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Unit 1

Teacher Guide

Kindergarten Core Knowledge Language Arts® • Skills Strand

Unit 1

Teacher Guide

Skills Strand

KINDERGARTEN

Core Knowledge Language Arts®

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Table of Contents

Unit 1

Teacher Guide

Alignment Chart for Unit 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v

Introduction to Unit 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Lesson 1: Awareness of Noises; Prewriting Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Lesson 2: Awareness of Noises; Prewriting Skills: Vertical Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Lesson 3: Awareness of Noises; Prewriting Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Lesson 4: Awareness of Noises; Prewriting Skills: Horizontal Line; Blending Pretest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Lesson 5: Awareness of Noises and Words; Prewriting Skills: Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Lesson 6: Awareness of Noises and Words; Prewriting Skills: Writing Strokes Pretest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Lesson 7: Awareness of Noises and Words; Prewriting Skills: Diagonal Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Lesson 8: Awareness of Noises and Words; Prewriting Skills: Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Lesson 9: Awareness of Words; Prewriting Skills: Triangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Lesson 10: Awareness of Words; Prewriting Skills; Unit 1 Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Pausing Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Appendices

A: About This Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

B: Kindergarten Scope and Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

C: Components of Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Teacher Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Workbook Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Unit 1 | Alignment Chart v

Alignment Chart for Unit 1

The following chart demonstrates alignment between the Common Core State

Standards and corresponding Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) goals.

Alignment Chart for Unit 1

Lessons

12345678910

Reading Standards for Foundational Skills: Kindergarten

Print Concepts

STD RF.K.1a Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CKLA

Goal(s)

Demonstrate understanding of directionality

(left to right, return sweep, top to bottom,

front to back)



Establish bodily and spatial awareness



Phonological Awareness

STD RF.K.2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

CKLA

Goal(s)

Identify environmental sounds



Count the number of environmental

sounds heard (e.g., clapping, rhythm band

instruments)



Identify whether environmental sounds are

the same or different



Segment spoken sentences into words



Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

STD SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

CKLA

Goal(s)

Speak audibly and express thoughts,

feelings, and ideas clearly



Language Standards: Kindergarten

Conventions of Standard English

STD L.K.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or

speaking.

STD L.K.1a Print many lowercase letters.

CKLA

Goal(s)

Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or pincer)

grip and make marks on paper



vi Unit 1 | Alignment Chart

Alignment Chart for Unit 1

Lessons

12345678910

STD L.K.1e Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).

CKLA

Goal(s)

Use spatial words: there, here; in, on; in front

of, behind; at the top of, at the bottom of;

under, over; above, below; next to, in the

middle of; near, far; inside, outside; around,

between; up, down; high, low; left, right;

front, back





These goals are addressed in all lessons in this domain. Rather than repeat these goals as lesson

objectives throughout the domain, they are designated here as frequently occurring goals.

Unit 1 | Introduction 1

Welcome

Dear Kindergarten Teacher,

Welcome to the Core Knowledge Language Arts program (CKLA)! CKLA is

divided into two strands: a Skills Strand and a Listening & Learning Strand.

You are currently reading the Introduction to Unit 1 of the Skills Strand.

Some key aspects of the Skills Strand of CKLA are listed below. (To learn

more about the two strands of CKLA and the rationale for this setup, please

consult Appendix A at the end of this unit.)

• CKLA focuses on sounds, or phonemes, as the primary organizing principle

of the program, rather than letters.

• CKLA includes phonics instruction, but the instruction differs from the sort

of phonics usually taught in the United States in that it begins with sounds

and then attaches those sounds to spellings. In a typical phonics lesson in

the United States, the teacher writes the letter ‘m’ on the board and says,

“This is the letter ‘em’. It says /m/.” As a teacher using this program, you

will be asked to present your lessons in a different way. You will be asked to

begin with the sound. At the beginning of the lesson you will tell the class:

“Today’s sound is /m/.” You will then lead the class in some engaging oral

language exercises that will allow students to say and hear the sound /m/.

Once students are familiar with the sound, you will show them how to draw a

“picture of the sound.” You will write the letter ‘m’ on the board and explain

this is how we make a picture of the /m/ sound.

• CKLA uses a synthetic phonics approach which teaches students to read by

blending through the word; it does not teach multiple cueing strategies, use

of pictures as a primary resource in decoding, or part-word guessing.

• CKLA begins by teaching the most common or least ambiguous spelling

for a sound (the basic code spelling); later it teaches spelling alternatives

for sounds which can be spelled several different ways. The system is kept

simple at  rst and complexity is added bit by bit as students gain con dence

and automatize their reading and writing skills.

• CKLA avoids letter names in the early lessons of Kindergarten, because the

importance for reading is not the letter names but the sound values the letters

stand for. To read the word cat, it is essential to know /k/ /a/ /t/, not “see aay tee.”

Introduction to Unit 1

2 Unit 1 | Introduction

Week One

Day 1 (Lesson 1) Day 2 (Lesson 2) Day 3 (Lesson 3) Day 4 (Lesson 4) Day 5 (Lesson 5)

Counting with Fingers

(10min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Knocking and Counting

(10min.)

Same or Different?

(10min.)

Knocking and Counting

(10min.)

Same or Different?

(10min.)

What Did You Hear?

(10min.)

How Many Noises?

(10min.)

What Did You Hear?

(10min.)

How Many Noises?

(10min.)

How Many Noises?

(10min.)

Greeting (10 min.) Greeting (5 min.) Greeting (5 min.) Greeting (5 min.) Hearing Words in

Phrases and Sentences

(10 min.)

Follow Me (5 min.) Follow Me (10 min.) Follow Me (10 min.) Reviewing the Tripod

Grip

(5 min.)

Greeting (5 min.)

Drawing on a Vertical

Surface (15min.)

Finger Introduction

(5min.)

Introducing the Tripod

Grip (5 min.)

Reviewing the Tripod

Grip (5min.)

Drawing Horizontal Lines

on a Vertical Surface

(10min.)

Horizontal Line Practice

(15 min.)

Making Vertical Lines,

Horizontal Lines, and

Circles with Playdough

(10min.)

Drawing Vertical Lines

on a Vertical Surface

(10min.)

Vertical Line Practice

(15min.)

Blending Pretest Drawing Circles to the

Left on a Vertical Surface

(10 min.)

Tracking Practice

(10min.)

60 min. 60 min. 60 min. 60 min. 60 min.

Week Two

Day 6 (Lesson 6) Day 7 (Lesson 7) Day 8 (Lesson 8) Day 9 (Lesson 9) Day 10 (Lesson 10)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

What is This? (5 min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

Counting with Fingers

(5min.)

What is This? (5 min.)

How Many Noises?

(10min.)

Stepping Forward for

Noises (10 min.)

Stepping Forward for

Noises (10min.)

Stepping Forward for

Words (10min.)

Circle the Cubes (10min.)

Hearing Words in

Phrases and Sentences

(10min.)

Stepping Forward for

Words (10 min.)

Hearing Words in

Phrases and Sentences

(10 min.)

Teacher-Student Echo

(10 min.)

Teacher-Student Echo

(10 min.)

Making Circles and

Triangles with Playdough

(10 min.)

Unit 1 Assessment

(30min.)

Writing Strokes Pretest

(20 min.)

Drawing Diagonal Lines

on a Vertical Surface

(10min.)

Diagonal Line Practice

(15 min.)

Drawing Squares on a

Vertical Surface

(15min.)

Reviewing Vertical and

Horizontal Lines (15 min.)

Drawing Triangles on a

Vertical Surface

(10min.)

Reviewing Circles and

Diagonal Lines (15 min.)

Circle to the Left Practice

(15 min.)

Tracking Practice

(10min.)

60 min. 60 min. 60 min. 60 min. 60 min.

Unit 1 | Introduction 3

Skills Strand Components

Here is a list of the components you will use as you teach the Skills Strand:

• Teacher Guide (one for each unit)

• Workbook (one copy per student per unit)

• Blending Picture Cards (one set per classroom)

• Large Cards (one set per classroom)

• Chaining Folder and Small Cards (one set per student)

• Decodable Reader (one copy per student per unit, Units 6–10)

• Big Book (one for each unit, Units 4–8)

• Media Disk (one for each unit, Units 4–10)

• Sound Posters and Sound Cards

• Assessment and Remediation Guide

Please note only the Teacher Guide and Workbook are used in Unit 1. The other

materials listed above will be introduced gradually throughout the year. For more

detailed descriptions of these components, see Appendix C in this Teacher

Guide. (Some teachers  nd it helpful to keep one unused copy of the Student

Workbook in order to make copies for extra practice.)

Additional Materials Needed in Unit 1

Some additional materials (most typically available in Kindergarten

classrooms) are needed for speci c lessons of Unit 1. These materials are

always listed in the At a Glance chart at the beginning of each lesson. For

your convenience, a complete list of additional materials is included here. The

number in parentheses indicates the  rst lesson in which the materials are

used:

• Rhythm band instruments or other objects that make sounds (1)

• Beanbags, small balls, or other small objects, one per student (1)

• Chart paper (1)

• Broken crayons for all students (Please see explanation regarding the

use of crayon pieces in Lesson 1, Drawing Time.) (1)

• Small stickers, any type (2)

• Mats, one per student; may be a placemat, construction paper; see

directions in Lesson 3 (3)

• Counting cubes, 4 per student; if cubes are not available other markers

or manipulatives may be used (3)

• Stamp and ink pad (3)

• Rough or silky textured glove (4)

4 Unit 1 | Introduction

• Playdough or other modeling compound (5)

• Peel and stick red dots (3)

• Peel and stick green stars (3)

In order to remain within the given time frames, it is essential for teachers to

prepare all materials ahead of time, giving thought to their distribution and

collection.

Primary Goals of Unit 1

In many ways, Units 1 and 2 are the most important of the Kindergarten Skills

Strand units. Units 1 and 2 lay the groundwork for teaching students to read

and write, which you will begin to do in Unit 3.

Unit 1 has three main purposes. The  rst purpose is to increase students’

awareness of environmental noises and words within sentences. Paying

attention to environmental noises and to words within sentences prepares

students to pay attention to sounds within words. The ability to hear sounds

(i.e., phonemes) is crucial for writing; when we write a word, we essentially

write one symbol (either a single- or multiple-letter spelling) for each sound

in the word. For this reason, it is important to begin to increase students’

awareness of the sounds they hear.

The second purpose of Unit 1 is to teach students to draw a number of

writing strokes used to create letters (e.g., horizontal lines, vertical lines,

circles, etc.). As students learn to draw these writing strokes, their  ne motor

skills will increase and they will begin to master the tripod grip. This will

prepare students to write letters in Unit 3.

The third purpose of Unit 1 is to teach students the meanings of various

position words (e.g., right, left, top, bottom, etc.). In Unit 3, students will

begin to read and write. Reading and writing are done from left to right and

top to bottom, so it will be helpful if students are able to identify the left side,

right side, top, and bottom of a page. Additionally, when teaching students to

write letters, you will use position words. Finally, you will often use position

words when explaining worksheets to students.

Please note at the end of Unit 1, you will assess students’ ability to:

• draw a horizontal line, a vertical line, a diagonal line, and a circle;

• understand the position words right, left, top, middle, and bottom; and

• discriminate words.

We recommend looking over the assessment in Lesson 10 before teaching

Unit 1 in order to understand the level of mastery expected of students.

Unit 1 | Introduction 5

Is Unit 1 Necessary for All Students?

Students enter Kindergarten classrooms with a wide range of experiences

making them more or less ready for Kindergarten instruction. Some students

may have attended preschool; others may not. Some students may have had

picture books read aloud to them on a regular basis while, again, others may

not. As noted earlier, the activities included in Units 1 and 2, while seemingly

simple, lay a critical foundation for the reading instruction in later units. The

time spent practicing these skills at the start of the year is time well spent as

it will enable students to approach the early reading activities with success.

We strongly suggest you start instruction for your entire class with Unit 1 and

not be tempted to skip these lessons.

If you believe students in your Kindergarten classroom have entered school

particularly well prepared, you may want to administer the Unit 1 Student

Performance Task Assessment, as described in Lesson 10, to all students

during the  rst day or two of school. There are a total of 14 items on this

assessment. If all students in your classroom answer at least 12 of 14 items

correctly, with no more than 1 item missed per section (A, B, or C), you might

consider starting instruction with Unit 2. You should not consider skipping

Unit 1, however, under any other circumstances, even if just a few students

perform below this benchmark. Instruction in the early units of the CKLA

Kindergarten program (Units 1–4) is explicitly designed to be implemented as

whole group instruction. Based on extensive experience in  eld testing this

program, we have found this approach to be the most effective and ef cient

way to ensure the reading success of all students.

Format of the Unit 1 Lessons

Lesson objectives are listed at the beginning of each lesson. Following the

objectives is an At a Glance chart listing the exercises in the lesson, the

materials needed for each exercise, and the amount of time allotted to each

exercise. The lesson’s exercises follow the At a Glance chart. Sidebars are

printed alongside many of the exercises. These often list Pausing Point activities

that can be used to give students additional practice with a target skill.

Each Unit 1 lesson is divided equally between auditory exercises and

prewriting exercises. The auditory exercises are intended to increase students’

awareness of environmental noises and/or words, and the prewriting exercises

are intended to prepare students to write letters, words, and sentences. The

At a Glance chart at the beginning of each exercise has icons to help you

distinguish the two parts of each lesson: auditory exercises are marked by an

ear icon and prewriting exercises are marked by a hand icon.

For the handwriting activities in the early CKLA Kindergarten units, we

strongly recommend that all students use crayons. For all handwriting, in

fact, we prefer students use small or broken crayons. While this may sound

odd, these smaller stubs increase the likelihood of students grasping the

writing utensil with the preferred tripod or quadropod grip. Furthermore,

writing with crayons provides students with increased sensory input as they

6 Unit 1 | Introduction

practice writing. This is because crayon wax has greater resistance to paper

than graphite or ink. The push-pull motion will strengthen  nger and hand

muscles, permitting students greater control and endurance when writing.

Projection System

Throughout this unit and others, whenever the lesson suggests that the

teacher model the completion of a worksheet, you should choose the most

convenient and effective method of reproducing and displaying the worksheet

for all to see. This may include making a transparency of the worksheet and

using an overhead projector, scanning the page and projecting it on a Smart

Board, using a document camera, or writing the worksheet exercises on chart

paper or a white board.

Take-Home Material

To encourage family member involvement and to maximize student exposure

to the material, we have included a number of take-home worksheets. These

worksheets are optional. Should you choose to use them, please distribute

these worksheets to students and instruct them to take the worksheet to a

family member. At your discretion, take-home material may also be used in

the classroom for extension activities and work stations.

Pretests

You will administer a blending pretest in Lesson 4 and a writing strokes

pretest in Lesson 6. Instructions for administering and scoring the pretests

are included in the lessons. The purpose of the pretests is strictly to establish

a baseline for every student.

CKLA has been designed to be suitable for the majority of Kindergarten

students. Thus, these pretests are not meant to identify students who are

not ready for the Kindergarten sequence. They are intended to help you

determine what students already know and establish benchmarks against

which you can document students’ progress.



Student Performance Task Assessment

All units in CKLA will typically include an end-of-unit assessment, as well as

multiple opportunities for other observation and evaluation throughout the

unit. We strongly recommend that you start an assessment portfolio for each

student. Beginning with this unit collect various examples of the student’s

work, as well as more formal assessments. Remember to include the date on

any work you place in this portfolio.

Major assessments are indicated in this Teacher Guide by a circle with the

number 10 inside it, like the one shown beside the word “Student” at the

beginning of this subsection. The 10 is a reference to the Tens system of

assessment which you can use, if you wish, as a way of recording the results

of the assessments. If you would like to learn more about the Tens system of

assessment, please consult Appendix C at the end of this Teacher Guide.

Unit 1 | Introduction 7

In addition to these major assessments, there are many additional

opportunities to assess students. Almost every exercise or worksheet

represents an opportunity to assess students and increase your awareness

of skills they have mastered, and skills which need additional work. We

encourage you to use assessment to systematically guide instruction.

In Lesson 10, you will assess students’ ability to:

• draw a horizontal line, a vertical line, a diagonal line, and a circle;

• understand the position words left, right, top, middle, and bottom; and

• discriminate words.

Instructions for administering and scoring the assessment are included in

Lesson 10.

Pausing Point

The 10 lessons of this unit are followed by a Pausing Point, which is

comprised of a number of supplemental exercises. You should stop at the

Pausing Point if the unit assessment indicates students are having trouble

with any of the Unit 1 objectives. Please note the Pausing Point exercises are

organized by the unit objectives they satisfy.

Pausing Point exercises can also be used before you reach the end of the unit.

Opportunities for using the Pausing Point exercises are identi ed in the sidebars.

Assessment and Remediation Guide

A separate publication, the Assessment and Remediation Guide, provides

further guidance in assessing, analyzing, and remediating speci c skills. This

guide can be found online at http://www.coreknowledge.org/AR-GK-U1.

Refer to this URL for additional resources, mini-lessons, and activities to

assist students who experience dif culty with any of the skills presented in

this unit.

Time Management

You should use the time allotments listed in the At a Glance chart (and listed

throughout the lesson) to guide you as you teach the lesson. For example, in

Lesson 8, you should try to spend about 10 minutes on the “Teacher-Student

Echo” exercise. You may  nd that 10 minutes is enough time to teach all

of the sentences listed in the lesson plan, or you may  nd you can only get

through half of them.

If you are forced to choose, it is better to leave out a few items in each

exercise than it is to teach one exercise in full and omit other exercises. In

other words, your primary goal should be to teach all of the exercises in the

lesson rather than to teach every item in every exercise.

