Istation Reading en Espanol - Grade 2

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials include high-quality texts for SLAR instruction and cover a range of student interests.

The materials include high-quality texts for SLAR instruction that cover a wide range of student interests. The materials include some well-crafted and publishable texts that represent the quality of content, language, and writing that experts produce. There is a limited number of increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and multicultural diverse texts. 

Examples include but are not limited to:

The materials include some high-quality texts for SLAR instruction that cover a wide range of student interests. Students have the option to either listen to the story or to read it independently. However, the materials include few complex contemporary or classical texts, and they use caricature graphics instead of real pictures. Text complexity is shown via Lexile level.

The following are examples of texts available in the materials to address SLAR:

Rojo va a la escuela by Anamaria Fernandez is an engaging fiction book that teaches cause and effect.

Cartas a un soldado by Dr. Gilda ALvarez Evans is an expository text used to teach summary and conclusions. It exposes students to the letter format in fiction.

Sonia Sotomayor by Anamaria Fernadez is a biography used to teach cause and effect and inference. 

Un día de nieve by Cristina Panadero is a realistic fiction book that teaches about characters in a story and setting. 

¡A limpiar! by Rogelio Garcia is an engaging children’s story that teaches about letters q, z, h, rr; syllables with o, sequencing, and inference.

Raul lavó la ropa by Cristina Panadero is an engaging, realistic fiction book that teaches about the title, author, and illustrator. 

Sopa Tóxica en los océanos by Rosario-Valentin is an explanatory fantasy text that teaches the different characteristics of genre. 

Vamos al dentista by Cristina Panadero is an engaging fantasy book in which students can see themselves or some family members reflected. It teaches the skill of problem and solution. 

El rescate by Rogelio Garcia is an engaging fiction book that teaches details and main idea and shows the value of caring for and helping others. 

Los germenes by Cristina Panadero is a story about perseverance. Characters demonstrate learning and growth across the story. 

The following are examples of texts available in the materials to address science: 

¿Cómo se forman las montañas? by Cristina Panadera is an expository science text that teaches about cause and effect and details. 

Los germenes by Cristina Panadero is a realistic fiction book that includes scientific vocabulary such as germs. It teaches about the problem and solution while also teaching about germs.

Las arañas by Cristina Panadero is an engaging expository text that teaches about the structure of the text, main idea, details, and compare and contrast. This text includes facts about spiders and their characteristics. 

The following are examples of texts available in the materials to address social studies:

The “Leyendo Géneros” section includes books such as Un discurso sobre la unión, with characters like Martin Luther King. 

La visita especial by Liliana Suero is a fiction text that teaches about the service firefighters give to their community. It also teaches the skills of sequence and inferencing. 

Even though there is some evidence that the materials include diverse texts, the texts do not have authentically rich plot lines. Some texts relate to the students’ backgrounds. Students might be able to identify with some of the characters in the text.

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials include a variety of text types and genres across content that meet the requirements of the SLAR TEKS for each grade level.

The materials include some variety of text types and genres across content that meet the requirements of the TEKS, such as realistic fiction, fantasy, short stories, and expository texts. The materials include opportunities for students to recognize the characteristics and structures of literary and informational texts. Students have some opportunities to learn about print and graphic features in a variety of texts. There are some informational texts about science and social studies. There are limited persuasive texts that are connected to science and social studies. Students have some opportunities to use texts with captions or labels, diagrams, headings, bold words, labels, charts, or glossaries. There are some opportunities for students to distinguish fact from opinion.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Cycle 10, Lesson 1, students use the text’s structure to find specific information. The teacher discusses the difference between fiction and nonfiction text, and the class discusses their characteristics. The teacher models a nonfiction book and demonstrates the table of contents. The students then make their own nonfiction book. They decide on a theme and include a cover page, table of contents, and four pages. 

The materials provide opportunities for students to recognize the characteristics and structures of literary and informational texts. In Cycle 8, Lesson 1, students identify the main characteristics of the informative article La historia del vuelo humano. The teacher introduces the lesson by describing informative text: “Un artículo informativo es un tipo de texto escrito por un periodista o editor para dar información sobre un tema humanístico, científico o de interés humano.” The teacher projects the “Artículo informativo y sus características” graphic organizer, which teaches students about the characteristics of informative text. The teacher provides students the information needed to identify the main characteristics of informative articles. 

The materials include opportunities for students to recognize characteristics of multimodal and digital texts. In Lesson 21, students use multimodal and digital texts such as “El bosque amazónico en peligro.” With this text, students practice writing an informative paragraph using at least two resources such as videos, the internet, or books from the library to research the topic. 

The materials have some opportunities for students to recognize characteristics of persuasive texts. However, they lack opportunities for students to distinguish fact from opinion within the text. Some texts allow the students to grasp the differences between expository, poetic, and other varieties of texts. 

Texts include:

Un lugar para la imaginación by Rogelio Garcia is a realistic fiction text teaching cause and effect and inferences. 

Árbol y abejas by Cristina Panadero is used to support the development of print awareness: title, author, and illustrator.

A través de otro lente by Jessica Rosario-Valentin is a nonfiction persuasive passage. 

Futuros Programadores de América by Odi Buenrostro is a text that teaches characteristics of persuasive text. 

 La leyenda de la Llorona by Anamaria Fernández is a legend that teaches cause and effect.

Rojo va a la escuela by Anamaria Fernandez is a fiction text that teaches cause and effect, inference, and sequencing.

Un día de nieve by Cristina Panadero is a realistic fiction text that teaches character analysis and setting. 

Examples of science texts include:

¿Cómo se forman las montañas? by Cristina Panadero 

Chico y su tarantula by Rogelio García 

Las arañas by Cristina Panadero

¿Cómo se forman las montañas? by Cristina Panadero

El bosque amazónico en peligro, Revista de Ciencias Naturales by Istation

Los incendios forestales, Revista de Ciencias Naturales by Istation.

Examples of social studies texts include:

Sonia Sotomayor by Anamaria Fernandez

Alma Flor Ada by Anamaria Fernandez

Evaluation for 2.3
Texts, including read-aloud texts in K-2 and shared reading in Grade 2, are appropriately challenging, and are at an appropriate level of complexity to support students at their grade level.

The materials include some texts that are appropriately challenging and at the appropriate level of complexity to support students at their grade level. The materials lack texts to support read-alouds and shared reading. The publisher does not include a text-complexity analysis. Materials include Lexile levels as an appropriate quantitative measure, but they lack an explanation of the qualitative features that guide placement within the grade level.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a text complexity analysis provided by the publisher; however, this analysis only measures Lexile levels. The Lexile levels are appropriate to the grade level. The “Guía de Istation Reading en Español: Libros y pasajes” helps teachers use the texts. This guide provides the program’s text titles and reading passages along with their Lexile numbers, the type of text, the “Cycle,” and skills and/or strategies addressed.

The interactive reading curriculum includes books and passages to support reading instruction for each teaching cycle. The materials include texts, both online and printable, that are connected to the students’ learning objectives for the lessons. However, the materials do not include a series of texts connected to other texts. All of the illustrations are caricature drawings and not real pictures. 

The materials lack qualitative text features appropriate for the grade level. Most of the texts’ subject matter is common to most readers; they do not refer to other texts or ideas. Rigor in meaning or purpose is limited. Often, an obvious theme or point is revealed early in the text, with clear, concrete, narrowly focused, and explicitly stated language. The materials do not include read-aloud texts. The program states: “It is important to note that many books are meant to be read aloud and therefore may be beyond a student’s Lexile measure even though the book was encountered in the Istation curriculum.” The shared reading texts are above the complexity level of what students can read independently.

In Cycle 9, El ayudante de la clase by Rogelio García is a realistic fiction book (800L) that teaches cause and effect and inference. The expository text Manchitas y Memo by Cristina Panadero (160L) teaches about the main idea, details, and sequence. 

In Cycle 10, the expository text ¿Cómo se forman las montañas? by Cristina Panadero (480L) teaches about the main idea, details, and cause and effect. The expository text Cartas a un soldado by Dra. Gildan Álvarez Evans (920L) teaches summary and conclusions and requires fluency for comprehension. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 22, “Los incendios forestales” by the publisher (660L) is a science article that teaches descriptive language, sensory details, compare and contrast, inference, author’s purpose, and drawing conclusions. The expository text “Forest Fires” has questions to guide students (e.g., “¿Qué punto de vista es mejor para tu reporte o historia: primera persona (ej., yo) o tercera persona (ej., él, ella)? ¿Qué estructura del texto es mejor para tu reporte o historia: orden de secuencia o causa y efecto?”) This is an example of the rigor of the qualitative features.

Evaluation for 3.A.1
Materials contain questions and tasks that support students in synthesizing knowledge and ideas to deepen understanding and identify and explain topics and themes.

The materials contain some tasks that support students in synthesizing knowledge and ideas to deepen understanding and in identifying and explaining topics and themes. There are limited interconnected questions and tasks that build student knowledge, are text-dependent, and prompt students to synthesize new information. Some questions and activities grow students’ understanding of topics and literacy skills. Some formal and informal assignments and activities focus on texts students are reading or listening to. The materials lack opportunities for students to evaluate and discuss information from multiple places within a text. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Some questions and tasks build conceptual knowledge, are text-dependent, and prompt students to synthesize new information. For example, in Cycle 9, Lesson 2, students identify character traits in two narrative texts: El globo rojo and Kika. The questions are “¿Quién quiere decir cómo es el lobo en el cuento Los tres cochinitos? ¿Qué características ven en el globo rojo? ¿Cómo sabemos que es juguetón? ¿Cómo sabemos que es persistente?” These questions guide students to apply the knowledge they learned about character traits. These are basic recall questions; some ask students to identify and not synthesize new information.

In Cycle 9, Lesson 3, students answer questions to identify the details and main idea of Las nubes y la lluvia. Questions include “¿Cuál es el título? ¿Cuál es la parte más importante del texto? ¿Cuáles son las palabras claves que se repiten en el texto? ¿Cuál es la idea principal? Espere la respuesta de los estudiantes. ¿Cuáles son los detalles?” These questions help students understand the main idea and details of a short passage. However, there are no open-ended questions to challenge students to think about narrative or informational texts and support students in synthesizing knowledge and ideas to deepen understanding.

In Cycle 10, Lesson 1, “Identify Main Idea,” students identify the main idea of a text. Some of the questions are ”¿Es fácil o difícil para las ranas obtener sus alimentos? ¿Qué comen las ranas?, ¿Cómo obtienen las ranas sus alimentos? ¿Cómo se mueven sus lenguas? ¿Cómo llegaron a la respuesta correcta?” However, the questions do not guide the students to identify the main idea. 

