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Common Core ELA1st GradeReading: Informational

RI.1.4: Ask About Words and Phrases in a Text

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the Word MapAll 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.1.4 Means in Plain English

First graders stop at a word or phrase they do not know and ask what it means, then answer from the sentences around it. In a text on blizzards, they ask what blizzard means and find it: a snowstorm with wind so strong people cannot see across the street.

In kindergarten (RI.K.4) the teacher prompts the asking and helps with the answer. In 1st grade the habit is the child’s own, and phrases count as well as single words. In 2nd grade (RI.2.4) the words become subject words from science and social studies, like habitat.

RI.1.4 I Can Statements

  • I can ask what a new word means.
  • I can use the sentences around a word to figure it out.
  • I can tell what a word means in my own words.

RI.1.4 Worked Example

A five-line text about blizzards, a question about the word blizzard, and two answers: one that stops at the first clue and one that uses all of them.

Read the Story
Some winter storms are called blizzards.In a blizzard, the wind blows very hard for hours and hours.The wind pushes the snow sideways instead of letting it fall straight down.There is so much blowing snow that people cannot see the house across the street.When a blizzard is coming, families stay inside where it is safe and warm.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What is a blizzard? Which words in the text help you know?
Not Yet“Snow.”Not wrong, but it stops at the first clue. Plenty of snowy days are not blizzards, and the answer leaves out the hard wind that the rest of the text keeps describing.
Meets the Standard“A big snowstorm with really strong wind. The text says the wind blows the snow sideways, and you can’t even see the house across the street.”The child puts the meaning in their own words and names the sentences that gave it away, so the answer comes from the text, not a guess.
Question Stems to Use
Which word or phrase is new to you?What do you think it means?Which words around it give you a clue?Does your meaning make sense when you reread the sentence?How is a blizzard different from a snowy day?

Common Mistakes with RI.1.4

Stopping at the first clue

“Blizzard means snow.”

Try this: Reread the sentences after the word and add one clue from each, until the meaning tells a blizzard apart from ordinary snow.

Reading straight past the new word

The child reads past blizzard without a pause and later cannot say what the text was about

Try this: Give each reader a sticky note to flag one word they cannot explain, then answer those words together after reading.

Guessing from how the word sounds

“A blizzard is a lizard!”

Try this: Put the guess back into the sentence, “In a lizard, the wind blows very hard,” and ask whether it makes sense.

Where RI.1.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.K.4Ask and answer questions about unknown words, with the teacher’s prompting and support.
AlongsideL.1.4Use sentence clues, word parts and root words to work out what a new word means.RL.1.4Find the words in a story or poem that show feelings or appeal to the senses.
Comes NextRI.2.4Work out the meaning of words and phrases in a 2nd grade science or social studies text.

Practice RI.1.4

Fill-in-the-Blank GeneratorFree ToolPaste a short nonfiction text and blank out its new words, so children use the sentences around each blank to decide what belongs there.Paste a passageNew wordsPrint
Make a Worksheet

Quick Check

  1. What is a blizzard?
  2. Why can’t people see the house across the street?
  3. What do families do when a blizzard is coming?

RI.1.4: Other Names

RI.1.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.4

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.