OVERVIEW

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Below is the course description for first grade classes at ASTEC: 

 

Language Arts

 

In first grade language arts, scholars learn the foundational and critical reading and writing skills to proficiently decode text with fluency and understanding. Instruction focuses on asking and answering explicit and inferential questions, using text evidence, summarizing and engaging in collaborative conversation. Scholars identify literary elements such as character, setting, author’s purpose and structure. Scholars begin practicing the writing process by writing narrative, informative and opinion pieces incorporating grade level grammar concepts. Scholars expand their personal and academic vocabulary they can use in their writing and speaking and scholars develop stamina for longer periods of reading and writing.(“English Language Arts.” Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2020, sde.ok.gov).

 

Mathematics

 

As scholars are exploring and discovering in first grade mathematics they advance in development of counting skills, which transition to subitizing (recognizing numbers without counting) and adding and subtracting using efficient procedures.  As scholars are using manipulatives, asking questions, communicating mathematically and developing strategies for problem solving, they will gain a deeper conceptual understanding of concepts of Numbers and Operations, Algebraic Reasoning and Algebra, Geometry and Measurement and Data and Probability while working in whole group, collaborating with  partners or in independent settings. (“Mathematics.” Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2020, sde.ok.gov.)

 

Social Studies

 

In first grade social studies, scholars continue their study of their communities, its unique natural and human features and their roles as active citizens. In the civics strand the scholar will learn characteristics and responsibilities of good citizenship. In the geography strand scholars explore basic geographic concepts about the Earth and its ecosystems. The economic strand continues to develop scholar understandings of basic economic concepts and how they work in our market system. (“Social Studies.” Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2020, sde.ok.gov/)

 

Science

 

The performance expectations in first grade science help scholars formulate answers to questions such as: “What happens when materials vibrate? What happens when there is no light? What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow? How are parents and their children similar and different? What objects are in the sky and how do they seem to move?” Scholars are expected to develop understanding of the relationship between sound and vibrating materials as well as between the availability of light and ability to see objects. The idea that light travels from place to place can be understood by scholars at this level through determining the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. Scholars are expected to develop understanding of how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive. The understanding is developed that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly the same as, their parents. Scholars are able to observe, describe, and predict some patterns of the movement of objects in the sky. The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; structure and function; and influence of engineering, technology and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the first grade performance expectations, scholars are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Scholars are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. (“Science.” Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2020, sde.ok.gov/.)