Kindergarten ELA B.E.S.T. Standards

Communicating Through Writing

Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, create narratives with the events in chronological order.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, express opinions about a topic or text with at least one supporting reason.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, provide factual information about a topic.

With guidance and support from adults, improve drawing and writing, as needed, by planning, revising, and editing.

Communicating Orally

Present information orally using complete sentences.

Following Conventions

Follow the rules of standard English grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling appropriate to grade level.

Researching

Recall information to answer a question about a single topic.

Creating and Collaborating

Use a multimedia element to enhance oral or written tasks.

Learning and Applying Foundational Reading Skills

Demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts of print.

Locate a printed word on a page.

Distinguish letters from words within sentences.

Match print to speech to demonstrate that language is represented by print.

Identify parts of a book (front cover, back cover, title page).

Move top to bottom and left to right on the printed page; returning to the beginning of the next line.

Identify all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Recognize that print conveys specific meaning and pictures may support meaning.

Demonstrate phonological awareness.

Blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

Identify and produce alliterative and rhyming words.

Blend and segment onset and rimes of single-syllable words.

Identify the initial, medial, and final sound of spoken words.

Add or delete phonemes at the beginning or end of a spoken word and say the resulting word.

Segment and blend phonemes in single-syllable spoken words.

Use knowledge of grade-appropriate phonics and word-analysis skills to decode words accurately.

Demonstrate knowledge of the most frequent sound for each consonant.

Demonstrate knowledge of the short and long sounds for the five major vowels.

Decode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Encode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Recognize and read with automaticity grade-level high frequency words.

Reading Prose and Poetry

Describe the main character(s), setting, and important events in a story.

Explain the roles of author and illustrator of a story.

Identify rhyme in a poem.

Reading Informational Text

Use titles, headings, and illustrations to predict and confirm the topic of texts.

Identify the topic of and multiple details in a text.

Explain the difference between opinions and facts about a topic.

Reading Across Genres

Identify and explain descriptive words in text(s).

Retell a text orally to enhance comprehension:

Use main character(s), setting, and important events for a story.

Use topic and details for an informational text.

Compare and contrast characters' experiences in stories.

Finding Meaning

Use grade-level academic vocabulary appropriately in speaking and writing.

Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words in grade-level content.

Identify and sort common words into basic categories, relating vocabulary to background knowledge.

Cite evidence to explain and justify reasoning.

Read and comprehend grade-level complex texts proficiently.

Make inferences to support comprehension.

Use appropriate collaborative techniques and active listening skills when engaging in discussions in a variety of situations.

Use the accepted rules governing a specific format to create quality work.

Use appropriate voice and tone when speaking or writing.

Foundational Skills

Communication

Reading

Vocabulary

K-12 ELA Expectations

English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.

English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Mathematics.

English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

English language learners communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting.

English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social Studies.

Cite evidence to explain and justify reasoning.

Read and comprehend grade-level complex texts proficiently.

Make inferences to support comprehension.

Use appropriate collaborative techniques and active listening skills when engaging in discussions in a variety of situations.

Use the accepted rules governing a specific format to create quality work.

Use appropriate voice and tone when speaking or writing.

Communicating Through Writing

Handwriting: Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

Narrative Writing: Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, create narratives with the events in chronological order.

Argumentative Writing: Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, express opinions about a topic or text with at least one supporting reason.

Expository Writing: Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing, provide factual information about a topic.

Improving Writing: With guidance and support from adults, improve drawing and writing, as needed, by planning, revising, and editing.

Communicating Orally

Oral Presentation: Present information orally using complete sentences.

Following Conventions

Conventions: Follow the rules of standard English grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling appropriate to grade level.

Researching

Researching and Using Information: Recall information to answer a question about a single topic.

Creating and Collaborating

Multimedia: Use a multimedia element to enhance oral or written tasks.

Learning and Applying Foundational Reading Skills

Print Concepts: Demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts of print.

Locate a printed word on a page.

Distinguish letters from words within sentences.

Match print to speech to demonstrate that language is represented by print.

Identify parts of a book (front cover, back cover, title page).

Move top to bottom and left to right on the printed page, returning to the beginning of the next line.

Identify all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Recognize that print conveys specific meaning and pictures may support meaning.

Phonological Awareness: Demonstrate phonological awareness.

Blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

Identify and produce alliterative and rhyming words.

Blend and segment onset and rimes of single-syllable words.

Identify the initial, medial, and final sound of spoken words.

Add or delete phonemes at the beginning or end of a spoken word and say the resulting word.

Segment and blend phonemes in single-syllable spoken words.

Phonics and Word Analysis: Use knowledge of grade-appropriate phonics and word-analysis skills to decode words accurately.

Demonstrate knowledge of the most frequent sound for each consonant.

Demonstrate knowledge of the short and long sounds for the five major vowels.

Decode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Encode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Fluency: Recognize and read with automaticity grade-level high frequency words.

Reading Prose and Poetry

Literary Elements: Describe the main character(s), setting, and important events in a story.

Perspective and Point of View: Explain the roles of author and illustrator of a story.

Poetry: Identify rhyme in a poem.

Reading Informational Text

Structure: Use titles, headings, and illustrations to predict and confirm the topic of texts.

Central Idea: Identify the topic of and multiple details in a text.

Argument: Explain the difference between opinions and facts about a topic.

Reading Across Genres

Interpreting Figurative Language: Identify and explain descriptive words in text(s).

Paraphrasing and Summarizing: Retell a text orally to enhance comprehension:

Use main character(s), setting, and important events for a story.

Use topic and details for an informational text.

Comparative Reading: Compare and contrast characters’ experiences in stories.

Finding Meaning

Academic Vocabulary: Use grade-level academic vocabulary appropriately in speaking and writing.

Morphology: Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words in grade-level content.

Context and Connotation: Identify and sort common words into basic categories, relating vocabulary to background knowledge.

Grade-level academic vocabulary consists of words that are likely to appear across subject areas for the current grade level and beyond, are vital to comprehension, critical for academic discussions and writing, and usually require explicit instruction.

Skills to be implemented but not yet mastered are as follows:

See Writing Types.

Communication

Use subject-verb agreement in simple sentences.

The step of confirming the prediction is essential to mastery of this benchmark.

Multimedia elements may include, but are not limited to, a drawing, picture, artifact, and audio or digital representation. At this grade level, the element should relate to the task, but that relationship may be tangential. It does not require, but can include, the use of computers.

Of the many letters students need to be able to print, all vowels must be included. For example, a student who can print 22 letters, both upper- and lowercase, but not “a” or “A” has not mastered the benchmark.

For setting, students will discuss where the events of the story are happening. The time element of setting should only be addressed in texts where it is explicitly indicated.

See Writing Types.

See Context Clues and Word Relationships.

Many of the high frequency words at this grade level are either irregularly spelled and therefore not decodable or are temporarily irregular, meaning that students have not yet learned the phonics rule that would enable them to decode the word. Those words that are decodable should be introduced to students using appropriate phonics rules. See K.F.1.3. Students will read grade-level appropriate high frequency words, decodable or not, with automaticity.

Students will explain examples of descriptive words in text and how they add meaning.

The product can be written, oral, drawn, dictated, or a combination of all.

Form and use simple verb tenses for regular verbs by adding the affix -ed.

Phonological awareness only refers to what can be done orally at the syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme levels. It does not involve print or letter knowledge.

Vocabulary

The product can be written, drawn, dictated, or a combination of all.

se interrogatives to ask questions.

Capitalize proper nouns.

Students should also explain that both authors and illustrators contribute to the meaning of the text.

As needed refers to the fact that sometimes instruction will focus on a specific skill or part of the process. For example, a lesson may focus on planning. In those instances, only the planning step would be focused on. By the end of the year, students should have ample opportunities to engage in planning, revising, and editing.

Students will orally compare and contrast the experiences that characters have had, comparing them to those experienced by other characters, in the same story or a different story. Those experiences can be expressed as events, feelings, or behaviors.

In describing the main character, students can describe appearance, actions, feelings, and thoughts of the character. Students will explain what in the text their description is based on.

Foundational Skills

Descriptions can be oral, either in response to a question or through discussion.

Students will explain which statements are fact and which are opinion within a text.

Students will decode decodable high frequency words appropriate to the grade level. See K.F.1.4 and Dolch and Fry word lists. Students will read grade-level appropriate high frequency words, decodable or not, with automaticity.

The product can be written, drawn, dictated, or a combination of all.

