Key
Competency |
A
Emerging Literacy
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B
Emerging Literacy
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Vocabularyvocabulary:
knowledge of types of words, word meanings and structures |
Understands and uses words in isolation, including
- survivalsurvival words:
essential words and phrases that beginning EAL learners require instruction of for daily interactions, e.g., dates, times, classroom objects, places in school (office, washroom), questions, emotions words
- basic utilityutility words:
common, functional words used in everyday communication, e.g., chair, pencil, green, slow, walk, give, eat words
- words used in social greetingssocial greetings:
words and expressions that are commonly used in greetings and goodbyes, e.g., hi, hey, hello, see ya, bye, later
May rely on home language(s).home language(s):
language(s) a student commonly uses and understands in everyday interactions at home |
Understands and uses a few high-
frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day words, including
- utilityutility words:
common, functional words used in everyday communication, e.g., chair, pencil, green, slow, walk, give, eat words
- familiarfamiliar words:
words commonly used in specific everyday contexts, e.g., in a classroom—lunch, school, drink, book, washroom, friend words
- phrases used in social greetingssocial greetings:
words and expressions that are commonly used in greetings and goodbyes, e.g., hi, hey, hello, see ya, bye, later
May rely on home language(s).home language(s):
language(s) a student commonly uses and understands in everyday interactions at home |
Understands and uses some high-frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day words, including
- basic descriptivedescriptive words:
adjectives and adverbs—words that refer to the qualities of nouns or verbs, e.g., short, green, sweet, quickly, slowly, loudly words
- instructionalinstructional words:
words that give instructions; e.g., write, look, point, find, draw words
- expressions used in social
greetingssocial greetings:
words and expressions that are commonly used in greetings and goodbyes, e.g., hi, hey, hello, see ya, bye, later
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Understands and uses more high-frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day and a few low-frequencylow-frequency words:
words that are less commonly used, e.g., rogue instead of thief words, including
- descriptivedescriptive words:
adjectives and adverbs—words that refer to the qualities of nouns or verbs, e.g., short, green, sweet, quickly, slowly, loudly words
- instructionalinstructional words:
words that give instructions; e.g., write, look, point, find, draw words
- synonymssynonyms:
words having the same meaning, e.g., the word smart is a synonym for the word intelligent/
antonymsantonyms:
words that have the opposite meaning, e.g., right is the antonym of wrong
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Understands and uses some low-frequencylow-frequency words:
words that are less commonly used, e.g., rogue instead of thief words, including
- subject-
specificsubject-specific words:
words that have special meaning related to particular subject areas; e.g., art—portrait, pastel; music—percussion, orchestration words
- descriptivedescriptive words:
adjectives and adverbs—words that refer to the qualities of nouns or verbs, e.g., short, green, sweet, quickly, slowly, loudly words
- instructionalinstructional words:
words that give instructions; e.g., write, look, point, find, draw words
- words with multiple meaningswords with multiple meanings:
homonyms—words with the same spellings and sounds but with different meanings, e.g., “tree bark” and “the bark of a dog”; homographs—words with the same spellings but with different meanings and sounds, e.g., “He shed a tear.” and “You can tear the paper up.”; homophones—words with the same sounds but with different meanings and spellings, e.g., “The teacher was right.” and “I’ll write it down.”
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Understands and uses more low-frequencylow-frequency words:
words that are less commonly used, e.g., rogue instead of thief words, including
- subject-
specificsubject-specific words:
words that have special meaning related to particular subject areas; e.g., art—portrait, pastel; music—percussion, orchestration words
- descriptivedescriptive words:
adjectives and adverbs—words that refer to the qualities of nouns or verbs, e.g., short, green, sweet, quickly, slowly, loudly words
- academicacademic words:
words that are commonly used in academic contexts (dialogue and text); e.g., evidence, definition, similar, analyze words
- words with multiple meaningswords with multiple meanings:
homonyms—words with the same spellings and sounds but with different meanings, e.g., “tree bark” and “the bark of a dog”; homographs—words with the same spellings but with different meanings and sounds, e.g., “He shed a tear.” and “You can tear the paper up.”; homophones—words with the same sounds but with different meanings and spellings, e.g., “The teacher was right.” and “I’ll write it down.”