8 Unit 1 | Introduction

Appendices

This brief introduction covers the most basic information about Unit 1. If you

would like to learn more about the philosophy behind the program, the Tens

system of scoring, and other aspects of the program, we strongly encourage

you to consult the appendices at the end of this volume.

Teacher Resources

At the end of each unit, you will  nd a section titled, “Teacher Resources.”

In this section, we have included assorted forms and charts which may be

useful.

Unit 1 | Lesson 1 9

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 1

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard as the teacher varies the number of

knocks on a desk (RF.K.2)

 Identify whether environmental sounds

are the same or different using a variety of

common classroom objects (RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of

directionality by extending the right hand to

greet others (RF.K.1a)

 Establish bodily and spatial awareness

by moving an object to various positions

around the body (RF.K.1a)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

Knocking and Counting

Same or Different?

musical instruments or

classroom objects



Left/Right Discrimination

Greeting

Spatial and Bodily

Awareness

Follow Me

one beanbag, foam ball, or

small object per student

Drawing Time

Drawing on a Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 15

Take-Home Material

CKLA Overview

Worksheet 1.1 *

10 Unit 1 | Lesson 1

Warm-Up 10 minutes

Counting with Fingers

Note: In this exercise students will practice counting to 10 using their  ngers.

This task is important because it visually emphasizes that a word (one, two,

etc.) is an individual entity that can be represented, in this case, with  ngers.

This exercise will be repeated at the beginning of each lesson in Unit 1. If you

 nd that counting to 10 is too dif cult for students at this point, have them

count to  ve and increase to 10 when students are ready.

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 20 minutes

Knocking and Counting 10 minutes

If students need additional

practice discriminating noises,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Listening Walk”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section I of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

Note: This exercise is important because it requires students to distinguish

discrete noises (in this case, knocks). This is similar to distinguishing

discrete sounds in spoken words. The ability to distinguish sounds is a

prerequisite for writing; to write a word, you must know how many sounds

are in the word so you can write a spelling for each sound.

• Tell students to listen and watch as you knock on your desk.

• Knock on your desk one to three times with your right hand. As you knock,

raise one  nger on your left hand for each knock, starting with your thumb.

(To students, you should appear to be lifting your  ngers from left to right.)

• Repeat the knocks at a slower pace, having students raise one  nger for each

knock (ideally from left to right, but do not dwell on this).

• Have students hold up their hands, indicating with their raised  ngers how

many times you knocked.

• Repeat several times, varying the number of knocks.

Same or Different? 10 minutes

For this exercise, students

need to know the meanings of

the terms same and different.

Make two noises that are the

same and tell students two

noises that sound alike are the

same. Make two noises that

are different and tell students

two noises that do not sound

alike are different.

Note: This exercise familiarizes students with the sources of noises and

helps them to discriminate between them.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects which make

distinctive noises; e.g., stapler, pencil sharpener, scissors, etc.

• Familiarize students with the instruments or objects and the noises they make

by naming them and producing the noises.

• Make two noises and ask students whether the noises were the same or

different.

• If students are successful, repeat with the instruments or objects now hidden

from view.

Unit 1 | Lesson 1 11

Left/Right Discrimination 10 minutes

Greeting

Please be aware that greeting

a person by shaking his or her

hand and looking him or her

in the eyes is not a universal

social tradition. Additionally,

please note this exercise

may be difficult for autistic

students.

If students need additional

work on left/right

discrimination, you may

use the activities in Unit 1,

Section III of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

Note: Shaking hands teaches American social skills. Additionally, a  rm grip

develops hand awareness and increases muscle tone in the hand, which is

useful for writing. Finally, this exercise familiarizes students with their right

hands (and with the concept of “right” in general). This knowledge will be

bene cial when students are taught to read and write from left to right.

• Tell students when we greet a person we shake the person’s right hand.

• Greet one student after the other by saying hello, looking him or her in the

eyes, and  rmly shaking his or her right hand.

• Say, “Hello, . We greet others by shaking their right hand. I’m using my

right hand to shake your right hand.”

• Encourage students to greet you properly, “Hello, . I’m using my right

hand to shake your right hand.”

Spatial and Bodily Awareness 5 minutes

Follow Me

A squishy object gives

students plenty of sensory

feedback as they move the

object in space. If possible,

have students use a soft

object for this exercise.

If students need additional

work on gross motor skills,

you may use any of the

Pausing Point activities listed

under “Gross Motor Activities.”

If students need additional

practice with position words,

you may use the Pausing Point

exercise “The Grand Old Duke

of York” and the activities

in Unit1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

Note: This exercise familiarizes students with position words, which you

will use when teaching letter forms and when teaching the directionality

of reading and writing (top to bottom/left to right). It also develops gross

motor skills.

• Give each student a beanbag, foam ball, or another small object.

• Have students stand about an arm’s length apart.

• Stand with your back to students and tell them to do what you do.

• Make sure to emphasize the position words top, bottom, over, under, right,

other side, and around by saying what you are doing.

• You should do the following actions in order before varying the game:

• Move the ball to the top of your head.

• Lift up your foot and move the ball down to the bottom of your foot.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball over your arm.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball under your arm.

• Move the ball to the right of your body.

• Move the ball to the other side of your body.

• Move the ball around your legs.

Note: The position word left is avoided here to emphasize the right hand

and right side of the body.

12 Unit 1 | Lesson 1

Drawing Time 15 minutes

Drawing on a Vertical Surface

If students need additional

practice drawing on a vertical

surface, you may use the

activities in Unit 1, Section IV

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

Note: In this exercise students will learn to control movement at the

shoulder, elbow, wrist, and  ngers to make marks on paper with small

crayons. The small size of the crayons encourages the pincer grasp, which

leads into the ef cient tripod grip. The tripod grip will be taught in the next

lesson.

• Set up drawing paper on an easel or some other large, vertical surface at a

height students can reach.

• Provide students with small pieces of crayon.

• Have students draw on the vertical surface. Encourage a range of motion,

from large movements made at the shoulder and elbows to small movements

made at the wrists and  ngers.

Take-Home Material

CKLA Overview

• Have students give Worksheet 1.1 to a family member.

Unit 1 | Lesson 2 13

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 2

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard as the teacher varies the number of

knocks on a desk (RF.K.2)

 Identify whether environmental sounds

are the same or different using a variety of

common classroom objects (RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by extending the right hand to greet others

(RF.K.1a)

 Establish bodily and spatial awareness

by moving an object to various positions

around the body (RF.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

Knocking and Counting

Same or Different?

musical instruments or

classroom objects



Left/Right Discrimination

Greeting

small stickers 5

Spatial and Bodily

Awareness

Follow Me

one beanbag, foam ball, or

small object per student

Finger/Hand Awareness

Finger Introduction

Introducing the Tripod Grip

crayons 5

Drawing Time

Drawing Vertical Lines on a

Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 10

Take-Home Material

Vertical Line Practice

Worksheet 2.1 *

14 Unit 1 | Lesson 2

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 20 minutes

Knocking and Counting 10 minutes

If students need additional

practice discriminating noises,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Listening

Walk” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section I of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Tell students to listen and watch as you knock on your desk.

• Knock on your desk one to four times with your right hand. As you knock,

raise one  nger on your left hand for each knock, starting with your thumb.

(To students, you should appear to be lifting your  ngers from left to right.)

• Repeat the knocks at a slower pace, having students raise one  nger for each

knock (ideally from left to right, but, again, do not dwell on this).

• Have students hold up their hands, indicating with their raised  ngers how

many times you knocked.

• Repeat several times, varying the number of knocks.

Same or Different? 10 minutes

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects that make distinctive

noises.

• Familiarize students with the instruments or objects and the noises they make

by naming them and producing the noises.

• Make two noises and ask students whether the noises were the same or

different.

• Repeat until students have had signi cant practice.

• If students were successful, repeat with the instruments or objects hidden

from view.

• Extension: Arrange a number of instruments or objects so students can see

them. Have another set of these same instruments or objects hidden. Make

the noise of an instrument or object out of view and ask students to identify

the instrument or object making the same noise. Repeat and ask them to

select an instrument or object making a different noise. You could also hand

one instrument or object to each student and ask them to make the same

noise or a different noise.

Unit 1 | Lesson 2 15

Left/Right Discrimination 5 minutes

Greeting

If students need additional

practice differentiating their

hands, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise “Left/

Right Hand Discrimination.”

• Greet one student after the other by saying hello, looking him or her in the

eyes, and  rmly shaking his or her right hand.

• Say, “Hello, . We greet others by shaking their right hands. I’m using

my right hand to shake your right hand.”

• Encourage students to greet you properly: “Hello, . I’m using my right

hand to shake your right hand.”

• After shaking each student’s right hand, place a small sticker on it to remind

him or her which side is the right side.

• Tell students, “What’s left is left.”

Spatial and Bodily Awareness 10 minutes

Follow Me

If students’ need additional

gross motor skills practice, you

may use any of the Pausing

Point activities listed under

“Gross Motor Activities” and

the activities in Unit 1, Section

III of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice with position words,

you may use the Pausing Point

exercise “The Grand Old Duke of

York” or the activities in Unit 1,

Section III of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Give each student a beanbag, foam ball, or other small object.

• Have students stand about an arm’s length apart.

• Stand with your back to students and tell them to do what you do.

• Make sure to emphasize the position words top, bottom, over, under, right,

other side, and around by saying what you are doing.

• You should do the following actions in order before varying the game:

• Move the ball to the top of your head.

• Lift up your foot and move the ball down to the bottom of your foot.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball over your arm.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball under your arm.

• Move the ball to the right of your body.

• Move the ball to the other side of your body.

• Move the ball around your legs.

• Extension: As students master position words, increase the length of your

statements and make them more explicit. For example, say, “Move the ball

to the middle of your right arm, under your elbow.” To make this an excellent

oral language exercise, have students say what they are doing.

16 Unit 1 | Lesson 2

Finger/Hand Awareness 10 minutes

Finger Introduction 5 minutes

Note: This exercise is important because knowing  nger names is useful

for learning the tripod grip.

• Raise your thumb, and tell students you are holding up your thumb.

• Raise each of your remaining  ngers (one at a time), and tell students what

they are called (pointer or index ﬁ nger, middle ﬁ nger, ring ﬁ nger, pinkie).

• Tell students to touch their thumbs to the tips of their other  ngers. This

movement is called  nger-thumb opposition and develops  nger awareness.

Having students practice

finger-thumb opposition

(touching the thumb to

each finger) is a great way

to prepare students for the

tripod grip. When students

begin writing, you may have

them practice finger-thumb

opposition for 30 seconds

before asking them to pick up

a writing utensil.

• Tell students to repeat after you, pretending their thumbs are greeting each of

their  ngers.

• Touch your thumb to your pointer  nger, and say, “Hello, pointer  nger!

Hello, thumb!”

• Touch your thumb to your middle  nger, and say, “Hello, middle  nger!

Hello, thumb!”

• Touch your thumb to your ring  nger, and say, “Hello, ring  nger! Hello,

thumb!”

• Touch your thumb to your pinkie, and say, “Hello, pinkie! Hello, thumb!”

• Extension: Sing the song “Where Is Thumbkin?” (to the tune of “Frère

Jacques”).

Where Is Thumbkin?

“Where is thumbkin?” (hands behind back)

“Here I am.” (bring left thumb from behind back)

“Here I am.” (bring right thumb from behind back)

“How are you today, sir?” (wiggle left thumb)

“Very well, I thank you.” (wiggle right thumb)

“Run away.” (move left hand behind back)

“Run away.” (move right hand behind back)

(Repeat four times, replacing “thumbkin” with “pointer finger,” then

“middle finger,” then “ring finger,” and then “pinkie.”)

Unit 1 | Lesson 2 17

Introducing the Tripod Grip 5 minutes

Tripod Grip

To increase students’ hand-

eye coordination and exercise

their pincer muscles, have

them move water from one

test tube to another using an

eyedropper. Colored water

will keep students engaged

and provide a chance to teach

color names.

Note: The standard writing grip is the tripod grip. The tripod grip is made

by pinching the base of a writing utensil with the thumb and pointer  nger

and resting the shaft of the writing utensil on the tip of the middle  nger.

• Provide each student with a small piece of crayon.

• Model the tripod grip for students.

• Have students use the tripod grip to hold their crayons.

• Circulate, correcting grips. (It is important that students learn the correct way

to hold a writing utensil because a proper grip ensures ef cient, smooth, and

tension-free handwriting.)

Note: Some students might use the thumb, pointer  nger, and middle

 nger to pinch the crayon. The crayon then rests on the tip of the ring

 nger. This alternate grip, called the quadropod grip, is  ne as well.

Drawing Time 10 minutes

Drawing Vertical Lines on a Vertical Surface

If students have trouble

drawing vertical lines, you

may draw stars on the paper

to indicate where they should

start each vertical line. Tell

students to “start at the star.”

If necessary, draw dots to

indicate end points, and tell

students to “stop at the dot.”

If students need additional

practice with vertical lines,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Tray Tracing”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section IV of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

Note: Drawing vertical lines will prepare students to write the letters ‘a’, ‘b’,

‘d’, ‘h’, ‘i’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘r’, ‘t’, and ‘u’.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

• Draw a vertical line on the board. Explain to students a vertical line is a

straight line that goes up and down; when we draw a vertical line, we start at

the top and  nish at the bottom.

• Invite students to trace vertical lines on their desks (or in the air) with their

 ngers.

• Have students draw vertical lines on the chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students in drawing vertical lines.

Take-Home Material

Vertical Line Practice

• Have students give Worksheet 2.1 to a family member.

18 Unit 1 | Lesson 3

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 3

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

moving cubes (RF.K.2)

 Identify environmental sounds using a variety

of classroom objects (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard using a variety of classroom objects

(RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of

directionality by placing cubes on a mat

from left to right and by extending the right

hand to greet others (RF.K.1a)

 Establish bodily and spatial awareness

by moving an object to various positions

around the body (RF.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

What Did You Hear?

musical instruments or

classroom objects

How Many Noises?

musical instruments or

classroom objects; red dots

and green star stickers; cubes

(two per student); small mats

(one per student)



Left/Right Discrimination

Greeting

stamp & ink pad or stickers 5

Spatial and Bodily

Awareness

Follow Me

one beanbag, foam ball, or

small object per student

Finger/Hand Awareness

Reviewing the Tripod Grip

crayons 5

Drawing Time

Vertical Line Practice

Worksheet 3.1; crayons;

projection system

Take-Home Material

Strengthening Fine Motor

Skills

Worksheet 3.2 *

Unit 1 | Lesson 3 19

Advance Preparation

Gather various rhythm instruments or objects and prepare the mats for

students by placing a green start star on the left side of each mat and a red

dot on the right. See illustration. It might also be helpful if students had a

green star on their left hands and a red dot on their right hands.

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 20 minutes

What Did You Hear? 10 minutes

If students need additional

practice discriminating noises,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Listening Walk”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section I of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice identifying the

sources of noises, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tick-Tock, Find the Clock,”

“Listening Walk,” and “Find

the Animal.”

If students need additional

practice recreating noise

sequences, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise “Clap

the Pattern.”

Note: In this exercise students will learn to identify noise sequences. This

will prepare them for a future exercise in which they have to identify words

in phrases. Students will also identify the sources of noises by naming the

objects making the noises. This will prepare them to associate a sound

with a letter.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects and familiarize

students with them by naming and producing a noise with the selected items.

• Hide the instruments or objects from view and have students identify them by

the noises they make. Students should name the instruments or objects.

• Make the noises of two instruments or objects, one after the other, with the

instruments or objects hidden from view.

• Have a student name the two instruments or objects and use them to copy

the noises in correct sequence.

• Repeat with several sequences of two noises until students have had

signi cant practice.

• Extension: If you have two sets of instruments, place one set where students

can see them. Play the instruments from the hidden set. Have a student play

instruments in the same order you played the hidden instruments.

20 Unit 1 | Lesson 3

How Many Noises? 10 minutes

Instead of using the mat, you

may affix a magnetic strip

to each of your cubes and

demonstrate on the board.

Or you may demonstrate by

projecting the cubes using a

projection system.

“Feeling the Noises” might be

beneficial to some students.

Instead of placing the cubes on

the mat, let students place the

cubes in their hands.

If students need additional

practice counting sounds, you

may use the activities in Unit 1,

Section I of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use the

Pausing Point exercises “Tracing

Lines” and “Color Strips” and

the activities in Unit 1, Section

III of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

Note: This exercise familiarizes students with noise sequences. They will

represent a noise with an object by placing a cube on a mat for each noise

they hear. This is similar to representing a sound with a letter. Placing the

cubes left to right introduces the same directionality used when reading print.

• Place a mat and two cubes for all students to see.

• Make sure from the students’ perspective, you appear to be placing the

cubes from left to right.

• Select a student to come forward and make a noise using one instrument or

object.

• Once the student has made a noise, move one cube forward on the mat.

• Clear your mat and ask another student to come forward and make two

different noises. For each noise, slide a cube on your mat.

• Distribute one mat and two cubes to each student.

• For each noise they hear, students should place one cube on the mat.

• Tell students the green star on the mat means “Go!” or “Start!” and the red

dot means “Stop!” They should always slide their  rst cube on the left side of

the mat where the green star is located. They should place the second cube

next to it, placing them in a line toward the red dot.

