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Core and Extended Literature for Sophomores
Sophomore year is devoted to the study of
American and World Literature. We will be using the text Literature of the United
States, an anthology with a chronological approach, in addition to
several novels and a Shakespearean play. We will begin with the Colonial
Period and continue right up until the Modern Period. Our class books will come from the
Core and Extended Lists of Literature intended for sophomores. Our
"Essential Questions" include: "Who am I?" and "What does it mean to be an
American/citizen of the World?"
Core Literature:
All sophomores will read the following 4
books:
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Extended Literature:
Extended literature may include, but is not
limited to:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
American Tragedy
Billy Budd
Black Like Me
Crucible, The
Color Purple, The
Ethan Frome
Farewell to Arms, A
Great Gatsby, The
House of Seven Gables, The
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Inherit the Wind
Life of Pi
McTeague
My Antonia
Our Town
Red Badge of Courage
River Runs Through
It, A
Scarlet Letter, The
Sea Wolf
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Walden
When Legends Die
Winesburg, Ohio
***Here is a link to the entire list of Core Literature for
sophomores in MSAD
71:
http://www.msad71.net/core%5Flit/grade%20ten%20list.htm
Maine Learning Results
PURPOSE
The Learning Results identify the knowledge and skills
essential to prepare Maine students for work, for higher education, for
citizenship, and for personal fulfillment. Strongly supported by the public, the
Learning Results are built on the premises that:
- all students should aspire to high levels of learning;
- achievement should be assessed in a variety of ways; and
- completion of public school should have common meaning
throughout the state.
The Learning Results express what students should
know and be able to do at various checkpoints during their
education. The Learning Results serve to focus discussion and to develop
consensus on common goals for Maine education. In identifying essential
knowledge and skills to be achieved by Maine students, the Learning Results
do not represent a curriculum nor do they reduce the school's responsibility for
curriculum planning or determining instructional approaches. In fact, the Learning
Results challenge communities, schools and teachers to work together in
implementing effective instructional strategies to achieve high expectations for
all students.
This document defines only the core elements of education that
should apply to all students without regard to their specific career and
academic plans. Every student is expected to achieve goals that are broader than
those outlined by the Learning Results. At the high school level, for
instance, many students heading directly to post-secondary study or to the
workplace may require learning experiences that exceed the Learning Results
in specific content areas.
The overriding purpose of the Learning Results is to
provide teachers and parents with guidance to improve an existing education
system that is already working well for many students in most Maine communities.
The adoption of common standards and an accompanying mix of measures which
assess learning is widely regarded as the most important next step in improving
the quality of public education for all students.
BACKGROUND
Following enactment of the Education Reform Act of 1984, Maine
schools undertook a wide variety of initiatives designed to improve the quality
of teaching and learning. Many of the lessons learned from those initiatives
informed Maine's Common Core of Learning, a document published in 1990
that articulates a common vision for education in Maine by defining the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes that all students should possess upon
graduation from high school. In 1993, the Legislature directed the State Board
of Education to undertake the next step in education reform by establishing a
Task Force on Learning Results that was directed to:
"develop long-range education goals and standards for
school performance and student performance to improve learning results and
recommend to the commissioner and to the Legislature a plan for achieving those
goals and standards."
After substantial work, the Task Force presented to the
Legislature, in January of 1996, a report which contained a series of
recommendations together with a set of standards, a plan for implementation, and
proposed legislation. After a series of intense hearings during the 1996
Legislative Session, the Legislature adopted much of the work of the Task Force
and directed the Department of Education and the State Board of Education to
continue to develop the Learning Results.
Acting on the recommendations of the Task Force, the
Legislature adopted six Guiding Principles which describe the characteristics of
a well-educated person. To fulfill these principles, the Legislature required
that the Department of Education and the State Board of Education develop Learning
Results within the following eight areas:
Career Preparation
English Language Arts
Health and Physical Education
Mathematics
Modern and Classical Languages
Science and Technology
Social Studies
Visual and Performing Arts
These are not "subjects" in the same sense that we
use the word when referring to courses in school. They are areas of learning
that will in some cases cut across a number of discrete courses or disciplines.
In response to the legislative directive, the Commissioner
appointed a working group, known as the Critical Review Committee, to prepare a
draft of standards for consideration by the State Board of Education and by the
Legislature. The Committee met on numerous occasions during the summer and fall
of 1996 to produce this revised document, which was approved in May of 1997 by
the 118th Legislature.
