South Dakota ELA 1.RI.4

ELA1st GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Investigate the meanings of words and phrases used in various contexts.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students use nearby words and pictures to figure out what words and short phrases mean in nonfiction. They check whether the meaning fits the sentence and tell which clue helped.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student explains that 'roots take in water' means roots absorb water, using a plant diagram and the sentence as clues. They can explain why 'light' means not heavy in a sentence about a feather but sunlight in a sentence about plants.
Common Misconceptions: Students may use a familiar meaning even when it does not fit, such as a dog's bark when reading about tree bark. Some guess from the picture without checking the words in the sentence.
How to Assess It: Give students these two sentences: 'The feather is light.' 'The sun gives us light.' Ask them to write what light means in each sentence and circle one clue in each.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a plant diagram and a strip reading 'Roots take in water'; have them place the strip by the roots and trace the water's path.
Read 'The duck's bill is flat' and 'The bill says $8'; ask students what bill means in each sentence and which words helped.
Read sentences with 'bark'; have students raise a dog or tree picture card, then name the word that helped them choose.
Show a seed packet marked 'full sun' and '6 hours of sunlight'; ask students to explain 'full sun' before choosing a garden spot.

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