English Language Arts
1st Grade

1st Grade ELA Course Summary
In 1st Grade English Language Arts, students discover how authors write texts to both entertain and inform readers. Students build social-emotional skills through Being a Good Friend and Love Makes a Family, explore how lessons from traditional stories can be applied to their own lives in Folktales Around the World, learn how animals grow and survive in Amazing Animals, and see how diverse individuals can make the world a better place in Inspiring Artists and Musicians and The Power of Reading. In each unit, students engage in process-based writing projects connected to the core texts that develop their narrative, informational, and opinion writing skills.
Using authentic, engaging read-aloud texts, teachers help students develop their language comprehension and address grade-level reading, writing, language, and speaking and listening standards. Over the course of 1st Grade ELA, students deepen their understanding of the world around them through thematically-aligned, knowledge-building units, embedded daily writing instruction, and frequent opportunities for in-class discussion.
Recommended Sequence
Unit 1
17 Lessons
Being a Good Friend
Students read texts focused on what it means to be a good friend, and examine key details about characters through discussion and writing, helping to facilitate building friendships in the classroom.
Unit 2
23 Lessons
Folktales Around the World
Students use the text and illustrations of fables and folktales to analyze setting, characters, and key details, allowing them to connect traditional stories to their own lives.
Unit 3
24 Lessons
Amazing Animals
In this unit, students begin their exploration of animals and animal adaptations by reading a collection of nonfiction texts.
Unit 4
29 Lessons
Love Makes a Family
In this unit students learn that families come in all different shapes and sizes, and that no matter what a family looks like, all families love and care for one another, by reading fiction books on various types of families.
Unit 5
26 Lessons
Inspiring Artists and Musicians
In this inspirational biography unit, students read and learn about a diverse assortment of artists, musicians, and dancers, while focusing on identifying evidence from texts and illustrations.
Alternate Units
Alternate Unit 3
24 Lessons
The Seven Continents
Students read informational texts about the seven continents, and what makes each of them unique, while working to understand text features and develop skills in writing about informational texts.
Alternate Unit 4
26 Lessons
The Power of Reading
Students learn about the joy books and reading bring to people's lives, the different ways people access books, and some of the barriers people have faced when trying to learn how to read.
Alternate Unit 4
18 Lessons
Making Old Stories New
In this unit, students compare and contrast events and characters in multiple versions of The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood.
Alternate Unit 5
28 Lessons
Movements for Equality
Students learn about the concepts of fairness and justice and people who worked to overcome injustice, while developing informational reading strategies for reading narrative nonfiction texts.
Alternate Unit 5
19 Lessons
Ancient Egypt
Students explore the values, daily routines, structures, and rituals of ancient Egypt and compare them to those of society today, while exploring the evidence an author uses to support points in a text.
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