Literacy

Reading

In Grade 1, our literacy program builds strong foundations for lifelong reading through a carefully sequenced, research-based approach aligned with the Science of Reading. Throughout the year, students engage in rich reading experiences that nurture their curiosity, critical thinking, and joy in books, while explicitly developing the essential skills they need to become independent readers.

Our program reflects key Science of Reading principles—including systematic phonics instruction, decoding strategies, oral language development, vocabulary building, and comprehension strategies. Students learn to connect spoken and written language, master phonemic awareness, and apply decoding skills to sound out words and tackle increasingly complex texts.

The year is organized into four engaging units:

Unit 1: Building Good Reading Habits

Students establish their identity as readers, learning key habits such as reading "long and strong," solving tricky words, and working with partners to discuss books. They develop stamina, self-monitoring skills, and build the confidence needed to tackle new texts.

Unit 2: Learning About the World

Students apply their growing decoding and fluency skills to nonfiction texts, learning to read with expression and understand new vocabulary through context clues. They explore topics like interdependence and the Middle East, building content knowledge while practicing reading strategies that help them make sense of informational texts.

Unit 3: Readers Have Big Jobs to Do

Students become active problem-solvers, learning to monitor their comprehension, use flexible strategies to decode multisyllabic words, and maintain meaning across longer texts. They integrate word recognition skills with comprehension strategies to become more independent readers.

Unit 4: Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons

Students deepen their comprehension by making inferences, identifying story elements, and exploring themes. They compare characters and their adventures across books in a series, while learning to uncover the lessons authors share through stories.

Throughout the year, students read a variety of texts and genres, discuss ideas with peers, and develop fluency, accuracy, and comprehension in a supportive, structured environment. By the end of Grade 1, students are well on their way to becoming independent, thoughtful readers who can unlock the meaning of texts and develop a lifelong love for reading.

Writing

In Grade 1, our writing program is designed to build strong foundational skills that support students as both readers and writers. Aligned with the Science of Reading, the program integrates oral language development, sentence-level grammar, handwriting, and phonics knowledge into daily writing experiences. Students learn to connect sounds to letters, spell phonetically, apply high-frequency word knowledge, and use proper sentence structure—essential building blocks for effective communication and literacy development.

Writing in Grade 1 is closely connected to reading, as students use mentor texts to study craft, learn genre structures, and build content knowledge. Throughout the year, students write across various genres, developing their composition skills (ideas, organization, voice) alongside transcription skills (spelling, handwriting, punctuation).

Grade 1 Writing is structured around four engaging units:

Unit 1: Small Moments

Students learn to tell true stories from their own lives by zooming in on specific "small" moments. Through modeling, mentor texts, and guided practice, students develop narrative skills, learning to include actions, thoughts, and feelings to make their writing vivid and engaging.

Unit 2: Nonfiction Chapter Books

Students take on the exciting role of informational writers, creating their own nonfiction chapter books. They learn to organize information, use domain-specific vocabulary, and teach readers through features like headings and diagrams. This unit helps students develop an understanding of text structure, supporting reading comprehension and content knowledge.

Unit 3: Writing Reviews

Students learn the power of opinion writing by crafting reviews and persuasive pieces. They write clear opinions, support them with reasons and evidence, and learn how to engage an audience—critical thinking skills that build oral language and vocabulary alongside writing.

Unit 4: From Scenes to Stories

Students build on their narrative skills by learning how to sequence events, develop characters and settings, and use dialogue to bring their stories to life. They write a series of connected stories about a character, using revision strategies and peer feedback to refine their work into cohesive story collections.

Throughout the year, students receive explicit instruction in phonics and spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization—core principles of the Science of Reading—to ensure that they can communicate their ideas clearly and accurately. By the end of Grade 1, students are confident writers who can express themselves in various genres, using the foundational skills that will support their future literacy success.

Foundational Skills

Using UFLI Foundations, students in grade 1 build foundational decoding skills through a research-based phonics sequence.         

Inquiry

Inquiry units are designed to offer students authentic experiences where they generate questions and tackle complex issues, as individuals and teams.  Social Studies based units are aligned to the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) standards, and they build understanding of concepts across the domains of the discipline - civics, economics, geography, and history.  Science phenomena-based units are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which integrate core disciplinary ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and the practices of the discipline.

In Grade 1 Inquiry, students explore how light and sound can help us to communicate.  They observe the plant and animal world closely and think about how the characteristics that they notice can be used to solve problems.  Students will also practice their close observation skills to discuss and analyze patterns in the sky, and how they change throughout the year.  In the classroom, students inquire into the concept of community and their role within a community.  They explore how people interact with one another and their surroundings, and develop an understanding of how the products they use every day connect to their community and to distant places. These inquiry experiences help children build empathy, appreciate diversity, and understand their growing role in the world around them.

In all units, active questioning drives learning and concepts help us to organize our ideas.  Through concept-based inquiry, students develop transferable understanding around core ideas and practice the skills of the disciplines, including:

AERO Social Studies Practices

1. Develop Questions and Plan Inquiries

2. Evaluate the Credibility of the Sources and Relevance of the Information to the Inquiry

3. Construct Coherent, Reasoned Arguments and Explanations

4. Communicate Conclusions From an Inquiry

5. Take Informed Action for the Common Good

NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

1. Asking Questions and Defining Problems

2. Developing and Using Models

3. Planning and Carrying out Investigations

4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data

5. Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

6. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence

8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information