children to do a related art activity. For example, for ‘Aa: Use agua (water) to paint Aas on blue paper,’ for ‘Cc: Engage children in canicas (marble) painting,’ and for ‘Hh: Collect a variety of hojas (leaves) for children to make collages or crayon rubbings.’” Another example of a center activity, with the El libro grande del alfabeto section, suggests the following: “Reading Center: Making Names. Place the Spanish Magnetic Foam Letters in the Writing Center along with children’s name cards and a cookie sheet. Children use the name cards as models for forming their names using the letters on the cookie sheet. Some children may want to use the letters to form the names of their classmates.” The number of suggested center activities is limited. 

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide also includes components that align with instructional materials written in English to support teachers of Spanish-speaking children, such as “Spanish Phonological Awareness,” “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge,” and “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards.” Lessons do not clearly define the appropriate setting for a specified activity (large/whole group, circle time, transition, small group, opening and closing circle, etc.). The materials lack teacher guidance describing how the activities connect to one another, reinforce concepts and skills, and support students in meeting learning objectives. 

Evaluation for 2.4
Materials fit within a developmentally appropriate programmatic structure.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide information that specifies how to customize to meet the needs of all children. The “Program Overview” in the Research and Professional Guide states: “Whether you’re teaching a class of 4-year-olds, 3-year-olds, mixed ages, or classrooms with children who have developmental or special needs or who are learning English, The InvestiGator Club provides a variety of research-based products to help you customize your instruction to support the needs of all children in every type of classroom, while nurturing the whole child and laying the foundation for social, emotional, and cognitive growth.” The “Year at a Glance for Threes” consists of 30 weeks of creative, integrated instruction with three-year-olds in mind. The “Year at a Glance for Fours” is organized into seven inquiry-based investigations for 32 weeks of instruction.

The materials do not include a variety of options that clearly differentiate instruction in Spanish for the level of development and student populations. The Spanish materials provide three activities with a differentiation strategy for three-year-old students but do not support teachers in differentiation for the rest of the activities in the materials. These differentiated strategies for level of development are found in El libro grande del alfabeto and one “Literacy” lesson for the book Soy el agua. In the “Literacy” lesson for Soy el agua, there is a call-out box labeled for the inclusion of three-year-olds. The call-out box reads: “Inclusion: Read aloud the book from beginning to end without pausing for discussion. Then let each child turn to his or her favorite way of using water and tell about it.” 

In another example from the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit, the teacher introduces the Dilly puppet and greets children by saying, “Hi! My name is Cordelia Gator, but you can call me Dilly! What’s your name?” The teacher asks each child to respond with, “Hi Dilly, my name is…” and a side note for three-year-olds guides the teacher to explain that Dilly is a puppet and that the teacher is helping her talk as she is a puppet and cannot talk on her own. The materials do not provide scripting in Spanish for this. Students then learn “Dilly’s Alphabet Song” and use a chart and alphabet cards that are written in English. Students march around the room and discuss what letter each student has; the materials note that three-year-olds should simply sing and dance to the song.

The “Research and Professional Guide” provides a clearly defined schedule for both full-day and half-day programs. The half-day schedule includes “Opening Circle Time,” “Literacy,” “Learning Centers,” “Small Group,” and “Closing Circle.” The proposed full-day programs have the same components as half-day but include additional learning activities, such as an extra small group, whole group, and learning center activity.

Evaluation for 2.5
Materials include detailed guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The Research and Professional Guide provides detailed guidance for implementing research-based instructional strategies to support learning. For example, the “Oral Language” section summarizes Classroom Application strategies such as “Let’s Talk,” “Word Play,” “Play Time,” and “Read it Again and Again” to support academic language development. The “Let’s Talk” section encourages teachers to have plenty of discussion and conversation. The “Word Play” section states that “students should practice using words they already know and continue to add new words in all learning activities.” The “Vocabulary” section encourages teachers to focus on words that are important, draw children’s attention to words, and provide child-friendly descriptions of words. Although this guidance is useful for teachers, the materials do not provide explicit, step-by-step instructional strategies or frameworks for teachers to implement these strategies in Spanish. The materials do not communicate Spanish-specific research-based strategies or how these original strategies apply to Spanish prekindergarten skills.

There are other aspects of the materials that offer some guidance that could apply to Spanish prekindergarten skills. For example, the six Literacy lessons for the “Spanish Read-Aloud Collection” follow the same format: “Set the Stage,” “Get Started,” “Read the Story,” and “Make Connections.” The Get Started component has some scripted information that the teacher uses to deliver the lesson, which is the direct instruction component. The questions in the lessons are styled in a call-and-response format. Questions are asked to the whole group and one student answers. 

While this lesson structure offers a coherent instructional strategy, guidance describing teacher and student actions does not consistently support student proficiency. There are limited opportunities to answer open-ended questions, and the lesson scripts do not specify if students are to interact with others to formulate their answers. For example, for the story ¡Salta, ranita, salta!, the materials state: “Display the cover of ¡Salta, ranita, salta! Read aloud the title and names of the author and illustrator as you point to each word. Then ask: What living things do you see? Do you think the frog will catch the fly? Do you think the fish or the snake or the turtle will try to catch the frog? Do you think the frog will get away? How? Then say: Let’s read the story to find out!” This list of scripts is provided in English. While teachers may translate the prompts for a Spanish prekindergarten classroom, the scripts themselves do not offer explicit and detailed guidance ensuring equitable implementation.

Another example where teacher scripting lacks adequate support comes from the read-aloud, Adventure in Circle Forest, located in the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit. Before the read-aloud, the teacher asks open-ended questions, such as “What do you like to write?” This, and other guidance, lacks the necessary instructional support in Spanish. Beyond that, the reference text is written in English and would require translation before implementation in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom.

The Literacy lessons activate students’ prior knowledge by asking them questions connected to the book or theme being studied. However, the discussion does not provide sufficient guidance for teachers to connect children’s prior knowledge to new learning. For example, in the “Finny, Feathery, Furry Friends” lesson, the teacher introduces the book by saying, “¡Salta, ranita, salta! is a story about a frog that lives in a pond and tries to catch a fly without getting caught itself.” Children name some animals they might see in or around a pond. However, there is no guidance for engaging children in discussion about what a pond is, whether they may have seen one before or not, or how to enrich children’s learning by building background knowledge for the lesson.

The Spanish teacher's guide includes some research-based information that could support a teacher’s understanding of reading instruction, language development, and vocabulary acquisition. For example, one of the research call-out boxes in the “Soy el agua” Literacy lesson states that the “IRA and NAEYC agree that preschoolers need to meet these standards in preparation for becoming successful readers: know that it is the print that is read in stories… demonstrates via questions and comments understanding of literal meaning of story being told.” However, these call-outs address limited content area domains and are not included in each lesson. While the call-out suggests students need to understand literal meaning, no teacher guidance is offered to achieve that goal. 

The materials provide some strategies describing how teachers should approach phonological awareness. For example, the “Syllable Segmentation and Blending” section recommends having children “clap or tap each syllable” and for the teacher to “pronounce the syllables in a word in a smooth and connected way.” The “Phoneme Blending” section recommends that the teacher “say the word in a stretched-out way” and provide “picture cards” so that students may “identify the picture card that matches with the spoken word.” While the materials suggest specific approaches to developing phonological awareness in Spanish, the guidance does not suggest when and how to introduce each one in Spanish. The materials simply suggest the teacher adapt the lessons from the English materials. This is not enough guidance to ensure Spanish-speaking students reach proficiency since phonological awareness is developed and internalized differently between the two languages.

Evaluation for 2.6
Materials are supported by child development research on children’s development within and across all domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The publisher provides an in-depth explanation of how the materials align with child development research. For example, the Research and Professional Guide contains a section on the importance and types of play, which is the program’s philosophy. The materials cite references for this approach, such as Dr. Barabara Sorrels, Executive Director for The Institute for Childhood Education, who founded early childhood centers in Washington, D.C., Dr. Stuart Brown, a physician, psychiatrist, and play researcher from Fort Worth, Texas, and Dr. Hilary Seitz, an early childhood professor who has written several publications related to early childhood education. The guide also includes information on how the materials support the alignment to “The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition (ECERS-R).” The materials state that scores on environment rating scales are predictive of children's language and literacy performance and cite Zill & Resnick as the source.

Materials include content in call-outs that draw the teacher’s attention to varying research. In the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, a side note supports the use of inquiry in science instruction, stating, “Current research states that young children in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry.” Supported by this research, in the activity “Gather Water Data,” the teacher asks children how and where water is used in their homes and records their responses. The materials suggest reminding students that the information they write down is called data, encouraging children to gather and collect data at home for one week, and then having them share their data with the class. While the teacher scripting for this activity is written in English and would need to be translated for students whose primary language is Spanish, the research call-out does enrich educator understanding of early childhood development. Additionally, there is a call-out box with research-based information that connects to the activities presented in the “Literacy” lessons Los tres cerditos, Soy el agua, and ¡Salta, ranita, salta!. In the lesson for Los tres cerditos, the materials mention the following research: ”The NICHD Report of the National Reading Panel says that effective reading instruction should include asking questions and looking back at pictures to help children understand what is read or heard.” In the Literacy lesson Soy el agua, the research note indicates that the “IRA and NAEYC agree that preschoolers need to meet these standards in preparation for becoming successful readers: know that it is the print that is read in stories… demonstrates via questions and comments understanding of literal meaning of story being told,” which supports the objectives of the lesson. Moreover, in the Literacy lesson ¡Salta, Ranita, Salta!, research indicates that “preschool children are developing the ability to ask and answer questions. They begin with yes/no questions and move on to questions that begin with what, where, and who. Finally, they begin to understand and use when, how, and why questions.” 

The materials contain early childhood research-based guidance for instruction. For example, the “Spanish Phonological Awareness” section of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide includes guidance on possible approaches to phonological awareness in Spanish. The “Research” call-out box states: “In an article from Scientific American, reading researchers state that children’s oral language, phonological awareness, and alphabet knowledge are predictive of reading ability in the elementary grades. Both phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge can be increased through explicit instruction.” The Research and Professional Guide also contains research-based guidance to support teachers’ understanding of early childhood development. For example, the “Concepts of Print” section states that concepts of print include how to hold a book, conventions of print, and the understanding that print has meaning. Within the same section, the materials provide suggestions for a print-rich environment to support the development of print concepts as well as teaching strategies. The materials encourage teachers to use shared writing as an approach (Strickland and Schickedanz, 2004) to address concepts of print, such as how “letters, sounds, and words are linked to ideas,” using capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, and adding punctuation at the end of a sentence. The Research and Professional Guide includes additional sections that support teachers’ knowledge of early childhood development supported by research in many additional domains such as oral language, mathematics, social studies, technology, fine arts, and vocabulary. 