Students will be introduced to the academic vocabulary word “adjective.” However, students are not expected to use the word independently. Discussion should focus on how the descriptive words add meaning to the text.

Reading

Begin each sentence with a capital letter and use ending punctuation.

Use possessives.

See Dolch and Fry word lists.

Some opinion can be added to the information, but it should mostly be factual. It is important that students understand the difference between writing to explain and writing to express an opinion.

Students should attend to spacing between letters.

Capitalize the days of the week, the months of the year, and the pronoun I.

Skills to be mastered at this grade level are as follows:

The topic is the general subject of the text, a word or a short phrase describing what the text is about. For example, the main topic of the book, Why Should I Recycle?, is recycling.

See Conventions Progression by Grade Level for more information.

Students will orally explain that facts are things that a person knows about something and that can be proven true or false. Students will orally explain that opinions are what a person thinks about something, often related to feelings or beliefs. Opinions cannot be proven true or false.

Matching print to speech involves making a one-to-one correspondence between a spoken word and the print on the page. This can be accomplished by having the child point to each word in a sentence as it is read by an adult.

Instruction for this benchmark should include text read-alouds and think-alouds aimed at building and activating background knowledge. Review of words learned in this way is critical to building background knowledge and related vocabulary. Texts read aloud can be two grade levels higher than student reading level.

For further guidance, see the Elementary Oral Communication Rubric.

Most grade-level texts are appropriate for this benchmark.

Form and use complete simple sentences.

Students will explain that the author writes the words and the illustrator creates the pictures, recognizing that sometimes one person does both jobs, as in Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop where Dr. Seuss performs both roles.

Students will also note where the rhyme is coming, e.g., at the end of a line.

See Writing Types.

Phonics refers to the relationship between graphemes (letters or letter combinations) and phonemes (speech sounds).

Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/.

This benchmark builds on the skills from the phonological awareness benchmark K.F.1.2(b): Identify and produce alliterative and rhyming words. The expectation is that students identify rhyming words in a poem that is read aloud.

Print many upper- and lowercase letters with a model.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating and/or writing, create a narrative.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating, selecting and/or writing, express an opinion about a topic.

Using a combination of drawing, dictating, selecting and/or writing, provide a fact about a topic.

With guidance and support from adults, improve drawing and writing, as needed, by planning and revising.

Express information using complete sentences, using the students mode of communication.

Follow the rules of standard English grammar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling. • Capitalize the first word in a sentence, the pronoun I and use ending punctuation. • Form and use complete simple sentences. Use interrogatives to ask questions.

Identify information to answer a question about a single topic.

Identify the correct multimedia element to enhance oral or written tasks when presented with options.

Identify a printed word.

Distinguish letters from words.

Match print to receptive language to demonstrate that language is represented by print.

Identify parts of a book (front cover, back cover, title page) with a model.

Move left to right on the printed page.

Identify upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Recognize that print conveys specific meaning and pictures may support meaning.

Blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

Identify and produce alliterative and rhyming words.

Blend and segment onset and rimes of single-syllable words.

Identify the initial, medial and final sound of spoken words.

Add or delete phonemes at the beginning or end of a spoken word and produce the resulting word using the student’s mode of communication.

Segment and blend phonemes in single-syllable spoken words.

Demonstrate knowledge of the most frequent sound for consonants.

Demonstrate knowledge of the short and long sounds for the five major vowels.

Decode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Encode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Recognize and read high frequency words.

Identify a character, a setting and an event in a story.

Identify the roles of author and illustrator of a story.

Identify a rhyme.

Use titles and illustrations to predict and confirm the topic of texts.

Identify the topic of and select a detail in a text.

Identify an opinion or fact about a topic.

Identify descriptive words in text(s).

Identify main character, setting and important events for a story using the students mode of communication.

Identify topic and details for an informational text using the students mode of communication.

Identify different character experiences in the same story.

Use grade-level academic vocabulary appropriately in communication, using the students mode of communication.

Identify unfamiliar words in grade-level content at the students ability level.

Identify categories of common words in grade-level text at the student’s ability level, using the student’s mode of communication.

Reading Prose and Poetry

Reading Across Genres

Foundational Skills

Learning and Applying Foundational Reading Skills

Finding Meaning

Researching

Reading

Vocabulary

Creating and Collaborating

Communicating Orally

Communication

Communicating Through Writing

Following Conventions

Reading Informational Text