This foundational skill is about recognizing the sounds of language. It begins with word awareness and the ability to recognize, for example, the number of words that make up a spoken sentence. Secondary mastery of these skills includes recognizing
rhyme and syllables. At the most detailed level, the phoneme level, students can discern the sounds that make up a word. They can segment the sounds within a word, blend sounds together to make a word, and substitute sounds to make new words.
The anchor statements define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor statements. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former
providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.