Note: Instead of sounding instruments or objects, you could have students

move cubes according to knocks.

first sound (bell)

second sound (drum)

(silence)

SOUNDS:

SYMBOLS:

Left/Right Discrimination 5 minutes

Greeting

Instead of greeting each

student yourself, you could

have students greet each other.

• Greet one student after the other by saying hello, looking him or her in the

eyes, and  rmly shaking his or her right hand.

• Say, “Hello, . We greet others by shaking their right hands. I’m using

my right hand to shake your right hand.”

Unit 1 | Lesson 3 21

If students need additional

practice differentiating their

hands, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise “Left/

Right Hand Discrimination”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section III of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Encourage students to greet you properly: “Hello, . I’m using my right

hand to shake your right hand.”

• After shaking each student’s right hand, place a stamp or sticker on it to

remind them which side is the right side.

• Tell students, “What’s left is left.”

Spatial and Bodily Awareness 10 minutes

Follow Me

If students’ are struggling

with gross motor skills, you

may use any of the Pausing

Point activities listed under

“Gross Motor Activities.”

If students need additional

practice with position words,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “The Grand

Old Duke of York” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section III

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Give each student a beanbag, foam ball, or another small object.

• Have students stand about an arm’s length apart.

• Stand with your back to students and tell them to do what you do. Turn your

head around to monitor the class. If another adult is in the room, have him or

her demonstrate the motions.

• Make sure to emphasize the position words top, bottom, over, under, right,

left, and around by saying what you are doing.

• You should do the following actions, in order, before varying the game:

• Move the ball to the top of your head.

• Lift up your foot and move the ball down to the bottom of your foot.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball over your arm.

• Raise your arm sideways and move the ball under your arm.

• Move the ball to the right of your body.

• Move the ball to the left of your body.

• Move the ball around your legs.

Finger/Hand Awareness 5 minutes

Reviewing the Tripod Grip

Tripod Grip

• Provide each student with a small piece of crayon.

• Model the tripod grip for students. (The tripod grip is made by pinching the

base of a writing utensil with the thumb and pointer  nger and resting the

shaft of the writing utensil on the tip of the middle  nger.)

• Have students use the tripod grip to hold their crayons.

If students need additional

practice using the tripod grip, you

may use the activities in Unit 1,

Section IV of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Circulate, correcting grips.

Note: Some students might use the thumb, pointer  nger, and middle

 nger to pinch the crayon. The crayon then rests on the tip of the ring

 nger. This alternate grip, called the quadropod grip, is  ne as well.

22 Unit 1 | Lesson 3

Drawing Time 15 minutes

Vertical Line Practice

Worksheet 3.1

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottom of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure that their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 3.1 using a projection system.

• Tell students the worksheet shows a bird in a cage, but the cage is missing

its bars.

If students need additional

practice with vertical lines,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Tray Tracing”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section IV of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

Please select the most

convenient and effective

method of displaying the

worksheet for all students

to see. This may include

making a transparency of

the worksheet and using

an overhead projector, or

a smart board, document

camera, chart paper, etc.

• Tell students you are going to add bars to the cage so the bird cannot  y

away. They should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to add bars to the cage by tracing the dotted lines. As

you draw, tell students you are adding bars to the cage by drawing vertical

lines from top to bottom, starting at the stars.

• Continue demonstrating (providing guided practice) until students are ready

to work independently.

• Tell students once they have  nished the front of the worksheet, they should

complete the back of the worksheet.

• If students  nish early, they may color the pictures and/or draw a picture

containing at least one vertical line.

Take-Home Material

Strengthening Fine Motor Skills

• Have students give Worksheet 3.2 to a family member.

Unit 1 | Lesson 4 23

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 4

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Identify environmental sounds using a

variety of common classroom objects (RF.K. 2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard using a variety of classroom objects

(RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

moving cubes (RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by extending the right hand to greet others

(RF.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

What Did You Hear?

musical instruments or

classroom objects

How Many Noises?

musical instruments or

classroom objects; cubes

(three per student); small

mats (one per student)



Left/Right Discrimination

Greeting

rough or silky glove 5

Finger/Hand Awareness

Reviewing the Tripod Grip

crayons 5

Drawing Time

Drawing Horizontal Lines on a

Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 10

Horizontal Line Practice

Worksheets 4.1, 4.2; crayons;

projection system

Pretest

Blending Pretest

Take-Home Material

Horizontal Line Practice

Worksheet 4.3 *

24 Unit 1 | Lesson 4

Note to Teacher

During this lesson, you will begin administering a blending subtest to

students individually. You will be able to administer the test to a few students

during this lesson, but you will continue to administer it to other students in

subsequent lessons. This blending pretest assesses ability to take isolated

oral sounds and combine them to form a word. Blending ability is highly

correlated with early reading ability; this test is being administered now to

establish a baseline for each student. You will administer the pretest to one

student at a time, while the remainder of the class completes Worksheet

4.2 or other work you deem appropriate. Display and demonstrate how to

complete Worksheet 4.2 for the entire class and then pull aside one student

at a time for the blending pretest.

A sample scoring sheet for the blending pretest is printed at the end of

this lesson. Individual scoring sheets for each student are included in the

Student Workbooks. Remove Worksheet 4.1 from each student’s workbook

prior to administering the test. Sit close to the student so he or she can

clearly hear you and see your mouth. Tell the student you are going to say

some sounds slowly. The student should listen to all of the sounds; when

you  nish, the student should try to say the sounds “fast” or “all together”

so he or she is saying a real word. Explain that you can only say the sounds

one time, so students must watch and listen carefully. Demonstrate using

the examples. Say the sounds in a segmented fashion, pausing for about

one second between sounds, e.g., /m/.../ee/. Then say me. Demonstrate

again with /s/…/a/…/d/, sad, then administer the test items. If the student

misses the  rst  ve items, you may discontinue the test. Score each student’s

overall performance. The correct answer for each item is given in the

parentheses. Give one point for each correct answer and zero points for an

incorrect answer. At the beginning of Kindergarten, any score greater than

zero is a good outcome. A score of  ve or more is very good. Such a score

indicates the student can hear discrete sounds and can blend them to make

a word. Since blending is one of the key skills required for reading (along

with knowing letter-sound correspondences), students who do well on this

pretest are likely to learn to read quickly. On the other hand, students who

cannot blend may struggle with reading—at least in the initial phases. These

students may need additional support in order to learn to blend successfully.

You will want to keep a close eye on them during the  rst several units of

Kindergarten.

We strongly recommend creating an assessment portfolio for each student

and storing his or her assessments (including pretests) in it. Throughout the

year, you can refer to the folders to see how students are progressing.

Unit 1 | Lesson 4 25

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 20 minutes

What Did You Hear? 10 minutes

If students need additional

practice identifying the

sources of noises, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tick-Tock, Find the Clock,”

“Listening Walk,” and “Find

the Animal” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section I of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

If students need additional

practice recreating noise

sequences, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise “Clap

the Pattern.”

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects and review them for

students by naming and making a noise with them.

• Hide the instruments or objects from view and have students identify them

by the noises they make. Students should respond with the names of the

instruments or objects.

• Make the noises of two instruments or objects, one after the other, with the

instruments or objects hidden from view.

• Have a student name the two instruments or objects and use the instruments

to produce noises in correct sequence.

• Repeat with several noise sequences of up to three noises until students

have had signi cant practice.

Note: For more student involvement, have the student who correctly

identi es the instruments or objects make the next set of noises.

How Many Noises? 10 minutes

If you have a tuning fork, you

may wish to sound it and

place it on each student’s

hand. This will allow students

to actually feel the vibrations

that result in the noise.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use the

Pausing Point exercises “Tracing

Lines” and “Color Strips” and

the activities in Unit 1, Section

III of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects and place a mat and

three cubes for students to see.

• Make sure that, from the students’ perspective, you appear to be placing the

cubes from left to right.

• Select a student to come forward and make a noise using one instrument or

object.

• Once the student has made a noise, move one cube forward on the mat.

• Clear your mat and ask a student to come forward and make up to three

noises. For each noise, slide a cube on your mat.

• Distribute one mat and three cubes to each student.

• For each noise students hear, they should place one cube on the mat.

• Repeat with several noise sequences of up to three noises.

Note: One fun way to clear the mat is to brush off the cubes while making

a whoosh sound.

26 Unit 1 | Lesson 4

Left/Right Discrimination 5 minutes

Greeting

The rough or silky glove

stimulates students’ sense

of touch.

If students need additional

practice differentiating

their hands, you may

use the Pausing Point

exercise “Left/Right Hand

Discrimination.”

• Today, wear some sort of rough or silky glove to shake students’ right

hands.

• Greet one student after the other by saying hello, looking him or her in the

eyes, and  rmly shaking his or her right hand.

• Say, “Hello, . We greet others by shaking their right hands. I’m using

my right hand to shake your right hand.”

• Encourage students to greet you properly: “Hello, . I’m using my right

hand to shake your right hand.”

• After shaking each student’s right hand, ask the student how the glove feels.

Is it rough? Is it silky?

• Ask, “What’s left?” (The left hand!)

Finger/Hand Awareness 5 minutes

Reviewing the Tripod Grip

Tripod Grip

If students need additional

practice using the tripod

grip, you may use the

activities in Unit 1, Section IV

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Provide each student with a small piece of crayon.

• Model the tripod grip for students. (The tripod grip is made by pinching the

base of a writing utensil with the thumb and pointer  nger and resting the

shaft of the writing utensil on the tip of the middle  nger.)

• Have students use the tripod grip to hold their crayons.

• Circulate, correcting grips.

Note: Some students might use the thumb, pointer  nger, and middle

 nger to pinch the crayon. The crayon then rests on the tip of the ring

 nger. This alternate grip, called the quadropod grip, is  ne as well.

Unit 1 | Lesson 4 27

Drawing Time 25 minutes

Drawing Horizontal Lines on a Vertical Surface 10 minutes

Note: Drawing horizontal lines will prepare students to write the letters ‘e’,

‘f’, ‘t’, and ‘z’.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

If students have trouble

drawing horizontal lines, you

can draw stars on the paper

to indicate where they should

start each horizontal line. Tell

students to “start at the star.”

If necessary, draw dots to

indicate end points, and tell

students to “stop at the dot.”

If students need additional

practice with horizontal lines,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Tray Tracing”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section IV of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Draw a horizontal line on the board. Explain to students that a horizontal line

is a straight line that goes from side to side; to draw a horizontal line, start on

the left and  nish on the right.

• Invite students to trace horizontal lines on their desks (or in the air) with their

 ngers.

• Have students draw horizontal lines on the chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students in drawing horizontal lines.

• Remind students how to draw a vertical line.

• Have students draw vertical lines on the chart paper.

• Then have them alternate horizontal and vertical lines on the chart paper.

• Extension: Have two students draw two long horizontal lines on a piece of

chart paper. Have the other students draw short vertical lines across the

two horizontal lines. The students have created train tracks! If there is time,

students may draw trains on the track.

Horizontal Line Practice 15 minutes

Worksheets 4.1, 4.2

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottoms of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 4.2 using your preferred projection system.

• Explain to students that the worksheet shows a student and a ladder, but the

ladder is missing its steps.

• Tell students you are going to add steps to the ladder so the student can

reach the top. They should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to add steps to the ladder by tracing the dotted lines.

As you draw, explain that you are adding steps to the ladder by drawing

horizontal lines from left to right, starting at the stars.

• Continue demonstrating (providing guided practice) until students are ready

to work independently.

28 Unit 1 | Lesson 4

• Tell students once they have  nished the front of the worksheet, they should

complete the back of the worksheet.

• If students  nish early, they may color the picture and/or draw a picture

containing at least one horizontal line.

Pretest

Blending Pretest

• If students are able to work independently, administer the blending pretest

(Worksheet 4.1) to individual students. If they are not, look for other

opportunities to administer the pretest.

Take-Home Material

Horizontal Line Practice

• Have students give Worksheet 4.3 to a family member.

Unit 1 | Lesson 4 29

Blending Pretest

Scoring Sheet

Examples: /m/ . . . /ee/—me /s/ . . . /a/ . . . /d/—sad

1. /s/ . . . /ae/ (say) ______

2. /n/ . . . /oe/ (no) ______

3. /f/ . . . /i/ . . . /sh/ ( sh) ______

4. /s/ . . . /u/ . . . /n/ (sun) ______

5. /s/ . . . /i/ . . . /t/ (sit) ______

6. /m/ . . . /a/ . . . /t/ (mat) ______

7. /t/ . . . /e/ . . . /n/ (ten) ______

8. /b/ . . . /a/ . . . /d/ (bad) ______

9. /f/ . . . /l/ . . . /i/ . . . /p/ ( ip) ______

10. /sh/ . . . /i/ . . . /p/ (ship) ______

Notes:

Interpretation:

8 or more correct: Strong

5–7 correct: Fair to Good

4 or fewer: Weak

Total Correct:________________________________

Date

Name

30 Unit 1 | Lesson 4

Class Record Sheet: Blending

Name say no fish sun sit mat ten bad flip ship Total

Unit 1 | Lesson 5 31

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard using a variety of classroom objects

(RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

moving cubes for every word spoken (RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by manipulating cubes right to left and by

extending the right hand to greet others

(RF.K.1a)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by manipulating playdough (L.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by tracking pictures from left to right (RF.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

How Many Noises?

musical instruments or

classroom objects; cubes

(three per student); small

mats (one per student)

Listening to Words

Hearing Words in Phrases and

Sentences

cubes (three per student);

small mats (one per student)



Left/Right Discrimination

Greeting

small red dot stickers 5

Fine Motor Skills

Making Vertical Lines,

Horizontal Lines, and Circles

with Playdough

playdough 10

Drawing Time

Drawing Circles to the Left on

a Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 10

Tracking from Left to

Right and Top to Bottom

Tracking Practice

Worksheet 5.1 10

Take-Home Material

Circle Practice

Worksheet 5.2 *

Lesson 5

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

32 Unit 1 | Lesson 5

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 10 minutes

How Many Noises?

If students need additional

practice discriminating noises,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Listening Walk”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section I of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities in Unit

1, Section III of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects and give one mat

and three cubes to each student.

• Explain that for each noise they hear, they should place one cube on the mat.

• Make the noise of one instrument or object and have students move one

cube forward on the mat.

• Have students clear their mats.

• Repeat this process several times, making up to three noises.

Listening to Words 10 minutes

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences

If students need additional

practice in awareness of

words, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise

“Grocery Shopping” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section II

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice representing words

with objects, you may use

the Pausing Point exercise

“Counting with Cubes.”

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips.”

Note: In this exercise students move away from environmental noises and

learn to break phrases and sentences into words. This process sets the

stage for breaking words into sounds. Students will learn this skill in Unit

2. Placing the cubes from left to right reinforces the directionality used in

reading. Again, students will represent a noise, in this case a word, with

an object (cube). This will prepare them to associate a sound with a sound

picture or letter.

• Position your mat and cubes so students can see them.

• Explain to the class that phrases and sentences are made up of words. Tell

the class you want them to try to hear the individual words in the phrases and

sentences you are going to say.

• Say, “Hit the ball.” twice—the  rst time at a normal speaking pace and the

second time with an exaggerated pause between the words. Count the words

with your  ngers.

• Say the phrase a third time and move one cube onto the mat for each word

you speak, counting the words with your  ngers as you go.

Unit 1 | Lesson 5 33

• Make sure from the students’ perspective, you appear to be placing the

cubes from left to right.

You may wish to have

students clap out the

words in each sentence,

or you may wish to have

them use a gross motor

movement for each word.

For example, you could

have them stomp their feet

or touch their noses.

• Ask an individual student to move the cubes and count the words.

• Distribute one mat and three cubes to each student.

• Complete the remaining phrases and sentences, or create your own using the

names of students in your class, such as “Susan’s red shirt.” Make sure to

only use phrases and sentences with three words.

1. Hit the ball.

2. a cold day

3. He hugs Mom.

4. Chocolate is sweet.

5. Dogs can bark.

6. Cats can purr.

Left/Right Discrimination 5 minutes

Greeting

If students need additional

practice differentiating their

hands, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise “Left/

Right Hand Discrimination.”

• Greet one student after the other by saying hello, looking him or her in the

eyes, and  rmly shaking his or her right hand.

• Say, “Hello, . We greet others by shaking their right hands. I’m using

my right hand to shake your right hand.”

• Encourage students to greet you properly: “Hello, . I’m using my right

hand to shake your right hand.”

• After shaking each student’s right hand, place a red dot sticker on his or her

right hand.

• Ask, “What’s left?” The left hand.

Fine Motor Skills 10 minutes

Making Vertical Lines, Horizontal Lines, and Circles with Playdough

If students need additional

practice with fine motor

skills, you may use any of the

Pausing Point “Fine Motor

Activities” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section IV of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

Note: This exercise is designed to strengthen  ne motor muscles and

reinforce the concept of vertical and horizontal lines. It also introduces

students to circles.

• Provide each student with a piece of playdough. Keep a piece for yourself, too.

• Using the playdough, show students how to make a line: roll the playdough

into a ball, and then place the ball on a  at surface and roll it into a line.

• Explain to students that you can make a vertical line by positioning the line

vertically and a horizontal line by positioning the line horizontally.

• Have students make vertical and horizontal lines using playdough.

34 Unit 1 | Lesson 5

• Demonstrate forming a playdough line into a circle.

• Have students make playdough circles.

Drawing Time 10 minutes

Drawing Circles to the Left on a Vertical Surface

If students have trouble

drawing circles, you can draw

stars on the paper to indicate

where they should start each

circle. Draw a dot inside of

each star to indicate where

students should stop each

circle. Tell students circles are

special because they start and

stop at the same spot. Instruct

students to “start at the star

and stop at the dot.”

