English Language Arts
ADOPTED February 1997
Guiding Principles
The following ten principles are philosophical statements about learning
and teaching in the English language arts. They should guide the
construction and evaluation of English language arts curricula. They
underlie every strand and learning standard in this curriculum
framework.
Guiding Principle 1:
An effective English language arts curriculum develops thinking and language together through interactive learning.
Effective language use both requires and extends thinking. As learners
listen to a speech, view a
documentary, respond to a literary work, or convey their ideas in an
essay, they engage in thinking processes. The learning standards in this
framework specify the intellectual processes that students must draw on as
they learn through and about language. Students develop their ability to
remember, understand, analyze, evaluate, and apply the ideas they
encounter in the English language arts and in all the other disciplines
when they undertake increasingly challenging assignments that require them
to write or talk about what they are learning.
Guiding Principle 2:
An effective English language arts curriculum
develops children's oral language and early literacy through appropriately
challenging learning.
Schools must provide a strong and well-balanced
instructional program for developing reading and writing skill in the
primary grades, with materials appropriate for their students. The roots
of successful beginning reading and writing lie in oral language
development. Most children begin school able to use their oral language
effectively for many purposes. Teachers further develop students' oral
language and strengthen their powers of observation and memory to help
them acquire the concepts and skills essential for learning to read and
write. Early literacy programs provide students with a variety of oral
language activities, high quality reading materials, systematic phonics
instruction, and opportunities to work with others who are reading and
writing. Reading to preschool and primary grade children plays an
especially critical role in developing the foundation for literacy.
Guiding Principle 3:
An effective English language arts curriculum draws
on literature from many genres, time periods, and cultures, featuring
works that reflect our common literary heritage.
Literature is the heart of the English language arts and the touchstone
for all language arts activities. As Louise Rosenblatt remarks in
Literature as Exploration, "Whatever the form--poem, novel, drama,
biography, essay--literature makes comprehensible the myriad ways in which
human beings meet the infinite possibilities that life offers."
All students deserve knowledge of works reflecting a literary heritage
that goes back thousands of years. In each district, teachers must work
together to develop PreK-12 literature programs that are coherently
articulated from grade to grade. In addition to including works from the
literary heritage of the English-speaking world, the schools will want to
give all students a broad exposure to literary works about the many
different kinds of communities that make up contemporary America and about
countries and cultures throughout the world. To guide teachers and
parents, this framework provides suggested lists of authors, illustrators,
and works in Appendices A and B. Appendix A presents a suggested list of
authors or works reflecting our common literary and cultural heritage,
while Appendix B presents suggested lists of contemporary authors from the
United States, as well as past and present authors from other countries
and cultures.
In order to instill a love of reading, English language arts teachers
need to encourage independent reading in and outside of class. School
librarians also play a key role in finding books to match students'
interests, and in suggesting further resources in public libraries. By
reading and discussing books and articles with their children, and by
visiting libraries with them, parents and other family members can make
reading an important part of home life.
Guiding Principle 4:
An effective English language arts curriculum
emphasizes writing as an essential way to develop, clarify, and
communicate ideas in persuasive, expository, literary, and expressive
discourse.
The beginning writing of children records their imagination and
exploration. As students attempt to write clearly and coherently about
increasingly complex ideas, their writing serves to propel intellectual
growth. Through writing, students develop their ability to think, to
communicate ideas, and to create worlds unseen.
Guiding Principle 5:
An effective English language arts curriculum
provides for literacy in all forms of media.
Computers, television, film, videos, and radio are widespread modes
of communication in the modern world. All students need to learn how to be
effective users of these various media for obtaining information and for
communicating to others for a variety of purposes. Each of these media has
its advantages and challenges, and students must learn to apply the
critical techniques learned in the study of literature to the evaluation
of film, video, television, and multimedia.
Guiding Principle 6:
An effective English language arts curriculum
embeds skills instruction in meaningful learning.
In many cases, explicit skills instruction is most effective when it
responds to specific problems individual students reveal in their own
work. For example, a teacher may wish to explain particular writing
conventions to the whole class, monitor each student's progress, and then
provide direct individualized instruction when needed. In other cases,
explicit skills instruction is most effective when it precedes what
students need to learn. A teacher should, for instance, provide systematic
phonics lessons in particular decoding skills to students who do not have
these skills before they try to use them in their subsequent reading.
Systematic phonics lessons are especially important for those students who
lack "phonemic awareness," or the ability to pay attention to the
component sounds of language.
Guiding Principle 7:
An effective English language arts curriculum
teaches the strategies necessary for acquiring academic knowledge,
achieving common academic standards, and attaining independence in
learning.
Students need to develop a repertoire of learning strategies which they
consciously practice and apply in increasingly diverse and demanding
contexts. Skills become strategies for learning when they are
internalized. For example, a reading skill has become a strategy when a
student uses decoding for recognizing known words he has not previously
seen in print, or looks up the meaning of an unfamiliar word in a
dictionary. A writing skill has become a strategy when a student monitors
her own writing by spontaneously asking herself "does this organization
work?" or "Are my punctuation and spelling correct?" At the point that
students are able to articulate their own learning strategies, evaluate
their effectiveness, and use those that work best for them, they have
become independent learners.
Guiding Principle 8:
An effective English language arts curriculum
builds on the language, experiences, and interests that students bring to
school.
Teachers recognize the importance of finding strategies that enable them
to respond to the challenges of linguistic and cultural differences in
their classrooms. They recognize that sometimes students have learned
ways of talking, thinking, and interacting that are effective at home and
in the neighborhood but which may not have the same meaning or usefulness
in school. Teachers try to draw on these different ways of talking and
thinking as potential bridges to speaking and writing in standard
English.
Guiding Principle 9:
An effective English language arts curriculum
develops each student's distinctive writing or speaking voice.
A student's writing and speaking voice is an expression of self.
Students' voices tell us who they are, how they think, and the unique
perspectives they bring to their learning. These voices develop when
teachers provide opportunities for students to interact with one another,
to explore each others' ideas, and to communicate their own ideas to
others. When students discuss ideas and read one another's writing, they
learn to distinguish between formal and informal communication. They also
learn about their classmates as unique individuals who can contribute
their distinctive ideas, aspirations, and talents to the class, the
school, the community, and the nation.
Guiding Principle 10:
While encouraging respect for differences in
home backgrounds, an effective English language arts curriculum nurtures
students' sense of their common ground as present or future American
citizens in order to prepare them for responsible participation in our
schools and civic life.
Teachers are teaching an increasingly diverse group of students in their
classrooms each year. Students may come from any country or continent in
the world. Taking advantage of this diversity, teachers carefully choose
literature and guide discussions about the extraordinary variety of
peoples around the world and their different beliefs, stories, and
traditions. At the same time, they help each generation of students
rediscover common ground as they prepare to become self
governing citizens of the United States of America. An English language
arts curriculum can serve as a unifying force in schools and society.
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