By the end of the school year, all students should be able to:
■ Read unfamiliar informational texts (such as instructions) to collect and interpret data, facts, and ideas.
■ Compare and contrast similarities and differences among characters and events across stories.
■ With assistance, compare information on one topic from more than one text.
■ Write interpretive essays and responsive essays that identify title, author, and illustrator. For example, describe story elements or express a personal response to literature.
■ Create imaginative stories and personal narratives using the writing process (for example, organizing, drafting, revising, and editing), such as imagining life in space or telling about the day they got a new pet.
■ Speak with expression, volume, pace, and facial or body gestures appropriate to the purpose of the communication, topic, and audience.
■ Blend sounds using knowledge of letter-sound correspondences in order to make sense of unfamiliar, grade-level words with more than one syllable.
■ Decode using knowledge of known words and word families to read new words.
■ Use spelling resources, such as dictionaries, word walls, and/or computer software to spell words correctly.
■ Write sentences in logical order and use paragraphs to organize topics.
■ Use capitalization, punctuation, and spelling rules to produce final written products.
Learning at Home
The following strategies can be done in the families’ native languages as well as in English.
Encourage your child to read to younger brothers and sisters, cousins, or other children you know.
Ask your child to find an interesting photograph and write a story about it. Talk about how details such as time of day or location might help your child create characters, setting, and plot.
Click on “Games” on the New York Public Library’s “On-Lion” for Kids Web site, kids.nypl.org/arts/activities.cfm, for a huge collection of fun activities related to books and the arts.
Once a week, have a family book report time. Help your child find creative ways to talk about favorite books. For example, write and perform a poem or song about one of the characters.