STANDARD 3: Language Arts Literacy

Language Arts Literacy

Mission: Learning to read, write, speak, listen, and view critically, strategically and creatively enables students to discover personal and shared meaning throughout their lives.

Standard 3.1 Reading All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.
Big Idea: The ability to read a variety of texts requires independence, comprehension, and fluency.
3.1.7 A. Concepts About Print
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How does understanding a text’s structure help me better understand its meaning?	- Understanding of a text’s features, structures, and characteristics facilitate the reader’s ability to make meaning of the text.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Identify and use common textual features (e.g., paragraphs, topic, sentence, index, glossary, table of contents) and graphic features, (e.g., charts, maps, diagrams) to comprehend information.	Instructional strategies: • Display and use classroom charts, maps and other visual representations created for and by students and related to authentic situations, e.g., weather maps, charts of school activities, funding raising goals, class grade curve, attendance rates, etc. • Interpret visual computer images and study newspaper and magazine illustrations for relevance to the articles that they accompany • Have students create accompanying visual representations for informational text authored by students ASSESS using project-based learning activities that demand the use of textual and graphic features.
2. Develop an understanding of the organizational structure of printed material (e.g. chronological, sequential, procedural text).	Instructional strategies: • Examine newspaper and magazine articles for structural organization, e.g., chronological order • Study websites and other electronic media for organizational structure ASSESS using project based learning activities that demand the use of organizational structure. Example: Design a website or page that uses organizational structure to chronicle your personal knowledge and understanding of technology.
3.1.7 B. Phonological Awareness: No additional indicators at this grade level
3.1.7 C. Decoding and Word Recognition
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do I figure out a word I do not know?	- Readers use language structure and context clues to identify the intended meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Distinguish among the spellings of homophones (e.g. cite, site, sight).
2. Apply spelling rules and syllabication that aid in correct spelling.
3. Continue to use structural analysis and context analysis to decode new words.
3.1.7 D. Fluency
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How does fluency affect comprehension?	- Fluent readers group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Read aloud in selected texts reflecting understanding of the text and engaging the listener.
2. Read increasingly difficult texts silently with comprehension and fluency.
3. Apply self-correcting strategies automatically to decode and gain meaning from print both orally and silently.
4. Reread informational text for clarity.
3.1.7 E. Reading Strategies (before, during, and after reading)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
-What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?	- Good readers employ strategies to help them understand text. Strategic readers can develop, select, and apply strategies to enhance their comprehension.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Monitor reading for understanding by setting a purpose for reading, making and adjusting predictions, asking essential questions, and relating new learning to background experiences.
2. Use increasingly complex text guides to understand different text structure and organizational patterns (e.g. chronological sequence or comparison and contrast).
3.1.7 F. Vocabulary and Concept Development
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
-What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?	- Words powerfully affect meaning
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Develop an extended vocabulary through both listening and independent reading
2. Clarify word meanings through the use of a word’s definition, example, restatement, or contrast.
3. Clarify pronunciations, meanings, alternate word choice, parts of speech, and etymology of words using the dictionary, thesaurus, glossary, and technology resources.
4. Expand reading vocabulary by identifying and correctly using idioms and words with literal and figurative meanings in their speaking and writing experiences.
3.1.7 G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do readers construct meaning from text?	- Good readers compare, infer, synthesize, and make connections (text to text, text to world, text to self) to make text personally relevant and useful.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Speculate about text by generating literal and inferential questions	Instructional focus: • Explicit instruction - speculation, its role, the intent of an author, the role of the reader when a situation is implied, etc. • Use of speculation to increase/monitor comprehension • Generation of literal questions (by teachers and students) Example: What is the setting for this story? • Generation of inferential questions by teachers and students) Example: How does the main character feel once the problem is divulged to her? How do you substantiate that response?
2. Distinguish between essential and nonessential information.	Instructional strategies: • Classroom discussion (whole group, small group) • Graphic organizers • Student generated questions • Teacher generated questions: Can this story exist without the information? How critical to the plot is the information? Can you “know” the character without knowing this piece of information? Is the information critical to the story’s outcome/the problem’s resolution? ASSESS by having students delineate essential/non essential information. Example: Have students read a passage and highlight essential information with a colored marker and nonessential information with an alternate color.
3. Differentiate between fact, opinion, bias, and propaganda in newspapers, periodicals, and electronic texts.	Instructional focus: • Detailed studies of fact and opinion, bias and propaganda through research and popular media (includes editorials, ad campaigns, celebrity endorsements from popular culture) Examples: •Critique campaign posters, current and historical, for use of propaganda techniques.
