Bridge to Reading: Foundational Skills

The Bridge To Reading materials partially meet the expectations for alignment to research-based practices and standards for foundational skills instruction.

The materials include a defined sequence for letter recognition aligned with the scope and sequence of letter formation. Materials include a phonemic awareness scope and sequence that progresses from simple to complex. Materials include phonemic awareness activities such as isolating, blending, and segmenting words as part of a warm-up for 8-12 minutes. Materials also include a sequence of instruction in phonemic awareness skills aligned to phonics instruction progression and include opportunities for students to practice connecting sounds to letters. Materials include limited explicit instruction for the teacher to model different types of phonemic awareness activities. Instead, the teacher is guided to begin student practice without modeling first.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding. The materials include a phonics scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction; however, the materials have a limited evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. The Bridge to Reading foundational skills lessons include 20-30 minutes of phonics instruction. The materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of phonics skills. The materials include a structured, consistent blending routine with teacher modeling. The materials include instructions for the dictation of words and sentences. The materials include decodable texts aligned to the phonics scope and sequence, including passages in the READ books and a Decodables library; however, the texts in the Decodable Library are briefly mentioned in the lesson plans.

The materials include consistent instructional routines to introduce high-frequency words and teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of high-frequency words that includes connecting the phonemes to the graphemes. The materials provide consistent opportunities for students to engage in practice reading high-frequency words in isolation and in the context of sentences and decodable passages. Although there are opportunities for students to write words in sentences, it is often through the use of tracing or word banks. The materials include explicit instruction and student practice of grade-appropriate word analysis skills.

The materials include limited opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in oral reading fluency. The materials provide limited opportunities for students to engage in supported practice to gain automaticity and prosody. Students practice fluent reading independently using word lists, sentences, and decodable text passages.

The materials include a Phonics Instruction Corrective Feedback Guide for each unit, which provides limited guidance on corrective feedback. Additionally, assessment materials throughout the program provide limited information on instructional next steps, and assessments for phonemic awareness are labeled as optional. Materials do not include assessment opportunities for word recognition and analysis.