STRUCTURE
As a structure for Learning Results, each subject area
has been divided into Content Standards which are broad descriptions of
the knowledge and skills that students should acquire. Within each content
standard is a series of Performance Indicators which help to define in
more specific terms the stages of achievement, or checkpoints, toward meeting
the content standard within each of four grade spans:
pre-school to second grade (Pre-K-2);
third and fourth grades (3-4);
fifth through eighth grades (5-8); and
secondary school.
Performance indicators describe
what students should know and be able to do from one level to the
next to demonstrate attainment of a content standard. Good performance
indicators are those that:
focus on academics and are grounded in important content;
combine both knowledge and skills;
describe development in a concrete way from one stage to
the next;
define results and not methods of teaching;
are clear and useful to parents, teachers, and students;
and
can be assessed, tested, and measured in a variety of ways.
Broadly defined content standards are lettered, labeled, and
described in the introduction to each area of learning. Under each content
standard, the specific performance indicators are given numbers merely to
identify them and not to imply an order of significance.
Examples are given after some of
the indicators to clarify what the indicator means and how it might be addressed
in the classroom. Examples are not part of the indicator or the content
standard; they merely illustrate the standard by suggesting what a student might
do as one step toward attainment. Please note that the examples may not
demonstrate how learning can and should be integrated across content areas.
INTEGRATED LEARNING
While the division of learning into content areas is necessary
to form a structure for writing performance standards, this does not mean that
teaching should be divided in any similar way. In many schools, both learning
and assessment are often successfully integrated across several content areas at
one time. For example, a science project may include historical research, data
collection and mathematical analysis, followed by preparation of a narrative
report with freehand illustrations, and conclude with a computer-assisted oral
presentation to the class, thus combining, in this example, elements from at
least five content areas into one project.
Teachers are encouraged to approach the standards from an
interdisciplinary perspective when designing curriculum and planning
instructional activities.
Maine's Common Core of Learning
articulated knowledge, skills, and attitudes in a non-disciplinary organization
that is helpful when thinking about integrated teaching and learning. The four
interdisciplinary areas identified in the Common Core are as follows:
Personal and Global Stewardship
Responsible citizenship requires awareness and a concern for
oneself, others, and the environment. It involves interactions not only within
the self and family, but between the self and friends, the community, the
nation, and the world. It includes the knowledge and care of all dimensions of
our selves as humans, an understanding of the group process, and a willingness
to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Stewardship also
includes the study of current geography and foreign language and an appreciation
of pluralism and human rights.
Communication
The ability of human beings to communicate through a variety
of media with a high degree of specificity is one of our most remarkable
achievements. In a rapidly-changing world, communications skills will become
ever more essential to our students' future success.
Reasoning and Problem Solving
Knowledge is power. We must help students want to gain
knowledge, show them how to get it, and encourage them to use it to reach a new
understanding or to create a new product. We must help students learn to reflect
on their processes of learning, regardless of their field of study.
The Human Record
The study of the human record not only includes the actions
and events of the past but also the constructs of human thought and creativity
as they have evolved through time. The human record includes works of literature
and the arts; scientific laws and theories; and concepts of government, economic
systems, philosophy, and mathematics. In fact, much of what we now think of as
"subject matter" in today's curriculum belongs in this section.
CONTENT AND CRITICAL THINKING
Wherever education is publicly discussed, there is much debate
over the balance between student acquisition of factual knowledge and critical
thinking skills.
This debate is embraced, but not resolved by the Learning
Results. The truth is that both content and thinking processes are
important. Students need a common factual frame of reference grounded in the
events of history, the structure of geography, the discoveries of science, and
the richness of art, music, and literature; and they must also learn how to
think, how to search and investigate, and how to evaluate, filter, and process
the information that they uncover. All students need to learn, at least at some
level, how to investigate like a scientist, evaluate like an historian, reason
like a mathematician, and communicate like a writer and an artist.
Across the content areas of the Learning Results the
higher order reasoning and thinking skills are often embedded within the
language chosen for the performance indicator. For example, in Social Studies,
students are often challenged to "evaluate," "analyze," and
"explain," as much as to "identify," "recognize,"
or "describe" the content included within the standard.