4. Articulate the purposes and characteristics of different genres.	Instructional focus: •Author and genre studies ASSESS through oral presentation. Examples: • Students create and present graphic organizers that categorize genre by characteristics and purpose
5. Analyze ideas and recurring themes found in texts, such as bravery, loyalty, friendship, and loneliness.	Instructional focus: • Higher order questions Examples: • How does the character exhibit true loyalty? Give examples from the story. • Explain how the friendship based on mutual respect and loyalty or on greed and dependency? • Can a person be lonely when surrounded by people most of the time? Why? Why not?
6. Develop an awareness of a variety of perspectives on a single event, setting, character, personality, or topic as expressed by different authors.	Instructional focus: • Perspective Example: • Trace a movement in history, e.g., civil rights, the suffrage movement through a timeline or research paper. Examine the particular movement from the perspective of various characters.
7. Locate and analyze the elements of setting, characterization, and plot to construct understanding of how characters influence the progression and resolution of the plot.	Instructional strategies: • Teacher read alouds • Literature circles • Partner reading and discussion ASSESS through class discussion. Example: Respond to literature by keeping a journal of a character’s development as a story progresses. Include references to events in the story that either influenced the character or which the character influenced.
8. Read critically by identifying, analyzing, and applying knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction and providing support from the text as evidence of understanding.	Instructional strategies: • Independent reading • Partner reading and discussion • Small group guided reading at students’ instructional levels • Teacher read alouds that include thinking aloud and other uses of comprehension strategies that make the process of reading nonfiction text transparent for students
9. Read critically by identifying, analyzing, and applying knowledge of the theme, structure, style, and literary elements of fiction and providing support from the text as evidence of understanding.	Instructional focus: • Theme and its relevance to the text • Structure and how it clarifies the reader’s understanding • Style and how the author chose to tell the story or relate the information (Ask: Is the style informal? Formal? Does the author connect with you? Why? Why not? On what level? What would you have done differently if you were to write a similar piece?) • Literary elements (Ask: Is this setting relevant or could this story take place anywhere and at any time? How does the story evolve? Are you sure about what will happen next? Were you surprised? In what ways does the author use dialogue to make you a part of the story? Does the dialogue distract from the story? Is dialect or slang an enhancement or a distraction? Does its use make you connect to the story/characters?) ASSESS through class discussion.
10. Respond critically to text ideas and the author’s craft by using textual evidence to support interpretations.	Instructional focus: • Reflective reading (Ask: How do you interpret this passage/story? How does it differ from others’ interpretation? What makes your interpretation so different or so much the same as that of others?) ASSESS through class discussion. Example: Examine the author’s craft and explain how it affected you as a reader. Provide textual evidence to support your explanations.
11. Identify and analyze literary techniques and elements, such as figurative language, meter, rhetorical and stylistic features of text.	Instructional strategy Ask: •What particular features of the text made it easy or difficult to read? Explain. ASSESS through journal writing. Example: Have students craft a personal response to the question in their journals and follow with a class discussion.
12. Identify and analyze recurring themes across literary works.
13. Identify and understand the author’s use of idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes in prose and poetry.	Instructional focus: • Figurative language ASSESS through writing assignments (responding to and creating prose and poetry).
14. Compare and contrast the perspectives of authors in a variety of interdisciplinary works.
15. Interpret text ideas through journal writing, discussion, and enactment.
16. Demonstrate the use of everyday texts (e.g., train schedules, directions, brochures) and make judgments about the importance of such documents.
17. Interpret idiomatic expressions.	Instructional focus: • Explicit instruction of idiomatic expressions, particularly for students whose first language is other than English
3.1.7 H. Inquiry and Research
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- Why conduct research?	- Researchers gather and critique information from different sources for specific purposes.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Produce written and oral work that demonstrates comprehension of informational materials.
2. Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its authors	Instructional strategies: • Teacher read alouds • Guided reading, with teacher as facilitator, to improve comprehension at student’s instructional level • Independent reading by students and subsequent demonstration of each student’s understanding of author’s point of view, historical references and cultural biases • Integration of the study of an author’s point of view with a focus on the historical perspective during the time in which the piece was written ASSESS through student writing and media presentations. Examples: • Write an essay that explains how a tradition found in a literary passage reflects the attitudes or beliefs of its author. • Demonstrate an author’s point view in a visual representation: art, web page design, etc.
3. Collect materials for a portfolio that reflect possible career choices.
4. Self-select materials appropriately related to a research project.
5. Read and compare at least two works, including books, related to the same genre, topic, or subject and produce evidence of reading (e.g., compare central ideas, characters, themes, plots, settings).

Standard 3.2 Writing All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
Big Idea: Writing is the process of communicating in print for a variety of audiences and purposes.
3.2.7 A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do good writers express themselves? How does process shape the writer’s product?	- Good writers develop and refine their ideas for thinking, learning, communicating, and aesthetic expression.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Write stories or scripts with well-developed characters, setting, dialogue, clear conflict and resolution, and sufficient descriptive detail.	Instructional focus: • Writing Process Example: Students write a play that depicts a school-based conflict.
