What does a student learn in StateMichigan,GradeKindergarten,SubjectEnglish Language Arts?

Students listen to a story and answer questions about what happened, who was in it, and where it took place. A teacher or parent helps by asking questions like "What did the bear do next?"

Students retell a story they know, naming who was in it and what happened. A teacher or adult may help them remember the details.

Students name who is in a story, where it takes place, and what happens. A teacher or parent helps them find those answers.

Students stop at unfamiliar words in a story and ask what they mean. A teacher or classmate helps them figure it out.

Students learn that not all books look or sound the same. A storybook tells a tale with characters and events, while a poem uses rhythm and short lines.

Students learn who wrote a story and who drew the pictures, and what each person's job is. The author made up the words; the illustrator made the art.

Students look at the pictures in a book and explain what's happening in the story at that moment. A teacher or parent helps them make the connection between what they see and what the words are telling.

Students look at two familiar stories side by side and talk about how the characters' experiences are alike and different. A teacher helps guide the conversation.

Students listen to and talk about stories read aloud in class, with a clear reason for reading in mind. They follow along, ask questions, and make sense of what they hear.

With a teacher's help, students ask and answer questions about what they heard or read. They point to key details in a book to show where they found the answer.

With a teacher's help, students name what a nonfiction book or article is mostly about and recall the important details that support it.

Students look at a book about the real world and explain how two things in it relate to each other, like how rain connects to puddles. A teacher or parent helps them find the link.

Students learn what an unfamiliar word means by asking questions and talking about it with a teacher. The focus is on words in nonfiction books and real-world reading.

Students learn where a book begins and ends. They can point to the front cover, the back cover, and the page inside that shows the title.

Students learn that an author writes the words in a book and an illustrator draws the pictures. Each person has a different job in telling the reader about a topic.

Students look at a picture in a book and explain what it shows from the words on the page. A teacher or adult helps by asking questions like "What do you see?" or "Where did we read about that?"

An author doesn't just say something is true. Students learn to spot the reasons an author gives to back up a point, like why an animal is dangerous or why vegetables are good to eat.

Two books can cover the same topic but show or explain it differently. Students look at both and point out what matches and what doesn't, like how the pictures or words compare.

Students listen to and talk about nonfiction books as a group, with a clear reason for reading in mind.

Books have a front and a back, words run left to right, and spaces separate one word from the next. Students learn how a page of print is organized before they start reading on their own.

Reading moves left to right and top to bottom, just like following a path. Students learn that when a page ends, the next one picks up where the story left off.

Letters on a page stand for the sounds in spoken words. Students start to see that each written word is a specific string of letters, not a random arrangement.

Words on a page have spaces between them so readers can tell where one word ends and the next begins. Students learn to spot those gaps in print.

Students name every letter of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase, when they see it on a page.

Students learn to hear how spoken words are built. They practice breaking words into syllables, listening for rhymes, and picking out individual sounds in a word.

Students listen to pairs of words and decide if they rhyme, then come up with their own rhyming words. Think "cat and hat" or "bug and rug."

Students clap out or tap each syllable in a spoken word, then put those parts back together to say the whole word.

Students break a spoken word into its starting sound and the rest of the word, then snap those pieces back together. For example, they hear "/k/...at" and say "cat," or hear "cat" and split it into "/k/" and "at."

Students listen to a short word like "cat" or "hop" and say the beginning sound, the middle vowel sound, and the ending sound separately.

Students swap or add a single sound in a short word to build a new one. Change the first sound in "cat" and it becomes "bat." Change the last and it becomes "can."

Students use what they know about letters and sounds to figure out unfamiliar words on the page. This is the foundation of reading: sounding out words rather than guessing from pictures.

Students learn that each consonant letter makes a specific sound, then practice saying that sound out loud. Knowing that "b" says /b/ and "m" says /m/ is the foundation for sounding out real words.

Students learn that each vowel (a, e, i, o, u) makes two sounds: a short sound like the "a" in "cat" and a long sound like the "a" in "cake." They practice matching the sound to the letter on the page.

Students learn to read short, everyday words like "the," "you," and "she" on sight, without sounding them out. Recognizing these words quickly helps early readers move through sentences with less stopping and starting.