RESULTS AND METHODS
In Maine and throughout the United States, there is
controversy over the means and methods by which children are taught. In reading,
there is the familiar debate over the merits of phonics versus whole language
instruction. In mathematics, there is concern whether it is appropriate to
de-emphasize mental computing skills that can now be performed using a pocket
calculator, and in some communities parents are distressed by an apparent lack
of structure or formality within certain classrooms.
It is not the place of this document to address methods of
teaching or the organization of the classroom. Rather, this document focuses on
results - not the means or methods by which students are taught. Some teachers
prefer a structured classroom while others use a less formal setting. Further,
it is not the place of this document to specify how many students should be in a
classroom, what level of formality should prevail, or what instructional methods
are most appropriate. These are matters for teachers, parents, and local
administrators to resolve.
However, the state does have an obligation to monitor the
results of student learning within our communities. That is the role of the
state as dictated by the Maine Constitution.
FOR ALL STUDENTS
One of the most commonly asked questions regarding the Learning
Results is whether they apply to all students. These standards establish
goals for what all students should know and be able to do,
including students with unique learning needs and/or identified disabilities.
In order for all students to have appropriate opportunities to
move toward achievement of the Learning Results and demonstrate mastery
as they progress, schools will continue to design curriculum, instruction, and
assessment opportunities that meet the needs of a diverse student population. A
comprehensive, personalized planning approach will be helpful in this effort to
identify and meet the unique needs of individual students.
Currently, students with identified disabilities have rights
under federal and state special education laws - this does not change with the
adoption of the Learning Results. A continuum of services and appropriate
adaptations and
modifications will still be available to students.
ASSESSMENT
These Learning Results are just one part of an
educational system. As goals for what all students should know and be able to do
upon finishing school, they are not written to prescribe a minimum or
"passing" standard. The setting of minimum requirements is the
function of assessments that are separate from the creation of academic goals.
Because some students are ready for assessment at earlier
stages than others, no assumption is made about when a standard might be
achieved.
The statute passed in April of 1996 includes the following
provisions relating to assessment:
Student achievement of the learning results . . . must be
measured by a combination of state and local assessments to measure progress and
ensure accountability. The 4th-grade, 8th-grade, and 11th-grade results of the
Maine Education Assessment, the "MEA," are the state assessments used
to measure achievement of the learning results. The 4th-grade and 8th-grade MEA
must be used to measure achievement of the learning results beginning in the
1998-99 school year. The 11th-grade MEA must be used to measure achievement of
the learning results beginning in the 1999-2000 school year. Local school
administrative units may develop additional assessments to measure achievement
of the learning results, including student portfolios, performances,
demonstrations and other records of achievements.
An Assessment Design Team comprised of Maine educators and
assessment specialists has been established to redesign state level assessments
and to assist in development of high quality local assessments that will be used
to measure student achievement of the Learning Results. The statewide
assessment system they are developing will:
align with Maine's Learning Results;
utilize multiple measures of learning;
ensure fair and equitable assessment for all students;
utilize recognized, relevant technical standards for
assessment;
provide understandable information to educators, parents,
students, the public, and the media;
provide professional development opportunities for
teachers, administrators, and future educators; and
be practical and manageable.
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESOURCES
Implementation of Learning Results is a local function.
The Learning Results does not identify the resources, the methods, the
relationships, and the concerns that need to be addressed to enable all students
to achieve these standards. Schools and communities will establish their own
unique approach to such issues as school organization and climate, innovative
instruction and assessment, the fostering of higher order thinking skills,
professional development, differences in student needs and learning styles, use
of emerging technologies, and collaboration among participating groups and
individuals.
Learning Results are not a
curriculum. A full curriculum contains the detail about what students should
know and be able to do within each area of learning at every grade level. It
often prescribes materials and methods, contains reading lists and texts, while
specifying course content and instructional sequence. The Learning Results
describe a new literacy for all students in terms of knowledge and skills which
schools may use in forming local curricula and designing assessment.
Aware that meeting the standards is neither easy nor without
expense, the Legislature has stated that implementation is conditioned on added
state funding for professional development. Further, districts may delay meeting
the standards for career preparation, modern and classical languages, and visual
and performing arts if they cannot be achieved within existing local resources.
REVISION
This document was initially revised during the summer of 1996
by the Critical Review Committee. 3000 copies were circulated to schools
primarily for peer review by educators. Over 2000 educators answered
questionnaires and offered suggestions for further revision.
