The Skills strand of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program teaches students the decoding skills needed for (future) independent reading. Each Skills lesson begins with a warm-up, reviewing previously taught content in reading, writing, and/or grammar.

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

1. With prompting and support, ask and answer questions (e.g., who, what, where, when) requiring literal recall and understanding of the details and/or facts of a fiction text;
2. With prompting and support, use narrative language to describe characters, setting, things, events, actions, a scene, or facts from a fiction text that has been read independently;
3. With prompting and support, describe illustrations from a fiction text read independently, using the illustrations to check and support comprehension of the story;
4. Read aloud in a group, with a partner, or alone at least 15 minutes each day;
5. Identify the parts of books and function of each part (front cover, back cover, title page, table of contents);
6. Demonstrate correct back orientation by holding books correctly and turning pages;
7. Demonstrate understanding of basic print conventions by tracking and following print word for word when listening to a text read aloud;
8. Demonstrate understanding of directionality (left to right, return sweep, top to bottom, front to back);
9. Demonstrate understanding that a systematic, predictable relationship exists between written letters and spoken sounds;
10. Point to each word in a line of print while reading aloud;
11. Recognize and name the 26 letters of the alphabet in their lowercase forms;
12. Recognize and produce rhyming words;
13. Orally blend sounds to form words, e.g., given the sounds /k/.../a/.../t/, blend to make cat;
14. Read and write one-syllable short vowel words with initial or final blends/clusters, e.g., tr-, fl-, -sp, -nd, -lt, etc. and initial or final consonant digraphs, e.g., ch-, sh-, th-, -ch, -sh, -th, -ck, -ng;
15. Read decodable text that incorporates the letter-sound correspondences that have been taught, with purpose and understanding;
16. Read and write words in which 's' > /s/ as in cats or /z/ as in dogs;
17. Ask and answer questions to clarify information in fiction text read independently;
18. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail;
19. Hold a writing utensil with a tripod (or pincer) grip and make marks on paper;
20. Trace, copy, and/or write from memory the letters of the alphabet accurately in lowercase form;
21. Use regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/, /z/, or /es/;
22. Use spatial words: there, here; in, on; in front of, behind; at the top of; at the bottom of; under, over; above, below; next to, in the middle of; near, far; inside, outside; around, between; up, down; high, low; left, right; front, back; and
23. Name and use commas and end punctuation while reading orally.

Unit 6 - Letter names, rhyming words, and reading consonant clusters