Skill Descriptor: Describe and contribute thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and compare to those of their peers.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Express observations, understandings, viewpoints, and perspectives
• Compare and contrast observations, understandings, viewpoints, and perspectives that have been shared by others

Skill Descriptor: Express and support ideas and opinions with evidence.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Discuss personal position and perspective
• Explain difference of opinion, citing reasons
• Use evidence to support or refute personal opinions and the opinions of others
• Use evidence that is free from generalizations and bias

Skill Descriptor: Summarize and present content to communicate facts, ideas, and opinions.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select information that supports purpose
• Present ideas, arguments, and facts
• Share facts to support or refute ideas and opinions
• Begin to use language to persuade audience

Skill Descriptor: Use language of harmony and respect, self-monitoring and adjusting as appropriate.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Describe helpful, respectful, and equitable language
• Use language that demonstrates consideration for the feelings of others
• Use language that is not hurtful or offensive
• Identify examples of prejudice, stereotyping, or bias in oral language and the negative effect on individuals and cultures
• Use bias-free language
• Use inclusive language that respects gender identity
• Use language that demonstrates cultural sensitivity and respect

Skill Descriptor: Ask and respond to questions to clarify information, explore possibilities, and identify solutions to a problem.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Request relevant information or further explanation to help understand a question or a problem
• Respond with additional information to provide clarity and understanding
• Respond citing relevant information from an identified source or personal experience

Skill Descriptor: Give and respond to a variety of directions and instructions.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Give multi-step and increasingly complex instructions
• Follow multi-step and increasingly complex instructions
• Clarify processes, routines, and order of sequence or operation

Skill Descriptor: Understand communication conventions for a diverse set of audiences.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Communicate with sensitivity and respect
• Recognize language that reflects audience perspective, context, and purpose

Skill Descriptor: Respond personally and critically to a variety of text.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Respond to oral presentations and stories, and multimodal text, citing reactions, interpretations, and understandings
• Respond to oral presentations and stories and multimodal text, providing thoughts and opinions

Skill Descriptor: Adjust interactions to reflect the situation, audience, and purpose.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Identify appropriate conventions for specific types of interactions
• Use conversational conventions that demonstrate consideration for the thoughts and feelings of others
• Use active listening strategies
• Use words to negotiate and identify a next step or response (conflict resolution, material requests, task delegation, etc.)

Skill Descriptor: Critically reflect on the contributions of others.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Listen actively and attentively
• Recognize and follow the presenter’s main idea and supporting details
• Consider ideas that differ from their own
• Detect examples of prejudice stereotyping or bias in oral language
• Recognize the negative effect of prejudice, stereotyping, or bias on individuals and groups

Skill Descriptor: Begin to explain how advanced word structure can be used as a word-solving strategy.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Decode novel and/or complex words with ease
• Apply knowledge of syllable patterns to chunk and decode longer words
• Recognize and decode Anglo-Saxon morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) and how they affect word meaning
• Begin to recognize and decode Latin morphemes and how they affect word meaning

Skill Descriptor: Read an increasing variety of texts with accuracy and expression.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Read internal and end punctuation smoothly and confidently with appropriate expression and pausing
• Automatically recall a variety of two-and three-syllable words and high-frequency words varying in spelling regularity
• Read a variety of subject-specific terminology with automaticity
• Read a variety of familiar text with appropriate phrasing demonstrating an understanding of intonation and stress and their role in conveying meaning

Skill Descriptor: Recognize how different strategies are used to determine the meanings of words.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Begin to use some academic language intentionally in expressive language
• Begin to demonstrate an understanding of how morphemes and morphology affects meaning of words
• Begin to recognize how to use contextual clues for solving unknown vocabulary words

Skill Descriptor: Examine information critically considering the source, intended audience, and purpose.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Respond accurately to most literal and inferential questions
• Interpret basic text features and explain how they help the reader understand the text
• Identify key story or text elements including most relevant details
• Identify appropriate situations for skimming and apply skimming strategies when needed
• Demonstrate an awareness that texts reveal and produce ideologies, identities, and positions

Skill Descriptor: Adjust and use a variety of strategies to make meaning.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Read and re-read to clarify understanding
• Enhance use of meta-cognition (thinking about thinking) when reading
• Make logical predictions that show cause and effect
• Pause regularly in reading to summarize key information orally
• Identify thick and thin questions and begin to use different questions to make meaning of text
• Experience a variety of texts, varying in form, length, perspectives, and diverse worldviews