In Cycle 9, Lesson 2, “Making Inferences by using Text Evidence as Support,” students make inferences using images, text, and a graphic organizer. The teacher says: “Observen esta imagen...Probablemente, luego de ver el cielo cubierto de nubes y la niña caminando con su sombrilla, podemos inferir que…. Señale el organizador gráfico y concluya: Usaron pistas del texto, de la imagen y su conocimiento previo para inferir cómo iba a estar el clima.” The materials tell the students to infer while filling out the graphic organizer, but they do not walk the students through how to do so.

In Cycle 10, Lesson 2, “Comprensión de lectura,” students read and pay attention to clues or details in the story “Cuando sea grande quiero ser...” by Victoria Malavé. Students complete a graphic organizer, answer some questions, and summarize the story. They are told to use the “5 W’s” (i.e., “¿Quién? ¿Qué? ¿Cuándo? ¿Dónde? ¿Por qué? ¿Cómo?”) to help them summarize the story. However, the questioning in each cycle starts with recall-level questions and does not proceed into higher-order-thinking questions nor prompt students to synthesize new information nor deepen understanding and identify and explain topics and themes in the lesson.

Some questions and activities grow students’ understanding of topics and literacy skills over the course of each unit. In Cycle 11, Lessons 1 and 2 both use the texts “The Purple Box,” “Pelusa,” and “Pecas’ Mystery” to teach students to find the main idea of a fable. In Lesson 1, the teacher asks questions such as “¿Quién es el personaje? ¿Quién es el otro personaje? ¿Qué problema tiene Pecas? ¿Qué hace Pelusa? ¿Qué problema tiene Pelusa? ¿Qué hace Pecas?” In Lesson 2, students use the same questioning to create a graphic organizer to show “¿Quién? ¿Solución? ¿Idea principal?” 

Evaluation for 3.A.2
Materials contain questions and tasks that require students to evaluate the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

The materials do not contain questions and tasks that require students to evaluate the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts. The materials do not provide questions and tasks to support students’ analysis of texts’ literary or textual elements. The materials do not ask the students to analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the author’s purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts. Students do not have opportunities to provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Moreover, the materials lack lessons for comparing and contrasting the stated or implied purposes of different authors’ writing on the same topic. Students do not analyze the author’s choices and how they influence and communicate meaning in a single text or across various texts. The materials lack lessons that allow students to confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures, either independently or with teacher assistance. 

Evaluation for 3.A.3
Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary in and across texts.

The materials do not include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary in and across texts. Materials include some scaffolds for vocabulary, but this vocabulary only covers high-frequency words, not academic words. There is no year-long plan for building academic vocabulary, and the materials do not include ways to apply words in appropriate contexts. There is no support for teachers to differentiate vocabulary development for all learners.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials do not include a year-long plan for building academic vocabulary or ways to apply words in appropriate contexts. The materials do not provide any evidence that the academic vocabulary is introduced in context or through word lists, repeated in a variety of contexts, and used across texts. Under the toolbox tab, the materials include the “Istation Español Scope and Sequence,” which provides a list of online activities and teacher-directed lessons by skill. The document follows a sequenced plan and shows the cycle where lessons can be found and the standard for each lesson. There is a “Vocabulary” section for each grade-level span, “Grades 1st- 2nd.” Within each Vocabulary section, there is a list of Vocabulary skills that teachers can identify within the cycle provided. The Vocabulary section includes lessons on “words are from universal themes such as family, home, food, body, clothing, feelings, animals, school, and community.” This document does not include a list of academic vocabulary words to be discussed within a year-long plan nor specific lessons on building academic vocabulary in and across texts.

Vocabulary lessons in the materials only include high-frequency word development in Cycles 1-8. For instance, in Cycle 3, Lesson 2, and Cycle 5, Lesson 2, students recognize and learn high-frequency words. The words include: “le, tiene, una, se, pone, tira, mira, los, todo, sin.” These lessons do not incorporate academic vocabulary, and there are no other teacher-directed lessons to address academic vocabulary development specified for 2nd grade. 

The materials include limited scaffolds for vocabulary words (e.g., visuals that go with the vocabulary). There are “Vocabulary Cards” such as “Body Parts,” “Home,” “Geometric Shapes,” and “Animals.” The Vocabulary Cards do not specify a grade level or a “Cycle.” Another scaffold is located in the Spanish-language vocabulary tools, providing synonyms and antonyms, word families, personal pronouns (e.g., yo, tu, él, ellos), and word classification. These lessons help practice and reinforce the vocabulary for reading comprehension. However, the lessons do not target academic vocabulary, nor do they provide support for teachers to differentiate vocabulary development for all learners.

Evaluation for 3.A.4
Materials include a clearly defined plan to support and hold students accountable as they engage in self-sustained reading.

The materials do not include a clearly defined plan to support and hold students accountable as they engage in self-sustained reading. Materials do not include procedures and/or protocols with adequate support for teachers to foster independent reading. There is no plan for students to self-select texts and read independently for a sustained period of time; materials do not include planning or accountability for achieving independent reading goals.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials do not provide adequate support for teachers to foster independent reading. The online program called “Ipractice,” where the students work independently, offers students opportunities to interact with text. The materials assign texts for reading depending on students’ testing levels on the “ISIP” and read the story to the students. However, there are no clear procedures or protocols for teachers to foster independent reading. The materials do not include a plan to help teachers track independent reading or to help students select texts. 

The materials allow students to set goals for improving their Lexile levels and write them on bookmarks; however, there are no reading logs or plans included in the materials to help the students set goals and plans for self-selecting and reading texts. The materials do not provide a plan for students to self-select texts and read independently for a sustained period of time, and there is no planning or accountability for achieving independent reading goals. 

Evaluation for 3.B.1
Materials provide support for students to compose across text types for a variety of purposes and audiences.

The materials provide some support for students to compose across text types for a variety of purposes and audiences. Students have opportunities to write literary texts for multiple purposes and audiences, such as personal narratives that convey their thoughts and feelings about an experience. Students have opportunities to write informational texts, including reports and procedural texts. The materials lack opportunities for students to write poetry using poetry elements. There are limited opportunities for students to dictate or write thank-you notes and letters. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Students have some opportunities to write literary texts for multiple purposes and audiences. For example, in Cycle 9, Lesson 17, “Escritura,” students dictate or write personal narratives that convey their thoughts and feelings about an experience. The writing exercises are centered around the story “Los germenes,” in which a mom explains germs to her son. The lesson contains three writing exercises. In “Ejercicio 1,” after reading the story, students think about the facts they read about germs. They write “all the facts [they] remember using complete sentences.” In “Ejercicio 2,” students learn that they need to keep their hands clean to avoid getting sick; they use a sequence map to write and illustrate the steps to take to keep hands clean. In “Ejercicio 3,” students write about a time when they were sick or ill, including what their family did to help them feel better. 

In Cycle 9, Lesson 18, Escritura, students compose across text types for a variety of purposes and audiences. Students read the story “Vamos al dentista,” which is about a mariquita who breaks a tooth; a friend convinces her to visit the dentist. In Ejercicio 1, students write about a time when they were scared to visit a place; they then share their writing with a friend. In Ejercicio 2, students write about the story events using a graphic organizer, then write a summary of the events. In Ejercicio 3, students write a paragraph to convince the character Mariquita to go to the dentist. 

The materials provide students opportunities to write informational texts such as procedural texts and reports about topics. For example, in Cycle 7, Lesson 14, Escritura, students write after reading “El huracán.” The story is about a city surviving a hurricane and how paramedics help citizens. In Ejercicio 1, students write the sequence of events in the story and use a graphic organizer to support their writing. In Ejercicio 2, students research what paramedics do; they use the internet or books from the library to learn more about this profession and write a report about their findings. In Ejercicio 3, students write about “what they would do if a hurricane came to their city.”

In Cycle 10, Lesson 19, Escritura, students write about the story “Las arañas.” In Ejercicio 1, the students use a Venn diagram to compare spiders and insects. They make a list with at least three similarities and differences between spiders and insects. In Ejercicio 3, students write a story about spiders. They use a graphic organizer for their ideas prior to writing the story. In Ejercicio 2, students select a spider from the text and write a report based on their findings. The lesson guides the students to use the internet or a book from the library to investigate the spider they chose. 

The materials include limited opportunities for students to practice writing correspondence. For example, in Cycle 6, Lesson 10, Escritura, students recall the story “La visita especial,” which is about a firefighter visiting the school on Career Day. In Ejercicio 2, the students think of some of the jobs that exist in their community and write a letter to a firefighter in their community to thank them for their service. Although the lesson addresses writing a thank-you letter, there is no evidence that the materials provide any additional lessons for students to practice correspondence by writing thank-you notes and letters. 

The materials lack opportunities for students to write poetry using poetry elements.

Evaluation for 3.B.2
Materials engage students in the writing process to develop text in oral, pictorial, or written form.

The materials provide limited opportunities for students to engage in the writing process to develop text in oral, pictorial, or written form. Materials facilitate students’ coherent use of some of the elements of the writing process, such as planning, revising, editing, and sharing/publishing. However, students do not engage in drafting when composing text.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials facilitate students’ coherent use of the elements of some of the writing process, including planning, revising, editing, and sharing or publishing to compose text. For example, Cycle 9, Lesson 18, “Escritura,” uses the story “Vamos al Dentista,” which is about a ladybug that was afraid to go to the dentist. The lesson includes three writing exercises. In “Ejercicio 1,” the students write about a time they were scared to go somewhere. The teacher asks, “¿Alguna vez has tenido miedo de ir a algún lugar?” Students then share their stories with a partner. In “Ejercicio 2,” the teacher prompts: “Think about the events that occurred. Use a graphic organizer to write the events in order of sequence. Then write a summary of the story.” The graphic organizer “Línea cronológica” helps students plan their work. A “Revisa tu escritura” page supports revisions and edits. It reminds students: “Recuerda: comenzar cada oración con letra mayúscula, escribir tus mayúsculas y minúsculas para que sean fáciles de leer por un compañero o maestro, usar oraciones completas, y terminar cada oración con un punto final.” A “Comparte tu trabajo” page supports students in publishing their work. It guides students to use questioning to share their work: “Antes de compartir tu trabajo, preséntate ante tu compañero, intercambia tu trabajo y discute las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuál fue tu parte favorita? ¿Qué parte fue confusa? ¿Cómo podría mejorarse? Cuando discutan su trabajo entre sí, asegúrense de hablar uno a la vez. Comparte tu trabajo con los demás colocándolo en un lugar visible dentro del salón de clases o la escuela.” The lesson’s writing process is missing drafting. Furthermore, directions and guidance for teachers to implement the writing process lack detail. 

