Common Planner
K–12 Standards

Language and Literacy

Other Arizona Early Learning sets

LANGUAGE1

  • 1

    Receptive Language Understanding: The child demonstrates understanding of directions, stories, conversations, and nonverbal cues.1.1

    1. a

      Demonstrates understanding of a variety of finger-plays, rhymes, chants and songs, poems, conversations, andstories. 1.1.a

    2. b

      Engages actively in finger-plays, rhymes, chants and songs, poems, conversations, and stories.1.1.b

    3. c

      Demonstrates understanding and follows directions that involve one step, two steps, or multiple steps. 1.1.c

  • 2

    Expressive Language and Communication Skills: The child uses verbal and nonverbal communication for a variety of purposes; to share observations, ideas,experiences, problem-solve, reason, predict, seek new information, and make connections.1.2

    1. a

      Communicates needs, wants, ideas, and feelings through three to five-word sentences.1.2.a

    2. b

      Speaks clearly and understandably to express ideas, feelings, and needs. 1.2.b

    3. c

      Makes culturally relevant responses (both verbal and nonverbal) to questions and comments from others. 1.2.c

    4. d

      Initiates, sustains, and expands conversations with peers and adults using open-ended responses.1.2.d

    5. e

      With modeling and support, child uses language that includes social rules; e.g., pragmatics, appropriatetone, volume, and inflectionto express ideas, feelings, and needs.1.2.e

    6. f

      Uses culturally relevant responses such as eye contact, turn taking, and intonation while having conversations withadults and peers.1.2.f

    7. g

      Recognizes when the listener does not understand and varies the amount of information12 to clarify the message.1.2.g

    8. h

      With modeling and support, uses increasingly complex phrases and sentences.1.2.h

  • 3

    Vocabulary: The child understands and uses increasingly complex vocabulary. 1.3

    1. a

      Uses rich vocabulary across many topic areas.1.3.a

    2. b

      Figures out the meanings of unfamiliar words and concepts using the context of conversations, pictures that accompany text, or concrete objects. 1.3.b

    3. c

      Uses category labels and names objects within a category; e.g., fruit, vegetable, animal, transportation. 1.3.c

    4. d

      Demonstrates understanding of and uses words that indicate position and direction; e.g., in, on, out, under, over, off, besides, behind.1.3.d

EMERGENT LITERACY2

  • 1

    Concepts of Print: The child knows that print carries messages.2.1

    1. a

      Identifies signs, symbols, and labels in a variety of environments (environmental print).2.1.a

    2. b

      Demonstrates and understands that print conveys meaning and that each spoken word can be written and read.2.1.b

    3. c

      Recognizes that letters are grouped to form words.2.1.c

    4. d

      Recognizes own written name and the written names of friends and family.2.1.d

    5. e

      Seeks information in printed materials.2.1.e

  • 2

    Book Handling Skills: The child demonstrates how to handle books appropriately and with care.2.2

    1. a

      Holds a book right side up with the front cover facing the reader and understands left to right and top to bottom directionality.2.2.a

    2. b

      Identifies where in the book to begin reading.2.2.b

    3. c

      Understands a book has a title, author, and/or illustrator.2.2.c

  • 3

    Phonological Awareness: The child develops awareness that language can be broken in words, syllables, and smaller units of sounds (phonemes).2.3

    1. a

      Differentiates between sounds that are the same and different (e.g., environmental sounds, animal sounds,phonemes).2.3.a

    2. b

      Identifies rhyming words.2.3.b

    3. c

      Produces rhyming words. 2.3.c

    4. d

      Recognizes spoken words that begin with the same sound.2.3.d

    5. e

      Hears and shows awareness of separate words within spoken phrases or sentences.2.3.e

    6. f

      Identifies and discriminates syllables in words.2.3.f

    7. g

      Combines onset and rime to form a familiar one-syllable word with and without pictorial support.2.3.g

  • 4

    Alphabet Knowledge: The child demonstrates knowledge of the alphabet. Child identifies letters of the alphabet and produces correctsounds associated with several letters.2.4

    1. a

      Discriminates letters from other shapes and symbols.2.4.a

    2. b

      Matches and recognizes similarities and differences in letters, with modeling and support.2.4.b

    3. c

      Recognizes an increasing number of letters, especially those in own name, familiar objects, family, and friends.2.4.c

    4. d

      Demonstrates understanding of letters by producing letter forms using a variety of materials; e.g., playdough,blocks, marker, and paper.2.4.d

    5. e

      Uses letter-sound knowledge, identifying the sounds of a few letters and producing the correct sounds for an increasing number of letters.2.4.e

  • 5

    Comprehension and Text Structure: The child demonstrates an understanding of narrative structure through storytelling, questioning, and recall. 2.5

    1. a

      Takes an active role in reading activities.2.5.a

    2. b

      Identifies characters and major events in a story.2.5.b

    3. c

      Asks and answers a variety of questions about books or stories told or read aloud.2.5.c

    4. d

      Draws connections between story events and personal experiences.2.5.d

    5. e

      Identifies events and details in the story and makes predictions.2.5.e

    6. f

      Gives an opinion for liking or disliking a book or story.2.5.f

    7. g

      Begins to demonstrate an understanding of the differences between fiction and non-fiction. 2.5.g

    8. h

      Identifies the topic of informational text that has been read aloud.2.5.h

    9. i

      Retells or reenacts a story in sequence with pictures or props.2.5.i

    10. j

      Demonstrates reading fluency by use of phrasing, intonation, and expression in shared reading of familiarbooks, poems, chants, songs, nursery rhymes, or other repetitious or predictable texts.2.5.j

EMERGENT WRITING3

  • 1

    Writing Processes and Writing Applications: Children engage in a variety of writing activities and begin to convey meaning through their increasingly sophisticated marks. Children write to communicate ideas and to convey meaning. These skills include the understanding of print, the development of motor skills, and the generation of ideas.3.1

    1. a

      In writing process, uses a variety of writing tools, materials, and surfaces to create drawings or symbols. 3.1.a

    2. b

      Writes own name using letter-like forms or conventional print.3.1.b

    3. c

      Intentionally uses scribbles/writing and inventive writing to convey meaning, ideas, or to tell a story; e.g.,signing artwork, captioning, labeling, creating lists, making notes.3.1.c

    4. d

      Forms letters starting with large motor (sky writing, paint brush and water, sidewalk chalk) progressing to finemotor (paper and writing utensil).3.1.d

    5. e

      Organizes writing from left to right, indicating a print awareness that letters cluster as words and wordscluster into phrases or sentences by use of spacing or marks.3.1.e

Frequently asked questions

What grade levels do these standards cover?
PRE-K and Kindergarten
Where can I read the official document?
ARIZONA EARLY LEARNING STANDARDS 4th Edition May 2018

Keep exploring

Keep exploring Early Learning standards

Sibling grade bands, other subjects in this jurisdiction, and the same subject across other states.

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