- idiomsidioms:
words arranged for a specific meaning that differs from the literal meaning of each word, e.g., shake a leg, drive me crazy, bite your tongue, pie in the sky, don’t put all your eggs in one basket
- figurative languagefigurative language:
language used to suggest an image or interesting comparison or contrast. Examples of figurative language include similes, metaphors, allusions, and personification. Similes compare two things using like or as, e.g., “as bright as the sun,” “to sparkle like a diamond.” Metaphors compare two things without using words such as like or as, e.g., “She is a shining star.” Allusions are indirect references to people and places from classical mythology, religious texts, folk tales, history, literary texts, or popular culture. Personification involves giving animals or objects human qualities or abilities, e.g., “The lights blinked.” or “The wind howled.”
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Understands and uses a range of words, including
- subject-
specificsubject-specific words:
words that have special meaning related to particular subject areas; e.g., art—portrait, pastel; music—percussion, orchestration words
- academicacademic words:
words that are commonly used in academic contexts (dialogue and text); e.g., evidence, definition, similar, analyze words
- technicaltechnical words:
words with specialized meaning in particular fields of study; e.g., photosynthesis, electrons, isotope, lathe, peninsula words
- words with multiple meaningswords with multiple meanings:
homonyms—words with the same spellings and sounds but with different meanings, e.g., “tree bark” and “the bark of a dog”; homographs—words with the same spellings but with different meanings and sounds, e.g., “He shed a tear.” and “You can tear the paper up.”; homophones—words with the same sounds but with different meanings and spellings, e.g., “The teacher was right.” and “I’ll write it down.”
- idiomsidioms:
words arranged for a specific meaning that differs from the literal meaning of each word, e.g., shake a leg, drive me crazy, bite your tongue, pie in the sky, don’t put all your eggs in one basket
- figurative languagefigurative language:
language used to suggest an image or interesting comparison or contrast. Examples of figurative language include similes, metaphors, allusions, and personification. Similes compare two things using like or as, e.g., “as bright as the sun,” “to sparkle like a diamond.” Metaphors compare two things without using words such as like or as, e.g., “She is a shining star.” Allusions are indirect references to people and places from classical mythology, religious texts, folk tales, history, literary texts, or popular culture. Personification involves giving animals or objects human qualities or abilities, e.g., “The lights blinked.” or “The wind howled.”
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Understands and uses a broad range of words in a variety of cross-curricular contexts, including
- subject-
specificsubject-specific words:
words that have special meaning related to particular subject areas; e.g., art—portrait, pastel; music—percussion, orchestration words
- academicacademic words:
words that are commonly used in academic contexts (dialogue and text); e.g., evidence, definition, similar, analyze words
- technicaltechnical words:
words with specialized meaning in particular fields of study; e.g., photosynthesis, electrons, isotope, lathe, peninsula words
- figurative languagefigurative language:
language used to suggest an image or interesting comparison or contrast. Examples of figurative language include similes, metaphors, allusions, and personification. Similes compare two things using like or as, e.g., “as bright as the sun,” “to sparkle like a diamond.” Metaphors compare two things without using words such as like or as, e.g., “She is a shining star.” Allusions are indirect references to people and places from classical mythology, religious texts, folk tales, history, literary texts, or popular culture. Personification involves giving animals or objects human qualities or abilities, e.g., “The lights blinked.” or “The wind howled.”