Skill Descriptor: Reflect and respond personally and critically to a variety of texts across genres, interests, and complexities.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Express personal reactions, preferences for, and opinions about, particular texts, authors, illustrators, and genres
• Identify personal experiences and prior knowledge to make personal connections
• Recognize some aspects of a writer’s style/technique and its effectiveness
• Differentiate claims supported by facts and reason from those that are not

Skill Descriptor: Independently select, read, and construct meaning from a variety of texts representing all voices.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Explain preferences and choice of reading material
• Construct meaning from a variety of text forms, including print and non-print texts
• Preview, interpret, and locate information using text features (pictorial, typographical, and organizational)
• Identify key story elements of a variety of narrative texts
• Explain how events are related to the theme
• Distinguish between main ideas and supporting details
• Explain how the author’s style/technique creates meaning and impact
• Discuss how purpose, structure, and characteristics/text features of a variety of text forms contribute to meaning
• Interact with storytellers and people in the community (Elders, family members, librarians, etc.)

Skill Descriptor: Explore the characteristics, language, form, features, and genres of a range of texts.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use context clues, prior knowledge, and knowledge of text forms and features to make predictions
• Refer to relevant textual details when inferring
• Describe relationships among characters and effect on plot/subplots or overall theme in narrative texts
• Interpret relationships among ideas to draw conclusions or make comparisons
• Support responses with relevant details
• Describe the relationships between language, topic, genre, purpose, context, and audience

Skill Descriptor: Develop strategies to enhance clarity in written works.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select and develop a topic within a chosen form demonstrating an awareness of audience
• Write with purpose and understand the influence of the writer
• Gather ideas from a variety of sources and use a framework (e.g., web, graphic organizer) to sort and classify the information/ideas and make new connections
• Apply knowledge of copyright/plagiarism (including the use of A.I.)
• Draft a piece of writing making critical choices about ideas/content based on purpose and intended audience
• Independently reread to add to, delete from, or reorganize the text to strengthen content
• Request, obtain, and make decisions about constructive criticism
• Understand revision supports clarification and strengthens communication
• Reread writing aloud for fluency; begin to make changes to sentence structures
• Use appropriate tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, grammar checker, and text models) to edit conventions and strengthen word choice; may require teacher support for split dialogue
• Use a variety of publishing formats (e.g., books, pamphlets, posters, websites) with appropriate text and text features

Skill Descriptor: Create a variety of texts with purpose and understand the influence of the writer/creator.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select a specific topic that establishes the purpose and audience
• Include straightforward and predictable ideas/events
• Support the ideas with relevant details

Skill Descriptor: Select an appropriate form and use an engaging introduction that includes the purpose.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select an appropriate form and establish the purpose in the introduction
• Show evidence of logical sequencing
• Show control of paragraph divisions
• Provide an obvious conclusion

Skill Descriptor: Include interesting and/or domain specific words and phrases to convey and enhance meaning.

Achievement Indicators:

• Include precise/interesting words and/or technical language
• Include descriptive words (adjectives, adverbs, strong verbs, strong nouns)

Skill Descriptor: Provide evidence of author’s style, personality, and experience.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Show awareness of audience
• Demonstrate engagement with subject
• Include glimpses of personal feeling, energy, and individuality

Skill Descriptor: Include well-crafted sentences to support meaning and readability.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include different kinds of sentences, with a variety of complex structures (occasional errors)
• Include a variety of sentence lengths and beginnings to establish rhythm and create interest

Skill Descriptor: Demonstrate correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar usage. 

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use correct end punctuation and capitalization
• Include internal punctuation (commas, quotation marks, and apostrophes) and paragraphing of dialogue with some competence
• Spell familiar and commonly used words correctly with close approximations for more complex words (may make a few homophone mistakes)
• Follow correct tense, subject/verb agreement, and grammatically correct pronouns (e.g., Give it to Tom and me.)