Evaluation for 3.1
Materials include direct social skill instruction and explicit teaching of skills.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

The materials provide full lessons on Self Concept Skills, Self-Regulation Skills, Relationships with Others, and Social Awareness Skills; however, the materials are limited in direct social skill instruction and explicit teaching of skills for students in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom as the Spanish Teacher's Guide directs the teacher to use the lessons in the Investigation Kits written in English. For example, in the “Make Connections” section, the book JT’s Spooky Creepy Room provides opportunities for students to discuss how JT knows about other countries; the teacher provides objects and pictures from a variety of countries. One Teacher Guide presents explicit guidance for teachers to address routines, how to take attendance, safety tips to cover, outside play guidelines, and targeted social-emotional skills but is written in English. The Spanish Teacher Guide does not provide explicit guidance (such as teacher scripting) in Spanish. In addition, the “Opening Circle Time” contains interactive songs and movement activities that help children sustain attention on tasks and remain focused during group activities for increasing amounts of time. While these activities support students’ development of skills, the songs, chants, and other student instructional materials are not presented in Spanish. The materials also provide guidance in English on teacher modeling of these skills but do not always provide teachers scripts, print, or dialogue in Spanish. Thus, students in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom would not always receive direct instruction or experience teacher modeling in their first and/or home/primary language. For example, in the “Splash and Dig” Investigator Kit, the lessons use books and puppets to model social and emotional skills in English. Although the teacher instructions are in English, the materials do not provide any of the teacher script for modeling the lesson in Spanish. The English Social and Emotional Skills Activity Guide includes a list of additional developmentally appropriate texts containing multiple cross-curricular connections with social and emotional themes to support child development of competencies. However, the texts provided in Spanish are limited in quantity and quality for supporting the development of social and emotional competencies. 

Evaluation for 3.2
Materials include repeated opportunities for students to practice social skills throughout the day.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

The materials provide opportunities to practice new skills in a variety of ways and in different settings. There are suggestions and materials to practice and reinforce skills in a variety of settings or across domains, but the student materials are not in Spanish. The teacher guidance in the instructional guides is in English; thus, all scripted student-teacher interactions are only available in English and not in Spanish, making it difficult to learn, practice, and apply skills throughout the day for students whose primary language is Spanish. For example, in the “Healthy You” Investigation Kit, the materials provide an opportunity for students to graph their preference in response to an assigned question that is only available in English; Spanish-speaking students will not have access to teacher-scripted lessons in Spanish.

Evaluation for 3.3
Materials include ideal classroom arrangements that support positive social interactions.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials include ideal classroom arrangements that support positive social interactions. Classroom arrangement supports daily opportunities for practice of social skills, including in daily learning centers; however, the center language for student-facing materials is all in English. Materials provide teacher guidance on classroom arrangement to support teacher-student and student-student interactions; however, none of the teacher-student interactions are available in Spanish. For example, the materials and lessons provide opportunities for children to be involved in creating classroom rules. The teacher guides the children to brainstorm rules that are important to the classroom. Children do this through discussion, role-play, and nonverbal cues. However, there is no support for how to do this using Spanish language; the teacher will need to translate the lesson before instruction can happen. Materials consider a variety of factors and components of the physical space and their impact on students’ social development, but the student-facing materials are not readily available in Spanish. Materials can be implemented somewhat easily, depending on if translations need to be made, and effectively within a classroom arrangement that supports positive social interactions because the teacher will need to translate, type, and print student-facing materials and interactions from English to Spanish. Materials provide suggestions for how to engage students in classroom arrangement in order to promote student ownership of the space; however, if there are any student-facing materials, the teacher will need to translate, type, and print materials. For example, the materials provide signs to label different areas of the classroom and suggestions on how to teach students self-management when working in different areas of the classroom during center activities, but these are only available in English. 

Evaluation for 3.4
Materials include activities to develop physical skill and refine motor development through movement.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

The materials include activities to develop physical skills and refine motor development through movement. Materials provide numerous daily opportunities for students to develop their gross motor skills through movement and their fine motor skills through tasks that do not require writing. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students hammer colorful pegs into foam blocks to continue a pattern, developing their strength, dexterity, and control using tools during a “Math” learning center. Some opportunities require translation of student-facing materials or provided teacher scripts or directions into Spanish to ensure students can fully participate in activities. For example, during a “Science” center in the "Watch It Grow" Investigation Kit, students use yarn to measure the growth of their plants and then cut and tape the yarn into their science journal; the teacher script and key vocabulary words for this activity are only available in English. The teacher may utilize the guidance to implement the lesson but would need to translate the script and vocabulary into Spanish to be utilized in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom with learners whose first language is Spanish. Further in the Investigation Kit, students play a game called “Nest in a Tree” in which children take turns balancing a plastic disk on their head as they walk, being careful not to let the nest fall from the tree; teacher guidance and instructions on this activity are written in English, prohibiting Spanish-speaking students from fully understanding the expectations of the game prior to engaging in it without teacher translation. 

Evaluation for 3.5
Materials include activities that develop safe and healthy habits in students.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials include activities that develop safe and healthy habits in students; however, student-facing materials, guidance, and support are available in English. For example, the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit provides guidance in English for students to record and discuss a health-related safety tip. The teacher would need to translate teacher scripts and recreate the “Chuck Safety Poster” that is included and written in English. Examples of the safety tips included in English are: “Wash your hands before you eat,” “Keep sand inside the table,” “Wear smocks when painting.” Materials provide teacher guidance on modeling safe and healthy habits for students, but the materials do not provide the teacher with scripts/dialogue for modeling in Spanish. For example, the “Healthy You” Investigation kit provides a lesson on safety and following routines with sample dialogue for teachers to use to model safe and healthy habits in English. Since the teacher dialogue is only in English, the teacher does not have the same level of teacher guidance and support for implementing the materials with students in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom as for implementing the materials with students in an English Prekindergarten classroom. Materials provide a variety of opportunities and activities for students to practice safely and reflect on safe and healthy habits; however, associated student materials are only available in English and would need to be translated, typed, and printed by the teacher. Materials communicate the connection between physical and mental health to teachers sufficiently, but if these connections were to be communicated to students in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom, they would be based on teacher translations.

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ listening skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide limited guidance to teachers on developing students’ listening skills. The “Literacy” activities in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide list objectives in the listening and understanding domains. Materials do not include examples of teacher think-alouds in Spanish and do not include recommendations of using visual supports to promote modeling of active listening behaviors. Few opportunities for teachers to model conversations in Spanish in a variety of classroom settings are evident. The materials include activities for learning centers and for small group instruction that Spanish teachers can access, although these activities are not translated into Spanish. Additionally, the materials contain limited explicit opportunities for students to practice listening for understanding in Spanish. Most activities are limited to recall or student creation. For example, in the “Finny Feathery Furry Friends Teacher Guide,” the activities in the “Reading Center” are limited to book use, concepts of print, and care for books. Additionally, in the “STEAM and Literacy Challenge Activity Guide,” after a Spanish read-aloud, the class creates their own story; as students add details to their story, the teacher models listening skills, but the teacher script is written in English. 

In the Spanish Teacher Guide, the materials provide some opportunities for teachers to support and scaffold opportunities for students to listen for understanding. Students demonstrate listening for understanding through actions. For example, the “Story Time” lessons provide opportunities for students to listen for understanding by recalling and answering questions for a group read-aloud. In the “Healthy You” lesson, after reading De la cabeza a los pies, the teacher asks students, “Can animals really talk? Can they move like they do in the story?” (Story Time questions are included only in English.) Students name different animals and mimic their actions. The Story Time lessons also include a progression of questioning from explicit to implicit to support listening for understanding. For example, while reading De la cabeza a los pies, the teacher asks, “Where is the gorilla pointing?” “Can you point one hand to your head and one hand to your toes?” “What do you see on the page?” “Think about the title and the illustrations. What do you think this story is about?” and “Why?” This order of questions provides a scaffold for learners to comprehend the story, albeit in English.

The “Flapboard Story Cards” are an additional resource with story scripts on laminated clip-on cards. The Flapboards provide some opportunities for teachers to support and scaffold opportunities to listen for understanding. This resource includes a “Teaching Tip” in the margin to support teachers on how students can demonstrate comprehension as the teacher reads. For example, the Teaching Tip in the Flapboard 1 story reads, “Each time you read the words hacia arriba y hacia abajo, hacia abajo y hacia arriba, have children raise and lower their heads as if they are looking over a wall and under a table.” After reading the story, the teacher discusses the Flapboard by asking comprehension questions, such as “Fíjense en la playa de Triangle Beach. ¿Qué creen que JT quiera investigar allí?” 

The materials provide opportunities for students to hear sounds, appropriate sentence structure, and grammar in a variety of contexts. The story books and Flapboard Story Cards are written using correct Spanish. The materials also provide resources such as Dilly and Friends Read Along CD, vocabulary cards, Demasiada diversion!: Too much fun CD by Jim Rule, El libro grande del alfabeto: Spanish Alphabet Big Book, and different book collections. The lesson scripts in the Teacher Guide are grammatically correct and organized in a bulleted structure but are written in English.

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ speaking skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide opportunities for students to practice producing sounds in English and use appropriate English sentence structure and grammar in contexts, but rarely in Spanish. The “Finny Feathery Furry Friends” Investigation Kit incorporates oral language practice into the learning centers. Students recite rhymes, look at pet photos, and describe what they see and later listen to a CD, identifying various animal sounds. However, no Spanish oral language practice is incorporated. Materials do not provide teacher guidance on corrective feedback of students’ speech production, sentence structure, and grammar for Spanish language production. In the Finny Feathery Furry Friends Investigation Kit, the materials incorporate grammar intervention strategies that include modeling different verb tenses for children (e.g., “instead of saying, ‘He throwed it,’ say, ‘He threw it.’”) However, the materials do not address Spanish language grammar or opportunities for students to speak in Spanish. There also is no guidance that supports a teacher's understanding of the development of language other than a few side notes in the “Literacy” lessons. For example, in one lesson, the materials guide the teacher to “Have children say the word gallinita. Explain that by adding ‘ita’ to the end of the word gallinita, the meaning of the word changes from ‘hen’ to ‘little hen.’” The materials also state “If a child is having difficulty recalling the story events, invite him or her to use the illustrations.” In another Literacy lesson, students talk about their favorite part of a story. However, it is unclear if students will tell the story orally to the teacher, to the whole group, or to a partner. Additional prompts are not provided to support children when speaking. 

Materials provide occasional support and guidance for students to work collaboratively to engage in discussion using conversation norms. In the “Alphabet Knowledge” lessons, students work in whole groups and pairs. First, the teacher uses Dilly the puppet to introduce the letter. The teacher says, “Dilly, Dilly ven a jugar, que nueva letra nos vas a mostrar?” The puppet Dilly reveals the letter in El libro del alfabeto. Dilly “talks” to the children: “Tt is for teléfono and tenedor. Say the words with Dilly.” Students then work in pairs to find the letter Tt. Through this activity, students work cooperatively to find items that begin with the target letter, but there is limited guidance for teachers to support and guide students in authentic discussion.

The “Spanish Investigator Club” provides oral language development materials such as a CD (¡Demasiada diversión!) that provides opportunities for singing and movement. The music and movement CD ¡Demasiada diversión! presents traditional, calendar, and routine songs. These activities do allow students to practice production of a variety of sounds, appropriate sentence structure, and grammar, but the materials do not provide guidance to the teacher on how to set up or deliver activities. This CD is used as the teacher considers necessary. This CD is not part of or an extension of the lessons. 

During investigations, the teacher uses songs to facilitate language development. For example, in the “Healthy You Investigation,” students sing the “Dicen que los changos” song. Students echo sing in two separate groups. The teacher can use this song repeatedly during the course of the investigation and in other investigations.

