What does a student learn in
California, Pre-Kindergarten, English Language Arts ?

Understand and use words for objects, actions, and attributes frequently experienced in everyday life, such as through play, conversations, or stories.

Understand and use an increasing variety of words for objects, actions, and attributes experienced in everyday life, such as through play, conversations, or stories.

Understand and use commonly experienced vocabulary to describe categories and the relationships within them.

Understand and use increasingly specific vocabulary to describe categories and the relationships within them.

Understand and use words to describe the size and location of objects (such as "tiny" and "on"), including simple comparisons (such as "bigger").

Understand and use increasingly specific words to describe and compare the size and location of objects (such as "longer" and "between").

Use common word forms and sentence forms to express thoughts and ideas.

Use both common and less common word forms and sentence forms to express complex thoughts and ideas.

Use questions to seek information and to clarify and confirm understanding.

Use questions and follow-up questions to seek information and to clarify and confirm understanding.

Use language to construct real or fictional short narratives.

Use language to construct real or fictional extended narratives that have several details or a plotline.

Share descriptions, opinions, and explanations.

Share detailed descriptions, opinions, and explanations.

Participate in back-and-forth conversations with adults and peers. Respond on topic for at least one turn in a conversation.

Participate in increasingly long and complex back-and-forth conversations with adults and peers. Respond on topic across several turns in the conversation.

Match words that have the same first sound in speech, with adult support or the support of pictures or objects.

Isolate and pronounce the first sound of a word, with adult support or the support of pictures or objects.

When presented with two single-syllable words (such as "sand" and "box"), blend them into a compound word in speech with adult support or the support of pictures or objects.

When presented with syllables and individual sounds, blend them into words in speech with adult support or the support of pictures or objects.

Recognize or participate in familiar rhymes or songs.

Produce rhyming sounds or words. Rhymes may be imperfect and can be real or nonsense words.

Match some letter names to their printed form. These will commonly be letters in the child's first name.

Match many letter names to their printed form.

Recognize that letters or characters have sounds.

Accurately identify or produce sounds associated with several letters or common characters with adult support.

Recognize print as something that can be read and has meaning.

Identify the meaning of a few instances of familiar print in the environment.

Display basic book-handling behaviors and knowledge of basic print conventions, such as turning pages in a single direction and recognizing the cover and title of a book.

Display increasingly sophisticated book-handling behaviors and knowledge of print conventions, such as turning pages one at a time and understanding the direction and orientation of print.

Demonstrate interest in and engagement with literacy and literacy-related activities.

Demonstrate interest in and engagement with literacy and literacy-related activities for progressively extended periods of time and with increasing independence.

Demonstrate basic understanding of main characters or events in a story after the child has experienced the story a few times.

Demonstrate understanding of details in a story, including knowledge of characters, events, and ordering of events, and use their increased understanding of story structure to predict what might come next when asked.

Demonstrate basic understanding of informational text after the child has experienced the text a few times.

Demonstrate deeper understanding of informational text using their abilities to make connections to previous knowledge, make inferences, and ask questions.

Experiment with grasp and body position using a variety of drawing and writing tools.

Adjust grasp and body position for increased control in drawing and writing.

Write, with adult support, a few recognizable letters that are intended to represent their corresponding sounds.

Engage in dictating thoughts and ideas when an adult offers to help with writing them down.

Demonstrate interest in conveying extended thoughts and ideas in writing, engaging the help of an adult.

Write using scribbles that resemble letters or characters and are distinct from pictures.

Write a few recognizable letters or characters to represent words or ideas.

Write marks to represent own name.

Write own name nearly correctly.