Skill Descriptor: Describe and contribute thoughts, feelings, and experiences and compare to those of their peers.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Describe observations, understandings, viewpoints, and perspectives
• Compare and contrast observations, understandings, viewpoints, and perspectives that have been shared by others

Skill Descriptor: Defend and support ideas and opinions with evidence.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Discuss personal opinion and perspective using evidence
• Explore difference of opinion, citing reasons based on personal experience
• Use evidence to support, refute, and critique personal opinions and the opinions of others
• Communicate persuasively citing evidence free from generalizations and bias

Skill Descriptor: Summarize and present content to communicate facts, ideas, and opinions.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select information that supports purpose
• Use language to support ideas and arguments
• Select and use language to persuade audience

Skill Descriptor: Use language of harmony and respect self-monitoring and adjusting as appropriate.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Describe helpful, respectful, and equitable language
• Use language that demonstrates consideration for the feelings of others
• Use language that is not hurtful or offensive
• Identify examples of prejudice, stereotyping, or bias in oral language and the negative effect on individuals and cultures
• Use bias-free language
• Use inclusive language that respects gender identity
• Use language that demonstrates cultural sensitivity and respect

Skill Descriptor: Seek and respond to questions to clarify or explain ideas, concepts, problems and solutions.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Ask clarifying questions to help understand a question or a problem
• Make personal connections when responding to provide clarity and understanding
• Respond citing relevant information from a reliable source
• Ask questions that extend beyond a definitive answer

Skill Descriptor: Give and respond to a variety of directions and instructions.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Give multi-step and increasingly complex instructions
• Follow multi-step and increasingly complex instructions
• Clarify processes, routines, and order of sequence or operation

Skill Descriptor: Understand communication conventions for a diverse set of audiences.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Communicate with sensitivity and respect
• Selects and uses language that reflects audience perspective, context, and purpose

Skill Descriptor: Respond personally and critically to a variety of text.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Respond to oral presentations and stories, and multimodal text, citing reactions, interpretations, and outstanding questions
• Respond to oral presentations and stories and multimodal text, providing thoughts and opinions, citing evidence

Skill Descriptor: Adjust interactions to reflect the situation, audience, and purpose.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Identify appropriate conventions for specific types of interactions
• Use conversational conventions that are respectful of the needs, rights, and feelings of others
• Engage in active listening
• Communicate a next step or response to negotiate

Skill Descriptor: Critically reflect on the contributions of others.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Listen actively and attentively
• Reflect on information shared by others for relevance to the topic
• Recognize and follow the presenter’s main ideas, supporting details and organizational structure
• Consider and respect ideas from the speaker’s point of view.
• Recognize that spoken language reveals values and attitudes such as bias, beliefs, and prejudice
• Understand how language is used to influence and manipulate

Skill Descriptor: Apply knowledge of advanced word structures as word-solving strategy.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Apply knowledge of syllable patterns to decode complex multi-syllabic words
• Recognize and decode Anglo-Saxon morphemes and how they affect word meaning
• Recognize and decode Latin morphemes and how they affect word meaning
• Begin to recognize and decode Greek morphemes and how they affect word meaning

Skill Descriptor: Read an increasing variety of text with accuracy and expression.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Automatically recall three- or four-syllable words with confidence
• Adjust pacing to match form and purpose
• Read a variety of familiar and some less familiar texts smoothly while using intonation, volume, and tone to convey text meaning
• Demonstrate an understanding that multimodal fiction and non-fiction texts are read and navigated in different ways

Skill Descriptor: Recognize how different strategies are used to determine the meaning of words.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use some academic vocabulary intentionally in expressive language
• Demonstrate an understanding of how different morphemes and morphology affects meaning of words
• Begin to use multiple strategies for solving new vocabulary
• Discuss various reasons for specific vocabulary use in multimodal text

Skill Descriptor: Examine information to critically construct literal and inferred meaning from a variety of text.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Respond to literal and inferential questions using relevant textual details for support
• Interpret most text features and explain how they enhance the meaning of the text
• Explain how key story or text elements affect the plot or main idea
• Demonstrate the ability to search for and locate information quickly and with accuracy
• Detect prejudice, stereotyping, and bias and how language is used to manipulate, persuade, or control

Skill Descriptor: Adjust and use a wide variety of strategies to make meaning.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use and describe strategies to self-correct
• Enhance use of meta-cognition when reading
• Make predictions using evidence from the text
• Pause regularly in reading to summarize key information concisely, either orally or written
• Ask relevant questions before, during, and after reading to understand characters and events better and to understand author’s intent
• Use a variety of texts varying in form, length, and diverse worldview to present an alternative perspective to a topic or theme