The materials provide limited guidance on organizing the classroom environment to provide opportunities for children to practice and use oral language for authentic purposes. There is little guidance or suggestion of how to set up collaborative and independent learning areas to support child use of sentence structure and grammar in Spanish. The “Research and Professional Guide” includes four sections: “Let’s Talk,” “Word Play,” “Play Time,” and “Read It Again and Again.” In Read It Again and Again, students learn vocabulary through repetition and opportunities to discuss a story they are already familiar with. The guide also provides information on organizing the classroom environment to provide opportunities to practice and use oral language (in English) for authentic purposes when setting up the physical space. During learning centers, teachers participate in play to model interactions, demonstrate how to resolve conflicts, listen attentively, and act appropriately in a variety of settings. However, the materials do not provide the teacher with scripting in Spanish for these activities or Spanish center labels to support student learning. 

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials support expanding student vocabulary.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include some cognates that may support cross-linguistic connections. Each “Literacy” lesson in the Teacher Guide provides six new words, in English and Spanish, labeled “Vocabulary Words” for students to learn. Examples listed are words such as problem/problema, dentist/dentista, hero/heroe, and vegetables/vegetales. However, the lessons do not provide guidance on when and how the teacher is to introduce, model, and explicitly teach the words or how the teacher should take advantage of making cross-linguistic connections using cognates. In addition, the materials do not prompt the teacher to leverage student’s prior knowledge in each language as an asset during the lessons. 

The materials have a balance of high-frequency, new, and rare vocabulary words. For example, one objective of the “Healthy You” Literacy lesson is to develop awareness of name, location, and relationship of body parts by reading De la cabeza a los pies by Eric Carle. The materials support the lesson objective and build vocabulary development by providing picture cards with the words in both English and Spanish to be used with relevant activities. As an extension, the lesson guides the teacher to “gather photographs of the animals mentioned in the story: penguin, giraffe, buffalo, monkey, seal, gorilla, cat, crocodile, camel, donkey, and elephant” and “have children match the photographs to the illustrations and repeat its animal's name.” Students experience new vocabulary as the teacher reads the book; however, teachers are expected to find the pictures for the extension activity using other resources. 

In the Flapboard 1 “Robby Robot” lesson, the teacher tip provides guidance for developing students’ oral language. After reading the story out loud from the Flapboard, teachers place the “Dilly and Friends Puppets and a toy robot in the Dramatic Play Center, and encourage children to act out.” This extension activity provides an opportunity for students to apply and practice vocabulary through play.

The materials also include some additional lessons for small group instruction to support vocabulary development. For example, in the “Oral Language: Group It” activity, the students use complex and varied oral vocabulary. The children “name the pictures” with the teacher and “sort them into different groups, such as parts of the body, ways to travel, and things in the sky.” The children also “explain their sorts.” Through this activity, students learn new vocabulary. 

Although the materials include structured ways for children to interact with and use new vocabulary words in context through the Literacy lessons and “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards,” there is no evidence to support accessing one language to build vocabulary in the other language embedded within the lessons. The Research and Professional Guide does recommend making connections between Spanish and English words, but the materials provide limited techniques within the lessons for teachers to support children in making those connections. It is also not evident that the materials follow a progression of vocabulary development that is age and sequentially appropriate. An example of a frequently used strategy is the use of cues to help students gain the meaning of words. Again in Flapboard 1, “Me fui a investigar,” the teacher uses voice volume to emphasize certain words. Each time the teacher reads the words “hacia arriba y hacia abajo, hacia arriba y hacia abajo,” the “children raise and lower their heads as if they are looking over a wall and under a table.” This activity incorporates movement and supports children in learning the new vocabulary. 

Evaluation for 4.4
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting students’ biliteracy development.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide some strategies for supporting students in developing Spanish and English language proficiency but lack information for teachers to support the transfer of skills from the primary to the secondary language. The materials are suggested to be “used in conjunction with the [English lessons] to make teaching and learning effective and fun.” Teacher guidance and suggested teacher scripts in the Teacher Guide are in English. Spanish vocabulary words are included to supplement English instructional guidance; however, the materials identify limited opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections through activities that target oral language development and vocabulary. 

The materials have six themes, or “investigations,” to support language development in Spanish. Each investigation includes a concept book and an accompanying lesson guide. It is not clear from the resource whether these themes follow a chronological scope and sequence. The six concept books are printed and read in Spanish, but teacher guidance and the questions teachers ask are provided in the lesson in English. For example, in La Gallinita Roja by Lucinda McQueen, the teacher uses the illustrations to teach vocabulary words and how wheat is grown. Open-ended questions are written in English. For example, the teacher asks, “After they sprout, what must you do to take care of the plants?” Therefore, teachers are left to translate the questions to engage the students in discussion.

In Flapboard 1, the Dilly and Friends Read Along CD is recorded in Spanish and English, which can support both English and Spanish language development. However, there is no evidence of strategies to support the transfer of skills from the primary language to English.

The “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards” within the Investigator’s Club include three stories each to teach science, social studies, and math. The first flapboard, “Let’s Investigate,” leads students in an investigation in the content areas of science, social studies, and math. Students receive vocabulary support through each Flapboard card. For example, in the first flapboard, students are introduced to words such as investigate/investigar and art studio/taller de artista. Although the vocabulary is available in both English and Spanish, the target language of instruction is Spanish. There is no additional guidance on how teachers can use these resources to develop English proficiency or take the opportunity to discuss cognates (when applicable) with the students.

The Research and Professional Guide does include some suggestions for developing English proficiency, such as making connections between English and Spanish words, providing visual and auditory clues to reinforce language, and encouraging social interaction to bolster language acquisition. Although the materials support English language proficiency, there are no explicit strategies embedded within the Spanish lessons to support students in making connections between languages or prompting the teacher to leverage students’ prior knowledge in each language as an asset.

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials provide opportunities for students to develop oral language skills, including through authentic text conversations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Materials provide some opportunities for students to listen actively, ask questions, and engage in discussion to understand information in texts in most of the resources provided. For example, the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide includes an overview of how to use the set of six “Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers,” each of which aligns with an Investigator Club activity. The materials suggest that the teacher gather the children in a small group for lessons, introduce the theme, and ask questions that guide children to share what they know. However, the materials do not offer specific guiding questions in Spanish. The materials refer teachers to the English Instructional Materials Teacher Guide for explicit lessons for each nonfiction reader, so students are to read a text in Spanish but listen and respond to questions about the text in English. 

The lessons include questions to support active listening; however, there is inconsistent guidance that promotes opportunities to follow up with engaging in discussion. For example, the “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards” provide review questions at the end of each card. In “Flapboard 1: Me fui a investigar,” the teacher reads the story, reviews the events after the read-aloud, and guides the students to answer questions. The teacher says, “Fijense en la playa de Triangle Beach. ¿Qué creen que JT quiera investigar allí?” The materials offer possible student responses, such as “caracolas” (shells), “agua” (water), “botes” (boats), and “el taller de arte de Great Auntie Lu” (Auntie Lu’s art shop). 

The materials include few supports that encourage children to engage in open-ended discussions related to information in texts. For example, the “Spanish Read-Aloud Collection” “Literacy” lessons guide teachers to read a collection of six concept books. Few questions in the lessons are open-ended. A majority of the questions are about illustrations in the book, events of the story, or students’ favorite part of the story. While open-ended questions are limited, the materials do include opportunities for children to share information and ideas about texts. For example, in the “Make Connections” section of the Literacy lesson La gallinita roja, the teacher looks back at the last page of the book and asks questions such as “How do you think the dog, goose, and cat feel? Why?” and “If you were the little red hen, would you have shared the bread with them? Why or why not?” All six Literacy lessons provide the teacher a script with questions written in English to engage the students in discussion about the story read aloud as well as key vocabulary in Spanish.

The “Dilly and Friends Lapbooks” and “Little Books” sections of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide provide general tips for reading the lapbooks, such as how to introduce the theme and book, how to deliver the read-aloud, and how to make connections. The tips encourage the teacher to “ask questions that encourage predictions” and “encourage children to tell what they would do.” However, there are no sample questions for teachers that could be used to engage students in discussion or encourage authentic student conversations. The materials refer teachers to the English Instructional Materials for the detailed lessons. 

The materials provide limited opportunities for children to build oral language through authentic discussions related to texts read aloud. In the “Set the Stage,” “Get Started,” “Read the Story,” and “Make Connections” components of each read-aloud, the teacher connects the lesson to a theme, introduces the book, and emphasizes print awareness skills while reading the book. Children talk about the illustrations during the read-aloud and answer questions (these questions are currently available in English, so for use with students whose primary language is Spanish, they would need to be translated). The guidance does not include teacher support on how to extend the discussion to engage students in authentic discussions related to the text. Additionally, the resources do not include multiple reads of the same book to develop language.

The materials do not provide support, guidance, and opportunities for students to work collaboratively to engage in discussion. The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide provides scarce suggestions of lessons for center or small group activities. Those that are provided do not provide guidance in Spanish for students to work collaboratively to engage in discussion. Teachers have access to materials written in English for ideas. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students actively listen to a re-read of Dilly and Friends: Superhero to the Rescue. This text and the teacher script with which students respond to questioning to engage in discussions are provided in English, so students whose primary language is Spanish could not work collaboratively to engage in discussion without the teacher translating the text and line of questioning to elicit student responses and discussion.

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in phonological awareness skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide instruction in phonological awareness skills, and there is teacher guidance to follow a possible order.. The suggested order begins with identifying words, counting syllables, identifying words with like syllables, and then moves to more complex skills such as blending and substituting phonemes. While the materials include a variety of types of activities that engage students in identifying, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds/syllables and provide a continuum, they do not provide a specific timeline for the year to guide teachers on when and how to introduce each skill or cite research that supports the continuum provided for Spanish. The Spanish Instructional Materials Guide also states, “Studies show that as Spanish-speaking children are exposed to early instruction in the alphabetic code, they seem to develop sensitivity first to syllables, then to onset and rime, and last to individual phonemes. With sound/phoneme isolation, research shows that children are more successful with continuous sounds, such as /m/, /s/, /f/ than with stop sounds, such as /b/, /k/, /d/. Although this provides teachers with information specific to Spanish learners, a source is not referenced. 

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher’s Guide includes a chart that shows where the phonological awareness lessons can be located in the Teacher Guides written in English and notes, “phonological awareness lessons in The InvestiGator Club Prekindergarten Learning System can be adapted for Spanish speakers.” The activities in the English investigation teacher manuals provide students opportunities to develop various phonological awareness skills and Spanish examples are provided. For example, in a blending syllables lesson the teacher models how to use a picture cut in two halves to put two syllables together to make a word. The children then practice blending word parts individually or with a partner. The Spanish examples provided are:  gato (cat), casa (house), ocho (eight), clave (key). Although Spanish examples are provided for Spanish teachers, not all phonological awareness activities in the materials provide spanish examples.  

The materials take into consideration some of the specific characteristics of Spanish phonics and their implications when teaching phonological awareness. For example for sound substitution the materials state, “Since Spanish is a syllabic language, you should use initial and final syllables in words rather than individual phonemes when having children isolate and identify initial or final phonemes in words or when doing sound substitution. For example, you might change the initial syllable ma in madre to pa for padre or change the final syllable ño in niño to ña for niña.” However, the Spanish Teacher’s Guide does not contain specific lessons on the specific characteristics of Spanish and how to explicitly help children make the connection of phonological awareness skills to phonics.  Instead there is guidance such as “Study the picture books and early readers that you will present to children. Present letters according to frequency of use and letter-sound correspondences that can be combined to make words children will understand and read.”

