By the end of first grade, students who are making adequate progress in reading & writing are able to:

Reading:

1. Is able to recognize upper case letters.
2. Is able to recognize lower case letters.
3. Is able to verbalize letter/sound association- knows letters and the sounds associated with those letters. (Includes Blends, digraphs, and dipthongs.)
4. Is able to apply the letter sounds in the beginning of words.
5. Is able to apply the letter sounds at the end of words.
6. Is able to read the first grade sight words.
7. Is able rhyme and read word families.
8. Is able to identify the long vowels and knows the sounds associated with those vowels. (Knows the vowel sounds and applies them to unknown words.)
9. Is able to identify the short vowels and knows the sounds associated with those vowels. (Knows the vowel sounds and applies them to unknown words.)
10. Is able to read at an instructional level 16 as assessed by Rigby Benchmarks.
11. Is able to use picture clues as a strategy to figure out words.
12. Is able to “think” about the story to see if it makes sense as a strategy for figuring out the words.
13. Is able to get his/her mouth ready to sound out words as a strategy in figuring out words.
14. Is able to look for a piece of a word or a chunk word as a strategy in figuring out words.
15. Is able to skip an unknown word and reread the sentence in trying to figure out a word.
16.  Is able to reread and try again when trying to figure out an unknown word.
17. Is able to read for information and meaning or comprehends the written word.

Writing:

1. Writes accurate/appropriate beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words.
2. Writes a complete thought.
3. Begins a sentence with a capital letter.
4. Ends a telling sentence with a period.