Following the Common Core Standards for 1st grade English, this class builds on the reading, writing, speaking, and listing skills for students. Students will practice retelling stories, answering questions about stories, and describing the major events within a story. Students will develop skills to identify words that suggest feelings, explain the differences between books that tell stories and those that give information, and identify who is telling a story at different times in a book. The students will demonstrate an understanding of words that are spoke, syllables within a word, and sounds. Through the application of appropriate phonics and the analysis of words, students will be able to read grade-level material well enough to understand the meaning. By the end of the course students should be able to write opinion, informative, or narrative works. They should also feel comfortable conducting collaborative writing projects that involve some research.