Common Areas of Expectations in Language Arts for Kindergartners

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Each state’s standards are specific to that state; however, there are several common strands across most states. To illustrate this, state language arts standards for kindergarten were reviewed from the following states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. These states were selected because they represent areas of large population in the United States.

Common areas of expectations for kindergartners included the following:

• Alphabet knowledge: Recognizing and naming all upper- and lower-case letters
• Phonological awareness: Knowing letter–sound correspondences, blending sounds, identifying beginning and ending sounds, recognizing and producing rhymes and alliteration, isolating sounds
• Print and book concepts: Understanding that print carries meaning; Understanding that books are read from front to back, and that print is read from left to right, and from the top to the bottom of the page
• Word recognition: Reading simple one-syllable and high-frequency words
• Comprehension
• Making predictions by using titles, illustrations, prior knowledge, and story segments to anticipate book content
• Asking and answering questions during story book sharing
• Retelling stories or events in accurate sequences
• Connecting book content to life experiences
• Distinguishing different literary forms, such as fiction, nonfiction, newsletters, signs, lists
• Writing
• Writing upper- and lower-case letters
• Using a variety of strategies for writing including drawing, prephonemic spelling, phonemic spelling, and known words.

Although these common areas of expectations were evident in the review of kindergarten language arts standards from California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas, each state had additional specific standards that were unique to that state. As you prepare your curriculum for kindergarten, you will need to become familiar with the specific standards developed by your state education department (or agency) as well as any other standards developed by your local school district. In most instances, these standards can be obtained from your state department/agency or school district website.