English Language Arts and Reading.1.2.E

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The student is expected to

alphabetize a series of words to the first or second letter and use a dictionary to find words; and

beginning reading writing teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.

Give students a list of words on cards and ask them to sort the cards in alphabetical order, based on the first or second letter. A teacher can also ask students to take a list of words, put the words in groups based on the first letter, and then alphabetize the words.

Note:

It is best to start by asking students to sort words based on the first letter only and gradually move to asking her to sort words by the second letter.

Use of a dictionary can be assessed by using an observational checklist with a rubric:

Sample Rubric:

  1. The student is unable to find words in a dictionary.
  2. The student understands that the words in a dictionary are alphabetized but cannot apply that knowledge to finding words within a dictionary without adult assistance.
  3. The student understands that the words in a dictionary are alphabetized and can find the words on a single page of a dictionary by applying that knowledge, but he cannot find the page and the word without adult assistance.
  4. The student can understand the process of alphabetizing words and apply that knowledge to finding words in a dictionary independently. The student looks at the first (and possibly second) letter(s) in a word to determine where the word is in a dictionary, find the page, and find the word on the page.
In first grade, the students are expected to alphabetize words to the first letter. If mastery occurs, students should then work on alphabetizing to the second letter. (e.g., Students alphabetize boat, car, dog). First-grade students need to be able to alphabetize and then apply that knowledge to using a dictionary or glossary to find a word.