Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
Kindergarten–Grade 5
Reading: Literature
Kindergarten
Key Ideas and Details
RL.K.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.2
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Craft and Structure
RL.K.4
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
RL.K.5
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).
RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
RL.K.9
With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
RL.K.10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Grade 1
Key Ideas and Details
RL.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
Craft and Structure
RL.1.4
Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
RL.1.5
Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.
RL.1.6
Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RL.1.9
Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.
Grade 2
Key Ideas and Details
RL.2.1
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.2
Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
Craft and Structure
RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
RL.2.6
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RL.2.7
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
RL.2.9
Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
Language
Kindergarten
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.K.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on
kindergarten reading and content.
- Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).
- Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.
L.K.5
With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
- Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
- Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at school that are colorful).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.
L.K.6
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.
Grade 1
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.1.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on
grade 1 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word.
- Identify frequently occurring root words (e.g., look) and their inflectional forms (e.g., looks, looked, looking).
L.1.5
With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
- Sort words into categories (e.g., colors, clothing) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
- Define words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes).
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at home that are cozy).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.
L.1.6
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
Grade 2
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.2.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on
grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).
- Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).
- Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).
- Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
L.2.5
Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).
L.2.6
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).