In working with intermediate grade teachers and children, I am noticing that important writing skills we would expect to be secure in the children's writing are not. In this post I make some grade specific recommendations for K-2 writing. Please note that these skills do not represent a full writing program, but rather specifically address composition skills.
Kindergarten: Expected Writing Skill Accomplishments by End
of the Year
Correctly print
first and last name.
Capitalize:
first word
in a sentence
I
names of people and specific places (i.e.,
home city/town).
Recognize
and name end punctuation.
Correctly
read and spell high frequency words (see list by grade level)
Spell: a, and, I, the, can, is, we
Read: a, am, an, and, at, can, come, do, go, he, I, is, in, it,
like, me, my, no, see, so, the, to, up, we, you
Write
a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes)
Recognize
all upper- and lowercase letters and be
able to print most upper and lowercase letter (at least 40) using correct
letter formation.
Form
regular plural nouns orally by
adding /s/or /es/ (e.g., dog, dogs; wish, wishes).
Understand
and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why,
how).
Be
aware of specific print concepts when participating in interactive writing or
shared writing: Capital/lowercase
letters, directionality, the use of finger spaces between words, and the use of
text wrapping at the end of a line (return sweep).
Grade 1: Expected Writing Skill Accomplishments by End of the Year
Print
all upper- and lowercase letters.
Use
common, proper, and possessive nouns.
Use
singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He
runs; We run).
Use
personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them,
their, anyone, everything).
Use
verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I
walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
Use
frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
Use
frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
Capitalize:
Uses
capitalization rules from Kindergarten
days
of the week, months of the year
dates
names
of people and places
Write
in complete sentences.
Use
end punctuation for sentences.
Use
commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
Use
an apostrophe to form contractions.
Write 63 high-frequency
words automatically and read the first 100 words automatically.
Grade 2: Expected Writing Skill Accomplishments by End of the Year
Use
collective nouns (e.g., group).
Form
and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children,
teeth, mice, fish).
Use
possessive pronouns (e.g., its, theirs).
Use
subject pronouns (e.g., she vs. her; I vs. me).
Use
reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
Maintain
subject/verb agreement.
Maintain
consistent tense, especially past tense.
Form
and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat,
hid, told).
Use
adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
Produce,
expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy
watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie
was watched by the little boy).
Capitalize:
Uses
capitalization rules from previous grades
holidays
product
names
geographic
names
first
word in dialogue.
Use
commas in greetings and closings of letters.
Uses
some quotation marks in dialogue.
Uses
colon when writing time (e.g., 12:30)
Use
an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.
Write
and read 150–200 high-frequency words automatically.
