Kindergarten - Gateway 2

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2c.

Countdown Kindergarten materials include content that can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding. The Countdown program utilizes lesson plans with a limited research base, including foundational concepts, such as phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, phonics, and high-frequency words. The program is intended to be taught in whole group lessons. Materials provide assessments to identify if students need to use the program as a small group intervention. In Units 1-16, Countdown lessons are designed for 15 minutes daily, which is not an appropriate amount of time for foundational skills. In Units 17-28, the lessons are designed for 15-25 minutes. Countdown contains 28 weekly units, which can be completed in one school year without modifications. 

Lesson plans utilize some effective, research-based lesson plan design for early literacy instruction.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, What You Need to Know, Countdown in General, page xxiii, the program describes the speech-to-print approach. Sounds are taught first, and then the symbols represent those sounds. 

•  In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Lesson Design, page xxii, there is a labeled diagram of the different components of the lesson, which includes a connection alignment to the strand of learning with lesson activities. 

• In Quick Links, Research Alignment, Early Literacy White Paper, pages 1-3, “According to the report issued by the National Reading Panel (NRP) (2000), to successfully teach children how to read, there are five areas in which children must be provided direct and systematic instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.” 

The effective lesson design structure includes whole group and some small group instruction. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, page xxxiv, Introduction, Whole Class instruction states that Countdown is to be taught as a whole group lesson. The benefits of teaching Countdown once a day as a whole group lesson allows lower students to learn from higher students and only one teacher is needed.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Whole Group and Small Group Instruction, page xxxiii, it states that although Countdown is designed for whole-class instruction, it can be used in small groups of struggling students. Under the subheading Tip, there are suggestions for delivering instruction to the whole class, including using a Smartboard or whiteboard to enable content to be viewed in a whole-class setting. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments & Groupings, there are recommendations for supporting and reteaching students. Small Group Instruction with Really Great Reading’s Phonics Suite states, Countdown, Blast, and HD Word lessons can be taught in small to medium-sized groups to provide intervention for students who are “at risk” or have weaknesses in their foundational skills and are within the intended grade range of the program.”

The pacing of each component of daily lesson plans is clear; however, the amount of time for foundational skills is not appropriate. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, Countdown’s Unit and Lesson Structure, page xix, the instruction states that Units 1-16 contain five daily lessons in each weekly unit consisting of three parts. Each part should take about five minutes for the teacher, and all three components are expected to take 15 minutes. Therefore, each daily lesson should be taught in 15 minutes.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Lesson Design, page xxii, the three individual lesson components that make up the whole lesson are labeled on a lesson plan template to allow teachers to see where these parts are located within the lesson plan. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 3, Introduction, pages vi-viii, there are five lessons, a lesson for each day of the week, which contain connected instructional routines. In Units 17-28, lessons no longer have three different parts and can be taught as one continuous lesson, which should take approximately 15-25 minutes. The lessons have a specific focus. Students receive a total of explicit foundational instruction for 75-100 minutes a week. 

The suggested amount of time and expectations for maximum student understanding of all foundational skill content (i.e., phonological awareness, print concepts, letters, phonics, HFW, word analysis, decoding) can reasonably be completed in one school year and should not require modifications. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, How Much Time Will it Take to Complete Countdown, page xxxii, it states that Countdown provides 28 weeks of instruction (approximately 140 days).

• Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, the Countdown Scope and Sequence, no page numbers, details the five weekly lessons in Units 1-28, each unit taking a week to complete. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Appendix, in Alternative Scope and Sequence, page 289, the lessons for three introductory weeks are provided if a teacher prefers to utilize three introductory weeks instead of one. This would increase the 28-week program to 30 weeks of instruction.

For those materials on the borderline (e.g., approximately 130 days on the low end or 200 days on the high end), evidence clearly explains how students would be able to master ALL the grade level standards within one school year.

• N/A

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2d.ii. 

Countdown materials have a delineated scope and sequence. In addition to the Scope and Sequence in the Introduction, more detailed information about the strands and sub-strands is in each lesson in the What You Need to Know section. Countdown strands include rhyming phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, sight words, and functional vocabulary. The materials provide instruction and practice to build toward the application of the skills based on evidence and research. There is insufficient research on the particular sequence of phonics skills in the Scope and Sequence.

