Enduring Understandings

• Meaning-making is a constructive and creative process.
• We learn about ourselves, others, and the world through speaking and listening, reading, and writing.
• Effective readers, writers, speakers, and listeners use a variety of strategies and skills to share, construct, clarify, and confirm meaning.
• Spoken words can be written, and printcarries a constant message.
• Oral, written, and visual communications have their own conventions. Awareness and use of these conventions make us better communicators.
• Playing and experimenting with language and creating original texts help us to appreciate the artistry of language.
• Successful learners reflect on their thinking and learning to find ways to improve.

Snapshot

Summary derived from the Prescribed Learning Outcomes for Grade One

• Interact with others to share ideas, contribute to class activities, and complete tasks
• Use speaking to explore and present ideas
• Listen and understand to recall brief, concrete oral information and ideas presented in the classroom
• Apply phonological awareness to improve sound, letter, and word discrimination, and increase word decoding skills
• Build on a repertoire of strategies to construct and confirm meaning
• Read, view, and comprehend a variety of grade-appropriate texts
• Select and read books for enjoyment, comprehension, and to improve fluency
• Identify letters of the alphabet and their sounds, and recognize a range of high-frequency words
• Use the features, structures, and patterns of language to make meaning from what they hear, read, and view
• Write a variety of short passages, including messages, lists, journal entries, and meaningful poems and stories
• Write to express personal responses to texts or experiences
• Write to extend thinking by exploring and making connections
• Use knowledge of spelling, punctuation, words and sentences to make meaning from text and to express themselves in writing and representing
• Print all letters legibly with spaces between words and demonstrate a sense of sentence formation
• Reflect on and assess their learning

Criteria for a Good Thinker

A good thinker:

• bases judgments on evidence
• is honest with self
• listens to understand before drawing conclusions
• can tolerate ambiguity
• asks questions
• is open-minded and flexible
• is able to think independently
• identifies and explains personal points of view
• looks for connections among ideas
• extends personal thinking by assimilating new ideas and information
• is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitoring, and self-correcting

Criteria for a Good Speaker and Listener

A good speaker and listener:

• speaks and listens for a variety of purposes
• maintains concentration during listening and speaking
• listens carefully to understand and respond to others’ messages
• communicates ideas and information clearly
• organizes ideas and information so that the audience can understandand remember
• uses vocabulary and presentation style that are appropriate for the audience
• uses tone, pace, and volume that are appropriate for the situation
• sustains short conversations by encouraging the speaker and contributing ideas
• is attentive and respectful to others in conversation
• uses language effectively for a variety of purposes
• monitors presentation and is sensitive to audience response
• uses some strategies to overcome difficulties in communication(e.g., unfamiliar vocabulary, a noisy environment, distractions)
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement

Criteria for a Good Reader and Viewer

A good reader and viewer:

• accesses prior knowledge
• asks questions
• makes predictions
• uses three kinds of cues – meaning, sound, visual – to make sense of text. Asks "Does it make sense?" "Does it sound right?" "Does it look right?"
• self-monitors and recognizes when text is not making sense
• uses strategies to overcome problems during reading and viewing
• makes connections before, during, and after reading and viewing
• uses mental images to deepen and extend meaning
• identifies and summarizes main ideas
• interprets both literal and inferential meaning
• synthesizes and extends meaning
• evaluates the text or visual material
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement

Criteria for a Good Writer and Representer

A good writer and representer:

• generates ideas
• organizes information
• identifies a purpose
• defines an audience
• develops a "voice" and style suitable to the purpose, content, and audience
• uses a variety of vocabulary and sentence construction
• conveys meaning clearly
• demonstrates coherence among ideas
• recognizes the value of feedback
• revises and rewrites
• uses basic conventions of writing
• finds satisfaction in writing
• self-evaluates and sets goals for improvement