Fundations Level 1 Texas

Evaluation for 1.1a
Materials include an explanation of the stated purpose of the supplemental program (e.g., additional instruction and/or practice, targeted remediation or acceleration).

The Fundations Level 1 materials state that the program is a supplemental foundational literacy resource intended for 30 minutes per day within tier one general education English Language Arts (ELA) instruction. It also supports small-group intervention through optional materials, indicating its use for both whole-class instruction and targeted student needs. The program provides systematic, explicit instruction in foundational skills, including phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, spelling, and handwriting. The materials also direct educators to pair the program with a comprehensive tier one literacy program to support reading comprehension and overall literacy development.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 states that the program is a supplemental, structured literacy curriculum grounded in the science of reading and designed to provide direct, systematic, explicit, sequential, and cumulative instruction in foundational literacy skills. The materials identify its instructional focus as decoding, encoding, handwriting, phonics, fluency, and word study to build a foundation for reading and spelling. While it addresses foundational skills as part of tier one instruction, it is intended to be used alongside a comprehensive language arts program to support full literacy development, including comprehension and vocabulary.

Evaluation for 1.1b
Materials include guidance on how to appropriately use the supplemental program to support an existing core reading and language arts program.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 states that the program is a supplemental component of ELA instruction, delivered for 30 minutes per day in the general education classroom. The materials explain that educators should use Fundations alongside a comprehensive tier one language arts program that incorporates literary and informational texts to build vocabulary, background knowledge, and overall literacy development. The materials provide systematic, explicit, and cumulative instruction and support mastery of foundational reading and writing skills through repeated practice, modeling, and corrective feedback.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 explains that the program is designed as a supplemental resource to support a core English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) curriculum. It notes that students receiving instruction outside the general education classroom can benefit from Fundations and the Fun in Focus Kit when paired with a full literacy program to ensure integrated instruction. This guidance clarifies that Fundations focuses on foundational skills, including phonics, decoding, encoding, fluency, handwriting, and spelling. At the same time, the core ELA program supports comprehension, vocabulary, and application in authentic reading and writing contexts.

Evaluation for 1.1c
Materials include a scope and sequence outlining student expectations, skills taught, and a rationale for the design of the scope and sequence.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 includes a clearly defined scope and sequence that outlines student expectations, instructional skills, and pacing across units. Expectations include printing uppercase and lowercase letters, decoding word types (CVC, CCVC, CVCC, CVCe), and developing comprehension skills, such as identifying main ideas and retelling key details. The materials also explain that instruction is sequential and cumulative, reinforcing prior skills as it progresses to more complex word structures and requiring additional exposure to varied texts through a comprehensive core ELA program.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual, Level 1, provides a detailed scope and sequence that outlines student expectations, skills taught by unit, and instructional pacing across 14 units. It also organizes skills and pacing for each unit. The rationale for this progression explains that the program is sequential and cumulative, designed to build skills from simple to complex across all levels. Additional sections, including preface charts and skills overviews, further reinforce how instruction systematically develops foundational literacy skills and supports student mastery over time.

Evaluation for 1.1d
Materials include guidance on time requirements (e.g., duration, frequency) and suggested pacing for effective implementation.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 specifies that the program is delivered as a 30-minute daily lesson within the general education ELA block. “Preface 5” and related sections state that the standard lesson consists of 30 minutes of explicit instruction, with additional pacing guidance that includes a 20-minute targeted practice component. The scope and sequence further support implementation by outlining a suggested weekly pacing for each unit, helping ensure consistent, structured instruction throughout the school year.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 provides clear guidance on instructional time and pacing to support effective implementation. The standard lesson is delivered for 30 minutes daily, and the Fun in Focus Kit is recommended for 30 minutes per day, five days a week, for targeted small-group or individual intervention. The scope and sequence further outlines unit-level pacing, with suggested time frames (such as 1–3 weeks per unit) and additional guidance for targeted practice and unit planning to ensure a structured progression of skills throughout the year.

Evaluation for 1.1e
Materials include resources and guidance to support educators with implementing the materials as designed.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 provides clear, step-by-step guidance to help educators prepare and deliver lessons, including directions to review the Learning Activity Overview, consult Activity Cue Cards, and practice each activity before instruction. Learning Activity Overviews, such as “In a Nutshell,” outline procedures, materials, and student outcomes, and include differentiation strategies, corrective feedback, and support for multilingual learners. Additional instructional resources, including the FUN HUB digital platform and Activity Cue Cards, further support implementation by providing organized guidance, instructional models, and planning tools to ensure effective program delivery.



The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 provides detailed guidance and resources to help educators implement the program as designed, including unit orientation directions that instruct educators to review lesson activities and use the FUN HUB for instructional planning and classroom management. The materials also explain instructional delivery using a gradual-release model (I Do, We Do, You Do Together, and You Do Alone) to support structured skill development and student independence. Additional supports, such as differentiated guidance, video resources, and explicit instructional routines, help ensure consistent, effective implementation of daily lessons.

Evaluation for 1.1f
Materials contain supports for families in both Spanish and English with suggestions on supporting the progress of their student.

The Fundations Home Support Pack Level 1 provides families in both English and Spanish with unit-specific letters that outline the skills taught in school and offer clear suggestions for supporting learning at home. These materials include hands-on activities such as letter-card matching and word-building, handwriting practice pages with guidance on proper formation, reading suggestions, and vocabulary development strategies. The resources are designed to strengthen the home-school connection by helping families understand instructional goals and actively support the development of foundational literacy skills outside the classroom.


The Fundations Home Support Pack Level 1 provides families in both English and Spanish with unit-specific letters that explain weekly learning goals and offer structured activities to support literacy development at home. The units include instruction on closed syllables, vowel teams, high-frequency trick words, dictation sentences, word searches, and handwriting practice with guidance on proper letter formation. These resources strengthen the home–school connection by giving families clear, hands-on ways to reinforce phonics, spelling, and writing skills aligned with classroom instruction.

Evaluation for 2.1a
Materials include appropriate instructional assessments for the stated purpose of the supplemental program (e.g., diagnostic placement assessments for targeted remediation or acceleration).

The Level 1 materials include comprehensive screening, diagnostic, progress-monitoring, and formative assessments designed to measure student mastery and inform instructional decisions. The program includes check-up activities, progress-monitoring tools, and biweekly unit assessments aligned with the curriculum scope and sequence, with an 80 percent mastery expectation. Assessment data is used for diagnostic planning, identifying student needs, guiding interventions, and supporting data-driven instruction in foundational literacy skills.



The Level 1 materials include comprehensive screening, diagnostic, progress-monitoring, and formative assessments that support instructional decision-making and student literacy growth. The Level 1 Assessment Pathway outlines universal screeners, unit assessments, and ongoing progress-monitoring tools to establish baseline performance, monitor student mastery, and guide targeted interventions and instructional adjustments. The Progress Monitoring Teacher’s Guide provides a structured process for collecting baseline data, monitoring progress, setting growth goals, and using assessment data to inform instruction. Additionally, “Observe and Assess” sections enable educators to evaluate student proficiency in targeted literacy skills throughout instruction.

