Accomplishments in Reading

Kindergarten Accomplishments

• Knows the parts of a book and their functions.
• Begins to track print when listening to a familiar text being read or when rereading own writing.
• "Reads" familiar texts emergently (i.e., not necessarily verbatim from the print alone).
• Recognizes and can name all uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Understands that the sequence of letters in a written word represents the sequence of sound (phonemes) in a spoken word (alphabetic principle).
• Learns many, though not all, one-to-one letter-sound correspondences.
• Recognizes some words by sight, including a few very common ones (a, the, I, my, you, is, are).
• Uses new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in own speech.
• Makes appropriate switches from oral to written language situations.
• Notices when simple sentences fail to make sense.
• Connects information and events in texts to life and life to text experiences.
• Retells, reenacts, or dramatizes stories or parts of stories.
• Listens attentively to books teacher reads to class.
• Can name some book titles and authors.
• Demonstrates familiarity with a number of types or genres of text (e.g., storybooks, expository texts, poems, newspapers, and everyday print such as signs, notices, labels).
• Correctly answers questions about stories read aloud.
• Makes predictions based on illustrations or portions of stories.
• Demonstrates understanding that spoken words consist of a sequences of phonemes.
• Given spoken sets like "dan, dan, den," can identify the first two as being the same and the third as different.
• Given spoken sets like "dak, pat, zen," can identify the first two as sharing a same sound.
• Given spoken segments, can merge them into a meaningful target word.
• Given a spoken word, can produce another word that rhymes with it.
• Independently writes many uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Uses phonemic awareness and letter knowledge to spell independently (invented or creative spelling).
• Writes (unconventionally) to express own meaning.
• Builds a repertoire of some conventionally spelled words.
• Shows awareness of distinction between "kid writing" and conventional orthography.
• Writes own name (first and last) and the first names of some friends or classmates.
• Can write most letters and some words when they are dictated.