English Language Arts

The 6 Language Arts (or Modes)
  1. Listening- hearing and comprehending a speaker's message
  2. Talking-speaking to communicate a message
  3. Reading- decoding words to comprehend text
  4. Writing- Stories, reports, poems, reading logs, graphic organizers, etc.  
  5. Viewing-Visual Media (film, DVD's, print ads, commercials, photos, book illustrations, internet)  This is now an essential part of literacy in the 21st century, and students need to learn to analyze critically.
  6. Visually Representing-Real or virtual creations such as videos, digital photos, dramas, posters, illustrations, etc.  
These six language arts are to be used simultaneously and reciprocally.  Students receive (take in) language while listening, reading, or viewing.  Students are productive when they create language when talking, writing, or visually representing.

How students learn Language Arts:
  • Students are active participants in learning
  • Students learn by relating the new info to prior knowledge
  • Students organize their knowledge in schemata (like pinterest boards)
  • Students apply strategies consciously as they learn.
  • Students learn through social interactions with classmates and teachers.
Teachers need to develop self-regulated learners:
  • MODEL- demonstrate how to use strategies and skills
  • COACH- direct students' attention and encourage their active engagement in activities
  • SCAFFOLDING- adjust the support they provide according to students' needs
  • FADING-relinquish control as students become more capable of using a strategy or performing an activity
Four Patterns of Practice to Teach and Assess Language Arts

1.  Literature Focus Units 
Teachers and students read and respond to one text together as a class or in small groups.  Teachers choose texts that are high quality literature selections.  After reading, students explore the text and apply their learning by creating oral, written, and visual projects.

2.  Literature Circles
Teachers choose five or six books and collect multiple copies of each one.  Students choose the book they want to read and form groups or "book clubs" to read and respond to the book.  They develop a reading and discussion schedule, and the teacher participates in some of the discussions.

3.  Reading and Writing Workshop
Students choose books and read and respond to them independently during reading workshop and write books on self-selected topics during writing workshop.Teachers monitor students' work through conferences.  Students share the books they read and the books they write with classmates during a sharing period.

4.  Thematic Units
Students study social studies and science topics.  They use the six language arts as they participate in activities and demonstrate learning.  Although content-area textbooks may be used, they are only one resource.  Students also identify topics they want to investigate, so thematic units are authentic learning opportunities.  

Ways to Monitor Students' Progress:
  • Classroom Observations-  Teacher walking around actively listening and observing
  • Anecdotal Notes- Brief observational notes that report students' growth and pinpoint instructional needs.  These records provide a comprehensive picture of a student's achievement over the year.
  • Conferences - Monitor progress, set goals, and help students solve problems.
  • Checklists/Rubrics-Keeping track of assignments and work,  includes reflection on work, as well as scoring guides for assessment
  • Student Porfolio-collections of best artifacts documenting students' language arts development over a period of time.
Purpose of Authentic Assessment:

  • Identify students' strengths and needs before instruction
  • Evaluate students' learning
  • Determine grades
  • Help teachers learn more about how students become strategic readers and writers
  • Document milestones in students' oral, written, and visual language development
Examples of Authentic Assessment to be placed in Portfolio include:
autobiographies
biographies
books
boxes of artifacts
choral readings
copies of letters, along with replies
drawings, diagrams, and charts
essays
learning logs
lists of books read
multigenre projects
podcasts
poems
posters
PowerPoint/Prezi presentations
puppets and puppet shows
reading logs
reports
simulated journals
slide shows
stories
websites and wikis


ONLINE RESOURCES for Literacy:
  • Online Integration for Children's Literacy:

Book Adventure
Book Adventure is a fun, free way to motivate your child to read! Kids in grades K-8 can search for books, read 
them offline, come back to quiz on what they’ve read, and earn prizes for their reading success.

 Children's Literature Webguide
The Children's Literature Web Guide is an attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults.  TONS of resources here!

 Education World
A complete FREE online resource that educators could visit each day to find high-quality lesson plans and research materials.

 Kids Search Tools
Find search words for a topic, basic information on a topic, search engines and websites for kids and teachers.

 Poem Hunter
Search the world poetry database.
The Teacher Book Wizard (Scholastic)  Locate books by grade level, reading level, genre, or subject.
Scholastic's website also allows you to locate book/author information, book talks, discussion guides, and book based lesson plans

 Literature for Muliculturalism (REACH) We Can't Teach What We Don't Know author, Gary Howard, and REACH have developed curricula for all grade levels that convey multiple perspectives as a foundation for increasing an awareness of diversity.

 ALSC: The John Newbery Medal Homepage
The John Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association

 ALSC: The Randolf Caldcott Medal Homepage
The Randolf Caldcott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association

Hurst provides book reviews and various links.  In addition, lesson plans and thematic units related to children's literature for all elementary grades are shared.

The Coretta Scott King Award is presented annually to a children's literature author and/or illustrator of African descent.

A selection of links for fables, fairy tales, stories, and rhymes are listed by title and author.

This article from New Horizons for Learning provides information from a research project that evaluated multicultural children's literature.  the methodology and results of the research are shared, as well as a list of quality multicultural literature.

The Association for Library Service to Children identifies the best children's books of all genres and for ages birth through 14.

This site provides links and information on book lists and book awards for young adults.


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