The materials provide some support to review phonological awareness skills throughout the school year and do not include activities that engage children in learning that becomes more complex as their knowledge increases in Spanish. The “Spanish Phonological Awareness” section is only four pages of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide. Half of those pages refer teachers to the English Instructional Materials Teacher Guide phonological awareness lessons. The materials state: “Many phonological awareness lessons in The InvestiGator Club Prekindergarten Learning System can be adapted for Spanish speakers. The following charts list phonological awareness lessons by skill, referencing where they can be found in the program.” The chart lists examples to use in Spanish phonological awareness lessons that correspond to some of the English lessons. For example, in the Finny, Feathery, Furry Friends investigation unit the students match words with the same initial sound. The materials provide the words casa/cabaña; perro/pez; gusano/ caracol;  and lobo/león to use in Spanish. In another activity the students clap and count syllables in words. The materials provide the words martillo, tenaza, and taladro to use in Spanish. Although the materials provide some examples for Spanish, the materials do not include Spanish examples for all the phonological awareness activities in each of the investigation English teacher guides.There is also no clear scope and sequence for teaching phonological awareness skills throughout the school year in Spanish. It is recommended that the Spanish Instructional Materials Guide include the order of the investigations with a list of phonological awareness skills targeted in each investigation specific to the Spanish language. 

The materials do not include frequent opportunities that allow for student practice of phonological awareness skills connected to alphabetic knowledge skills. A few of the “Alphabet Knowledge” activities provide opportunities for children to listen for beginning sounds and match the corresponding letter. For example, the “Match It” activity requires students to say the words for pictures on vocabulary cards and find the matching letter for the beginning sound. In another activity, the children use El libro grande del alfabeto to play a game. The students take turns tossing a button on one page, name the picture on that page, and name the letter for the beginning sound. Although these activities are included, there are very few opportunities for children to connect phonological awareness skills to alphabet knowledge in Spanish.

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in alphabetic knowledge skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials suggest a sequence for introduction of Spanish alphabetic knowledge. However, there is no mention of a research base to support a specific letter sequence for Spanish. For example, the “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge” section in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide states: “There is not one established order of introduction for letter-sound correspondences for Spanish, so it varies across beginning reading programs.” The materials do provide a suggested order of instruction in the “Determining Alphabetic Order for Spanish Instruction” section that reads: “Present vowels first or nearly first: a, e, i, o, u. Early in the year, present letters that compose common syllables. Common syllables in Spanish include la, ca, sa, and ma, because these syllables can be combined to make words like casa (house), lata (can), and mamá (mother).” It later states: “Study the picture books and early readers that you will present to children. Present letters according to frequency of use and letter-sound correspondences that can be combined to make words children will understand and can read.” The information stated does not provide a clear scope and sequence of how to go about introducing the Spanish alphabet. In addition to the previous information, there is a table on the same page that provides a “possible order for teaching the Spanish alphabet: a, t, e, i, m, s, l, o, u, q, ….” This information supports the information that states to “present vowels first or nearly first,” as mentioned above. However, the suggested order does not follow a standard order of instruction for learning Spanish letter-sound correspondences.

There is some evidence that the materials ensure exposure and interaction with multiple letters within a unit to support students’ development of alphabet knowledge in Spanish. The Spanish Instructional Materials Guide provides activities that can be used to develop alphabet knowledge. The teacher guide also references El libro grande del alfabeto that is used to present a letter, its sound, and corresponding words. There are more explicit lessons and teacher guidance for alphabetic knowledge acquisition in English; in a callout box of the Spanish Teacher’s Guide, the materials state, “For explicit letter lessons in English, see pages 61, 81, 101, and 121 in each InvestiGator Club Teacher Guide.” However, there is no mention of teaching a specific number or set of letters per week that are incorporated during read-alouds, shared writing, and learning centers. Specifically, materials give limited activities for Spanish letter introduction, following the order(s) listed above. The materials do offer some guidance for some information to support instruction. The materials provide information such as “early in the year, present letters that compose common syllables. Common syllables in Spanish include la, ca, sa, and ma because these syllables can be combined to make words like casa (house), lata (can), and mamá (mother) and “the consonant blends sc, sp, and st do not appear at the beginning of Spanish words. Unlike English with the blending of the two consonant sounds, Spanish breaks up the /sk/, /sp/, /st/ clusters with an e in the initial position forming a new syllable. For example, school (escuela), specific (específico), and student (estudiante).” 

There is no evidence that materials provide modeling of alphabetic knowledge learning in Spanish. The materials provide several activities to build letter knowledge and suggest using materials such as El libro grande del alfabeto, magnetic letters, Spanish magnetic foam letters, and vocabulary cards to build letter knowledge. However, the materials provide insufficient direct instruction for each newly acquired letter and sound. Alphabet instruction is guided by El libro grande del alfabeto, but teachers are referred to the “English Instructional Materials Teacher Guides” for explicit lessons. For example, the Spanish materials state: “Following is a sample lesson that combines the use of El libro grande del alfabeto with a typical Teacher Guide Lesson. The lesson is an adaptation of the lesson on page 61 of the Watch It Grow Teacher Guide.” A summary of the adapted lesson is provided. The materials provide limited guidance for this adapted lesson; for instance, for the letter Tt: “Have Dilly talk to the children in Spanish: Tt is for teléfono and tenedor. Say the words with Dilly. Have children repeat." The remainder of the lesson continues with English and Spanish intermixed with no teacher dialogue provided in Spanish.

The materials provide activities that build off the letters in familiar words, such as the child’s first name, to support learning letter names and sounds. For example, the “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge” section provides only one activity for using names to support alphabet knowledge (“Reading Center: Making Names”). The teacher places the “Spanish Magnetic Foam Letters” in the “Writing Center” along with children’s name cards and a cookie sheet. Children use the name cards as models to form their names and use the letters on the cookie sheet. On page 31 of every Teacher Guide, the Attendance Poster, ¿Quién está aquí? has children add their name to the poster during Daily Routines. In the Watch It Grow Teacher’s Guide, the teacher adds children's names on leaf or flower cutouts in different colors. Each unit is different. Children add their name to the poster and do various activities with their names including matching finding and matching letters of classmates' names. Alphabet Knowledge lessons throughout each Teacher Guide include activities using children's names. On page 61 of Weather Watchers, Raindrop Letters is used as follows: "In advance, write each child's name on individual raindrop cutouts. Randomly arrange one child's name on a sheet of drawing paper that has storm clouds drawn at the top. Work with children to arrange the name in order, naming and talking about letters as you go. Repeat with other names.”

Evaluation for 5.4
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction in print knowledge and concepts and opportunities for student practice.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide insufficient direct instruction in print awareness and opportunities to connect print awareness to books and texts. For example, the “Dilly and Friends Lapbooks” and “Little Books” sections of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide include tips for reading. The teacher introduces the book by reading the title, talks about the cover illustration, and conducts a picture walk. The “Read the Story” teaching tip emphasizes print awareness skills by guiding teachers to “track print from left to right and top to bottom,” “think aloud” by telling children what they are doing, “direct attention to illustrations,” “allow plenty of time for children to view,” “encourage comments and predictions,” “point out important details,” “use suggested vocabulary words to talk about events,” and “ask questions that encourage children to tell what they would do.” However, the materials lack guidance in Spanish for direct instruction and robust teacher modeling within the lessons. The materials refer the teacher to the Teacher Guides written in English for explicit lessons. The materials state: “Each InvestiGator Club character stars in his or her own 16-page Dilly and Friends Lapbook that introduces a character and focuses on an important social skill. The Lapbooks and their ‘Introduce a character’ lessons are featured on the following pages in the Let’s Investigate! (English) Teacher Guide: 54–55, 80–81, 102–103, 124–125, 146–147, 168–169, 190–191, and 212–213. The Lapbooks and their skill lessons are found on the following pages of the six additional Teacher Guides: 106–107, 109.” 

The materials do not provide opportunities for students to develop an understanding of the everyday functions of print in context to the students’ experience at school. The materials do include recommendations for setting up a print-rich environment. For example, in the Research and Professional Guide, the “Print Rich Environment” section suggests including “books and magazines that children can handle and use,” using “labels, posters, and signs with print,” “showcasing examples of children's print,” and displaying “teacher-created instructional and functional print.” The materials also offer eight “Spanish Daily Routine Posters,” such as “El estado del tiempo” and “La palabra de la semana,” that can be displayed in the classroom. The teacher adds to the Spanish Daily Routine Posters to provide information about the school day. The Daily Routines at the beginning of each Teacher Guide provides several pages of activities specifically for students to develop an understanding of the everyday functions of print in context to the students' experiences at school. For example, in the Weather Watchers Investigation Kit the teacher uses the “Palabra de la semana” poster to teach and add the words sol, lluvia, nieve, and ventoso to the poster. The teacher uses the daily attendance chart to support students in identifying their names. Children also identify letters in their classmates’ names. Although these resources are included, the materials still provide limited suggestions and explicit opportunities for children to observe, engage with, and experience authentic print in Spanish within the school day.

The materials include a research-based, strategic sequence for teaching foundational print awareness skills in the “Literacy Framework,” where materials reference at the beginning of the year, teachers are prompted to ask questions about how to track text (left to right, top to bottom). The “Research and Professional Guide” explains that “children who know about print understand that the words they see and the words they speak and hear are related.” Materials further explain, “With exposure and guidance, [students] learn that print is all around and is used for different purposes.” The guide includes recommendations for setting up a print-rich environment, which includes suggestions for teachers to incorporate print-rich activities in learning centers by putting books and magazines in each center; label materials; display posters and signs with print; have a display area showcasing examples of students’ print; have teacher-created instructional and functional print; use different materials such as magnetic letters; and provide a variety of writing materials (paper, pencils, markers, crayons, letter stamps, and stickers). The materials include print materials to display, such as El libro grande del alfabeto big book, 8 carteles para rutinas diarias, vocabulary cards,nonfiction readers, and trade books.   For example, the first “Story Time” lesson, Los tres cerditos, mentions foundational skills only briefly. The “Get Started” portion of the lesson reads, “Display the front cover of Los tres cerditos. Read aloud the title and illustrator’s name as you point to each word. Ask: What do you see on the cover? How were these pigs different from pigs you would see on a farm?”  Overall, there is minimal evidence in the program of explicit instruction for teachers to discuss the roles of the illustrator and author of the book and lacks explicit instruction on concepts about print. 

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide includes a section for “Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers” for small group reading instruction. In the “Get Started” section, the materials guide the teacher to “show the cover” of the book and “review a print awareness skill or high-frequency word.” The children “read the title together and talk about the photograph” on the cover. The “Read the Story” section in the materials then guides the teacher to “track print, point out words, and have children echo read” as the story is read. Even though this guidance is provided in the teacher guide, there is no evidence that these methods are embedded into lessons within the Spanish instructional materials. The teacher is directed to use the English Investigation Teacher Guide for explicit lessons. The materials state: “Follow the explicit lesson in the Teacher Guide to introduce and read the story together (pages 122–123).”