Evaluation for 2.1b
Materials include the definition and intended purpose for the instructional assessments included.

The level 1 Progress Monitoring Teacher’s Guide states that its purpose is to measure students’ knowledge against the specific skills taught in the curriculum. This curriculum-aligned tracking provides educators with timely, actionable data to build student profiles and make informed instructional decisions, especially for students receiving tier two support. Additionally, the materials offer guidance through assessment charts, observational callouts, and data management systems to help educators analyze and respond to student performance.



The program explicitly defines formative assessments as informal tools gathered during instruction to inform real-time teaching decisions, specifically using nonsense words to measure decoding and spelling mastery rather than memorization. Across various units, including units 3 and 7, the materials state that these assessments target skills such as digraphs, closed-syllable types, and letter formation. By combining observational data from daily dictations and drills with structured encoding and decoding tasks, the curriculum provides educators with a clear definition and framework for evaluating student mastery.

Evaluation for 2.1c
For instructional assessments administered by educators, materials include guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration of instructional assessments.

The level 1 Progress Monitoring Teacher’s Guide ensures consistent, accurate administration through a structured 12-step implementation process. For core tasks, such as the word identification assessment, the materials provide explicit, step-by-step educator actions and scripted student dialogue to ensure consistent delivery. By pairing these strict 1-minute timing protocols with standardized instructions for tracking irregular trick words, the curriculum minimizes variation across educator teams and yields reliable performance data.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 ensures consistent and accurate administration by providing structured preparation steps, exact dictation scripts, and explicit scoring benchmarks. For instance, the materials include bulleted preparation checklists, such as directing students to the correct notebook section, and provide precise target words (e.g., chat, dash, and math) that educators must dictate.

Evaluation for 2.1d
Instructional assessments include items at varying levels of complexity.

The Level 1 Assessment Pathway outlines a mastery-focused framework in which assessment tasks directly mirror the curriculum’s sequential, cumulative scope and sequence. At the beginning of the year, universal screeners assess initial phonological skills using phoneme segmentation fluency, which requires students to isolate and segment individual sounds within spoken words. As the curriculum progresses, instructional assessments systematically increase in rigor and cognitive demand, moving from these auditory processing tasks to complex, multi-step decoding, encoding, and word-marking assessments.


The level 1 materials structure assessments at varying levels of complexity by aligning them with a cumulative, unit-by-unit progression. As each unit builds directly on previously mastered content, the corresponding unit tests and weekly formative checkpoints naturally increase in rigor. For example, the Fluency Kit scales in difficulty from isolated letter-sound automaticity and nonsense-word decoding to complex phrase reading and connected-text fluency.

Evaluation for 2.2a
Instructional assessments and scoring information provide guidance for interpreting student performance.

The level 1 Progress Monitoring Teacher’s Guide provides structured scoring and data-interpretation guidance through a four-step diagnostic process that uses baseline data and visual aim lines to track student growth. By plotting ongoing assessment scores against these target trajectories, educators can assess independent mastery and identify patterns of need in skills such as phonics, decoding, and fluency. The manual offers explicit next-step instructions based on these data trends, enabling educators to adjust instructional pacing, differentiate lessons, or intensify interventions for struggling students.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 provides precise scoring answer keys and data-driven guidance that anchor student performance to a clear 80 percent mastery benchmark. For individual assessments, the manual breaks down point allocations (e.g., a 35-point scale) to determine correctness, directing educators to provide immediate intervention for any student who falls below the 80 percent threshold or to extend the entire unit if the class average falls short. This quantitative criterion is paired with mid-unit Check-Ups and weekly resource guides that serve as an instructional “dress rehearsal,” teaching educators how to interpret formative error patterns and adjust daily pacing before the final unit test.

Evaluation for 2.2b
Materials provide guidance for the use of the supplemental program to respond to student trends in performance on assessments.

The FUN HUB Unit Test Tracker for Level 1 provides a digital dashboard that automatically tracks student performance trends and highlights scores below the 80 percent mastery threshold in red, prompting immediate instructional adjustments. If a whole-class trend falls short of this benchmark, educators are directed to pause pacing and deploy specialized reteach lesson plans from the Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community for 2–5 days before retesting. For individual struggling first graders, the materials outline immediate intervention pathways, instructing educators to conduct individual error analyses, provide targeted tier one differentiation, or coordinate placement in small-group interventions.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 embeds a data-driven decision-making protocol in each unit test section to guide educators in responding to student performance trends. If a whole-class trend shows fewer than 80 percent of students demonstrating mastery, educators are directed to extend the unit’s instructional time. For individual student performance gaps below the 80 percent threshold, the manual outlines immediate intervention pathways—directing educators to meet with struggling students to discuss errors, provide targeted practice, or adjust strategies if ongoing progress-monitoring probes indicate that a student’s trajectory is falling below their plotted aim line.

Evaluation for 2.2c
Materials include tools for educators to track student progress and growth, and tools for students to track their own progress and growth.

The materials include multiple tools for educators to track student progress and growth, such as Tier 2 Progress Reports, attendance logs, assessment scoring sections, student record charts, and graphing tools for foundational literacy skills, including word identification, nonsense word fluency, and phoneme segmentation. These resources support ongoing monitoring of student performance, documentation of interventions, and data-driven instructional decision-making throughout the school year.


The materials include Unit Test Trackers, individual student records, data collection sheets, progress-monitoring charts, and assessment reporting tools available through the FUN HUB and the Progress Monitoring Teacher’s Guide. These resources support ongoing monitoring of student performance, documentation of mastery over time, and data-driven instructional decision-making. The program also offers student trackers to help students track their progress and support self-reflection.

Evaluation for 2.2d
If applicable for the stated purpose of the supplemental program, materials include guidance for entry and exit criteria.

This guidance is not applicable to the program because the program has a stated purpose of additional instruction and/or practice, not targeted remediation or acceleration.

Evaluation for 3.1a
If applicable for the stated purpose, materials include educator guidance for differentiated instruction and activities for students who have not yet reached proficiency in grade-level skills.

The materials provide differentiated instructional guidance and targeted support for students who have not yet reached proficiency in grade-level skills across the Teacher’s Guide, unit introductions, and daily lessons. Teachers receive specific strategies, including peer support, modified letter boards, tapping and blending activities, and additional practice through the Fun in Focus Kits, the Student Practice Book, and targeted practice lessons. The materials also include a 20–30-minute targeted practice block and supports directly aligned with the skills being taught, helping students close learning gaps and achieve mastery.


The materials provide differentiated instructional guidance, corrective feedback, and targeted support for students who have not yet reached proficiency in grade-level skills. Throughout daily lessons and unit overviews, educators are given specific strategies, including using visual supports, reteaching vowel sounds, reinforcing glued sounds, and providing additional tapping and blending practice. The materials also encourage the use of small groups, centers, independent practice, and ongoing student data to deliver targeted instruction that addresses learning gaps and supports mastery of foundational literacy skills.

