Curriculum

Children will ask and answer questions about key details in a text. For example, after reading a story together, the teacher might prompt the class with questions like, "What was the main problem in the story?" or "Who are the main characters?" Students will then respond with answers such as, "The main problem was that the cat wanted to find its way home," or "The main characters are the cat and the dog."

Children will identify the main topic and retell key details of a text. For example, after reading a story about animals on a farm, the teacher might ask, "What is the main topic of this story?" The children could respond, "The main topic is farm animals." Then, the teacher may prompt them to retell key details by asking, "Can you tell me some important things that happened in the story?" The children might say, "The cow gives milk, the chickens lay eggs, and the pig likes to roll in the mud."

Children will describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. For example, after reading a story about a boy who helps a lost puppy find its way home, the teacher might ask, "How are the boy and the puppy connected in the story?" The children could respond, "The boy helps the puppy because it is lost." The teacher may then prompt them to think about an event, asking, "What happened when the boy met the puppy?" The children might say, "The boy felt happy when he found the puppy and decided to take care of it."

Children will ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. For example, if they read a sentence like "The brown bear hibernates in winter," they might ask, "What does 'hibernate' mean?" and find out that it means to sleep for a long time during winter. Similarly, if they come across a sentence like "Bees collect nectar from flowers," they might ask, "What is 'nectar'?" and learn that it is a sweet liquid that flowers make.

With prompting and support, children will recognize common types of texts such as storybooks and poems. For example, a teacher might show a group of kindergarteners different books and ask them to identify which ones are storybooks and which are poems. The teacher could point out features like, "Storybooks often tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and they sometimes have lots of pictures." For poems, the teacher might say, "Poems are made up of lines that sometimes rhyme and are often shorter than stories."

With prompting and support, children will learn to name the author and illustrator of a story and understand the roles each plays in telling the story. For example, a teacher might read a book like "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak to the class and then discuss it. The teacher could start by asking, "Who wrote the words in this book?" and "Who made the pictures?" As the children respond, the teacher will explain, "The person who wrote the words is called the author, and that's Maurice Sendak for this book. He thought of the story and told it with words. The person who made the pictures is called the illustrator, and in this book, it's also Maurice Sendak. He helped tell the story by creating pictures, so we can see what the characters and places look like."

With prompting and support, children will describe how illustrations relate to the story they are in. For example, using "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, a teacher might show the page where the caterpillar eats an apple and ask, "What part of the story does this picture show?" This helps children see how pictures help tell the story, enhancing their understanding and enjoyment of the book.

(Not applicable to literature)

Children will compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in different stories. For example, using Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" and Ezra Jack Keats' "The Snowy Day," a teacher might guide a discussion on how each character's adventure differs. They could discuss how Max sails to an island of Wild Things and becomes their king, full of wild rumpuses, while Peter explores his neighborhood after a snowfall, experiencing the quiet and peaceful scenes of winter.

Children will read prose and poetry that is suitably complex for their grade level with some prompting and support. For instance, in a grade 1 classroom, a teacher might introduce a simple poem like "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear and a short story such as "Frog and Toad Are Friends" by Arnold Lobel. The teacher could help the children through challenging words and phrases, guide them in understanding the flow of the poetry, and discuss the plot and characters in the story.