Communication and Literacy: Preschool

Speaking and Listening

Language

Literature

Foundational Reading Skills

Writing

Conversation and Comprehension 

Expressive Language

Conventions of Language1

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Identifying and finding meaning, details and ideas from literature.

Structure and Format

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Print Concepts

Phonological Awareness

Fluency

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Pre 3

Pre 4

Participates in conversations with a small group.

Asks and answers “Who, What, Where” questions.

Participates in conversations in increasing group sizes.

Asks and answers questions and makes predictions.

Begins to describe familiar people, places, things and events with support.

Begins to describe objects and actions depicted in pictures.

Speaks so that unfamiliar listeners are usually able to understand ideas, feelings and needs.

Able to describe familiar people, places, things and events with support.

 Able to tell another person about what they have drawn.

Speaks understandably to express ideas, feelings and needs.

Demonstrates an emerging understanding of the conventions of grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Demonstrates a beginning awareness of writing by using strings of letter-like forms or a series of random letters.

Demonstrates an emerging command of the conventions of grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Demonstrates a beginning awareness of the conventions of writing by using some letters to match sounds in words and usually writing from left to right (may reverse some letters).

Provides a label when given a child-friendly definition of a familiar word.

Begins to demonstrate an understanding of some frequently occurring verbs and adjectives to name opposites.

With prompting and support, begins to experiment with new words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to and responding to texts.

Determines or clarifies the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words with assistance or cues from an adult.

Demonstrates an understanding of some frequently occurring verbs and adjectives to name opposites.

With prompting and support, begins to use new words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to and responding to texts.

With prompting and support, asks and answers simple questions about the book or story’s content.

Uses pictures and illustrations to tell and retell parts of a book or story.

With prompting and support, asks and answers questions about key details in a book or story.

With prompting and support, retells books or stories with increasing detail and accuracy.

With prompting and support, identifies characters, settings and major events or facts from a book or story.

Exhibits curiosity and interest in learning new words.

Interacts with a variety of books. 

Understands that books have both illustrations and print.

Identifies the front and back cover of a book.

Asks and answers questions about unknown words in a book.

Interacts with a larger variety of books and text.

With prompting and support, describes the role of an author and an illustrator.

With prompting and support, makes connections between self, illustrations and the story when talking through the pictures of a book.

With prompting and support, compares and contrasts the adventures and experiences of the characters to self.

With prompting and support, uses the illustrations to retell major events in the story. 

With prompting and support, begins to compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. 

With prompting and support, answers “wh” questions, such as what, when, where or why, based on information presented in the book or story.

 Actively engages in small group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Actively engages in large and small group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Shows an understanding that print conveys meaning.

Begins to demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

Plays with the sounds of language. 

Begins to recognize and “read” familiar words or environmental print.

Demonstrates understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds. 

Demonstrates basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondence by producing the sound of some letters.

Begins to identify own name in print.

Identifies own name in print.

Uses drawing, scribbling, letter-like forms, random letter strings and/or dictation to express thought and ideas.

Uses consistent marks to represent their name when writing.

With guidance and support, imitates shapes and strokes.

With guidance and support, explores a variety of digital tools to express ideas. 

Participates in shared writing projects.

With guidance and support from adults, collaborates with peers to recall information from experiences.

Uses a combination of drawing, dictating or emergent writing to express thoughts and ideas.

Recognizably writes most of the letters in their name.

With guidance and support, responds to questions and suggestions and adds details to drawings or emergent writing as needed.

With guidance and support, explores a variety of digital tools to produce and publish emergent writing. 

Participates in shared research and writing projects.

With guidance and support from adults, recalls information from experiences or gathers information from provided sources to answer a question.

Begins to follow agreed-upon rules for discussions.

Continues a conversation through two or three exchanges.

Follows agreedupon rules for discussions. 

Continues a conversation through multiple exchanges, while increasingly staying on topic.

Begins to make letter-like forms and print some letters.

Uses frequently occurring nouns and verbs when speaking.

Begins to form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/.

Understands and uses some question words.

Uses some prepositions.

Communicates using at least three- to fourword sentences.

Prints some uppercase and lowercase letters.

Uses basic nouns and verbs.

Begins to form regular plural nouns orally by correctly adding /s/ or /es/ on a more frequent basis.

Understands and uses most question words.

Uses an increasing amount of frequently occurring prepositions.

Produces complete sentences in shared language activities.

Distinguishes among a few verbs describing the same general action. 

Distinguishes among some verbs describing the same general action by acting out the meanings. 

Demonstrates an understanding of how print is read (i.e., left to right, top to bottom, front to back).

Demonstrates an understanding that print conveys meaning (i.e., environmental print).

Recognizes letters in their name.

Follows words from left to right, top to bottom and page by page.

Recognizes that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

Recognizes that letters are grouped to form words.

Recognizes and names some uppercase and lowercase letters, in addition to those in first name.

Distinguishes whether two words rhyme or not.

Blends compound words and syllables in spoken words.

Identifies two words that start with the same sound.

Recognizes rhyming words.

Produces rhyming words.

Blends syllables in spoken words.

Segments syllables in spoken word.

With prompting and support, blends and segments initial and ending sounds of single syllable words.

States the initial sound (phoneme) in consonant-vowel consonant (CVC) words.

Recognizes and “reads” familiar words or environmental print.