Standard 1:
All
students will read and comprehend general and technical material.
Use
reading for multiple purposes, such as enjoyment, clarifying information,
and learning complex procedures.
Read
with developing fluency a variety of texts, such as short stories, novels,
poetry, plays, textbooks, manuals, and
periodicals.
Employ
multiple strategies to construct meaning, such as generating questions,
studying vocabulary, analyzing mood
Employ
multiple strategies to recognize words as they construc meaning, including
the use of context clues, word roots and affixes, and syntax.
Respond
to a variety of oral, visual, written, and electronic texts by making
connections to their personal lives and the lives of others.
Standard 2: All students will demonstrate the ability
to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and
compositions.
Write
fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as personal
narratives, persuasive essays, lab reports,
and poetry.
Recognize
and use authors' techniques that convey meaning and build empathy with
readers when composing their own texts. Examples include appeals to reason
and emotion, use of figurative language, and grammatical conventions which
assist audience comprehension.
Plan
and draft texts, and revise and edit their own writing, and help others
revise and edit their texts in such areas as content, perspective, and
effect.
Select
and use appropriate language conventions when editing text. Examples include
various grammatical constructions, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and
spelling.
Standard 3: All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen,
speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic
contexts.
Integrate
listening, viewing, speaking, reading, and writing skills for multiple
purposes and in varied contexts. An example is using all the language arts
to prepare and present a unit project on career exploration.
Begin
to implement strategies to regulate effects of variables of the
communication process. An example is selecting a format for the message to
influence the receiver's response.
Read
and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately,
view critically, and represent creatively. Examples include reporting
formally to an audience, debating issues, and interviewing members of the
public.
Practice
verbal and nonverbal strategies that enhance understanding of spoken
messages and promote effective listening behaviors. Examples include
altering inflection, volume, and rate, using evidence, and reasoning.
Select
appropriate strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to,
viewing, or creating texts. Examples include generating relevant questions,
studying vocabulary, analyzing mood and tone, recognizing how authors and
speakers use information, and matching form to content.
Determine
the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in oral, visual, and written
texts by using a variety of resources, such as semantic and structural
features, prior knowledge, reference materials, and electronic sources.
Recognize
and use varied techniques to construct text, convey meaning, and express
feelings to influence an audience. Examples include identification with
characters and multiple points of view.
Express
their responses and make connections between oral, visual, written, and
electronic texts and their own lives.
Language
Standard 4.
All
students will use the English language effectively.
Compare
and contrast spoken, written, and visual language patterns used in their
communication contexts, such as community activities, discussions,
mathematics and science classes, and the workplace.
Investigate
the origins of language patterns and vocabularies and their impact on
meaning in formal and informal situations. An example is comparing language
in a business letter to language in a friendly letter.
Investigate
idiomatic phrases and word origins and how they have contributed to
contemporary meaning.
Demonstrate
how communication is affected by connotation and denotation and why one
particular word is more effective or appropriate than others in a given
context.
Recognize
and use levels of discourse appropriate for varied contexts, purposes, and
audiences, including terminology specific to a particular field. Examples
include community building, an explanation of a biological concept,
comparison of computer programs, commentary on an artistic work, analysis of
a fitness program, and classroom debates on political issues.
Literature
Standard
5: All
students will read and analyze a wide variety of classic and contemporary
literature and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment, and
understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity,
and the rich diversity of our society.
Select,
read, listen to, view, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and
contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit.
Describe
and discuss shared issues in the human experience that appear in literature
and other texts from around the world. Examples include quests for happiness
and service to others.
Identify
and discuss how the tensions among characters, communities, themes, and
issues in literature and other texts are related to one's own experience.
Investigate
and demonstrate understanding of the cultural and historical contexts of the
themes, issues, and our common heritage as depicted in literature and other
texts.
Investigate
through literature and other texts various examples of distortion and
stereotypes. Examples include those associated with gender, race, culture,
age, class, religion, and handicapping conditions.
Voice
Standard
6:
All
students will learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and
demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written, and visual
texts that enlighten and engage an audience.
Analyze
their use of elements of effective communication that impact their
relationships in their schools, families, and communities. Examples include
use of pauses, suspense, and elaboration.
Demonstrate
their ability to use different voices in oral and written communication to
persuade, inform, entertain, and inspire their audiences.
Compare
and contrast the style and characteristics of individual authors, speakers,
and illustrators and how they shape text and influence their audiences'
expectations.
Document
and enhance a developing voice through multiple media. Examples include
reflections for their portfolios, audio and video tapes, and submissions for
publications.