Evaluation for 3.1b
If applicable for the stated purpose, materials include educator guidance for differentiated instruction and activities for students who have demonstrated proficiency in grade-level skills.

Throughout the program, the “Students Ready for a Challenge” sections in the Unit Introductions encourage educators to reduce scaffolding, provide additional decoding practice, incorporate word chaining with nonsense words, and extend journal-writing opportunities. The materials also suggest having students decode words without tapping and apply vocabulary in meaningful sentences to deepen understanding. These activities promote automaticity, vocabulary development, and higher-level application of foundational literacy skills.


Throughout the program, the “Students Ready for a Challenge” sections encourage educators to reduce scaffolding, increase word complexity, and have students explain phonics and syllable-division rules. Examples include spelling words without tapping, working with more complex ong/ung and onk/unk words, and using syllable frames to articulate syllable-division patterns. These activities promote deeper understanding, greater automaticity, and the application of foundational literacy skills.

Evaluation for 3.1c
Materials include educator guidance for providing specially designed instruction (SDI) for students receiving supports and services through special education.

The materials offer general differentiation and intervention supports but lack SDI tailored to students receiving special education services. Although the Teacher’s Manual provides corrective feedback, guided practice, and recommendations for intensive intervention, these supports are broadly applicable to struggling learners and are not linked to specific disabilities or individualized accommodations. Examples such as segmenting sounds, identifying bonus letters, building words with letter tiles, or repeating letter-keyword-sound sequences demonstrate differentiation but not targeted, specially designed instruction. As a result, the materials provide general instructional support rather than embedded guidance for implementing special education services within the curriculum.


The materials offer general intervention recommendations but lack specially designed instruction tailored to students receiving special education services. The Teacher’s Manual recommends increasing instructional intensity through daily lessons, smaller groups, 1:1 instruction, and the use of the "Fundations Intervention" guidelines and Fun in Focus lessons for students who need explicit, cumulative, and multimodal instruction. While these recommendations support struggling learners, they focus on delivery and intensity rather than specific adaptations to content, methodology, accommodations, or modifications for students with identified disabilities. As a result, the guidance is broad and not embedded within the lessons as targeted, specially designed instruction for special education students.

Evaluation for 3.2a
Educator-led supplemental programs include explicit (direct) prompts and guidance to support the educator in modeling and explaining the skill(s) to be learned.

The materials include explicit prompts and guidance to help educators model and explain literacy skills. Unit Introductions, daily lessons, Learning Activities, and Activity Cue Cards provide scripted language, instructional explanations, and step-by-step teaching procedures. These resources guide educators through lesson delivery by identifying key concepts, offering educator prompts, and outlining instructional routines that support direct explanation and modeling of new skills.


The materials also provide specific guidance for modeling foundational literacy concepts. For example, the materials explain the differences between blends and digraphs and offer prompts for modeling sounds with sound cards. Guidance throughout the lessons helps educators explain concepts such as glued sounds, base words, and suffixes while demonstrating how sounds and spelling patterns work within words. These instructional supports help educators make literacy skills explicit for students during instruction.

Evaluation for 3.2b
Educator-led supplemental programs include educator guidance and recommendations for effective delivery and facilitation using a variety of instructional approaches.

The materials include educator guidance and recommendations for effective delivery and facilitation, with Unit Introductions, Learning Activity Overviews, Activity Cue Cards, and daily lessons. These resources provide explicit educator prompts, lesson objectives, student outcomes, learning plans, and step-by-step procedures for implementing instruction. Guidance supports lesson facilitation through activities such as drills, dictation, concept introductions, word study, story time, student notebook work, and review routines, helping educators deliver instruction consistently across lessons.


The materials also incorporate a variety of instructional approaches to support student learning and engagement. Lessons include educator modeling, guided practice, questioning techniques, corrective feedback, choral and echo responses, discussion-based learning, phoneme manipulation, word building, blending and segmenting activities, and student-led practice. The materials further support instruction through visual supports, auditory repetition, kinesthetic routines such as tapping and skywriting, and hands-on manipulation of sounds, letters, and phonics patterns. These approaches provide multiple opportunities for students to engage with and apply literacy skills.

Evaluation for 3.2c
Materials include guidance for educators on recommended structures (e.g., whole group, small group, individual) to support effective implementation.

The materials provide clear guidance for implementing whole-group, small-group, partner, and independent instructional structures. The “Small Group Instruction” guidelines direct educators to use assessment data to form and adjust groups based on students’ reading abilities, instructional needs, and levels of support. They also offer recommendations for educator-led instruction, guided practice, partner work, and independent learning. The materials also include targeted practice guides, recommended time allocations, and explicit guidance on educator actions before, during, and after instruction.


Unit Introductions include recommendations for centers, targeted small-group instruction, and independent practice that are directly aligned with the skills being taught, such as practicing sound patterns, applying skills to connected text, and completing additional support activities. The materials identify whole-group instruction as the primary delivery model and recommend small-group and individual settings for targeted practice and intervention.

Evaluation for 3.3a
Materials include educator guidance on providing linguistic accommodations for various levels of language proficiency [as defined by the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)], which are designed to engage students in using increasingly more academic language.

The materials provide guidance for educators on linguistic accommodations for varying levels of English language proficiency. The “Linguistic Accommodations for Multilingual Learners” resource offers differentiated supports for beginning, intermediate, advanced, and advanced high proficiency levels, including gestures, verbal cues, sentence stems, visuals, modeling, word banks, and extended wait time. The Teacher’s Manual further supports implementation through the “Multilingual Learners Engagement,” “Multilingual Learners Connections,” and “Multilingual Learners Notes” sections, which provide guidance and instructional strategies to support multilingual learners during lessons.


The “Multilingual Learners Connections” and “Multilingual Learners Engagement” sections offer unit-specific guidance for previewing vocabulary, clarifying language concepts, providing structured practice, and supporting students’ understanding of English spelling conventions. The materials differentiate support by proficiency level, enabling educators to scaffold instruction and increase students’ use of academic language as proficiency develops. These supports help students engage with grade-level content while building vocabulary, oral language, reading, and writing skills through increasingly complex language expectations.

Evaluation for 3.3b
Materials include implementation guidance to support educators in effectively using the materials in state-approved bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

The materials offer guidance for supporting multilingual learners through embedded lesson resources but lack an implementation guide for state-approved bilingual programs. The “Linguistic Accommodations for Multilingual Learners” resource provides differentiated supports for varying levels of English proficiency, including visuals, modeling, sentence stems, word banks, and extended wait time. The Teacher’s Manual further supports educators with “Multilingual Learners Engagement,” “Multilingual Learners Connections,” and “Multilingual Learners Notes” sections, which offer instructional strategies and accommodations within lessons.