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward the application of skills.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages ix-x, a detailed Scope and Sequences lists the unit, the instruction, and focus area for each of the five lessons in an orderly fashion with related practice for phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics instruction. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xvii, a Skills Taught by Activity chart contains skills, activities, and first instances for Alphabetic Principle strands in Units 1-16 and Units 17-28 with the following information:

  • Letter Naming and Letter-Sound Correspondence activities:

    • Initially found in Unit 6: Letter-Sound Into, Name That Sound, This Letter or That?, Find That Letter, Connect That Letter 

    • Initially found in Unit 7: Which Letter?

    • Initially located in Unit 15: Letter Sound Review 

  • Decoding activities:

    • Initially located in Unit 6: Letters Make Words, Touch and Say 

    • Initially located in Unit 10: Phrase Reading

  • Encoding activities:

    • Initially found in Unit 7: Guess My Word, Unscramble This 

    • Initially located in Unit 9: Build a Word

  •  Alphabetic Principle strands in Units 17-28:

    • Recognizing letter-sounds with automaticity activities: Look, Think, Say, Pop-Up 3-Up, Read a Row 

  • Encoding spoken one-syllable words with accuracy activities: Build a Word, Spell It!

  • Decoding closed syllable words (digraphs, two sound consonant blends) with accuracy in isolation, short phrase and sentence activities: Detective Work, Word Sort, Phrases and Sentences to Read 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Introduction, page xvi (from the table of contents), there is the Countdown Scope and Sequence for Countdown Books 1, 2, and 3. The Scope and Sequence contains the order phonics patterns are introduced in Units 1-28:

  • Unit 6, Cluster 1: m, t, p, a

  • Unit 7, Cluster 2: s, h, c, i

  • Unit 8, Cluster 3: d, f, r, o

  • Unit 9, Review Clusters 1-3

  • Unit 10, Cluster 4: g, l, n, u

  • Unit 11, Cluster 5: b, k, v, e

  • Unit 12, Review Clusters 1-5

  • Unit 13, Cluster 6: j, w, z

  • Unit 14, Cluster 7: qu, x, y

  • Units 15 and 16, Review Clusters 1-7

  • Unit 17, Review short vowel sounds

  • Unit 18, Long vowel sounds and closed syllables 

  • Unit 19, Short a vs. Long a 

  • Unit 20, Short i vs. Long i; digraph sh 

  • Unit 21, Short u vs. Long u; digraph th

  • Unit 22, Short o vs. Long o; digraphs sh and th 

  • Unit 23, Short e vs. Long e; digraphs ch and wh 

  • Unit 24, Review all short and long vowels; digraph ck

  • Unit 25, Sound Buddies two-sound blends; digraph review 

  • Unit 26, Sound Buddies two-sound blends; two-sound blends initial and final

  • Unit 27, Introduce blending syllables; read two-syllable words with closed syllables 

  • Unit 28, Review blending syllables; read two-syllable words with closed syllables 

Materials have a limited research-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence.

• In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, pages 7-8, the paper provides the following information: “Perhaps the most important goal, in the interest of giving students a productive knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, is to convey to them the basic alphabetic principle, or the idea that words are made of sounds and that letters represent those sounds in a systematic way (Paulson & Moats, 2010).” Countdown states that they put research into practice, “As they learn each cluster of letter sounds, Countdown students immediately apply their alphabet knowledge to encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading) simple, controlled, one-syllable words using the letter sounds they have explicitly been taught.” The paper states that teachers begin to scaffold students decoding and encoding of words as early as week six of instruction with CVC words such as, map, pat, and tap. Students learn to represent phonemes with color tiles then match letter tiles to color tiles. 

• In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Papers, page 7, it states all of the Really Great Reading’s programs have a major instructional focus on the decoding and the encoding of words to facilitate students’ reading fluency and comprehension over time. It states, "Pflaum, Walberg, Karegianes, and Rasher (1980) determined that the application of letter-sound knowledge to the decoding of words should happen immediately once students have been taught enough letters to read such words (as cited in Shanahan, 2005). Thus, explicit letter-sound instruction should segue into explicit phonics instruction." The program states it helps students move from learning individual letter sounds to putting the sounds together to encode and decode simple words as quickly as possible.

• In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Papers, page 8, it states, "Works Clearinghouse recommends that students begin reading connected text as soon as they have a rudimentary grasp on decoding a few words (Foorman et al., 2016)." The paper states after students have learned only 16 letters in Countdown, they begin to engage in simple phrase reading, and by the end of Unit 16, most students are, with support or without support, begin to read simple phrases, for instance, “in the van”. They also get ready to move on to more complex phonics concepts.

Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations.