If students need additional

practice with circles, you

may use the Pausing Point

exercise “Tray Tracing” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section IV

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

Note: Drawing circles to the left will prepare students to write the letters

‘a’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘g’, ‘o’, and ‘q’.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

• Give each student a small piece of crayon.

• Draw a circle to the left on the board. Explain to students that when we draw

a circle to the left, we start near the top and move to the left.

• Invite students to trace circles to the left on their desks (or in the air) with

their  ngers.

• Have students draw circles to the left on the chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students in drawing circles to the left.

• Extension: Invite students to name some objects that are circle shaped, e.g.,

cookies, soccer balls, oranges, plates, the moon, etc. Have students draw

something that is circle shaped.

Unit 1 | Lesson 5 35

Tracking from Left to Right and Top to Bottom 10 minutes

Tracking Practice

Worksheet 5.1

Note: This worksheet teaches students left-to-right tracking, which is

crucial for reading and writing. It is also an excellent whole group oral

exercise.

To help students with left-to-right directionality, you may wish to have them

color each star green and have them add a red stop dot to the end of each

row.

• Distribute Worksheet 5.1.

• Tell students to place their pointer  ngers on the  rst star.

If students need additional

tracking practice, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Ask students, “What is the next picture?”

• Once the class has provided the correct answer (a bird), ask students to

place their pointer  ngers on the bird.

• Repeat with each of the remaining pictures in the  rst row.

• Complete the items in the second, third, and fourth rows in the same fashion

as the  rst row. Then complete the back of the worksheet.

Take-Home Material

Circle Practice

• Have students give Worksheet 5.2 to a family member.

36 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard using a variety of classroom objects

(RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

moving a cube for every word spoken

(RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of

directionality by placing cubes on a mat

from left to right (RF.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

How Many Noises?

musical instruments or

classroom objects; cubes

(four per student); small mats

(one per student)

Listening to Words

Hearing Words in Phrases and

Sentences

cubes (four per student);

small mats (one per student)



Pretest

Writing Strokes Pretest

Worksheets 6.1, 6.2; crayons 20

Drawing Time

Circle to the Left Practice

Worksheet 6.3; crayons;

projection system

Take-Home Material

Increasing Sound and Word

Awareness

Worksheet 6.4 *

Note to Teacher

Continue to administer the blending pretest (from Lesson 4) to individual

students while the class is completing Worksheet 6.3 or doing other work you

deem appropriate.

Lesson 6

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

Student Performance

Task Assessment

Unit 1 | Lesson 6 37

Students will also take a writing strokes pretest during this lesson. This

pretest assesses  ne motor skills and prewriting abilities. The results will

indicate which students are almost ready to begin writing letters and which

students may need extra support over the course of this and the following

unit. This pretest is to be administered to the entire class as a group.

Collect the completed pretests, and evaluate them using the scoring guide

provided at the end of this lesson. Students who receive a “Progressing” or

“Ready” evaluation for most of the strokes are probably ready to attempt to

write letters, a task introduced in Unit 3. Handwriting will improve as students

practice drawing the strokes covered in Units 1 and 2. Students who receive

a “Not Yet Ready” evaluation on several of the strokes will probably need

additional support as they work through the  ne motor exercises and writing

stroke exercises in Units 1 and 2. These students will need to improve

signi cantly during Units 1 and 2 in order to succeed in Unit 3 and beyond.

You may want to encourage the families of these students to practice the

activities on Worksheet 3.2 from Lesson 3.

Keep the results of this test in your assessment portfolio.

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 10 minutes

How Many Noises?

If students need additional

practice discriminating

noises, you may use the

Pausing Point exercise

“Listening Walk” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section

I of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects and distribute one

mat and four cubes to each student.

• For each noise students hear, they should place one cube on the mat.

• Make one noise and have students move one cube forward on the mat.

• Have students clear their mats.

• Repeat this process several times, making up to four noises.

• Make sure students line up the cubes from left to right.

38 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

Listening to Words 10 minutes

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences

Additional practice in

awareness of words can be

found in the Pausing Point

exercise, “Grocery Shopping.”

If students need additional

practice representing words

with objects, you may use

the Pausing Point exercise

“Counting with Cubes” and

the activities in Unit 1,

Section II of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Position your mat and cubes so students can see them.

• Tell the class you want them to learn to hear the individual words in the

phrases and sentences you are going to say.

• Say, “the green plant,” twice—the  rst time at a normal speaking pace and

the second time with an exaggerated pause between the words. Count the

words with your  ngers.

• Say the phrase a third time and move one cube onto the mat for each word

you speak, counting the words with your  ngers as you go.

• Make sure from the students’ perspective, you appear to be placing the

cubes from left to right.

• Ask an individual student to move the cubes and count the words.

• Distribute one mat and four cubes to each student.

• Complete the remaining phrases and sentences, or create your own using the

names of students in your class.

Note: The examples below contain three or four words. Start with three-

word phrases and sentences and extend to four words.

1. the green plant

2. Practice makes perfect.

3. The sun is hot.

4. A car goes fast.

5. Red is a color.

6. A phone can ring.

Pretest 20 minutes

Writing Strokes Pretest

Worksheets 6.1, 6.2

• Distribute Worksheets 6.1 and 6.2.

• Provide each student with a small piece of crayon.

• Instruct students to copy each stroke in the box provided. (Feel free to

demonstrate on the board using strokes not being tested, e.g., a triangle, a

square, a heart, etc.)

Unit 1 | Lesson 6 39

Drawing Time 15 minutes

Circle to the Left Practice

Worksheet 6.3

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottoms of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 6.3.

• Explain to students the worksheet shows some snowmen, but each snowman

is missing three snowballs.

If students need additional

practice with circles, you

may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Tray

Tracing” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section IV

of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Tell students you are going to add three snowballs to each snowman. They

should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to add snowballs to one of the snowmen by tracing

the dotted circles. As you draw, explain you are adding snowballs to the

snowman by drawing circles to the left, starting at the stars.

• Continue demonstrating (providing guided practice) until you feel students

are ready to work independently.

• Tell students once they have  nished the front of the worksheet, they should

complete the back of the worksheet.

• If students  nish early, they may color the pictures and/or draw a picture

containing at least one circle.

Take-Home Material

Increasing Sound and Word Awareness

• Have students give Worksheet 6.4 to a family member.

40 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide:

Rate each student’s attempt to copy each writing stroke as Not Yet Ready (NYR), Progressing (P), or Ready (R).

Not Yet Ready (NYR): No attempt or mark on paper

whatsoever.

__________________________________________

Progressing (P):

__________________________________________

Ready (R):

NYR: No attempt or mark on paper whatsoever.

__________________________________________

NYR: No attempt or mark on paper whatsoever.

__________________________________________

Unit 1 | Lesson 6 41

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide Continued

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

42 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide Continued

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

Unit 1 | Lesson 6 43

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide Continued

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

44 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

NYR:

__________________________________________

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide Continued

NYR:

__________________________________________

NYR:

__________________________________________

Unit 1 | Lesson 6 45

Writing Strokes Scoring Guide Continued

Assign the following points for each rating:

NYR 0

P0.5

Interpretation:

12 or more points Strong

8–11 points Good to Fair

7 or fewer points Weak

Note: Students will continue to practice Writing Strokes throughout Units 1

and 2 and should demonstrate progress by the end of Unit 2.

NYR:

__________________________________________

46 Unit 1 | Lesson 6

Writing Strokes: Class Summary Sheet

Name

horizontal

line

vertical line

dot

circle

spiral

diagonal lines

zigzag

moon

plus sign

cane

hook

hump

cup

wavy line

star

Total

Unit 1 | Lesson 7 47

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard, stepping forward each time a sound is

produced (RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

clapping hands (RF.K.2)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by tracking pictures from left to right (RF.K.1a)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to

Environmental Noises

Stepping Forward for Noises

musical instruments or

classroom objects

Listening to Words

Teacher-Student Echo



Drawing Time

Drawing Diagonal Lines on a

Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 10

Diagonal Line Practice

Worksheet 7.1; crayons;

projection system

Tracking from Left to

Right and Top to Bottom

Tracking Practice

Worksheet 7.2; crayons 10

Take-Home Material

Diagonal Line Practice

Worksheet 7.3 *

Note to Teacher

Continue to administer the blending pretest (from Lesson 4) to individual

students while the class is completing Worksheet 7.1 or doing other work you

deem appropriate.

Lesson 7

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

48 Unit 1 | Lesson 7

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Environmental Noises 10 minutes

Stepping Forward for Noises

To help the class with left-

to-right directionality, place

a large green “start star” to

the left of the line of students

and a large red “stop dot” to

the right.

• Gather various rhythm instruments or classroom objects which produce

noises.

• Select four students and have them line up facing the class.

• Make noise sequences with up to four noises. Have one student step forward

for each noise.

• Make sure students step forward from left to right.

• Repeat until all class members have had a turn.

(first noise)

(second noise)

(start)

Listening to Words 10 minutes

Teacher-Student Echo

Additional practice with

awareness of words may be

found in the Pausing Point

exercise “Grocery Shopping.”

If students need additional

practice representing words

with movements, you

may use the Pausing Point

exercises “Leap Frog” and

“Head, Shoulders, Knees,

and Toes” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section II of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

Note: This exercise will help students develop the skills needed to break

phrases and sentences into words.

• Say a phrase or sentence, clap for each word, and then signal the number of

claps with your  ngers.

• Have the class or a student repeat the phrase or sentence and clap for each

word.

Unit 1 | Lesson 7 49

• Complete the remaining phrases and sentences or create your own using the

names of students or other things familiar to students (events, places, etc.).

Note: The examples below contain three to  ve one-syllable words. Start

with three-word phrases and sentences and then extend to  ve words.

1. the big cat

2. the small house

3. I love you.

4. It is hot.

5. We can play games.

6. We are in class.

7. The girls can clap.

8. The desks are all clear.

9. The books are all here.

10. The room is so clean.

Drawing Time 25 minutes

Drawing Diagonal Lines on a Vertical Surface 10 minutes

If students have trouble

drawing diagonal lines, you

can draw stars on the paper

to indicate where they should

start each diagonal line. Tell

students to “start at the star.”

If necessary, draw dots to

indicate end points, and tell

students to “stop at the dot.”

If students need additional

practice with diagonal lines,

you may use the Pausing Point

exercise “Tray Tracing” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section

IV of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

Note: Drawing diagonal lines will prepare students to write the letters ‘k’,

‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

• Give each student a small piece of crayon.

• Draw a diagonal line from top to bottom and left to right on the board. Explain

to students that a diagonal line is a slanted line; we can draw a diagonal line

by starting at the top left and  nishing at the bottom right.

• Ask students to trace diagonal lines from top to bottom and left to right on

their desks (or in the air) with their  ngers.

• Have students draw diagonal lines from top to bottom and left to right on the

chart paper.

• Draw a diagonal line from top to bottom and right to left on the board. Tell

students a diagonal line can also be drawn by starting at the top right and

 nishing at the bottom left.

• Ask students to trace diagonal lines from top to bottom and right to left on

their desks (or in the air) with their  ngers.

• Have students draw diagonal lines from top to bottom and right to left on the

chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students as they draw diagonal lines.

• Extension: Ask students to  nd vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines in the

classroom.

50 Unit 1 | Lesson 7

Diagonal Line Practice 15 minutes

Worksheet 7.1

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottoms of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 7.1.

• Explain to students the worksheet shows some houses, but each house is

missing its roof.

• Tell students you are going to add a roof to each house. They should do the

same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to add a roof to each house by tracing the dotted lines.

As you draw, explain that you are adding a roof to each house by drawing

one diagonal line from top to bottom and right to left and another diagonal

line from top to bottom and left to right, starting at the star.

• Continue demonstrating (providing guided practice) until students are ready

to work independently.

• Tell students once they have  nished the front of the worksheet, they should

complete the back of the worksheet.

• If students  nish early, they may color the pictures and/or draw a picture

containing at least one diagonal line.

Tracking from Left to Right and Top to Bottom 10 minutes

Tracking Practice

Worksheet 7.2

If students need additional

tracking practice, you may

use the Pausing Point

exercises “Tracing Lines”

and “Color Strips” and the

activities in Unit 1, Section

III of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Distribute Worksheet 7.2.

• Tell students to place their pointer  ngers on the  rst star.

• Ask students, “What is the next picture?”

• Once the class has provided the correct answer (a mouse), tell students to

place their pointer  ngers on the mouse.

• Repeat with each of the remaining pictures in the  rst row.

• Complete the items in the second, third, and fourth rows in the same fashion

as the  rst row. Complete the rows on the back of the worksheet.

Unit 1 | Lesson 7 51

Take-Home Material

Diagonal Line Practice

• Have students give Worksheet 7.3 to a family member.

52 Unit 1 | Lesson 8

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 8

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard, stepping forward each time a sound

is produced (RF.K.2)

 Segment sentences into words by clapping

for each word spoken (RF.K.2)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

What is This?

crayons; chart paper 5

Listening to

Environmental Noises

Stepping Forward for Noises

muscial instruments or

classroom objects

Listening to Words

Teacher-Student Echo



Drawing Time

Drawing Squares on a Vertical

Surface

crayons; chart paper 15

Reviewing Vertical and

Horizontal Lines

Worksheet 8.1; crayons;

projection system

Note to Teacher

Continue administering the blending pretest (from Lesson 4) to individual

students while the class is completing Worksheet 8.1 or doing other work you

deem appropriate.

Unit 1 | Lesson 8 53

Warm-Up 10 minutes

Counting with Fingers 5 minutes

• Count from one to ten, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

What Is This? 5 minutes

• Draw a vertical line on chart paper, and ask students to identify it.

• Repeat with a horizontal line, a circle, a diagonal line from top to bottom and

left to right, and a diagonal line from top to bottom and right to left.

Note: Students should simply answer “diagonal line” for both diagonal

lines.

Listening to Environmental Noises 10 minutes

Stepping Forward for Noises

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Gather various instruments or objects which make noises.

• Select four students and have them line up facing the class.

• Make one to four noises with the instruments or objects. Have one student

step forward for each noise.

• Make sure students step forward from left to right.

• Repeat until students have had signi cant practice.

(first noise)

(second noise)

(start)

54 Unit 1 | Lesson 8

Listening to Words 10 minutes

Teacher-Student Echo

If students need additional

practice representing words

with movements, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Leap Frog” and “Head,

Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section II of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

One way to increase students’

attention span for language

is by having them memorize

nursery rhymes, e.g., “Jack Be

Nimble.”

• Say a sentence, clap for each word, and then signal the number of claps with

your  ngers.

• Have the class or a student repeat the sentence and clap for each word.

• Complete the remaining sentences or create your own sentences with

classroom examples.

Note: The examples below contain three to six words. Start with three-

word phrases and sentences and then extend to six words.

1. Dogs are pets.

2. Milk is white.

3. I like cats and dogs.

4. One, two, three, look at me.

5. We eat lunch in the room.

Drawing Time 30 minutes

Drawing Squares on a Vertical Surface 15 minutes



Note: This exercise is important because understanding that writing

strokes can be combined to create a shape is similar to understanding that

writing strokes can be combined to create a letter.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

If students have trouble

drawing squares, you can

draw stars on the paper to

indicate where they should

start each square. Draw

a dot inside of each star.

Tell students squares start

and stop at the same spot.

Instruct students to “Start at

the star and stop at the dot.”

If students need even more

support, draw a dot for each

of the remaining three corners

and tell students to “Turn at

each dot.”

If students need additional

practice with squares, you may

use the Pausing Point exercise

“Tray Tracing” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section IV of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

• Give each student a small piece of crayon.

• Draw a square on the board, starting at its upper right corner. Explain to

students a square is made up of four lines: a horizontal line, then a vertical

line, then another horizontal line, and then another vertical line. Encourage

students to draw these squares without picking up their crayons (as shown).

• Ask students to trace squares on their desks or in the air with their  ngers.

• Have students draw squares on the chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students as they draw squares.

• Extension: Ask students to name some objects that are the shape of a

square, e.g., boxes, windows, tiles, etc. Have students draw something that

is in the shape of a square.

Unit 1 | Lesson 8 55

Reviewing Vertical and Horizontal Lines 15 minutes

Worksheet 8.1

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottom of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 8.1.

• Explain to students that the front of the worksheet has four hats and four

people.

• Tell students you are going to draw a line from each hat to the person below.

They should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to trace the dotted lines. As you draw, tell students you

are connecting each hat to its owner by drawing a vertical line from top to

bottom, starting at the star.

• Have students turn Worksheet 8.1 over.

• Display the back of Worksheet 8.1.

• Explain to students that the back of the worksheet has  ve animals and  ve

homes.

• Tell students you are going to draw a line from each animal on the left to its

home on the right. They should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to trace the dotted lines. As you draw, tell students you

are connecting each animal to its home by drawing a horizontal line from left

to right, starting at the star.

• Continue demonstrating (providing guided practice) until you feel students

are ready to work independently.

• Students  nishing early, may color the pictures and/or draw a picture containing

at least one vertical line and at least one horizontal line if time permits.

