Curriculum

With prompting and support, children will compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. For example, a teacher might read two stories like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "The Three Little Pigs." Afterward, the teacher can ask the children, "How are Goldilocks' adventures different from those of the three pigs?" and "What similar things happened to Goldilocks and the pigs in their stories?" This activity helps children understand the characters' actions and experiences, encouraging them to think about stories in a deeper way and notice similarities and differences.

Children will actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. This means they will participate in reading sessions where they listen attentively, ask questions, and discuss the story with their peers and teachers. For example, during a group reading of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," the teacher might pause to ask the children about the caterpillar's food choices and their consequences.

Children will ask and answer questions about key details in a text, enhancing their comprehension. For instance, after reading "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss, a teacher might ask a 6-year-old, "What mess did the Cat make?" The child can respond based on the story. Additionally, the child might ask, "Why did the Cat come to the house?"

Children will retell stories including key details and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. For example, after reading "The Tortoise and the Hare," a teacher can ask a 6-year-old to recount the story. The child might say, "The tortoise walked very slowly but didn't stop, and the hare ran fast and then took a nap." The teacher might then lead the child to discuss the lesson by asking, "What does the story teach us?"

Children will describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. For example, after reading "Corduroy" by Don Freeman, a teacher might ask a 6-year-old to tell about the main character. The child might say, "Corduroy is a small teddy bear who wears green overalls and lives in a department store." Moving on to the setting, the teacher could prompt, "Where does the story happen?" to which the child might respond, "First in the department store and then in a little girl’s home." Discussing the major events, the child might recount, "Corduroy tries to find a button for his overalls, gets in trouble, but then a girl named Lisa buys him and takes him home.”

Children will, with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. For example, after listening to a story, they might ask questions like, "What happened to the main character?" or "Where did the story take place?" In response to questions from the teacher, they might answer by saying, "The cat climbed the tree," demonstrating their understanding of the key details of the story.

Children will, with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. For example, after reading a story, they might come across a word like "glimmer" that they don't recognize. The teacher could prompt them by asking, "What do you think 'glimmer' means in this sentence?" The child might respond with, "It might mean something that shines." With further support, the teacher could guide them to use context clues from the surrounding sentences to infer the meaning, such as "The stars glimmered in the night sky."

Children will, with prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. For example, after reading a story, a teacher might ask, "How are the character and the setting related?" The child could respond, "The bunny lives in the forest," showing the relationship between the character (the bunny) and the setting (the forest).

Children will, with prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text. For example, after listening to a story read aloud, they might be prompted by the teacher to say, "What is this story mainly about?" They may respond, "This story is about a little bunny." Then, with further guidance, they could retell key details, such as "The bunny found a carrot," or "The bunny hopped through the garden."

Children will use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary. For example, if they come across a word they don't recognize while reading a sentence, they might use the surrounding words to figure it out. If the sentence reads, "The dog wags its ___," and they hesitate at the word "tail," they could think about the context and reread the sentence to understand that "tail" makes sense in that context.