Kentucky K–6 english language arts standards

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic.

Provide reasons with details to support the opinion.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to connect sentences.

Provide a concluding idea.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic.

Supply information to develop the topic.

Use grade-appropriate conjunctions to develop text structure within sentences.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to combine sentences within a paragraph (or piece).

Provide a concluding idea.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Recount a single event.

Include details which describe actions, thoughts and/or emotions.

Create a sense of closure.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital resources to create and publish products, including in collaboration with peers.

With guidance and support, participate in shared research and writing projects.

With guidance and support, collect information from real-world experiences or provided sources to answer or generate questions.

Begins in grade 3

Print all upper- and lowercase letters and numerals.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: common nouns and verbs.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: regular plural nouns by orally adding /s/ or /es/.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: interrogative sentences using who, what, where, when, why and how.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: sentences using common prepositions.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: complete sentences.

Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.

Recognize and name end punctuation.

Write a grapheme for most consonant and short-vowel phonemes.

Spell consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, and attempt to spell simple words drawing on knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences.

Begins in grade 2

Identify homophones.

Identify common affixes and how they change the meaning of a word.

Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to and responding to texts.

Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

Demonstrate an understanding of verbs and adjectives and their antonyms.

Demonstrate an understanding of verbs and adjectives and their synonyms.

Follow words from left to right, top to bottom and page by page.

Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters (graphemes).

Recognize that words are separated by spaces in print.

Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Recognize and orally produce rhyming words.

Count, pronounce, blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme words.

Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds (phonemes) for each consonant.

Associate the long and short sounds (phonemes) with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

Distinguish between similarly spelled words by analyzing the phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

Decode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Encode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Read decodable text with purpose and understanding.

Read irregularly spelled high-frequency words with automaticity and accuracy.

Read common high-frequency words with automaticity.

With prompting and support, ask and answer explicit questions about key concepts and details, and make logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

With prompting and support, orally recognize key details from an informational text to demonstrate understanding of the central idea of a text.

With prompting and support, identify the individuals, events, ideas or pieces of information presented over the course of a text.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

Identify the front cover, back cover and title page of a book.

With prompting and support, identify the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between visuals and the text.

With prompting and support, identify the claim and the reasons an author gives to support claims in a text.

With prompting and support, identify information from two or more texts on similar themes or topics.

With prompting and support through listening comprehension, routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand grade-appropriate, complex informational text.

With prompting and support, ask and answer explicit questions about key ideas and details and make logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

With prompting and support, orally recognize key details from a literary text to demonstrate understanding of the lesson in the story.

With prompting and support, identify characters, settings and major events in a story in order to make meaning of the story development.

With prompting and support, identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

With prompting and support, identify structures of common literary text (e.g., stories, poems and dramas).

With prompting and support, identify the author and illustrator of a story and explain how each tells the story.

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

Not applicable to literature

With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

With prompting and support through listening comprehension, routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand grade-appropriate, complex literary text.

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic.

Provide reasons with details to support the opinion.

Use grade-appropriate transitions.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic.

Supply information with detail to develop the topic.

Use grade-appropriate conjunctions to connect sentences and paragraphs.

Use grade-appropriate transition words and phrases to develop text structure in sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Recount a single event or multiple events, memories or ideas.

Include details which describe actions, thoughts and/or emotions.

Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

Create a sense of closure.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital resources to create and publish products, including in collaboration with peers.

With guidance and support, participate in shared research and writing projects.

With guidance and support, collect information from real-world experiences or provided sources to answer or generate questions.

Begins in grade 3

Legibly print all upper- and lowercase letters and numerals with correct form.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: common, proper and possessive nouns in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: personal, possessive and indefinite pronouns in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: verbs to convey a sense of past, present and future in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: frequently occurring adjectives in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: frequently occurring conjunctions in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: frequently occurring prepositions in a sentence.

When writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.

Capitalize proper nouns, including but not limited to dates and names of people.

Demonstrate appropriate use of end punctuation.

With prompting and support, produce and write commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.

Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns (graphemes) and for frequently occurring irregular words.

With adult support, spell untaught words phonetically, using phonemic awareness and syllabication.

Begins in grade 2

Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

Identify common affixes and how they change the meaning of a word.

With guidance and support, identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms.

Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships.

Sort words into categories to classify relationships and to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

Define words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes).

Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their synonyms and antonyms.

Define or act out the shades of meaning among verbs (e.g., look, peek, glance) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic).

Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence including first word, capitalization, spacing and ending punctuation.

