SELECTED SKILLS TO DEFINE
COMPREHENSION AND DECODING BENCHMARKS
COMPREHENSION
Kindergarten
− Apply prior knowledge
− Retell a story
− Sequence a story with illustrations
− Identify beginning, middle, and end of a story
− Predict outcomes
− Answer literal questions
First Grade
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Read a passage and tell topic and significant events/details
Sequence a story with words and illustrations
Compare and contrast
Predict outcomes
Answer literal questions
Apply prior knowledge
Genres: folklore (fairy tale, folk tale), poetry, animal fantasy, and
expository text
Second Grade
− Use graphic organizers including KWL and VENN diagrams.
− Retell a story
− Sequence three or more events from beginning, middle, and end of a story
− Predict outcomes
− Distinguish between make-believe and reality using fairy tales, animal
fantasies, folk tales
− Identify characters and problem/solution in a story
− State prior knowledge
− Use paragraph indention as a key in comprehension
− Genres: folklore (fairy tale, folk tale, tall tale), poetry, animal fantasy, and
expository text.
Third Grade
− Apply prior knowledge
− Distinguish between past and present settings
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Differentiate between fiction and nonfiction
Summarize main ideas from fiction and non fiction texts
Sequence events
Draw conclusions/predict outcomes
Display story structure setting character and problem/solution in graphic
organizers
Identify topic, main idea, and details
Identify fact and opinion
Identify cause and effect
Genres: folklore (fairy tale, folk tale, tall tale), poetry animal fantasy, and
expository test
Fourth and Fifth Grades
− Stating main ideas
− Identifying author’s purpose – expository, narrative, persuasive, technical
− Making predictions
− Recalling and locating details
− Applying prior knowledge
− Drawing conclusions
− Identifying the following expository text structures:
• Description
• Sequence
• Problem-solution
• Compare-contrast
• Cause-effect
Sixth Grade
− Identify main idea.
− Identify text structure such as sequence and narration.
− Use what he/she already knows about the topic and they type of text to
understand what is read.
− Identifying a topic in an expository text.
− Inferences
− Literary elements including irony, foreshowing, point of view,
personification
− Identify text structures in four types of reading.
− Plot including problem, resolution and events.
Seventh Grade
− Theme
− Literary response
− External and internal conflicts
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DECODING
KINDERGARTEN
• Identify upper and lower case letters of the alphabet
• Identify consonant sound associations
• Demonstrate one to one correspondence of spoken to printed words
• Rhyming
FIRST GRADE
Use the following strategies to determine unfamiliar words.
• Sound letter associations
• Compound words
• Contractions
• Rhyming
• Common word families
• “Y” as a vowel
• Beginning sounds
• Blends
• Consonant blends
• Diagrams
• Ending sounds
• Plurals
• Short vowels
• (Diphthong)
• Long Vowels
Controlled vowels
• Silent e pattern
• Sight words
• Context Clues
• Alphabetize words to the first letter
SECOND GRADE
Use the following strategies to determine unfamiliar words.
• Short vowels
• Added endings
• Long vowels
• Compound words
• Silent e patterns
• Controlled vowels
• Sight words
(diphthongs)
• Context clues
• Contractions
• Vowel pairs patterns
• Soft/hard (c/g)
• Base words
• Common word families
• Y as a vowel
• Consonant digraphs
• Phonetic rimes
• Consonant blends
• Alphabetize to second
letter
THIRD GRADE
Use the following strategies to determine unfamiliar words.
• Abbreviation
• Contractions
• Context clues to help
• Compound words
determine unfamiliar words
• Dictionary/glossary
• Alphabetizing
• Self correction strategies
• Structural analysis-base words,
prefix/suffix, syllables
• Phonetic rhymes and word families
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Consonant blends and diagraphs
Vowel patterns and combinations
Sight words
FOURTH GRADE
• Use context clues such as definition, restatement, and example to
determine meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
• Use synonyms, antonyms, homographs, and homophones.
• Use a dictionary or a glossary to determine the meaning of vocabulary.
• Identify figurative language (similes, metaphors, and idioms).
• Use appropriate phonetic and structural word analysis skills.
FIFTH GRADE
• Use context clues such as definition, restatement, and example to
determine meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
• Use synonyms, antonyms, homographs, and homophones.
• Use a dictionary or a glossary to determine the meaning of vocabulary.
• Identify figurative language (similes, metaphors, and idioms).
• Use effective word analysis skills.
SIXTH GRADE, SEVENTH, AND EIGHTH
• Use context clues such as definition and example
• Use thesaurus, glossary and dictionary skills
• Use multiple meanings of words
• Infer word meanings by use of relationship
• Use word origins, roots, and affixes to determine the meaning of unknown
words.
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WRITING CONVENTIONS ACROSS THE GRADE LEVELS
A quality piece of writing contains…
FIRST GRADE
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Spacing
• Write a simple sentence.
• Correct capitalization of sentences beginnings.
SECOND GRADE
• Correct capitalization of sentences beginnings and proper nouns
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Commas in series, dates, city, and states
THIRD GRADE
• Correct capitalization of beginning of sentences and proper nouns
• Commas in a series
• Commas in series, dates, city, states, and addresses
FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Correct use of commas in a series and commas in a compound sentence
• Complete sentences
• Proper capitalization
• Correct spelling
• Appropriate paragraphing
• Introduce proper use of apostrophes
SIXTH GRADE
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Correct use of commas in a series and commas in a compound sentence
• Complete sentences
• Proper capitalization
• Correct spelling
• Appropriate paragraphing
• Proper use of quotation marks in dialogue
• Apostrophes, contractions, possessions
SEVENTH GRADE
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Correct use of commas in a series and commas in a compound sentence
• Complete sentences
• Proper capitalization
• Introduce word and phrase
• Correct spelling
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Appropriate paragraphing
Colons, semicolons
EIGHTH GRADE
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Correct use of commas in a series and commas in a compound sentence
• Complete sentences
• Proper Capitalization
• Correct spelling
• Appropriate paragraphing
• Proper use of colons and semicolons
• Correct subject/verb agreement
• Correct pronoun agreement
• Colons, semicolons
NINTH – TWELVETH GRADES
• Correct use of ending punctuation (. ! ?)
• Correct use of commas in a series and commas in a compound sentence
• Complete sentences
• Proper capitalization
• Correct spelling
• Appropriate paragraphing
• Proper use of colons and semicolons
• Correct subject/verb agreement
• Correct pronoun agreement
• Proper use of quotation marks
• Use of comma after introductory phrases or clauses.
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