ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (0) 2 :

2. Actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge needed to be successful as they learn to read and, later, read to learn.

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5. With guidance and support, present information orally, using complete sentences in correct word order.

a. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

b. Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details in a story with three to five events.

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15. Orally read and reread grade-appropriate decodable texts smoothly, accurately, and expressively, at an appropriate rate to support comprehension.

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33. Express ideas orally and connect these ideas through drawing and emergent writing.

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R5. Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

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8. Apply previously-taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences to decodable words with accuracy and automaticity, in and out of context.

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33. Actively participate in shared writing experiences to compose and develop a well-organized paragraph with a topic sentence, details to support, and a concluding sentence.

Students take turns taking home a book bag that includes a stuffed toy, a book to read with their families, art supplies, a topic to discuss, and a journal to complete as a family. The students then return the bag the following day and share their entries with the class. After every student has taken the bag home, the journal is bound into a book for the classroom library. The teacher then selects a new topic and book to start a second rotation. The goal is to invite parents to join their children in these literacy activities.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (1) -5 :

R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

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8. Apply previously-taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences to decodable words with accuracy and automaticity, in and out of context.

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21. Identify the main topic and key details of literary and informational texts.

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23. Identify and describe the main story elements in a literary text.

a. Describe the characters and settings, using illustrations and textual evidence from a story.

b. Retell the plot or sequence of major events in chronological order.

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13. Read grade-appropriate poetry, noticing phrasing, rhythm, and rhyme.

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23. Identify the main story elements in a literary text.

a. Explain the plot of a narrative, using textual evidence to list the major events in sequence.

b. Describe the characters' traits, feelings, and behaviors in a story.

c. Describe the setting of a narrative, using textual evidence.

d. Identify the central message or moral of a story.

e. Identify the theme in myths, fables, and folktales.

Comprehension is an essential component of successful reading. Through modeling and progressive levels of independent work, students become aware of the importance of retelling and essential story elements. Students demonstrate their understanding of stories through the use of online interactive graphic organizers and present story elements of an individual book through a book talk.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (1) 2 :

2. Actively participate in shared reading experiences and collaborative discussions to build background knowledge and learn how oral reading should sound.

Examples: read-alouds, oral dramatic activities

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6. Demonstrate basic to advanced phonological and phonemic awareness skills in spoken words.

a. Count, blend, segment, and delete syllables in spoken words, including polysyllabic words.

Examples: par-ti-cu-lar, cer-ti-fi-cate

b. Recognize and produce groups of rhyming words and distinguish them from non-rhyming groups of spoken words.

c. Produce alliterative words.

d. Blend and segment phonemes in single-syllable spoken words made up of three to five phonemes, including words with consonant blends.

e. Add, delete, and substitute phonemes at the beginning or end of spoken words made up of three to five phonemes, and produce the resulting word.

Examples: pan to pant; flight to light; cat to cap

f. Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken, single-syllable words.

g. Distinguish between commonly-confused vowel sounds and commonly-confused cognate consonant sounds, using knowledge of mouth position, voiced and unvoiced sounds, and manner of articulation.

Examples: /f/ and /v/, /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /k/ and /g/, /m/ and /n/, /ng/ and /n/, /s/ and /z/, unvoiced /th/ and voiced /th/, /ch/ and /sh/, /ĕ/ and /ā/, /ĕ/ and /ă/

Note: This is extremely important as a foundational phonemic awareness skill for all learners.

h. Identify the sound substitution in words with five to six phonemes.

Example: strips/straps, square/squire

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8. Apply previously-taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences to decodable words with accuracy and automaticity, in and out of context.

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9. Read grade-appropriate texts with accuracy and fluency.

a. Read and reread grade-appropriate decodable text orally with accuracy and expression at an appropriate rate to support comprehension.

b. Recognize and self-correct decoding and other errors in word recognition and reread for clarification.

c. Participate in poetry reading, noticing phrasing, rhythm, and rhyme.

Example: Pause between stanzas and between lines where punctuation indicates.

In this lesson, shared reading, guided reading, and small, cooperative-group instruction are used in a first-grade classroom to informally assess students' ability to demonstrate awareness of rhyme or other visual similarities in words. Students practice matching rhyming words using picture cards and apply phonological awareness—hearing rhyme—to analogy-based phonics (i.e., an ability to decode unknown words by identifying words with similar visual structure). Students use online resources to increase phonological awareness through rhyme.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (0) 2 :

2. Actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge needed to be successful as they learn to read and, later, read to learn.