Distinguish long from short vowel sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.

Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.

Construct and deconstruct spoken single syllable words into initial, medial vowel and final sounds (phonemes).

Know the phoneme-grapheme correspondences for common consonant digraphs.

Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

Know final –e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds (phonemes).

Demonstrate knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.

With adult support, decode two-syllable words by breaking the words into syllables.

With adult support, encode two-syllable words by breaking the words into syllables.

Read words with inflectional endings.

Read a variety of grade-level texts (including but not limited to decodables) with purpose and understanding.

Orally read grade-level text fluently on successive readings.

Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Read irregularly spelled high-frequency words with automaticity and accuracy.

With prompting and support, ask and answer explicit questions about key concepts and details and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

With prompting and support, recognize key details from an informational text to demonstrate understanding of the central idea of a text.

With prompting and support, identify the connection between individuals, events, ideas or pieces of information over the course of a text.

Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a grade-level text.

Know and use various text features, including but not limited to headings, tables of contents, glossaries, captions, bold print, subheadings, indexes, electronic menus and icons to locate key facts or information in a text.

Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.

Use the visuals and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

Identify the claim and the reasons an author gives to support the claim in a text.

Identify information from two or more texts on similar themes or topics.

With prompting and support through listening comprehension, routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand grade-appropriate, complex informational text.

With prompting and support, ask and answer explicit questions about key ideas and details and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

With prompting and support, recognize key details from a literary text to demonstrate understanding of the author’s message, lesson learned and/or moral.

Describe characters, settings and major events in a story, using key details in order to make meaning of the story development.

Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses in order to construct meaning.

Identify differences between the structures of stories, poems and dramas.

With prompting and support, identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.

Use a story’s illustrations and details to describe its characters, setting and events.

Not applicable to literature

Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

With prompting and support through listening comprehension, routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand grade-appropriate, complex literary text.

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic, followed by opinion statement, and create an organizational structure.

Provide reasons with details to support the opinion.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, strengthen writing through peer collaboration and adding details through writing and/or pictures as needed.

Introduce the topic.

Supply information with detail to develop the topic.

Use grade-appropriate conjunctions to develop text structure within sentences.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to develop text structure in sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Recount a single event or multiple events, memories or ideas.

Include details which describe actions, thoughts and/or emotions.

Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

Create a sense of closure.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital resources to create and publish products, including in collaboration with peers.

Conduct shared research and writing projects that build knowledge about a topic.

Collect information from real-world experiences or provided sources to answer or generate questions.

Begins in grade 3

Introduce formation of all upper- and lowercase cursive letters.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: collective nouns.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: frequently occurring irregular nouns.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: reflexive pronouns.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: adjectives and adverbs in sentence formation.

In writing or speaking, demonstrate appropriate use of: producing, expanding and rearranging complete simple and compound sentences.

Capitalize proper nouns, including but not limited to holidays, product names and geographic names.

Demonstrate appropriate use of commas in varied communication formats (e.g., letter, email, blog).

Use apostrophe to form contractions and possessives.

Generalize spelling patterns (graphemes).

Use reference materials to self-check and correct spelling.

Compare academic and non-academic uses of language.

Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word.

Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root.

Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words.

Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.

Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe.

Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their synonyms and antonyms.

Distinguish the shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender).

No Print Concepts Standard for grade 2.

No Phonological Awareness Standard for grade 2.

Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.

Know phoneme-grapheme correspondences for additional common vowel teams.

Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.

Encode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.

Identify, decode, encode and know the meaning of words with the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.

Identify words with inconsistent but common phoneme-grapheme correspondences.

Read a variety of grade-level texts (including but not limited to decodables) with purpose and understanding.

Orally read grade-level text fluently on successive readings.

Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Read irregularly spelled high-frequency words with automaticity and accuracy.

Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

Identify implicit and explicit information from an informational text to determine the central idea of a text.

Describe the connection between individuals, historical events, scientific ideas or concepts or steps in technical procedures over the course of a text.

Determine the meaning of general academic words and phrases and how those words and phrases shape meaning in a grade-level text.

Identify and describe informational text structures, including sequence/chronological and descriptive structures, and describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text and how they contribute to the overall structure.

Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain or describe, and how that purpose shapes the content of the text.

Identify information gained from visuals and words in the text and explain how that information contributes to understanding of the text.

Describe how reasons support specific claims the author makes in a text.

Describe the relationship between information from two or more texts on the same theme or topic.

Routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand and analyze grade-appropriate, complex informational text independently.

Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

Identify implicit and explicit information from a literary text to determine the author’s message, lesson learned and/or moral, including but not limited to fables and folktales from diverse cultures.

Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges in order to make meaning of the story development.

Describe how words and phrases, including but not limited to regular beats, alliteration, rhymes and/or repeated lines, supply rhythm and shape meaning in a story, poem or song.

Describe how parts of the text contribute to the overall structure of stories, poems and dramas (e.g., beginning, middle and end of stories; lines and stanzas in poems; and acts/scenes in dramas).

With prompting and support, acknowledge differences in the perspectives of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud, and how those perspectives shape the content of the text.

Use a story’s illustrations and words in print/non-print texts to demonstrate understanding of characters, setting and plot.

Not applicable to literature

Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story by different authors or from different cultures.

Routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand and analyze grade-appropriate, complex literary text independently.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Introduce the topic, followed by opinion statement, and create an organizational structure.

Provide reasons with elaborate details to support the opinion.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

Develop the topic with facts, definitions and details.

Use grade-appropriate conjunctions to develop text structure within sentences.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to develop text structure in sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Establish a situation, and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that reflects linear, nonlinear and/or circular structure.

Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.

Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

Create a sense of closure that follows the narrated experiences or events.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

With guidance and support from adults, use digital resources to create and publish products as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

Summarize information from experiences, or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on information from various print/digital sources, and analyze by sorting into appropriate categories.

Compose routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a variety of tasks, purposes and audiences.

Legibly form cursive letters, words and sentences with accepted norms.

Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in a grade-level text.

Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.

Use abstract nouns.

Form and use regular and irregular verbs.

Use verb tenses.

Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

Produce simple, compound and complex sentences.

Capitalize appropriate words in titles.

Use commas in addresses.

Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.

Use possessives.

Use conventional spelling for high-frequency words where suffixes are added to base words.

Use spelling patterns (graphemes) and generalizations in writing multisyllabic words.

Consult reference materials as needed to check and correct spellings.

Choose words and phrases for effect.

Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written General American English.

Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word.

Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root.

Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.

Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context.

Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their synonyms and antonyms.

Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe degrees of certainty.

No Print Concepts Standard for grade 3.

No Phonological Awareness Standard for grade 3.

Identify, decode, encode and know the meaning of words with the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes, including Latin suffixes.

Decode and encode multisyllabic words.

Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.

Fluently read grade-level prose and poetry orally on successive readings.

Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Ask and answer questions, and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

Identify implicit and cite explicit information from an informational text to determine the central idea of a text.

Describe the relationship between individuals, a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts or steps in technical procedures over the course of a text.

Determine the meaning of general academic words and phrases in a grade-level text and describe how those words and phrases shape meaning.

Identify and describe informational text structures, including comparison, cause/effect and problem/solution structures, and describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text and how they contribute to the overall structure.

Distinguish their own perspective from that of the author of a text and describe how various perspectives shape the content and style of a text.

Identify and explain how specific visuals, including but not limited to diagrams, graphs, photographs and side bars, contribute to the meaning and clarity of a text.

Describe how reasons and evidence support specific claims the author makes in a text.

Explain the relationship between information from two or more texts on the same theme or topic.

Routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand and analyze grade-appropriate, complex informational text independently.

Ask and answer questions, and make and support logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.

Identify implicit and cite explicit information from a literary text to determine the theme, lesson learned and/or moral, including but not limited to fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures.

Describe characters in a story, including but not limited to their traits, motivations, actions or feelings, and how they affect the plot.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language, including but not limited to idioms and hyperboles, and describe how those words and phrases shape meaning.

Describe the structure and provide evidence of how the parts of the text contribute to the whole in a story, poem or drama (e.g., how a chapter, stanza or act/scene might build on another part of the text).

Distinguish their own perspective from that of the narrator or those of the characters, and describe how various perspectives shape the content of the text.

Explain how the specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to an effect, including but not limited to creating mood, character and setting.

Not applicable to literature

Compare and contrast the themes, settings and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters.

Routinely and flexibly develop and apply background knowledge along with a variety of comprehension strategies to understand and analyze grade-appropriate, complex literary text independently.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing and rewriting.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

Introduce a topic clearly, and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting, illustrations and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations or other information and examples related to the topic.

Use grade-appropriate conjunctions to connect sentences and paragraphs.

Use grade-appropriate transitions to develop text structure in sentences and paragraphs.

Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

Provide a concluding section.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing and rewriting.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that reflects linear, nonlinear or circular structure.

Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

Use a variety of conjunctions and transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.