Arizona Standards
Arizona 1st Grade ELA Standards
All 45 Arizona English language arts standards for 1st grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Arizona Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
45 standards
Reading Standards for Literature
9 standards1.RL.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about the important details of a story.
1.RL.2
Retell a story with its important details and show they understand its main idea, message or lesson.
1.RL.3
Describe a story's characters, where it happens and its big events on your own, pointing to details from the story.
1.RL.4
Find the words in a story or poem that show a feeling or bring in the senses, like shivered or a crunchy, sweet apple.
1.RL.5
Explain how a storybook differs from an informational book after reading many of each, like a tale about a fox versus a book of fox facts.
1.RL.6
Tell who is speaking at different points in a story, like when the narrator stops and a character starts talking.
1.RL.7
Use a story's pictures together with its words to describe a character, the setting or what is happening.
1.RL.9
Tell how the adventures of characters in two stories are alike and different, like two heroes who both face a wolf.
1.RL.10
With help, read stories, short plays and poems written at a first-grade level.
Reading Standards for Informational Text
10 standards1.RI.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, why and how questions about the key facts in a nonfiction text.
1.RI.2
Name the main topic of an informational book on your own and retell its key facts, like what a book about the moon teaches.
1.RI.3
Use key details to explain how two people, events, ideas or facts in a nonfiction text are connected, like a cause and its effect.
1.RI.4
Ask and answer questions to figure out what a word or phrase in an informational book means, like hibernate in a book about bears.
1.RI.5
Use a book's headings, table of contents, glossary or an on-screen menu to find a fact quickly.
1.RI.6
Tell which facts come from a book's pictures and which come from its words, like a photo showing a bird's colors while the text names its food.
1.RI.7
Use an informational book's pictures and words together to describe its main ideas, like how a diagram shows the parts of a plant.
1.RI.8
Point out the reasons an author gives to back up a point, like the three reasons a book gives for brushing your teeth.
1.RI.9
Spot the basic ways two books on the same topic are alike and different, like how each one pictures and describes a frog.
1.RI.10
With help, read first-grade nonfiction, including everyday texts like signs or labels plus history, science and how-to texts.
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
4 standards1.RF.1
Follow print left to right and top to bottom, know that letters in order make a word with spaces between words, and name every upper and lowercase letter.
1.RF.2
Hear and make rhymes, clap syllables, say the first, middle and last sounds in a short word like cat, and swap a sound to make a new word, like cat to hat.
1.RF.3
Decode one- and two-syllable words using digraphs like sh and ch, the six syllable types, vowel sounds to count syllables, endings like -ed, and tricky sight words.
1.RF.4
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Writing Standards
8 standards1.W.1
Write an opinion piece that names the topic or book, gives a reason for the opinion and ends with a closing line, like Dogs are the best pets because they play with you.
1.W.2
Write a short informational piece that names a topic, gives a few facts about it and ends with a closing line, like a few sentences about what bees do.
1.W.3
Write a story about two or more things that happened in order, with some details, words like first, then and next, and a closing.
1.W.4
With an adult’s help, organize a piece of writing so it fits the job, like a thank-you note versus a report on bats.
1.W.5
With an adult's help, stick to one topic, listen to classmates' questions and suggestions about a piece of writing, and add details to make it stronger.
1.W.6
With an adult's help, use digital tools like a tablet or classroom computer to write, polish and publish a piece, sometimes with a partner.
1.W.7
With adult help, take part in group research and writing, like reading several how-to books on one topic and writing a list of steps.
1.W.8
With an adult's help, answer a question by remembering something that happened or by looking in books the teacher provides.
Writing Standards: Foundational Skills
3 standards1.WF.1
Write every capital and lowercase print letter from memory with correct strokes, write the usual spelling for each sound, and space letters and words.
1.WF.2
Split syllables of two or three sounds, like u-p or s-u-n, into each sound and write letters for them, knowing every syllable needs a vowel.
1.WF.3
Spell one-syllable words with blends, digraphs, long vowels and vowel-r, add endings like -ing with help, spell easy two-syllable and list words, and sound out new ones.
Speaking and Listening Standards
6 standards1.SL.1
Talk with classmates and adults about 1st-grade topics and books, following discussion rules, building on what others say over several turns, and asking when confused.
1.SL.2
Ask and answer questions about the key details of a read-aloud, a talk or a video, like what the main character wanted.
1.SL.3
Ask a speaker questions to learn more or to clear up something confusing, and answer questions about what they said.
1.SL.4
Describe a person, place, thing or event with details that matter, saying ideas and feelings clearly, like what made a trip to the zoo fun.
1.SL.5
Add a drawing, photo or other visual when it makes an idea, thought or feeling clearer to listeners.
1.SL.6
Speak in complete sentences when the moment calls for it, like answering a question in class or sharing news.
Language Standards
5 standards1.L.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
1.L.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
1.L.4
With adult help, work out new or multiple-meaning words using word parts like un-, root words and their endings like looked, and clues in the sentence.
1.L.5
With an adult's help, sort words into groups like colors and clothing, define a duck as a bird that swims, and act out how look, peek and stare differ.
1.L.6
Use words learned from conversations and books when talking and writing, including because to explain why, like I wore boots because it rained.
The official Arizona documents
- Arizona English Language Arts Standards: 1st Grade · adopted December 2016 · since 2018-19
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Arizona's standards, not the official wording, which Arizona Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.