56 Unit 1 | Lesson 9

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 9

Emergent Reading and

Writing Skills

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Count the number of environmental sounds

heard, stepping forward each time a sound is

produced (RF.K.2)

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

stepping forward for each word in a phrase

or sentence (RF.K.2)

 Demonstate understanding of directionality

by stepping forward from left to right (RF.K.1a)

 Demonstrate understanding of

directionality by manipulating playdough

(RF.K.1a)

 Use spatial words while practicing writing

strokes in the air and on paper (L.K.1e)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

Listening to Words

Stepping Forward for Words

Circle the Cubes

Worksheet 9.1; crayons;

projection system



Fine Motor Skills

Making Circles and Triangles

with Playdough

playdough 10

Drawing Time

Drawing Triangles on a

Vertical Surface

crayons; chart paper 10

Reviewing Circles and

Diagonal Lines

Worksheet 9.2; crayons;

projection system

Take-Home Material

Understanding Position

Words

Worksheet 9.3 *

Note to Teacher

Continue to administer the blending pretest (from Lesson 4) to individual

students while the class is completing other work you deem appropriate.

Unit 1 | Lesson 9 57

Warm-Up 5 minutes

Counting with Fingers

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

Listening to Words 20 minutes

Stepping Forward for Words 10 minutes

To help the class with left-to-

right directionality, place a

large green “start dot” to the

left of the line of students

and a large red “stop dot” to

the right.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Select six students and have them line up facing the class.

• Have students count from one to six from left to right, each student stepping

forward as he or she says his or her number. Repeat until the students can do

this  uently.

• Say the  rst sentence, counting the number of words with your  ngers.

• Repeat the sentence and have students step forward from left to right. One

student steps forward for each word.

• Select another six students and repeat the process with the next sentence.

• Continue until all students have had a turn.

1. The black cat is a friend.

2. The sad cat is not black.

3. A cat sat on the rug.

4. The small gray cat is glad.

5. Gray and black cats are fun.

6. The cats are in the box.

Circle the Cubes 10 minutes

Worksheet 9.1

If students are struggling

with awareness of words, you

may use the Pausing Point

exercise “Grocery Shopping”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section II of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 9.1 and provide each student with a small

piece of crayon.

• Tell students you are going to say a sentence and they should indicate how

many words are in the sentence by circling a cube on Worksheet 9.1 for each

word.

• Ask students to look at the  rst row of cubes.

• Slowly say the  rst sentence from the following box. Model the activity and

have students do the same on their worksheets.

• Complete the remaining sentences.

1. Mike is tall.

2. She laughed.

3. I like hot days.

4. The flower grew.

58 Unit 1 | Lesson 9

Motor Skills 10 minutes

Making Circles and Triangles with Playdough

If students are struggling with

fine motor skills, you may use

the Pausing Point exercise

“Fine Motor Activities” and

the activities in Unit 1, Section

IV of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

• Provide each student with a piece of playdough.

• Using the playdough, show students how to make a line: roll the playdough

into a ball, and then place the ball on a  at surface and roll it into a line.

• Have students make their own playdough lines.

• Demonstrate forming a playdough line into a circle.

• Have students make playdough circles.

• Demonstrate combining three playdough lines to make a triangle.

• Have students make playdough triangles.

Drawing Time 25 minutes

Drawing Triangles on a Vertical Surface 10 minutes

If students have trouble

drawing triangles, you may

draw stars on the paper to

indicate where they should

start each triangle. Draw

a dot inside of each star to

indicate where students

should stop each triangle.

Tell students triangles start

and stop at the same spot.

Instruct students to “start

at the star and stop at the

dot.” If students need even

more support, draw a small

triangle for each of the

remaining two corners and

tell students to “turn at the

triangles.”

Note: This exercise is important because understanding that writing

strokes can be combined to create a shape is similar to understanding that

writing strokes can be combined to create a letter.

• Tape multiple pieces of chart paper to the wall at a height students can reach.

• Review the position words top, bottom, left, right, and middle with students,

pointing out the top, bottom, left side, right side, and middle of one of the

pieces of chart paper.

• Give each student a small piece of crayon.

• Draw a triangle on the board. Explain to students a triangle is made up of

three lines: a diagonal line, a horizontal line, and another diagonal line.

• Ask students to trace triangles on their desks (or in the air) with their  ngers.

• Have students draw triangles on the chart paper.

• Circulate, correcting grips and assisting students as they draw triangles.

Unit 1 | Lesson 9 59

Reviewing Circles and Diagonal Lines 15 minutes

Worksheet 9.2

Note: When students are writing at their desks, the bottoms of their feet

should touch the  oor, their feet should be parallel, and their backs should

be straight. Before asking students to write, have them shake their arms

above their heads and stamp their feet. This will ensure their posture is

suitable for writing.

• Distribute and display Worksheet 9.2.

• Explain to students that the front of the worksheet has six cars and six

garages, but the cars cannot enter the garages because there are no

driveways.

If students need additional

practice with triangles,

circles, or diagonal lines,

you may use the Pausing

Point exercise “Tray Tracing”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section IV of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

• Tell students you are going to draw a circular driveway for each car. They

should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to trace the dotted circles. As you draw, tell students you

are giving each car a driveway by drawing a circle to the left.

• Display the back of Worksheet 9.2.

• Explain to students that the back of the worksheet has four animals and four

homes.

• Tell students you are going to draw a line from each animal to its home. They

should do the same on their worksheets.

• Show students how to trace the dotted lines. As you draw, explain that you

are connecting each animal to its home by drawing a diagonal line, starting at

the star.

• Continue demonstrating (guided practice) until students are ready to work

independently.

• If students  nish early, they may color the pictures and/or draw a picture

containing at least one circle and at least one diagonal line if time permits.

Take-Home Material

Understanding Position Words

• Have students give Worksheet 9.3 to a family member.

60 Unit 1 | Lesson 10

The following language arts objectives are addressed in this lesson. Objectives aligning with the Common Core

State Standards are noted with the corresponding standard in parentheses. Refer to the Alignment Chart for

additional standards addressed in all lessons in this unit.

 Objectives

Lesson 10

Student Performance

Task Assessment

 Segment spoken sentences into words by

counting fingers (RF.K.2)

 Segment sentences into words by counting

and moving cubes for each word spoken

(RF.K.2)

 Demonstrate understanding of directionality

by stepping forward from left to right (RF.K.1a)

 Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or

pincer) grip and make marks on paper using

small crayons (L.K.1a)

At a Glance

Exercise Materials Minutes



Warm-Up

Counting with Fingers

What is This?

crayons; chart paper 5

Listening to Words

Hearing Words in Phrases and

Sentences

cubes (five per student); small

mats (one per student)

Stepping Forward for Words



Student Performance

Task Assessment

Unit 1 Student Performance

Task Assessment

Worksheets 10.1, 10.2; crayons 30

Take-Home Material

Tracking Practice

Worksheet 10.3 *

Note to Teacher

This is the last lesson in Unit 1. During this lesson, you will assess students to

ascertain their understanding of the material presented in Unit 1.

Worksheets 10.1 and 10.2 are assessment worksheets. The front of Worksheet

10.1 evaluates students’ ability to draw a vertical line, a horizontal line, a circle,

a diagonal line from top to bottom and left to right, and a diagonal line from

top to bottom and right to left. The back of Worksheet 10.1 tests students’

understanding of the position words left, right, top, middle, and bottom.

Worksheet 10.2 assesses students’ ability to hear separate words in sentences.

Collect the completed worksheets, and record a “writing strokes” score and

a “position words” score on the back of Worksheet 10.1. Record a “word

discrimination” score on the front of Worksheet 10.2.

Unit 1 | Lesson 10 61

When evaluating the front of Worksheet 10.1, please refer to the Writing Strokes

Scoring Guide located at the end of Lesson 6. If a student’s writing stroke falls

into the “Not Yet Ready” category, mark it wrong.

When evaluating the back of Worksheet 10.1, check to see if the left box is

colored green, the right box is colored red, the top box is colored yellow, the

middle box is colored orange, and the bottom box is colored blue. If a box is

the wrong color or if it is not colored, mark it wrong.

When evaluating Worksheet 10.2, check to see if two cubes are circled for

item1, four cubes are circled for item 2, three cubes are circled for item 3,

and four cubes are circled for item 4.

Interpretation and Analysis

There are 14 items in the Unit 1 assessment. Students who miss three items

or less overall are performing well. However, a score of 2 or less in any one

section (Part One, Two, or Three) may be an indication students would bene t

from additional practice in the given area.

We recommend you use the Record Sheet for Unit 1 Assessment found at

the end of this lesson to record every student’s performance on each section.

Once this Record Sheet is complete, you should be able to scan it quickly

to determine whether there are groups of students who might bene t from

additional practice in a given area. There are numerous activities included

in the Unit 1 Pausing Point that may be used to provide additional practice

if there are students who would bene t from more practice. In this case, we

recommend that you pause—no more than one week—before continuing

to Unit 2. If there are only one or two speci c students who seem to be

experiencing dif culty, you may decide to continue to Unit 2 without pausing.

Be sure to look for opportunities to work with these individual students one-

on-one to provide additional practice in weak areas.

If students perform poorly on Part One, provide additional practice, especially

Pausing Point Sections “Develop Fine Motor Skills” and “Draw/Trace.”

You may also use the activities in Unit 1, Section IV of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students perform poorly on Part Two, provide additional practice from

Pausing Point sections “Develop an Understanding of Directionality,”

“Develop Bodily and Spatial Awareness,” and “Recognize Position Words.”

You may also use the activities in Unit 1, Section III of the Assessment and

Remediation Guide.

If students perform poorly on Part Three, provide additional practice using

various activities included in the Pausing Point. You may also use the activities

in Unit 1, Sections I and II of the Assessment and Remediation Guide.

There have only been three lessons since the writing strokes pretest was

given, so it is quite likely some students will not show a great deal of

62 Unit 1 | Lesson 10

improvement. Students will continue to work on writing strokes throughout

Unit 2. The assessment at the end of that unit will offer another indication of

handwriting skills.

Keep the results of this assessment in the students’ assessment portfolios.

Warm-Up 10 minutes

Counting with Fingers 5 minutes

• Count from one to 10, lifting one  nger for each number as you count.

• Have students repeat after you.

What is This? 5 minutes

• Draw a vertical line on chart paper, and ask students to identify it.

• Repeat with a horizontal line, a circle, a diagonal line from top to bottom and

left to right, and a diagonal line from top to bottom and right to left.

Note: Students should simply answer “diagonal line” for both diagonal lines.

Listening to Words 20 minutes

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences 10 minutes

If students are struggling

with awareness of words, you

may use the Pausing Point

exercise “Grocery Shopping”

and the activities in Unit 1,

Section II of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice representing words

with objects, you may use

the Pausing Point exercise

“Counting with Cubes” and

the activities in Unit 1,

Section II of the Assessment

and Remediation Guide.

If students need additional

practice with left-to-right

directionality, you may use

the Pausing Point exercises

“Tracing Lines” and “Color

Strips” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Position your mat and cubes so students can see them.

• Tell the class you want them to try to hear the individual words in some

sentences you are going to say.

• Say, “We sit on chairs,” twice—the  rst time at a normal speaking pace and

the second time with an exaggerated pause between the words.

• Say the sentence a third time and move one cube onto the mat for each word

you speak, counting the words.

• Make sure from the students’ perspective, you appear to be placing the

cubes from left to right.

• Ask an individual student to move the cubes and count the words.

• Give each student a small mat and  ve cubes.

• Complete the remaining sentences or create your own sentences.

Note: The examples below contain four to  ve words. Start with four-word

sentences and extend to  ve words.

1. We sit on chairs.

2. The plant has leaves.

3. Each girl has five grapes.

4. The boys like to swing.

5. Pears and plums are fruit.

6. I eat hotdogs for lunch.

Unit 1 | Lesson 10 63

Stepping Forward for Words 10 minutes

If students need additional

practice representing words

with movements, you

may use the Pausing Point

exercises “Leap Frog” and

“Head, Shoulders, Knees,

and Toes” and the activities

in Unit 1, Section II of the

Assessment and Remediation

Guide.

• Select six students and have them line up facing the class.

• Have students count from one to six from left to right, each student stepping

forward as he or she says his or her number. Repeat until students can do

this  uently.

• Say the  rst sentence, counting the number of words with your  ngers.

• Repeat the sentence and have students step forward from left to right. One

student steps forward for each word.

• Select another six students and repeat the process with the next sentence.

• Continue until all students have had their turn.

1. Birds can sing and lay eggs.

2. Cats like to play and purr.

3. Dogs like to bark and lick.

4. Cats run up trees really fast.

5. Cows eat grass and give milk.

6. Some bears like to eat bugs.

Student Performance Task Assessment 30 minutes



Unit 1 Student Performance Task Assessment

Worksheet 10.1

Part One

• Distribute Worksheet 10.1.

• Provide each student with a green crayon, a red crayon, a yellow crayon, an

orange crayon, and a blue crayon.

• Instruct students to copy each shape on the front of the worksheet.

Part Two

• Once students have completed the front of the worksheet, have them turn

Worksheet 10.1 over.

• Hold up a green crayon, and tell students to quickly color the box on the left

green.

• Wait for students to  nish coloring.

• Hold up a red crayon, and tell students to quickly color the box on the right

red.

• Wait for students to  nish coloring.

• Hold up a yellow crayon, and tell students to quickly color the top box yellow.

• Wait for students to  nish coloring.

• Hold up an orange crayon, and tell students to quickly color the middle box

orange.

• Wait for students to  nish coloring.

64 Unit 1 | Lesson 10

• Hold up a blue crayon, and tell students to quickly color the bottom box

blue.

• Wait for students to  nish coloring and collect papers.

Part Three

Worksheet 10.2

• Distribute Worksheet 10.2.

• Tell students you are going to say a sentence. Explain to students they should

indicate how many words are in the sentence by circling a cube for each

word.

• Direct students’ attention to the  rst row of cubes.

• Slowly say the  rst sentence from the following box. Tell students to circle a

cube for each word in the sentence.

• If necessary, repeat the sentence.

• Complete the activity using the remaining sentences.

1. I smiled.

2. They found a bug.

3. He has toys.

4. She has a cat.

Take-Home Material

Tracking Practice

• Have students give Worksheet 10.3 to a family member.

Unit 1 | Lesson 10 65

Record Sheet for Unit 1 Assessment

Name Part One Part Two Part Three Notes

66 Unit 1 | Lesson 10

Students Needing Additional Instruction at the End of Unit 1

A. Students who scored 2 or less on

Part One

B. Students who scored 2 or less on

Part Two

C. Students who scored 2 or less on

Part Three

Unit 1 | Lesson 10 67

Next Steps

For students in Column A

• Provide practice from the following Pausing Point sections:

• Draw/Trace

• Develop Fine Motor Skills

• Additional practice activities may also be found in Unit 1, Section IV of the

Assessment and Remediation Guide.

For students in Column B

• Provide practice from the following Pausing Point sections:

• Develop an Understanding of Directionality

• Develop Bodily and Spatial Awareness

• Recognize Position Words

• Additional practice activities may also be found in Unit 1, Section III of the

Assessment and Remediation Guide.

For students in Column C

• Provide practice from the following Pausing Point sections:

• Develop Awareness of Noises

• Discriminate Noises

• Represent a Word with a Movement/Object

• Additional practice activities may also be found in Unit 1, Sections I and II of

the Assessment and Remediation Guide.

68 Unit 1 | Pausing Point

With the conclusion of Unit 1, if a signi cant number of students are having

dif culty with any of the objectives, pause here and spend additional

days reviewing the material presented in this unit. You may have students

complete any combination of the exercises listed below, in any order. The

exercises are listed under the unit objectives they satisfy. Procedures are not

reprinted for exercises included in the Unit 1 lessons. Instead, we simply list

the lessons where these exercises can be found. Exercises not included in

the Unit 1 lessons, however, have procedures printed here.

If individual students are having trouble with speci c skills, you can provide

pullout instruction and/or targeted homework assignments.

Pausing Point Topic Guide

Develop Awareness of Noises

Knocking and Counting Lessons 1, 2

Same or Different? Lessons 1, 2

What Did You Hear? Lessons 3, 4

How Many Noises? Lessons 3–6

Stepping Forward for Noises Lessons 7, 8

Discriminate Noises

Knocking and Counting Lessons 1, 2

Same or Different? Lessons 1, 2

What Did You Hear? Lessons 3, 4

How Many Noises? Lessons 3–6

Stepping Forward for Noises Lessons 7, 8

Listening Walk Page 71

Identify the Source of a Noise

What Did You Hear? Lessons 3, 4

Tick-Tock, Find the Clock Page 71

Find the Animal Page 71

Recreate a Noise Sequence

What Did You Hear? Lessons 3, 4

Clap the Pattern Page 72

Represent a Noise with a Movement/Object

Knocking and Counting Lessons 1, 2

How Many Noises? Lessons 3–6

Unit 1 Pausing Point

Unit 1 | Pausing Point 69

Stepping Forward for Noises Lessons 7, 8

Develop Awareness of Words

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences Lessons 5, 6, 10

Teacher-Student Echo Lessons 7, 8

Stepping Forward for Words Lessons 9, 10

Grocery Shopping Page 72

Represent a Word With a Movement/Object

Counting with Fingers Lessons 1–10

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences Lessons 5, 6, 10

Teacher-Student Echo Lessons 7, 8

Stepping Forward for Words Lessons 9, 10

Counting with Cubes Page 73

Leap Frog Page 73

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Page 74

Develop an Understanding of Directionality/Track

from Left to Right and Top to Bottom

Counting with Fingers Lessons 1–10

How Many Noises? Lessons 3–6

Stepping Forward for Noises Lessons 7, 8

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences Lessons 5, 6, 10

Stepping Forward for Words Lessons 9, 10

Greeting Lessons 1–5

Left/Right Hand Discrimination Page 75, Worksheet PP1

Tracking Practice Page 75,

Worksheets 5.1, 7.2

Tracing Lines Page 75,

Worksheet 4.2

Color Strips Page 75

Develop Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Activities Page 75

Playdough Shapes Page 75

Develop Bodily and Spatial Awareness

Follow Me Lessons 1–3

Gross Motor Activities Page 76

Recognize Position Words

Follow Me Lessons 1–3

The Grand Old Duke of York Page 76

70 Unit 1 | Pausing Point

Identify Shapes

What is This? Lessons 8, 10

Draw/Trace

Drawing on a Vertical Surface Page 77

Drawing on a Horizontal Surface Page 77

Coloring Sheets Worksheets PP2, PP3, PP4,

PP5

Tracing and Copying Shapes Worksheet PP6

Tracing Lines Worksheet PP6

Tray Tracing Page 77

Develop Awareness of Noises

Knocking and Counting

• See Lessons 1 and 2.

