1st grade students reach Milestones that demonstrate mastery by:

• Understanding what a book is

• Holding a book, flip the pages correctly

• Identify the front and back cover

• Understanding that printed words represent spoken language

At this age and grade level, students can demonstrate the milestone skills of understanding what books are, flip pages correctly, and identify the front, back covers. They can also understand that printed words in a book represent spoken language.

Assessment:

One strategy to assess the skill is reading aloud to Children regularly.

• This strategy will be used by taking time each day to read aloud to children. This is one of the most effective ways to help students develop early reading skills, and not only introduces them to the mechanics of reading, such as reading left to right and top to bottom, but it also helps them develop a love for books and reading (Voyager sopris learning, 2025).

The second strategy is to model good print habits

• Modeling good print habits is vital to developing concepts of print in young children by demonstrating how to hold a book, pointing to words as they are read, and showing children how to track print as they read. This will help students to familiarize themselves with books and to feel confident when reading (Voyager sopris learning, 2025).

McArdle, J. (2024, June 24). 12 effective strategies for teaching phonemic awareness. My Teaching Cupboard. https://www.myteachingcupboard.com/blog/effective-strategies-for-teaching-phonemic-awareness

Phonological Awareness Assessment Guide - Learning A-Z. (2025a). https://www.learninga-z.com/site/resources/breakroom-blog/phonological-awareness-assessments-guide-for-teachers-and-homeschooling-parents

Punkoney, S. (2025, March 16). Research-based strategies for teaching letter recognition. Stay At Home Educator. https://stayathomeeducator.com/research-based-strategies-for-teaching-letter-recognition/

Voyager Sopris Learning /node/23 & written by Dr. Louisa Moats /thought-leaders/dr-louisa-moats. (2025, July 1). Voyager sopris learning. Voyager Sopris Learning. https://www.voyagersopris.com/vsl/blog/building-blocks-of-reading-understanding-concepts-of-print

Differentiation

• One differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching the concept of print to engage and motivate all learners is a multi-sensory approach with visual aids, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. To help ELs students, visual aids like pictures and real objects will help clarify meaning, connect words with the pictures in a book, and learn real-world examples.

• A second differentiation strategy for students would be shared reading with a targeted concept of print focus. For students with dyslexia, I would highlight key features by guiding students and discussing the title of the book, author, and other main parts to help them understand the structure of print.

Milestones that demonstrate mastery: By 5 years old students understand

• recognizing rhyming words

• Breaking words into syllables

• Understanding that words are made up of individual sounds

At this age and grade level, students can recognize the sound structure of spoken language by rhyming words and syllables, and understand how words connect to sounds when reading a book.

Assessment:

One strategy for assessing this skill is through a sound-matching game.

• Provide a series of words and ask the child to identify the one that starts with a different sound (e.g., “Which word doesn't start with /b/: ball, bat, or cat?”). This helps the child recognize the initial sounds in words (Phonological Awareness Assessment Guide, 2025).

The second strategy is to play a rhyming game.

• Recognizing and generating words that have the same ending sounds. For example, identifying the rhyme between "cat" and "hat," or “bat, Rhyming helps children notice word patterns, making it easier for them to decode new words when reading (Phonological Awareness Assessment Guide, 2025).

Differentiation

• One differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching phonological awareness skills to motivate all learners, including those with dyslexia and ELs is through Multisensory learning. This involves activities that incorporate visuals, hearing, touch, and movement. To help ELs students, we would use English sounds to similar sounds in their native language. This approach will make it easier to engage and motivate ELs to work and understand.

• A second differentiation strategy that would work for students with dyslexia is teaching them phonemes by having them trace letters in sand while saying the corresponding sounds. Giving clear instructions and guided practice is important to help support all students.

Milestones that demonstrate mastery: By age 6-7/First Grade students can

• Distinguishing rhyming from non-rhyming words.

• Identifying beginning and ending sounds in words.

• Blending and segmenting words with three or four phonemes.

• Creating lists of words with the same initial sound.

At this age, students can distinguish rhyming, identify sounds in words, and segment words. This skill is a crucial component of early literacy development, forming the foundation for reading and spelling skills.

Assessment:

• One strategy for assessing these skills is through Phoneme isolation. This is a skill where students hear and isolate a sound at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, often referred to as the initial, medial, and final sounds (McArdle, 2024).

• The second strategy is blending, which is a phonemic awareness strategy that precisely relates to decoding. In these activities, students will hear individual sounds spoken aloud, and they will blend the sounds to make a word (McArdle, 2024). Also, when you are teaching this strategy, you will make the sounds, and your students need to blend them into a whole word (McArdle, 2024

Milestones that demonstrate mastery: Age 5-6/kindergarten grade students at this age can

•  Understand the alphabet

• Recognize letters

• Name upper case and lowercase letters

Differentiation

• One differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching phonemic awareness is a multisensory approach for all learners. This includes activities where students are clapping syllables or tapping a finger for each sound in a word. This strategy will also help students with dyslexia.

• A second strategy is systematic instruction with targeted practice. Students with ELs benefit from direct instruction, where skills are broken down into smaller parts with clear instruction.  

At this grade level, students are able to understand the alphabet by naming the uppercase and lowercase letters.

Assessment:

• One evidence-based assessment strategy that may be used to assess letter naming knowledge is by learning letter sounds. Students can learn letters from the alphabet by learning sounds, when naming the letter that contains the target sound. For example, “aye” for the letter A, or “bee” for the letter B.

• A second strategy is by explicit instruction. When providing direct instruction in letter names, include both uppercase and lowercase forms.

Differentiation

• One differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching letter naming knowledge skills to engage and motivate all learners is through multisensory activities. Students with dyslexia can benefit from Tactile or kinesthetic games, by tracing letters in sand, or in sandpaper letters. This will help them physically feel the letters.

• A second differentiation strategy is teaching the alphabet word by word and tracing it on paper. This activity will also help ELs students learn each letter by tracing it on paper and saying each word aloud.