• In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, page 8, in the Phonics section, it states that after students have learned 16 letters, they begin reading simple phrases. As students complete Unit 16, most students read simple phrases with or without support, such as in the van. In the second half of Countdown, students review letter sounds and begin applying their phonics knowledge to decoding single-syllable words inclusive of digraphs and two-sound blends, and move on to decoding simple multisyllabic words containing two closed syllables. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page vi, Specific Curricular Goals, the goals are explained. The first half of the year (Units 1-16) pre-decoding skills, understanding letter-sound relationships are presented in a manner designed to help ensure that students can read and understand the structure of high utility patterns and common generations found in CVC words. In the second half of the year (Units 17-28), the program focuses on skills needed to decode more complex words in isolation and connected text. The focus in this section is based on the structure of single-syllable and closed syllable words such as dust, hush, smash, west, and two-syllable words where both syllables are closed, such as sunset and picnic.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xvi-xvii, in Countdown Scope and Sequence shows in Unit 17, students review short vowel sounds, and in Unit 18, they begin an introduction to long vowel sounds. In Unit 20, they begin work with digraphs, and by Unit 27, they start blending syllables and reading two-syllable words with closed syllables.

Patterns and generalizations are carefully selected to provide a meaningful and manageable number of phonics patterns and common generalizations for students to learn deeply. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction pages ix-- x, Countdown Scope and Sequence, it shows a pattern of phonics and related generalizations beginning with simple common patterns related to rhyming and phonological awareness. This leads to letter-sound correspondence and applying this knowledge to encoding and decoding using segmenting and blending skills to read simple patterns. The second half of the year focuses on more complex consonant structures, including digraphs and two-sound blends. By the end of the year, two-syllable words are presented. 

• In Research Alignment, White Papers, Early Literacy White Paper, page 8, the paper states, “The scope and sequences for Countdown, Blast Foundations, and HD Word progress from simpler to more difficult concepts. Students begin by learning short vowel sounds and the closed syllable spelling pattern and gradually progress to more challenging long vowel sounds and the multiple spellings of those sounds.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2f.ii.

The Countdown Kindergarten materials have opportunities for student use and repeated readings of decodable texts with high-frequency words. However, the passages do not fully align with the program’s scope and sequence. Passages contain up to five additional words that have not been explicitly taught in Countdown. The Countdown Online does provide decodable passages with Heart Words in Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources.  

Materials include decodable texts that utilize high-frequency/irregularly spelled words. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, there are 12 fictional Countdown Decodable Passages. The materials state the Countdown Passages are strictly controlled stories that align with the phonics skills, although some passages contain Heart Words not explicitly taught. The decodable passages begin with Unit 17 and then provide one for each unit through Unit 28. The Countdown Passage for Unit 20, “On the Ship” includes Words to Preview: we, look, there, new, must. The passage contains 117 words and has words with the digraph sh. One sentence in the passage is, “I can get a new rod if I dash to the shop.”

Decodable texts contain grade-level high-frequency/irregularly spelled words. However, the high-frequency/irregularly spelled words are not fully aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages, it states, “The high-frequency words used in the passages fall into one of two categories: 1) Heart Words that students have been explicitly taught in the current and previous Countdown units; 2) up to 5 additional words per passage, not explicitly taught in Countdown, from the Dolch 220 Pre-Primer and Primer lists (these are included in a “Words to Preview” section in the standard and differentiated versions of the passages since they may be unfamiliar to students).”

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are not aligned to the scope and sequence. For example, in Unit 18, students learn was, no, so, however, none of those words are in the passage for Unit 18. The passage, “Tim and Ted” contains out, which is not taught until Unit 28. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, the Countdown Passages are not aligned to the scope and sequence. For example, in Unit 22, students learn ate, our, who, however, none of those words are in the passage for Unit 22. The passage, “A Pet Dog” contains must and he, which are not taught until later units.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing reading high-frequency words/irregularly spelled words in context.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, there are Countdown Decodable Passages. The Countdown Passage for Unit 26, “Our Land” includes Words to Preview: look, out, new. For the instruction of Heart Words, the materials state, “Heart Words the students have already learned in Countdown are not marked in the standard versions of the passages. If a student struggles with a Heart Word, remind him or her this is a Heart Word he or she has learned and, if necessary, encourage the student to look at, think about, and say (Look, Think, Say) the word, or provide the word for the student.”

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Decodable Passages, the directions state, “The teacher should review these words [Words to Preview] with the students several times before reading the passage. Since students are not expected to know these words, the teacher may read these words to the students when they are encountered in the passage if necessary. Optionally, the teacher may consider devoting some instructional time to teaching words that frequently appear in the passages.”

