Indiana Academic Standards Support


NEW! Expanded to include all Grades K-8

We asked our team of literacy and math education coaches for help understanding select Indiana Academic Standards in Grades K-8, including how student knowledge is expected to grow vertically across grade levels. Each standard below includes a brief overview video introducing the standard as well as grade-specific videos demonstrating what can be taught to effectively address each goal.

English/Language Arts Standards

Reading Foundations: Fluency

RF.5, the fluency standard, is interesting in that it’s expressed the same way from Grade 1 to Grade 5. For kindergarten there is a slight difference in wording. The challenge for teachers is to differentiate the standard so children accumulate fluency skills across the years while also accommodating the increasing complexity of their books. It’s important for teachers to do two things simultaneously:

  1. Teach all children the range of skills and strategies that comprise fluent reading, no matter their reading levels.
  2. Match fluency instruction to the increasing sophistication and complexity of texts children read as they advance through the grades.

Learn more in the overview video (above) and downloadable PDF. Then watch the individual grade level videos (see playlist above) for detailed support.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas

RL 2.3, Key Ideas and Textual Support in reading literature, helps students build comprehension and appreciation of literature by identifying, describing and making inferences about literary elements and themes. With increasing complexity across grade levels, students will describe how characters, settings, events, and details impact plot.

Learn more in the overview video (above) and downloadable PDF. Then watch the individual grade level videos (see playlist above) for detailed support.

Reading Literature: Structure and Organization

There are two key parts to this standard, which is meant to support readers in understanding and enjoying what they read. Point of view refers to who is telling or narrating a story. First-person and third-person are two common points of view. Point of view is not the same as perspective, which refers to a character’s world view. For example, a story could be written in first-person point-of-view, but the story itself could reveal multiple perspectives related to the various characters in the story.

Structure refers to the parts of a piece of literature and how those parts are organized. This standard explores common structures found in stories, poems, and plays. Knowing about these structures and considering an author’s intention in using them, supports deeper understanding of the texts students read and makes it more likely that students will fall in love with reading.

Learn more in the overview video (above) and downloadable PDF. Then watch the individual grade level videos (see playlist above) for detailed support.

Reading Nonfiction: Features and Structures

Text features include title, author, table of contents, captions, index, illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, subheadings, and more. In this standard we’re looking at a child’s ability to use what they know about what a text feature is and how it works. Across the grades, knowledge of text features is layered to give students the understandings they need to use the features to comprehend the text itself. With increasing complexity, students can name text features, explain what the text features do, use those features to gain information from the text or solve a problem independently.

Learn more in the overview video (above) and downloadable PDF. Then watch the individual grade level videos (see playlist above) for detailed support.

Reading Nonfiction: Connection of Ideas

The Indiana standards emphasize the importance of nonfiction reading skills with the expected learning outcome that all students develop reading proficiency on a continuum of growing skill and independence. As readers develop, they are expected to navigate increasingly complex text, apply several comprehension strategies in tandem, and read independently for longer periods. While reading nonfiction texts, readers should be able to understand and connect information and use nonfiction text structures and features to locate and comprehend information. Critical literacy demands that young readers develop the ability to identify and evaluate information for accuracy, credibility, and bias, as well as compare and evaluate information from multiple sources, including online and print text. Proficient nonfiction readers understand the relationships between facts and supporting information, and recognize the differences between facts and opinions in a text. In Grades K-2, readers are expected to notice how an author provides information about a topic and why it’s important to do so. In Grades 3-5, readers must also distinguish between facts and opinions in a text and identify an author’s specific claims and supporting information.

Learn more in the overview video (above) and downloadable PDF. Then watch the individual grade level videos (see playlist above) for detailed support.

Mathematics Standards

Sign up for our Newsletter
Help Us Reach 20,000 Students Annually