Skills
and Processes
Standard
7:
All
students will demonstrate, analyze, and reflect upon the skills and processes
used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing.
Use
a combination of strategies when encountering unfamiliar texts while
constructing meaning. Examples include generating questions, studying
vocabulary, analyzing mood and tone, recognizing how creators of text use
and represent information, and matching form to content.
Monitor
their progress while using a variety of strategies to overcome difficulties
when constructing and conveying meaning, and develop strategies to deal with
new communication needs.
Reflect
on their own developing literacy, set learning goals, and evaluate their
progress.
Demonstrate
a variety of strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing
several different forms of texts for specific purposes. Examples include
persuading a particular audience to take action and capturing feelings
through poetry.
Genre
and Craft of Language
Standard
8:
All
students will explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts,
aesthetic elements, and mechanics--including text structure, figurative and
descriptive language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar--to construct and
convey meaning.
Select and use mechanics that enhance and clarify understanding. Examples include paragraphing, organizational patterns, variety in sentence structure, appropriate punctuation, grammatical constructions, conventional spelling, and the use of connective devices, such as previews and reviews.
Describe
and use characteristics of various narrative genre and elements of narrative
technique to convey ideas and perspectives. Examples include foreshadowing
and flashback in poetry, science fiction, short stories, and novels.
Describe and use characteristics of various informational genre (e.g., biographies, newspapers, brochures, and persuasive arguments and essays) and elements of expository text structure (e.g., multiple patterns of organization, relational links, and central purposes) to convey ideas.
Identify
and use aspects of the craft of the speaker, writer, and illustrator to
formulate and express their ideas artistically. Examples include color and
composition, flashback, multi-dimensional characters, pacing, appropriate
use of details, strong verbs, language that inspires, and effective leads.
Explain
how the characteristics of various oral, visual, and written texts (e.g.,
videos, hypertext, glossaries, textbooks, and speeches) and the textual aids
they employ (e.g., subheadings/titles, charts, and indexes) are used to
convey meaning.
Depth
of Understanding
Standard
9:
All
students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and
recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across
texts.
Explore
and reflect on universal themes and substantive issues from oral, visual,
and written texts. Examples include coming of age, rights and
responsibilities, group and individual roles, conflict and cooperation,
creativity, and resourcefulness.
Synthesize
content from multiple texts representing varied perspectives in order to
formulate principles and generalizations.
Develop
a thesis using key concepts, supporting evidence, and logical argument.
Ideas
in Action
Standard
10:
All
students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives
and the lives of others.
Analyze
themes and central ideas in literature and other texts in relation to issues
in their own lives.
Perform
the daily functions of a literate individual. Examples include acquiring
information from multiple sources and then evaluating, organizing, and
communicating it in various contexts.
Use
oral, written, and visual texts to identify and research issues of
importance that confront adolescents, their community, their nation, and the
world. Examples include using research findings to organize and create texts
to persuade others to take a particular position or to alter their course of
action with regard to a particular school/ community issue or problem.
Inquiry
and Research
Standard
11:
All
students will define and investigate important issues and problems using a
variety of resources, including technology, to explore and create texts.
Generate
questions about important issues that affect them or topics about which they
are curious; narrow the questions to a clear focus; and create a thesis or a
hypothesis.
Explain
and use resources that are most appropriate and readily available for
investigating a particular question or topic. Examples include knowledgeable
people, field trips, tables of contents, indexes, glossaries,
icons/headings, hypertext, storage addresses, CD-ROM/laser disks, electronic
mail, and library catalogue databases.
Organize,
analyze, and synthesize information to draw conclusions and implications
based on their investigation of an issue or problem.
Use
different means of developing and presenting conclusions based on the
investigation of an issue or problem to an identified audience. Examples
include election ballots, hypertext, and magazines and booklets including
graphics.
Critical
Standards
Standard
12:
All
students will develop and apply personal, shared, and academic criteria for the
employment, appreciation, and evaluation of their own and others' oral, written,
and visual texts.
Differentiate
sets of standards for individual use according to the purpose of the
communication context. An example is maintaining different sets of
individual standards when creating texts for formal and informal situations.
Demonstrate
understanding of individual, shared, and academic standards used for
different purposes and contexts.
Develop
critical standards based on aesthetic qualities, and use them to explain
choices in reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing.
Create
a collection of personal work based on individual, shared, and academic
standards, reflecting on the merit of each selection.
Refine
their own standards to evaluate personal and public communications within a
responsible and ethical system for the expression of ideas.
Other Resources: Michigan Teacher Network.
Compiled
by Imad Fadlallah.
Stout Middle School, February 2002