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Curriculum and Programs
Year 1 Language Arts Curriculum
The Language Arts Curriculum is divided into Primary, Primary/Intermediate, and Intermediate/Upper categories. Children work at their own pace and abilities, regardless of grade level.
Primary Language Arts
Literature
Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (picture books, poems, plays, audiotapes)
Resources include: trade books, leveled skills books, anthologies, magazines
The following is a sampling of reading selections used in class:
- “In the Attic”
- “By Myself”-poem
- “I Meant to Clean My Room Today”
- Frog and Toad
- Fox on Wheels
- Legend of the Indian Paintbrush
- The Goat in the Rug
- Native American legends and folktales
- Fireflies
- “The Night Sky”
- “Who Hid It?”
- “Bet You Can’t”
- Amazing Grace
- The Playground Problem
- Wright books -- fiction and non-fiction
- Rookie Readers
Reading
- Developing Phonological Awareness:
- Reciting rhymes & songs
- Rhyming words & patterns
- Letter sounds & blending
- Beginning & ending sounds
- Phonograms (at, op, ot, ill…)
- Naming letters
- Understanding concepts of print
- High frequency words-Word wall
- Using context clues to decode meaning
- Read-alouds
- Participating with patterned text
- Recognizing parts of a book
- Preview text-revise, confirm
- Recognizing story patterns
- Retelling a story
- Using picture clues & punctuation marks
- Story elements: setting, characters, problem-solution
- Sequencing events
- Listening/reading for information
- Comparing/contrasting characters and stories
- Distinguishing fantasy/reality
- Making inferences
- Drawing conclusions
- Making connections to self, world, text
- Expressing own opinion of text
- Responding to literature in a variety of ways (project, art, drama)
Writing
- Writing group stories, poems, letters, picture books
- Reading/writing predictable charts
- Using personal word lists for writing and spelling.
- Writing manuscript: upper and lowercase letter formation, staying on line, finger spacing between words.
- Practicing manuscript: formation, spacing and size.
- Dictate/write labels, captions, experience statements.
- Writing journal entries
- Using graphic representations to record elements of story
- Word order
- Writing complete sentences
- Capitalizing first word and names
- Punctuating end of sentence
- Creating stories with beginning, middle, and end using pictures, drawings, and some words
- Writing pieces of 5 or more sentences that flow together in a logical sequence
Grammar/Usage/Vocabulary
- Generating word lists (weather words, plant words)
- Using the Make-A--Word activity for developing awareness of word chunks and patterns.
- Using the Uncover the Word activity to develop strategies for using context to decode words
- Primary analogies
- Subject verb agreement
- Using correct verb tense
- Pronoun recognition
- Identifying and categorizing nouns
- Compound words
- Using spelling patterns: double final consonant, change y to i, adding ing, Making plurals by adding s, es)
- Using prefixes: un, dis, re
Study Skills/Oral
- Sharing personal experiences
- Expressing and supporting personal opinions
- Retelling a story in sequence
- Following oral directions
- Contributing relevant information to group discussions
- Participating in group storytelling, singing, and finger play
- Using informational texts to formulate questions and to gather data, facts, and ideas.
- Alphabetizing by first letter
- Exploring the library
Primary/Intermediate Language Arts
Literature
Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (books, poems, articles, fairy tales, fables, fiction)
Resources include: trade books, reference books, anthologies, magazines
Children participate in guided, independent and group reading activities.
The following is a sampling of reading selections used in class:
- Freckle Juice
- The Chalk Box Kid
- Aldo Applesauce
- Muggie Maggie
- Encounter
- Annie and the Old One Titanic Lost and Found
- Native American legends and folktales
- “Christopher Columbus’ Voyage”
- “ Pueblos of the Southwest”
- “The Book of Think”
- “Sunken Treasures”
- “Ibis: A True Whale Story”
- “My Grandfather and the Time Machine”
- “Pigsty”
- Children will explore the lives of famous individuals by reading biographies
- Non-fiction : explorers, Native Americans, geology
- ROAR (independent reading )– -Self-selected literature books
Reading
- Making, confirming, revising predictions
- Summarizing the story
- Sequencing the story
- Identifying literary elements of character, setting, plot, problem, resolution
- Identifying main idea and supporting details
- Identifying cause and effect relationships
- Identifying fact and opinion
- Analyzing character traits
- Drawing conclusions
- Making inferences
- Making connections to self-world, text
- Identifying author’s purpose
- Recognizing steps in a process
- Comparing text between different sources
- Identifying features of text: captions, capitals, italics
- Using graphic organizers: T-chart, webbing, Venn diagram, etc. to compare/contrast and organize story elements
- Interpreting figurative language and quotations
Writing
- Writing cursive: upper and lower case letter formation, joining letters together, size and spacing
- Practicing cursive: formation, size, spacing
- Writing journal entries and/or “quick-write” topics daily.
- Using periods, exclamation points, and question marks to punctuate end of sentences.
- Using commas in a series
- Capitalizing proper nouns, titles, abbreviations.
- Expanding sentences: compound subjects and predicates, transitional words
- Paragraph development:
- Writing sentences on one topic, indenting first word
- Writing paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting details, conclusion
- Using the writing process:
- (Prewriting, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, publishing)
- Using graphic organizers for pre-writing
- Adding, deleting, reorganizing for clarity and impact.
- Writing book reviews, personal narratives, essays, reports, poems, friendly letters, business letters, descriptive passages, fictional stories.
- Writing to inform, entertain, persuade.
Grammar/Usage/ Vocabulary/Spelling
- Keeping personal word lists
- Writing, reading, using vocabulary words related to theme and appearing in literature selection.
