Skills Strand Samples

Demonstration Lessons from a Master Teacher

Basic Code Lesson   |   Tricky Spelling Lesson   |   Tricky Words Lesson   |
Spelling Alternatives Lesson

CKLA Components

Visual Component Guide

Kindergarten

Unit 2

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Assessment and Remediation Guide

Units 1 and 2 are in many ways the most important units of the kindergarten Skills strand. These units lay the foundation for students’ future reading and writing. In Unit 1, students learned speech is made up of words, and they practiced distinguishing and counting environmental sounds. In Unit 2, students will learn how to blend syllables to make two-syllable words, as well as how to blend sounds to make two- and three-sound words. Blending is a critical skill for reading. In fact, it is the single most important skill for reading. Working with sounds (or phonemes) is also extremely important because our writing system is a system for transcribing sounds into print. If students can hear individual sounds and blend those sounds to make words, they will be prepared to use the letter-sound correspondences they will study in Unit 3 and beyond.

Unit 3

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages

In Unit 3, students will begin to make connections between sounds and symbols. They will continue to practice blending sounds into words, and they will be taught several of the symbols we use when we read and write. Students will use the letter-sound correspondences they learn in this unit, and the oral blending skills they learned in Unit 2, to blend and read printed words.

Unit 7

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Seth"

In Unit 7, students learn six more consonant sounds and the most common spelling for each sound. English has more than 40 sounds and only 26 letters. The six sounds presented in Unit 7 differ from the sounds studied up to this point in that all six are generally written with two letters instead of one.

Sample Handwriting Lessons

Writing Strokes Assessment and Instruction   |   Writing Sound Spellings   |   Writing Words

Writing instruction in CKLA begins with a focus on fine motor skills and the tripod grip, which is emphasized continually throughout the early units, as students draw various types of strokes and shapes preparing them for writing letters. Handwriting and spelling are taught in tandem to represent each new sound as it is introduced.  Once enough sound spellings have been mastered, students use this knowledge to write short decodable words, phrases, and sentences.

Grade 1

Unit 1

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Snap Shots"

In Unit 1, the first five lessons reacquaint students with the CKLA daily routines and exercises while providing practice and review of reading skills and code knowledge taught in the CKLA kindergarten curriculum.  Lessons 6–10 include assessment and placement activities so that teachers can identify each students' reading ability and knowledge of the code for grouping and targeted instruction.

Unit 2

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Gran"

In Unit 2, you will introduce five vowel sounds and the most common, or least ambiguous, spelling for each sound. In addition, you will introduce separated digraphs (i.e., two letters still working together as a letter team to stand for a single sound, but who are separated from other by another spelling), begin grammar lessons, and introduce eleven new Tricky Words. Students will practice decoding using the reader for this unit, “Gran.”

Unit 3

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Fables"

In Unit 3, you will introduce five additional vowel sounds and the most common spelling for each sound. Students will also practice the tricky spelling 'oo'. A tricky spelling is a grapheme that can be pronounced more than one way.

Sample Writing Lessons

Instructional and Descriptive   |   Fictional Narrative   |   Personal Narrative   |   Friendly Letter   |   Opinion

In addition to explicit lessons in handwriting, spelling and grammar, a three-step writing process— plan, draft and edit—is taught in the Skills strand. The process is reinforced as each new writing genre is addressed. Each genre is taught through a gradual reduction in scaffolding over a 5- to 6-lesson duration that includes teacher modeling, group practice, independent practice, and independent application. This systematic approach allows for continued support and predictable learning as children progress in their knowledge of text types and complexity of writing.

Grade 2

Unit 1

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "The Cat Bandit"

In Unit 1, the first five lessons reacquaint students with the CKLA daily routines and exercises while providing practice and review of reading skills and code knowledge taught in the CKLA grade 1 curriculum. Lessons 6–10 include assessment and placement activities so that teachers can identify each students' reading ability and knowledge of the code for grouping and targeted instruction. Lessons 11–22 provide practice of spelling-sound correspondences, most of which should be familiar to students.

Unit 5

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Sir Gus"

Unit 5 is devoted to introducing spelling alternatives for vowel sounds. Vowel sounds and their spellings are the most challenging part of the English writing system. There are only two vowel sounds that are almost always spelled just one way (/a/ and /ar/). The other 16 vowel sounds have at least one significant spelling alternative. Several of them have many spelling alternatives. In Unit 5, students will also continue to practice narrative writing. They will learn to brainstorm and write a logically plausible, but different, ending to a story. 

Unit 6

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "The War of 1812"

Unit 6 introduces several new spelling alternatives for vowel and consonant sounds. Students who have mastered the letter-sound correspondences taught in CKLA through this point have learned most of the important letter-sound correspondences they need to read English writing. The ones they have not explicitly studied are relatively rare letter-sound correspondences that come up perhaps once in every 2,000–3,000 words. Most students will be able to decode the occasional unusual spelling by using the puzzling strategies that you have taught them. In grade 2 CKLA writing, students have thus far practiced writing personal narratives, as well as writing new story endings and story summaries. They have also practiced persuasive writing in the context of a friendly letter. In Unit 6, they will be introduced to another form of writing, well-suited to the nonfiction text they are reading: expository or report writing.

Sample Writing Lessons

Persuasive Writing   |   Expository Report

In addition to explicit lessons in handwriting, spelling and grammar, a three-step writing process— plan, draft and edit—is taught in the Skills strand. The process is reinforced as each new writing genre is addressed. Each genre is taught through a gradual reduction in scaffolding over a 5- to 6-lesson duration that includes teacher modeling, group practice, independent practice, and independent application. This systematic approach allows for continued support and predictable learning as children progress in their knowledge of text types and complexity of writing.

Grade 3

Unit 3

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "How Does Your Body Work?"

Unit 6

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Gods, Giants, and Dwarves"

Unit 7

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "What's in Our Universe?"

Unit 8

Teacher Guide & Workbook Pages   |   Student Reader "Native American Stories"