State Standards in Language Arts

Kindergarten through Grade Six

Students will be able to:

1. Seek out and enjoy experiences with books and other print materials.

2. Demonstrate an understanding that reading is a way to gain information about the world.

3. Make and confirm predictions about what will be found in a text.

4. Recognize and use rereading as an aid to developing fluency and to understanding appropriate material.

5. Figure out unknown words using a variety of strategies including rereading, context clues, and knowledge of word structures and letter-sound relationships.

6. Recognize and use clues within the text, rereading, and other strategies as aids in developing fluency and comprehension.

7. Ask questions and give other responses after listening to presentations by the teacher or classmates.

Students will be able to:

1. Determine the meaning of unknown words by using a dictionary, glossary, or other reference sources.

2. Adjust reading speed to suit purpose and difficulty of the material.

3. Recognize when a text is primarily intended to persuade.

Students will be able to:

1. Formulate questions to be answered while reading.

2. Reflect on what has been discovered and learned while reading, and formulate additional questions.

3. Identify specific devices an author uses to involve readers.

4. Use specific strategies to clear up confusing parts of a text.

5. Understand stories and expository texts from the perspective of the social and cultural context in which they were created.

6. Identify accurately both the author's purpose and the author's point of view.

7. Summarize whole texts by selecting and summarizing important and representative passages.

9. Explain orally and defend opinions formed while reading and viewing.

10. Adjust viewing and listening strategies in order to comprehend materials viewed and heard.

11. Generate and evaluate the notes they have taken from course-related reading, listening, and viewing.

Students will be able to:

1. Understand the basic plot of simple stories.

2. Draw logical conclusions about what will happen next or how things might have turned out differently in a story.

3. Identify differences and similarities in story elements in works from various cultures.

4. Distinguish between fiction and nonfiction.

Students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate awareness of the culture and geography pertinent to the texts they read.

2. Use literary pieces to better understand and appreciate the actions of others.

3. Respond to speakers in a variety of ways.

4. Share responses to quality literature with peers, citing reasons and making comparisons to other reading, or viewing, or to life experiences.

5. Identify important characters in quality works containing several characters.

6. Make and justify conclusions about the motives of characters and the consequences of their actions.

7. Identify and explain how characters and situations found in various materials are like people or events in their own lives or in other works.

8. Understand how dialogue relates and contributes to a story or text.

9. Recognize basic elements of plot and recount events, ideas, and important details from material read, heard, or viewed.

10. Apply effective strategies to the reading and interpretation of fiction that is appropriately complex in terms of character, plot, theme, and dialogue and appropriately sophisticated in style, point of view, and use of literary devices.

11. Apply effective strategies to the reading and use of nonfiction using texts with an appropriate complexity of content and sophistication of style.

12. Demonstrate understanding of enduring themes of literature.

Students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding that people respond to literature in different and individual ways.

2. Identify specific interests and questions and pursue them by identifying pertinent literature and media.

3. Identify the main and subordinate characters in literary works.

4. Explain how the motives of characters or the causes of complex events in texts are similar to and distinct from those in their own experience.

5. Demonstrate an understanding of lengthy, complex dialogues and how they relate to a story.

6. Recognize the use of specific literary devices.

7. Recognize complex elements of plot.

8. Apply effective strategies to the reading and interpretation of fiction, using texts that are appropriately complex in terms of character, plot, theme, structure, and dialogue and appropriately sophisticated in style, point of view, and use of literary devices.

9. Apply effective strategies to the reading and use of moderately long nonfiction texts which have an appropriate complexity of content and sophistication of style.

Students will be able to:

1. Distinguish between and make observations about formal and informal uses of English.

2. Recognize characteristic sounds and rhythms of language, including the relationship between sounds and letters.

3. Make valid observations about the use of words and visual symbols.

5. Investigate the languages of other cultures and compare/contrast them to English.

6. Make observations about specific uses and idioms of language.

Students will be able to:

4. Use knowledge of the fundamental parts of speech when writing and speaking.

Students will be able to:

1. Understand the main idea of simple expository information.

Students will be able to:

1. Use information contained in chapter and section headings, topic sentences, and summary sentences to construct the main ideas.

2. Use various informational parts of a text.

4. Summarize informational texts.

5. Recognize when a text is primarily intended to instruct or to persuade.

7. Recognize when and how new information in a text connects to prior knowledge.

Students will be able to:

3. Identify both the author's purpose and the author's point of view when reading expository information.

8. Use the various parts of a text to locate specific information.

Students will be able to:

1. Tell about experiences and discoveries, both orally and in writing.

2. Respond to stories orally and in writing.

3. Respond to remarks or statements orally and in writing.

Students will be able to:

1. Write pieces and make remarks that begin to use descriptive language that clarifies, enhances, and develops ideas.

3. Write essays and make remarks that clearly state or suggest a central idea and provide supporting detail.

Students will be able to:

7. Write pieces and make remarks that use descriptive language to clarify, enhance, and develop ideas.