SECTION 210:15-3-5.3. Language arts for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten

(a)   Pre-Kindergarten. Young children begin to develop language arts skills through the context of shared reading with quality children's literature, shared writing, language experience, reading and writing centers. For English Language Learners (ELL), educators should gather information and appropriate procedures should be followed to determine which language should be used to understand the impact of second language acquisition on the child's development and performance in the early childhood setting. Teachers need to assist ELL by building upon what children may already know in their native language. Emphasis should be placed on commonalities that exist between English and the native language. Extra time should be allowed for ELL to process information and formulate thoughts. It is important to use concrete objects and pictures to teach ELL children.

(1)   Oral Language/Literacy. The student will apply a wide range of strategies to listen, speak, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, appreciate, and respond to a wide variety of text and literature for information and pleasure.

(A)   Standard - listening. The student will listen for information and for pleasure.

(i)   Listens with interest to stories read aloud.

(ii)   Understands and follows oral directions.

(B)   Standard - speaking. The child will express ideas or opinions in group or individual settings.

(i)   Uses language for a variety of purposes (e.g., expressing needs and interests).

(ii)   Recalls and repeats simple poems, rhymes, and songs.

(iii)   Uses sentences of increasing length (three or more words) and grammatical complexity in everyday speech.

(iv)   Shares simple personal narrative.

(v)   Participates actively in conversations.

(C)   Standard - print awareness. The student will understand the characteristics of written language.

(i)   Demonstrates increasing awareness of concepts of print.

(ii)   Identifies the front cover and back cover of a book.

(iii)   Follows book from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.

(iv)   Shows increasing awareness of print in classroom, home and community settings.

(v)   Begins to recognize the relationship or connection between spoken and written words by following the print as it is read aloud.

(vi)   Understands that print carries a message by recognizing labels, signs, and other print forms in the environment.

(vii)   Develops growing understanding of the different functions of forms of print (e.g., signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus).

(viii)   Begins to understand some basic print conventions (e.g., the concept that letters are grouped to form words and that words are separated by spaces).

(ix)   Role plays reading.

(D)   Standard - phonological awareness. The student will demonstrate the ability to work with rhymes, words, syllables, onsets and rimes.

(i)   Begins to hear, identify, and make oral rhymes (e.g., "The pig has a wig").

(ii)   Shows increasing ability to hear, identify, and work with syllables in spoken words (e.g., "I can clap the parts in my name: An-drew").

(E)   Standard - phonemic awareness. The student will demonstrate the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.

(i)   Shows increasing ability to discriminate, identify and work with individual phonemes in spoken words (e.g., "The first sound in sun is /s/").

(ii)   Recognizes which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (e.g., "Bell, bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning").

(F)   Standard - phonics (letter knowledge and early word recognition). The student will demonstrate the ability to apply sound- symbol relationships.

(i)   Recognizes own name in print.

(ii)   Demonstrates awareness or knowledge of letters of the English language, especially letters from own name.

(iii)   Begins to recognize the sound association for some letters.

(iv)   Knows that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.

(G)   Standard - vocabulary. The student will develop and expand knowledge of words and word meanings to increase vocabulary.

(i)   Shows a steady increase in listening and speaking vocabulary.

(ii)   Understands and follows oral directions (e.g., use of position words: under, above, through).

(iii)   Links new learning experiences and vocabulary to what is already known about a topic.

(H)   Standard - comprehension. The student will associate meaning and understanding with reading.

(i)   Begin to use prereading skills and strategies (e.g., connecting prior knowledge to text, making predictions about text and using picture clues).

(ii)   Demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences.

(iii)   Remembers and articulates some sequences of events.

(iv)   Connects information and events to real-life experiences when being read a story.

(v)   Demonstrates understanding of literal meaning of story being told through questions and comments.

(vi)   Tells what is happening in a picture.

(2)   Writing/grammar/usage and mechanics. The student will express ideas effectively in written modes for a variety of purposes and audiences. The child will use the "writing process" to express thoughts and feelings.

(A)   Develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.

(B)   Progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas to using letter-like symbols, or writing familiar words such as their own name.

(C)   Participates in writing opportunities.

(D)   Begins to remember and repeat stories and experiences through drawing and dictation to the teacher.

(b)   Kindergarten. Young children begin to develop language arts skills through the context of shared reading with quality children literature, shared writing, language experience, reading and writing centers.

(1)   Reading/literature. The student will apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, appreciate, and respond to a wide variety of text and literature.

(A)   Standard - print awareness. The student will understand the characteristics of written language.

(i)   Demonstrate correct book orientation by holding book correctly (right side up) and indicating where to begin (e.g., front to back, top to bottom, left to right).

(ii)   Identify the front cover, back cover, title page of a book and title and author.

(iii)   Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.

(iv)   Understand that printed materials provide information.

(v)   Recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.

(vi)   Distinguish letters from words.

(vii)   Recognize and name all capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

(B)   Standard - phonological/phonemic awareness. The student will demonstrate the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate large parts of spoken language (e.g., words, syllables, onsets, and rimes) and individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.

(i)   Identify and produce simple rhyming pairs. Example: bat/cat

(ii)   Identify and count syllables in spoken words.

