Common Core ELA1st GradeLanguage

L.1.6: Use New Words When Talking and Writing

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.6 · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

Make a Because Scramble All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What L.1.6 Means in Plain English

First graders take the words they pick up from read-alouds, their own reading and class talk, and use them again when they talk and write. They also use joining words like because, so and but to show how two ideas connect: a cause, a result, a contrast.

The test is whether a word shows up a week later in a child’s own sentence, not whether they can define it on Friday. Kindergarten (L.K.6) asked for the reuse without the joining words, and 2nd grade (L.2.6) adds adjectives and adverbs to describe.

L.1.6 I Can Statements

I can use a new word from a book when I talk.
I can use because to tell why.
I can write a new word in my own sentence.

L.1.6 Worked Example

A week of read-alouds about how a frog grows, one partner question, and two answers, and only one sounds like the books.

Prompt

After a week of read-alouds about how a frog grows: Tell your partner what happens to a tadpole, and tell why.

Not Yet“The baby frog swims. It gets big. Then it’s a frog.”Accurate, but the week’s words, tadpole, hatch and wriggle, are gone, and three short sentences sit side by side with nothing saying why one leads to the next.

Meets the Standard“The tadpoles hatch out of the eggs. They wriggle their tails to swim because they don’t have legs yet. Then they grow legs, so they can hop out of the pond.”Three words from the read-alouds used in the child’s own sentences, and two joining words doing real work: because gives the reason for wriggling, and so gives the result of growing legs.

Moves to Use

Use the book’s word, not a baby word: tadpole, not baby frog.Tell why with because.Tell what happened as a result with so.Use the new word again in a sentence of your own.

Common Mistakes with L.1.6

Words that stay in the book

Defines hatch on Friday’s check, then says “comes out” in every retell

Try this: Post the week’s words where partners talk, and add a tally mark each time a partner hears one used in a sentence.

Because with no reason after it

“Tadpoles swim because.” “I like frogs because frogs.”

Try this: Have the child finish because out loud with a real reason, then check it by asking “Why?” and hearing the same answer.

Because where so belongs

“It grew legs because it hopped out of the pond.”

Try this: Draw an arrow from cause to result on the board, then read because going backward and so going forward along it.

Where L.1.6 Fits

Comes BeforeL.K.6Use words and phrases picked up from conversations and read-alouds.

AlongsideL.1.1Use frequently occurring conjunctions like and, but, so and because in sentences.RL.1.4Find words in stories and poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses, a rich source of new words.

Comes NextL.2.6Use words from talk and books, including adjectives and adverbs that describe.

Practice L.1.6

Sentence Scramble GeneratorFree ToolMixed-up sentences built around because and so, like the tadpole one above, for children to put back in order and read aloud.Because and soGrade 1Cut and glue

Make a Scramble

Quick Check

Finish with a reason: “The pond froze because…”
Any real reason, such as “The pond froze because it was very cold.”
Which joining word fits? “The tadpole grew legs, ___ it hopped onto land.”
So, because hopping onto land is the result of growing legs.
Under L.1.6, where do the new words come from?
Conversations, a child’s own reading, being read to, and talking or writing about texts.

L.1.6: Other Names

L.1.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.6