BASIC BENCHMARKS FOR LEARNING
Acknowledgement: ASHA- Literacy and Communication: Expectations from K through Fifth Grade. Authors: DeAnne Wellman Owre, MS, CCC-SLP Martha Kennedy Brennan, MA. CCC-SLP
Kindergarten
Listening
Follow 1-2 simple oral directions sequentially.
Follow a simple conversation
*Listen to and understand age appropriate stories read aloud. Discuss what they picture when you read to them.
Visualizing - important to reading comprehension.
Speaking
Produce intelligible speech
Answer open ended questions ex. "Tell me what did you do at grandma's?"
Recall a story, parts of a story or an event
Use many types of sentences to express needs, thoughts and to give or ask for information
Participate appropriately in conversation - stay on topic
Show interest in and initiate conversation
Reading
Read front to back, top to bottom
*Understand that spoken and written words are made of speech sounds
*Compare and match words based on their sounds
*Identify sounds of letters- more important initially than names of the letters. Again reinforce that
letters are only symbols, a code for speech sounds.
Read picture books from memory. Being able to look at pictures and tell about what is happening,
what might happen next, why? This helps develop comprehension and the reading habits/strategies for comprehension.
Writing
Print name, letters - again emphasize sounds. Ex. B is the symbol/code for the sound /b/
Draw a picture about a story, write about a story. Proficiency at this age is obviously limited. Encouraging
the activity working on an emerging skill is what is important.
First Grade
By the end of 1st grade most children have gained the following skills and are expected to:
Listening
Demonstrate listening comprehension - recall information and respond to instruction.
Follow 2-3 oral directions sequentially.
Speaking
Produce all English sound intelligibly
Tell and retell stories in a logical order
Express ideas with a variety of complete sentences
Use grammatically correct sentences and recognize them
Ask and respond to "wh" questions - who, what, where, why, when
*Stay on topic, take turns in conversation
Give directions
*Initiate conversations
Reading
Identify all sounds in short words
Blend sounds to form words
Read words, sentences, identify letters by sounds and names.
Sound out words in reading
Sight vocabulary of 100 common words. Generalize reading of words. Be able to identify words in different
settings, forms. Ex. - (in a story book and on a sign at the grocery store)
*Read grade level material fluently
Understand material read- retell story, answer factual questions. Higher level comprehension - start developing
by asking why, what do you think may have happened next, what if? Develop thinking skills!
Writing
Express ideas in writing
Print clearly
Spell frequently used words correctly. Again be able to generalize vocabulary.
Use capital letters and ending punctuation.
Second Grade
By the end of 2nd grade most children have gained the following literacy and communication skills and are expected to:
Listening
Follow 3-4 oral directions sequentially
Demonstrate understanding of direction words (location, space, time)
Demonstrate understanding of a grade level story aloud by answering questions
Speaking
Use increasingly complex sentence structures in oral communication. Most important - do you see your child's
communication skills progressing?
Clarify and explain words and ideas
Give 3-4 step directions. (Ex. Tell me how to make a p b and j sandwich from start to finish.)
Use language for different purposes- share information, express needs, socialize, persuade.
Social aspects of communication- eye contact, stay on topic, take turns, appropriate responses. When
asked a question do they answer that question or something else. Ex. Answer a "what" question instead
of a "why", "where" etc or visa versa.
Open and close conversation appropriately. Observant of body language signals.
Reading
Mastery of phonemic awareness
Use meaningful content clues - pictures, titles, headings, other words in sentence - while reading
Self correct while reading
Read spontaneously
Read grade level stories fluently
Use own experience to predict, justify what will happen in a story.
Read, retell, paraphrase a story sequentially. Identify characters, main ideas.
Locate information in a story to answer questions
Use decoding strategies/ word attack skills for words
Writing
Use a variety of sentence types in writing. Use punctuation, capitalization appropriately
Organize writing to include beginning, middle and end.
Spell frequently used words correctly in context
Third Grade
By the end of 3rd grade most children have gained the following literacy and communication skills and are expected to:
Listening
Listen attentively in a group
Comprehend grade level content material
Speaking
Use clear and specific vocabulary in conversation and classroom discussions.
Use subject related vocabulary.
Stay on topic, use appropriate eye contact and take turns in conversation.* Does your child participate in
classroom discussions? Shyness or language processing issue?
Explain what has been learned - *provided the child understands the material
Summarize a story accurately
Ask and respond to questions from others
Reading
Master of phonemic awareness and patterns of words, word analysis skills when reading
Use clues from language content and structure to help understand what is read. *Mastered the
understanding that reading is a visual/written form of spoken language and follows the same grammatical rules.
Ask and answer questions regarding reading material
Use acquired information, life experience to learn about new topics
Read fiction and non-fiction grade level material fluently
Reread and self correct when necessary
Writing
Plan, organize and revise and edit writing. *Does child have the techniques/tools to do this? Webbing,
developing an outline, etc.
Write with details
Write stories, letters, brief reports, journals, creative writing- poems. *Encourage creative writing,
help child to see it can be fun.
Use a dictionary for spelling and comprehension of words. Spelling skills continue to develop.
Write clearly in cursive.*
