Literacy In K - 2nd Grade

American School of Milan identifies that language literacy develops over time. This is the ability to understand texts both explicitly and implicitly through listening and reading. Furthermore, it is the ability to express oneself accurately and fluently through speaking and writing.

We therefore strive to inspire students to be conscious of the power of language, both as readers, writers, speakers and listeners, and to use language in knowledgeable, thoughtful and ethical ways. Our curriculum is designed to foster compassionate, discerning, and informed global citizens.

By the end of Kindergarten, ASM student are able to:

› Print many upper and lower case letters

› Make spaces between words

› Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs

› Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/

› Understand and use question words, Who, what, where, when, why and how

› Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (to, from, in, out, off , on, for, of, by, with)

› Capitalize first word in the sentence and the pronoun I

› Recognize and name end punctuation

› Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds

› Spell simple words phonetically drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships

› With guidance and support from adults, sort common objects into categories

By the end of First Grade, ASM student are able to:

› Print all upper and lower case letters

› Use common, proper and possessive nouns

› Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences

› Use personal, possessive and indefinite pronouns (eg. I, me, my, they, them, their; anyone, everything)

› Use verbs to convey a sense of the past, present and future

› Use frequently occurring adjectives

› Capitalize dates and names of people

› Use end punctuation for sentences

› Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series

› Use conventional spelling patterns for words with common spelling patterns

By the end of Second Grade, we will have helped our students:

› Use collective nouns (eg. group)

› Irregular plural nouns (eg. teeth, feet, children, mice, fish)

› Use reflexive pronouns (eg. ourselves, myself,)

› Form and use past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (sat, hid, told)

› Use of adjectives and adverbs

› Prepositions, during, beyond, toward

› Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names

› Commas in greetings and closing of letters

› Apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives

› Spelling patterns when writing words

› Use reference materials including beginning dictionaries to check correct spelling