Grade 1 Reading Continuum

EALR #1: The student understands and uses different skills and strategies.

• Uses text features to orient self to book
• Uses book introduction to build and activate prior knowledge as a support to decoding
• Uses picture to confirm as well as predict text.
• Uses the story line so far to help predict text.
• Uses repeating sentence patterns to predict text.
• Completes oral cloze and written cloze at instructional level.
• Recognizes a sentence that does or doesn’t sound right (has grammatical parts).
• Uses a variety of sentence structure cues for decoding.
• Locates naming words, action words, and describing words.
• Says words slowly enough to hear all sounds within the word.
• Uses initial, final, and some medial letters to assist in word solving.
• Uses some letter clusters (blends and digraphs) to predict and confirm.
• Aware that vowels and some consonants represent more than one sound and can also be silent and makes some use of this information in word solving.
• Blends heard sounds into word parts or words.
• Uses known words to figure out unknown words with similar parts (i.e. phonograms, larger chunks of words).
• Reads some contractions and abbreviations: can’t didn’t don’t doesn’t won’t isn’t wouldn’t couldn’t Mr. Mrs. St. Dr.
• Hears syllable breaks in spoken language.
• Uses some word parts as decoding cues:
  • compound words
  • simple syllables (car-pet,
  • simple prefixes & suffixes (i.e., un, re, less, ful) added to known root words
• Cross-checks one source of information with another (pictures, story sense, sentence structure, words and letter/sound links) in working toward accuracy.
• Uses cross-checking information to self-correct errors.

• Recognizes basic sight vocabulary (100-150 high frequency) in different contexts.  Reference Lists:
  • Book Words
  • Spell Well Core Lists
  • Dolch
• Builds vocabulary through picture, sentence, and story context: associations and categories.
• Uses common endings to increase vocabulary meanings in context.
  • s & es (plural)
  • ed (past tense)
  • er/est (comparative/superlative)
  • ing (action)
• Understands and uses concept of opposite/same meaning to relate vocabulary.
• Uses personal dictionary and shows awareness of glossary and primary dictionary as a way of building vocabulary.

• Uses correct directionality including return sweep.
• Uses some oral model and choral support for fluency.
• Uses some repeated sentence patterns for fluency support.
• Attends to all parts of text in working toward accuracy. This may temporarily decrease speed, phrasing, and/or smoothness.
• Initiates own reading and rereads to gain pace.
• Locates and understands the meaning of period (.), questions mark (?), exclamation mark (!), comma (,), ellipsis (…), quotation marks (" "), and dash (--).
• Able to read quietly to self in whisper or silently.
• Begins to use fluent phrasing at instructional level.
• Pace is adequate to allow comprehension at instructional level.

• Can differentiate fiction and nonfiction texts.
• Understands the difference between realistic and fantasy fiction.
• Uses picture and some words as cues to character, setting, events
• Identifies a few literary techniques such as rhyme, dialogue, humor, and repeated or alternating patterns.

• Uses pictures, photos and some words as cues to information points in nonfiction.
• Locates and makes some use of such nonfiction text features as captions, labels, and maps to understand specific information.
• Locates page on which specific information can be found.
• Shows awareness of table of contents, though may not yet be able to use.

EALR #2: The student understands the meaning of what is read.

• Phrasing and expression in oral reading shows awareness of meaning at independent and instructional level.
• Relates stories read to personal experiences.
• Recalls or recounts some details of the text.
• Answers questions about important ideas or details in the text.
• Previews using such text features as cover and other illustrations, page numbers, title, author, title page, captions/labels.

• Retells with detail/sequence, 3 or 4 incidents from a story.
• Recounts 3 to 4 steps of a procedural text or items of information from a nonfiction text.
• Activates prior knowledge with prompts and uses the information to process text more deeply.
• Begins to read beyond text and makes inferences about characters, setting, and events.
• Discusses character interactions.
• Identifies some consequences of actions.
• Identifies some features or traits of characters from illustrations and text.
• Given elements of or information from what is read, compares/contrasts, sorts, finds patterns, sequences, predicts.
• Responds to what is read with illustrations, discussion, drama, and writing.
• Recalls prior sensory observations to deepen understanding of text.

• Begins to show interest in special techniques used by author/illustrator such as who is telling the story, action, talking (dialogue) description, details and examples, twists or surprises, word choice, comparisons (as big as), order, organization, arrangement, form, color, pattern.

EALR #3: The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes.

• Studies detailed illustrations in books, especially nonfiction, to gain new information.
• Uses simple labels and captions in the classroom and in books to learn new information.

• Reads and follows very simple directions with some rebus support.

• Participates in self-selected and guided literary reading and when interrupted returns to continue.
• Is aware of a variety of literary genre.

• Identifies a variety of occupations in reading material.

• Explores a variety of self-selected materials on a regular basis to develop personal interests.

EALR #4: The student sets goals and evaluates progress to improve reading.

• Self-monitors (checks, pauses) when something doesn’t make sense, sound right, or look right.
• Rereads to search, confirm, and self-correct.
• Increasingly accurate at instructional level and begins to explain confirming strategy used.

• Asks for and gives others reading strategy help when needed.