Curriculum

Children will know and use various text features to locate key facts or information in a text. This means they will learn to look at headings to see what a section is about, use the table of contents to find the right page for a topic, check the glossary to understand the meaning of new words, and click on icons in digital texts to get more information.

Children will distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text. This means they will learn to notice what details come from the images and what details come from the written text. For example, if they see a picture of a dog playing in a park and read the sentence "The dog is running fast," they will understand that the picture shows how the dog looks and where it is, while the words describe what the dog is doing

Children will use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas. This means they will look at the pictures and read the text to understand the main points. For example, if they see a picture of a butterfly and read about how it grows from a caterpillar, they will use both the image and the words to explain the life cycle of a butterfly.

Children will identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text. This means they will read and find specific explanations or examples that the author provides to explain their ideas. For example, if they read that "eating vegetables is healthy," they will look for reasons like "vegetables have vitamins" and "they make you strong" to see why the author thinks eating vegetables is good.

Children will identify basic similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic. This means they will look at how the texts are alike and how they are different in their illustrations, descriptions, or procedures. For example, if they read two books about frogs, they might notice that both books talk about where frogs live (similarity) but one book has more pictures while the other has more detailed descriptions (difference).

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.

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, 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, 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, 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."