Your Literacy Standards Companion, Grades K-2. Jim Burke

how to read, write, talk, and think through well-crafted lessons that draw from the pedagogy embedded within them. Engaging lessons often have several ELA standards within them and integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language.

      Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 3: Key Ideas and Details

      Standard 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

      Literature

       K With prompting and support, students identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

       1 Students describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

       2 Students describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

      Informational Text

       K With prompting and support, students describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

       1 Students describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

       2 Students describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

      Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 3: What the Student Does

      Literature

       K Gist: Students identify the characters, setting, and major events in a story.

      They consider:

       Who is the main character and what is he or she like?

       Who are the other characters and how does the main character get along with them?

       How does the main character react to major events that occur?

       Would the story have been the same if it had taken place at a different location?

       1 Gist: Students describe the characters, setting, and major events in a story, using key details.

      They consider:

       How does the main character behave at the beginning of the story? Why? What problem is causing him or her to act that way?

       How do other characters make things better or worse for the main character?

       What, if anything, has the main character learned by the end of the story? Or has what was once a problem been resolved? What events caused this to happen?

       Would the story be the same if it had taken place at a different location or at a different time?

       2 Gist: Students describe how characters respond to major events and challenges.

      They consider:

       How does the main character behave at the beginning, middle, and end of the story?

       Why does the main character’s behavior change from the beginning of the story to the end?

       What event is the turning point of the story, when the main character does something or understands something that helps solve the problem?

      Informational Text

       K Gist: Students describe how two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information relate to one another.

      They consider:

       How does the title help me understand what the text is about?

       Which pieces of information explain the title?

       How is the text organized? Do the sections or chapters follow in a helpful order?

       How do the illustrations and the words work together to help me understand the main topic?

       1 Gist: Students describe how two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information relate to one another.

      They consider:

       What does the title tell me about the topic? How about the headings?

       How is the text organized? Do the sections or chapters follow in a logical order?

       How does the information in each section relate to the section title and the main topic as a whole?

       How do the illustrations, the text features, and the words work together to help me understand the main topic?

       2 Gist: Students describe the connection between historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures.

      They consider:

       Is the author’s purpose to describe people, events, and concepts; to give steps in a process; or to describe how to do something?

       How do the illustrations, the text features, and the words work together to help me understand the main topic?

       When I “add up” the section headings, what do I learn? How do they build on one another to give information about the main topic?

      Note: Although the questions listed above are too difficult for most young students to internalize and apply on their own, we share them to give teachers a detailed sense of what their students should be striving toward as learners. K–2 students may not be able to ask these questions of themselves independently, but teachers can use them as a jumping-off point for lesson content and as prompts and reminders to share with students. Over time and with instruction, students will be able to pose these questions on their own.

      Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 3: What the Teacher Does

       To help students identify the characters, setting, and major events in a story:

       Read aloud and share texts whose story elements and/or organization are straightforward and a good fit with the story elements you’re highlighting. Look for traditionally organized stories, such as “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and Rosemary Wells’s Timothy Goes to School, and use story map graphic organizers to chart the stories’ development (resources.corwin.com/literacycompanionk-2).

       Make a list of all the characters in a story and determine which is the main character and which ones play more of a supporting role. Elicit from students why they categorize the characters as they do, and direct them back to the text for evidence.

       Create character webs to help students identify what the main and supporting characters are like, how they feel, and what motivates them to behave in certain ways. As students read the text, help them draw connections between the characters, for example, between the hardworking Little Red Hen and the lazy Dog, Duck, and Pig. Help students identify how the Little Red Hen’s request for help and Dog’s, Duck’s, and Pig’s refusal to help lead her to act as she does at the end.

       Help students understand that setting refers to both where (city, country, in school, at home, and so on) and when (time of day or season) a story takes place. This also includes the geographic and/or historical location of the story. Help students keep track of any changes in the setting of the story and help them identify the words the author uses to alert them to such changes.

       To help students describe and explain how characters respond to major