The materials offer lesson-level supports for multilingual learners but lack an implementation guide for state-approved emergent bilingual programs. The Teacher’s Manual includes instructional notes, engagement suggestions, and language-support strategies to help educators scaffold instruction for students at different English proficiency levels. These embedded resources support classroom instruction and language development, but they do not provide comprehensive guidance for implementing the materials within emergent bilingual program models.

Evaluation for 3.3c
If designed for dual language immersion (DLI) programs, materials include resources that outline opportunities to address metalinguistic transfer from English to the partner language.

This guidance is not applicable because the program is not designed for dual language immersion (DLI) programs.

Evaluation for 4.1a
Materials do not include the three-cueing method as defined in Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.0062. TEC, §28.0062 defines three-cueing as a method of reading instruction for the identification of words in which a student is encouraged to draw on context and sentence structure to read words without sounding the words out or using a phonics-based approach.

No evidence of three-cueing as defined in Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.0062 was found in this program.

Evaluation for 4.2a
Materials include a systematic sequence of phonological awareness skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose that progresses from basic skills and larger units of sound to more complex skills and smaller units of sound.

Students engage in activities involving rhyme, alliteration, phoneme identification, blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds, while daily sound drills reinforce letter-sound relationships and phonemic awareness. For example, in the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1, Daily Lessons begin with rhyming words in unit 1, week 3, day 4, followed by alliteration in unit 2, week 2, day 4. Students receive instruction in adding, changing, and deleting phonemes in unit 3, week 1, day 4; blending phonemes to create one-syllable words in unit 4, week 1, day 1; and segmenting phonemes in one-syllable words, including words with blends, in unit 6, week 1, day 4. Instruction also progresses to short- and long-vowel patterns, including VCe patterns, in unit 11. As a culminating example of this systematic progression, the materials guide students in decoding words with closed, open, VCe, vowel team, and r-controlled syllables in the Word of the Day sections of unit 11. Students also identify rhyming words in Which Ones Belong and later participate in Echo/Change activities that require them to manipulate phonemes to create new words. This carefully sequenced progression, together with explicit instruction in vowel patterns and syllable types, supports the development of increasingly advanced phonological awareness and decoding skills.


Unit assessments and daily lessons continue the progression from phoneme isolation to blending, segmenting, and phoneme manipulation. For example, in the Teacher’s Manual, unit 1, week 1, day 1, instruction begins with explicit letter-sound correlations as students learn the letter-keyword-sound for t, b, and f, using the Letter Formation Poster and large sound cards while repeating the associated sounds. By unit 1, week 3, day 5, students strengthen letter-sound connections by identifying a selected letter, producing its sound, generating words with the same initial sound, and skywriting the letter while reciting the letter-formation verbalization. Activities such as Echo/Change then extend learning by requiring students to add, delete, and substitute phonemes to create new words, reinforcing increasingly complex phonological awareness skills. This systematic sequence progresses from foundational letter-sound associations and phoneme isolation to blending, segmenting, and advanced phoneme manipulation, aligning with grade-level expectations.

Evaluation for 4.2b
Materials include a systematic sequence of phonemic awareness skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose that progresses from basic skills (e.g., identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes) to more complex skills (e.g., adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes).

In the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 Preface, the scope and sequence outlines the progression of skills from reviewing rhyme and alliteration in unit 1 to blending CVC words in unit 2, segmenting phonemes in unit 3, blending CVCC and CCVC words in unit 8, introducing syllables in unit 9, and blending CCVCC words in unit 10, demonstrating a systematic approach to phonemic awareness instruction. This progression is reflected in the daily lessons. In unit 1, week 1, day 2, students review alliteration by listening for initial and final sounds as they repeat words such as mom, net, and monkey. Later, students strengthen phonemic awareness by identifying and extending the vowel sounds for a, e, i, o, and u while tracing each vowel with Baby Echo.


The materials present a systematic sequence of phonemic awareness skills aligned with the grade-level TEKS, progressing from identifying and manipulating initial and final sounds to more complex tasks, including changing medial sounds, blending spoken words, and segmenting phonemes. In the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 Preface, the scope and sequence outlines this progression by reviewing rhyme and alliteration in unit 1, blending CVC words in unit 2, segmenting phonemes in unit 3, blending CVCC and CCVC words in unit 8, introducing syllables in unit 9, and blending CCVCC words in unit 10, demonstrating a systematic approach to phonemic awareness instruction. Students then apply these skills through word chains such as wish–fish–dish–did and lap–lack–pack–pick–sick, which require manipulating individual phonemes in increasingly complex patterns. These activities provide cumulative practice in blending, segmenting, and phoneme manipulation.

Evaluation for 4.2c
Materials include explicit (direct) instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

Learning Activity Overviews provide detailed educator guidance for sound drills, dictation, and Echo/Change activities that model phoneme isolation, segmentation, and manipulation, as well as phoneme-grapheme correspondence. For example, in the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 Learning Activity Overviews, educators are guided to have students repeat a dictated word, tap and segment its sounds, identify the corresponding letters for each phoneme, and write the word. Students then review, correct, read, spell, and eventually mark up words to reinforce sound-symbol relationships and spelling patterns, progressing to independently writing words before comparing their work to a model. Observation focuses on students’ ability to isolate and segment phonemes orally and to accurately connect sounds to letters during spelling tasks. Corrective feedback is explicit and strategy-based, with educators modeling how to tap each sound in a word and prompting students to tap and write one letter for each phoneme when they need additional support. Students also practice adding, deleting, and substituting sounds in word chains such as ham–Pam–pan–ran and fin–chin–chip–chop, while ongoing observation, differentiated support, and corrective feedback strengthen phonemic awareness and the accurate application of sound-symbol relationships.


Teachers explicitly model and guide students in phoneme blending, segmentation, rhyming, and phoneme manipulation through activities such as Echo/Find Words, Echo/Change, and Make It Fun. For example, in the Teacher’s Manual, unit 2, week 1, day 1, the phonemic awareness lesson directs the educator to say the first word in a chain and have students echo it, then add, change, or delete a sound to produce new words as the chain progresses through mat, fat, fit, fig, and fog. In the same lesson, the phonological awareness activity explicitly teaches students to blend three sounds by using standard sound cards to build the word mat, saying each sound separately, tapping /m/, /a/, /t/, and then blending the sounds together by sliding their thumb across their fingers to read the word. In additional lessons, students learn the ck spelling pattern by tapping and segmenting sounds to build and spell the word duck, practice rhyming with glued sounds, and manipulate phonemes in word chains such as thank–bank–sank–sunk–chunk. Structured modeling, guided practice, and repeated opportunities for application support the development of phonological and phonemic awareness skills.

Evaluation for 4.2d
Materials include cumulative student practice of phonological and phonemic awareness skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

The materials begin with a review of previously taught skills, including letter-sound relationships, keywords, rhyme, alliteration, sound manipulation, and phoneme recognition, and revisit these skills throughout instruction. For example, students regularly participate in Echo/Find Words activities in which they echo, segment, tap, and build words with letter tiles, applying previously learned phoneme-grapheme correspondences and sound analysis skills across multiple words. Daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up routines and repeated phonemic awareness activities provide ongoing practice, feedback, and reinforcement to support mastery and new learning.


