Level I (K-2)

*Prewriting: Uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (e.g., discusses ideas with peers, draws pictures to generate ideas, writes key thoughts and questions, rehearses ideas, records reactions and observations)

*Drafting and Revising: Uses strategies to draft and revise written work (e.g., rereads; rearranges words, sentences, and paragraphs to improve or clarify meaning; varies sentence type; adds descriptive words and details; deletes extraneous information; incorporates suggestions from peers and teachers; sharpens the focus)

*Editing and Publishing: Uses strategies to edit and publish written work (e.g., proofreads using a dictionary and other resources; edits for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling at a developmentally appropriate level; incorporates illustrations or photos; shares finished product)

*Evaluates own and others' writing (e.g., asks questions and makes comments about writing, helps classmates apply grammatical and mechanical conventions)

*Dictates or writes with a logical sequence of events (e.g., includes a beginning, middle, and ending)

*Dictates or writes detailed descriptions of familiar persons, places, objects, or experiences

*Writes in response to literature

*Writes in a variety of formats (e.g., picture books, letters, stories, poems, information pieces)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Prewriting: Uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (e.g., uses graphic organizers, story maps, and webs; groups related ideas; takes notes; brainstorms ideas)

*Drafting and Revising: Uses strategies to draft and revise written work (e.g., elaborates on a central idea; writes with attention to voice, audience, word choice, tone, and imagery; uses paragraphs to develop separate ideas)

*Editing and Publishing: Uses strategies to edit and publish written work (e.g., edits for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling at a developmentally appropriate level; considers page format [paragraphs, margins, indentations, titles]; selects presentation format; incorporates photos, illustrations, charts, and graphs)

*Evaluates own and others' writing (e.g., identifies the best features of a piece of writing, determines how own writing achieves its purposes, asks for feedback, responds to classmates' writing)

*Writes stories or essays that show awareness of intended audience

*Writes stories or essays that convey an intended purpose (e.g., to record ideas, to describe, to explain)

*Writes expository compositions (e.g., identifies and stays on the topic; develops the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations; excludes extraneous and inappropriate information)

*Writes narrative accounts (e.g., engages the reader by establishing a context and otherwise developing reader interest; establishes a situation, plot, point of view, setting, and conflict; creates an organizational structure that balances and unifies all narrative aspects of the story; uses sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character; uses a range of strategies such as dialogue and tension or suspense)

*Writes expressive compositions (e.g., expresses ideas, reflections, and observations; uses an individual, authentic voice; uses narrative strategies, relevant details, and ideas that enable the reader to imagine the world of the event or experience)

*Writes in response to literature (e.g., advances judgments; supports judgments with references to the text, other works, other authors, nonprint media, and personal knowledge)

*Writes personal letters (e.g., includes the date, address, greeting, and closing; addresses envelopes)

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

* Uses general, frequently used words to convey basic ideas

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Uses descriptive language that clarifies and enhances ideas (e.g., describes familiar people, places, or objects)

*Uses paragraph form in writing (e.g., indents the first word of a paragraph, uses topic sentences, recognizes a paragraph as a group of sentences about one main idea, writes several related paragraphs)

*Uses a variety of sentence structures

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Forms letters in print and spaces words and sentences

*Uses complete sentences in written compositions

*Uses declarative and interrogative sentences in written compositions

*Uses nouns in written compositions (e.g., nouns for simple objects, family members, community workers, and categories)

*Uses verbs in written compositions (e.g., verbs for a variety of situations, action words)

*Uses adjectives in written compositions (e.g., uses descriptive words)

*Uses adverbs in written compositions (i.e., uses words that answer how, when, where, and why questions)

*Uses conventions of spelling in written compositions (e.g., spells high frequency, commonly misspelled words from appropriate grade-level list; uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words; spells own first and last name)

*Uses conventions of capitalization in written compositions (e.g., first and last names, first word of a sentence)

*Uses conventions of punctuation in written compositions (e.g., uses periods after declarative sentences, uses questions marks after interrogative sentences, uses commas in a series of words)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Writes in cursive

*Uses exclamatory and imperative sentences in written compositions

*Uses pronouns in written compositions (e.g., substitutes pronouns for nouns)

*Uses nouns in written compositions (e.g., uses plural and singular naming words; forms regular and irregular plurals of nouns; uses common and proper nouns; uses nouns as subjects)

*Uses verbs in written compositions (e.g., uses a wide variety of action verbs, past and present verb tenses, simple tenses, forms of regular verbs, verbs that agree with the subject)

*Uses adjectives in written compositions (e.g., indefinite, numerical, predicate adjectives)

*Uses adverbs in written compositions (e.g., to make comparisons)

*Uses coordinating conjunctions in written compositions (e.g., links ideas using connecting words)

*Uses negatives in written compositions (e.g., avoids double negatives)

*Uses conventions of spelling in written compositions (e.g., spells high frequency, commonly misspelled words from appropriate grade-level list; uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words; uses initial consonant substitution to spell related words; uses vowel combinations for correct spelling)

*Uses conventions of capitalization in written compositions (e.g., titles of people; proper nouns [names of towns, cities, counties, and states; days of the week; months of the year; names of streets; names of countries; holidays]; first word of direct quotations; heading, salutation, and closing of a letter)

