Utah Core Standards
English Language Arts Kindergarten Core
English Language Arts Kindergarten Core
Key Ideas & Details
Reading: Literature Standard 1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Reading: Literature Standard 2
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
Reading: Literature Standard 3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Craft and Structure
Reading: Literature Standard 4
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Reading: Literature Standard 5
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).
Reading: Literature Standard 6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Reading: Literature Standard 7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
Reading: Literature Standard 8
(Not applicable to literature)
Reading: Literature Standard 9
With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Reading: Literature Standard 10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Key Ideas and Details
Reading: Informational Text Standard 1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 2
With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 3
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
Craft and Structure
Reading: Informational Text Standard 4
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 5
Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 6
Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Reading: Informational Text Standard 7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
Reading: Informational Text Standard 8
With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 9
With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Reading: Informational Text Standard 10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
The reading foundational skills standards are directed toward fostering students’ understanding and working knowledge of concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and other basic conventions of the English writing system. These foundational skills are not an end in and of themselves; rather, they are necessary and important components of an effective, comprehensive reading program designed to develop proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend texts across a range of types and disciplines. Instruction should be differentiated: good readers will need much less practice with these concepts than struggling readers will. The point is to teach students what they need to learn and not what they already know—to discern when particular children or activities warrant more or less attention.
Note: In kindergarten, children are expected to demonstrate increasing awareness and competence in the areas that follow.
Print Concepts
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 1
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
a. Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
b. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
c. Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
d. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
Phonological Awareness
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
a. Recognize and produce rhyming words.
b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
Phonics and Word Recognition
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 3
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
a. Demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.
b. Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
Fluency
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 4
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.
Reading: Literature Standard 1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Reading: Literature Standard 2
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
Reading: Literature Standard 3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Craft and Structure
Reading: Literature Standard 4
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Reading: Literature Standard 5
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).
Reading: Literature Standard 6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Reading: Literature Standard 7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
Reading: Literature Standard 8
(Not applicable to literature)
Reading: Literature Standard 9
With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Reading: Literature Standard 10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Key Ideas and Details
Reading: Informational Text Standard 1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 2
With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 3
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
Craft and Structure
Reading: Informational Text Standard 4
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 5
Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 6
Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Reading: Informational Text Standard 7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
Reading: Informational Text Standard 8
With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
Reading: Informational Text Standard 9
With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Reading: Informational Text Standard 10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
The reading foundational skills standards are directed toward fostering students’ understanding and working knowledge of concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and other basic conventions of the English writing system. These foundational skills are not an end in and of themselves; rather, they are necessary and important components of an effective, comprehensive reading program designed to develop proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend texts across a range of types and disciplines. Instruction should be differentiated: good readers will need much less practice with these concepts than struggling readers will. The point is to teach students what they need to learn and not what they already know—to discern when particular children or activities warrant more or less attention.
Note: In kindergarten, children are expected to demonstrate increasing awareness and competence in the areas that follow.
Print Concepts
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 1
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
a. Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
b. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
c. Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
d. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
Phonological Awareness
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
a. Recognize and produce rhyming words.
b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
Phonics and Word Recognition
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 3
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
a. Demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.
b. Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
Fluency
Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 4
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.