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Language Arts - Elementary Curriculum English Language Arts Grade 1 (2023)
Lesson Plans

Reading (1.R)

Students will learn to proficiently read and comprehend grade level literature and informational text, including seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band, with scaffolding as needed. *Standard R.4 includes an asterisk to refer educators back to the Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges in the introduction of the standards.

Standard 1.R.6:

Read a variety of texts including those from diverse cultures to identify and retell the main idea and key details of a text. (RL & RI)
  • Casting Shadows Across Literacy and Science
    Shadows, shadows, everywhere! In this lesson, students read fiction, informational text, and poetry about shadows to extend their knowledge of the concept before casting their own shadow poetry.
  • Completing the Circle: The Craft of Circular Plot Structure
    Students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories by using graphic organizers, reading and writing stories, and using checklists to assess their work.
  • Cowboys and Castles: Interacting With Fractured Texas Tales
    What do cowboy hats have to do with fairy tales? Two traditional fairy tales and their Texas-based counterparts set the stage for five different ways to respond to text.
  • Note Taking: Enhancing the Ability to Comprehend Nonfiction Text
    This article describes the importance of teaching students the strategy of note taking and includes a template for use with elementary students.
  • People of the Whale
    This article describes how the lifestyle of Alaska's Inupiat people have changed over time, and the new challenges they now face as a result of a changing climate. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.
  • Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading
    Teach your students about sentence structure, rhyming words, sight words, vocabulary, and print concepts using a weekly poem.
  • Retelling Folktales Through Short Films
    This is a fun lesson plan is meant to help students master the ability to retell a story with a beginning middle and end, and identify important characters and settings in the story.  It will also help students learn the very basics of film making including story boarding, creating props and scenery, the importance or lighting and camera placement, copyright, and audio.
  • Retelling the African Folktale Abiyoyo
    Students will learn about retelling and performing stories from other cultures.
  • Teaching About Story Structure Using Fairy Tales
    Stories and poems that have a familiar structure can create a supportive context for learning about the writing process, building students' background knowledge, and scaffolding their creation of original stories. In this lesson for students in second or late first grade, teachers help students explore the concepts of beginning, middle, and ending by reading a variety of stories and charting the events on storyboards. As they retell the stories, students are encouraged to make use of sequencing words (first, so, then, next, after that, finally). A read-aloud of Once Upon a Golden Apple by Jean Little and Maggie De Vries introduces a discussion of the choices made by an author in constructing a plot. Starting with prewriting questions and a storyboard, students construct original stories, progressing from shared writing to guided writing; independent writing is also encouraged.
  • The Cinderella Projects
    The use of multicultural versions of the story Cinderella helps students make comparisons and observations.


UEN logo http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Sara  Wiebke and see the Language Arts - Elementary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.