Language Arts Entry Knowledge

1. Prewriting: Uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (discusses ideas with peers, draws pictures to  generate ideas, writes key thoughts and questions, rehearses ideas, records reactions and observations)
2. Drafting and Revising: Uses strategies to draft and revise written work (rereads; rearranges words, sentences, and paragraphs to improve or clarify meaning; varies sentence type; adds descriptive words and details; deletes extraneous information; incorporates suggestions from peers and teachers; sharpens the focus)
3. Editing and Publishing: Uses strategies to edit and publish written work (proofreads using a dictionary and other resources; edits for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling at a developmentally appropriate level; incorporates illustrations or photos; shares finished product)
4. Evaluates own and others' writing (asks questions and makes comments about writing, helps classmates apply grammatical and mechanical conventions)
5. Dictates or writes with a logical sequence of events (includes a beginning, middle, and ending)
6. Dictates or writes detailed descriptions of familiar persons, places, objects, or experiences
7. Writes in response to literature
8. Writes in a variety of formats (picture books, letters, stories, poems, information pieces)
9. Prewriting: Uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (uses graphic organizers, story maps, and webs; groups related ideas; takes notes; brainstorms ideas)
10. Drafting and Revising: Uses strategies to draft and revise written work (elaborates on a central idea; writes with attention to voice, audience, word choice, tone, and imagery; uses paragraphs to develop separate ideas)
11. Editing and Publishing: Uses strategies to edit and publish written work (edits for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling at a developmentally appropriate level; considers page format [paragraphs, margins, indentations, titles]; selects presentation format; incorporates photos, illustrations, charts, and graphs)
12. Evaluates own and others' writing (identifies the best features of a piece of writing, determines how own writing achieves its purposes, asks for feedback, responds to classmates' writing)
13. Writes stories or essays that show awareness of intended audience
14. Writes stories or essays that convey an intended purpose (to record ideas, to describe, to explain)
15. Writes expository compositions (identifies and stays on the topic; develops the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations; excludes extraneous and inappropriate information)
16. Writes narrative accounts (engages the reader by establishing a context and otherwise developing reader interest; establishes a situation, plot, point of view, setting, and conflict; creates an organizational structure that balances and unifies all narrative aspects of the story; uses sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character; uses a range of strategies such as dialogue and tension or suspense)
17. Writes autobiographical compositions (provides a context within which the incident occurs, uses simple narrative strategies, and provides some insight into why this incident is memorable)
18. Writes expressive compositions (expresses ideas, reflections, and observations; uses an individual, authentic voice; uses narrative strategies, relevant details, and ideas that enable the reader to imagine the world of the event or experience)
19. Writes in response to literature (advances judgments; supports judgments with references to the text, other works, other authors, nonprint media, and personal knowledge)
20. Writes personal letters (includes the date, address, greeting, and closing; addresses envelopes)

1. Uses general, frequently used words to convey basic ideas
2. Uses descriptive language that clarifies and enhances ideas (describes familiar people, places, or objects)
3. Uses paragraph form in writing (indents the first word of a paragraph, uses topic sentences, recognizes a paragraph as a group of sentences about one main idea, writes several related paragraphs)
4. Uses a variety of sentence structures

1. Forms letters in print and spaces words and sentences
2. Uses complete sentences in written compositions
3. Uses declarative and interrogative sentences in written compositions
4. Uses nouns in written compositions (nouns for simple objects, family members, community workers, and categories)
5. Uses verbs in written compositions (verbs for a variety of situations, action words)
6. Uses adjectives in written compositions (uses descriptive words)
7. Uses adverbs in written compositions (i.e., uses words that answer how, when, where, and why questions)
8. Uses conventions of spelling in written compositions (spells high frequency, commonly misspelled words from appropriate grade-level list; uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words; spells own first and last name)
9. Uses conventions of capitalization in written compositions (first and last names, first word of a sentence)
10. Uses conventions of punctuation in written compositions (uses periods after declarative sentences, uses questions marks after interrogative sentences, uses commas in a series of words)
11. Writes in cursive
12. Uses exclamatory and imperative sentences in written compositions
13. Uses pronouns in written compositions (substitutes pronouns for nouns)
14. Uses nouns in written compositions (uses plural and singular naming words; forms regular and irregular plurals of nouns; uses common and proper nouns; uses nouns as subjects)
15. Uses verbs in written compositions (uses a wide variety of action verbs, past and present verb tenses, simple tenses, forms of regular verbs, verbs that agree with the subject)
16. Uses adjectives in written compositions (indefinite, numerical, predicate adjectives)
17. Uses adverbs in written compositions (to make comparisons)
18. Uses coordinating conjunctions in written compositions (links ideas using connecting words)
19. Uses negatives in written compositions (avoids double negatives)
20. Uses conventions of spelling in written compositions (spells high frequency, commonly misspelled words from appropriate grade-level list; uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words; uses initial consonant substitution to spell related words; uses vowel combinations for correct spelling)
21. Uses conventions of capitalization in written compositions (titles of people; proper nouns [names of towns, cities, counties, and states; days of the week; months of the year; names of streets; names of countries; holidays]; first word of direct quotations; heading, salutation, and closing of a letter)
22. Uses conventions of punctuation in written compositions (uses periods after imperative sentences and in initials, abbreviations, and titles before names; uses commas in dates and addresses and after greetings and closings in a letter; uses apostrophes in contractions and possessive nouns; uses quotation marks around titles and with direct quotations; uses a colon between hour and minutes)

