Category: Kindergarten ELA

I am a Reader and Writer

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations units which focus on print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and building fluency. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Unit description: Using a variety of genres, students will use prior knowledge and skills learned throughout the year to be independent readers and writers.  Students will demonstrate these skills through discussion, written language, drawing, and playing.

Download the complete Kindergarten ELA Unit 4 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes of the Unit

Reading

KR1 Develop and answer questions about a text.

KR2 Retell stories or share key details from a text.

KR3 Identify characters, settings, major events in a story, or pieces of information in a text. 

Reading Foundations- Print Concepts and Fluency

KRF1a, c, e Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

KRF4 Will engage with emergent level texts and read-alouds to demonstrate comprehension. 

Addressed in RF unit:

• KRF1b, d Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
• KRF2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
• KRF3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words

Language

KL2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

KL4 Explore and use new vocabulary and multiple-meaning words and phrases in authentic experiences.

Writing

KW6 Develop questions and participate in shared research and exploration to answer questions and to build and share knowledge. 

KW7 Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question in a variety of ways (e.g., drawing, oral expression, and/or emergent writing)

Speaking and Listening

KSL1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play

KSL2 Participate in a conversation about features of diverse texts and formats. 

KSL6 Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas. 

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

1. See Reading Foundations Units: KRF1b, KRF1d, KRF2a-e, KRF3a-d
2. KR1, KR2, KR3, KR4, KR5, KR7, KR9
3. KRF1a, 1c, 1e, KRF4
4. KL2, KL4, KL5, KL6
5. KW6, KW7
6. KSL1, KSL2, KSL3, KSL5, KSL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

How do I show I am an independent reader?

• Independent readers use various strategies to read and write (decoding, blending, segmenting, making connections, etc) 
• Independent readers and use resources around them (word wall, sounding out words, etc) 

How do I show I am an independent writer?

• Independent writers use various strategies to read and write (decoding, blending, segmenting, making connections, etc) 
• Independent writers use resources around them (word wall, sounding out words, etc) 
  

Growing as a Reader and Writer

Unit description: Using a balance of provided texts, students will identify specific information to support ideas in a text and make connections as readers and writers between self, text and the world. These texts will include but are not limited to picture books, stories, poetry, tall tales, fiction, etc. Students will also begin to become independent readers through engagement in small group, large group and individual activities.

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations which focus on the acquisition of phonological awareness and phonics which are essential foundations for reading and writing. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• KR1. Develop and answer questions about a text.
• KR2. Retell stories or share key details from a text.
• KR3. Identify characters, settings, major events in a story, or pieces of information in a text.
• KR5. Identify literary and informational texts.
• KR8. Identify specific information to support ideas in a text.
• KR9. Make connections between self, text, and the world.

Reading Foundations- Print Concepts and Fluency

• KRF1a, c, e. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
• KRF4. Will engage with emergent level texts and read-alouds to demonstrate comprehension.
• Addressed in RF unit:
  • KRF1b, d. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
  • KRF2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
  • KRF3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Language

• KL4. Explore and use new vocabulary and multiple-meaning words and phrases in authentic experiences
• KL5. Explore and discuss word relationships and word meanings.

Writing

• KW1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or emergent writing to state an opinion about a familiar topic or personal experience and state a reason to support that opinion.
• KW4. Create a response to a text, author, or personal experience (e.g., dramatization, artwork, or poem).

Speaking and Listening

• KSL1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.
• KSL4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events with detail.
• KSL6. Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: KRF 1b, d, KRF2a-e, KRF3a-d
• KR1, KR2, KR3, KR4, KR5, KR6, KR7, KR8, KR9
• KRF1a, 1c, 1e, KRF4
• KL4, KL5, KL6
• KW1, KW4
• KSL1, KSL2, KSL3, KSL4, KSL5, KSL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How can you connect to the stories you read?
  • Readers make connections between self/text/world to help understand the text.
• How do readers understand what they are reading about?
  • Readers identify specific information to support student ideas to help understand the text.
• What strategies can I use to help me read and understand a text?
  • Readers identify, model, and practice multiple strategies for reading and understanding a text.
• How do people share what they think?
  • People share their thoughts and opinions through their writing.
  • People share their thoughts and opinions in conversations with others.

Download the complete Kindergarten ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Becoming a Reader and Writer

Unit description: Using a balance of fiction and nonfiction texts, students will explore different genres of text and develop their knowledge as readers and writers. Students will engage in group and individual reading and writing activities as well as engage in dictation, drawing for meaning, responding to writing, and other various skill building activities. 

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• KR5: Identify literary and informational texts. 
• KR7: Describe the relationship between illustrations and the text.

Reading Foundations- Print Concepts and Fluency

• Addressed in RF unit:
  • KRF3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Language

• KL2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Writing

• KW2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or emergent writing to name a familiar topic and supply information.

Speaking and Listening

• KSL2: Participate in a conversation about features of diverse texts and formats. 
• KSL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas. 