In Cycle 10, Lesson 19, “Escritura,” students have opportunities to connect learning to their own writing. The lesson uses the story “Las arañas,” which is an informational text about spiders. In Ejercicio 1, students use a Venn diagram to compare spiders and insects from the text. The teacher prompts: “Make a list that includes at least three things in which they are alike and in which they are different.” A Venn diagram helps students plan their work. A Revisa tu escritura page helps students edit their work: “Recuerda: comenzar cada oración con letra mayúscula, escribir tus mayúsculas y minúsculas para que sean fáciles de leer por un compañero o maestro, usar oraciones completas, y terminar cada oración con un punto final.” A “Comparte tu trabajo” page guides students to use questioning to share their work: “Antes de compartir tu trabajo, preséntate ante tu compañero, intercambia tu trabajo y discute las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuál fue tu parte favorita? ¿Qué parte fue confusa? ¿Cómo podría mejorarse? Cuando discutan su trabajo entre sí, asegúrense de hablar uno a la vez. Comparte tu trabajo con los demás colocándolo en un lugar visible dentro del salón de clases o la escuela.” The lesson’s writing process is missing drafting. Directions and guidance for teachers to implement the writing process lack detail.

The program’s writing materials follow these same steps in all the writing lessons. There is no evidence that the students receive explicit instruction in the writing process with opportunities to connect learning to their own writing. The materials do not support teachers in providing students support to grow their composition skills.

Evaluation for 3.B.3
Over the course of the year, students are provided opportunities to apply grade-level standard Spanish conventions to their writing.

Over the course of the year, students have some opportunities to apply grade-level standard Spanish conventions to their writing. The materials provide opportunities for the practice and application of the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing. However, the materials do not provide opportunities to practice grammar, punctuation, and usage systematically, both in and out of context. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide routines and procedures for the practice and application of the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing, including punctuation and grammar. For example, in Cycle 7, Lesson 14, “Escritura,” includes three writing activities with the text El huracán. In “Ejercicio 1,” students think about the order of events in the story and use a graphic organizer to write them in sequence. In “Ejercicio 2,” students research what paramedics do, using the internet or books from the library; they write a report with their findings. In “Ejercicio 3,” students write about “what they would do if a hurricane came to their city.” Students explain why, using adverbs of frequency in their sentences (e.g., “Paramedics arrive quickly. They always carry all their equipment.”) The lesson provides a “Recuerda” section that includes the following revising reminders: “comenzar la oración con letra mayúscula y terminarla con punto final, escribir oraciones que incluyan sujeto y predicado, escribir oraciones que tengan concordancia entre el sujeto y el verbo, escribir con letra clara y dejar espacios entre las palabras, escribir correctamente las palabras de uso frecuente, al escribir tus oraciones usa: punto final, signos de interrogación o signos de exclamación.” These are some prompts, but the materials lack guidance for teachers to support students in their development of composition skills. The materials use the same grammar rules for all prompts. This allows students to apply grammar lessons to their writing.

The materials provide opportunities for students to practice and apply the conventions of academic language when writing, including punctuation and grammar. In Cycle 9, Lesson 17, Escritura, includes writing activities around the text Los gérmenes. In Ejercicio 3, students write about a time when they were sick or ill and include what they or their family did to make them feel better. Then, they revise and edit their piece. In the “Revisa tu escritura” section, students review their writing by checking that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period; each sentence includes subject and predicate (e.g., “Victor runs in the park. I run in the park. Victor and I run in the park.”); they write clearly and leave spaces between words; they spell frequently used words correctly; they use periods, question marks, or exclamation marks when writing sentences. The activities provide opportunities for the students to apply conventions while writing and speaking. 

In Cycle 10, Lesson 1, “Gramatica,” students focus on identifying and using articles in writing. The lesson includes a direct teach and guided lesson section for teachers to focus on the use of articles. In the independent section, students read and place the correct article in the spaces provided. The lesson guides the teacher to provide support as needed. The material includes an organizer, pictures, and cards to help support the students in using articles correctly. The students have an opportunity to apply their learning about articles by filling in the blanks and then checking their own work. The activities provide opportunities for the students to apply conventions while writing and speaking. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 1, Gramatica, the teacher reviews how to use verbs, adjectives, articles, pronouns, and conjunctions correctly when writing. The lesson includes guided practice and independent practice. In the independent section, students fill in the blanks in the paragraph with the correct article and preposition. The teacher provides support as needed. The activities provide opportunities for the students to apply conventions while writing and speaking. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 20, Escritura, the lesson includes three activities with the text Mascotas. In Ejercicio 1, students write about their own pet, including details about how to care for their pet. In Ejercicio 2, students work on a research project about other pets using the internet or the library. In Ejercicio 3, students write about which pet they think would be the best pet for them and justify with reasons. A Recuerda section includes the following revising reminders: “comenzar la oración con letra mayúscula y terminarla con punto final, escribir oraciones que incluyan sujeto y predicado, escribir oraciones que tengan concordancia entre el sujeto y el verbo, escribir con letra clara y dejar espacios entre las palabras, escribir correctamente las palabras de uso frecuente, al escribir tus oraciones usa: punto final, signos de interrogación o signos de exclamación.” However, the materials lack guidance for teachers to support students in their development of composition skills. The materials repeat themselves, using the same grammar rules for all prompts. This allows students to apply grammar lessons to their writing. The activities provide opportunities for the students to apply conventions while writing and speaking. 

Although lessons allow students to practice and apply the conventions of academic language, no systematic and explicit teaching of Spanish grammar and punctuation was located in the materials.

Evaluation for 3.B.4
Materials include practice for students to write legibly in print (K-1) and cursive (Grade 2).

The materials do not include instruction in print handwriting. The materials do not provide handwriting practice for students to write legibly in cursive. The materials do not provide plans for procedures or supports for teachers to assess students’ handwriting development. 

Evaluation for 3.C.1
Materials support students’ listening and speaking about texts.

The materials provide opportunities for students to listen actively and to ask questions to understand information. Students have consistent opportunities to engage in discussions that require them to share information and ideas and to discuss their work and opinions with their classmates. The materials also provide opportunities for students to ask questions to understand information.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Cycle 6, Lesson 5, “Comprensión de lectura,” students discuss the book En la escuela. The teacher guides the students to actively listen during the read-aloud. The teacher asks, “¿Qué es lo primero que sucede en la historia? ¿Qué sucede después? ¿Qué sucede al final de la historia?” The teacher guides and supports students to find the correct answer. During independent practice, the teacher reads another story, ¿Cómo crecen las plantas? Students listen to the story and then sequence the story using sentence strips.

In Cycle 7, “Writing” Lesson 14, students share information and ideas about the topics they are discussing. The teacher directs the students to recall the story “El huracan.” During the first activity, students write about what they would do if a hurricane hit their city. The teacher reminds students that during the hurricane in the story, people fled the city and protected their homes. The teacher engages students with the writing prompt “¿Qué harías tú si un huracán viniera a tu ciudad? Escribe sobre lo que harías y explica el porqué. Usa los adverbios de frecuencia en tus oraciones.” The students write about the prompt and then discuss the information at the end with a partner or the class. The materials guide the students to take turns talking as they discuss their writing. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 1, “Comprensión de lectura,” the materials provide students an opportunity to listen actively and respond to a text read aloud. The teacher reads the story “La caja morada” and guides students to listen actively. The teacher asks, “¿Cómo crees que se sintió María al final del cuento? ¿Qué sucedió al final del cuento? ¿Qué crees que sucedería si el regalo fuera un gato en vez de un perrito?” Students respond and review appropriate answers. 

In Level 2, Lesson 1, students listen, discuss, and ask questions about a story read aloud. The teacher reads Las vacaciones de Verano while the students listen actively. After the read-aloud, the teacher discusses sequencing and focuses on key words such as first, second, middle, after, and finally. The teacher works with the students to complete the story-sequencing activity and asks questions about the sequence of events.

Evaluation for 3.C.2
Materials engage students in collaborative discussions.

The materials engage students in some collaborative discussions. The materials lack opportunities for students to practice grade-appropriate speaking skills using the standard conventions of Spanish language. There are limited opportunities for students to develop social communication skills that are appropriate for second grade. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Cycle 2, Lesson 2, “Inferencias,” integrates discussions. The teacher models how the details in the text help infer what will happen, then models making inferences using picture cards. With the teacher’s support, students make inferences about the pictures. They then continue to practice with additional picture cards. The teacher provides copies of El paseo de Pepe to be used while the teacher reads the story aloud. The teacher asks the students questions about the story as she reads it; students thereby engage in discussions during the lesson. Although students engage in discussion, there is no guidance for using grade-appropriate speaking skills and Spanish language conventions.

In Cycle 2, Lesson 11, “Comprensión de lectura,” activities help students form the reading-speaking-listening connection. Collaborative conversations occur as students use a graphic organizer to develop a summary of a story. The teacher discusses and models completing a summary of a story and discusses the five questions to help develop a summary: when, who, where, problem, solution. The teacher tells a story and guides and supports the students in answering the five questions. The students independently read Coco y Lucas and work with a partner to discuss and complete the graphic organizer. Partners develop their story summary and then share it with the whole group. 

In Cycle 7, Lesson 14, “Escritura,” students discuss their writing piece. After the read-aloud of “El huracán,” students recall the sequence of events. They then write about what they would do if a hurricane hit their city and why. Then, students use a graphic organizer to order the events in the story. With a partner, students discuss the following questions regarding their work: “¿Cuál fue tu parte favorita? ¿Qué parte fue confusa? ¿Cómo podría mejorarse?” The materials guide the students to take turns and to speak one at a time; this supports the development of social communication skills. Finally, students share their work with the class. Although students engage in discussion, there is no guidance for using grade-appropriate speaking skills and Spanish language conventions.

In Cycle 8, Lesson 16, Escritura, students practice social communication skills as they work and share with a partner. They recall that it took a year and a month to build the school in Kuwait in the story El viaje a Kuwait, then infer what might have happened at the school after November 2015. Students share their work with a partner and discuss a favorite part, a confusing part, and how the latter can be improved. The lesson reminds the students to pay attention to their partner’s opinions and ask questions if they do not understand them. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 1, Comprensión de lectura, students work in pairs and practice grade-appropriate speaking skills to draw conclusions. The teacher models drawing conclusions using a short passage. The students work with a partner and use cards with some sentences. The teacher reads the sentences on one of the cards, and the students work with their partners to draw a conclusion. Then, the students share their conclusions with the whole group. Although students engage in discussion, there is no guidance for using grade-appropriate speaking skills and Spanish language conventions.

Evaluation for 3.D.1
Materials engage students in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for different purposes.