Evaluation for 5.5
Materials include a variety of text types and genres across contents that are high-quality and at an appropriate level of complexity.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The selection of texts included is at the appropriate level of complexity for children’s developmental level. The literature is directly connected with the concepts being delivered, the vocabulary in each of the selections is appropriate for prekindergarten students, the illustrations are colorful, and they support students’ comprehension. For example, the “Dilly and Friends Little Books” are child-sized versions of each of the seven “Dilly and Friends Lapbooks” to aid students’ manipulation of the books. The “Spanish Read-Aloud Collection” consists of six Spanish literature selections to reflect each investigation topic to support student understanding. These titles are early childhood favorites and popular current titles. The collection includes De la cabeza a los pies, La gallinita roja, and Un día de nieve, to name a few. However, classic children’s literature is limited to these six books. The remaining literature or stories are specific to the instructional materials and are character-based on the cartoon mascots of the resource rather than common early childhood favorites and popular current titles. 

The materials contain multiple genres of text, including both fiction and nonfiction texts. Fictional texts include the Dilly and Friends Lapbooks, Spanish Read-Aloud Collection, and “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards.” The materials also include the “Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers,” which consist of six non-fiction titles.

The materials include opportunities for students to interact with text. For example, The Spanish Flapboard Story Cards are delivered in a large group setting, and the materials provide a “teaching tip.” This tip often contains ways to engage students. In Flapboard 4, “JT Dice,” the teaching tip reads: “After the first reading, children might enjoy acting out the story, pretending that a different section of the classroom is each character’s home.” In another Flapboard story, “Numeros tocados,” the teaching tip reads: “Have children sit at tables while you read the story so they have a hard surface on which to knock.” Other tips can be found in the “Literacy” lessons. The “Management” tip for the story ¡Salta, ranita, salta! reads: “If possible, photograph children as they pretend to be an animal in the story for their classmates to guess. Display the photos on the bulletin board, or make a class book. Have children help write sentences, such as Juan salta como una ranita/John jumps like a little frog and Marta se desliza como una serpiente/Marta slithers like a snake.” 

The materials include few books that are highly predictable with a controlled vocabulary and repeated sentences or phrases to support children in telling the story while looking at the book, allowing them to practice reading behaviors. Most of these books come from the Spanish Read-Aloud Collection, such as La gallinita roja, Los tres cerditos, and De pies a la cabeza. 

The materials also include “Multicultural Folktales” that represent diverse storytelling classics from around the world. However, none of the folktales reflect the cultural background of Spanish-speaking students, and teachers are referred to the Teacher Guide written in English for explicit lessons for the folktales.

The materials include a limited variety of types of texts, such as poems, songs, and nursery rhymes. The “¡Demasiada diversión! CD” is a Spanish music and movement resource that includes a collection of songs and activities for classroom use. There are eleven traditional songs in both English and Spanish. Songs consist of greetings, days of the week, names of the months, counting to 10, school rules, rainy weather, birthdays, countries, and more. While these materials support learning through song, the other types of texts available in English are lacking for students reading in Spanish. Students participating in the Spanish program lack exposure to traditional poems or nursery rhymes. 

The materials offer limited and insufficient recommendations on the use of purposeful environmental print throughout the classroom to support development of print awareness. The “Spanish Daily Routine Posters” are used for daily routines in the classroom. The suggested routine lessons are included in the Teacher Guide written in English.

Evaluation for 5.6
Materials use a variety of approaches to develop students’ comprehension of text read aloud.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The Spanish materials include some guidance for the teacher to support children in making personal connections to texts. The “Literacy” lessons do provide some personal connection questions. For example, in the Literacy lesson De la cabeza a los pies, the teacher asks (written in English), “What animals have you seen before? Where? How did they move?” Additionally, in the Literacy lesson ¡Salta ranita, salta!, the teacher asks the students, “Have you ever tried to catch a frog, turtle, or any other wild animal like the boys in the story? How? What happened?” In the La gallinita roja Literacy lesson, the teacher asks, “How do you think the dog, goose, and cat feel? Why? If you were the Little Red Hen, would you have shared the bread with them? Why or why not?” These open-ended questions support children in drawing parallels with the story. However, most of the questions simply guide children to retell the story or recall their favorite part versus asking them to make a personal connection to the text, and questions are provided to teachers in English, which would need to be translated for use in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. For example, in the Los tres cerditos lesson, the teacher asks, “Which of the pigs built a strong, safe house?” There are also no activities offered for learning centers or small group extensions that support continued engagement with texts or read-alouds. 

The materials include insufficient guidance for teachers to help children identify and use basic text structures to develop comprehension of the text read aloud. Some visual representations for retelling are suggested. For example, in the De la cabeza a los pies Literacy lesson, the teacher gathers photographs of the animals mentioned in the story. Children match the photographs to the illustrations and repeat each animal’s name after the teacher. In the Soy el agua Literacy lesson, the teacher makes a web and adds the word “agua” as they read about the use of water. However, there is scarce teacher guidance to use basic text structure supports to recall what was learned. 

The materials provide examples of alternative questions to support student comprehension and how to move from simple to more complex questions; however, these questions are written in English. In the Soy el agua Literacy lesson, the “Get Started” section guides the teacher to begin with basic questions about the cover and illustrations. The teacher asks, “What do you see on the cover? (a boy in a raincoat),” then moves to, “Do you think it is important to take care of the water by keeping it safe and clean? Explain.” In the “Read the Story” section of the lesson, the teacher uses a prompt and a leading question to support the next question. The teacher asks, “Look at the girl sipping her drink through a straw. What else is in her glass besides a drink? (ice cubes).” The teacher then asks, “What do you think will happen to the ice cubes in the glass?” Finally, in the “Make Connections” section, the teacher reviews all the uses of water and asks, “What other ways can you think of to use water? What is your favorite way to use water?”

Evaluation for 5.7
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting English Learners (ELs) in their development of emergent reading skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide few opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections. The reading and language instructions in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide are focused primarily on English language speakers. The materials do contain “ELL” call-out boxes that provide teachers with strategies for supporting the language of instruction; however, the strategies do not necessarily target cross-linguistic connections. For example, for the De la cabeza a los pies “Literacy” lesson, the ELL callout box reads: “When asking children to name body parts, give them a choice. For example, ask: Is this your hand or your foot? instead of What is the name of this body part?” Although this strategy is for students whether they are learning Spanish or English as a second language, it does not guide the teacher to support the students in making cross-linguistic connections to support the development of emergent reading skills in English. In addition, the materials include “Oral Language Cards,” which provide vocabulary in English and Spanish; however, the materials do not encourage teachers to point out cognates to support listening comprehension. 

The materials provide some guidance to leverage the students’ knowledge of literacy in each language as an asset. The materials include the following statement: “Research has shown that for English language learners, phonological awareness in the native language can predict successful literacy acquisition in both their native language and in English. Therefore, teaching phonological awareness in Spanish often makes sense for our youngest Spanish-speaking children.” However, the guidance does not extend to emphasize additional similarities in language that could leverage students’ knowledge or translanguaging activities to promote such leverage. The materials also include the following statement: “There are universal concepts and skills that transfer across English and Spanish. Alphabetic and orthographic awareness is universal. Just as English learners, Spanish learners are taught that marks on a page are symbols that represent sounds; letters have names and sounds; letters combine to form words, phrases, and sentences; and print carries meaning.” Once again, while it mentions transferable skills and concepts, guidance does not provide specific examples or strategies for teachers within lessons or activities. 

The materials do provide teachers with overall guidance on how to support children to develop their emergent reading skills. In the Pre-Kindergarten Years for Emergent Bilinguals paper by Dr. Sandra Mercuri states to use bilingual vocabulary cards with visuals to support comprehension. The paper also suggests that teachers use El abecedario de Dilly and Dilly’s Alphabet Show  to make connections between phonological awareness and letter knowledge skills in both languages. In addition, the paper suggests using cognates to support students in making cross-linguistic connections.  

Evaluation for 6.1
Materials include a variety of experiences through which students can engage with writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials support students’ development of pre-writing skills, including fine motor skills, as indicated in the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines and include opportunities for students to write in response to reading; however, many of the materials (texts, student-facing materials, and teacher scripts) associated with these activities are only available to students written in English. Materials include direct (explicit) instruction, as well as opportunities for children to imitate adult writing. For example, the “Watch It Grow” Investigation Kit provides an opportunity for students to imitate adult writing in a large group setting. The teacher asks students to write a story about a truck moving crops from the farm. The students come up with the first sentence, and the teacher writes it down. Then, students share the pen to add pictures and letters or words to the story. However, the teacher script for the lesson is written in English, so the teacher would need to translate questions to ask students as well as translate writing samples. Materials include opportunities for modeled writing but with no associated teacher script or writing examples in Spanish. Materials include opportunities for students to generate independent writing and opportunities for group writing on shared experiences, but the teacher script is written in English, and examples of student-facing materials are in English. For example, in the “Weather Watchers” Investigation Kit, in the lesson “An Ocean of Emotions,” the teacher reads the story The Silly Dance (written in English), reminding children of the feelings expressed in the story. The teacher asks, “What other feelings or emotions can you name?” and records the students’ responses on chart paper in a shared writing experience. As an extension, students create a new ending to the story. The teacher rereads the story, and students describe how the two friends helped each other. The teacher says, “Think about someone who is your friend and let’s draw and write them a letter.” The teacher script and instructional resources for this lesson are not available in Spanish, so the teacher would need to translate all before instruction could begin with students whose primary language is Spanish in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. Then, students would be able to engage in an opportunity to group write on shared experiences. Materials include opportunities for illustration/drawing with detail, which transfers to writing, but the activities associated with the activities are only available in English. For example, in the "Splash and Dig" Investigation Kit, after reading One-Dog Canoe, students select one animal they would like to take on a canoe. They draw and write about the animal they selected. While students can draw and write about a selected animal regardless of their primary language, the text is only available in English, and teacher questions are only provided in English, so teachers would need to translate the text and questions for full implementation in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Evaluation for 6.2
Materials instruct students along the developmental stages of writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials instruct students along the developmental stages of writing but follow the developmental continuum of how children learn to write in English. For example, in the “Let's Investigate” Investigation Kit, students participate in shared writing lessons where the teacher models how to make a list of things they want to learn about. Students list favorite things, brainstorm and write down story ideas about animals, type a class letter, and write about their strengths. Although this lesson is available in English, the teacher can apply the learning in Spanish but would need to translate the script written in English to support teacher modeling. Materials provide guidance for teachers on how to nudge students along the continuum for writing development. Materials include guidance for teachers on how to include appropriate student contributions to writing and the writing process, as specified by the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, but these are mostly available in English, and some cannot be translated and remain applicable to the learning objective in Spanish. For example, in "Weather Watchers" Investigation Kit during a Closing Circle shared writing lesson, “Write a Weather Poem,” the teacher writes the title, “Weather Watchers,” and points out that Weather and Watchers begin with capital W. Then the teacher asks, “Who would like to write a W?” Multiple children help write all the letters in the title. The teacher reminds children how letters are grouped to form words and how words are separated by spaces. The teacher then asks, “Who can find a W? Let’s make a W in the air.” The teacher helps children copy the words from the list, trace over letters, or write any letters they know. To differentiate the lesson, if a child has difficulty writing, the teacher invites the child to describe how to form a letter while the teacher writes it. Teachers can follow up the lesson by using “Assessment Card 27” and implementing intervention strategies. However, this lesson would need to be significantly adjusted and could not be simply translated into Spanish since the word for “weather” in Spanish begins with a Tt (tiempo). 