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units:
  • KR1, KR2, KR3, KR5
  • KR6, KR7,
  • KRF1, KRF2, KRF3, KRF4
  • KL1, KL2, KL4, KL6
  • KW2, KW3
  • KSL1, KSL2, KSL3, KSL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts?
  • Fictional texts have a character, setting and plot.
  • Nonfiction text features may include a table of contents, diagrams, labels, captions, glossary and/or an index.
• What is the purpose of a fiction text? A non-fiction text? 
  • Fictional texts tell a story and use story elements.
  • Nonfiction texts contain facts and can be used for research.
• How do pictures and words both tell a story?
  • Pictures and illustrations in texts help develop a deeper understanding of a text. 

Prerequisite Skills

• rhyming
• one and two syllable words
• can identify onsets and rimes
• identifying author and illustrator 
• concepts of print
• dictated illustration 
• on topic conversation
• text features

Download the complete Kindergarten ELA Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Print Concepts, Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Word Recognition

This unit consists of 3 sub-units designed to provide students with basic foundational skills for word work, closely following the Next Generation Foundation Skills standards. The first part focuses on print concepts, the second on phonological awareness and the third on phonics and word recognition. It is essential that a word-work curriculum closely aligns/integrates with reading and writing instruction, supporting how students develop as writers, readers, speakers, and listeners. Additionally, in keeping with the recommendations of the Next Generation Learning Standards, it is important that kindergarten units are developmentally appropriate, with play and hands-on learning underpinning all instruction.

Each sub-unit is designed with an intentional progression with a recommended sequence of lessons. However, teachers are encouraged to use the 3 sub-units in an integrated and flexible manner, to best support Language Arts in the classroom.

Note: The foundational skills are not an end in and of themselves; rather, they are essential and vital components of effective reading instruction designed to develop capable readers with the ability to comprehend texts across a range of types and disciplines. Responsive practitioners need to develop a deep understanding and working knowledge of foundational literacy processes. The standards, along with the 3 sub-units’ guiding questions and learning targets, can provide the direction and support to assist students in learning the foundational skills.

As always, assess students’ with developmentally appropriate tools that help to inform instructional planning. Learners who lack literacy experiences before they enter school often require a more explicit, structured, and targeted approach to the foundational skills. Teachers will find the specific progressions for instruction in each of the K foundational sub-units. Learners who enter kindergarten with more robust literacy experiences will require a more flexible and eclectic approach to instruction. Teachers are encouraged to use the progressions in this unit to meet the students’ strengths and needs.

Essential Outcomes

Reading Foundations – Print Concepts

• KRF1b: Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
• KRF1d: Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Reading Foundations – Phonological Awareness

• KRF2: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
• KRF2a: Recognize and produce spoken rhyming words.
• KRF2b: Blend and segment syllables in spoken words.
• KRF2c: Blend and segment onsets and rimes of spoken words.
• KRF2d: Blend and segment individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken one-syllable words.
• KRF2e: Create new words by manipulating the phonemes orally in one-syllable words.

Reading Foundations – Phonics and Word Recognition

• KRF3: Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• KRF3a: Demonstrate one-to-one letter sound correspondence by producing the primary sound or most frequent sound for each consonant.
• KRF3b: Decode short vowel sounds with common spellings.
• KRF3c: Decode some regularly spelled one syllable words.
• KRF3d: Read common high-frequency words by sight.

Download the complete Kindergarten ELA Reading Foundations framework to customize for your own planning.

What Is a Reader and a Writer?

Using a balance of literature and informational texts, students will begin to learn the foundational skills needed to become a reader and writer. The students will become familiar with text structures.

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations units which focus on print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and building fluency. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• KR1: Develop and answer questions about a text. 
• KR2: Retell stories or share key details from a text.
• KR3: Identify characters, settings, major events in a story, or pieces of information in a text. 

Reading Foundations – Print Concepts and Fluency

• KRF1a, c, e: Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
• KRF4: Will engage with emergent level texts and read-alouds to demonstrate comprehension. 
• Addressed in RF unit:  Phonological Awareness and Phonics and Word Recognition
  • KRF1b, d
  • KRF2: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

Language

• KL6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

Writing 

• KW3: Use a combination of drawing, dictating oral expression, and/or emergent writing to narrate an event or events in a sequence.

Speaking and Listening

• KSL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.
• KSL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

All Standards Addressed in This Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: 
  • KRF1b, KRF1d, KRF2a-e, KRF3a-d
• KR1, KR2, KR3, KR6
• KRF1a, c, e, KRF4
• KL1, KL2, KL5, KL6
• KW2, KW3
• KSL1, KSL3, KSL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• What makes a student?
  • Students follow agreed-upon rules for discussions including listening to others, taking turns, and staying on topic.
  • Students participate in discussions through multiple exchanges.
  • Students consider individual differences when communicating with others.
  • Students actively verbalize or act out thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
  • Participate in meaningful classroom discussions.
• What makes a reader?
  • Readers follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
  • Readers recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
  • Readers understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
  • Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
  • Readers ask and answer questions about the text after listening or reading the text.
  • By retelling the events in a story using beginning, middle, and end, readers deepen their understanding of the text.
  • Readers use their understanding of letters, letter sounds, words and pictures to gather meaning from a text.
• What are story elements?
  • Characters are who or what the story is about.
  • Setting is the time and place where the story happens.
• What makes a writer?
  • Writing is a communication tool to retell experiences to an audience. 
  • Writers use their understanding of letters, letter sounds, words and pictures to narrate an event or events in a sequence.

Download the complete Kindergarten ELA Unit 1 framework to customize for your own planning.