Fort Dodge Community School District

All Fort Dodge Community Schools will be closed today, Tuesday, March 26th. We will see everyone again on April 3.

Job Opportunities

 First Grade Literacy Overview

The Reading/Language Arts curriculum for first grade follows a balanced literacy approach which provides experiences for students in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Balanced literacy is a research based approach which has shown to increase student achievement. Within the balanced literacy approach, students participate in whole group instruction with grade level text as well as small group instruction in which a student works with text at his/her instructional level. Small group instruction consists of a student-teacher ratio of no more than 6 students per teacher. Students are instructed in the research based five components of reading which include phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.

Parent Reading Handbook : For imformation about ways that you can assist your child in learning to read and enjoy reading.

By the end of first grade, students will be proficient in the following Iowa Core Standards:  

Foundational Skills

  • Demonstrate undertanding of the organization and basic features of print
  • Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sound (phonemes)
  • Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words
  • Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension 

Reading Literature (Fiction)

  • Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
  • Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson
  • Describe characters, settings and major events in a story, using key details 
  • Employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing and monitoring for comprehension.
  • Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses
  • Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types
  • Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text
  • Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events
  • Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories
  • With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1

Reading Informational Text

  • Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
  • Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text
  • Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text
  • Employ the full range of research based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing and monitoring for comprehension
  • Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text
  • Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text
  • Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text
  • Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas
  • Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text
  • Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures)
  • With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1    

Writing

  • Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure
  • Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure
  • Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure
  • With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed
  • With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers
  • Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to" books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions)
  • With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question

 Speaking and Listening

  • Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups
  • Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media
  • Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood
  • Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly
  • Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings
  • Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation
  • Recite familiar stories, poems, nursery rhymes, and lines of a play

 

    

© 2024 Fort Dodge Community School District. All rights reserved.