Instruction intentionally spirals previously taught skills through routines such as Echo/Change, Echo/Find Words, and Daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up activities. For example, in the Teacher’s Manual 1, unit 6, week 3, day 4, the final lesson before the unit assessment provides cumulative practice of skills taught throughout the unit. Students complete letter-keyword-sound drills, manipulate phonemes by changing sounds in the word chain fibs–figs–fig–fish–dish, and build and read words from the Word of the Day Cards. They also review previously taught sound-symbol correspondences by identifying and writing the letter(s) for dictated sounds, such as /z/, /d/, /ks/, /v/, and /g/. During word dictation, students identify base words and suffixes, tap and spell the base word, add the suffix, and mark the completed word by underlining the base word, circling the suffix, and starring bonus letters. These ongoing opportunities allow students to revisit and apply previously learned phonemic awareness and phonics skills, reinforcing mastery and supporting continued skill development.

Evaluation for 4.2e
Student practice includes only phonological and phonemic awareness skills that have been explicitly taught.

New skills are introduced through direct instruction and modeling before students engage in guided, independent, and cumulative practice using resources such as the Student Practice Book, FUN HUB activities, Fundations Readers, and daily lesson routines. In the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 Appendix, educators are guided to provide additional targeted practice only for explicitly taught skills, using the Student Practice Book, FUN HUB digital activities, and decodable Fundations Readers. The guidance explains that these resources reinforce daily instruction through independent practice, small-group reteaching, structured centers, transition activities, and at-home practice. The review sections, instructional targets, and K–3 Scope and Sequence provide opportunities for cumulative review before new learning is introduced. For example, students practice identifying beginning sounds in words containing /t/, /b/, and /f/ only after those sounds have been explicitly taught through letter-keyword-sound instruction and Sound Card activities. This instructional design ensures that student practice reinforces only previously taught phonological and phonemic awareness skills while supporting mastery through ongoing review and application.


Students also apply newly taught phonological awareness skills during structured activities such as Echo/Change, where they manipulate glued sounds only after those skills have been explicitly taught in the “Introduce New Concepts” lesson. In the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1, after each unit test, the materials provide a complete list of the sounds, letters, and words taught in the unit, connecting instruction directly to cumulative practice opportunities. For example, the “Unit 2 Resource Page” includes this review along with “Recommendations for Next Steps,” which guide educators in reinforcing the skills taught before introducing new concepts. Ongoing routines such as Drill Sounds/Warm-up, Student Practice Book activities, FUN HUB tasks, and Fundations Readers provide repeated opportunities for students to reinforce and apply previously taught skills, ensuring that practice remains aligned with explicit instruction and supports cumulative skill development.

Evaluation for 4.A.3a
Materials include a systematic sequence for introducing sound-spelling patterns in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

In the level 1 “Fundations Scope and Sequence,” instruction progresses from reviewing CVC words to CVCC and CCVC words, double consonants, blends, digraphs, vowel teams, and suffixes, demonstrating a logical progression from simple to more complex patterns. For example, in unit 13, week 1, day 2, students learn to identify a base word before adding a suffix, spell each syllable separately, and analyze words such as finishing by scooping syllables and marking the suffix. This structured sequence supports the development of decoding, spelling, and word analysis skills through explicit instruction and cumulative application of sound-spelling patterns.


The level 1 “Fundations Scope and Sequence” progresses from reviewing CVC words to CCVC and CVCC words with digraphs, CCVCC words with blends, and CVCe words, demonstrating a logical progression from simple to more complex spelling patterns. For example, in unit 13, week 1, day 4, students use syllable and suffix frames to identify syllables, read base words, add suffixes, and decode complete words before applying these patterns in connected text. In the Appendix, the “Recommendations for Next Steps” section further reinforces this sequence by recommending that skills be retaught in the same order they are introduced, from consonants and short vowels to blends, digraphs, and suffixed words.

Evaluation for 4.A.3b
Materials include explicit (direct) instruction in decoding and encoding words using sound-spelling patterns in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

The level 1 “Fundations Scope and Sequence” progresses from consonant and short-vowel instruction in unit 1 to blending, segmenting, reading, and spelling CVC words in unit 2, and to consonant digraphs such as wh, ch, sh, th, and ck in unit 3, before advancing to CCVC, CVCC, and CCVCC words. For example, in unit 1, week 2, day 1, students explicitly learn the letter-keyword-sound associations for n and m through educator modeling, sound-discrimination activities, and guided practice with large and standard sound cards. This structured progression builds sound–symbol knowledge and prepares students to apply increasingly complex sound–spelling patterns in decoding and encoding tasks.


In unit 2, week 1, day 4, students use standard sound cards to identify phonemes, tap out the sounds, and blend them to decode CVC words such as lit, lip, rap, rip, sip, and sit with educator modeling and guided practice. In unit 8, week 1, day 1, educators explicitly teach consonant blends by comparing words such as ship and slip, demonstrating that blends contain separate sounds, whereas digraphs represent a single sound. Additional explicit instruction is provided in unit 6, week 1, where students learn to decode and encode words with the suffix -s, distinguish between the /s/ and /z/ sounds in words such as shops and bugs, and build and spell words such as webs, dogs, buds, paths, lips, and bells by starting with the base word and adding the suffix.

.

Evaluation for 4.A.3c
Materials include cumulative student practice in decoding and encoding words using sound-spelling patterns in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose, both in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text, to develop automaticity.

The materials begin with a review of previously taught skills, such as blending, reading, segmenting, and spelling three-sound short-vowel words, and then reinforce these skills through daily lessons, review activities, decodable readers, and Student Practice Book tasks. For example, in unit 3, week 3 of the Student Practice Book, students identify digraphs and qu in words such as path, fish, bath, quit, shock, and check; decode and encode words such as neck, thick, chop, shed, rash, and whip; and then apply these patterns in phrases and connected text. Additional cumulative practice is provided through activities such as Read and Draw Sentences, Get Ready, Get Set, Spell, and Fundations Readers, which allow students to apply previously taught spelling patterns in both isolated words and decodable connected text to build automaticity and fluency.



In unit 8, week 2, day 4, students review previously taught spelling patterns by decoding and encoding words such as tank, pens, puff, fuss, flap, bunch, twigs, and bless, while identifying blends, digraph blends, suffixes, and bonus letters through tapping, marking, and spelling routines. Additional cumulative practice is provided through the Student Practice Book and daily lessons, including Read and Draw Sentences, Get Ready, Get Set, Spell, and Phrase Reading, where students apply taught spelling patterns in both isolated words and decodable connected text. Daily activities such as Word of the Day, Make Words, Student Notebook Entry, and paired reading of decodable stories like “The Big Mess” reinforce previously taught skills, helping students build automaticity and fluency.