Same or Different?

• See Lessons 1 and 2.

What Did You Hear?

• See Lessons 3 and 4.

How Many Noises?

• See Lessons 3–6.

Stepping Forward for Noises

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Discriminate Noises

Knocking and Counting

• See Lessons 1 and 2.

Same or Different?

• See Lessons 1 and 2.

What Did You Hear?

• See Lessons 3 and 4.

How Many Noises?

• See Lessons 3–6.

Unit 1 | Pausing Point 71

Stepping Forward for Noises

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Listening Walk

You can introduce this

exercise by reading “The

Listening Walk” (by Paul

Showers) to the class.

Note: This is an excellent transition exercise. You may use this exercise

when the class is outside or walking to and from the classroom.

• Take a walk with students.

• Tell students to raise their hands and wait to be called on if they would like to

identify a noise they hear.

• Call on students to share.

Note: If you like, you can adapt the question-and-answer structure found

in “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” For example, “Brandon,

Brandon, what do you hear?” Answer: “I hear a bird chirping in my ear.”

• Extension: Have students point to the sources of the sounds they hear.

• After the walk, ask students which noise they heard  rst/last and which noise

was the quietest/loudest.

• Extension: Have students draw something they heard during the walk. Make

a class book with the drawings.

Identify the Source of a Noise

What Did You Hear?

• See Lessons 3 and 4.

Tick-Tock, Find the Clock

• Let students listen to the noise made by a kitchen timer or a wind-up toy.

• Have students close their eyes.

• Hide the object somewhere in the classroom.

• Have students open their eyes.

• Ask a student to locate the object by “following its sound.”

• Once the student has found the object, let him or her hide it.

Find the Animal

• Have the class sit in a circle.

• Select one student to sit blindfolded in the center of the circle.

• Select a second student to go somewhere in the classroom and make an

animal sound.

72 Unit 1 | Pausing Point

• Ask the blindfolded student what animal his or her classmate is pretending to

be and point to the location of the sound.

• After the blindfolded student gives the correct answers, he or she becomes the

next animal impersonator and a new student moves to the center of the circle.

Recreate a Noise Sequence

What Did You Hear?

• See Lessons 3 and 4.

Clap the Pattern

• Tell students you are going to clap out a pattern for them to repeat.

• Start with one or two claps, and gradually increase to  ve claps.

• Variation: Have students clap their knees, head, etc.

Represent a Noise with a Movement/Object

Knocking and Counting

• See Lessons 1 and 2.

How Many Noises?

• See Lessons 3–6.

Stepping Forward for Noises

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Develop Awareness of Words

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences

• See Lessons 5, 6, and 10.

Teacher-Student Echo

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Stepping Forward for Words

• See Lessons 9 and 10.

Grocery Shopping

• Gather  ve pictures of items that can be purchased at a grocery store.

• Have the class identify each item.

Unit 1 | Pausing Point 73

• Display one of the pictures, and tell the class, “Tonight, I am going to buy

[name of item] from the grocery store.”

• Have students repeat the sentence.

• Display a second picture alongside the  rst, and tell the class, “Tonight, I am

going to buy [name of  rst item] and [name of second item] from the grocery

store.”

• Have students repeat the sentence.

• Continue until all  ve pictures are displayed and all  ve items are included in

the sentence.

• Remove the pictures and see if students can repeat the  nal sentence without

the picture clues.

• Extension: Use this exercise to strengthen counting skills by having students

count the items.

Represent a Word with a Movement/Object

Counting with Fingers

• See Lessons 1–10.

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences

• See Lessons 5, 6, and 10.

Teacher-Student Echo

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Stepping Forward for Words

• See Lessons 9 and 10.

Counting with Cubes

• Give each student a mat and 10 cubes.

• Have each student position his or her mat with the green star on the left and

the red dot on the right.

• Have students count from one to 10, placing one cube on their mat for each

number.

Note: Students should place each cube between the green star and the

red dot, with each additional cube getting closer and closer to the red dot.)

Leap Frog

• Make three “lily pads” out of construction paper.

• Place the three lily pads in a row on the  oor. You may wish to tape the lily

pads in place.

74 Unit 1 | Pausing Point

• Say a three-word sentence and have a student jump on the  rst pad for the

 rst word, the second pad for the second word, and the third pad for the third

word.

• If students are ready for longer sentences, tape down as many as  ve lily

pads and say sentences containing up to  ve words.

• Variation: Instead of having students jump from lily pad to lily pad, have them

jump on a hopscotch board.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

• Sing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” as a class.

• Each time you say the name of a body part, touch that body part.

• Sing the song a second time, increasing the tempo.

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Knees and toes

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Knees and toes

Eyes and ears and mouth and nose

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Knees and toes

Develop an Understanding of Directionality/Track from Left to Right and

Top to Bottom

Counting with Fingers

• See Lessons 1–10.

How Many Noises?

• See Lessons 3–6.

Stepping Forward for Noises

• See Lessons 7 and 8.

Hearing Words in Phrases and Sentences

• See Lessons 5, 6, and 10.

Stepping Forward for Words

• See Lessons 9 and 10.

Unit 1 | Pausing Point 75

Greeting

• See Lessons 1–5.

Left/Right Hand Discrimination

Worksheet PP1

• Distribute Worksheet PP1.

• Provide each student with a red and a green crayon.

• Tell students to place their hands on top of the hands on the worksheet.

• Have students determine which hand is the left hand and which hand is the

right hand.

• Tell students to color the left hand green and the right hand red.

• If time permits, students may decorate the hands with patterns.

Tracking Practice

• See Lessons 4, 5, and 7

Tracing Lines

• Draw a horizontal line, a vertical line, and a diagonal line on a sheet of paper.

• Give each student a photocopy of the sheet and a small piece of crayon.

• Tell students to trace each line from left to right. (If necessary, model this on

the board.)

Note: You can place a green “start star” on the left of each sheet and a red

“stop dot” on the right to help students with left-to-right directionality.

Color Strips

• Give each student a strip of paper that has a row of colored dots on it. The

dot on the far left should be green and the dot on the far right should be red.

Between the green and red dots, place dots of other colors. The colors need

to be in the same order on all student strips.

• Tell students you are going to say the names of the colors on the strip from

left to right. Students should touch each color as you say its name.

• Say the color names from left to right.

• Repeat multiple times.

Develop Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Activities

• The following activities are excellent for strengthening  ne motor skills: building

with blocks, pouring water from a pitcher to a cup, cutting and pasting, hole

punching, stringing beads onto thread, lacing hole-punched cards.

76 Unit 1 | Pausing Point

Playdough Shapes

• Have students use playdough to make the strokes and shapes covered in Unit1.

Develop Bodily and Spatial Awareness

Follow Me

• See Lessons 1–3.

Gross Motor Activities

• The following activities are excellent for strengthening gross motor skills:

throwing a ball overhand, hopping on one foot, playing tag, kicking a ball,

marching, dancing to a song.

Recognize Position Words

Follow Me

• See Lessons 1–3.

The Grand Old Duke of York

• Recite the following poem, emphasizing the position words up, top, and down.

• As you recite the poem, invite the class to act it out.

The grand old Duke of York,

He had ten thousand men.

He marched them up to the top of the hill,

And he marched them down again.

When they were up, they were up.

And when they were down, they were down.

And when they were only halfway up,

They were neither up nor down.

Identify Shapes

What is This?

• See Lessons 8 and 10.

• Variation: Have students take turns drawing shapes on the board for the class

to identify.

Unit 1 | Pausing Point 77

Draw/Trace

Drawing on a Vertical Surface

• Have students draw vertical lines (see Lesson 2), horizontal lines (see Lesson

4), circles (see Lesson 5), diagonal lines (see Lesson 7), squares (see Lesson

8), or triangles (see Lesson 9) on pieces of chart paper which have been

af xed to the wall.

Drawing on a Horizontal Surface

• Have students sit at their desks and draw vertical lines (see Lesson 2),

horizontal lines (see Lesson 4), circles (see Lesson 5), diagonal lines (see

Lesson 7), squares (see Lesson 8), or triangles (see Lesson 9) on sheets of

paper.

Coloring Sheets

If you prefer, you may have

students draw and color their

own pictures.

Worksheets PP2, PP3, PP4, PP5

• Distribute Worksheet PP2, PP3, PP4, or PP5.

• Provide students with crayons.

• Instruct students to outline the  gure several times using different colored

crayons. Students may decorate the  gure using the strokes they have

learned in this unit if time permits.

• Extension: Have students decorate the  gure with speci c patterns of writing

strokes.

Tracing and Copying Shapes

Worksheet PP6

• Distribute Worksheet PP6.

• Provide each student with a small piece of crayon.

• Have students trace and draw each shape.

Tracing Lines

• See Tracing and Copying Shapes.

Tray Tracing

• Give each student a shallow tray containing sand or rice.

• Have students trace any of the Unit 1 shapes in the sand or rice.

78 Unit 1 | Appendix A

Appendix A: About This Program

The Core Knowledge Language Arts Program

The Core Knowledge Language Arts program is unlike most reading programs

with which you are familiar. It has been developed by the Core Knowledge

Foundation, a non-pro t, non-partisan educational foundation based in

Charlottesville, Virginia. The foundation’s mission is to offer all children a

better chance in life and create a fairer and more literate society by educating

America’s youth in a solid, speciﬁ c, sequenced, and shared curriculum. This

program is an attempt to realize that mission. Speci cally, the program aims

to combine excellent decoding instruction with frequent reading-aloud in order

to ensure that students can translate letters into words and make sense of the

words they are decoding.

About Core Knowledge

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Core Knowledge was founded in the late 1980s by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., a professor

at the University of Virginia. In the 1980s, Hirsch’s research focused on the

question of why one piece of writing is easier to read than another. As part

of this research, he created two versions of the same passage for college

students to read. One version was considered well written because it followed

principles of clarity and style laid out in style books such as Strunk and White’s

Elements of Style. The other version did not follow those principles and

was considered poorly written. Hirsch then asked a large number of college

students to read the passages. He recorded the time it took them to read the

passages and how well they were able to answer comprehension questions

about the passages. He wanted to see if the well-written passages would be

read more rapidly and understood more fully than the poorly written ones. He

found that they were, but he also found another factor that was even more

important for comprehension than the clarity of the writing. He found that

readers who possessed a wide base of background knowledge were able to

make sense of a wide range of passages, whereas students who lacked this

knowledge were not.

Hirsch conducted his tests at the University of Virginia and a nearby community

college. He found that students at the community college could decode well

enough and could read and understand passages on everyday topics like

roommates and manners. Many of the community college students struggled

when the passages treated historical and scienti c subjects. One passage on

two Civil War generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, was especially

dif cult for many of them. It turned out that many of the community college

students tested knew little about the Civil War. They did not know who Grant

and Lee were, and, as a result, they struggled to make sense of the passage,

even though they could decode the words Grant and Lee. Hirsch realized these

students were struggling to make sense of the passages, even though their

decoding skills were good. It was obvious, then, that reading comprehension

required something more than just basic decoding skills.

Unit 1 | Appendix A 79

Cultural Literacy

Hirsch wrote about his insights in a 1987 bestseller, Cultural Literacy. He

argued that full literacy requires not just decoding skills but also knowledge of

words, concepts, persons, places, and ideas writers tend to take for granted.

Schools must take the responsibility of imparting this body of knowledge,

which Hirsch called “cultural literacy.” Hirsch went on to found the Cultural

Literacy Foundation in order to promote the teaching of cultural literacy in

American elementary schools. The foundation later changed its name to the

Core Knowledge Foundation (CKF), but its mission has never changed. CKF

publishes curriculum materials for Pre-K through Grade 8, provides teacher

training, and hosts conferences for educators teaching in Core Knowledge

schools across the country.

The Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program is an early reading

program based on the work of E. D. Hirsch. It combines his insights with 50

years of reading research, as summarized in the report of the National Reading

Panel.

The Simple View of Reading

Hirsch’s insight about the necessity of background knowledge has been

con rmed in many experiments. Virtually everyone who writes about reading

now recognizes that reading comprehension requires more than just decoding

ability. Many reading researchers now subscribe to a view of reading that is

known as “the simple view of reading.” This view, which is associated with

reading researchers Philip Gough and William Tunmer, holds that there are two

chief elements that are crucially important to reading comprehension: decoding

skills and language comprehension ability.

To achieve reading comprehension, a person needs to be able to decode the

words on the page and then make sense of those words. The  rst task is made

possible by decoding skills and the second by language comprehension ability.

If the person cannot decode the words on the page, she will not be able to

achieve reading comprehension, no matter how much oral language she can

understand. Even if the person can decode the words on the page, that in and

of itself is still no guarantee of reading comprehension (as Hirsch discovered

in his experiments). If the sentences the person is attempting to read are

sentences she could not understand if they were read aloud to her, then there

is not much hope that she will understand them during independent reading.

Supporters of the simple view—and there are a growing number of them

among reading researchers—argue that a person’s reading comprehension

ability can be predicted, with a high degree of accuracy, based on two basic

measures. The  rst is a measure of decoding skills, e.g., a test of single-

word reading or pseudoword reading. The second is a measure of listening

comprehension. Researchers who hold to the simple view say, “Tell me a

person’s decoding ability, as ascertained by a word-reading task, and tell me

that person’s language comprehension ability, as ascertained by a listening

comprehension task, and I can make a very accurate prediction of that

person’s reading comprehension ability.” If the person is a rapid and accurate

80 Unit 1 | Appendix A

decoder and also able to understand a wide range of oral language—for

instance, classroom presentations, news items on the radio or TV, books on

tape, etc.—then it is a safe bet the person will also do well on tests of reading

comprehension.

An interesting thing about the simple view of reading is that it can be expressed

as an equation:

R = D x C

In this equation, each of the letters is a variable that stands for a specific skill:

R is a measure of reading comprehension ability.

D is a measure of decoding skills.

C is a measure of language comprehension ability as measured using a listening

task.

Each of these skills can be quanti ed as a numerical value between 0 and 1,

where zero stands for no ability whatsoever and 1 stands for perfect, not-to-

be-improved-upon ability. Obviously most people have a skill level that falls

somewhere between these two extremes.

The equation says that if you have some decoding ability (D > 0) and you

also have some language comprehension ability (C > 0), you will probably

also have some reading comprehension ability (R > 0). How much reading

comprehension ability you have will depend on the exact values of D and C.

What does it mean to have no decoding ability (D = 0)? It means you cannot

turn printed words back into spoken words. A person who cannot decode

letters on a page cannot read. The person is illiterate.

What does it mean to have no language comprehension ability (C = 0)? Basically,

it means you do not know the language, and you cannot understand any of it

when you hear other people speaking or reading aloud in that language.

John Milton

It is not very common for a person to have decoding ability (D > 0) but not

language comprehension ability (C = 0). Why would you learn to read and write

a language you cannot understand? It does happen. One famous example

involves the English poet John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost and other

well-known poems. Milton went blind late in life. Since Braille had not yet been

invented, this meant he could not read for himself. Nevertheless, Milton found

a way to keep learning from books: he had friends and relatives read the books

aloud for him. However, he was not always able to  nd a scholar who had the

free time and the ability needed to read to him in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and

other ancient languages. The solution? Milton taught his daughters to decode

these languages so they could read books in those languages aloud to him.

Milton did not teach his daughters the actual languages—the thousands of

words and tens of thousands of meanings. That would have been a dif cult,

time-consuming task. He only taught them the rules they would need to turn

letters into sounds. Thus, his daughters acquired solid decoding skills for

Unit 1 | Appendix A 81

these languages (D > 0), but they would have scored a zero on any measure

of language comprehension (C = 0). They could turn symbols into sounds, but

they had no idea what the sounds meant. Milton, on the other hand, due to

his blindness, had no functional decoding skills (D = 0). However, by virtue of

his great learning, he was able to understand Hebrew, Latin, and Greek when

they were read aloud to him (C > 0). Between Milton and his daughters, you

might say, there was reading comprehension (R), but the younger generation

brought the decoding skills (D) and the elderly poet brought the language

comprehension (C).

The Milton example is an unusual one, but it is possible to give a less unusual

one. A decent teacher can teach you to decode Russian letters (or the letters

used in many other writing systems) in the course of a couple days of intensive

work. Since you already know a lot about reading, all you would need to learn

is which sound values the unfamiliar letters stand for. Once you learned that,

you would be able to sound out most of the words in the language, but nobody

would claim that you are reading Russian. You would have some rudimentary

decoding skills (D > 0), but you would be lacking language comprehension (C =

0). You would be able to pronounce words, but you would not be able to make

sense of them. Essentially, you would be doing what Milton’s daughters did.

