Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 1, 1995                   TAG: 9509290007
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: G-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STANDARDS OF LEARNING FROM THE VIRGINIA SCHOOL BOARD

Kindergarten: Introduced to historical events and important people of the past in America, including Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington. Study the people and events honored in commemorative holidays, including Columbus Day, Thanksgiving and Independence Day.

First Grade: Learn about early American political, scientific, social and military leaders, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Jane Addams and John Paul Jones, through biographies and stories. Learn historical time sequence and example of cause and effect.

Second Grade: Study the contributions of ancient Egypt and China with emphasis on written language, laws and architectural monuments; compare rural, urban and suburban communities; and compare the tribes of American Indians in Virginia with tribes in other regions in the United States.

Third Grade: Develop an understanding of the elements of civilizations by studying several early civilizations, including Greece and Rome; study the discovery, exploration and settlement of America, including Jamestown and the Virginia colony; study historical cause-and-effect relationships such as colonists establishing governments similar to those that governed the colonists in Europe.

Fourth Grade: Explore Virginia history from the Colonial period to the present, including expansion and development of the state, contribution of Virginians to the national government, the state's role in the Civil War, reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and prominent Virginians in the 20th century; develop historical analysis skills.

Fifth Grade: Study United States history to 1877, including American Indians, early explorations of America, founding of the colonies, the American revolution, Declaration of Independence, westward expansion, Civil War and reconstruction. This course continues in the sixth grade to cover United States history to the present.

English

Kindergarten: Recognize and print letters of the alphabet, use basic phonetic principles, identify story elements and communicate ideas through pictures and writing; understand how print is organized and read; develop oral communication skills.

First Grade: Will expand oral language and writing skills; express ideas orally in complete sentences and begin using compound words in oral communication; continue to develop an understanding of character, setting, theme and story sequence in storybooks; and write to communicate ideas.

Second Grade: Write stories, letters and simple explanations; apply grammatical principles to writing; locate information in reference materials; demonstrate comprehension of fiction and nonfiction works; expand listening and speaking vocabularies.

Third Grade: Present brief oral reports, organizing ideas sequentially or around major points of information; read a variety of literature, with an emphasis on classical as well as contemporary works; write descriptive paragraphs; record information from print and nonprint sources, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, other reference books, videos and cassette recordings.

Fourth Grade: Write narratives and explanations, editing copies for grammar, capitalization, punctuation and spelling; demonstrate a comprehension of a variety of literary forms; write rhymed, unrhymed and patterned poetry; read and learn the meanings of unfamiliar words.

Fifth Grade: Write for a variety of purposes: describe, inform, entertain and explain; develop research skills and learn to synthesize information from a variety of resources; read a variety of literary forms, including fiction, nonfiction and poetry; learn to use root words, prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of words.

Keywords:
PROFILE