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Countdown Decodable Passages, the Additional Activities suggests, “Circling the Heart Words.”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2g.ii. 

The Kindergarten Countdown materials provide a Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey, which is given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. It contains a Phonological Awareness section assessing rhyming, blending compound words and onset-rime, isolating sounds in spoken words, and blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and manipulating phonemes. The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey provides teachers and students with current skill level and next step instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. A Phonological Awareness Survey provides teachers and students with their current skill levels. However, there are missed opportunities for instructional suggestions to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. The Beginning of Year (BOY), Middle of Year (MOY), and End of Year (EOY) Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys are listed as optional in the Recommended Timeline Flowcharts if teachers have access to the Reading Playgrounds but recommended for teachers/students without access to the Reading Playgrounds. The Reading Playground provides formative assessments for each unit. The first three games in each unit can be used as formative assessments. The Reading Playground formative assessment games include phonological awareness skills. The Reading Playground Formative Assessment games provide teachers with students' current skill level and next step instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. The BOY, MOY, and EOY Reading Playground assess phonological awareness skills and provide teachers with students' current skill levels; however, those assessments have missed opportunities for instructional suggestions to help students progress toward mastery in phonological awareness.

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonological awareness.

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, pages xxxii-xxxiii, the teacher may download and assess students using the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey. There is information about each subsection and how to use the results.

• In Countdown Optional Foundational Skills Surveys, Overview, page 3, Purpose, it explains three surveys for kindergarten. Each survey is designed to correspond to one phase of the kindergarten school year. Form A is used for the initial assessment, and Form B is used for progress monitoring throughout the school year at three times during the school year: beginning, middle, and end of the year. Foundational skills with 50 items each are designed to help teachers make informed instructional decisions; these can measure growth in functional vocabulary, phonological phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, decoding, and high-frequency word reading.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, pages 2-4, contains a Phonological Awareness/Phonemic Awareness section to measure students ability to “hear, identify, and produce sounds.” Skills assessed in this portion of the assessment include: recognizing and producing rhymes, blending compound words, blending onset and rime, identifying beginning sounds, blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes. The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys are given at the year's beginning, middle, and end. The assessment can be given with hard copies or digitally. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, certain concepts are targeted in the assessment games, including phonemic awareness. Each game assesses skills taught within that unit. The first three games are used as formative assessments in each unit. In Reading Playground formative assessment for Unit 3, Game 1, the student hears similar words with one different sound. The student needs to touch the first, middle, or last color tile where the words are different. For example, students are to touch the middle color tile to show the different phonemes in shock and shack. 

• The EOY Summative assessments include games with counting phonemes, identifying vowel sounds, segmenting phonemes, blending phonemes, and counting and blending syllables.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonological awareness.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, page 8, Interpretation of Results, there is a table about determining students’ skill level in areas assessed in the survey. In the phonological and phonemic awareness portion of the survey, there is the following information: “Students scoring 5-10 are considered emerging at the beginning of the year and students scoring 7-12 are considered emerging at the end of the year.”

•  In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Phonological Awareness Survey, page 29, a Skills Level Guidelines provides information on how to determine students levels based on the scoring of recording forms data. The scoring and recording forms are supplied for Form A and Form B of the Phonological Awareness Survey and the Phonemic Awareness Survey, including Part I and Part II. On the Skills Level Guidelines for the phonological awareness portion of the survey, if students at the beginning of the year score 5-9, they are on track. If they score 3-4, they are emerging, and if they score 0-2, they are considered low. At the end of the year, kindergarten students scoring 8-9 are on track. If students score 5-7, they are emerging, and if they score 0-4, they are considered low. In the phonemic awareness portion of the survey, students scoring 5-31are on track at the beginning of the year. If they score 2-4, they are emerging, and they are low if they score 0-1. At the end of the year in Kindergarten, in the phonemic awareness portion of the survey, students scoring 23-31 are on track. Students scoring 13-22 are emerging, and students scoring 0-12 are considered low. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, the materials provide Countdown Benchmark Scores, which have the unit, game number and name, and mastery along with Lesson Reviews and Practical Recommendations. Benchmark Scores for all games are as follows: 80% or greater is listed as nearing proficiency, 60-79% is listed as practice, 59% or lower is listed as reteach. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds EOY Summative Assessment for Countdown, it states teachers can go to the Reading Playgrounds Teacher Dashboard to review students’ scores in either Summary or Detailed by Games reports. There are scores for each game. Scores can be sorted from low to high or high to low, and percentages are color-coded.