The materials provide students with limited engagement in short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for different purposes. There is limited instructional support for students to ask and generate general questions for inquiry with adult assistance. Materials lack instructional support for students to generate and follow a research plan with adult assistance; to identify relevant sources based on their questions with adult assistance; and to understand, organize, and communicate ideas and information in accordance with the purpose of the research.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

While the materials provide some suggestions for topics to investigate, there are no lessons or materials that support students in identifying relevant sources for student-generated or provided research topics. Students do not learn how to decide which sources to use when gathering information. The materials provide instructions for students to use the internet or other books to research broad subjects. However, no lessons explicitly teach how to develop a research plan, and there are no instructions on how to generate quality questions or complete a research plan with adult assistance. Research projects identified for the beginning of the year do not differ in rigor from those identified for the end of the year. The materials fail to provide explicit instruction in research skills that directly align with the instructional unit. Research opportunities are not provided throughout the year’s curricular material. There is no year-long plan that would show how the research skills will be included throughout the year, and the skills do not build on each other. The materials lack the opportunity and support for students to practice understanding, organizing, and communicating ideas and information in accordance with the purpose of the research. The assignments that are provided have no direct instruction. Students do not have the opportunity to engage in the research process at the end of each unit. They also do not generate a research plan and see it to completion. Most of the research opportunities are either an enrichment activity or a last activity in the lesson; these opportunities simply ask students to go online or to find a book to learn more about the given topic.

Cycle 3, Lesson 4, “Escritura,” provides an opportunity for students to identify relevant resources. Students read the story “La rutina”; then, they use a “KWL” graphic organizer to investigate ballet using a book from the library or the internet. Materials provide the topic to research; teachers receive specific instructions regarding support for the students. However, there is no evidence that the materials support the students in identifying relevant sources based on their questions or in understanding, organizing, and communicating ideas and information in accordance with the purpose of the research.

In Cycle 7, Lesson 14, Escritura, students recall the story “El huracan” and consider “¿Qué hacen los paramédicos?” Students use the internet or library books to learn about paramedics, then write a report on their investigation. However, there is no evidence that materials support instruction for students to generate and follow a research plan. Neither do they support the students in identifying relevant sources based on their questions with adult assistance. Students do not engage in understanding, organizing, and communicating ideas and information in accordance with the purpose of the research. 

In Cycle 10, Lesson 19, Escritura, students identify relevant resources based on their questions with adult assistance. First, students recall the story Las arañas and observe the spiders on page 14. They then choose a spider and research it, using the internet or the library to gather information. The materials provide the research topic. However, students do not ask and generate questions for inquiry, and there is no evidence that students generate and follow a research plan with adult assistance. 

Evaluation for 3.E.1
Materials contain interconnected tasks that build student knowledge.

The materials contain questions and tasks that are designed to build and apply student knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and language. Tasks in lessons and writing activities provide many opportunities for students to ask questions to build and apply knowledge; these tasks integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. Tasks include components of vocabulary and comprehension and provide opportunities for increased independence.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Level 1, Lesson 6, “Prefijos,” students build and apply knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and language. Students learn to identify and use words with prefixes. Students listen as the teacher defines prefixes: “Los prefijos son letras que se ponen al inicio de una palabra para formar una palabra nueva con otro significado. Hoy vamos a aprender dos prefijos.” The teacher provides samples of words with the prefixes re- and pre- context. The teacher then guides students to apply what they learned: “¿Alguno de ustedes recuerda qué significa el prefijo re-? ¿Cuál es el prefijo que significa antes de?” Students respond that re- means again and pre- means before. Students then work independently to complete a puzzle using the prefixes from the lesson, matching prefixes and root words to the appropriate definitions.

In Cycle 7, Lesson 14, “Escritura,” the materials apply reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking to a specific topic. The teacher guides students to recall the story “El huracan” and the role paramedics played during the hurricane. In the second activity for this lesson, the teacher asks students to think about what paramedics do. Students use the internet or books from the library and write about the profession of paramedics. Students write a report addressing what paramedics do during an emergency. Students share their work with a partner, discussing the questions “¿Cuál fue tu parte favorita? ¿Qué parte fue confusa? ¿Cómo podría mejorarse?” The teacher provides support as needed.

Cycle 9, Lesson 17, Escritura, provides an opportunity for students to build and apply knowledge and skills in reading and writing. The teacher guides students to recall the story “Los germenes.” During activity one, students think and write about what they read about germs. Students are guided to write everything they know about germs using complete sentences. Students then share their work with a partner and discuss “¿Cuál fue tu parte favorita? ¿Qué parte fue confusa? ¿Cómo podría mejorarse?” Students practice writing and speaking about germs. 

In Cycle 10, Lesson 1, “Comprensión de lectura,” the materials integrate reading and writing along with comprehension. The teacher introduces drawing conclusions, describing and explaining what drawing conclusions means. Students work in pairs to draw conclusions about picture cards the teacher displays. Students extend their practice of drawing conclusions with guided practice. The teacher uses a graphic organizer and some paragraphs to continue to teach drawing conclusions. Students are released to practice independently with the page “Sacando conclusiones.” The teacher provides support as needed. Students fill in a graphic organizer. 

In Cycle 10, Lesson 4, ”Vocabulario,” students engage in integrated tasks as they learn to use the dictionary to find the definition of words. The teacher discusses the importance of this: “El diccionario será nuestro mejor amigo para ayudarnos a entender y conocer el significado de alguna palabra que no conocemos.” Student partners play “Busca el significado de tu palabra”: They walk around reading and interacting until they match their word to the correct definition. The teacher continues the lesson with alphabetizing. This lesson helps develop the ability for students to comprehend that dictionaries contain definitions and are alphabetized. Students then apply their new knowledge to match new words to definitions and to place them in the correct order on a dictionary page.

Cycle 11, Lesson 1, Comprensión de lectura, integrates reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking; integrates components of vocabulary and comprehension; and provides opportunities for increased independence. The teacher explains the meaning of synonyms and provides examples of synonym words in context. The teacher then guides students to apply what they learned about synonyms by answering some questions on a practice sheet. Students read a short story with underlined words and match these words with a synonym.

Evaluation for 3.E.2
Materials provide spiraling and scaffolded practice.

The materials provide some support for distributed practice over the course of the year. The materials incorporate some scaffolds for students to demonstrate integration of literacy skills that spiral over the school year. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide some support for distributed practice over the course of the year. A “Scope and Sequence” outlines the framework of skills that are taught, practiced, and reviewed in the program. The materials are divided into sections based on grade-level bands. There are two components in each section: the interactive curriculum and teacher-led small group instruction. The interactive reading curriculum is organized into “Cycles of Instruction.” Each cycle provides intensive and direct instruction, practice, and repetition, with multiple opportunities for skill application. Student placement in the Scope and Sequence and the skills taught and practiced in a cycle are based on the student’s needs. 

At the beginning of the year, students take an “ISIP” test for initial program placement; they then take it every four weeks thereafter in animated game-like episodes of “¡A ver cuánto sabes!” Immediate corrective feedback is provided on incorrectly answered comprehension questions, providing strategies for looking back at the text and determining the correct answer. Skills at this grade level include listening, phonemic awareness, phonics, writing, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. For example, to develop listening skills in grade 2, in Cycles 5–9, teachers use “Poetry and Rhyme,” where students listen for and participate in the musical elements of language through rhymes and poetry. Students develop some comprehension skills in Cycles 5–9; they demonstrate progress and understanding by responding to both explicit and implicit questions about stories read aloud or independently. However, there is a limited focus on comprehension skills at this grade level.

The materials’ design includes some scaffolds for students to demonstrate integration of some literacy skills that spiral over the school year. The “ISIP Español Priority Report” recommends interventions. It suggests small group lessons to provide for students demonstrating weakness in certain areas. The lessons are self-paced. In the Scope and Sequence, scaffolding for struggling students starts at the prekindergarten level and continues through Cycle 8, up to the grade 1 level. The questions and tasks are not highly rigorous; rather, they are at the lower end of Bloom's taxonomy.

“Istation Reading: Cycle of Instruction” lists the various skills included in Interactive Instruction. The materials include some opportunities for students to demonstrate integration of skills that spiral throughout the cycles. For example, Cycle 9 includes reading skill modeling along with reading independently. The reading skill continues to be included in Cycles 10 and 11. Cycle 10 provides lessons on adjectives and adverbs. In Cycle 11, the lessons integrate nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In Cycle 10, reading comprehension skills focus on identifying characters, character analysis, sequence of events, and inferencing. In Cycle 11, reading comprehension skills focus on “cause and effect” and summarizing. Cycle 12 activities include reading comprehension skills and graphic representations.

The “Spanish Language Arts and Reading Strands Summary” provides resources to support distributed practice of some skills over the course of the year. Different tasks, teacher materials, and correlated resources reinforce skills that still need to be mastered. An overview shows skills that are taught at the beginning of the year versus those taught at the end of the year; complexity and rigor increase to allow students additional opportunities to demonstrate mastery. This document includes a list of all the TEKS and the SLAR expectations for the grade level. It includes the location of the activities to teach these skills for quick teacher reference. For instance, when the teacher is teaching phonemic awareness (identifying a sentence is made up of a group of words), the teacher assigns the online activities, letter books, and quizzes in Cycles 2, 4, 5, 7; else, the teacher can use the teacher-directed lessons in Cycles 2 and 4: “Conceptos básicos de la letra impresa: Las palabras se separan por espacios.” When teaching the students the relationships between letters and sounds and morphological analysis to decode written Spanish, the teacher can assign online activities such as “Letter Teach,” “Target Letter Song,” “Letter Trace—‘Lalo el lápiz,’” “Syllables with Target Letter.” Suggested teacher-directed activities for the skill include “sonidos de las vocales” and “correspondencia de letra y sonido.” This document is designed in the same way for each of the TEKS for this grade level.

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials provide explicit instruction in print concepts and opportunities for student practice (K-1 only).

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological skills and opportunities for student daily practice (e.g., rhyming, syllabication, blending, segmenting, manipulation) (K-1 only).

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials provide explicit systematic instruction in phonetic knowledge and opportunities for students to practice both in and out of context (K-2).

The materials provide explicit systematic instruction in phonetic knowledge and opportunities for students to practice both in and out of context. Materials include a research-based sequence of grade-level foundational skills instruction and opportunities for ample student practice to achieve grade-level mastery. Materials systematically develop knowledge of grade-level phonics patterns as addressed in the SLAR TEKS for grades K–2. The materials build spelling knowledge as identified in the SLAR TEKS. However, the materials provide limited opportunities for students to apply grade-level phonetic knowledge to connected texts (e.g., decodable readers) and tasks. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a research-based sequence of grade-level foundational skills instruction. There are ample opportunities for student practice to achieve grade-level mastery. For example, in Cycle 8, Lesson 8, “Destreza fonológica/fonética,” students combine syllables to form words with consonants k, w, x and the vowels a and e, using letters and word cards with images. In Lesson 11, Destreza fonológica/fonética, the teacher says: “En esta hoja van a completar las sílabas que hacen falta en cada una de las palabras usando las consonantes k, w, x con las vocales a, e, i, o. Después van a completar la tabla escribiendo las palabras en los diferentes grupos a los que correspondan.” The students write as many words with the syllables they have learned as they can. 

The “Spanish Language Arts and Reading Strands” provides a “Scope and Sequence” of grade-level foundational skills. Cycle 7 covers “Combinar sílabas con las letras QZHrr”; Cycle 8 covers “Combinar sílabas con las letras KWX.” 

