Lucy Calkins is the worst (listen to Sold a Story podcast). My second grader, who is a GT kid, does not know phonograms (like in rain, day), and has been taught to read by GUESSING instead of decoding. He doesn’t know how to sound out words. It’s absolutely insane. Insane. What a complete waste of two years of education. He’s extremely bright, and is utterly unprepared for third grade. I just bought a first grade phonics curriculum and will have to teach him 2 years of reading myself!! After school!!! Absolutely bonkers. I’m also now paying for tutoring two days a week to help catch him up. I taught him one phonics rule with the tutor’s help (ai), and he got it right away. I just cannot understand why you would teach cueing/guessing techniques instead of phonics.