Evaluation for 6.3
Materials support fine motor development alongside and through writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

The English evidence in the report above can be replicated in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom at the level of quality demanded by the indicator: Materials support fine motor development alongside and through writing by providing a variety of opportunities for children to develop their fine motor skills with a variety of tools and surfaces. Materials provide differentiation and guidance in these activities written in English, but this guidance tells teachers what to do to assist students versus providing scripts in English that would need to be translated for use with students.

Evaluation for 7.1
Materials follow a logical mathematical continuum of concrete, pictorial, then abstract representations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials follow a logical mathematical continuum of concrete, pictorial, then abstract representations with most provided instruction written in English in all mathematical competencies that progresses from concrete to pictorial to abstract, with the greatest emphasis on using concrete manipulatives. For example, in the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit, the teacher leads a small group math activity in which students match concrete objects such as pairs of gloves, mittens, socks, and shoes. The teacher shows students how to match objects by attribute, but all teacher scripts are in English only. Materials include a variety of types of concrete manipulatives and pictorial representations. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students use construction paper shapes to explore geometry. Students compare and identify shapes as the teacher reads The Shape of Things. The materials provide teacher scripts in English, for instance, “What do we call this shape?” and “Do you have a square? If you do, hold it up for everyone to see.” The teacher then asks the students what they notice about color, size, and order of the shapes. Next, the teacher re-reads the story The Shape of Things, and students look for patterns in the art; however, this book is not available in Spanish. The teacher will need to translate the scripts and find alternative Spanish books to meet student language needs. Materials include activities that build conceptual understanding in: counting, adding to, taking away, geometry, spatial sense, measurement, classification, and pattern skills, as indicated by the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. For example, in “Splash and Dig” Investigation Kit, the teacher reads the book One-Dog Canoe (only available in English) while students use numbers and counting to solve problems. Throughout the book, more animals join the canoe. Students stop to count the animals in the picture that have joined the canoe. At the end, the students act out the book and explore concepts of measurement to see if all those animals could actually fit in a canoe. However, the teacher scripts, vocabulary, and books are not available in Spanish.

Evaluation for 7.2
Materials promote instruction that builds on students’ informal knowledge about mathematics.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials promote instruction that builds on students’ informal knowledge about mathematics through teacher inquiry provided in English on students’ developmental status and mathematical knowledge. For example, the “Investigate Math Activity Guide” provides substantial games to encourage the development of math. The kit includes practice with patterning and sorting, ordering and seriating, beginning number concepts, problem solving, measuring and estimating, and visual-spatial awareness. However, this is not available written in Spanish; for this reason, teachers would have to individually evaluate each lesson’s content as ready or not ready for Spanish instruction and determine which materials will need to be re-created in Spanish or alternative resources to be found. Materials include cross-curricular opportunities to authentically integrate mathematics throughout the day; however, many of these resources are written in English and are not available for instruction or practice with Spanish-speaking students without translation. For example, in the “Splash and Dig” Investigation Kit, during center time, students learn an English rhyme and build sailboats out of pattern blocks. The lesson is written primarily around an English rhyme about shapes and does not include resources or an alternate lesson written in Spanish. Because of the emphasis on rhyme in this cross-curricular connection, a translation may not encapsulate the learning objectives covered in this activity. Materials support the use of the classroom environment and materials as vehicles to explore math concepts and skills, but these materials are not readily available for students or do not provide teacher scripting/questions in Spanish. For example, in the “Watch it Grow” Investigation Kit, in the “Dramatic Play” area, the guidance suggests setting up a produce stand with plastic fruit and vegetables. As children act out the role of clerk and consumer, they can pretend using money and a scale to weigh the produce. This activity builds off of students’ developing knowledge of mathematical concepts, and students with any primary language can participate in the role-playing. However, the “Dramatic Play Center Cards” for this investigation kit are not provided in Spanish, and the teacher script for setting up the activity and explaining it to students is written in English, so the teacher would need to translate, type, and print the materials to recreate the cards.

Evaluation for 7.3
Materials intentionally develop young children’s ability to problem solve.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials intentionally develop young children’s ability to problem solve, to ask thoughtful questions, and recognize problems in their environment with content written in English that may not be easily applicable or implementable to students whose primary language is Spanish in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. For the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students participate in an “Investigation Station” where they plan and build a structure based on their learning from the kit. At the end of the project, the materials provide teacher questioning in English: “What should workers do to build a good structure?” The teacher is guided to prompt students about using materials that are the right size, shape, and weight. To implement this lesson with students whose primary language is Spanish, teachers would need to translate the scripts provided in English. Materials develop children’s capacity to use mathematical reasoning with familiar materials in the classroom and world outside the classroom. For example, in the “Splash and Dig” Investigation kit, the teacher reads back student responses recorded earlier and guides children to draw real-world conclusions from their data. At the end of the project, the teacher asks, “Think about boats that carry heavy cargo or a lot of people. What should ship builders do to make sure a boat or ship is safe?” While data does not necessarily require a specific language, the teacher would need to translate the questions to fully implement the lesson with students whose primary language is Spanish. 

Evaluation for 7.4
Materials build students’ number sense.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials build students’ number sense, providing opportunities for students to participate in Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines-aligned activities as well as guidance for teachers on building conceptual understanding in math, specifically subitizing, counting one-to-one, comparing set size and numbers, counting on, and finding one more than a number. For example, in the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit, the teacher uses a puppet along with a Spanish Flapboard story to demonstrate counting to 10. However, some student-facing materials and teacher guidance on number sense activities cannot be immediately implemented in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom because they are written in English and require translation; some cannot be translated and maintain the learning objective. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, students act out mathematical concepts while listening and singing to “Dilly Builds with One Hammer.” As they sing this song (in English), students “pound” one fist into their lap to represent the one hammer in the song. As the number increases, students are asked how they can represent that number of hammers. Eventually, students use their hands, feet, and head to show five hammers pounding. However, this activity requires significant modification to build students’ number sense in the Spanish language, given that knowledge acquisition depends on a song with a particular rhyming structure that may not translate to Spanish and provide the same learning as the activity does in English.

Evaluation for 7.5
Materials develop students’ academic math vocabulary.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials somewhat develop students’ academic math vocabulary and provide opportunities to hear the vocabulary in Spanish. The materials recommend that teachers utilize the daily routine posters to use and model math vocabulary in daily interactions and routines. Daily routine posters are written in Spanish, accompanied by guidance in the Spanish Instructional Materials Guide. Additionally, the materials include texts that are math-related and age-appropriate and provide guidance on how to introduce vocabulary to make connections to math throughout the day; however, some of the read-aloud books are written in English, and associated teacher guidance (including teacher scripting of questions to be utilized with students) is written in English. For example, the “Teacher’s Activity Guide” provides “Quick Minutes” that teachers can use to integrate numbers throughout the day. The guidance suggests counting out snacks, plates, utensils, and drinks at snack time. As mentioned, the teacher script and many poems/songs are only included in English; the materials do provide math-specific vocabulary in Spanish. In the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, the teacher reads the book The Shape of Things, and children manipulate cut-out shapes. As previously stated, math vocabulary (e.g., circle, oval, square, diamond, rectangle, and triangle) are all provided in English and Spanish for teachers. However, the teacher script and The Shape of Things book are offered in English. In this Investigation Kit, and in others, the materials provide guidance for teachers on how to scaffold and support students’ development and use of academic math vocabulary. Some Investigation Kits provide direction on how to scaffold for students while others provide specific lines of questioning; the lines of questioning would need to be translated to scaffold for students whose primary language is Spanish, but general teacher guidance gives teachers information on how to scaffold and support students’ development and use of academic math vocabulary.

Evaluation for 8.1
Materials build science knowledge through inquiry-based instruction and exploration of the natural world.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. 

Materials build science knowledge through inquiry-based instruction and exploration of the natural world and develop children’s observation and questioning of their environment. For example, in the “Weather Watchers” Investigation Kit, students participate in an activity called “Electricity,” where the teacher explains why electricity might go out during a storm. Before allowing students to experience electricity going out, the teacher asks students what tools they may need if the lights go out; the materials provide this line of questioning for students in English, but students’ exploration of the electricity going out with a flashlight and their inquiry about potential tools does help develop children’s observation and questioning of their environment. Similarly, children can communicate their ideas in their primary language, but the teacher guidance and questioning that promotes or supports them doing so are provided in English and would need to be translated to Spanish for use with a student whose primary language is Spanish. Students explore different types of science utilizing scientific tools through hands-on experiences. In the “Splash and Dig” Investigation Kit, students read Pasteles de Fango, and the teacher asks, “What can dirt be made of?” Students have different containers of materials (e.g., soil, clay, twigs, etc.) and put the materials into a container with water. The teacher asks, “What does the mixture look like now? How will it look after we shake it?” Students make observations. The anchor text provides students with some background knowledge in their native language, but teacher direction and questioning would need to be translated for students in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom to build science knowledge in Spanish.

Evaluation for 8.2
Materials build social studies knowledge through study of culture and community.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

The “STEAM and Literacy Guide” showcases how the materials follow a logical sequence of social studies, beginning with self and moving to family, community, city, state, and country. The materials direct teachers to display several state and country flags that children may recognize as belonging to their state and country, but teacher guidance and scripting to support students in making these connections are written in English. In the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit’s Social Studies centers, students learn about community roles by playing “Who Uses What?” The teacher sets out three baskets, one labeled “Painter’s Things,” one labeled “Carpenter’s Things,” and one filled with several job-related items for both a painter and a carpenter. If teachers translate “Painter’s Things” and “Carpenter’s Things” as well as associated scripting for directions and student questioning, this activity would support Spanish-speaking students in learning about community roles. The “Finny Feathery Friends” Investigation Kit provides opportunities for students to explore and identify how people are alike and different. In the activity “Same and Different,” the teacher displays the “Dilly and Friends” puppets and asks the children to name ways the characters are alike and different. Students take turns telling how they and specific friends are the same and different. For Spanish-speaking students to master this learning objective, teacher scripts would need to be translated from English to Spanish. However, the teacher scripts are only in English, and the teacher will need to translate. In the "Healthy You" Investigation Kit in an extension, the teacher introduces students to the concept of basic human needs for food, clothing, and shelter, and the materials provide new vocabulary words in Spanish. The teacher uses a Spanish-written “Oral Language Card” to discuss the needs of living things and how producers and consumers help people, but this activity’s teacher script requires translating to be fully utilized with students in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Evaluation for 8.3
Materials expose children to fine arts through exploration.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Materials expose children to fine arts through exploration; there are a variety of daily experiences through multiple mediums (dance, music, dramatic play, painting, sculpture, drawing, and other movement). For example, in the "Let's Investigate” Investigation Kit, the teachers use the “Featured Artist” poster to display children’s artwork, discuss it as a group, and praise the child’s effort. This kit provides a Spanish flapboard dance to help children respond to rhythm and express themselves. However, this kit also has students sing songs such as “Over in the Meadow” to teach and reinforce basic concepts such as numbers; this song is written in English, and there is no substitution written in Spanish, so teachers would need to identify if a translation would still support the learning objective of this activity. The “Under Construction” Investigation Kit is similar; students engage in the process of creating rather than focus on the product that is created when they build a cardboard structure, working in partners to arrange five boxes several different ways on their base until they find the one that works best. Students take turns gluing the boxes and decorate their buildings. A specific primary language is not required for this activity besides teacher scripts and directions, but this kit also includes the “Under Construction Dance,” in which students move like a dump truck, jackhammer, and a long-necked crane. There is no translation or substitute for this song, and similarly to the “Let’s Investigate” kit, teachers would need to identify if a translation would still support the learning objective of this activity.