Evaluation for 4.A.3d
Student practice includes only sound-spelling patterns that have been explicitly taught.

The Appendix directs educators to reinforce previously taught skills through the Fundations Practice Book, FUN HUB activities, decodable readers, small-group instruction, and at-home practice, ensuring that students apply only taught sound-spelling patterns. For example, in unit 8, week 2, day 1, students review digraph blends by decoding words such as lunch, bench, squish, crush, and pinch after explicit educator instruction using the word shred as a model. Additional reinforcement is provided through daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up activities and Student Practice Book tasks, such as Get Ready, Get Set, Spell, where students practice only previously taught patterns, including the bonus letter (doubling) rule introduced in unit 4.



After each unit assessment, resources such as the “Unit 8 Resource Page” and "Recommendations for Next Steps" connect the assessment to the cumulative review by identifying taught spelling patterns and offering guidance to reinforce skills before introducing new concepts. For example, in unit 7, week 1, day 3, students learn the new trick word why through explicit instruction, then practice it alongside previously taught trick words try, my, and by using a cumulative flashcard review. Additional reinforcement is provided through daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up activities and Student Practice Book tasks, such as Junior Word Detective, in which students practice only previously taught patterns, including glued sounds, CVC words, the suffix -s, double letters, and consonant digraphs.

Evaluation for 4.B.3a
Materials include a systematic sequence for introducing regular and irregular high-frequency words from a research-based list in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

According to the Teacher’s Manual, instruction includes 93 trick words for automatic recognition and spelling. The materials identify the Fry Word List and the American Heritage Word Frequency Book as the sources for these words. The scope and sequence outlines a logical progression, beginning in unit 2 with high-utility trick words such as the, a, and, is, his, and of. Unit 3 adds words such as as, has, to, into, we, he, she, be, me, for, and one, while unit 4 introduces you, your, they, was, and said. Unit 6 expands instruction with were, are, and has, and unit 8 introduces more complex words such as would, could, and should, demonstrating a progression from high-utility words to increasingly complex irregular words.


The “TEKS Correlations Level 1” document further demonstrates this systematic sequence by aligning instruction with the TEKS 1.2C(vi). Regular high-frequency words from Fry’s First 100 Words are introduced alongside the phonics patterns students are learning, progressing from simple words such as sat, fun, and leg to words such as here, safe, fine, and those as more advanced spelling patterns are introduced. Together, the scope and sequence and the TEKS correlations show that both regular high-frequency words and irregular trick words are introduced systematically from research-based lists and aligned with the grade-level TEKS.

Evaluation for 4.B.3b
Materials include explicit (direct) instruction in decoding and encoding regular and irregular high-frequency words from a research-based list in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

In the Texas Supplemental Resources Level 1, educators follow explicit procedures for teaching trick words by dictating each word, having students repeat it, finger-writing while naming each letter, and then writing the word independently on dry-erase tablets. The Teacher’s Manual provides scripted “Teach Trick Words – Reading” and “Teach Trick Words – Spelling” routines that guide educators to introduce new trick words through sentence dictation, identify and discuss the regular and irregular parts of each word, practice reading with Trick Word Flashcards, and reinforce spelling through skywriting, finger tracing, independent writing, and Trick Word Dictionaries. These routines provide direct modeling and guided practice to develop automatic recognition and accurate spelling of irregular high-frequency words.


The materials also provide explicit instruction on applying phonics knowledge to decode and encode regularly spelled high-frequency words. For example, in unit 2, week 1, day 1, educators model blending three phonemes to decode CVC words by producing each sound, tapping each phoneme, and sliding the sounds together to read the word. In unit 6, week 1, day 2, students apply the same decoding routine to nonsense words, demonstrating the use of previously taught sound-symbol correspondences rather than memorization. Throughout level 1, students repeatedly read, spell, analyze, and write high-frequency words through educator modeling, guided practice, sentence dictation, and cumulative review, which provide explicit instruction in decoding and encoding both regular and irregular high-frequency words.

Evaluation for 4.B.3c
Materials include cumulative student practice in decoding and encoding regular and irregular high-frequency words from a research-based list in alignment with grade-level skills as appropriate for the program's stated purpose, both in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text, to develop automaticity.

In the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1, unit 3, week 1, day 2, the Trick Word Drill offers cumulative review as students rapidly read previously taught trick words from the Flashcard Pack, removing mastered words as students demonstrate automatic recognition. In unit 7, week 2, day 3, educators extend this practice through sentence dictation using the previously taught trick words are and were. Students identify and circle each trick word, discuss its regular and irregular parts, and practice spelling through skywriting, visualization, finger tracing, letter naming, and repeated oral spelling to reinforce automatic decoding and encoding.


The Student Practice Book offers additional cumulative practice with previously taught high-frequency words in both isolation and connected text. In unit 6, week 2, the Follow the Trail activity has students identify a target trick word among distractors and write it independently, while Phrase Reading in unit 2, week 2 provides repeated practice reading previously taught high-frequency words in isolation. Students then apply these words in connected text through activities such as Read and Draw Sentences and Read and Draw a Story, where they read, reread, and respond to decodable text containing previously taught high-frequency words. Additional activities, including Tap, Blend, and Write and sentence-completion tasks, require students to read, write, and apply previously taught words such as my, does, the, and at, providing cumulative practice that builds automatic word recognition and accurate spelling.

Evaluation for 4.B.3d
Student practice includes only regular and irregular high-frequency words that have been explicitly taught.

In the Student Practice Book, unit 6, week 3, students practice previously taught high-frequency words by reading sentences, selecting the correct trick word from a word bank, writing the word in context, and rereading the completed sentences. Because the activity uses only words introduced earlier, students practice decoding and encoding familiar regular and irregular high-frequency words while building automaticity. Additional cumulative practice is provided in unit 13, week 1, where students reread a decodable passage, scoop sentences into phrases to develop fluency, and demonstrate comprehension by drawing. The passage includes only previously taught high-frequency words, including irregular words such as my, too, to, and friend, along with regularly spelled high-frequency words such as bring.


The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 reinforces this instructional sequence by directing educators to review previously taught high-frequency words before introducing new ones. For example, the “Unit 6 Resource Pages” identify the high-frequency words taught and assessed in the unit and offer “Recommendations for Next Steps” for students who need additional practice. The Appendix also directs educators to extend practice using the Fundations Practice Book, FUN HUB activities, and Fundations Readers, which provide additional opportunities to reread decodable text and practice previously taught high-frequency words.

Evaluation for 4.C.3a
Materials include a systematic sequence for introducing syllable types and syllable division principles in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

The “Fundations Scope and Sequence” progresses from closed and open syllables in unit 9 to VCe syllables in one-syllable words in unit 11 and to multisyllabic word reading and syllable division in unit 12. The program builds skills cumulatively, beginning with letter-sound correspondence and closed syllables, then introducing blends, digraphs, glued sounds, VCe syllables, vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, and multisyllabic words. This progression allows students to apply previously learned syllable types to increasingly complex word reading and spelling, supporting mastery of syllable-division principles and alignment with the grade-level TEKS.