2. Write multi-paragraph compositions that have clear topic development, logical organization, effective use of detail, and variety in sentence structure.	Instructional focus: • Writing Process Example: Students write multi-paragraph compositions about how technology affects/influences their daily lives.
3. Generate and narrow topics by considering purpose, audience, and form with a variety of strategies (e.g., graphic organizers, brainstorming, or technology-assisted processes).
4. Revise and edit drafts by rereading for content and organization, usage, sentence construction, mechanics, and word choice.
5. Demonstrate understanding of a scoring rubric to improve and evaluate writing.
6. Compose, revise, edit, and publish writing using appropriate word processing software.
7. Reflect on own writing, noting strengths and setting goals for improvement.
3.2.7 B. Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do writers develop a well written product?	- Good writers use a repertoire of strategies that enables them to vary form and style, in order to write for different purposes, audiences, and contexts.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Extend knowledge of specific characteristics, structures, and appropriate voice and tone of selected genres and use this knowledge in creating written work, considering the purpose, audience, and context of the writing.
2. Write various types of prose, such as short stories, biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs that contain narrative elements.	Instructional focus: • Genre studies ASSESS through Problem Based Learning. Examples: • Students develop and present a Problem Based Learning product, e.g., website chronicling the life of a world leader. • Students write a memoir.
3. Write reports and subject-appropriate nonfiction pieces across the curriculum based on research and including citations, quotations, and a works consulted page.
4. Write a range of essays, including persuasive, speculative (picture prompt), descriptive, personal, or issue-based.
3.2.7 C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do rules of language affect communication?	- Rules, conventions of language, help readers understand what is being communicated.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Use Standard English conventions in all writing, such as sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.	Instructional strategies: • Students review exemplar essays. • Students edit sample essays.
2. Use a variety of sentence types correctly, including combinations of independent and dependent clauses, prepositional and adverbial phrases, and varied sentence openings to develop a lively and effective personal style.
3. Understand and use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, to present items in a series or to organize ideas for emphasis.
4. Experiment in using subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to indicate relationships between ideas.
5. Use transition words to reinforce a logical progression of ideas.	Instructional focus: • Segues • Transition words ASSESS through writing assignments using a rubric.
6. Edit writing for correct grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
7. Use a variety of reference materials, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, grammar reference, and/or internet/software resources to edit written work.
8. Write legibly in manuscript or cursive to meet district standards.
3.2.7 D. Writing Forms, Audiences, and Purposes (exploring a variety of forms)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- Why does a writer choose a particular form of writing?	- A writer selects a form based on audience and purpose.
Areas of Focus/Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
1. Gather, select, and organize information appropriate to a topic, task, and audience.
2. Apply knowledge and strategies for composing pieces in a variety of genres (e.g., narrative, expository, persuasive, poetic, and everyday/ workplace or technical writing).
3. Write responses to literature and develop insights into interpretations by connecting to personal experiences and referring to textual information.	Instructional focus: • Writing for a purpose Example: Students keep a writer’s journal or notebook where responses to literature become daily entries and where connections are made to the students’ experiences.
4. Write personal narratives, short stories, memoirs, poetry and persuasive and expository text that relate clear, coherent events or situations through the use of specific details.	Instructional focus: • Writing for a purpose – to provide detail Example: Students write expository pieces that detail their interest and proficiency (or difficulty) in a content area, e.g., math, science, social studies.
5. Use narrative and descriptive writing techniques that show compositional risks (e.g., dialogue, literary devices, sensory words and phrases, background information, thoughts and feelings of characters, and comparison and contrast of characters).	Instructional focus: • Narrative and descriptive writing techniques Example: Students create a narrative story that includes dialogue between two characters. The dialogue will be a part of a story.
6. Use primary and secondary sources to understand the value of each when writing a research report.
7. Write reports based on research and include citations, quotations, and works consulted page.
8. Explore the central idea or theme of an informational reading and support analysis with details from the article and personal experiences.	Instructional focus: • Central idea or theme of an informational reading ASSESS through writing assignments. Example: Students read an account of deforestation and its effect on world climate and prepare and present a written report accompanied by visual support.
9. Demonstrate writing clarity and supportive evidence when answering open-ended and essay questions across the curriculum.
10. State a position clearly in a persuasive essay by stating the issue, giving facts, examples, and details to support the position, and citing sources when appropriate.	Instructional focus: • Persuasive writing Example: Students write an essay that includes facts, examples or details to support recycling efforts.
11. Present evidence when writing persuasive essays, examples, and justification to support arguments.	Example: Students write an essay citing evidence with examples justifying the effects of pollution and energy savings.
12. Choose an appropriate organizing strategy, such as cause/effect, pro and con, or parody to effectively present a topic, point of view, or argument