South Dakota ELA 1.W.1.c

ELA1st GradeWriting

The Standard

Provide a concluding statement.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students end an opinion piece with a sentence that tells the reader what they think. The ending should fit the opinion and reasons they already wrote.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student who writes that recess should be longer can end with, “That is why our school should give us more recess time.” They do not add a new reason in the last sentence.
Common Misconceptions: Students may stop after their reason or write “The End” instead of an ending sentence. Some add a new reason or copy their first sentence word for word.
How to Assess It: Give students this start: “Our class should have a pet because we can learn to care for it.” Ask them to write one sentence that ends the piece without adding a new reason.

Lesson moves

Give pairs sentence strips with an opinion, a reason, and two possible endings, then ask them to choose the ending that fits.
Read a short opinion about longer recess, then ask, “Which last sentence makes the writing sound finished, and why?”
Play Ending Match with opinion cards about pets and games, then have students write one ending of their own.
Have students write a note to the principal suggesting a new playground game, including one reason and a closing sentence.

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