Materials minimally support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonological awareness.

• In Countdown Online, OPTIONAL Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys, page 9, there are General Recommendations for Instruction if the majority of students in a class score in the Low or Emerging range in a particular skill, the teacher is advised to plan whole-group lessons that target the skill students are lacking with direct, explicit instruction of that skill. The teacher is also advised to follow up with small-group instruction to provide more intensive instruction in the area of deficit.

• No instructional suggestions are provided for the Phonological Awareness Survey. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown Lesson Review and Practical Recommendations, it lists all three formative assessment games in each unit. The Lesson Review and Practical Recommendations include lesson review and practice and animations, Additional Activities for Practice, Reading Playground games, and Workbook practice in units where workbook work is available. In Unit 11, Lesson Reviews and Practice include Unit 11, Lesson 4, Part 3 and Unit 11, Lesson 2, Part 1. Reading Playground games Unit 11 Game 1 and Game 4 are a recommendation. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, Reading Playgrounds EOY Summative Assessments for Countdown, scores can be used to determine the student's level of mastery. However, no specific next steps are provided for BOY, MOY, or EOY Reading Playground assessments.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2g.iii.

The Countdown Kindergarten materials regularly and systematically provide assessment opportunities that measure student progress in phonics out of context as indicated with the program scope and sequence with Reading Playground Formative Assessments. The Reading Playground Formative Assessments provide teachers and students with information about their current levels. The Reading Playground Formative Assessment materials support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students progress toward phonics mastery. However, there are missed opportunities for regular and systematic assessment opportunities of phonics in context. The Recommended Assessment Timeline references the Foundational Skills Survey, but it is optional and may not be given to all students.

Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, page 1, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, it states there are three games from each unit, including phonics that can be used as formative assessments and will focus on newly acquired knowledge first. On pages 5-10, it lists the first three games from each unit used as formative assessments. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide three Reading Playground Assessments that measure student proficiency over the year in decoding CVC words, identifying words with correct short vowel sounds, identifying digraphs in words, building words with short vowels, digraphs, and two-letter blends, using syllables to spell spoken words, and matching the correct word to a spoken word. 

Materials offer assessment opportunities to determine students’ progress in phonics that are implemented systematically.

• In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, the materials indicate that three Reading Playground Games from each unit can be used as formative assessments. The Reading Playground assessments include, but are not limited to, newly-taught phonics skills from the unit and are intended for use in each unit. 

• In Countdown Online, Reading Playground, Unit 10, students begin to complete words using letters in a bank of three graphemes by listening to the word and finding the missing letter to complete the words. Words provided in the formative assessment for the Unit 11 game include hug/h_g and tip/ti_. In the Unit 24 game, graphemes to choose from include c/ck/k, and incomplete words included in the formative assessment are duck/du_, can/_an, and peck/pe_. Each Reading Playground assessment includes ten questions. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials provide three Reading Playground Assessments that measure student proficiency in a selection of phonics skills over the year. The Recommended Assessment Timeline indicates teachers should administer these assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. 

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided regularly for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. However, the assessments do not provide in-context phonics.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Groupings, Reading Playground, Units 10-28 provide phonics letter/grapheme assessment opportunities. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, the materials provide beginning, middle, and end of year assessments to measure progress in phonics skills, using the Optional  Foundational Skills Surveys and/or the Reading Playground Assessments. The materials provide assessment opportunities focusing on newly-taught skills for each unit using the Reading Playground Formative Assessments. 

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information about students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, pages 5-10, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, there is a chart of Countdown Benchmark Scores which lists Benchmark Scores categories for each formative assessment game. Scores of greater than or equal to 80% as nearing proficiency; scores of 60-79% as practice; and scores equal to or less than 59% as re-teach. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Assessments, the materials indicate that teachers can use student scores on the beginning, middle, and end of year Reading Playground Assessments as percentages correct in each assessed skill. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, Reading Playground Formative Assessments, Pages 3-10, the Benchmark Scores chart provides a percentage score aligned with the following three categories: Nearing Proficiency, Practice, Reteach. The chart is organized by game name and lists the correlating Common Core standards assessed by each game. 