Based on those responses, the Learning Results were
modified and broadly distributed to the public for hearings and formal reviews
conducted jointly by the Department of Education and the State Board of
Education during early 1997. The revision that finally resulted from that
rule-making process was then presented to the Legislature for its review and
approval, which, as mentioned previously, was granted in May of 1997.
Be advised that this is not a static or finished document, but
rather a dynamic one designed to stimulate continuing discussion. The Learning
Results will need to be revised periodically in light of experience,
research, public commentary, and the products available from many other groups
that are creating and refining similar documents.
Under their rule-making responsibilities, the Department of
Education and the State Board of Education will retain jurisdiction to make
changes in future years. Comments and suggestions are appropriately addressed
to:
Learning Results
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0023
This document is available at http://www.state.me.us/education,
the Department of Education's home page on the World Wide Web.
Why
do Maine students do so well in comparison to their counterparts around the
country?
As recent results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
indicate, Maine 4th and 8th grade students rank at the top of the nation in
reading and math. These results reflect the hard work of our excellent
teachers, our small class sizes, and a long history of using assessment
strategies—including the MEA—that require students to apply their
knowledge in more complex ways than traditional tests have done.
When
will we get the MEA results?
Schools
have already received common-item reports that show how individual students
scored on those test items that all students take. State scores will be
available by November 23. School reports and student report letters to
parents will be arriving at schools in early January.
If
the old MEA was working well, why did we need a new one?
Prior to
this year, the MEA was developed without benefit of a written body of State
standards as a reference point. The old MEA was, however, an effective
tool for measuring student achievement over time and served as a catalyst in
the process of defining and discussing quality standards for student work,
such as student writing. Now that the Learning Results have been
adopted, the MEA has been rewritten to align to these new standards.
Are we over-testing our students?
Students
will spend roughly 30 hours during their 13 years of education taking the
State test and will sit for the test only three times—grades 4,8, and 11.
During their education, students will spend over 300 hours in classroom
instruction for every hour they sit for the statewide test.
How
has the Department responded to the critical feedback from local educators and
parents about the MEA?
A number of improvements were made, including reducing overall test length by
3 ½ hours, changing the test schedule, redesigning the Grade 4 test booklet
to enable students to answer questions directly in the booklet, and improving
the test design process to be sure the test is fair and appropriate in all
content areas.
Do
the results on the MEA suggest that the Learning Results should be revised?
No.
The Learning Results will remain stable for the immediate future. Though
the Learning Results were created to be a dynamic set of standards, subject to
change over time, the immediate focus for Maine must be on extending the work
on the Comprehensive System of Assessment. Discussions are currently
underway within the Department to determine effective strategies for
addressing short-term concerns with some performance indicators and content
standards.
Now
that students are tested on the Learning Results, won’t local schools have
to adopt them as a State curriculum?
No. The Learning Results represent the agreed-upon ends of the learning
process, but they are not a curriculum. Local school districts still
have to develop their own curriculua that align with the Learning Results but
which must address more areas than just the outcomes: assessment
practices, instructional methods, resources, interdisciplinary connections,
and implications for further teacher training and development, to name but a
few.
Won’t
teachers be compelled to teach to the test?
“Teaching to the test” with the new MEA is not necessarily a bad thing
because the test is designed to measure how well students are applying
essential knowledge and skills, not just reciting facts. Teachers have
reshaped their instructional programs to align with standards used in the MEA.
In writing, for example, teachers have used the MEA scoring rubric to help
students identify and apply quality standards to their writing.
Will
the MEA be used to determine if a student meets standards for graduation from
high school?
Aligning
aspects of school policies to the Learning Results will take a number of
years. The MEA could be one component of graduation standards based on
Learning Results, but it will not be a required exit exam from high school.
The Maine Department of Education is beginning an inclusive process to ask
teachers and the public how to address the issue.
How
come the State is testing students on things they haven’t been taught yet?
The
standards contained in the Learning Results represent long-term goals for
student achievement. While it will take time for local schools to adjust
their local curricula to these standards, it is important to collect data
about where we are now and to monitor progress in coming years. This
feedback for local schools will give them constructive information about where
adjustments need to be made in local instructional programs.
What is meant by “a baseline year?
”
This term is used to refer to the first point of reference in monitoring
long-term performance against a standard. This year’s MEA scores will
be a baseline year that will give local schools feedback about student
performance against Learning Results standards. As schools align
instructional practice with the Learning Results, scores on the MEA are
expected to improve over this baseline year.
