Vermont Official State Website

Communication and Expression

Literacy Development

Foundational Reading Skills

Goal 1: Children develop the foundational skills needed for engaging with print, reading and writing.

By the end of each age group or grade level, most children will have met prior age group or grade level standards in this domain.

Infants Through Older Toddlers

Infants

(0-12 Months)

Print Concepts

  1. Show interest in looking at books and in adult initiated literacy activities

Phonological Awareness

  1. Imitate and take turns with others making sounds
  2. Experiment and play with sounds
  3. Respond differently to different sounds

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Emerging

Fluency

  1. Emerging

Young Toddlers

(9-18 Months)

Print Concepts

  1. Point to pictures in a book
  2. Turn pages
  3. Notice environmental print

Phonological Awareness

  1. Listen to and participate in familiar songs, rhymes, and stories
  2. Play with different sounds

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Emerging

Fluency

  1. Emerging

Older Toddlers

(18-36 Months)

Print Concepts

  1. Demonstrate that print represents words (e.g., pretend to read text)

Phonological Awareness

  1. Notice sounds that are the same and different
  2. Fill-in words of familiar songs, stories, of finger plays
  3. Imitate tempo and speed of sound

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. With modeling and assistance, recognize that letters of the alphabet are a special category of symbols
  2. Identify simple, familiar environmental print

Fluency

  1. Pretend to read a familiar book
  2. With modeling and assistance, use pictures to “read” text
Younger Preschoolers Through Kindergartners

Younger Preschoolers

(36-48 months)

Print Concepts

  1. Identify letters of the alphabet as a specific type of symbol that can be named
  2. Display some book handling skills (e.g., orient book right side up and turn pages)

Phonological Awareness

  1. Identify words as separate units in a sentence
  2. Fill-in words in a familiar rhyme
  3. Segment spoken compound words with modeling and assistance

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Point out own name in print
  2. Name some of the letters of the alphabet, especially those in their names

Fluency

  1. Use pictures to "read" text

Older Preschoolers

(48-60 months)

Print Concepts

  1. Indicate where to start reading on a page and how to move across and down a page.
  2. Demonstrate knowledge of the association between written words and spoken words
  3. Display book handling skills

Phonological Awareness

  1. Segment syllables in spoken words with modeling and assistance
  2. Determine if two words rhyme
  3. With modeling and assistance, segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Associate some letters of the alphabet with their specific sounds
  2. Identify words that start with the same letter as their name

Fluency

  1. Pretend to read a familiar book using language from the text and reading-like intonation

Kindergartners

Print Concepts

  1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
    1. Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
    2. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
    3. Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
    4. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet

Phonological Awareness

  1. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
    1. Recognize and produce rhyming words.
    2. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
    3. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
    4. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
    1. Demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.
    2. Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
    3. Read common high frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
    4. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Fluency

  1. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
    1. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
    2. Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
    3. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
First Graders Through Third Graders

First Graders

Print Concepts

  1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
    1. Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).

Phonological Awareness

  1. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
    1. Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words..
    2. Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
    3. Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
    4. Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
    1. Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs
    2. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
    3. Know final –e and common Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
    4. Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
    5. Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
    6. Read words with inflectional endings.
    7. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Fluency

  1. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
    1. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
    2. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
    3. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Second Graders

Print Concepts

  1. No Print Concepts Standards for this grade level

Phonological Awareness

  1. No Phonological Awareness for this grade level

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
    1. Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.
    2. Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.
    3. Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.
    4. Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
    5. Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.
    6. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
    7. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Fluency

  1. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
    1. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
    2. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
    3. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Third Graders

Print Concepts

  1. No Print Concepts Standards for this grade level

Phonological Awareness

  1. No Phonological Awareness for this grade level

Phonics and Word Recognition

  1. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
    1. Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.
    2. Decode words with common Latin suffixes
    3. Decode multi-syllable words.
    4. Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Fluency

  1. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
    1. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
    2. Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
    3. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Vermont Agency of Education
Secretary Daniel M. French
219 North Main Street, Suite 402
Barre, VT 05641

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