Evaluation for 8.4
Materials include technology applications.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

The materials suggest opportunities to link technology in the classroom experience and encourage teachers to support students in exploring various digital tools. The “Research and Professional Guide” provides teacher guidance to incorporate technology in each center and discusses the advantages and concerns about technology, provides recommendations on where to begin, and includes best practice technology tips for the classroom. Additionally, the “Technology” learning center opportunities are dispersed throughout the Investigation Kits. Sidebars provide teachers with guidance on how to adapt technology to students’ needs; for example, a management sidebar states, “Place sound barriers, such as portable bulletin boards or bookcases, around the Technology center so the sound of children singing will not disrupt others” and “You may wish to have an adult assist children with computers and other equipment.” Specifically, in the “Let’s Investigate” Investigation Kit, the Technology center includes “Computer Parts,” where the teacher places a disconnected computer in the center and discusses the use of computer parts. Students explore and pretend with the computer, and teachers encourage safe and respectful use with oral or pictorial cues for properly using the computer; oral cues are written in English. However, many of the digital tools themselves are not provided in Spanish. There is no evidence of a Kids’ Portal available in Spanish. Additionally, the materials guide the teacher to allow students to record themselves singing songs and rhymes they learned in the investigations. Many songs and rhymes are not provided in Spanish, which limits students whose primary language is Spanish from participating in these kinds of activities.

Evaluation for 9.1
Materials include developmentally-appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g. formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a formal assessment tool titled “Assessment of Emerging Competencies” in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide. There are two assessment tasks to assess children’s development for each of 10 key domains of learning. Even though the assessment description mentions 10 key domains, writing skills are not assessed; there is no assessment regarding students’ ability to write or dictate a sentence. Teachers administer the assessment tool at the beginning of the school year and re-administer it at the end of the year to note yearlong progress. However, the Assessment of Emerging Competencies does not provide additional progress monitoring support throughout the year. 

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide provides clear instructions to ensure consistent and accurate administration of the Assessment of Emerging Competencies. To conduct each assessment, the teacher gathers a set of materials, meets with a child in a place of minimal distraction, and assesses each question in a specific order, using and removing select materials as necessary. For example, in the first task of “Desarrollo del lenguaje” the teacher says, “Sigue estas instrucciones. Ponte de pie. Siéntate. Levanta la mano.” The child responds according to their skill level. The assessment includes possible responses for each question and a corresponding scoring chart to support the teacher in identifying a child’s skill level.

The materials provide several additional assessment tools written in English. The materials include “Assessment Cards” that assess a child’s development of “100 key skills across ten domains of learning.” Each card lists the objective, teacher directions, a script, a rubric, and guidance on where to record the results of the assessment. Based on how a child scores, one or two intervention strategies are also listed to support the child. For example, in “Assessment Card 11,” the teacher asks the students to identify a pair of rhyming words. A student is considered to be on level (“Secure”) if he/she identifies all pairs of rhyming words. However, if the child has not yet grasped this skill, the assessment card guides the teacher to “model identifying rhyming words” and  “read nursery rhymes with the child or the entire class,” and  “after reading, work together to name rhyming words.”  The materials also include a “Class Record” addressing a variety of skills that span across the ten domains of the prekindergarten guidelines. Both English and Spanish teachers can use this tool to monitor progress throughout the school year in authentic learning settings..

Additionally, the materials include suggestions for informal assessment for select lessons in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide. For example, the “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge” section includes observational guidance for the teacher during alphabet activities. An “Assessment” call-out box reads: “Can children correctly name pictures and letters? Record your observations as anecdotal notes.” Each “Literacy” lesson also provides an assessment for each lesson. During the read-aloud Soy el agua, the materials guide the teacher to “note whether children ask questions or make comments related to water, its properties, and its uses” and record the observations as anecdotal notes. 

The diagnostic tools measure  the content and process skills outlined in each of the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. Within the Assessment of Emerging Competencies section of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide, the materials provide examples of anecdotal notes or checklists to monitor progress. The materials also include a “Progreso narrativo” form for teachers to reflect on student progress and set goals for each child. In addition, two parent surveys are provided to gather feedback from parents about their child’s abilities. ;Furthermore, the materials suggest the use of portfolios to support tracking student growth.

Evaluation for 9.2
Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide teachers some guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ needs in all domains, based on measures of student progress appropriate to the developmental level. There is guidance on how to collect and document data from students, but guidance is not found to support teachers in the interpretation of formal (skill monitoring at the beginning and end of year) and informal assessment (anecdotal notes, observations, etc.) data to adjust instruction in the Spanish materials. For example, each “Literacy” lesson in the materials provides a suggested “Assessment” action within a call-out box. For the story ¡Salta, ranita, salta!, the call-out box suggests: “If a child is having difficulty recalling the story events, invite him or her to use the illustrations. Record your observations as anecdotal notes.” However, the materials do not provide suggestions on how to interpret the anecdotal notes to provide additional support.

There is no direction for teachers on how to use information gathered from diagnostic tools in the Spanish materials to help teachers plan instruction and differentiation. In the “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards” for the “Under Construction” theme, the children draw and retell their favorite parts of the story. The teacher notes whether children give inaccurate details, then collects samples of children’s work for their portfolios. There is no recommendation of how to re-teach, adjust instruction, or modify delivery to meet child needs based on the observation or work samples. 

The materials include an “Assessment and Intervention” system with which the teacher can create and maintain individualized education plans specifically tailored to each child to revisit and adjust as the child develops; however, this system includes “Assessment Cards” that assess “100 key skills across ten domains of learning” that are only available in English. A couple of intervention strategies are listed to support those children needing additional guidance or practice. For example, one assessment card guides the teacher to provide students the opportunity to employ reasoning strategies by building a steady block tower. The teacher observes the students and records whether the students use reasoning strategies to build a tower that does not tip over. If the students do not employ reasoning strategies, the materials guide the teacher to model using reasoning strategies at the block center and think aloud as he/she builds a steady tower. The teacher could also ask students to put away toys or books in the best container or shelf based on their shape and size. Although these assessment cards provide guidance on how to respond to the observation/data gathered, these assessment cards are only in English and are not translated into Spanish. 

The materials’ formal “Assessment of Emerging Competencies” assesses a child’s development in 10 key domains to give teachers “an idea of how to plan and guide instruction for each child, as well as note progress in development of important skills.” However, there is no specific guidance for data analysis or review. The materials do not include easy to access or immediate guidance to process the results of the assessment tools and do not support the teacher in identifying areas of the materials that need modification. 

The “Research and Professional Guide” states that assessment analysis can be shared with families, administrators, and teaching personnel. The teacher provides administrators with access to the portfolios, “Investigation Assessment” checklists, and the class record. However, the materials do not include a way for administrators to analyze the program data at the program level, and most of the assessments that can be shared are written in English. The materials do not provide guidance to support administrators in analyzing data to shape program goals and professional development. The guide prompts the teacher to ask, “What skills present the biggest challenge for the majority of my class? Should the children already be secure in these skills, or are they developmentally on track? What can I do each day to reinforce these skills? Do I need to review these skills with explicit instruction?”

Evaluation for 9.3
Materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include the “Assessment of Emerging Competencies” (a formal assessment tool) for teachers to administer to “each child individually at the beginning of the school year to gain a general sense of a child’s level of experience and development in each domain.” The teacher re-administers this “assessment at the end of the year to note yearlong progress.” The materials guide the teacher to “distribute both copies of the assessment to key individuals such as the child’s family, school administrators, or the child’s teacher for the next school year.” Although specific guidance is given on how to administer the assessment, there is no guidance for additional progress monitoring in the Spanish materials. 

The Spanish materials recommended informal assessments in the form of call-out boxes in each of the “Literacy” lessons found in The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide that allow teachers to observe and document children’s learning and behaviors for that specific lesson. For example, the assessment call-out box for the “Literacy Weather Watchers” lesson suggests the following: “Note children who understand the concepts of time and temperature as presented in the story. Record your observations as anecdotal notes.” Other activities and lessons in the Spanish materials, including the “Spanish Flapboard Story Cards,” do not offer suggestions for tracking progress in an ongoing and observational manner that will show a picture of growth over time to support appropriate assessment practices. 

Spanish teachers are referred to materials written in English for more guidance on how to track and monitor progress. These materials include multiple forms of assessments to track individual children’s progress in all domains that Spanish teachers can access, such as “Assessment Cards” that measure various skills across 10 domains of learning. The cards include a teacher script and rubric so that the teacher can identify where the child falls upon completion of the task and provide support as needed. Each investigation unit also includes an “Investigation Assessment Checklist” to track student progress. Each unit checklist instructs the teacher to review each child’s portfolio of work samples, anecdotal notes, and any information gathered from the assessment card results to mark a level of development for each skill addressed in the unit. The materials also instruct the teachers to transfer this information to the “Class Record” or place the checklist in the child’s portfolio to complete a “Narrative Form.” The materials suggest that teachers use the Class Record as a “handy grade book.” The Narrative Form is available for the teacher to summarize the children’s progress and share at a parent-teacher conference. All of these tools provide teachers with ways to frequently monitor and track student progress informally and formally. Although Spanish teachers can access these different forms of assessment tools, Spanish scripts are not provided for teachers.

Evaluation for 10.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include minimal guidance for differentiating support in the Spanish materials for children who are struggling to master content. Differentiation guidance is not included in every lesson or holistically in the instructional materials. Specific strategies coded as “Differentiation” are only found in three lessons in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide. In one instance, the materials state, “Have a child sit beside you as you read. You might call on the child to point out details in the pictures or help you turn pages.” However, this type of guidance is minimal, and there is no additional information for the teacher to identify which children may need this support. In addition, the materials provide few opportunities for children to develop and practice prerequisite skills necessary to access the content. Some small group activities, such as the “Alphabet Knowledge: Picture Collage,” introduce vocabulary, but there is no mention of foundational skills necessary for students to engage successfully in the lesson. Materials written in English contain consistent differentiation opportunities through sidebars and call-outs; while this guidance provides teachers with the knowledge on how to differentiate the activity, the base of the activity itself is often written in English, meaning that a student whose primary language is Spanish could not access the base lesson.

The materials provide some guidance for a general sequence of instruction for alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. The “Alphabet Knowledge” section of the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide provides a possible order in which teachers can teach the alphabet. The “Spanish Phonological Awareness” section provides information for teachers to plan activities based on a continuum. The information states that “as Spanish-speaking children are exposed to early instruction in the alphabetic code, they seem to develop sensitivity first to syllables, then to onset and rime, and last to individual phonemes.” However, this guidance is not embedded within activities to support instruction for students that struggle or to challenge students that have mastered the target skill(s).

While some differentiation strategies are addressed in the Spanish materials for learners who might need additional support, there is no evidence of upward scaffolds or extensions to maximize the learning. In addition, the materials lack guidance or recommendations for teachers to provide students with enrichment activities in Spanish. Again, materials written in English contain extension practice for students who have mastered content; for example, in the “Watch and Grow” Investigation Kit, students practice writing advanced phrases (e.g., “Thank you,” “I love you,” “Get well soon,” “Happy birthday”) as they work in the “Writing Choice” learning center, but these phrases are not supportive of developing writing skills in Spanish and extending those skills. 