Materials genuinely measure students’ progress to support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in phonics.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Assessments and Grouping, pages 5-10, Reading Playgrounds Formative Assessments for Countdown, there is a chart of Countdown Benchmark Scores. The chart includes Lesson Review/Practical Recommendations: Lesson Review and Practice Animations, Additional Activities for Practice and Reading Playground materials and lessons. Unit 20 Lesson Review/Practical Recommendations includes Game 2, Build a Word with Digraph sh, supplemental resources include Vowel Sound for short i and long i, and Unit 20 Lesson 3 Digraph sh Animations. Lesson Review and Practice lists Unit 20 Lesson 3, Optional Challenge: Build Silly Words Game 2.

• In Countdown, Assessments, Grouping Matrix, the materials indicate that the Grouping Matrix tool provides instructional recommendations for groups of students, including Really Great Reading materials. Instructional Recommendations include the sections Decoding Level, Suggested Instruction, and Suggested Max Group Size. The sample account provides the following student examples:

  • For students with a Significant Decoding Deficit, Phonics Boost is suggested with a maximum group size of six.

  • For students with a Moderate Decoding Deficit, HD Word Foundations, or Phonics Blitz is suggested with a group eight.

  • For students with Slow Reading Rates, Fluency Support and monitoring decoding accuracy are suggested. The group size is none.

The Countdown Kindergarten materials support Multilingual Learners (ML) in Supplemental Resources; however, there are missed opportunities to help ML students who read, write, speak, and listen in a language other than English or Spanish.

Materials provide support for English Language Learner (ELL) students. However, the resources are limited to students who read, write, speak, and listen to Spanish.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Other Resources, Really Great Reading for English Language Learners, the materials provide a research-based overview of how the program’s overall instructional approach matches ML students' needs. 

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Spanish Resources, there are articulation videos for short and long vowels.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Spanish Resources, there are videos for Phonemes & Finger-Stretching in Espanol, Closed Syllables in Spanish, and digraphs.

General statements about ELL students or strategies are noted at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the Teacher Edition are then implemented by the materials throughout the lessons.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, Phonics Suite Espanol., each unit has resources available in Spanish. Resources may include animations, articulation videos, word work, or instructional routines.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for 2i.ii.

The Countdown Kindergarten materials guide teachers in scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level. The materials provide Ways to Simplify suggestions in the Differentiation Options boxes in lessons to differentiate foundational skills grade-level standards and online resources. There are missed opportunities for small group reteaching within Teacher Guide Book lessons. 

Materials provide limited opportunities for small group reteaching. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 1, Introduction, page xxxiv, Whole Class Instruction, instructions state: “Countdown is designed to be delivered in whole group settings.” In Small Group Instruction, it states, “You may wish to augment your full class Countdown instruction with small group instruction for students who are struggling.” It states there are additional practice activities provided in the Supplemental Activities in Countdown Online that can be used for extra small groups. It adds that for small group settings, teachers may choose to give the Countdown lessons three times a day to various homogenous groups or to use a “walk to read” method where students move to various areas based on their instructional needs. 

• In Countdown, Assessments, Foundational Skills Survey, page 79, the table “Applying Results of Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey to a Response to Intervention System Using Additional Countdown Activities” indicates that in the areas of decoding and high-frequency words, after the Middle of Year assessment, additional small group instruction should use Additional Activities for Practice on Page 200 of Book 1, focused on decoding.

• In Countdown Online, Supplemental Resources, PDF Resources, Additional Practice Activities & Spelling Lists, the materials provide additional practice lessons in the following areas: rhyming, sound isolation, blending, segmenting, letter identification, and encoding. The Teacher Guidebook indicates that these additional lessons are designed for small groups of students struggling with grade-level content. 

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards.

• In Countdown Teacher Guidebook 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Part 3, Page 40, Activity Mystery Bag, the materials indicate that to simplify the Mystery Bag activity, the teacher should decrease the length of pauses between word parts to make it easier for students to blend. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 7, Lesson 2, Part 3, page 40, Guess My Word, students observe the ending of a word and then blend the sounds. There is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Simplify. The suggestion is for students struggling to blend sounds, the teacher should blend the sounds with students first, then have the students repeat the teacher. 

• In Countdown Teacher Guide Book 2, Unit 9, Lesson 4, Part 3, page 105, Build a Word, students finger-stretch or sound out words, then build a word with letter tiles. There is a Differentiation Options box with Ways to Simplify. There are two ways to simplify for the teacher. One suggestion is to lengthen the pause between the phonemes in the word provided to allow students additional time to think about the corresponding letters for each sound. The other suggestion is to elongate vowel sounds more than the consonant sounds when producing phonemes and use hand motions to reinforce vowel sounds due to vowel sounds being more difficult to identify.