Grade 1 Reading Foundations, Unit 4: Teacher Answers and Assessment
Scope and Placement | Student Lessons | Practice and Assessment | Teacher Guide | Unit 3
This unit is for instructional monitoring rather than state certification or clinical diagnosis. Keep individual records private. Evaluate pronunciation in light of the child’s language variety, while still checking accurate decoding of taught spelling patterns.
Daily teaching and scoring
- Explain endings as meaningful parts of words; ask for both the base word and the ending when appropriate.
- For -ed, explicitly teach /t/, /d/, /id/. Score a word correct if read accurately, not merely if the letters are named.
- For -ing, distinguish unchanged bases from dropped silent-e and doubled-consonant cases. Teach spelling changes; do not leave the learner to infer a universal rule.
- For two-syllable words, first model transparent words and help locate syllable boundaries; some written words require other patterns not included in this unit.
- Keep separate scores for word recognition, dictation accuracy, comprehension and subsequent self-corrections; avoid one false ‘reading level’ from mixed scores.
- For independent Day 5 assessment, do not rehearse the exact list directly before testing. Revisit mistakes afterward with different words and patterns.
Day 1: Plural -s and -es
Goal: Read and spell plural nouns, distinguishing the three common pronunciations of -s and when -es adds an extra syllable.
Word list: cats, dogs, ships, ducks, dishes, boxes, wishes, brushes
Dictation key: cats; dogs; boxes; dishes
Comprehension answers: 1) Nia; 2) Three; 3) By the boxes; 4) The dishes
Words to preteach and cautions: Nia, Malik, two, three, has, the, by, washes. The story includes connector and irregular words that must be introduced separately.
Day 2: Past-tense -ed: /t/, /d/, /id/
Goal: Identify past-tense -ed and read common word endings without assuming all -ed words rhyme.
Word list: jumped, helped, packed, played, stayed, rained, landed, rested
Dictation key: jumped; helped; played; rested
Comprehension answers: 1) The rain; 2) Jay; 3) They rested; 4) A game
Words to preteach and cautions: The, then, they, a, bag, game and name Jay. Stopped uses doubled p and should be explained as a modeled example, not assessed as mastered.
Day 3: -ing and Base Words
Goal: Read present-participle words with -ing and notice when spelling changes in the base word.
Word list: singing, jumping, playing, looking, helping, making, hopping, sitting
Dictation key: singing; playing; making; hopping
Comprehension answers: 1) Sam; 2) Singing; 3) A card; 4) The card
Words to preteach and cautions: Sam, Nia, is, a, at, the. Discuss the dropped-e and doubled-consonant spellings carefully.
Day 4: Read Two-Syllable Closed-Syllable Words
Goal: Divide and blend transparent two-syllable words with closed syllables, without mistaking every written division for a universal rule.
Word list: rabbit, napkin, basket, dentist, sunset, picnic, magnet, tablet
Dictation key: rabbit; napkin; basket; picnic
Comprehension answers: 1) A rabbit; 2) A napkin; 3) At sunset; 4) Picnic
Words to preteach and cautions: A, by, is, in, the, at, had; Nia is a name. Some word spellings require modeling before independent connected reading.
Day 5: Cumulative Reading, Encoding, and Fluency Review
Goal: Apply plural, -ed, -ing and two-syllable decoding patterns alongside vowel teams and r-controlled words, then reread accurately and answer text-supported questions.
Word list: dishes, dogs, helped, stayed, jumping, making, rabbit, basket, farm, rain, seed, kite
Dictation key: boxes; dogs; jumped; played; singing; making; rabbit; basket
Comprehension answers: 1) A basket; 2) A napkin; 3) Two; 4) Near the barn
Words to preteach and cautions: Nia, had, a, by, the, she, two, near, and, watched. Hopped and watched should be modeled in advance for passage comprehension, and not included as unprompted target spellings.
Exit review and next actions
For Day 5, record 12 independent word readings, eight dictated spellings, and four passage answers separately. Retest weak patterns later with new words and record whether support was needed. A learner may continue when the current patterns are sufficiently accurate and stable, but no cut score here is an Alabama-approved proficiency threshold.
Next planned content: broader syllable patterns, prefixes and suffixes, word meanings, longer decodable passages, and repeated measures of accuracy, expressive oral reading, and understanding.