Skill Descriptor: Analyze and respond personally and critically to a range of texts across genres, interests, and complexities.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Express and support personal reactions, preferences for, and opinions about particular texts, authors, illustrators, and genres with details/examples
• Explain interpretations, reactions, and connections to text
• Evaluate a writer’s style/technique and its effectiveness
• Distinguish between claims based on facts/reason and claims based on opinion by citing appropriate evidence

Skill Descriptor: Independently select, read, and construct meaning from a range of texts representing all voices.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Explain preferences and choice of reading material
• Construct meaning from a variety of text forms, including print and non-print texts
• Preview, interpret, and locate information using text features (pictorial, typographical, and organizational)
• Identify key story elements of a variety of narrative texts
• Explain how main ideas are related to the theme of a text
• Distinguish between main ideas and supporting details
• Explain how the author’s style/technique and use of text features help readers construct meaning
• Discuss how purpose, structure, and characteristics of a variety of text forms and genres contribute to understanding
• Interact with storytellers and people in the community (Elders, family members, librarians, etc.)

Skill Descriptor: Analyze the characteristics, language, form, features, and genre of a range of texts.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use context clues, prior knowledge, and knowledge of forms/features to make predictions/assumptions
• Refer to relevant textual details and/or features when inferring
• Describe relationships among characters and effect on plot/subplots or overall theme in narrative texts
• Interpret relationships among ideas to draw conclusions or make comparisons
• Support responses with relevant details
• Describe the relationships between language, topic, genre, purpose, context, and audience
• Recognize that texts need to be assessed for bias

Skill Descriptor: Develop strategies to enhance clarity in written works.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select and develop a topic within a chosen form demonstrating an awareness of audience; some writing may combine text forms (hybrids)
• Write with purpose and understand the influence and power of the writer
• Gather ideas from a variety of sources and use a framework (e.g., web, graphic organizer) to sort and classify the information/ideas, organize perspectives, and make new connections
• Apply knowledge of copyright/plagiarism (including the use of A.I.)
• Draft a piece of writing making critical choices about ideas/content based on the purpose and intended audience
• Independently reread to add to, delete from, or reorganize the text to clarify and strengthen content
• Request, obtain, and make decisions about constructive criticism
• Understand revision supports clarification and strengthens communication
• Reread writing aloud for fluency; make changes to sentence structures and word choices to provide variety
• Use appropriate tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, grammar checker, and text models) to edit conventions, and strengthen word choice
• Use a variety of publishing formats (e.g., books, pamphlets, posters, websites) with appropriate text and text features
• Identify helpful strategies before, during, and after the writing
• Explain form choice as it pertains to purpose and intended audience

Skill Descriptor: Create a variety of texts with purpose and understand the influence of the writer/creator.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select a specific topic with a main idea that supports the purpose and audience
• Include straightforward and thoughtful ideas/events
• Include relevant information with details to enhance the ideas

Skill Descriptor: Select an appropriate form and use an engaging introduction that includes the purpose.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select an appropriate form and establish the purpose in the introduction
• Show evidence of logical sequencing
• Express related ideas in paragraphs
• Include a reasonable conclusion

Skill Descriptor: Include interesting and/or domain specific words and phrases to convey and enhance meaning.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include precise/interesting words and/or technical language (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)
• Begin to use figurative language (e.g., metaphor, simile)

Skill Descriptor: Provide evidence of author’s style, personality, and experiences.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Connect the audience to the topic/theme
• Show commitment to the topic
• Begin to generate strong feeling, energy, and individuality

Skill Descriptor: Include well-crafted sentences to support meaning and readability.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include different kinds of sentences, with a variety of complex structures
• Include a variety of sentence lengths and beginnings to create a natural flow of ideas

Skill Descriptor: Demonstrate correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar usage.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use correct end punctuation and capitalization
• Include internal punctuation (e.g., commas, semi-colons, colons, quotation marks, and apostrophes) and paragraphing of dialogue
• Spell familiar and commonly used words correctly; use knowledge of rules to attempt difficult spellings
• Use standard grammatical structures (subject/verb agreement and verb tense)
• Attempt to use correct pronouns

Skill Descriptor: Describe and communicate thoughts, feelings, and experiences as well as personal strengths.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Describe observations, understandings, viewpoints and perspectives
• Communicate personal strengths giving reasons

Skill Descriptor: Defend and support ideas and opinions with evidence.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Justify personal position citing evidence
• Identify difference of opinion citing facts, anecdotal evidence, and experiences
• Communicate persuasively citing evidence free from generalizations and bias