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Sentence Structuresentence structure:
word order, phrases, clauses, and punctuation in a sentence used to convey meaning, e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, positive, negative, question, command, statement |
Understands and uses words in one- to three-word utterances that convey meaning. |
Understands and uses words connected in fragmented phrases and memorized phrases. |
Understands and uses familiar phrases and substitution of words in simple patterned sentences. |
Understands and uses familiar simplesimple sentence:
a sentence with one subject and one predicate (a verb, which can include an object), e.g., “The students watched the performance.” sentences in statement, command, and question sentence structures. |
Understands and uses a variety of simplesimple sentence:
a sentence with one subject and one predicate (a verb, which can include an object), e.g., “The students watched the performance.” and familiar compoundcompound sentence:
a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction, e.g., “I tried to join the discussion, but I did not know when it was my turn to speak.”, “The Grade 3 students watched the play, and the Grade 5 students worked on their presentations.” sentence types in structured oral textstext:
anything print, oral, visual, or a combination of these, in digital or non-digital form, that has meaning for the individual or group who creates or engages with it, e.g., speeches, multimedia presentations, reports, advertisements, stories, dramatizations, songs and/or written paragraphs. |
Understands and uses a variety of compoundcompound sentence:
a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction, e.g., “I tried to join the discussion, but I did not know when it was my turn to speak.”, “The Grade 3 students watched the play, and the Grade 5 students worked on their presentations.” sentence types in structured oral textstext:
anything print, oral, visual, or a combination of these, in digital or non-digital form, that has meaning for the individual or group who creates or engages with it, e.g., speeches, multimedia presentations, reports, advertisements, stories, dramatizations, songs and/or sequenced written paragraphs. |
Understands and uses a variety of compoundcompound sentence:
a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction, e.g., “I tried to join the discussion, but I did not know when it was my turn to speak.”, “The Grade 3 students watched the play, and the Grade 5 students worked on their presentations.” and complexcomplex sentence:
a sentence formed by joining an independent clause and a dependent clause, e.g., “When the bell rang, the students went to the library.”, “The students studied because they had a test.” sentence types in detailed oral textstext:
anything print, oral, visual, or a combination of these, in digital or non-digital form, that has meaning for the individual or group who creates or engages with it, e.g., speeches, multimedia presentations, reports, advertisements, stories, dramatizations, songs and/or cohesive written paragraphs. |
Understands and uses a variety of sentence lengths and types, including compound-
complexcompound-complex sentence:
a sentence with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses, e.g., “Because they have specific diets, deer are classified as generalists, and pandas are classified as specialists.” sentences, for varying audiences, purposes, and styles, in extended oral and written textstext:
anything print, oral, visual, or a combination of these, in digital or non-digital form, that has meaning for the individual or group who creates or engages with it, e.g., speeches, multimedia presentations, reports, advertisements, stories, dramatizations, songs . |
Connectionsconnections:
words that connect other words and phrases, e.g., “He went to the store and the library.”, “I used the paper and markers but not the glue.” and Transitionstransitions:
words and phrases that provide coherence within text, e.g., time sequence—first, next; contrast—although, however; example—for instance, in other words; summary—therefore, to conclude |
Understands the word and to connect ideas.
Connects two- to three-words.
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Understands and uses a few high-
frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day words to connect ideas. |
Understands and uses some high-frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day connector words and markers
(timetime markers:
words and phrases that indicate when an action or event occurs, e.g., yesterday, currently, at the moment, last month, next year, this afternoon, two days ago, on the weekend, placeplace markers:
words or markers that indicate place, e.g., where, in, near, outside) to
- connect
idease.g., and, then, also, as
- locate items/
objectse.g., here, out, in, on
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Understands and uses more high-frequencyhigh-frequency words:
words most used in everyday communication; e.g., a, you, be, she, day connector words, markers (sequencesequence markers:
adverbs and phrases that indicate the order of ideas, e.g., chronology—first, second, third; sequence—beginning with, next, finally), and phrases to
- organize idease.g., today, first, second, Monday
- add detaile.g., and, more, add, plus
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Understands and uses some low-frequencylow-frequency words:
words that are less commonly used, e.g., rogue instead of thief connector and transition words and phrases to
- comparee.g., and, similar, same, also, like
- contraste.g., but, or, different, though
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Understands and uses more low-frequencylow-frequency words:
words that are less commonly used, e.g., rogue instead of thief connector and transition words and phrases to
- express an opinione.g., because, finally, while, however
- emphasizee.g., certainly, in fact, especially, definitely, mainly
- show cause and effecte.g., because of, however, due to, therefore
- express a conditione.g., since, until, unless, while, in case
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Understands and uses a range of connector and transition words and phrases to
- summarizee.g., finally, in general, overall, in other words
- introduce examplese.g., to demonstrate, as long as, for example, for instance
- concludee.g., as a result, to conclude, therefore, in summary
- clarifye.g., because of, in fact, in my opinion, in other words
- qualifye.g., however, unless, despite, although
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Understands and uses a broad range of connector and transition words and phrases to
- justify an opinione.g., whether, still, equally important, after all, even though
- rephrasee.g., feel that, disagree, that is to say, excluding
- suggest a possibilitye.g., in my opinion, due to, besides, so long as
- show
- change of
directione.g., because of, although, therefore, consequently
- exceptione.g., furthermore, despite, although, excluding
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