1. Generates questions about topics of personal interest
2. Uses books to gather information for research topics (uses table of contents, examines pictures and charts)
3. Uses a variety of strategies to identify topics to investigate (brainstorms, lists questions, uses idea webs)
4. Uses encyclopedias to gather information for research topics
5. Uses dictionaries to gather information for research topics
6. Uses key words, indexes, cross-references, and letters on volumes to find information for research topics
7. Uses multiple representations of information (maps, charts, photos) to find information for research topics
8. Uses graphic organizers to gather and record information for research topics (notes, charts, graphs)
9. Compiles information into written reports or summaries

1. Understands that print conveys meaning
2. Understands how print is organized and read (identifies front and back covers, title page, and author; follows words from left to right and from top to bottom; recognizes the significance of spaces between words)
3. Creates mental images from pictures and print
4. Uses picture clues and picture captions to aid comprehension and to make predictions about content
5. Decodes unknown words using basic elements of phonetic analysis (common letter/sound relationships) and structural analysis (syllables, basic prefixes, suffixes, root words)
6. Uses a picture dictionary to determine word meaning
7. Uses self-correction strategies (searches for cues, identifies miscues, rereads)
8. Reads aloud familiar stories, poems, and passages with attention to rhythm, flow, and meter
9. Previews text (skims material; uses pictures, textual clues, and text format)
10. Establishes a purpose for reading
11. Represents concrete information (persons, places, things, events) as explicit mental pictures
12. Makes, confirms, and revises simple predictions about what will be found in a text
13. Decodes words not recognized immediately by using phonetic and structural analysis techniques, the syntactic structure in which the word appears, and the semantic context surrounding the word
14. Decodes unknown words using a variety of context clues (draws on earlier reading, reads ahead)
15. Determines the meaning of unknown words using a glossary, dictionary, and thesaurus
16. Monitors own reading strategies and makes modifications as needed (recognizes when he or she is confused by a section of text, questions whether the text makes sense)
17. Adjusts speed of reading to suit purpose and difficulty of the material
18. Identifies the author's purpose (to persuade, to inform)

1. Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of familiar literary passages and texts (fairy tales, folktales, fiction, nonfiction, legends, fables, myths, poems, picture books, predictable books)
2. Identifies favorite books and stories
3. Identifies setting, main characters, main events, and problems in stories
4. Makes simple inferences regarding the order of events and possible outcomes
5. Identifies the main ideas or theme of a story
6. Relates stories to personal experiences
7. Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of literary passages and texts (fairy tales, folktales, fiction, nonfiction, myths, poems, fables, fantasies, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies)
8. Knows the defining characteristics of a variety of literary forms and genres ( e.g., fairy tales, folktales, fiction, nonfiction, myths, poems, fables, fantasies, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies)
9. Selects reading material based on personal criteria (personal interest, knowledge of authors and genres, text difficulty, recommendations of others)
10. Understands the basic concept of plot
11. Identifies similarities and differences among literary works in terms of settings, characters, and events
12. Makes inferences regarding the qualities and motives of characters and the consequences of their actions
13. Understands simple dialogues and how they relate to a story
14. Identifies recurring themes across literary works
15. Makes connections between characters or simple events in a literary work and people or events in his or her own life
16. Shares responses to literature with peers

1. Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational books
2. Understands the main idea of simple expository information
3. Summarizes information found in texts (retells in own words)
4. Relates new information to prior knowledge and experience
5. Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational texts (textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines)
6. Knows the defining characteristics of a variety of informational texts (textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines)
7. Uses text organizers (headings, topic and summary sentences, graphic features) to determine the main ideas and to locate information in a text
8. Identifies and uses the various parts of a book (index, table of contents, glossary, appendix) to locate information
9. Summarizes and paraphrases information in texts (identifies main ideas and supporting details)
10. Uses prior knowledge and experience to understand and respond to new information
11. Identifies the author's viewpoint in an informational text

1. Makes contributions in class and group discussions (recounts personal experiences, reports on personal knowledge about a topic, initiates conversations)
2. Asks and responds to questions
3. Follows rules of conversation (takes turns, raises hand to speak, stays on topic, focuses attention on speaker)
4. Uses different voice level, phrasing, and intonation for different situations
5. Listens and responds to oral directions
6. Listens to and recites familiar stories, poems, and rhymes with patterns
7. Listens and responds to a variety of media (books, audiotapes, videos)
8. Identifies differences between language used at home and language used in school
9. Contributes to group discussions
10. Asks questions in class (when he or she is confused, to seek others' opinions and comments)
11. Responds to questions and comments (gives reasons in support of opinions)
12. Listens to classmates and adults (does not interrupt, faces the speaker, asks questions, paraphrases to confirm understanding, gives feedback)
13. Makes some effort to have a clear main point when speaking to others
14. Reads compositions to the class
15. Makes eye contact while giving oral presentations
16. Organizes ideas for oral presentations (includes content appropriate to the audience, uses notes or other memory aids, summarizes main points)
17. Listens to and identifies persuasive messages (television commercials, commands and requests, pressure from peers)
18. Identifies the use of nonverbal cues used in conversation
19. Identifies specific ways in which language is used in real-life situations (buying something from a shopkeeper, requesting something from a parent, arguing with a sibling, talking to a friend)

Appendix for Language Arts: Lower Elementary

Nursery Rhymes

Fairy Tales

Folktales and Legends

Fables and Myth

Novels

Poetry

Appendix for Language Arts: Upper Elementary

Mythology from Around the World

Classical Greek Mythology

Folktales

Unabridged Fiction

Poetry

Nonfiction - Information

Citation Log