Skill Descriptor: Evaluate and present content to communicate facts, ideas, and opinions.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select information, topics, and theme that support their purpose
• Support ideas with evidence
• Use credible information to support or refute ideas and opinions
• Present with intention, using source content and language to influence the audience

Skill Descriptor: Use language of harmony and respect, self-monitoring and adjusting as appropriate.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Describe helpful, respectful, and equitable language
• Use language that demonstrates consideration for the feelings of others
• Use language that is not hurtful or offensive
• Identify examples of prejudice, stereotyping, or bias in oral language and the negative effect on individuals and cultures
• Use bias-free language
• Use inclusive language that respects gender identity
• Use language that demonstrates cultural sensitivity and respect

Skill Descriptor: Seek and respond to questions to clarify or explain ideas, concepts, problems, and solutions.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Participate in inquisitive questioning by asking questions and responding to others
• Ask clarifying questions to seek further information and determine next steps
• Seek outside resources to support ideas, concepts, or claims
• Ask pondering questions to extend ideas, rather than to seek a definitive answer

Skill Descriptor: Give and respond to a variety of directions and instructions.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Give multi-step and increasingly complex instructions
• Follow multi-step and increasingly complex instruction
• Clarify processes, routines, and order of sequence or operation

Skill Descriptor: Understand communication conventions for a diverse set of audiences.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Communicate with sensitivity and respect
• Select and adjust language to reflect an understanding of the audience perspective, context, and purpose

Skill Descriptor: Respond personally and critically to a variety of text.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Respond and react to oral presentations, stories, and multimodal text by challenging ideas and communicating thoughts or opinions
• Respond to oral presentations, stories, and multimodal text citing incomplete information, outstanding questions, and possibilities for further elaboration

Skill Descriptor: Adjust interactions to reflect the situation, audience, and purpose.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Identify appropriate conventions for specific types of interactions
• Use conversational conventions that are respectful of the needs, rights, and feelings of others
• Engage in active listening
• Communicate a next step or response to negotiate

Skill Descriptor: Critically reflect on the contributions of others to extend understanding.

Global Competencies: SASM, CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Determine what information is important, relevant, and worthy of further consideration
• Identify the perspective implicit within a speaker’s contribution
• Recognize that spoken language reveals values and attitudes such as bias, beliefs, and prejudice
• Understand how language is used to influence and manipulate

Skill Descriptor: Explain how a variety of word structures can be used to solve unfamiliar words.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Explain how different morphemes affect word meaning and how these can be used to help solve unfamiliar words
• Solve unknown words using a variety of cues (dividing into syllables, root words and origins, background knowledge, context clues)

Skill Descriptor: Begin to read less familiar text with accuracy and expression.

Global Competencies: CM

Achievement Indicators:

• Automatically recall multisyllabic words effortlessly
• Adjust pacing to match form and purpose with ease
• Read appropriate-level texts with confidence, consistently appropriate expression, and phrasing
• Demonstrate how multimodal fiction and non-fiction texts are read and navigated in different ways

Skill Descriptor: Begin to use a range of strategies to determine new vocabulary in all texts.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Begin to use multiple strategies for determining new vocabulary with flexibility
• Demonstrates an understanding of how different morphemes and morphology affects meaning of words
• Use text features to find the meaning of unknown technical words

Skill Descriptor: Examine information critically considering the source, intended audience, inferred meaning, and explicit bias.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Construct literal and inferred meaning when reading text independently
• Make general inferences from the information gathered from a variety of text features
• Describe relationships among story or text elements and their effect on plot or overall theme
• Demonstrate the ability to search for and locate specific information from a variety of sources
• Respond critically to how a text employs language to manipulate, persuade, or control and propose alternative perspectives

Skill Descriptor: Use appropriate comprehension strategies to clarify understanding of a range of text with increasing confidence.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Explain the use of self-correction strategies and how it affects meaning
• Use and describe some meta-cognition processes when reading
• Begin to use inferential predictions to enhance meaning
• Annotate reading to summarize key information concisely
• Use relevant questioning during reading to clarify understanding of text and evaluate questions after reading to determine if inferring or further information is required
• Use a variety of texts varying in form, length, and diverse worldview to present an alternative perspective to a topic or theme