In level 1, instruction progresses from closed syllables in unit 9 to VCe syllables in unit 11 and multisyllabic words with syllable division in unit 12. Students first learn that closed syllables contain a vowel followed by one or more consonants, producing a short vowel sound. They then apply this knowledge to VCe syllables, where a final silent e signals a long vowel, before moving on to multisyllabic words using syllable frames and division between consonants. This systematic progression builds from simple to more complex syllable patterns.

Evaluation for 4.C.3b
Materials include explicit (direct) instruction in decoding and encoding one-syllable and multisyllabic words in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

In level 1, educators explicitly model decoding and encoding one-syllable words using tapping, blending, reading, and spelling routines with sound cards and letter tiles. For example, in the Texas Supplemental Resources Level 1, students decode and encode one-syllable words with the tch trigraph, including catch, match, stitch, brunch, and crutch. Students apply sound-symbol correspondence by tapping phonemes, blending sounds, writing words, and checking spelling with educator-guided feedback.


The materials also provide explicit instruction in decoding and encoding multisyllabic words. In the Resource Packet unit 12, educators model dividing words into syllables using syllable frames, and students decode and encode one syllable at a time before blending the word as a whole. Students apply syllable-division principles to decode and spell words such as catnip, napkin, sunfish, bathtub, and cactus. Instruction includes educator modeling, guided practice, and student application in both reading and spelling tasks, ensuring that students explicitly decode and encode words as they apply syllable patterns and sound–symbol relationships.

Evaluation for 4.C.3c
Materials include cumulative student practice in decoding and encoding one-syllable and multisyllabic words in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose, both in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text, to develop automaticity.

In the Student Practice Book unit 2, week 1, students decode one-syllable words such as pet, lip, and nod and encode words such as leg, nap, and sit. As instruction progresses, students decode multisyllabic words made up of a base word and a suffix, such as blinking, grunted, and drinking in unit 10, week 3, and blend and build words such as inflate, milkshake, and lifetime in unit 12, week 2. Students also apply these skills in connected text. Activities such as Which Word Makes Sense? require students to select and write the correct one-syllable or multisyllabic word to complete sentences, while Read and Draw a Story in unit 13, week 1 provides cumulative practice reading decodable text that includes previously taught word patterns, reinforcing automaticity in decoding and encoding.



In unit 12, week 3, day 4, students prepare for the unit assessment by decoding and encoding one-syllable and multisyllabic words. They tap and orally spell one-syllable words, segment multisyllabic words into syllables, build each syllable in syllable frames, and proofread by scooping and reading words such as sings, stink, expect, and dentist. The materials also provide cumulative practice in connected text. In unit 10, week 3, day 2, students decode and encode dictated sentences by repeating, mapping, writing, and proofreading sentences such as “Dad twisted the lids off” and “I am thinking about my class.” Additional practice in the Student Practice Book reinforces automaticity through activities such as Junior Word Detective, Phrase Reading, and Which Word Makes Sense?, in which students decode and encode one-syllable and multisyllabic words both in isolation and in connected text.

Evaluation for 4.C.3d
Student practice includes only syllable types and syllable division principles that have been explicitly taught.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual Level 1 Appendix recommends additional practice through the Fundations Practice Book, FUN HUB activities, Fundations Readers, small-group instruction, and at-home practice, allowing students to reinforce previously taught syllable types and syllable division principles during independent work and review activities. This cumulative design is evident throughout the lessons. In unit 9, week 1, students identify closed syllables in the Find the Syllable Type activity after explicit instruction on closed syllables in the Teacher’s Manual. In unit 12, week 2, students apply previously taught closed syllables and VCe syllables by reading multisyllabic words, scooping syllables, and identifying syllable types in words such as laptop and reptile. In the Junior Word Detective activity, students divide words into syllables and classify syllable types, reinforcing only previously taught syllable patterns and syllable division principles.



After each unit assessment, the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 provides recommendations for next steps, including Fluency Kit Drills, FUN HUB activities, and review word lists that reinforce previously taught syllable concepts. For example, after unit 13, students continue practicing closed syllables and VCe syllables through cumulative review activities. In the Student Practice Book, unit 13, week 2, Mark Current Concepts, students read words, scoop syllables, and identify syllable types such as closed and VCe in words including dresses, dislikes, unzips, and invented. Across these activities, students apply only syllable types and syllable division principles explicitly taught in prior instruction, ensuring cumulative practice without introducing new syllable concepts.

Evaluation for 4.D.3a
Materials include a systematic sequence for introducing morphemes in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

The level 1 “Fundations Scope and Sequence” introduces the suffix -s in unit 6, followed by the inflectional suffixes -ed and -ing in unit 10 and -es in unit 13. In unit 5, instruction expands to include additional derivational suffixes such as -ness, -less, -ment, -ful, -able, -ish, and -en, along with prefixes such as un-, dis-, mis-, non-, trans-, pre-, pro-, re-, and de-. This progression moves from simple inflectional endings to applying multiple suffixes to increasingly complex words. Students first add -s to one-syllable base words, then apply -ed and -ing to closed-syllable base words, and finally add -s, -ed, -ing, and -es to multisyllabic words. Throughout instruction, students apply these morphemes in reading, spelling, and word analysis activities.


ELAR correlations for level 1 indicate that instruction continues with the introduction of the suffix -es in unit 13, completing the progression of explicit instruction on the inflectional suffixes -s, -es, -ed, and -ing. The Teacher’s Manual reinforces these concepts by recommending next steps after unit assessments and directing educators to revisit previously taught morphemes in increasingly complex contexts. This systematic progression provides cumulative instruction in inflectional morphology aligned with the grade-level TEKS.

Evaluation for 4.D.3b
Materials include explicit (direct) instruction on morphological skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

In the Texas Supplemental Resources Level 1, Open Syllables, day 1, educators explicitly teach how to add the suffix -s to closed-syllable base words. Students identify the syllable type for clap, explain why the vowel is short, and then add -s to form claps, recognizing that the base word remains unchanged. Students apply the same process to additional words such as twigs, packs, racks, rocks, and socks. In unit 6, week 1, day 1, educators explicitly build the word shop and then add -s to form shops, identifying the base word and explaining that -s can represent /s/ or /z/ depending on the word. In unit 13, week 2, day 1, educators explicitly introduce the suffix -es and model how words ending in ch, sh, s, x, and z require -es to form plurals. Students apply this understanding to words such as bugs, bosses, and glasses.


Additional explicit instruction appears in unit 13, week 1, day 1, where students analyze multisyllabic words with suffixes. Students read the base word invent, then examine invents, inventing, and invented, identifying the base word and suffix and explaining how the suffix changes meaning and tense. Students determine whether -ing indicates an ongoing action or -ed indicates past tense. Teachers then model how to segment multisyllabic words by scooping syllables and marking suffixes in words such as bedbugs, tenpins, publishing, finishing, indented, insulting, bathtubs, and expected. In unit 6, week 2, day 2, educators explicitly distinguish between words that only appear to contain suffixes, such as comparing fox and dogs, and guide students to identify when -s is a suffix rather than part of a base word. In unit 10, week 3, day 1, educators explicitly introduce -ed and -ing, explain their meanings, and model how -ing indicates present action while -ed indicates past action.