The Scope and Sequence outlines the framework of skills that are taught, practiced, and reviewed. The materials are divided into “Cycles”; each cycle provides intensive and direct instruction, practice, and repetition, with multiple opportunities for grade-level foundational skills instruction. In “Letter Knowledge,” students learn and apply letter-sound correspondence through direct instruction and practice, including Cc, Gg, Rr, and Xx; identify the letter Hh as the only one without a sound in written and spoken words; decode words with the syllables que and qui and apply letter-sound correspondence to blend and decode CVCV/CVC words; blend syllables to create words using all previously taught letters and sounds, including the strong and soft sound of C and G; decode words with consonant blends and with digraphs Ch ch, Ll ll, rr in context and in isolation; blend previously taught letter sounds with common phonogram patterns to read words; decode words in context using semantic, syntactic, and phonics cues, including the word y; decode words with orthographic accents; and read irregular and regular high-frequency words. 

The materials systematically develop knowledge of grade-level phonics patterns as addressed in the SLAR TEKS. The sequence of the letters is as follows: Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu, Mm, Pp, Ll, Ss, Tt, Rr, Nn, Dd, Cc, Ff, Bb, Jj, Gg, Chch, Ññ, Vv, Ll ll, Yy, Qq, Zz, Hh, rr, Kk, Xx, and Ww. 

The materials include a research-based sequence of grade-level foundational skills instruction. They provide opportunities for the students to practice and achieve grade-level mastery. For example, in Cycle 3, Lesson 1, “Prefijos,” focuses on identifying and using prefixes. The materials include a game of cards with prefixes and a sheet with sentences with prefixes. The lesson moves through a direct teach about prefixes, guided practice, and independent practice. The teacher helps if needed. At the end of the lesson, students apply what they learned by writing sentences with three words that they learned. 

In Cycle 12, Lesson 1, “Vocabulario,” students learn to divide words’ prefixes and suffixes in order to read them. Using the page “Partes de una palabra” as a resource, the teacher explains the parts of the words in the direct teach section of the lesson. For guided practice, students use the activity “Dividiendo palabras.” The teacher works with the students to complete the activity. During independent practice, students practice dividing and reading words with suffixes and prefixes. 

There are frequent and adequate opportunities for students to apply phonetic knowledge to connected texts and tasks. Competencias en Kobe can be found in Cycle 8. El viaje a Kuwait can also be found in Cycle 8; it is a decodable book that uses the letters K, X, W; syllables with U; and “Daily 5: Retell the Story.” Even though the materials include decodable readers, the decodable books are not linked to lessons, only cycles. Thus, when using the “Search Wizard” to quickly access decodable books for this grade level, the engine displays “No libro de recursos” available. No books for applying grade-level phonetic knowledge to connected text are displayed for this grade level.

The instructional materials provide opportunities for students to read high-frequency words both in and out of context. The students are able to use their high-frequency words in many of the readers provided. In “ISIP,” Level 1, Lesson 33, the students read high-frequency words with fluency. The teacher says, “Reconocerlas automáticamente nos ayudará a mejorar nuestra fluidez y comprensión de la lectura.” The teacher introduces the high-frequency words in the story “Los desiertos,” and students practice the words using vocabulary cards and practice reading the story.

The materials do not build students’ spelling knowledge as identified in the SLAR TEKS. There is no list of spelling words for each selection that students learn weekly. The teacher does not explicitly instruct and model new sound and spelling patterns through different modalities. The materials do not include practice for spelling words. The words the students practice writing only include high-frequency words. These words do not follow spelling patterns.

Evaluation for 4.4
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop fluency while reading a wide variety of grade-level texts at the appropriate rate with accuracy and prosody. (Grades 1-2 only)

Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop fluency while reading a wide variety of grade-level texts at the appropriate rate with accuracy and prosody. The materials include explicit instruction in fluency, including rate, accuracy, and prosody. There are opportunities and routines for teachers to regularly monitor and provide corrective feedback on rate, accuracy, and prosody.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include explicit instruction in fluency, including rate, accuracy, and prosody. The teacher provides students with opportunities to practice reading fluency by focusing on rate, accuracy, and prosody. In Cycle 1, Lesson 3, “Fluidez,” explicitly teaches fluency and prosody. The teacher uses the passage “El paseo al zoológico” and tells students that they are going to practice expression and intonation (prosody). The teacher explains that good readers read fluently, which involves three basic elements: rate, accuracy, and prosody; that intonation is the change in tone and volume of our voice; and that expression and intonation will help improve students’ fluency and comprehension at the same time. The teacher points out that students must pay attention to punctuation marks as they read. The teacher then reads aloud and changes their voice for every character in the dialog, emphasizing question marks and exclamation marks. The teacher reminds students to change their tone with question marks, show emotion with exclamation marks, and lower their voices with periods. Students then practice intonation in guided practice. The teacher models, and the students repeat. 

In Cycle 3, Lesson 19, Fluidez, focuses on students reading with fluency. The teacher reminds students that to read with accuracy, they must read all words correctly and not skip words. The teacher provides a sample sentence, and the students read a word. The teacher discusses that if we do not read all the syllables in the word, then we are not reading with accuracy. The teacher discusses expression and that students must intonate like we would in real life. The teacher also explains that good readers read at an appropriate rate, not too fast or too slow. The students use a paper pointer to read the passage and point to the words as they read. The teacher reads the passage, and the students follow and read. Students then practice reading the passage independently for one minute. The teacher listens and marks errors on her page as the student reads. The materials guide the teacher on marking errors while the student reads. 

In Level 3, Lesson 22, Fluidez, students practice reading fluently using the text ¿Dónde viven los animales? The teacher explains that reading with intonation is important: “Para leer con expresión debemos entonar lo que leemos como lo haríamos en la vida real. Si leemos la oración ¿Dónde viven los animales? sin entonación, nuestros lectores no entenderán que estamos haciendo una pregunta.” Students are able to hear modeled phrasing, expression, intonation, rate, and accuracy. The teacher models how to track with their finger. The students read with the teacher, then read independently. 

In Level 2, Lesson 23, Fluidez focuses on students reading fluently. The teacher provides each student with a copy of “Sabías que…,” a wooden stick reading pointer, and a sample sentence. The teacher says that good readers read fluently, with accuracy, expression, and speed; they read each word; pronounce all the syllables that make up a word; and do not skip any words from the reading. The teacher asks the students to place their fingers on the sample sentence and read the sentence. The teacher models fluency by reading smoothly, with expression, and at an appropriate speed. Students have opportunities to practice reading fluency by focusing on rate, accuracy, and prosody. The teacher monitors and provides corrective feedback on rate, accuracy, and prosody. The teacher’s copy of the text has numbers on the far right side to indicate the number of words per sentence. Each student reads the story for a minute as the teacher listens. The teacher makes note of the student’s wrong pronunciation, substitutions, omissions, and inversions. If the student hesitates for more than three seconds, the teacher provides the student with the word and counts it as an error. The teacher uses this information to figure out the number of words read per minute. These materials include explicit instruction in fluency, including rate, accuracy, and prosody. 

The materials provide opportunities and routines for teachers to regularly monitor and provide corrective feedback on rate, accuracy, and prosody. The “ISIP Oral Reading Fluency” (ORF) “Progress Monitoring Instructions” explain how to use the program’s printable progress monitoring resources for oral reading fluency. They provide information on gathering materials, administering the assessment, scoring, and making reading level adjustments. Instructions also include an oral reading fluency log to track student progress as well as readability ranges for each grade. The ISIP ORF “Rate Chart (2nd Grade)” is intended to be used in conjunction with the ISIP ORF priority lesson for rate. It includes three charts calibrated based on grade-level expectations. Students can compare their first and second attempts and chart their progress. ISIP ORF is a cutting-edge assessment that uses voice recognition technology to automatically measure oral reading fluency for elementary students. Students make recordings of themselves reading grade-leveled passages, which then pass through carefully calibrated acoustic models in order to produce auto-scores. Teachers can make immediate data-driven decisions. Decades of research show that oral reading fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension. For this reason, ISIP ORF can be used as both a screener and progress monitor. 

The ISIP ORF assessments allow the teacher to automatically measure oral reading fluency from recorded passages. For Spanish, teachers have to manually score the student’s recorded readings. The curriculum has a “Teacher Access” section, which is an “interactive interface to score and analyze students’ oral reading fluency.” The teachers can play, pause, advance, and rewind the recordings to score them. The teachers are able to view the scoring details (e.g., which words are not read correctly). The section provides guidance for the teacher to score the recordings of the passage.

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials include developmentally-appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g. formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress.

The materials include developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g., formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress. The materials include a variety of diagnostic tools (e.g., observational and formal) that are developmentally appropriate and provide guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration of diagnostic tools. The materials include tools for students to track their own progress and growth. The materials include diagnostic tools to measure all content and process skills for SLAR, as outlined in the SLAR TEKS.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Assessments are “Computerized Adaptive Testing” (CAT) tests, which adapt to measure students’ abilities using subtests. If the student performs poorly on the initial assessment, the next assessment will give a set of subtests at a lower difficulty level to determine the student’s placement at any point throughout the school year. Once a student displays mastery on any two consecutive “ISIP Assessments,” the student receives subtests at a higher difficulty level for areas like “Listening Comprehension,” “Phonemic Awareness,” “Letter Knowledge,” “Vocabulary,” “Alphabetic Decoding,” “Oral Reading Fluency,” “Comunicación escrita (Written Communication).”

The “Teacher Resource” states: “Additional On Demand Assessments can be given at any time during the school year,” if desired. The assessments are developmentally appropriate; they build on the skill and development continuum, from kindergarten to grade 1 and then to grade 2.

The materials include observational tools that can be used by the teacher to gather informal data regarding student progress. For example, for Listening Comprehension, Level 1, Lesson 3, the teacher asks a series of questions about the story students just read. The teacher reads each question and its respective options. By observing how well the students perform in completing this task, teachers collect anecdotal notes. For Phonics, Level 2, Lesson 2, the students listen to identify the difference between the letters Bb and Vv. Based on how well the students respond to this task, the teacher can write down anecdotal notes and gather data to review each student’s progress.

The materials provide guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration of diagnostic tools. A variety of guides help the teacher with the diagnostic tools. Links to the “Guidance” section of the program can be found in the Teacher Resource and “Help Center.” Links include “ISIP Oral Reading Fluency—How To Guide,” “Assessment Day Script,” and “ISIP Lectura Temprana Technical Manual.” Multiple videos support teachers with consistent and accurate administration of diagnostic tools (e.g., “ISIP Modeling,” “Power Path—ISIP Only—Tutorial Video,” and “ISIP Summary—Tutorial Video.” 

