English Language Arts (ELA)

Broward County Schools is committed to preparing all of our students for a 21st century world through high quality instruction. The implementation of a rigorous and relevant ELA curriculum that embraces the six major common core shifts can provide students with the skills necessary to be successful in their college and careers. This year, your child’s instruction will include a balance of informational and literary texts, a deep understanding of disciplines, and the use of academic vocabulary in speaking and writing. Your child will be expected to write from sources and support their answers with text-based evidence.

Below you will find what your child will learn for each area of Language Arts.

The Kindergarten student:

In foundational skills,

• demonstrates basic concepts of print, such as locating a printed word on a page, identifying parts of a book (front cover, back cover, title page), move top to bottom, left to right on the printed page, returning to the beginning of the next line
• identifies all upper- and lower-case letters
• distinguishes letters from words within sentences
• understands that pictures may support the specific meaning of print and language is represented by print
• blends and segments syllables in spoken words, and onset and rimes of single-syllable words
• identifies and produces alliterative (Adam’s alligator ate an a) and rhyming words (sun, fun)
• identifies beginning, middle, and ending sounds (phonemes: ex dog = /d/ /o/ /g/; boat = /b/ /oa/ /t/) in spoken words
• adds or deletes phonemes at the beginning or end of a spoken word and say the new word
• breaks apart and blends phonemes in single-syllable spoken words
• knows basic consonant sounds and short and long sounds for the five major vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
• decodes (reads) and encodes (determining the spelling of a word based on the sounds in the word) consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words
• independently reads and recognizes grade-level high-frequency words

In reading,

• retells a text orally by describing main characters, setting, and important events of a story or using topic and details for an informational text
• compares and contrasts characters’ experiences in stories
• explains the roles of author and illustrator of a story
• identifies rhyme in a poem
• predicts and confirm the topic of texts using titles, headings, and illustrations
• identifies the topic and multiple details in a text
• explains the differences between opinions and facts about a topic
• identifies and explains descriptive words in texts

In communication (including writing),

• prints many upper- and lowercase letters
• using any combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing
  • creates narratives with the events in chronological order
  • expresses opinions about a topic or text with at least one supporting reason
  • provides facts about a topic
• improves their drawing and writing by planning, revising, and editing
• uses complete sentences to present information orally
• begins sentences with a capital letter and uses ending punctuation including question marks for questions
• capitalizes the days of the week, months of the year, and the pronoun I
• adds /s/ or /es/ to make nouns plural
• recalls information to answer a question about a single topic
• uses a multimedia element (drawing, picture, artifact, audio or digital) to enhance oral or written tasks

In vocabulary,

• uses and recognizes grade-level academic vocabulary in speaking and writing
• asks and answers questions about unfamiliar words
• identifies and sorts common words into basic categories, relating vocabulary to background knowledge