Is
it fair to hold all schools accountable for Learning Results standards given
the disparities in resources?
The
Department has developed a four-year plan to reduce the inequities in funding
levels. The State Board of Education has undertaken a major study of
what programs and services will be essential to meet the Learning Results.
This study will serve as a foundation for revising the way resources are
developed and allocated to local schools. In the meantime, there is much
evidence to suggest that resources are only part of the picture. The
State will continue to provide technical support and information about
effective practices, many of which are not resource dependent.
Will the Department rank schools by performance on the
MEA?
No. The Department will, however, be posting district
profiles—including MEA scores—on the DOE website to provide accurate and
up-to-date information to Maine parents and citizens.
What
happens to schools that perform poorly?
At
present, no actions will be undertaken by the State if local schools do poorly
on the test. However, the new MEA provides information that parents and
citizens can use locally to hold their schools accountable for performance.
As required by the Learning Results statute, the Legislature must review
recommendations currently under development for a District Assistance Plan that
will allow the State to monitor local school performance on the MEA and to
provide varying degrees of assistance, support, and intervention based on the
severity and duration of low performance.
Why have comparison bands been eliminated?
Comparison bands have been used in the past to compare
school scores on the MEA to other schools around the state that
share similar socio-economic and other demographic characteristics. The
Learning Results set common expectations for all students, and the MEA
now compares student performance to the standards rather than other
students’ performance.
How are teachers at the local level assessing student
achievement?
At the
local level, teachers around the state have been using performance tasks,
student portfolios, and other methods of assessment that stress defining
quality standards for student work coupled with rich conversations about how
student work compares to those standards. This type of assessment is
woven more naturally into daily classroom activities and provides much richer
information for all parties—students, parents, teachers, and policy
makers—so that improved results can follow. The local component and
the MEA make up Maine’s Comprehensive Assessment System (CAS).
What
is the State doing to help schools develop the local part of the Comprehensive
Assessment System?
Each
school and district in Maine needs to evaluate their current methods of
assessing student learning, develop assessment tools as needed to ensure that
achievement of the Learning Results is certified by the assessment system, and
retrain personnel to carry this out. The State is supporting teacher
professional development through the Maine Assessment Portfolio Program,
clarifying standards for the system, working with CAS pilot sites, publishing
toolkits and self-assessment devices, and providing technical assistance by
Department field staff as requested. The Department also administers
over $5 million in federal grant monies targeted toward standards-based reform
in our schools and $1 million of State professional development funds for
Learning Results implementation.
As
a parent, to whom do I talk about my school’s results or my own child’s
results?
Your first point of contact is
your local school principal and your child’s teacher. Each school will
receive copies of the student reports and a separate report that summarizes
the school’s results. If, after consulting with local school
personnel, there are aspects of your report that appear to be inaccurate or
incomplete, you may contact the office of Dr. Horace Maxcy, MEA Coordinator at
the Department of Education.
English Language Arts
English Language Art
The fundamental need for an exchange of meaning and the
sharing of human experience is a special province of the English language arts.
All students share this need. They learn best when it is frequently addressed in
their schooling and when they are invited to explore it effectively through
literature.
The English language arts form the foundation for effective
communication which depends upon a person's ability to construct meaning through
reading, listening, and viewing and to present ideas through writing, speaking,
and visual media. These skills, essential to the health of our democracy and the
quality of our culture, have become ever more important since the modern
explosion of communications media. Devices that allow us to communicate more
quickly over distances can be used effectively only to the extent that we are
skilled in basic language arts.
The study of language helps students to control their lives
and become more effective thinkers--through communication, reflection, and
understanding. To develop good thinking strategies, students must become engaged
as active learners. To help them improve, students need to practice English
language skills and receive frequent feedback across all areas of study.
Parents, teachers, and other adults must encourage the interest in language that
students bring with them when they first enter school. Students need to make the
experience and enjoyment of English language arts a central part of their lives.
Collectively, the English language arts - writing, reading,
speaking, and listening - constitute both a discipline in its own right, like
mathematics or science, and a means of communicating about all other
disciplines. Without a command of these arts it is impossible to think about,
understand, or explain other disciplines.
