The Foundational Skill standards are directed toward fostering students' understanding and working knowledge of:
Concepts of Print: Recognizing the features print (ex.a sentence begins with a capital and has punctuation at the end).
Phonological Awareness: Understanding how spoken words work.
Phonics and Word Study: The relationship between letters and sounds in language. Students will learn to recognize high-frequency words automatically. Students will also practice recognizing words with irregular spellings (sometimes refered to as sight words).
Fluency: The ability to read smoothly and expressively. A fluent reader is one who reads and understands what he or she is reading. Fluency skills should increase as learners progress from beginning to advanced.
The foundational skills standards are not meant to be taught as isolated skills. These standards are necessary and important components of an effective, comprehensive reading program designed to develop proficient readers with the ability to comprehend what is read across a range of text types and content areas (social studies, science).
How to help your child at home with the foundational skill strand:
Re-read favorite books to build awareness of how print works
Point out and read billboards, signs, package labels and any other print encountered (playing scavenger hunt games for words)
Play word games, taking turns saying syllables and the partner guesses the word (el-e-phant=elephant)
Discuss which letters and letter combinations go with which sounds in what you and your child are reading
Help your child to decode (take apart) common words so that he/she becomes familiar with how to read an unknown word
Point out common vowel combinations, such as words that end with silent e or those that have two vowels together
Look for familiar parts in unknown words, then blend those parts (chunks) together to see if the word sounds familiar (the word jump is made of j+ump+ing)
Have your child find high-frequency words in magazines or newspapers (first graders work on recognizing the first 300 words automatically)
Help your child to read aloud (and re-read) text that is at his/her reading level, reading with accuracy, appropriate speed, and expression
Readaloud higher levels of text to your child so that he/she can hear you read with accuracy, appropriate speed, and expression
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.
Grade 1