Evaluation for 4.D.3c
Materials include cumulative student practice of morphological skills in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose, both in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in connected text, to develop automaticity.

In the Student Practice Book, unit 6, week 1, students read words such as jugs, malls, shells, and tugs, underline base words, and circle suffixes to reinforce previously taught morphology. In the Which Word Makes Sense? activity, students apply their understanding of -s endings by selecting and writing the correct word to complete sentences. The materials also provide cumulative practice in connected text. In unit 7, week 2, Read and Draw a Story, students read a passage containing words with suffixes, scoop phrases for fluency, and demonstrate comprehension through drawing. In unit 10, week 1, Storytime, students identify base words and suffixes in connected text, reinforcing automatic recognition and application of morphological skills.



In unit 14, week 1, day 3, students identify base words and suffixes, read the base word before the derived word, underline the base word, circle the suffix, and apply previously taught suffixes such as -ing and -es to words including thrilling, singing, shrinking, and taxes. The Student Practice Book also provides cumulative practice in both isolated and connected texts. In unit 6, week 1, Junior Word Detective, students identify base words and suffixes in isolated words, while in unit 6, week 3, Which Word Makes Sense?, students read sentences and select and write the correct suffixed word to complete each sentence.

‘

Evaluation for 4.D.3d
Student practice includes only morphemes that have been explicitly taught.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 Appendix recommends additional practice through the Fundations Practice Book, FUN HUB activities, and Fundations Readers, all of which reinforce previously taught morphological skills. Students receive continued practice during independent work, small-group instruction, and at-home activities, using only skills already introduced. This cumulative design is reflected throughout the Student Practice Book. In unit 6, week 3, students underline base words and circle the suffix -s in words such as licks, chips, and sets, practicing only the morphemes introduced in unit 6. Later activities in units 10 and 13 extend practice with the previously taught suffixes -ed, -ing, and -es, ensuring students apply only explicitly taught morphemes.


After each unit assessment, the Teacher’s Manual provides recommendations for next steps, including Fluency Kit Drills, Practice Book pages, and FUN HUB activities that reinforce previously taught morphological concepts. For example, after unit 6, students continue practicing words with the suffix -s, such as tells, ships, and quits, by identifying and marking base words and suffixes. The Student Practice Book reinforces only previously taught morphemes. In unit 6, week 3, students complete Phrase Reading activities in which they read phrases, underline base words, and circle the suffix -s in words such as hats, fills, and vans. Across subsequent units, students continue to analyze, read, and spell words containing the previously taught suffixes -s, -es, -ed, and -ing, providing cumulative practice without introducing new affixes.

Evaluation for 7.1a
Materials include explicit (direct) and systematic handwriting instruction (e.g., sequenced from lowercase letters to uppercase letters) in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

Lowercase letters are introduced first because they are most commonly used in reading and spelling development, and instruction progresses from individual letter formation to writing words and sentences. Lessons incorporate multimodal practices, including letter-formation verbalizations, skywriting, tracing, repeated writing, daily dictation, and instruction in proper pencil grip, posture, and paper placement. The scope and sequence further supports this progression by outlining ongoing handwriting practice throughout the program.


Handwriting instruction is reinforced through daily lessons that offer guided practice and application. For example, in unit 1, week 3, day 4, the educator guides students in reviewing previously taught letter-sound correspondences by dictating a sound, having students repeat it, identifying the corresponding letter, and practicing correct letter formation. Before writing, the educator reinforces proper pencil grip and posture. A student models the letter on the Large Letter Formation Grid while the educator provides verbal cues for formation, and students then form the letter on dry-erase tablets while repeating the cues. This routine is repeated with previously taught sounds, providing explicit modeling, guided practice, and repeated opportunities for students to develop accurate letter formation and handwriting automaticity.

Evaluation for 7.1b
Materials include frequent opportunities for students to develop and refine handwriting skills through guided practice and independent practice in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

During guided handwriting practice, the materials offer daily opportunities for educators to model and support correct letter formation. Handwriting instruction is embedded in Echo/Letter Formation, Skywrite/Letter Formation, and Dictation activities, where educators model letter formation with consistent verbal cues, reinforce proper pencil grip and posture, and guide students through repeated practice. For example, in the Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1, unit 1, week 1, day 1, students learn to form the letters t, b, and f using sound cards, letter formation posters, skywriting, the Large Letter Formation Grid, and dry-erase writing tablets. Students follow educator modeling and verbal cues as they practice forming letters, reinforcing accurate strokes, letter recognition, and sound-symbol correspondence.


Students also receive frequent opportunities to apply and refine their handwriting skills independently through writing tasks and practice activities. After guided instruction, students apply letter-formation skills in Student Notebooks, on composition paper, and in independent handwriting activities. For example, in the Student Notebook unit 1, week 2, students roll a die and repeatedly write the corresponding target letter until the page is complete, practicing letter formation, spacing, and handwriting fluency. Additional independent practice occurs during Echo/Letter Formation Check-Up activities, where students write dictated letters on composition paper to demonstrate handwriting accuracy and apply previously taught skills. These guided and independent routines provide repeated opportunities for students to develop, apply, and refine their handwriting skills.

Evaluation for 7.1c
Materials include guidance for educators to provide feedback to students to develop and refine their handwriting skills (e.g., writing position, writing grip, letter spacing, size, slant, directionality) in alignment with grade-level TEKS as appropriate for the program's stated purpose.

The Fundations Teacher’s Manual 1 offers guidance for educators to monitor students’ handwriting and provide corrective feedback during handwriting instruction. The Echo/Letter Formation Learning Activity Overview includes sections on Corrective Feedback, Differentiation, and MLL Engagement, directing educators to use modeling, guiding questions, strategy reminders, and verbal cues to address errors in letter formation, pencil grip, posture, and writing habits. For example, when students struggle with letter formation, educators are directed to provide additional support through gross-motor letter formation, tracing, and copying activities on the Large Letter Formation Grid before students write letters independently on dry-erase tablets. These supports enable educators to observe student performance, identify errors, and provide targeted feedback to improve handwriting accuracy and fluency.


The Teacher’s Manual also outlines specific routines to reinforce correct handwriting habits during daily instruction. In Echo/Letter Formation and Skywrite/Letter Formation activities, educators model letter formation and use consistent verbal cues while monitoring students’ writing position, pencil grip, posture, and stroke sequence. Teachers provide immediate feedback, prompting students to adjust letter formation or repeat the correct movement pattern when errors occur. Through ongoing observation, modeling, and corrective guidance, the materials support educators in helping students develop and refine legible handwriting skills aligned with grade-level expectations.