A. PROCESS OF READING
Students will use the skills and strategies of the reading
process to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate what they have read. Readers
apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and
appreciate texts. They draw on prior experience, interactions with others,
knowledge of word meaning and knowledge of other texts, word identification
strategies, and understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter
correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
B. LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Students will use reading, listening, and viewing
strategies to experience, understand, and appreciate literature and culture. Literary
texts that are rich in quality, add to the understanding of history and various
cultures and build an appreciation of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical,
ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
C. LANGUAGE AND IMAGES
Students will demonstrate an understanding of how words and
images communicate. Language and images enable
people to get things done, to take charge of their lives, to express opinions
and feelings, to experience emotions, and to function as productive citizens.
Students will consider such things as the relationship between thought and
language, the ways people use language and other symbol systems to communicate,
the history and structure of English, and the similarities and differences in
the ways various social, occupational, and cultural groups use language.
D. INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
Students will apply reading, listening, and viewing
strategies to informational texts across all areas of curriculum. When
reading, listening, and viewing critically, students will ask pertinent
questions, recognize assumptions and implications, and evaluate information and
ideas. In a world that surrounds them with information, they have to be able to
connect with this information and make sense of it.
E. PROCESSES OF WRITING AND SPEAKING
Students will demonstrate the ability to use the skills and
strategies of the writing process. Effective
communication can improve the work of writers and speakers. Students will use a
wide range of strategies to address different audiences for a variety of
purposes. Students will write or speak for reflective, creative and
informational purposes.
F. STANDARD ENGLISH CONVENTIONS
Students will write and speak correctly, using conventions
of standard written and spoken English. Knowledge
of language structure and conventions (e.g., spelling, punctuation, level of
formality) is used to create, critique, discuss, and present print and nonprint
texts.
G. STYLISTIC AND RHETORICAL ASPECTS OF WRITING AND SPEAKING
Students will use stylistic and rhetorical aspects of
writing and speaking to explore ideas, to present lines of thought, to represent
and reflect on human experience, and to communicate feelings, knowledge, and
opinions. Spoken, written, and non-verbal visual
language (e.g., facial expressions, styles of clothing) accomplish many purposes
(e.g., enjoyment, learning, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Writing and speaking for various purposes and for different audiences requires
rhetorical skill and stylistic competence.
H. RESEARCH-RELATED WRITING AND SPEAKING
Students will work, write, and speak effectively in
connection with research in all content areas. Research
involves generating ideas and posing questions. It includes gathering,
evaluating, and synthesizing data from a variety of sources (e.g., print,
nonprint, and electronic texts, examination of artifacts, interviews with
people). Researching and reporting use a variety of informational and
technological resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and
communicate knowledge.
Learning Results with Indicators:
A. PROCESS OF READING
Students will use the skills and strategies of the reading
process to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate what they have read.
Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Demonstrate an understanding that reading is a gradual
process of constructing meaning and revising initial understandings.
- Demonstrate an understanding that a single text will elicit
a wide variety of responses, each of which may be the point of view of the
individual reader or listener.
- Identify the author's purpose and analyze the effects of
that purpose on the text.
- Identify the author's point of view and analyze the effects
of that point of view on the text.
- Identify the devices an author uses to persuade readers and
critique the effectiveness of the use of those devices.
- Use the context of a work to determine the figurative,
idiomatic, and technical meanings of terms.
- Use the context of a work to determine the meanings of
abbreviations and acronyms.
- Find the meaning of relatively uncommon technical terms
used in informational texts.
- Identify the philosophical assumptions and basic beliefs
underlying a particular text.
- Analyze how the cultural context of a literary work is
evident in the text.
- Represent key ideas and supporting details in various
written forms (e.g., outline, paraphrase, concise summary).
B. LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Students will use reading, listening, and viewing
strategies to experience, understand, and appreciate literature and culture.
Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Distinguish between the purpose of a literary work and the
personal response of an individual reader.
- Identify the simple and complex actions and interactions
involving main and subordinate characters in a work.
- Make abstract connections (e.g., connections about
thoughts, ideas, values) between their own lives and the characters, events,
and circumstances represented in various works.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the stylistic effect of
dialogues on the style of a work.
- Identify and analyze the details and effects of complex
literary devices on the overall quality of a work (e.g., foreshadowing,
flashbacks, time frames in the future or past).
- Identify and analyze how complex elements of plot (e.g.,
setting, major events, problems, conflicts, resolutions) effect the overall
quality of a work.
- Apply mature strategies to the reading and interpretation
of lengthy adult level fiction, (e.g., satires, parodies, plays, poems,
novels) using texts that are complex in terms of character, plot, theme,
structure, and dialogue and sophisticated in style, point of view, and use
of literary devices.
