What Your Child Should Know and When

California’s new language arts standards list the reading and writing skills students should learn by the end of each grade. The voluntary guidelines will take on added significance this spring when millions of students in grades 2 through 11 are tested to determine if they have met the new benchmarks. The following chart gives a sample of the reading standards in kindergarten through grade 6.

KINDERGARTEN

* Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

* Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or syllables.

* Match all consonant and short vowel sounds to appropriate letters.

* Identify and sort common words in basic categories (e.g. colors, shapes, foods).

* Retell familiar stories.

FIRST GRADE

* Generate the sounds from all the letters and letter patterns, including consonant blends and long and short vowel patterns, and blend those sounds into recognizable words.

* Read sight words (e.g. the, have, said, come, give, of).

* Read aloud with fluency in a manner that sounds like natural speech.

* Respond to “who,” “what,” “when,” “where” and “how” questions.

* Identify and describe the elements of plot, setting and character(s) in a story, as well as the story’s beginning, middle and ending.

SECOND GRADE

* Recognize and use knowledge of spelling patterns (e.g. diphthongs, special vowel spellings) when reading.

* Identify and correctly use regular plurals (e.g. -s, -es, -ies) and irregular plurals (e.g. wife/wives).

* Know the meaning of simple prefixes and suffixes (e.g. over-, un-, -ing, -ly).

* Recognize cause and effect relationships in a text.

* Generate alternative endings to plots and identify the reason or reasons for, and the impact of, the alternatives.

THIRD GRADE

* Decipher regular multisyllabic words.

* Demonstrate knowledge of levels of specificity among grade-appropriate words and explain the importance of these relations (e.g. dog/mammal/animal/living things).

* Use knowledge of prefixes (e.g. un-, re-, pre-, bi-, mis-, dis-) and suffixes (e.g. -er, -est, -ful) to determine the meaning of words.

* Distinguish main ideas and supporting details in expository text.

* Determine the underlying theme or an author’s message in fiction and nonfiction text.

FOURTH GRADE

* Read narrative and expository text aloud with grade-appropriate fluency and accuracy and with appropriate pacing, intonation and expression.

* Apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, synonyms, antonyms and idioms to determine the meaning of words and phrases.

* Identify structural patterns found in informational text (e.g. compare and contrast, cause and effect, sequential or chronological order, proposition and support) to strengthen comprehension.

* Evaluate new information and hypotheses by testing them against known information and ideas.

* Define figurative language (e.g. simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification) and identify its use in literary works.

FIFTH GRADE

* Understand and explain frequently used synonyms and antonyms.

* Know abstract, derived roots and affixes from Greek and Latin and use this knowledge to analyze the meaning of complex words (e.g. controversial).

* Understand how text features (e.g. format, graphics, sequence, diagrams, illustrations, charts, maps) make information accessible and usable.

* Identify and analyze the characteristics of poetry, drama, fiction and nonfiction, and explain the appropriateness of the literary forms chosen by an author for a specific purpose.

* Identify the main problem or conflict of the plot and explain how it is resolved.

SIXTH GRADE

* Identify and interpret figurative language and words with multiple meanings.

* Identify the structural features of popular media (e.g. newspapers, magazines, online information) and use the features to obtain information.

* Clarify an understanding of texts by creating outlines, logical notes, summaries or reports.

* Follow multiple step instructions for preparing applications (e.g. for a public library card, bank savings account, sports club, league membership).

* Analyze the effect of the qualities of the character (e.g. courage or cowardice, ambition or laziness) on the plot and the resolution of the conflict.