California Common Core State Standards Reading

Grades 1-5

Give readers the extra practice that helps skills last. Measuring Up California Common Core State Standards Reading is a supplemental program that works alongside your core Tier 1 curriculum. It gives students explicit, standards-based instruction and practice in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, so they build the skills and confidence to grow as readers.

Standards-based instruction to meet student needs

Supplement your core reading program with extra, explicit practice on key grade-level CA CCSS
Use it for whole-class instruction, small groups, Tier 2 intervention, or summer school
Monitor progress with lesson checks, unit assessments, and full-length practice tests

Standards-driven achievement

Consistent four-part lessons build clear learning routines
Real-World Connections show students why each skill matters
Guided Instruction models every skill with step-by-step, scaffolded questioning
High-interest literary and informational texts, including selections from Highlights for Children and Cricket Media
Fluency Practice in every unit builds accuracy, rate, and expression
Building Stamina® passages prepare students to keep their focus through longer texts
Exit Tickets confirm that students can apply what they learned

Measuring Up California Common Core State Standards Reading cover

Measuring Up California Common Core State Standards Reading level B cover

The Student Edition takes students through each lesson’s objectives, skill building, focused practice, and assessment. It covers four units:

Vocabulary and Word Learning: reference tools, context clues, word parts, and words with more than one meaning.
Comprehension Strategies: setting a purpose, predicting, asking questions, making connections, inferring, and summarizing.
Literary Reading: point of view, big idea, characters, plot, setting, figurative language, poetry, and drama.
Informational Reading: main idea, text structure, author’s purpose, fact and opinion, comparing texts, and text features.

A Real-World Connection opens each lesson. Students preview Words to Know, see what they will learn, and connect to what they already know.

Introduction

Students read a passage with Guided Questions in the margin that model the skill step by step. Partner talk and teacher think-alouds build understanding before students work on their own.

Guided Instruction

Students apply the skill to a new text with Practice and Assessment questions. Critical Thinking items take their thinking further.

Independent Practice

Students go back to the opening Real-World Connection to show they can use the skill. Then they reflect in a quick “How Am I Doing?” self-check.

Exit Ticket

Each skill is modeled with explicit instruction, kid-friendly definitions, and clear examples. Quick checks in the text let students try the skill right away.

Learning the Concept

Students go beyond the passage with questions that ask them to explain, apply, and defend their thinking. Elevate items push for deeper reasoning, and Together tasks have partners practice the skill through talk.

Critical Thinking

At the end of each lesson, students reflect on what they learned and name the questions they still have. Then they record their progress on the My Reading Skills Progress Chart.

How Am I Doing?

Every unit ends with a passage the teacher models and students then reread on their own. Repeated reading builds accuracy, rate, and expression, so students can spend more of their attention on understanding the text.

Fluency Practice

Paired literary and informational passages, with test-formatted questions, close each unit. Students apply every skill from the unit on their own and build the focus they need for longer texts.

Building Stamina

Teacher Edition

Everything you need to teach with confidence
The Teacher Edition includes more than just lessons. Full-size Student Edition pages are wrapped with CA CCSS, pacing, scaffolds, and strategies that meet the needs of every learner, including English Learners and Striving Learners. That means less prep and more time teaching.

Unit overviews show how skills build from grade to grade
Lesson Planners with Learning Objectives and Words to Know, plus hands-on activities for activating prior knowledge
Embedded supports for English Learners (EL), Striving Learners (SL), and Advanced Learners (AL)
Instructional Guidance notes cover common misconceptions and when to reteach
Answer rationales, Prescriptive Answer Guides, rubrics, and tracking tools

Introduction example

Unit overview

Planning resource

Differentiation

Instructional Guidance

Rubrics

Measure growth at every step

Lesson-level Practice, Assessment, and Exit Ticket checks
Informal fluency observations with an accuracy, rate, and expression tracker
End-of-unit Building Stamina summative assessments
Two full-length practice tests mirroring the format of the CAASPP for baseline, mid-year, and end-of-year benchmarking
Built-in progress tracking allows students record their own growth on the My Reading Skills Progress Chart
Prescriptive Answer Guides link results directly to reteach lesson

Connect School and Home

Every unit opens with a Family Letter in English and Spanish. Each letter lists the unit’s objectives and key vocabulary, plus simple activities families can do at home.

Family Letter

Looking for ELA support for Grades 6-8? Check out Measuring Up to the California Standards for English Language Arts to meet the needs of your students in the area of English language arts.

Measuring Up to the California Stnards English Language Arts cover

California Common Core State Standards Reading

Student Edition

Master the Standards Using Four-Part Lessons

Develop Critical Thinking, Fluency, and Test Readiness

Teacher Edition

Assessment and Progress Monitoring Built In

Connect School and Home

See the ELA Program for Grades 6-8

Also Available for Mathematics