*Uses conventions of punctuation in written compositions (e.g., uses periods after imperative sentences and in initials, abbreviations, and titles before names; uses commas in dates and addresses and after greetings and closings in a letter; uses apostrophes in contractions and possessive nouns; uses quotation marks around titles and with direct quotations; uses a colon between hour and minutes)

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Generates questions about topics of personal interest

*Uses books to gather information for research topics (e.g., uses table of contents, examines pictures and charts)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Uses a variety of strategies to identify topics to investigate (e.g., brainstorms, lists questions, uses idea webs)

*Uses encyclopedias to gather information for research topics

*Uses dictionaries to gather information for research topics

*Uses key words, indexes, cross-references, and letters on volumes to find information for research topics

*Uses multiple representations of information (e.g., maps, charts, photos) to find information for research topics

*Uses graphic organizers to gather and record information for research topics (e.g., notes, charts, graphs)

*Compiles information into written reports or summaries

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Understands that print conveys meaning

*Understands how print is organized and read (e.g., identifies front and back covers, title page, and author; follows words from left to right and from top to bottom; recognizes the significance of spaces between words)

*Creates mental images from pictures and print

*Uses picture clues and picture captions to aid comprehension and to make predictions about content

*Decodes unknown words using basic elements of phonetic analysis (e.g., common letter/sound relationships) and structural analysis (e.g., syllables, basic prefixes, suffixes, root words)

*Uses a picture dictionary to determine word meaning

*Uses self-correction strategies (e.g., searches for cues, identifies miscues, rereads)

*Reads aloud familiar stories, poems, and passages with attention to rhythm, flow, and meter

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Previews text (e.g., skims material; uses pictures, textual clues, and text format)

*Establishes a purpose for reading

*Represents concrete information (e.g., persons, places, things, events) as explicit mental pictures

*Makes, confirms, and revises simple predictions about what will be found in a text

*Decodes words not recognized immediately by using phonetic and structural analysis techniques, the syntactic structure in which the word appears, and the semantic context surrounding the word

*Decodes unknown words using a variety of context clues (e.g., draws on earlier reading, reads ahead)

*Determines the meaning of unknown words using a glossary, dictionary, and thesaurus

*Monitors own reading strategies and makes modifications as needed (e.g., recognizes when he or she is confused by a section of text, questions whether the text makes sense)

*Adjusts speed of reading to suit purpose and difficulty of the material

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of familiar literary passages and texts (e.g., fairy tales, folktales, fiction, nonfiction, legends, fables, myths, poems, picture books, predictable books)

*Identifies favorite books and stories

*Identifies setting, main characters, main events, and problems in stories

*Makes simple inferences regarding the order of events and possible outcomes

*Identifies the main ideas or theme of a story

*Relates stories to personal experiences

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of literary passages and texts (e.g., fairy tales, folktales, fiction, nonfiction, myths, poems, fables, fantasies, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies)

*Selects reading material based on personal criteria (e.g., personal interest, knowledge of authors and genres, text difficulty, recommendations of others)

*Understands the basic concept of plot

*Identifies similarities and differences among literary works in terms of settings, characters, and events

*Makes inferences regarding the qualities and motives of characters and the consequences of their actions

*Understands simple dialogues and how they relate to a story

*Identifies recurring themes across literary works

*Makes connections between characters or simple events in a literary work and people or events in his or her own life

*Shares responses to literature with peers

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational books

*Understands the main idea of simple expository information

*Summarizes information found in texts (e.g., retells in own words)

*Relates new information to prior knowledge and experience

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational texts (e.g., textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines)

*Uses text organizers (e.g., headings, topic and summary sentences, graphic features) to determine the main ideas and to locate information in a text

*Identifies and uses the various parts of a book (index, table of contents, glossary, appendix) to locate information

*Summarizes and paraphrases information in texts (e.g., identifies main ideas and supporting details)

*Uses prior knowledge and experience to understand and respond to new information

*Identifies the author's viewpoint in an informational text

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Recognizes the characteristic sounds and rhythms of language

*Makes contributions in class and group discussions (e.g., recounts personal experiences, reports on personal knowledge about a topic, initiates conversations)

*Asks and responds to questions

*Follows rules of conversation (e.g., takes turns, raises hand to speak, stays on topic, focuses attention on speaker)

*Uses different voice level, phrasing, and intonation for different situations

*Listens and responds to oral directions

*Listens to and recites familiar stories, poems, and rhymes with patterns

*Listens and responds to a variety of media (e.g., books, audiotapes, videos)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Contributes to group discussions

*Asks questions in class (e.g., when he or she is confused, to seek others' opinions and comments)

*Responds to questions and comments (e.g., gives reasons in support of opinions)

*Listens to classmates and adults (e.g., does not interrupt, faces the speaker, asks questions, paraphrases to confirm understanding, gives feedback)

*Makes some effort to have a clear main point when speaking to others

*Reads compositions to the class

*Makes eye contact while giving oral presentations

*Organizes ideas for oral presentations (e.g., includes content appropriate to the audience, uses notes or other memory aids, summarizes main points)