Skill Descriptor: Analyze and respond personally and critically to a range of texts across genres, interests, and complexities, citing evidence.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Express and support personal reactions, and preferences for and opinions about a diverse range of texts, genres, and creators
• Compare and contrast information with personal experiences and prior knowledge to make personal connections, textual connections, and world connections
• Evaluate a writer’s style/technique and its effectiveness citing relevant examples
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the facts/reason to support a claim and identify when irrelevant information is introduced

Skill Descriptor: Independently select, read, and construct meaning from a variety of texts representing all voices.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

• Explain preferences and choice of reading material
• Communicate purpose of text selection related to learning needs and interests
• Interpret symbols, shades of meaning, and figurative and descriptive language used by the author to convey meaning in literary texts
• Interpret genre-specific text features used by text creators to convey meaning in both literary and informational texts
• Analyze how purpose, structure, and characteristics/text features of a variety of text forms and genres contribute to understanding
• Articulate how an author’s/creator’s style/technique creates meaning and impact
• Interact with storytellers and people in the community (Elders, family members, librarians, etc.)

Skill Descriptor: Critically analyze the characteristics, language, form, features, and genre of a range of texts.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Use context clues, prior knowledge/experience, and knowledge of text forms and features to verify and adjust predictions/assumptions
• Identify key story elements of a narrative and explain how they relate to the theme
• Describe the difference between main ideas and supporting details
• Compare and contrast language, content, and themes in current and historic text
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the different elements of an author’s style/technique in creating meaning and impact, using evidence
• Examine texts for bias

Skill Descriptor: Develop strategies to enhance clarity in written works.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

• Select and develop a topic; demonstrate awareness of audience and competence crafting a variety of text forms (including hybrids)
• Write with purpose and understand the influence of the writer
• Gather ideas from a variety of sources and use a framework (e.g., web, graphic organizer) to sort and classify the information/ideas, recognize different perspectives, and make new connections
• Apply knowledge of copyright/plagiarism (including the use of A.I.)
• Draft a piece of writing making critical choices about ideas/content based on the purpose and intended audience
• Independently reread to add to, delete from, or reorganize the text to clarify and strengthen content
• Request, obtain, and make decisions about, constructive criticism
• Refine writing to enhance impact
• Select linguistic (e.g., analogy, colloquialism, figurative language, flattery) and print devices (e.g., print size, font, page design) designed to influence audience
• Reread writing aloud for fluency; make changes to sentence structures and word choices to provide variety
• Use appropriate tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, grammar checker, and text models) to edit conventions, and strengthen word choice
• Use a variety of publishing formats (e.g., books, pamphlets, posters, websites) with appropriate text and text features
• Use specific devices to achieve purpose (instruct, persuade, entertain)
• Explain form choice as it pertains to purpose and intended audience

Skill Descriptor: Create a variety of texts with purpose and understand the influence of the writer/creator.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select a specific topic with a main idea that supports the purpose and audience
• Include thoughtful ideas/events relevant to the topic
• Include relevant/well-researched details to enhance the ideas

Skill Descriptor: Select an appropriate form and use an engaging introduction that includes the purpose.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Select an appropriate form and clearly establish the purpose in the introduction
• Use an underlying structure to present information (e.g., temporal sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast)
• Use transitions between and within paragraphs to show sequencing and connections
• Provide an adequate conclusion

Skill Descriptor: Include interesting and/or domain specific words and phrases to convey and enhance meaning.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include interesting words and/or technical/subject-specific language to enhance meaning (strong nouns and verbs, colourful adjectives and adverbs)
• Use figurative language (e.g., metaphor, analogy, symbolism)

Skill Descriptor: Provide evidence of author’s style, personality, and experience.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Skillfully connect the audience to the topic
• Show care and commitment to the topic
• Generate strong feeling, energy, and individuality

Skill Descriptor: Include well-crafted sentences to support meaning and readability.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include different kinds of sentences, with a variety of complex structures
• Include a variety of sentence lengths and beginnings to create fluidity

Skill Descriptor: Demonstrate correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar usage.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

• Include internal punctuation (e.g., commas, semi-colons, colons, dash, hyphen, parentheses, apostrophes) and paragraphing of dialogue
• Correctly spell almost all words; use spelling support (e.g., dictionary, spell checker); correctly use homophones
• Use standard grammatical structures (subject/verb agreement, verb tense, all parts of speech, numbers, contractions, plurals)
• Use a range of print characteristics and layout to enhance the meaning (e.g., headings, visuals, white space, italics, bold, font size, and style)