How These Ideas Inform This Program

Although this may seem very abstract and theoretical, there are two ideas

here that are very important for reading instruction and for understanding this

program. The  rst important idea is that reading comprehension depends

crucially on both decoding skills (D) and language comprehension ability

(C); the second is that language comprehension ability takes much longer to

acquire than decoding skills.

Milton chose to teach his daughters decoding skills because he could teach

those relatively quickly. It would have taken him much, much longer to build up

their language comprehension abilities. Likewise, in the hypothetical example

just given, a decent teacher could teach you to decode Russian print in a

few days of intensive instruction, but he or she would need to keep working

with you for many weeks—possibly even many years—to teach you enough

Russian words and phrases to understand a movie, make sense of a radio

report, or read a short story.

You are facing a similar situation as a teacher in the early grades. You want your

students to learn to read. A crucial  rst step is to teach them decoding skills.

Strong decoding skills can be taught to most young children over the course of

Grades K–2. It takes longer to teach decoding skills to young children who are

learning to read for the  rst time than it does to teach the same skills to adults

who have already learned to read in another language, and it takes longer to

teach decoding skills in English-speaking countries because English spelling is

rather complex; but even so, most students can acquire basic decoding ability

in the early grades. The children will continue to automatize their decoding

skills, learn new spelling patterns, and build  uency for many more years, but the

basics can be taught in Grades K–2.

82 Unit 1 | Appendix A

That is not the case with language comprehension ability. It is going to take

you and your school system a long time to build up your students’ language

comprehension ability because this is not a job you can accomplish in the course

of a single school year. Rather, language comprehension ability is acquired over

many years. Your students began to develop a rudimentary ability to understand

language even before they could speak and continued to increase their language

comprehension abilities throughout the preschool years. They will make even

more gains in your classroom and the classrooms they join after yours. With each

new sentence they read or hear, and each new subject they study in school,

they will be building up background knowledge, vocabulary, and cultural literacy,

and thus increasing the range of materials they are equipped to understand;  rst

orally and later via reading. The more you teach them and the more you expose

them to, the more they will be able to understand. It takes a long time to build

up the vocabulary and knowledge needed to make sense of most stories in a

newspaper or magazine, but this buildup is crucial for your students’ reading

abilities: for no matter how good their decoding skills may be, they will not

understand what they read unless they have the language comprehension ability

to make sense of the words they decode.

The Core Knowledge Language Arts program includes two strands of

instruction, and these strands correspond with the elements of reading

isolated in the simple view of reading. The Skills Strand is meant to build

students’ decoding skills (D), while the Listening & Learning Strand is meant

to build students’ language comprehension ability (C) by exposing them to

vocabulary, concepts, and ideas through frequent reading aloud. It is important

to understand that both strands are crucial for reading comprehension in later

grades. You may feel the decoding skills taught in the Skills Strand are more

important to teach in the early grades, and certainly this is the area where you

can expect to have the most immediate impact, but it is important that you

not neglect language comprehension ability. Remember, it takes many years

to build up enough vocabulary and general knowledge to understand a wide

range of printed materials. The building of background knowledge needs to

begin in Kindergarten (if not before) and continue throughout the elementary

and middle school years.

If students are not building their language comprehension ability in the early

grades, their reading scores are likely to begin to begin to fall off in Grade 4

and later. This has been called the “fourth-grade slump,” and it occurs because

material assessed on reading tests changes over time. As students progress

through the grades, test questions focus less on rudimentary decoding skills

and more on comprehension—and comprehension depends on having suf cient

vocabulary, background knowledge, and cultural literacy to understand the

words you are decoding. Thus, the importance of language comprehension

ability increases with time. A weakness in this area may not show up on tests in

early grades, but it will show up in later elementary grades.

This has been well documented in research. In one very interesting study,

researchers at the University of Kansas looked at measurements of

reading comprehension (R), decoding/word recognition (D), and listening

Unit 1 | Appendix A 83

comprehension (C) for the same 570 students in second, fourth, and eighth

grade. They found the two factors D and C accurately predicted R in each

grade, but that C became more important, in the sense that it explained more

of the variation among students over time. The measure of decoding (D) was

extremely important in the second-grade results. Twenty-seven percent of the

variance in reading comprehension in second grade could be explained by

decoding skills (D) alone. Only 9 percent of the variance could be explained by

listening comprehension (C) alone. By fourth grade, however, the measure of

listening comprehension had begun to account for more variance: the unique

contribution of C rose to 21 percent while the equivalent number for D fell. By

eighth grade, fully 36 percent of the variance in reading comprehension scores

could be explained with reference to the children’s listening comprehension

ability. The unique contribution of D sank even further. In other words, while

reading comprehension depended on D and C at every stage, as the simple

view would predict, C explained more and more of the variation among

students as time went by. What this tells us is that, once the intricacies

of decoding are mastered (and in English this takes some time), reading

comprehension depends more and more heavily on language comprehension.

Language comprehension depends on background knowledge, vocabulary,

and cultural literacy.

If you understand Hirsch’s insight into the importance of background

knowledge, and you understand the simple view of reading, you can

understand why this program has two strands of instruction, and why both

strands are very important. The next several sections of this appendix will tell

you about the Skills Strand of CKLA.

Two Misconceptions About Reading and Writing

The Skills Strand of CKLA teaches the mechanics of both reading and writing.

It is based on the most current research on reading and writing, but at the

same time it has been written in opposition to some ideas that have been very

in uential in elementary education in recent decades. Two of those ideas are:

• Learning to read and write is natural.

• Learning to read and write is easy.

Both of these ideas have great emotional appeal. Unfortunately, both of them

are wrong.

Learning to Read and Write is Not Natural

Many scholars have argued that spoken language is natural for human

beings. The cognitive scientist Stephen Pinker, for example, has argued that

human beings have a language instinct, meaning that humans are born with

an innate capacity for learning language. This may turn out to be true. It is at

least a plausible theory since historians, linguists, and anthropologists have

never found a human culture that does not use language. When something is

universal, it may turn out to be natural.

84 Unit 1 | Appendix A

What is true of oral language is not necessarily true of written language. In fact,

with written language, we know we are dealing with something that is not natural

or innate because we know when and where writing was invented, and we

know that, even today, not all languages have a system of writing. There are still

hundreds of languages in the world that are spoken, but not written or read.

Ten thousand years ago this was the norm, rather than an exception. At that

time, there were probably no human beings who knew how to read or write.

According to the linguist Florian Coulmas, the idea of writing down language

was probably developed independently by three ancient cultures: the Egyptians,

the Phoenicians, and the Chinese. Each used a slightly different system, and the

mechanisms these pioneers developed for recording speech then spread from

one culture to another, evolving as they went. If these initial inventors had not

come up with schemes for writing down speech, we might all be illiterate today.

Writing is many things. It is an art that can be taught and learned. It is an

invention—one of the greatest inventions in human history. It is a technology

enabling us to do things we could not do without it—a technology every bit as

exciting and amazing as airplane  ight or electric power. But it is not natural.

The same is true of reading, which is simply the process of unpacking, or

decoding, what somebody else has written.

Reading and writing are both highly artiﬁ cial. We tend to recoil at that word. We

have internalized the idea that natural is good and artiﬁ cial is bad. Therefore,

we think, reading must be natural. In fact, as the reading researcher Philip

Gough has written, reading is a highly unnatural act.

The  rst step toward good reading and writing instruction is to understand that

reading and writing are artiﬁ cial—but not necessarily in a bad sense. We need

to remind ourselves the word artiﬁ cial derives from the word art. To say reading

and writing are forms of art that had to be invented and need to be taught to

children does not make reading and writing any less wonderful or important.

On the contrary, it makes these things more wonderful and precious, and it

also emphasizes the importance of your job as a teacher. There is no job more

important than teaching young children the magni cent, valuable, and highly

unnatural arts of reading and writing.

Learning to Read and Write is Not Easy

The second idea noted earlier, that learning to read and write is easy, is also

mistaken. Reading and writing are complex behaviors, and they are more

complex in English than in many other languages because English has a

fairly complicated spelling system. In Spanish, for example, the relationships

between letters and sounds are mostly one to one, meaning each sound is

usually written with one spelling, and each spelling unit is usually pronounced

one way. This is not the case in English. In order to read and write English with

a high degree of accuracy, there is quite a lot that students need to learn.

As a way of demonstrating the complexity involved in learning to read and write

in English, suppose we attempted to list all of the discrete bits of information

a person needs to know in order to be able to read and write in English. As a

Unit 1 | Appendix A 85

starting point, we might begin with the 26 letters and argue that these are the

26 things one really needs to learn to read and write English. However, for each

letter, one eventually needs to learn not only the letter shape but also the letter

name (in order to be able to read abbreviations and initials). So that is 52 bits of

information.

That is a good start, but we must not stop there. In English, all letters can be

written in uppercase and lowercase forms, and the uppercase forms are not

always the same as the lowercase forms. Compare B to b, D to d, H to h, R to

r, Q to q. At least 16 uppercase letters have a slightly different form than the

matching lowercase letters. So we must raise our estimate of the complexity of

the English writing system to 68 bits of information.

We are not done yet. Students must also know the 44 sounds these letters

stand for. That raises our estimate of the complexity to 112.

If there were a simple one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds, that

might be a fairly good estimate of the complexity of the code. Unfortunately,

the relationships between sounds and letters in English are quite complicated.

The 44 sounds of English can be spelled many different ways. In our work on

this program we have identi ed 150 spellings that are frequent enough to be

worth teaching in the early grades. That boosts our estimate of the complexity

of the code to 262.

In addition, students need to learn to track from left to right, to blend sounds

into words (when reading), and segment words into sounds (when writing and

spelling). They need to learn a handful of symbols used in writing, including

the period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, quotation mark, and

apostrophe. That raises our estimate of code complexity to about 270 bits of

information.

We could boost the estimate even higher by adding Tricky Words and unusual

spellings or by pointing out that there are many letters in English that can be

pronounced different ways. We could also point out that reading a word like

thin requires the students to group the  rst two letters and attach them to one

sound, and reading a word like cake requires students to scan ahead, see the

‘e’, and realize it controls the pronunciation of the ‘a’ earlier.

Even without these additions it is clear that the English writing system is quite

complicated.

The Problem with Whole Language

On a conservative estimate, there are 270 bits of knowledge a person needs

to be able to read and write English. It is unwise to ask students to tackle all

of this complexity at once and hope they will  gure it out. Yet that is precisely

what is done in so-called “Whole Language” approaches. Whole Language

instruction is based on the assumption that learning to read is natural, and

not dif cult, so reading skills can be allowed to develop gradually, without

much explicit instruction. Lots of students in Whole Language classrooms

do manage to  gure out the English writing system, but many others do not.

86 Unit 1 | Appendix A

Whole Language ideas have tremendous emotional appeal, but the Whole

Language approach is actually a recipe for leaving many children behind. It is

an especially risky strategy for disadvantaged children.

A much better strategy is to introduce the English spelling code explicitly,

beginning with the easiest, least ambiguous, and most frequently used parts of

the code and then adding complexity gradually. That is the central strategy on

which this program is based.

The strategy adopted in this program is the same strategy that successful

coaches use when teaching children a sport such as tennis. The successful

coach does not ask students to learn “Whole Tennis” and soak up the

necessary skills all at once by trying to hit all different kinds of shots the  rst

day on the court. Instead, the successful coach teaches the student to hit a

forehand ground stroke and provides lots of practice hitting forehands. Then

the coach moves on to teach a backhand ground stroke, then a forehand

volley, then a backhand volley, then a serve, then an overhead smash, then a

drop shot, etc. With each element taught, the student becomes a stronger and

more complete player. In the same way, this program begins by teaching the

most common and least ambiguous spellings for sounds and then moves on to

introduce the more complex parts of the writing system.

Key Aspects of the Skills Strand

Some key aspects of the Skills Strand of CKLA are listed below.

• CKLA teaches reading and writing in tandem, since they are inverse processes.

English writing involves making pictures of sounds; reading involves translating

those pictures back into sounds and blending the sounds to make words.

• CKLA rejects the Whole Language notion that exposure to rich language and

lots of environmental print is suf cient to ensure mastery of the writing system.

• CKLA explicitly teaches letter-sound correspondences as opposed to leaving

students to  gure these out on their own or deduce them by analyzing familiar

whole words (as in some forms of “analytic” phonics).

• CKLA focuses on sounds, or phonemes, as the primary organizing principle of

the program, rather than letters.

• CKLA includes phonics instruction, but the instruction differs from the phonics

usually taught in the United States in that it begins with sounds and then

attaches those sounds to spellings. In a typical phonics lesson in the United

States, the teacher writes the letter ‘m’ on the board and says, “This is the letter

‘em’. It says /m/.” As a teacher using this program, you will be asked to present

your lessons in a different way. You will be asked to begin with the sound. At the

beginning of the lesson you will tell the class: “Today’s sound is /m/.” You will

lead the class in some engaging oral language exercises that will allow students

to say and hear the sound /m/. Once students are familiar with the sound, you

will show them how to draw a “picture of the sound.” You will write the letter ‘m’

on the board and explain that this is how we make a picture of the /m/ sound.

Unit 1 | Appendix A 87

• CKLA focuses consistently on the phoneme, or single sound, and not on larger

units; students learn to read words that contain onsets, rimes, and consonant

clusters, but they learn to view and process these larger units as combinations

of smaller phoneme-level units. Rimes like –ick and initial clusters like st– are

not taught as units but as combinations.

• CKLA uses a synthetic phonics approach that teaches students to read by

blending through the whole word; it does not teach multiple cueing strategies,

use of pictures as a primary resource in decoding, or part-word guessing.

• CKLA begins by teaching the most common or least ambiguous spelling for a

sound (the basic code spelling); later it teaches spelling alternatives for sounds

that can be spelled several different ways. Thus, the system is kept simple

at  rst and complexity is added bit by bit as students gain con dence and

automatize their reading and writing skills.

• CKLA includes words, phrases, and stories for students to read and

worksheets for them to complete that allow for focused, distributed practice

working with the letter-sound correspondences students have been taught.

• CKLA does not require students to read words that go beyond the letter-sound

correspondences they have been taught. In other words, all words students

are asked to read as part of the program are decodable, either because

they are composed entirely of letter-sound correspondences students have

been taught or because they are Tricky Words that have been taught. This

means students have a chance to begin reading words and stories that are

completely decodable before tackling words and stories that are full of spelling

alternatives.

• CKLA does not require students to write words that go beyond the letter-

sound correspondences they have been taught. In other words, students are

only asked to write words that can be spelled (at least plausibly if not always

correctly) using the code knowledge they have been taught.

• CKLA avoids Tricky Words and exception words in the  rst part of

Kindergarten, preferring to have students learn to read and write with regular

words that can be blended and spelled in accordance with the letter-sound

correspondences taught.

• CKLA avoids letter names in the early lessons of Kindergarten, because what is

important for reading is not the letter name but the sound value the letter stands

for. To read the word cat, it is essential to know /k/ /a/ /t/, not “see aay tee.”

• CKLA teaches lowercase letters  rst and introduces the uppercase letters later.

88 Unit 1 | Appendix B

Appendix B: Kindergarten Scope and Sequence

Scope and Sequence of Kindergarten Skills Instruction

The Skills Strand for Kindergarten is divided into 10 units. In the course of

these 10 units you will introduce 10 vowel sounds and 25 consonant sounds

and teach students the most common, or least ambiguous, spelling for each

sound. You will teach students to read words by blending through the word and

to spell words by segmenting them into sounds and writing a spelling for each

sound. You will lead the class in various chaining exercises that help build word

decoding skills and supervise the completion of worksheets. Once students’

word reading skills are strong, you will introduce them to book reading. In the

later units you will introduce a handful of high-frequency Tricky Words that do

not play by the rules.

Although the main focus in Kindergarten is to teach blending and the basic

code, you will also introduce a small number of spelling alternatives—the ‘c’, ‘k’,

and ‘ck’ spellings for /k/ (cat, kit, black), the ‘s’ spelling for /z/ (is, has, dogs), a

number of double-letter spellings for consonant sounds (dress, sell, stuff), and a

few spellings for /d/ and /t/ in past-tense words (played, walked). We think you

will be pleasantly surprised by how well your Kindergarten students are reading

by the end of the year. This was a reaction we encountered many times when

these materials were  rst piloted between 2007 and 2010.

The  rst two units set the stage for the eight that follow. In these two units you

will teach students to hear words and phonemes in words. You will also teach

students to hold a writing utensil (initially a crayon) and make marks on paper.

The oral language and handwriting skills are presented separately in Units 1 and

2, but these two streams of instruction are combined beginning in Unit 3 when

the students begin to use handwriting skills to make pictures of sounds (letters).

In Unit 3, you will introduce eight sounds, and a single-letter spelling for each

sound, e.g., /m/ spelled ‘m’, /a/ spelled ‘a’, /t/ spelled ‘t’, etc. Students will learn

to read and spell two- and three-letter words that can be constructed using

these eight spellings. More sounds and single-letter spellings are introduced in

Units 4 and 5. Students continue to read, spell, copy, and write words that can

be made with the spellings they have learned.

The  rst story is presented in Big Book form at the end of Unit 4. There is another

Big Book in Unit 5. By Unit 6, the students will be reading stories in Readers.

As you move through the sequence, students will learn more sounds and

spellings and will begin to blend and read longer words. In Unit 6, they will

learn to read consonant clusters in words like spot and desk; they will also

learn the letter names. In Unit 7, they will learn consonant sounds written with

digraphs like the ‘ch’ spelling for the /ch/ sound. In Unit 8, the  rst Tricky Words

are introduced. More high-frequency Tricky Words are taught in Unit 9. Unit 10

covers the “long” vowel sounds, each with its basic code spelling. The outline

below gives a more detailed breakdown of what is covered in each unit.