- Using Make-A-Word activity to develop awareness of word structure and patterns. Using Uncover-the-Word Activity to develop strategies for using the context
- Creating word analogies
- Using spelling patterns (ough)
- Changing words to past tense
- Recognizing sentence structure/parts: subject/predicate, statements, questions, commands, exclamations
- Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles
- Singular and plural, common and proper nouns
- Comparative and superlative adverbs, past tense verbs
- Recognizing, using, and understanding:
- Multi-meaning words
- Homophones
- Compound words
- Synonyms and antonyms
- Contractions
- Singular possessives
- Using syllabification
- Using simple prefix/suffixes to decode and build new words
- Identifying figurative language: alliteration, simile, idioms
Study Skills/Oral
- Alphabetizing to second and third letters
- Using dictionary to look up a word for spelling, meaning, usage
- Identifying different sources for locating information: dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, phone book, yellow pages
- Using the library computer (card catalogue)
- Locating and using the parts of a book: table of contents, glossary, index
- Using graphic aids: charts, tables, diagrams, pictures, time lines
- Using graphic organizers to collect information
- Sorting and organizing information
- Outlining information from text—main topics and sub topics
- Taking notes from oral presentations
- Organizing information into a report
- Participating in “oral shares” to school: reading chosen passage from book with attention to expression and delivery, reading original writing piece
Intermediate/Upper Language Arts
Literature
Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (books, poems, articles, fairy tales, fables, fiction, short stories)
Resources include: trade books, reference books, anthologies, magazines, computer resources.
Children participate in guided, independent, group, and literature circle reading activities.
The following is a sampling of literature selections used in class:
- Kid in the Red Jacket
- Strudel Stories
- Call It Courage
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- Buffalo Home
- Tall Shadow
- Racing the Sun
- Morning Girl
- Frindle
- Molly’s Pilgrim
- “Pointing a Finger”
- “Fox Song”
- “Things to Come”
- “Mistakes that Worked”
- “Ship”
- “Exploring the Titanic”
- “The Day We Walked on the Moon”
- Native American legends and folktales
- Children will explore the lives of famous individuals by reading biographies
- Non-fiction : explorers, Native Americans, geology
- ROAR (independent reading )– - Self-selected literature books
Reading
- Making, confirming, revising predictions
- Summarizing the story
- Sequencing the story
- Identifying literary elements of character, setting, plot, problem, resolution
- Identifying main idea and supporting details.
- Identifying cause and effect relationships
- Analyzing character traits
- Drawing conclusions
- Making inferences
- Distinguishing between fact and opinion
- Making connections to self-world, text
- Identifying author’s purpose
- Analyzing author’s and illustrator’s style
- Identifying point of view
- Making judgements with references to the text
- Identifying theme and comparing pieces with similar themes
- Comparing different versions of the same story
- Identifying elements of theme, imagery, irony, mood flashback, foreshadowing, symbolism, rising action, conflict, falling action, climax, resolution, metaphor, simile
- Comparing text between different sources
- Identifying elements of newspaper and news articles
- Using graphic organizers (T-chart, webs, flow charts, Venn diagram) to compare/contrast and organize story elements
- Interpreting figurative language and quotations
Writing
- Practicing cursive: formation, size, spacing
- Writing journal entries and/or “quick-write” topics daily
- Using quotation marks and writing dialogue
- Using colons and semi-colons
- Using conventions of capitalization and punctuation and spelling
- Using appropriate paragraph structure and writing several related paragraphs
- Develop topic with details, examples, facts, explanations.
- Using the writing process:
- Prewriting, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, publishing
- Using graphic organizers for pre-writing
- Adding, deleting, reorganiz-ing for clarity and impact.
- Using varied and descriptive writing style
- Evaluating own and others’ pieces
- Paraphrasing given text
- Using signal words to provide clues to the organizational format (for example, in addition, finally, as a result)
- Using the appropriate “writer’s voice” for different situations.
- Writing book reviews, essays personal narratives, poems, research reports, news articles, friendly letters, business letters, fictional stories, biographies. Writing to inform, entertain, persuade.
Grammar/Usage/Vocabulary/Spelling
- Creating word lists within different criteria
- Writing, reading, using vocabulary words related to theme and appearing in literature selection.
- Using Make-A-Word activity to develop awareness of word structure and patterns.
- Creating word trees from Greek and Latin roots (vocabulary and spelling).
- Using phonetic, structural, and contextual analysis to construct meaning from print.
- Interpreting and creating word analogies
- Using figurative language:
- alliteration
- onomatopoeia
- simile
- metaphor
- personification
- proverbs
- idioms
- Recognizing cliches, colloquialisms, jargon, and cultural expressions.
- Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, interjections
- Recognizing, using, and understanding:
- Multi-meaning words
- Homophones
- Compound words
- Synonyms and antonyms
- Contractions
- Singular and plural possessive
- Using syllabification
Study Skills/Oral
- Using dictionary to look up a word for spelling, meaning, syllabification, usage, pronunciation, part of speech, etymology,
- Using a variety of sources for obtaining information: dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, thesaurus, electronic media, internet, oral interviews, newspaper, magazine.
- Using graphic aids: charts, tables, diagrams, pictures, time lines, maps, photos, graphs
- Using graphic organizers to collect and organize information
- Sorting/organizing information from several sources
- Taking notes from oral presentations
- Combining information from several sources into outline
- Organizing information from several sources into a report
- Using/creating footnotes and bibliography
- Participating in “oral shares” to school: reading chosen passage from book with attention to expression and delivery, reading original writing piece.
- Presenting information through an oral presentation
- Evaluating own and others’ presentations
