By the end of kindergarten, students who are making adequate progress in reading are able to:

1. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
   1. Identify and produce spoken words that rhyme
   2. Blend beginning sound (onset) with ending sound (rime) to form known words in rhyming word families (k-it, s-it, b-it)
   3. Count or tap the number of syllables in spoken words
   4. Isolate individual sounds within spoken words (“What is the first sound in can?”)—Phoneme Isolation
   5. Identify the same sounds in different spoken words (“What sound is the same in sit, sip, and sun?”)—Phoneme Identity
   6. Categorize the word in a set of three or four words that has a different sound (“Which word doesn’t belong: doll, dish, pill?”)—Phoneme Categorization
   7. Blend spoken phonemes to form words using manipulatives (e.g., counters) to represent each sound: /b/ /i/ /g/—Phoneme Blending
   8. Segment spoken words into component sounds using manipulatives (e.g., counters) to represent each sound (“How many sounds are there in big? Move three counters.”)—Phoneme Segmentation
   9. Recognize the remaining word when a phoneme is removed (“What is cat without the /k/?”)—Phoneme Deletion
   10. Make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word (“What word do you have if you add /s/ to mile?”—Phoneme Addition
   11. Substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word (“The word is rug. Change /g/ to /n/. What is the new word?”)—Phoneme Substitution
2. Print Awareness
   1. Understand that the purpose of print is to communicate
   2. Follow left-to-right and top-to-bottom direction when reading English
   3. Distinguish between letters and words
   4. Distinguish between print and pictures
   5. Track print by pointing to written words when texts are read aloud by self or others
   6. Identify parts of books and their functions (e.g., front cover, back cover, and title page)
3. Alphabet Recognition and Phonics
   1. Recognize and name automatically all uppercase and lowercase manuscript letters
   2. Recognize that individual letters have associated sounds
   3. Recognize that the sequence of letters in written words represents the sequence of sounds in spoken words
   4. Identify some consonant letter-sound correspondences
4. Fluency
   1. Read own name and names of family or friends
   2. Recognize and identify some sight words
   3. Read automatically a small set of high-frequency sight words (e.g., a, the, I, my, use, is, are)
   4. Read familiar kindergarten- level texts at the emergent level
5. Background Knowledge and Vocabulary Development
   1. Learn the meaning of new words and use them in own speech
   2. Learn new words from books
   3. Use new vocabulary words to talk about life experiences
   4. Connect vocabulary and life experiences to ideas in books
   5. Use a picture dictionary to learn the meanings of words in books
6. Comprehension Strategies
   1. Notice when sentences do not make sense
   2. Make predictions about story events
   3. Answer questions about text read aloud
   4. Retell or dramatize stories or parts of stories
7. Motivation to Read
   1. Show interest in reading a range of kindergarten-level texts from a variety of genres such as alphabet books, stories, poems, and informational texts
   2. Read voluntarily familiar kindergarten-level texts
   3. Show familiarity with some book titles and authors

By the end of kindergarten, students who are making adequate progress in writing are able to:

1. Print Awareness
   1. Use left-to-right and top-to-bottom direction when writing English
   2. Use spacing between letters and words when writing on a line
2. Spelling
   1. Use developing knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to spell independently (e.g., sound or invented spelling)
   2. Use conventional spelling to spell some common or familiar words
   3. Write correctly own first and last names and the names of some friends or family
3. Handwriting
   1. Write legibly some uppercase and lowercase letters
4. Composition
   1. Label drawings with letters or words
   2. Write as part of play (e.g., playing school, store, restaurant)
   3. Write compositions that include letters or words and drawings to communicate for different purposes (e.g., tell stories, communicate feelings, provide information)
5. Motivation to Write
   1. Write voluntarily to communicate for different purposes
   2. Share writing with others

By the end of kindergarten, students who are making adequate progress in listening are able to:

1. Listening
   1. Listen attentively to spoken language (e.g., books read aloud, rhyming words, songs, video- and audiocassettes)
   2. Listen attentively for different purposes (e.g., to track individual words as they are spoken, to gain information)
   3. Understand and follow oral directions
   4. Listen respectfully without interrupting others

By the end of kindergarten, students who are making adequate progress in speaking are able to:

1. Speaking
   1. Use kindergarten-level vocabulary and grammar in own speech
   2. Speak for different purposes (e.g., share ideas or information, retell a story, dramatize an experience or event)
   3. Speak audibly
   4. Speak with speed and expression appropriate for the purpose
   5. Take turns speaking in a group