Unit 1 | Appendix B 89

Much of the instruction in the early units of Kindergarten is whole-group

instruction. However, if some members of the class begin to fall behind, you

may need to supplement the whole-group instruction and add one to three

small-group sessions per week.

Unit 1

• phonological awareness (hearing environmental sounds, hearing words in

phrases and sentences)

• prewriting skills (tripod grip, lines, circles, etc.)

Unit 2

• phonemic awareness (hearing sounds in words)

• oral blending of sounds, e.g., given /f/ . . . /i/ . . . /sh/, the student can blend the

sounds to make the word ﬁ sh

• prewriting skills

Unit 3

•  rst letter-sound correspondences: /m/ spelled ‘m’, /a/ spelled ‘a’, /t/ spelled

‘t’, /d/ spelled ‘d’, /o/ spelled ‘o’, /k/ spelled ‘c’, /g/ spelled ‘g’, and /i/ spelled ‘i’

• reading and writing one-syllable words containing up to three letters (VC and

CVC words)

• word-building and chaining exercises

Unit 4

• more letter-sound correspondences: /n/ spelled ‘n’, /h/ spelled ‘h’, /s/ spelled

‘s’, /f/ spelled ‘f’, /v/ spelled ‘v’, /z/ spelled ‘z’, /p/ spelled ‘p’, and /e/ spelled ‘e’

• reading and writing one-syllable words containing up to three letters (VC and

CVC words)

• reading short phrases

•  rst story (a phrase story in Big Book format)

• word-building and chaining exercises

• dictation exercises

Unit 5

• more letter sound-correspondences: /b/ spelled ‘b’, /l/ spelled ‘l’, /r/ spelled ‘r’,

/u/ spelled ‘u’, /w/ spelled ‘w’, /j/ spelled ‘j’, /y/ spelled ‘y’, /x/ spelled ‘x’, and

/k/ spelled ‘k’

• reading and writing one-syllable words containing up to three letters (VC and

CVC words)

• reading short phrases and sentences beginning with uppercase letters that

look like the lowercase letters (C, F, K, M, O, P, S, T, U, V, W, X, Z)

• reading stories (a Big Book)

90 Unit 1 | Appendix B

• introduce punctuation (period)

• word-building and chaining exercises

• dictation exercises

Unit 6

• initial and  nal consonant clusters (e.g., clip and task)

• reading and writing one-syllable words containing up to  ve letters (CVCC,

CCVC, CCVCC)

• /z/ spelled ‘s’; plural words ending in the letter ‘s’ sounded /s/ or /z/

• letter names and “The Alphabet Song”

• punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, apostrophe,

quotation marks)

• reading decodable stories

Unit 7

• consonant sounds spelled with digraphs: /ch/ spelled ‘ch’, /sh/ spelled ‘sh’,

/th/ spelled ‘th’, /th/ spelled ‘th’, /qu/ spelled ‘qu’, and /ng/ spelled ‘ng’

• reading and writing one-syllable words containing up to seven letters

• reading decodable stories

Unit 8

• the Tricky Words the, a, of, all, one, from, and was

• double-letter spellings for consonant sounds: /b/ spelled ‘bb’, /d/ spelled

‘dd’, /f/ spelled ‘ff’, /g/ spelled ‘gg’, /k/ spelled ‘cc’ and ‘ck’, /l/ spelled ‘ll’, /m/

spelled ‘mm’, /n/ spelled ‘nn’, /p/ spelled ‘pp’, /r/ spelled ‘rr’, /s/ spelled ‘ss’, /t/

spelled ‘tt’, and /z/ spelled ‘zz’

• reading decodable stories

Unit 9

• the Tricky Words word, to, I, no, when, where, why, what, which, so, once, said,

says, are, were, here, and there

• uppercase letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V,

W, X, Y, and Z)

• reading decodable stories

• answering questions about stories in written form

Unit 1 | Appendix C 91

Unit 10

• letter-sound correspondences for the e-controlled vowels: /ee/ spelled ‘ee’,

/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’, /ie/ spelled ‘i_e’, /oe/ spelled ‘o_e’, and /ue/ spelled ‘u_e’

• the Tricky Words he, she, we, be, me, they, their, my, by, you, and your

• reading decodable stories

• answering questions about stories in written form

• Units 1–10 Comprehensive Student Performance Task Assessments

Appendix C: Components of Program

Components

The components for the Skills Strand for Kindergarten are as follows:

Teacher Guides

Kindergarten

Teacher Guide

Kindergarten

Unit 6 Reader

Kindergarten

Workbook

• The Teacher Guides outline the lessons. There is one Teacher Guide for each

unit.

Workbooks

• The Workbooks contain worksheets for students to complete as part of the

lessons. There is one Workbook for each unit. When it is possible to include

100% decodable instructions, they are printed on the top of the worksheet.

When it is not possible to do this, family member/teacher instructions are

printed vertically along the left side. Each student should have a Workbook.

Readers

• The Readers contain 100% decodable texts for students to read in Units 6–10.

There is a Reader for each of the units listed, and new spellings taught in the

unit are printed in bold throughout the Reader to help students master new

material. The last few stories in each Reader are stories for the Pausing Point,

which can be either assigned or omitted depending on the needs of students

in the class. Ideally, each student should have his or her own Reader. The

Workbooks include take-home copies of each story for further practice.

Big Books

• The Big Books are exact replicas of the readers, but larger. They can be used

for “demonstration stories” as you model reading for students. In Kindergarten,

the stories for Units 4 and 5 are available only in Big Books. The stories for

Units 6, 7, and 8 are available in both Readers and Big Books.

92 Unit 1 | Appendix C

Media Disks

• The Media Disks allow you to present a Skills story as a demonstration story,

using a computer and a projector or a Smartboard, instead of the Big Book.

Using projection allows for much larger images and print size, but it requires

some equipment. If you wish to use the media disk, you will need a computer

with at least a 19-inch monitor, or a projector system, or a Smartboard. You can

use either the Big Book or the Media Disk to present a demonstration story.

Only a few Readers will be made available as Big Books; all of the Readers will

be available on the Media Disks. In other words, if you want to present a story

as a demonstration story, and there is no Big Book for your unit, you will need

to use a computer projection system, or copy the story onto transparencies for

display with an overhead projector.

Pocket Chart

Large Cards

Sound Poster with

Sound Card affixed

• We expect that you have or can obtain a pocket chart for use in chaining

exercises. We ask that you make letter cards out of index cards and use the

cards to build words on the chart.

Large Cards

• This set of cards is used for teaching and reviewing sounds and spellings,

especially during the Large Card Chaining exercise. The cards are used

throughout Kindergarten.

Mirrors

• Handheld mirrors allow students to see the shape of the mouth when a sound

is produced. We expect that you have or can obtain a small handheld mirror for

each student in your class.

Sound Posters

• The Sound Posters allow you to display code knowledge on the walls of your

classroom as it is taught. When a sound is taught for the  rst time, the Teacher Guide

will prompt you to mount the poster for that sound on the wall of the classroom,

along with the Sound Card representing the basic code spelling, e.g., the ‘m’ spelling

for /m/. The Teacher Guide will also prompt you to post the Sound Cards for spelling

alternatives when they are taught. We suggest you post the vowel posters on one

wall and the consonant posters on another to emphasize the differences between

these two categories of sounds. The Sound Posters will be very useful for students

as they begin to spell words on their own. If they are not sure how to spell the /k/

sound, they can look at the posters,  nd /k/ and see that four possibilities are ‘c’ as

in cat, ‘k’ as in kid, ‘cc’ as in soccer, and ‘ck’ as in clock.

Chaining Folders

• Students use these folders to practice building words with Small Cards. The

folders are used whenever the Teacher Guide calls for the Student Chaining or

the Chain and Copy exercises. During Student Chaining you call out words and

students arrange letter cards on their Chaining Folders to spell the words. Each

student should have his or her own folder. The folder has pockets so the Small

Cards can be stored between lessons.

Unit 1 | Appendix C 93

Small Cards

• These cards are to be used in tandem with the Chaining Folders just described.

We suggest you keep the cards in envelopes or in an organizer or caddy. As

new sounds and spellings are introduced, you can either distribute Small

Cards for students to use during Student Chaining exercises, or change the

cards before the lessons. Students will store their cards in the pockets of their

Chaining Folders between lessons.

Assessment and Remediation Guide

• This resource guide consists of both assessment and remediation materials that

go beyond the Pausing Point materials typically included at the end of each unit.

The URL for the Assessment and Remediation Guide is given in the introduction

of each unit. Selected materials may be printed and used for reteaching and/or

additional practice for students who are experiencing dif culty.

Students using chaining folders

Lesson Structure

The lessons in the program are laid out in the Teacher Guides.

Each lesson begins with an Objectives header. This speci es the sounds,

spellings, Tricky Words, and/or concepts students are expected to learn during

the lesson. The focus here is generally on new letter-sound correspondences

and new Tricky Words.

The At a Glance Chart gives an overview of the lesson. This chart lists the

name of each exercise in the lesson along with the materials needed to teach

that exercise and the time allotted to each exercise.

94 Unit 1 | Appendix C

The remainder of the lesson plan is devoted to a detailed description of the

procedures for each of the exercises listed in the At a Glance chart.

Those exercises that represent good opportunities for assessment are marked

with a Tens icon. For more on the Tens system of assessment, see the next

section.



Tens Scores

In order to identify struggling students and keep track of student progress, we

recommend you use the Tens system of assessment.

With the Tens system of assessment, raw scores are converted to numbers

between 0 and 10 using the Tens Conversion Chart (printed in Teacher

Resources section). To use the chart to determine a student’s Tens score,  rst

locate the number of answers the student answered correctly (along the top

of the chart) and then locate the number of “test items” (along the left side of

the chart). Next,  nd the square where the column with the correct number

of answers and the row with the number of items meet. This square contains

the student’s Tens score. By using the Tens Conversion Chart, you can easily

convert any raw score, from 0 to 30, into a Tens score.

You may wish to record the students’ Tens scores on the Tens Recording

Chart (printed on the page after the Tens Conversion Chart). To do this, list

the students’ names in the  rst row and the various exercises in each column.

Record a student’s Tens score for a particular exercise in the square where the

column with the student’s name and the row with the exercise meet.

Once you have recorded a number of Tens scores, it will be very easy to get an

overview of student progress because all of the scores are comparable.

We hope you will calculate Tens scores for students each time you encounter

an exercise marked with a Tens icon. Note that many exercises not marked

with a Tens icon are also suitable for calculating Tens scores.

If a student appears to be doing poorly, your  rst course of action should be

to provide the student with more support, either during the regular period of

instruction or during a small-group session. Often this will be enough to get

the student back on track. If a student continues to post low Tens scores

for a longer period of time, despite additional instruction, please refer to the

Assessment and Remediation Guide.

To Learn More

To learn more about the program, visit the website:

www.coreknowledge.org/reading

To learn more about sounds, spellings, and the general approach to reading

instruction used here, we highly recommend that you read and study Diane

McGuinness, Why Our Children Can’t Read.

Unit 1 | Teacher Resources 95

Teacher Resources

96 Unit 1 | Teacher Resources

Assessments

There are many opportunities for informal assessment throughout each

Skills unit. You may choose to assign a given workbook page for individual,

independent completion to use as an assessment. It may be useful to use the

Tens Conversion Chart and the Tens Recording Chart to collect and analyze

all assessment data.

Tens Conversion Chart

Number Correct

01234567891011121314151617181920

Number of Questions

1010

20 510

30 3 710

4035810

50246810

602357810

7013467910

80134568910

901234678910

10012345678910

110123455678910

1201233456788910

13012234556788910

140112344566789910

1501123345567789910

16011233445667889910

170112234456677889910

1801122334456677889910

19011223344556677889910

2001122334455667788991010

Simply  nd the number of correct answers along the top of the chart and the

total number of questions on the worksheet or activity along the left side.

Then  nd the cell where the column and the row converge. This indicates

the Tens score. By using the Tens Conversion Chart, you can easily convert

any raw score, from 0 to 20, into a Tens score. You may choose to use the

Tens Recording Chart following to provide an at-a-glance overview of student

performance.

Unit 1 | Teacher Resources 97

Tens Recording Chart

Use the following grid to record students’ Tens scores. Refer to the previous page

for the Tens Conversion Chart.

Name

98 Unit 1 | Workbook Answer Key

Name

Unit 1 35

9.1

Directions: For each sentence, ask students to circle one cube for each word in the sentence read aloud.

Unit 1 41

10.1

Name

Directions: Ask students to copy each item.

Part One

42 Unit 1

Directions: Ask students to color the box on the left green, the box on the right red, the top box yellow, the middle box orange,

and the bottom box blue.

Part A, Writing Strokes Score: _____

Part B, Position Words Score: _____

Part Two

Yellow

Green

Orange

Red

Blue

Unit 1 43

10.2

Name

Part Three

Part C, Word Discrimination Score: _____

Directions: For each sentence, ask students to circle one cube for each word in the sentence read aloud.

Unit 1 | Workbook Answer Key 99

Unit 1 47

PP1

Name

Directions: Ask students to color the left hand green and the right hand red. Students may decorate the hands (optional).

Green

Red

Unit 1 | Acknowledgments 101

CORE KNOWLEDGE LANGUAGE ARTS

SERIES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

PRESIDENT

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EDITORIAL STAFF

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Diane Auger Smith

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DESIGN AND GRAPHICS STAFF

Scott Ritchie, Creative Director

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CONSULTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SERVICES

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ADDITIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These materials are the result of the work, advice, and encouragement of numerous individuals over many years. Some of those singled out here already

know the depth of our gratitude; others may be surprised to  nd themselves thanked publicly for help they gave quietly and generously for the sake of

the enterprise alone. To helpers named and unnamed we are deeply grateful.

CONTRIBUTORS TO EARLIER VERSIONS OF THESE MATERIALS

Susan B. Albaugh, Kazuko Ashizawa, Nancy Braier, Kathryn M. Cummings, Michelle De Groot, Diana Espinal, Mary E. Forbes, Michael L. Ford,

TedHirsch, DanielleKnecht, James K. Lee, DianeHenryLeipzig, MarthaG.Mack, Liana Mahoney, Isabel McLean, Steve Morrison, Juliane K. Munson,

ElizabethB.Rasmussen, Laura Tortorelli, RachaelL.Shaw, SivanB.Sherman, Miriam E. Vidaver, Catherine S. Whittington, JeannetteA. Williams

We would like to extend special recognition to Program Directors Matthew Davis and Souzanne Wright who were instrumental to the early

development of this program.

SCHOOLS

We are truly grateful to the teachers, students, and administrators of the following schools for their willingness to  eld test these materials and for

their invaluable advice: Capitol View Elementary, Challenge Foundation Academy (IN), Community Academy Public Charter School, Lake Lure Classical

Academy, Lepanto Elementary School, New Holland Core Knowledge Academy, Paramount School of Excellence, Pioneer Challenge Foundation

Academy, New York City PS 26R (The Carteret School), PS 30X (Wilton School), PS 50X (Clara Barton School), PS 96Q, PS 102X (Joseph O. Loretan),

PS104Q (The Bays Water), PS 214K (Michael Friedsam), PS 223Q (Lyndon B. Johnson School), PS 308K (Clara Cardwell), PS 333Q (Goldie Maple Academy),

Sequoyah Elementary School, South Shore Charter Public School, Spartanburg Charter School, Steed Elementary School, Thomas Je erson Classical

Academy, Three Oaks Elementary, West Manor Elementary.

And a special thanks to the CKLA Pilot Coordinators Anita Henderson, Yasmin Lugo-Hernandez, and Susan Smith, whose suggestions and day-to-day

support to teachers using these materials in their classrooms was critical.

102 Unit 1 | Acknowledgments

CREDITS

Every e ort has been taken to trace and acknowledge copyrights. The editors tender their apologies for any accidental infringement where

copyright has proved untraceable. They would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgment in any subsequent edition of this

publication. Trademarks and trade names are shown in this publication for illustrative purposes only and are the property of their respective

owners. The references to trademarks and trade names given herein do not a ect their validity.

All photographs are used under license from Shutterstock, Inc. unless otherwise noted.

ILLUSTRATORS AND IMAGE SOURCES

17: Core Knowledge Staff; 20: Core Knowledge Staff; 21: Core Knowledge Staff; 22: Shutterstock; 26: Core Knowledge Staff; 27: Shutterstock; 34: Core

Knowledge Staff; 35: Shutterstock; 38: Shutterstock; 39: Shutterstock; 48: Core Knowledge Staff; 50: Shutterstock; 53: Core Knowledge Staff; 54: Core

Knowledge Staff; 55: Shutterstock; 57: Shutterstock; 59: Shutterstock; 63: Shutterstock; 64: Shutterstock; 75: Shutterstock; 77: Shutterstock; 78: Photo

by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders; 79: Core Knowledge Staff; 80: public domain; 91 (top): Core Knowledge Staff; 91 (middle): Shutterstock; 91 (bottom):

Kristin Kwan; 92: Core Knowledge Staff; 93: Core Knowledge Staff

Regarding the Shutterstock items listed above, please note: No person or entity shall falsely represent, expressly or by way of reasonable

implication, that the content herein was created by that person or entity, or any person other than the copyright holder(s) of that content.

Unit 1

Teacher Guide

Skills Strand

KINDERGARTEN

The Core Knowledge Foundation