The “Istation Application” section includes resources to support the teachers with consistent data collection. Supports include “Assessment Day Scripts” as part of the test instructions, student accommodation, student encouragement, and a guide for how to handle student questions and behavior during the ISIP assessments. The Assessment Day Script is read aloud every time the students take a diagnostic assessment or progress monitoring assessment, ensuring consistent and accurate administration of these tools. The materials include a “Modeling for Reading” video to help students become familiar with the test activities, directions, and questions. The materials guide the teacher to ensure that students log off the program properly in order to ensure that data is properly recorded. Teachers also receive information about ISIP subtests for each grade level, including how subtests work and what skills are measured.

Materials include diagnostic tools to measure all content and process skills for SLAR K-2, as outlined in the SLAR TEKS. The SLAR TEKS assessed include reading, writing, oral and written conventions, research, listening and speaking, and comprehension skills. ISIP assessments target areas based on SLAR TEKS and early reading curriculum expectations from both the U.S. and Latin American countries: “Destreza fonológica (Phonemic and Phonological Awareness), Comprensión auditiva (Listening Comprehension), Vocabulario (Vocabulary), Comprensión de lectura (Reading Comprehension), Lectura con fluidez (Text Fluency), Comunicación escrita (Written Communication).” For example, the “Oral Reading Fluency” (ORF) assessment allows teachers to “automatically measure oral reading fluency from digitally recorded passages for students in grades K through 5 in both English and Spanish.” Students read three short grade-level passages; they have 90 seconds to read each passage. The materials do not provide an automated score for the Spanish tests, but the teachers can use the recorded passages to gather information about their students’ reading skills. The ISIP assessments do not address research standards based on SLAR TEKS. 

Students have tools to track their own progress and growth in the “Tracking Student Growth” section of the Teacher Resources. Teachers are encouraged to help build motivation and maximize student growth through individual student goal setting. The teacher can select from a variety of tools to support students’ goal setting and growth tracking. The pledge “To Do My Best on Istation” allows students to set personal goals on their individual sheets. Students identify, analyze, and use data from their learning to help them become active agents in their own growth. For example, “Mi Segundo Grado Objetivos de la ISIP Lectura Temprana” has a graph, on which students shade in scores, goals, and a target focus. Students can also set their own goals with the “Setting Personal Istation Goals” sheets. Students’ growth can be displayed on a bulletin board without revealing exact student performance. In “Power Path,” an “ISIP Results Dashboard” allows students to access recent assessment results, assessment history, goals, and subtest scores. The students can see how many stars they have earned with their scores and their ISIP results. The teacher can use the dashboard to complete one-on-one conferences to help students complete their tracking sheets. Students use the dashboard to visually monitor their growth and progress.

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

The materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools. Materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ needs in all domains, based on measures of student progress appropriate to the developmental level. Diagnostic tools yield meaningful information for teachers to use when planning instruction and differentiation. Materials provide a variety of resources and teacher guidance on how to leverage different activities to respond to student data. Materials provide guidance for administrators to support teachers in analyzing and responding to data.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The program has several diagnostic tools that target many domains. The diagnostic tools yield a wealth of information presented via various reports. These reports provide data on usage levels, reading levels, and specific skill needs. Materials provide resources for teachers to target the specific skill needs of their students based on the data provided in the reports. Although there is a lot of support and guidance for the teachers, there is a lack of guidance for administrators to support teachers in responding to the data. The materials guide the administrators to help with data analysis but not with responding to the data. 

The materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ needs in all domains, based on measures of student progress appropriate to the developmental level. The diagnostic tools yield meaningful information for teachers to use when planning instruction and differentiation. The “ISIP Summary Report” provides an overview of student progress within the program, the student’s most recent score, and a percentile rank identifying the student’s results as compared to national norms. The Summary Report shows student performance data from the most recently completed assessment, including growth charts tracking overall progress and subtest/domain progress. This report includes the student’s current “Lexile Measure” based on the most recent “Reading Comprehension” subtest. The results help the teacher evaluate the student’s intervention plan, identify the student’s skill weaknesses, and discuss the student’s performance with administrators and intervention teams. The Skill Growth Report shows each skill assessed, student progress and reading ability, the class average for the month, and the progress made by the class in the current month.

The “Individual Student Session Report” provides information regarding student behavior and practices while using the application. The “Critical Intervention Report” highlights students whose scores are in the 10th percentile or lower and students who are in need of intense intervention; it also provides recommendations for teacher-directed lessons in the curriculum. Based on the reports’ data, teachers can identify individual students’ strengths and weaknesses for planning and intervention. A “User’s Guide” provides guidance and direction to respond to students’ needs based on measures of student progress; it yields meaningful information for teachers to use for planning and differentiation. 

The materials provide a variety of resources and teacher guidance on how to leverage different activities to respond to student data. Each report provides data to help guide teachers in their classroom instruction. The “Classroom Summary Report” helps teachers identify students in need of additional support, group students for small group instruction, and identify the skill level of materials for small group instruction. The “Priority Report” helps the teacher select students for small group instruction and obtain teacher-directed lessons and materials. It also helps teachers document provided interventions and discuss student performance with administrators or intervention teams. The “Student Detail Report” helps teachers monitor student progress in interactive instruction, assist with specific skill instruction, view student writing responses, and monitor growth in specific writing skills; teachers can also use it for individual writing conferences or instruction. The materials include videos with directions for teachers to follow to understand the data. 

The “Lexile Trend Report” allows teachers to view students’ Lexile levels in order to help students choose the right books. After students are placed in their instructional path based on their initial assessment score, interactive instruction moves students through the program at their own pace. Students can advance on their learning path based on assessment performance; assessments are intended to be used to differentiate for each student’s needs. Additionally, teachers can assign additional practice activities to small groups of students or individuals, select practice lessons for students to complete at home or at school, and track the progression and completion of assigned lessons. Teachers can run the reports to help with planning and intervention. Reports support teachers in identifying intervention areas and help with purposeful planning. 

The materials provide guidance for administrators to support teachers in analyzing and responding to data. A provided guide for administrators focuses on running reports for the campus and classroom. The administrator can run reports to compare classrooms and to compare a campus with the rest of the district. The administrator is able to filter reports by grades and classrooms to help target teachers’ professional development needs. The guide includes information to help administrators understand the various reports and comparisons. The reports can help administrators identify specific areas for program improvement based on campus performance. For example, the “Executive Summary Report” provides campus-wide overall diagnostic assessment data. The report shows students’ percentile at each “Tier” for each grade level and skill growth by Tier for each grade level. The report provides campus administrators a brief overview of the current assessment or month’s data; it also shows the number and percentage of students at each instructional Tier/level by grade for the current month. 

The “Tier Movement Report” shows the percentage and number of students in each Tier/level by month and tracks student movement between Tiers/levels. The report helps administrators evaluate student growth throughout the school year; evaluate the effectiveness of instructional support; and monitor for an increase of Tier 1 (i.e., Level 3, 4, and 5) students and decrease of Tier 2 and Tier 3 (i.e., Level 2 and 1) students. The materials provide administrators with data in three different areas: Levels (Quintiles), Instructional Tiers, and RTI. This data helps administrators plan for content area professional development to support areas of need. The “Campus” page is available to district and campus managers. Administrators are able to gather the needed data to support teachers with purposeful planning and intervention, but there is no direction for administrators on how to help teachers with instructional delivery or planning. Guidance for administrators helps support teachers with data analysis.

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress.

The materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress. Routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities accurately measure and track student progress. The frequency of progress monitoring is appropriate for the age and content skill.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities that accurately measure and track student progress. “ISIP” is an automated computer-adaptive testing system that automatically assigns an assessment to each student. The ISIP assessments are automatically given the first time a student logs on during the month. The monthly ISIP for grade 2 measures “Phonemic and Phonological Awareness, Listening Comprehension, Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Text Fluency, Written Communication.” Students complete the initial assessment and are placed at their appropriate developmental level within the program. From there, students are assessed on a monthly basis via ISIP to measure progress and continued growth in reading. The teacher uses this monthly ISIP data to plan intervention for small group lessons or teacher-directed lessons. 

Teachers can give an “ISIP On-Demand Assessment” at any time during the year. ISIP assessment data is presented in many different forms, as addressed by a variety of reports. The reports provide guidance for teachers to monitor and track students’ performance over time. The “Priority Report” alerts teachers of students needing additional support and provides lessons based on demonstrated weaknesses. The “Progress Report” shows student progress through the “Cycles of Instruction” by reading areas. The “Student Summary Handouts” provide student performance data from the most recently completed ISIP assessment. 

The materials provide some opportunities for teachers to use informal assessments to observe and document students’ learning. In ISIP, Level 3, Lesson 1, “Comunicación escrita,” teachers use flash cards and a checklist to monitor students’ acquisition of one-syllable high-frequency words. Materials state: “Los estudiantes deben tener múltiples oportunidades para demostrar su dominio de la destreza. Observe y marque el progreso de los estudiantes. Utilice esta información para planear instrucción de grupos pequeños.” 

The frequency of progress monitoring is appropriate, based on student age and content skill development. ISIP integrates computerized-adaptive testing that accurately reflects the reading ability level of each student and measures growth over time. Test questions range from easy to hard for each reading domain for prekindergarten through grade 12. To identify a student’s overall reading ability and individual skill ability, the assessment adapts to precisely measure student ability within subtests, based on immediate student responses. Oral reading fluency is not used in determining the “Overall Reading Ability” index. Once the areas of strength and weakness are determined by the ISIP, the teacher is able to use the teacher-directed lessons to help students target areas of need. Students making appropriate progress continue working at their own pace through the online portal of the program. If progress is not being made, students may also be moved to test in lower-grade-level TEKS. 

The “Tracking Student Growth” report is intended to track goals and “focus areas” for each student based on the reports from the ISIP. The tracking sheet is the same for all the grade levels and can be used to work with students to practice individual goal setting to “help them build motivation and maximize student growth.” “Tracking Individual Student Growth” can be used for the student to track their own yearly progress based on monthly results from the ISIP assessments. The tracking charts list the school year’s months; students fill in their score (points) to complete a graph that tracks their progress from month to month. These charts help the students visually track their own progress. Additionally, after students have completed the ISIP Assessment, teachers will have access to reports by logging in to www.istation.com. The reports include ISIP Summary Report, Classroom Summary Report, ISIP Skill Growth, The Priority Report, The Student Summary Handout, The Progress Report, and The Usage Trend Report. 