(iii)   Distinguish onset (beginning sound[s]) and rimes in one-syllable words. Example: Onset - /b/ in bat. Example: Rime - at in ba

(iv)   Recognize ending sounds in spoken words. Example: /t/ in bat

(v)   Recognize the same sounds in different words. Examples: /b/ in ball, big, and bun; /p/ in tap, rip, and mop

(vi)   Begin to blend phonemes to form a word. Example: /b/ /a/ /t/ = bat

(vii)   Begin to segment phonemes of one syllable words. Example: bat = /b/ /a/ /t/

(C)   Standard - phonics/decoding. The student will demonstrate the ability to apply sound-symbol relationships. Identify the alphabet by name and sound.

(D)   Standard - vocabulary. The student will develop and expand their knowledge of words and word meanings to increase their vocabulary.

(i)   Increase personal vocabulary by listening to a variety of literature and text.

(ii)   Use new vocabulary and language in own speech and writing.

(E)   Standard - fluency. The student will demonstrate the ability to identify words in text.

(i)   "Reads" familiar texts emergently, not necessarily verbatim from the print alone.

(ii)   Recognizes some common words by sight; including but not limited to: a, the, I, my, you, is, are.

(F)   Standard - comprehension. The student will associate meaning and understanding with reading.

(i)   Use prereading skills (e.g., connecting prior knowledge to text, making predictions about text and using picture clues).

(ii)   Retell, reenact or dramatize a story read to the student or by the student.

(ii)   Make predictions and confirm after reading or listening to text.

(iv)   Tell what is happening in a picture.

(G)   Standard - literature. The student will read to construct meaning and respond to a wide variety of literary forms.

(i)   Literary Genre to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction. Example: Listen to Tops and Bottoms. This is a fiction book about a hare and a bear's adventure to determine who gets the tops and who gets the bottoms of their vegetables. Read Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert which is a nonfiction book and discuss the differences in books.

(ii)   Literary Elements

(I)   Place events in sequential order by telling the beginning, middle and ending. Example: Read and retell a story orally or by illustrating the beginning, middle and ending.

(II)   Summarize main points and events of a simple story.

(III)   Recognize cause and effect relationships. Example: Read The Mitten by Jan Brett and tell what happened to the mitten because of the animals.

(H)   Standard - research and information. The student will conduct research and organize information. The student will select the best source for a given purpose and begin to identify the appropriate source needed to gather information (e.g., fiction book, nonfiction book, newspaper, map, resource person)

(2)   Writing/grammar/usage and mechanics. The student will express ideas effectively in written modes for a variety of purposes and audiences.

(A)   Standard - writing process. The student will use the writing process to write coherently.

(i)   Participate in frequent writing opportunities including modeled writing, shared writing, journal writing, and interactive writing.

(ii)   Dictate a story about an exciting event or experience.

(iii)   Presents his or her own writing which may include pictures, attempts at letters, initial consonants, words, or phrases to the group, teacher and/or parent.

(B)   Standard - modes and forms of writing. The student will communicate through a variety of written forms, for various purposes, and to a specific audience or person.

(i)   Introduce modes and forms of stories with a consistent focus of a beginning, middle, and end that describe, explain, or tell about familiar objects, people, places, events, or experiences.

(ii)   Construct journal entries using illustrations and beginning writing skills.

(C)   Standard - grammar/usage and mechanics. The student will demonstrate appropriate practices in writing by applying Standard English conventions.

(i)   Grammar/Usage: Begin to recognize appropriate use of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

(ii)   Mechanics: Demonstrate appropriate language mechanics in writing.

(I)   Capitalize the first word of a sentence.

(II)   Capitalize all proper nouns.

(iii)   Punctuation: Begin to use correct terminal (ending) punctuation.

(iv)   Sentence Structure: Demonstrate, with teacher assistance, appropriate sentence structure in writing a complete sentence.

(v)   Spelling: Demonstrate the process of representing language by means of a writing system.

(I)   Understand that letters have different sounds.

(II)   Understand and record some beginning and ending sounds in words.

(II)   Generates inventive spelling representing initial and ending sounds.

(vi)   Handwriting: Demonstrate appropriate handwriting in the writing process.

(I)   Print using left to right progression moving from the top to the bottom of the page.

(II)   Begin using upper and lower case letters.

(III)   Begin printing legibly using correct spacing between letters and words.

(IV)   Trace, copy and generate letters although children may still be reversing some letters.

(V)   Print his/her first and last name.

(3)   Oral language/listening and speaking. The student will demonstrate thinking skills in listening and speaking.

(A)   Standard - listening. The student will listen for information and for pleasure.

(i)   Hear and repeat sounds in a sequence. Example: Hand rhythms, vocal sounds, numbers in a sequence, letters in a sequence, five sounds in a sequence

(ii)   Listen with interest to stories read aloud. Example: Trade books and shared reading.

(iii)   Follow one and two step directions.

(B)   Standard - speaking. The student will express ideas or opinions in group or individual settings.

(i)   Share information and ideas speaking in clear, complete, coherent sentences.

(ii)   Recite short poems, rhymes and songs.

(C)   Standard - group interaction. The student will use effective communication strategies in pair and small group context and show respect and consideration for others in verbal and physical communications.

(4)   Visual literacy. The student will interpret, evaluate, and compose visual messages.

(A)   Standard - interpret meaning. The student will interpret and evaluate various ways visual image-makers including graphic artists, illustrators, and news photographers represent meaning.

(B)   Respond to visual messages by distinguishing between reality and fantasy in stories, videos and television programs.

[Source: Added at 20 Ok Reg 159, eff 10-10-02 (emergency); Added at 20 Ok Reg 821, eff 5-15-03; Amended at 24 Ok Reg 1839, eff 6-25-07]