- Apply mature strategies to the reading and interpretation
of lengthy adult level nonfiction texts with appropriate complexity of
content and sophistication of style.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the defining features and
structure of literary texts encountered at this level.
- Draw from a broad base of knowledge about literature of the
United States and the world to examine and critique how print and visual
texts explore the human experience and condition.
- Examine, evaluate, and elaborate on universal themes in
literature, using reading and viewing to explain how themes are developed
and achieved.
C. LANGUAGE AND IMAGES
Students will demonstrate an understanding of how words and
images communicate. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship among
perception, thought, and language.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how language considerations
and representations involving gender affect communication.
- Compare the ways various social, occupational, and cultural
groups use language, and comment on the impact of language use on the way
people are viewed and treated.
- Compare form, meaning, and value of different kinds of
symbol systems (e.g., religious symbols, holiday symbols, the symbolism of
particular types of architecture).
- Demonstrate understanding of the history of and changes in
the English language by explaining examples.
- Use dictionaries, handbooks, and other language-related
resources to evaluate the accuracy of their use of English.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the political implications
of different forms of language.
- Identify propaganda techniques used by writers and
speakers.
D. INFORMATIONAL TEXTS
Students will apply reading, listening, and viewing
strategies to informational texts across all areas of curriculum. Students will
be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Scan a passage to determine whether a text contains
relevant information.
- Distinguish between apparent fact and opinion in nonfiction
texts.
- Use discussions with peers as a way of understanding
information.
- Identify complex structures in informational texts and the
relationships between the concepts and details in those structures using
texts from various disciplines.
- Analyze and synthesize the concepts and details in
informational texts.
- Explain how new information from a text changes personal
knowledge.
E. PROCESSES OF WRITING AND SPEAKING
Students will demonstrate the ability to use the skills and
strategies of the writing process. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Ask pertinent questions during writing conferences and when
working alone, using knowledge of personal writing strategies, strengths,
and weaknesses to improve one's own writing.
- Reflect on, evaluate, revise, and edit a sequence of drafts
to improve and polish finished work.
- Use planning, drafting, and revising to produce, on demand,
a well-developed, organized piece that demonstrates effective language use,
voice, and command of mechanics.
- Evaluate the remarks and oral presentations of others to
find the key ideas, and explain the ways in which these ideas were
developed.
F. STANDARD ENGLISH CONVENTIONS
Students will write and speak correctly, using conventions
of standard written and spoken English. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Edit written work for standard English spelling and usage,
evidenced by pieces that show and contain:
- no significant errors in the use of pronouns, nouns,
adjectival and adverbial forms
- coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
- no significant errors in the spelling of frequently
used words and the correct use of commonly confused terms.
- no significant errors in the common conventions of
capitalization and ending punctuation marks and common uses of the
comma.
- few significant errors in the spelling of commonly
misspelled and rare words, the less common capitalization conventions,
the colon, semicolon, hyphen, dash, apostrophe, quotation marks,
italics, marginal notes, and footnotes.
- Demonstrate how language usage may depend on the situation.
- Demonstrate command of the conventions involved in a formal
speech, effectively engaging peers during presentation and fielding
responses afterwards.
G. STYLISTIC AND RHETORICAL ASPECTS OF WRITING AND SPEAKING
Students will use stylistic and rhetorical aspects of
writing and speaking to explore ideas, to present lines of thought, to represent
and reflect on human experience, and to communicate feelings, knowledge, and
opinions. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
- Develop an appropriate strategy for finding information on
a particular topic.
- Use referencing while doing research.
- Record significant information from events attended and
interviews conducted.
- Identify and use library information services.
- Use government publications, in-depth field studies, and
almanacs for research.
- Use CD-ROM, microfiche, and similar resource media for
research.
- Identify and use a variety of news sources (e.g.,
newspapers, magazines, broadcast and recorded media, artifacts), informants,
and other likely sources for research purposes.
- Use search engines and other Internet resources to do
research.
- Make extensive use of primary sources when researching a
topic and carefully evaluate the motives and perspectives of the authors.
- Analyze the validity and weigh the reliability of primary
information sources and make appropriate use of such information for
research purposes.
- Evaluate information for accuracy, currency, and possible
bias.
- Report orally, using a variety of technological resources
to present the results of a research project.
