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. Read aloud in a group, with a partner, or alone at least 15 minutes each day;
4. Identify the parts of books and function of each part (front cover, back cover, title page, table of contents);
5. Demonstrate correct book orientation by holding books correctly and turning pages;
6. Demonstrate understanding that a systematic, predictable relationship exists between written letters and spoken words;
7. Point to each word in a line of print while reading aloud;
8. Recognize and name the 26 letters of the alphabet in their upper- and lowercase forms;
9. Recognize and produce rhyming words;
10. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or basic code sound for every consonant ‘b’, ‘bb’ > /b/; ‘d’, ‘dd’ > /d/; ‘f’, ‘ff’ > /f/; ‘g’, ‘gg’ > /g/; ‘h’ > /h/; ‘j’ > /j/; ‘c’, ‘k’, ‘ck’, ‘cc’ > /k/; ‘l’, ‘ll’ > /l/; ‘m’, ‘mm’ > /m/; ‘n’, ‘nn’ > /n/; ‘p’, ‘pp’ > /p/; ‘r’, ‘rr’ > /r/; ‘s’, ‘ss’ > /s/; ‘t’, ‘tt’ > /t/; ‘v’ > /v/; ‘w’ > /w/; ‘x’ > /x/; ‘y’ > /y/; ‘z’, ‘zz’, ‘s’ > /z/; ‘ch’ > /ch/; ‘sh’ > /sh/; ‘th’ > /th/ (thin); ‘th’ > /th/ (then); ‘qu’ > /qu/; ‘ng’, ‘n’ > /ng;
11. Read and write one-syllable short vowel words with initial or final blends/clusters (e.g., tr–, fl–, sp–, –st, –nd, –lt, etc.) and initial or final consonant digraphs (e.g., ch–, sh–, th–, –ch, –sh, –th, –ck, –ng);
12. Read, spell, and write chains of one-syllable short vowel words with consonant blends/clusters and/or consonant digraphs (e.g., stab > slab > slap > slash);
13. Read and write one-syllable short vowel words containing a double consonant final spelling (e.g., mess, bill, cuff, etc.);
14. Read high-frequency words identified as Tricky Words: the, a, of, all, one, from, was;
15. Read decodable text that incorporates the letter-sound correspondences that have been taught, with purpose and understanding; and
16. Ask and answer questions to clarify information in fiction text read independently.

Unit 8 - Tricky words and letter names