Evaluation for 6.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

The materials include guidance, scaffolds, support, and extensions that maximize student learning potential. Materials provide recommended targeted instruction and activities for students who have not yet mastered the content. The materials provide some targeted instruction and activities for students who have mastered the content. However, the materials do not provide additional enrichment activities for all levels of learners.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide guidance, scaffolds, support, and extensions, as well as recommended targeted instruction and activities for students who have not yet mastered the content. A placement assessment and assigns activities according to students’ screening testing results. In Cycle 7, Lesson 8, “Combining Syllables to Form Words with letters h, z, the digraph rr, and vowel a,” the teacher models blending syllables with the letters h, z, rr, and a. The teacher says: “Las palabras se forman a partir de sílabas. Para formar una sílaba juntamos una consonante con una vocal o una vocal con una consonante. Hoy vamos a practicar las sílabas con las consonantes h, z, el dígrafo rr, y la vocal a.” The teacher guides students in creating words with syllables. The students use the “consonantes h, z, el dígrafo rr, y la vocal a” to practice creating words. Students read the words out loud and work with “Tarjetas para formar sílabas, Tarjetas de dibujos, Tarjetas de sílaba, Tarjetas de palabras, en el juego Zap!” Students practice making words, building their word-reading skills.

In Cycle 9, Lesson 2, “Identifying verbs in past tense,” the materials provide instruction for students who have not yet mastered the content. The lesson is geared towards students who struggle with past tense verbs. The teacher says: “Hoy vamos a trabajar con verbos conjugados en tiempo pasado. Los verbos en tiempo pasado nos indican una acción que se hizo o se completó, como corrió, comió y brincó.” The teacher shows the students the verb cards; a student draws a card and reads it in silence; then, the student acts out the verb. The rest of the students must guess the verb; when they guess the verb correctly, they must use the past tense verb. Afterward, the students work on the handouts “Buscando verbos” and “Trabajando con verbos.” The teacher observes and offers help as needed. 

In Cycle 12, Lesson 1, the materials provide targeted instruction for students who have not yet mastered the content. In this lesson, students learn how to identify and use conjunctions with combined/compound subjects and predicates. The lesson provides targeted instruction for identification and use of conjunctions. Students receive direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. During direct instruction, the teacher explains conjunctions and their function in a sentence. The teacher then writes examples of these types of sentences. Students read the sentences. The teacher continues to monitor students and provides support as needed. 

The materials include some targeted instruction and activities for students who have mastered content. After each “ISIP” assessment, students who have mastered the content are assigned activities according to their level, which may move them up to other cycles, even if these cycles do not belong to the student’s grade level. For example, if a kindergarten student masters the assessment, the program may assign activities from grade 1 or another grade level. No evidence was located of teachers directing students who have mastered a skill to work on a different activity while the teacher works with those who have not yet mastered the skill.

The materials provide additional activities for all levels of learners. After the assessment, students are placed in a cycle according to their level; the program suggests lessons and printed activities to use according to the student’s needs. Each cycle includes the “Teachers Resources” section, which provides guidance for differentiating support for students struggling to master content.

The materials do not include enrichment activities that provide students opportunities to explore and apply new learning in a variety of ways. The materials state: “Early reading assessments of Spanish literacy development need to (a) identify students at risk for reading difficulties, students that may need extra instruction or intensive intervention if they are to progress toward grade-level standards in reading by year end; (b) monitor student progress for skill growth on a frequent and ongoing basis and identify students that are falling behind; (c) provide information about students who will be helpful ISIP Español Technical Manual 1-4 Chapter 1: Introduction in planning instruction to meet their needs; and (d) assess whether students achieved grade-level reading standards at the end of the school year. The program targets most students to fill in areas of weakness to help students achieve grade level.” 

Evaluation for 6.2
Materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

The materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs. A variety of instructional approaches engage students in the mastery of the content and support some developmentally appropriate multimodal instructional strategies (visuals). The materials support multiple types of practices and provide guidance and structures to achieve effective implementation. The materials support flexible grouping. However, there is no guidance to differentiate lessons, and the materials do not provide multiple types of lessons. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include a variety of instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. They support some developmentally appropriate multimodal instructional strategies through the use of visuals. For example, in Cycle 9, Lesson 2, students use a frayer model graphic organizer (four-square map) to determine the meaning of words as well as the “Primer set de tarjetas para la enseñanza” cards. The teacher models how to use the frayer model and the cards to support vocabulary development. The teacher then guides students into independent practice: “Ya aprendieron otra estrategia de vocabulario que los ayudará a entender mejor las palabras que no conocen. Repita el mismo proceso con la hoja ‘Segundo set de tarjetas para la enseñanza.’”

In Cycle 10, Lesson 1, students use a frayer model with sentences as context clues to determine the meaning of least frequently used words. The teacher uses previous knowledge to make connections and models using the frayer model step by step. During the lesson, the teacher says: “En el primer cuadrado de este mapa, (señala cada cuadrado en el mapa mientras explica a los estudiantes) vamos a encontrar una oración con una palabra subrayada. Esto quiere decir que debemos buscar el significado de esa palabra. Luego, en el segundo cuadrado vamos a encontrar la pista dentro de la oración que nos ayudará a escribir lo que significa la palabra. En el tercer cuadrado veremos una imagen relacionada con la oración. Finalmente, en el último cuadrado del mapa encontraremos tres opciones del significado de la palabra subrayada. Ustedes deben encerrar en un círculo el significado de la palabra que crean es el correcto.” Students work with a partner to use the frayer model with other vocabulary words. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 2, students identify the main idea of Pelusa and Pecas using a graphic organizer. The teacher guides students: “Recordemos que vamos a prestar mucha atención a quiénes son los personajes, el problema y la solución para identificar la idea principal. Recordemos que la idea principal nos dice de qué trata principalmente la fábula. La idea principal no nos cuenta todos los detalles de la historia.” Students complete the “Organizador gráfico Idea principal,” demonstrating their ability to comprehend the main idea. 

The materials provide direct instruction and flexible grouping (i.e., individual, small, or whole groups) for students who are struggling. The teacher uses reports and targeted lessons with students who are struggling on a specific TEKS. The materials provide activities designed for “Tier 2 and 3” students as well as more opportunities for oral language development. Teachers have specific opportunities to scaffold lessons. Although the lessons are set up in “Cycles,” the curriculum is not developed to be connected; it is more geared towards helping students work on their developmental areas. 

The materials offer flexible grouping. For example, in ISIP, Level 3, Lesson 1, “Comunicación escrita,” the teacher targets high-frequency words with one syllable. The teacher directs the whole class: “Ahora vamos a combinar sonidos para formar palabras y escribirlas.” Teachers observe each student and provide support as needed. Materials state: “Students must have multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of the skill. Observe and mark the progress of the students. Use this information to plan training instruction for small groups.” The materials do not include read-alouds, morning message, or interactive writing activities. 

The materials support multiple types of practices and provide guidance and structures to achieve effective implementation. The lessons included in Cycles 1–8 follow the gradual release model—“Materiales, Enseñanza, Práctica dirigida, Práctica independiente,” moving from teacher-led instruction to independent practice. For example, in Cycle 11, Lesson 1, Comprensión de lectura, the teacher reminds students that they have previously learned that actions have consequences: “Si dejan su libro de la biblioteca en casa y no lo devuelven a tiempo, no podrán sacar otro libro de la biblioteca. A esto lo llamamos causa y efecto.” The teacher then guides students to think of some examples of cause and effect. Once students have come up with their examples, they can share them with the group. In Lesson 2, Comprensión de lectura, proficient readers problem solve with an increasingly difficult text by attending to the meaning, structure, or text supporting language. The teacher says: “Ahora van a terminar de leer la fábula Pelusa y Pecas de forma independiente. Luego van a completar el organizador gráfico Idea principal, respondiendo las preguntas que nos ayudarán a identificar la idea principal. Pueden leer la historia varias veces para encontrar la información necesaria.”

Evaluation for 6.3
Materials include supports for English Learners (ELs) to meet grade-level learning expectations.

The materials do not support English Learners (ELs) in meeting grade-level learning expectations. They do not include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency. The materials do not encourage strategic use of students’ primary language to develop linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic skills in the target language. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials do not include linguistic accommodations for ELs with various levels of English language proficiency. The materials are in Spanish, and there is no guidance or support for English instruction. The program description states: “Istation Español is different from a translated literacy program that has been trans-adapted from English to Spanish. Learning is enhanced through purposeful lessons with Latin culture and literature.” The materials do not use Spanish to develop linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic skills in English; the intent of the materials is to develop Spanish literacy skills. The materials include, in some instances, translations of vocabulary words into English, but there is no guidance regarding how to use these translations.

Evaluation for 7.1
Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction.

The materials lack a year-long plan, but there are some practice and review opportunities that support instruction. Although the materials provide a vertical alignment document that is intended to build instruction year to year, the document shows alignment of two grade levels at a time; it lacks a cohesive, year-long plan to build students’ knowledge and skills in all domains throughout the span of the curriculum. There is some spiraled review and practice of knowledge and skills in all domains throughout the span of the curriculum, including various methods for instruction and review such as cutting, pasting, partner work, songs, and movement. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials lack a cohesive, year-long plan that builds students’ concept development. The materials are accompanied by a “Spanish Language Arts and Reading Strands Summary” and a “Scope and Sequence” outlining the essential knowledge and skills that are taught in the program However, the scope and sequence shows how knowledge and skills build and connect across two grades levels at a time, thus limiting the visualization of a vertical alignment of the whole program. Due to Istation's adaptive nature, the Scope and Sequence reference what cycles a student could progress through depending on their ISIP score. The Spanish Language Arts and Reading Strands Summary reflects the alignment of most skills taught in “ISIP” year to year. However, the summary is organized by SLAR-TEKS and not in chronological order as presented in the lessons. The summary includes the TEKS, the online activities that address the SLAR-TEKS, the “Cycles” in which the SLAR-TEKS are targeted, and the teacher-directed lessons. The document does not specify skills taught in each strand. 

The materials provide some spiraled review and practice of knowledge and skills in all domains throughout the span of the curriculum. ISIP integrates computerized adaptive testing that accurately reflects the reading ability level of each student and measures growth over time. The “Interactive Reading Curriculum” is organized into “Cycles of Instruction.” Each cycle provides intensive and direct instruction, practice, and repetition, with multiple opportunities for skill application. The “Adaptive Assessments” use interactive content to measure a student’s reading ability and skill development and designs a personalized plan based on the student’s assessment results. Although overall the online portal provides many opportunities for students to review and practice knowledge and skills when they struggle, materials do not spiral for students that master the TEKS. The teacher can plan face-to-face intervention based on “Priority Report” recommendations.

The “Istation Español Curriculum Correlated to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Spanish Language Arts and Reading” document lists a spiral review of knowledge and skills that spans the curriculum. Skills are grouped by general categories (domains): “Listening, Book and Print Awareness, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Word Analysis, Letter Writing and Spelling, Technology, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension.” The general categories are broken into skills. The document also lists the skills taught in each “Cycle.” The materials provide some spiral review. For example, grade K TEKS K (1)B, TEKS 2.2(A), “Demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by: (i) decoding multisyllabic words” is targeted in “ISIP” vocabulary assessments in Cycles 1–3. It is also targeted in lessons in Cycles 2–8. The materials target this TEKS with online activities such as the “HFW Balloon Game,” decodable books, and making words with “La palabra secreta.” The materials list the various places in the curriculum where the skill is targeted in various lessons. The materials show that the TEKS is presented across the cycles, not just at the beginning or at the end.

