Child will develop the ability to speak and/ or sign in increasingly complete, complex, precise, and varied ways.
What educators might observe
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Speaks clearly, modifying volume so that all listeners can understand
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Asks and answers “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “why” questions about an topic of interest
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Refines vocabulary so it better expresses the meaning that they want to express
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Categorizes vocabulary by parts of speech
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Enjoys puns
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Artfully combines English with home language(s) to better convey meaning, play with language, and/or strengthen relationships
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Use translanguaging with children, and scaffold their use of academic language by strategic use of home language and English
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Learn key words in the child’s home language related to the topic of study
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Draw on cognates in both English and the child’s home language
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Provide opportunities for children to represent the meaning of words in a variety of ways (e.g. through dance, in song, or in a drawing)
Child will develop their ability to listen and understand complete, complex, precise, and varied language.
What educators might observe
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Understands positional and directional words (e.g., here, there, over, next to, in front, under, or between)
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Becomes logical in their comprehension of vocabulary (e.g., figures out the meaning of words based on their root)
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Demonstrates knowledge of sequence of events and understands cue words and phrases (e.g., before, yesterday, later that day, after, next year)
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Uses clues in story they have heard to make inferences
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Reinforce key vocabulary and content words in activities; for example, play games such as Simon Says to strengthen understanding of prepositions or classification games to deepen understandings of meanings
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Use role plays with partners or small groups to establish understanding of characters and relationships
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Model body language as an active listener to extend conversation
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Draw on home languages or actively encourage partners to speak it to reinforce and ensure understanding
Child uses language to relate to others according to the social expectations of their family, community, and culture.
What educators might observe
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Makes up secret languages
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Uses language to include or exclude children from peer groups
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Navigates different ways of using language and flexibly uses different forms and variations to improve communication or affiliation
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Observe and reflect on children’s use of social language in non-academic environments such as the playground
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Provide time for children to discuss social interactions and how those interactions made them feel
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Be aware of whose voices are not being heard in group conversations and provide supports for all children to participate
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Teach children language that they can use to resolve social conflicts
Child enjoys, attends to, understands, and makes meanings from spoken and written language of storytelling and books.
What educators might observe
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Reads independently for pleasure
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Paraphrases a part of a book and explains why it is important
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Monitors own comprehension and understanding in a variety of ways
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Reads an informational book to learn about an area of interest, using text features such as the glossary to find information
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Hears a well-known story told by a friend and compares it to a movie version of the same story, pointing out differences in the main character
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Scaffold thinking about the narrative structure of stories and books in a variety of genres
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In fictional genres, think aloud about: 1) the beginning and the introduction to the main character, 2) the middle and the main character’s problem, and 3) predict or ask what might happen at the end
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For an informational text, think aloud about: the main idea, examples, and key details
Child develops the ability to recognize and manipulate the different sounds in spoken language(s).
What educators might observe
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Explores and identifies the concept of silent “e” (e.g., adds “e” to “hid” to change the word to “hide” and understands the vowel sound has changed)
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Develops awareness of letters that have more than one sound (e.g., notices the “o” in “row” makes a different sound than the “o” in “dog”)
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Incorporates blends, digraphs, prefixes, and suffixes into their invented spelling
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Uses segmenting in order to read larger words by breaking word down into initial sounds or syllables (/fac/ /tor/ /y/ for factory)
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Recognizes the base of a word and common prefixes and suffixes and uses them to make different words (e.g., “trans,” “port,” and “ed” or “ing”)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Play familiar games with rhymes (hand claps, jump rope chants) invite a family member to come in to introduce the game
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Introduce a book such as Adivinanzas in Mixteco (Riddles in Mixteco) that is written or translated into several different languages and language varieties; ask families about riddles in their home languages
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Explore vowel sounds by singing songs in a variety of languages (e.g., “Juanito Cuando Baila”)
Child uses materials and/ or language to make meaning for themselves and/or an audience.
What educators might observe
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Varies the types of sentences that they use in their compositions
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Writes stories with a beginning, middle, and end
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Collaborates with a peer to plan, write, and illustrate a story
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Plans and develops a writing composition over the course of several days
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Uses an editing checklist to try to incorporate features of non-fiction (For example, to revise the non-fiction book All About Birds , the child uses a checklist and adds a Table of Contents)
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Discuss contrasting features of a child’s home language with English, such as use of accent marks in Spanish and English
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Explore the scene or setting of a play by talking about the author’s word choice
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Model writing the beginning of a story, and revise it to introduce the main character’s personal voice
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Ask children for explanations of why they made certain choices while authoring
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Challenge children to use rich vocabulary and complex sentences in their compositions
Child views, creates, and makes meaning of visual communication and multimedia documentation, which includes drawings, collections, photographs, videos and displays.
What educators might observe
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Uses vocabulary, such as “audience” and “represent,” to discuss the work of a filmmaker
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Discusses an artist’s decision to use memory, imagination, or observation in their creation
Ways educators might support the child's development
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Find out about free or low-cost opportunities to see art in the community, and share these opportunities with families
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Support children in making connections between popular culture and their own multimedia work in the classroom
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Look at a block building from different heights and talk about ways to represent with different points of view (worm’s eye view, bird’s eye view, or child’s eye view)
