The Phase I ESL Literacy learner is beginning to:

• Participate in class by repeating, chanting and singing
• Focus on listening carefully
• Attend regularly and complete written work
• Use class time wisely
• Risk making mistakes in order to develop literacy skills
• Take the initiative for own learning
• Practice at home and school.

A Phase I ESL Literacy learner is beginning to:

• Bring own experience and prior knowledge to the text
• Get meaning from text through
  • Context
  • Recognition of a small bank of sight words
  • Guessing words by the first letter or the shape of word
  • Pictures or other features of the text
• Re-read to aid comprehension
• Use memory strategies, such as repetition and categorizing
• Use illustrations and symbols as clues to meaning
• Read over daily work at home
• Recognize documents by colour, graphics, size, etc.

A Phase I ESL Literacy learner is beginning to:

• Look back at a model when copying and note the placement on a page or line
• Write slowly and carefully
• Count number of letters when copying a word
• Use invented spelling
• Use writing to reinforce learning
• Use a variety of sources to check work, such as teacher, classmates, model, picture dictionary.

A Phase I ESL Literacy learner is beginning to:

• Use manipulatives to understand a new problem
• Memorize a small set of basic facts
• Use reasoning for estimation or to determine when to use addition or subtraction.