Evaluation for 7.2
Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators.

The materials include some implementation support for teachers and administrators. An SLAR TEKS-aligned scope and sequence outlines 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. Support helps teachers implement the materials as intended. Resources and guidance help administrators support teachers in implementing the materials as intended. The materials include a school year’s worth of literacy instruction and routines; however, realistic pacing guidance is difficult to gauge since this is based on student performance. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials are accompanied by an SLAR TEKS-aligned scope and sequence outlining the essential knowledge and skills that are taught in the program. The scope and sequence shows how knowledge and skills build and connect across two grade levels at a time. The “Spanish Language Arts and Reading Strands Summary” reflects the alignment of skills taught in “ISIP” year to year. Due to Istation’s adaptive nature, the Scope and Sequence reference what cycles a student could progress through depending on their ISIP score. The summary is separated by TEKS; the SLAR-TEKS are addressed through online activities such as books and songs. “Cycles” are online and target the SLAR-TEKS; there are also teacher-directed lessons. The summary shows lessons in alignment with TEKS, rather than showing the lessons according to skill progression. 

The materials include teacher support to implement the materials as intended. In the “User’s Guide,” “Getting Students and Teachers Started with Istation,” the materials provide guidance for setting up the program in the classroom (e.g., setting up student accounts, login information, and best practices). There is guidance on using and applying the data gathered through assessments for instructional planning. The User’s Guide is the same for all the grades. The “Beginning of Year Implementation Guide” includes the “Before the First Assessment, Monthly Activities, Weekly Activities, Recommended Weekly Usage, and Reports” section, which provides teachers with information on how to implement the program. There is support for teachers to plan student use of technology, face-to-face intervention based on “Priority Report” recommendations, and daily student usage (e.g., 30 minutes per day for Tier 1). “Teacher Resources” include reports for student progress monitoring and implementation of classroom materials. In the “Data Analysis” section, the materials provide guidance for small group work, mini-lessons and reteach lessons, tutorial videos for best practices (e.g., on setting up the program, on using reports), and on tiers and progress reports. The materials include board cards that have personalized teaching tips.

Resources and guidance help administrators support teachers with program implementation. The online portal includes an administrator page for campus and/or district administrators and a user guide. Videos with technical instructions help the administrator navigate the program; they cover, for instance, adding and removing users, reports for usage, and reports for assessment compilation. The user guide addresses class setup, student data imports, and reports. The “Administration” tab provides school administrators access to district or campus information at a glance, classroom reports, and student progress monitoring. Administrators have the ability to share reports with teachers for collaborative purposes. The “Administrator Implementation Checklist” addresses technology requirements for program usage and implementation. Guidance for administrators focuses on the technology aspect and overseeing the usage of the program on the campus rather than providing resources and guidance to help the administrator serve as the educational leader of the campus. 

As stated in the “Interactive Instruction Guide,” once students have completed their initial assessments, they are placed on their own instructional path. The Teacher Resource section in the guide states: “Students move through Istation Interactive Instruction at their own pace after being placed in their instructional path based on their initial ISIP score. The initial placement cannot be changed by students or teachers; however, students can advance their learning path based on subsequent ISIP scores.” Therefore, the materials do not offer a pacing guide. Students advance on their learning path and continue to work on TEKS-based instruction throughout the year. The materials include teacher-directed lessons for teachers to enhance the learning experience. Through these lessons, teachers can pick and choose which direct instruction lessons to use. The materials lack teacher-directed lessons to cover the entire year.

Evaluation for 7.3
Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

The materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations. The materials provide guidance for strategic implementation without disrupting the sequence of content that must be taught in a specific order following a developmental progression. The materials are designed in a way that allows LEAs the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include strategic guidance on implementation to ensure the content sequence is taught consistently with the developmental progression of foundational literacy skills. This adaptive program allows students to work at their own pace and at their own level. The materials provide guidance to support the teaching “Cycles” most appropriate to the classroom. The scope and sequence includes information on the developmental progression of skills across the various grade levels. The document lists the SLAR-TEKS and the corresponding cycles in which they are taught. The scope and sequence document is presented in order by TEKS.

The materials are designed to allow LEAs the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations. The materials are designed to be easily assimilated into any district curriculum framework. The different curriculum components (digital, teacher station, teacher-directed lessons) can be tailored to meet the scheduling needs of the classroom while still meeting the academic needs of the students. The materials include instructional planning templates to help teachers, districts, and schools decide how they want to implement and use the curriculum. The suggested usage for the digital component is 30–40 minutes. There are no specific days and times for each lesson. The curriculum provides the teacher with resources to implement lessons and target skills as needed in the “Teacher Station” and “Teacher-Directed Lessons.” Each lesson is TEKS-based and can be implemented in any curriculum. Although the materials can be adjusted to fit scheduling and program needs, they do not provide guidance on the strategic implementation of the materials since the adaptive technology adjusts to each individual student’s needs.

Evaluation for 7.4
Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school.

The materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school. Materials support the development of strong relationships between teachers and families and specify activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials support the development of strong relationships between teachers and families. They include multiple ways for teachers to stay connected with families to help continue students’ reading development at home. Activities are provided in both English and Spanish. Parents receive a monthly “ISIP” results letter, the “Carta para padres de ISIP Español.” The letter describes the program to the parents and the areas of assessment. The letter includes the areas on which the teachers will be working with the students and how they will work together to help the students succeed in reading. The letter also communicates to parents the value of their partnership: “¡Estamos seguros de que con su ayuda y compromiso su hijo(a) desarrollará su máximo potencial de lectura!” 

The materials specify activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development. A “Parent Portal Walkthrough Video” provides parents with an in-depth description of how the program works and helps them learn how they can help their students at home. “Guia para Padres” includes a welcome letter for parents and a program overview. The parent introduction section includes an “Istation at Home Manual.” The parent guide covers all of the sections and “Cycles” of the program (across all grades). It also provides advice for parents on how to use the program at home, shows the design of the program, explains how to connect at home, and provides other resources they can use at home. A section with parent tips includes ideas for establishing a routine for children as they learn from home, creating a classroom at home, integrating the vocabulary the child is learning throughout the day, giving students breaks in between lessons, creating a schedule, and rewarding students for their work. The materials also provide a “Planning for a Powerful School Year” resource: “This new parent guide is practical and easy to use with simple tips for parents, including daily and weekly schedule samples for home.” 

The “Manual de Istation para el hogar” guides parents on navigating the program at home. The manual features high-level teaching tips and video series and provides specific activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development. There is parental guidance on the various sections of the program and on using the parent portal. The parent portal provides a wealth of information to help parents work with their students at home and help support their learning. The portal also provides printable resources specific to students’ academic needs, printable books in different Lexile reading levels and passages, parent-facing data on the student’s work in the program, and a summary of the skills the student is working on and their progress. The portal allows parents to monitor their students in the same way the teacher does at school; they are able to view the accumulated data and help students in areas of need. The Manual de Istation para el hogar is for all the Istation instructional materials and is not grade-specific. 

“La conexión desde el hogar: Ipractice” explains in detail how the program has been developed, so parents can understand how the digital lessons and interactive books engage students through songs and games; it also guides the parents on what is available for the students to use at home. “Ipractice” has lessons, games, and activities that the students can use to practice skills. The home practice section includes activities the parents can complete at home to help support their student’s learning, such as “Tarjetas de fonogramas” and “Tarjetas del banco de palabras.” Many available resources help parents support their student’s learning at home. The guide also provides parents with practical tutorials and webinars to help their children using “Read-Alouds,” “Vocabulary Development,” “Interactive Writing,” and “Segmenting Syllables” at home. These resources provide specific at-home activities to support students’ learning and development. The “Registro de estudiantes” guides the parents through downloading and using the program at home.

Evaluation for 7.5
The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The visual design of the student and teacher materials (whether print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic. Materials use white space appropriately and employ design that supports and does not distract from student learning. Pictures and graphics are supportive of student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In Cycle 1, Lesson 2, “Fonética,” cards and a student activity help support student learning and engagement. The picture cards for the diphthong /ue/ include pictures that the students can easily identify. The pictures are clear and authentic. Some of the pictures included are those of a pig and a fire. The pictures help the students make the connections between the pictures and the diphthong for the lesson. 

In Level 3, Lesson 1, “Prefijos,” teacher instructions are written in bold print, which helps the teacher easily follow the lesson. This student activity includes “Tablero Juego de prefijos” and “Tarjetas de palabras con prefijos.” These worksheets include direct instructions on how to use them and plenty of space for students to cut and paste. The materials provide clear large headings in the lesson to guide teachers: “Destreza, Materiales, Enseñanza, Práctica dirigida, Práctica independiente.” 

The design of Cycle 10, Lesson 1, “Comprensión de lectura,” includes a short description of the skills the students are going to be learning, followed by a list of materials the teacher needs for the lesson. Many graphics help students use context clues to identify what words mean. Materials provide a graphic organizer for both the teacher and the students (i.e., “Mapa de cuatro cuadrados 1”). The teacher’s organizer is larger so that students are able to see it. Sentence stems also include graphics that give visual clues to students as they search for responses to the questions. The visuals help connect the learning for the students. 

In Cycle 11, Lesson 1, Comprensión de lectura, students read a story with graphics. The story is easy for the students to see, with appropriately-sized letters. Teacher instructions are written in bold print; this helps the teacher to follow the lesson easier. The student activity includes directions for both teacher and students and a multiple-choice review. The materials provide clear large headings in the lesson to guide teachers.

The teacher guide’s design supports student learning. The “Etapas de lectura de Istation Español” chart helps teachers plan and implement lessons. The chart includes four columns for planning and implementation purposes: “Etapas de lectura de Istation, Características del lector, Características del texto, Medida aproximada de Lexile.” Teachers can use this chart to choose materials and resources to help support students. The chart also lists the stages of reading in five groups. 

The “Reading Level Guide” design supports students’ learning. The included reading level chart is clear and concise; information is easy to locate. Using the “ISIP” reading scores, the teacher is able to determine the students’ instructional reading level. The chart lists reading level correlations with “DRA2,” “Guided Reading,” and “Basal Reading” levels. Teachers can find appropriate reading and instructional material for the students depending on which leveling system they are using (DRA, Guided Reading, or Basal Reading). 

The story Tormenta de nieve (430L) supports and does not distract from student learning. The six-page book includes colorful pictures to go along with the text. The pictures are easily identifiable, and students can use them as clues to support their reading and vocabulary. In the story ¿Quién nos sigue? the pictures are authentic and in color. They are easy for students to identify and supportive of their learning and understanding of the story. The pictures and the graphics are not visually distracting.