As they move through formal schooling, students must gain control over the many conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics. They must also learn various ways to convey meaning effectively. Language standards include the rules of standard written and spoken English as well as the use of language as craft and informed choice among alternatives. The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words and phrases (their relationships and nuances) and acquiring new academic and domain-specific vocabulary.
English grammar conventions, knowledge of language, and vocabulary extend across reading, writing, speaking, and listening and, in fact, are inseparable from these contexts. As students grow in their understanding of patterns of English grammar, they can use this knowledge to make more purposeful and effective choices in their writing and speaking and more accurate and rich interpretations in their speaking and listening.
Kindergarten students learn to recognizeand write upper and lower case letters and when to use capital letters in writing. Students also learn about basic punctuation marks, how to verbally use singular and plural nouns, and verbs in the past, present and future tense.
How to help your child with the standards in the Language Strand:
Help your child understand the relationship between letters (upper and lowercase) and sounds by helping them print the alphabet letters.
Help your child recognize words that start with a capital, and notice the how the begining word of a sentence begins with a capital when reading favorite books.
Use words like in, out, under, around, on top of, for, by, with........
Help your child understand that adding -s or -es makes a word plural, and that adding beginnings and endings like -ed and -ing changes the word.
Encourage your child to sort words into categories like foods, birds, colors
Show your child opposites like hot/cold, big/small, smile/frown
Help your child find and use words that have similar meanings like cold/frosty/icy/frigid
Encourage your child to use new words that he/she hears, adding to his/her vocabulary
Strands are larger groups of related standards. The Strand Grade is a calculation of all the related standards. Click on the standard name below each strand to access the learning targets and proficiency scales for
each strand's related standards.
Kindergarten