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19. Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words in discussions and/or text.

a. Describe the relationship between words, including relating them to synonyms and antonyms.

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R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

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3. Ask and answer questions to seek help, get information, or clarify information to confirm understanding in response to information presented in audible, text, or digital format.

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8. Apply previously-taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences to decodable words with accuracy and automaticity, in and out of context.

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12. Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words and phrases in discussions and/or text.

a. Identify possessives and plurals and use them as clues to the meaning of text.

Example: Jack's coat, mom's car; pigs, pig's, pigs'

b. Identify meaningful parts of words (morphemes) and use them as clues to the meaning of unknown words, including frequently occurring affixes and inflections -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, and -est.

Examples: Explain that adding suffix -s changes a singular noun to a plural noun and adding suffix -ed changes a verb to past tense.

c. Describe word relationships and nuances in word meanings, including relating them to their opposites and distinguishing shades of meaning in similar or related words.

Examples: look, peek, glance, stare, glare; big, large, gigantic, monstrous
Act out tiptoe, creep, and march to distinguish shades of meaning in words related to walk.
Discuss synonyms and antonyms.

This lesson uses music and art in a vocabulary study of unfamiliar words from the song "America the Beautiful," increasing students' vocabulary while also increasing their knowledge of U.S. geography. A discussion to activate students' prior knowledge about sights and scenery throughout the United States is followed by a read-aloud and introduction to the song "America the Beautiful," which is then sung in each session of the lesson. Students learn the meanings of the song's words through shared reading and the use of context clues and images. Students then use photographs, illustrations, and descriptive language to create a mural shaped like the United States. Finally, through pictures and words, students reflect on what they have learned. This lesson is appropriate and adaptable for any patriotic event or holiday, and many of the vocabulary strategies are adaptable for other texts or word lists, as well.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (0) 2 :

2. Actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge needed to be successful as they learn to read and, later, read to learn.

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19. Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words in discussions and/or text.

a. Describe the relationship between words, including relating them to synonyms and antonyms.

[ELA2021] (0) 33 :

33. Express ideas orally and connect these ideas through drawing and emergent writing.

[ELA2021] (1) 8 :

8. Apply previously-taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences to decodable words with accuracy and automaticity, in and out of context.

[ELA2021] (1) 12 :

12. Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words and phrases in discussions and/or text.

a. Identify possessives and plurals and use them as clues to the meaning of text.

Example: Jack's coat, mom's car; pigs, pig's, pigs'

b. Identify meaningful parts of words (morphemes) and use them as clues to the meaning of unknown words, including frequently occurring affixes and inflections -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, and -est.

Examples: Explain that adding suffix -s changes a singular noun to a plural noun and adding suffix -ed changes a verb to past tense.

c. Describe word relationships and nuances in word meanings, including relating them to their opposites and distinguishing shades of meaning in similar or related words.

Examples: look, peek, glance, stare, glare; big, large, gigantic, monstrous
Act out tiptoe, creep, and march to distinguish shades of meaning in words related to walk.
Discuss synonyms and antonyms.

[ELA2021] (2) -5 :

R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

[ELA2021] (2) 12 :

12. Read and reread grade-appropriate text accurately, automatically, and with meaningful expression at a rate which supports comprehension.

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17. Analyze meaningful parts of words and phrases in discussions and/or text.

a. Identify possessives and plurals and use them as clues to the meaning of text.

Example: girl's dress; boys' game; cats, cat's, cats'; houses, house's shutters

b. Identify meaningful parts of words (morphemes) and use them as clues to the meaning of unknown words, including base words, compound words, and frequently occurring affixes and inflections.

Examples: -less, -ful, -est

Note: Adding suffix -est changes an adjective to a superlative adjective; adding suffix -ful changes the part of speech.

This ocean-themed unit will focus students' attention on alliteration, or repeated beginning word sounds. Students begin by reading the book Look Who Lives in the Ocean by Allen Baker, and then sharing what they notice about the words in the story. Then they work as a class to craft a definition of alliteration and record the definition on chart paper. Students continue to expand their knowledge of alliteration by finding examples in classroom books and their own writing and then adding these examples to a class list. Next, they practice revising sentences to include alliteration and then share their revisions with the class. Finally, students compose their own class book to explore the technique in their own writing. The lesson is a natural extension after alphabet books have been introduced, when writing a class book, or to supplement independent writing projects.