Reading and writing
Grade 1 is the year reading becomes reading. The ear work of Kindergarten turns into letters on a page, and by the end of it a child is expected to read simple words without stopping to think and to write a sentence with a capital at the front and a mark at the end.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 1
The subject: English language arts and literature
- Speak about experiences and information with the right words, volume and speed.
- Retell the main idea, the characters and the details of a story or poem.
- Show that letters and sounds go together, and recognize familiar words without sounding them out.
- Put ideas in a sensible order and speak and write in complete sentences.
- Start a sentence with a capital letter and end it with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark.
- Organize ideas to make up a story or poem, or to write down something true.
Alberta's new curriculum teaches phonics explicitly from Kindergarten through Grade 3, and this is the year it does the most work. If a child is guessing at words from the picture rather than looking at the letters, that is the thing to raise at an interview.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Decoding | Reading a word by working out what its letters say. The opposite of recognising it or guessing it. |
| Blending | Pushing separate sounds together into a word: /k/ /a/ /t/ → cat. This is what reading a new word actually is. |
| Segmenting | The reverse — breaking a word into its sounds. This is what spelling actually is, which is why the two are taught together. |
| CVC word | Consonant-vowel-consonant: cat, pin, bus. The simplest words to decode, and where Grade 1 starts. |
| Digraph | Two letters making one sound: sh, ch, th, wh. Ship has four letters and three sounds. |
| Blend | Two letters each keeping their own sound, side by side: bl, st, cr. Not the same as a digraph, and the words are used confusingly close together. |
| Sight word / high-frequency word | A common word learnt as a whole, usually because its spelling is irregular: said, was, the. The list should be short. |
| Automaticity | Recognising a word instantly, without decoding it. It is what frees up attention for the meaning, and it comes from having decoded the word many times. |
| Fluency | Reading at a reasonable pace, with expression. It is a symptom of automaticity, not something to practise directly. |
| Complete sentence | A group of words with a subject and a verb that makes sense on its own. “Ran fast” is not one; “The dog ran fast” is. |
Sound it out
c · a · t
The letters do what they always do, so the word can be built from its parts. Most words work this way.
Know it by sight
said
Sounding this out gives “s‑ay‑d”. The spelling is irregular, so it has to be learnt as a whole.
What to do at home
- Point at the letters — If a child guesses a word from the picture, cover the picture and ask what the first letter says. Guessing is a habit, and it is easier to prevent than to undo.
- Read the same book again — Automaticity comes from repetition. A book on its fifth reading is doing more good than a new one, even though it feels like less.
- Let them read to you badly — Wait about three seconds before helping. The useful work happens in those three seconds.
- Spell out loud in the car — “What sounds are in stop?” Segmenting is spelling, and it needs no paper.
- Ask what happened, in order — Beginning, middle, end. Retelling in sequence is on the Grade 1 list and is the foundation of every comprehension question they will ever meet.
- Notice capitals and full stops — On signs, on cereal boxes, in their own writing. Punctuation is easier to learn by noticing than by being corrected.
Sheets you can print for this
- Sound it out — one box per sound
- Word families — four endings, sixteen words
- Two letters, one sound — sh, ch, th, wh
- Words to know by sight — ten common words
- Fix the sentence — capital at the front, mark at the end
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.