Students learn to spot the difference between words like "hat" and "hot" by listening for which vowel sound changes. The letters may look almost the same, but the sounds tell them apart.

Students read simple beginner books out loud with meaning, not just word by word. They show they understand what the words say, not just how to say them.

Students draw, dictate, or write to share an opinion about a book or topic. They name what the piece is about and tell the reader what they think or prefer.

Students pick a topic, then explain it by drawing a picture, telling a sentence out loud, or writing words on the page.

Students draw pictures, dictate words, or write sentences to tell a story about something that happened. They share the events in order and say how it made them feel.

Teachers and classmates give feedback, and students use it to add details that make their writing clearer. Writing gets better through that back-and-forth, not just from a first draft.

With a teacher's help, students use computers or tablets to write and share their work, sometimes alongside a classmate.

Students work with the class to explore a topic together, then help write or share what they found out. It could be reading books by the same author and talking about what they liked.

Students answer a simple question by drawing on something they remember or by looking through a book or other source a teacher provides. They practice finding and using information, not making it up.

Students take turns talking and listening in group conversations with classmates and adults. They share ideas about books and topics the class is exploring together.

Students learn to take turns talking and listen while others speak during class conversations.

Students take turns talking with a partner, listening and responding more than once instead of saying one thing and stopping.

After a teacher reads a story or plays a video, students show they were listening by asking questions about what happened and speaking up when something confuses them.

Students practice asking a question when they need help and answering when someone asks them. They learn that a good question gets you the information you were missing.

Students talk about people, places, and things they know, like a family member or a favorite spot, and add more detail when a teacher asks a follow-up question.

Students pair a picture or drawing with something they describe out loud. The visual helps listeners understand details that words alone might miss.

Students learn to speak up so others can hear them and say what they mean in their own words.

Students learn the basic rules of English: how to name things, describe actions, and put words together into sentences. These habits show up in both what students write and what they say out loud.

Students practice writing both capital and lowercase letters by hand. The goal is to write many letters clearly, not just a few.

Students name everyday people, places, and things, and pair them with action words to build simple sentences.

Students learn to change a single word into its plural form by adding the right sound out loud: "dog" becomes "dogs" and "wish" becomes "wishes."

Students learn the question words: who, what, where, when, why, and how. They practice using each one to ask about people, things, places, and reasons.

Students learn short connecting words like "in," "on," "by," and "with" and use them correctly in sentences.

Students build full sentences out loud, often together as a class. They practice stretching a short sentence into a longer one by adding details.

Writing uses capital letters where they belong, like at the start of a sentence or for a name. Students also add a period or question mark at the end and sound out simple words to spell them.

Students learn to start every sentence with a capital letter and to write the word I as a capital letter, always.

Students learn that a sentence can end with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point. They practice spotting those marks and saying what each one is called.

Students hear a sound in a word and write the letter that makes it. This covers the basic consonant sounds and short vowel sounds like the "a" in "cat" or the "i" in "sit."

Students sound out simple words and write what they hear, matching letters to the sounds in each word.

When students run into a word they don't know, they use clues from the sentence or picture nearby to figure out what it means.

Words can mean more than one thing. Students learn that a familiar word like "duck" can also be a verb (duck your head) and practice using both meanings correctly.

Word endings and beginnings are clues. Students use parts like -ed, -s, un-, or re- to figure out what an unfamiliar word means.

Students learn that words connect to each other and that small differences in meaning matter. A teacher helps them notice that "cold," "cool," and "freezing" all describe temperature but say very different things.

Students group everyday objects by what they have in common, putting shapes with shapes and foods with foods. Sorting helps them see that words belong to bigger ideas.

Students learn common action words and describing words by matching them to their opposites. Fast goes with slow, hot goes with cold, big goes with little.

Students connect words to real things they see every day. They might hear the word "colorful" and think of the art room, or hear "loud" and picture the cafeteria.

Students sort out how words like "walk," "march," and "strut" mean slightly different things, then act each one out to show they get the difference.

Students use new words they picked up from books, class discussions, and read-alouds when they talk or write. The goal is to move those words off the page and into everyday use.