The materials provide intervention strategies as well as activities for additional practice and enrichment that Spanish teachers can access. The materials provide a “STEAM and Literacy and Challenge Kit” that provides additional activities for teachers to incorporate into their lessons. The activities include the title of the investigation to which they correspond. The activities range from those that target phonemic awareness, math, literacy, art, science, writing, and more. For example, the “Under Construction” section of the “STEAM and Literacy Challenge Activity Guide” lists an additional phonemic awareness activity that requires students to blend syllables to make words such as “yel/low,” “buck/et,” and “ham/mer.” Although this kit provides more opportunities for student practice and enrichment, Spanish teachers would need to translate the materials. The same is true for the “Investigate Math Kit” in the materials.

Evaluation for 10.2
Materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials support direct instruction through activities designed specifically to encourage child participation through questioning, the use of hands-on materials, and physical movement. For example, the “Literacy” lessons include guidance for teachers on how to “Set the Stage, Get started, Read the Story, and Make Connections.” All lessons guide the teacher to pause as they read the story to let children look at the illustrations, talk about what is happening, and make connections or ask questions. After the story is read aloud, the materials suggest only one activity for students to make connections to the reading. While each story suggests a different activity for students to make connections after the read-aloud, no evidence of differentiation in Spanish is found for addressing different learning styles. 

The materials provide instructional strategies to support the delivery of instruction. The “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge” lessons in the Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide use visuals to teach letter-sound correspondences. The lessons provide “Word/Picture Sorts.” The materials state: “After introducing a letter using ‘El libro grande del alfabeto,’ write words on cards, make picture cards or use vocabulary cards to have children sort cards by letter/sounds.” In addition, the “Spanish Phonological Awareness” section lists possible strategies for the teacher to select and use to facilitate instruction. One of the suggested strategies is for “Phoneme Blending.” The materials guide the teacher to “say the word in a stretched-out way,” “give the children picture cards,” and “have them identify the card that matches the spoken word.” This section also suggests that the teacher use puppets to say the word in a special way. Children imitate the puppets to blend the sounds. These examples illustrate using visuals, kinesthetic movement, and/or auditory components to teach an awareness of letters and sounds.

There is little mention of small group activities in the Spanish materials. The materials guide the teacher to use the “set of six Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers for small group reading instruction.” The materials provide the teacher with a general teaching sequence that follows the same pattern as the Literacy lessons (Set the State, Get Started, Read the Story, and Make Connections). The children can then re-read the stories and engage in a “variety of hands-on activities.” Although this guidance for small group instruction is provided, there are not enough opportunities for children to engage in small group instruction throughout the year referenced in the Spanish materials. Furthermore, the materials refer the teacher to the “Teacher Guides on pages 122-123 and 125” in the English materials for related lessons and the hands-on activities. Spanish prekindergarten teachers can access these materials but would need to translate the scripted questions and dialogue. 

The materials include limited activities that allow for independent practice of developing skills in Spanish within learning centers. One example found in the materials encourages the teacher to place El libro grande del alfabeto in the art center with the book open to letters as each new sound or letter is introduced. The students participate in an activity related to the letter and sound taught. For example, for the letter Cc, students paint with “canicas” by rolling them around on art paper. In addition, the materials suggest the following center activity: “Reading Center: Making Names. Place the Spanish Magnetic Foam Letters in the Writing Center along with children’s name cards and a cookie sheet. Children use the name cards as models for forming their names using the letters on the cookie sheet. Some children may want to use the letters to form the names of their classmates.” While these activities are mentioned in the resource, there is scarce mention of opportunities for students to practice skills in learning centers and what they should include. 

The guidance provided in Spanish for use with the instructional materials is limited, and teachers are encouraged to review the activities and teacher scripts written in English to implement additional strategies to meet children’s diverse learning needs, specifically addressing teaching approaches, instructional strategies, and flexible settings to support mastery of content. 

Evaluation for 10.3
Materials include supports for English Learners (ELs) to meet grade-level learning expectations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The Spanish Instructional Materials Teacher Guide mentions that the materials can be used in conjunction with the English Instructional Materials. Within the Spanish materials, there are limited linguistic accommodations for children who are English language learners, particularly regarding their level of English language proficiency. The materials include limited examples of planning and implementing instruction at an English proficiency level that a child can understand. All questions are either open or closed-ended questions without any differentiation for proficiency levels (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced High).

The materials include a few places where strategies for English Language Learners (ELLs) are mentioned, but English language proficiency levels are not taken into consideration. For example, the “Literacy” lesson for the story De la cabeza a los pies includes a call-out box titled ELL with a general strategy. The strategy reads, “When asking children to name body parts, give them a choice. For example, ask ‘Is this your hand or your foot?’ instead of what is the name of this body part?” Although there are a few ELL strategies suggested, it is not clear when it would be appropriate to use one of these strategies, as the lessons are conducted in Spanish.

The materials include some guidance for teachers to become familiar with effective strategies specific to English Learners. The Research and Professional Guide does suggest that teachers “make connections between Spanish and English words”; however, examples of how to implement that strategy are not provided, nor are they embedded in the lessons. Spanish vocabulary words are also included in activities where English words are introduced, but there is no teacher guidance or script on how to conduct metalinguistic transfer between the two languages or how to use children’s first language as a means to develop skills in the target language. In addition, the materials include limited resources that teachers can access for more information about using children’s first language in a way that supports their linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development. For example, in the Spanish Instructional Materials Guide under “Spanish Alphabet Knowledge,” the materials address the Transfer Across Languages. The materials state: “There are universal concepts and skills that transfer across English and Spanish. Alphabetic and orthographic awareness is universal. Just as English learners, Spanish learners are taught that marks on a page are symbols that represent sounds; letters have names and sounds; letters combine to form words, phrases, and sentences; and print carries meaning.” Even though this section provides information that teachers can use for both languages (English and Spanish), there is no guidance within the lessons and activities for teachers to use the students’ primary language to develop skills in the target language.

Evaluation for 11.1
Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction, but not all instruction referenced in the year-long plans is available in Spanish for Spanish prekindergarten students to learn from. The “Research and Professional Guide” provides a “Year at a Glance” for three-year-olds that spans 30 weeks of instruction and a Year at a Glance for four-year-olds that spans 32 weeks. The guide provides a “Scope and Sequence” listing the learning domains that each “Investigation Kit” targets; it supports teachers by identifying directly-taught learning goals within each Investigation Kit as well as outlining opportunities for review and practice of other content domains. It is aligned with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. The materials are organized into seven Investigation Kits that discuss various themes, and students spend about four weeks in each theme during which they build background knowledge to build towards kindergarten TEKS; however, many of the student activities and teacher scripts do not support learning for students whose primary language is Spanish. For example, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, to build on previous kits’ math lessons on shapes, students listen to the read-aloud The Shape of Things and identify shapes in the story. This book is not available in Spanish, nor is there a Spanish substitute for use in a Spanish prekindergarten classroom. 

Evaluation for 11.2
Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators. Materials are accompanied by a Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines-aligned scope and sequence outlining the essential knowledge and skills that are taught in the program, the order in which they are presented, and how knowledge and skills build and connect across grade levels. Materials include supports to help teachers implement the materials as intended. Materials include resources and guidance to help administrators support teachers in implementing the materials as intended. For example, the materials include a variety of reusable resources to support implementation, including a “Math Board,” “Counting Strips,” “Magnetic Numbers and Letters,” a “Teacher Guide” for each “Investigation,” “Dilly and Friends Lapbooks,” “Dilly and Friends Puppets,” “Bruno’s Buzz Nonfiction Readers,” trade books, “Daily Routine and Song Posters,” art prints, “Center Cards,” the “Assessment and Intervention System,” “Dilly’s Alphabet Show Picture Book,” “Dilly’s Alphabet Cards,” “Oral Language Cards,” “Dilly’s Music and Movement CD,” “Dilly and Friends Read Along CD,” “Listen to Your World CD,” “Let’s Investigate! eFlapboards Learning Software,” and a “Teacher Resource Guide.” However, some of these materials are written in English and would need to be translated or transadapted for use with native Spanish speakers in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. Direct (explicit) instruction via teacher scripting is predominantly written in English. Materials include a school years’ worth of prekindergarten instruction, including realistic pacing guidance and routines.

Evaluation for 11.3
Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations through providing options for full- and half-day schedules. Materials provide guidance for strategic implementation without disrupting the sequence of content that must be taught in a specific order following a developmental progression; however, some of the activities that are presented as optional contain student-facing materials written in English and teacher scripting/questioning written in English and would require translation if they were to be utilized in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom. Each Investigation Kit allows teachers to choose the activities that are the best fit for their schedules with the “My Week Lesson Plan” template. For example, in the “Let's Investigate” Investigation Kit, the materials introduce students to the alphabet by having the class sing “Dilly’s Alphabet Song.” The “Alphabet Flapboard” provides more practice to increase children’s knowledge, but this activity only addresses the English Alphabet and not the Spanish Alphabet, so listing it as a variability option for programmatic design does not support Spanish prekindergarten students’ acquisition of knowledge and mastery of content in Spanish (e.g., the Spanish alphabet). Additionally, in the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit, in the activity “Rock and Rhyme,” the teacher hands out toy dump trucks. As students say the rhyme pairs truck/duck, dump/stump, wheel/peel, they put a toy block in the truck. Similarly to the Let’s Investigate Kit, the activity provides rhyming words in English; however, Spanish rhyming words are not provided for this lesson, so teachers would need to evaluate which lessons are appropriate to utilize in a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom versus selecting from all lessons and activities to best fit their schedules.

Evaluation for 11.4
Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

Materials provide some guidance on fostering connections between home and school, but some of the materials available to English-speaking parents are not available for Spanish-speaking parents. Materials do support the development of strong relationships between teachers and families from a research perspective; the “Research and Professional Guide” contains a section on parental involvement, which states, “The recipe for student achievement and success in later life contains the primary ingredients of ongoing parent and guardian involvement, effective school systems, and community collaborations.” However, other resources in the guide are not available in Spanish, including “At-Enrollment Family Survey” and “End-of-Year Family Survey.” The Spanish Family Welcome Guide includes a letter to send home to families at the beginning of the year with tips on how to support students at home and research on skills and traits appropriate for prekindergarten learners. A family letter is included within each “Investigation Kit” in Spanish to introduce the kit’s theme and provide questions for parents to ask students related to their learning in that particular unit. Some Investigation Kits include resources for families to use with their children at home; the “Under Construction” Investigation Kit includes a “Home and Back Family Activity Book” in Spanish that provides learning targets for families to practice together at home. 

Evaluation for 11.5
The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The evidence from the English materials in this report cannot be verified in full within the Spanish materials. The information below is the result of a review of the evidence presented for the English instructional materials score (above) and its applicability and transferability to a Spanish Prekindergarten classroom.

The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic. Materials include appropriate use of white space and design that supports and does not distract from student learning. Most visual aids would require translation for students whose primary language is Spanish because they are mostly written in English; for example, “Center Cards” are written in English, and the Flapboards have some English print that needs to be translated for these materials to fully function for the teacher and students. Some Flapboard visuals target letter knowledge, and the visuals connected to the lessons do not support the Spanish letters and sounds. Pictures and graphics are supportive of student learning and engagement without being visually distracting.