The New State Standards for Language Arts

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort to establish a shared set of educational standards that states can voluntarily adopt. The standards have been formulated by studying the highest state standards across the country. The standards are bench marked to international standards to guarantee that our children can compete in the global marketplace. Implementation of the Common Core Standards is developing with Connecticut schools expected to fully launch these standards in the 2013-2014 school year.

The Common Core State Standards will encompass all academic areas in Kindergarten through grade 12. This essay will provide a general overview of how the language arts curriculum will adopt the standards in grades kindergarten through high school.

Learning new language skills is the basis of kindergarten. Children will learn about the alphabet and its role in reading. Students will practice rhyming, matching words with beginning sounds, and blending sounds into words. Practice with these types of activities is a powerful step toward learning to read and spell correctly. The size of a child’s vocabulary is another key factor in his/her ability to read and comprehend books and stories. Children will begin to experiment with writing and will be encouraged to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing letters to share information, ideas, and feelings.

In 1st grade, children are expected to become more independent in reading and writing. Children will continue to learn and practice rules for recognizing the sounds that make up words and sound out more complex words. Such foundational skills are necessary and important components of developing proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend a wide range of text and materials. Children will learn to think about what they read and talk about the main ideas of stories. As they write and speak, 1st graders will learn to use language appropriately; this includes using complete sentences and spelling words with increasing accuracy.

Children in 2nd grade will gain more skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. They will continue to learn and practice rules for matching sounds to letters that make up words, and they learn new concepts — such as words that share the same root (e.g., add and additional) — that help them figure out the meanings of new words. Writing will be utilized to use newly learned words and phrases to express ideas. As they write and speak, 2nd graders will be more attentive to the formal and informal uses of English and will spell most words correctly in their writing.

Third grade is a critical year for children. Learning to read with fluency and accuracy will serve as the foundation for reading demands in later grade levels. Children will reliably be able to make sense of multisyllable words in books. Students will come to appreciate that words have meanings that are not literal (e.g., a piece of cake) and have relationships to other words (e.g., company and companion). Recognizing and understanding words will help students read increasingly challenging stories and books to build knowledge about the world around them. By the end of the school year, children will be writing clear sentences and paragraphs on a range of topics, utilizing an expanding vocabulary.

Building the stamina and skills to read challenging fiction, nonfiction, and other materials is a fundamental skill in 4th grade. Students will continue to learn about the world as well as build vocabulary skills by reading more complicated stories and poems from different cultures and a range of books on history, science, art, and music. Fourth grade students will be expected to make important strides in their ability to explain plainly and in detail what a book says — both explicitly and what is implied from its details. By 4th grade, students will be writing effective summaries, book reports, and descriptions of characters or events that use correct grammar and punctuation.

In 5th grade, children will read widely and deeply from a range of high-quality, increasingly challenging fiction and nonfiction materials from diverse cultures and time periods. Building knowledge about subjects through research projects and responding analytically to literary and informational sources. Students will write essays that are several paragraphs long. Students will devote significant time and effort to producing numerous written pieces over short and extended time-frames, gaining control over many conventions of grammar, usage, and punctuation as well as learn ways to make himself/herself understood.

In 6th grade, students are expected to apply skills they learned in earlier grades to make sense of longer, more challenging books and articles. This includes learning how authors try to influence readers and find reasons to support their ideas. Focusing on how authors make their points and support their arguments with evidence and reasoning will help children sharpen their ability to write and speak with more clarity and coherence. Students will expand their vocabularies and use new words in their stories, reports, and essays. To meet these literacy goals, students will be expected to devote significant attention to precise details in reading and writing.

In 7th grade, students will analyze, define, compare, and evaluate ideas when reading, writing, speaking, and listening. They will continue to analyze how themes in fiction and nonfiction develop over the course of a book or article. Readings will include classic and contemporary pieces that represent diverse perspectives. Students ability to cite specific evidence when offering an interpretation of a text is expected to mature. They will be required to use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear or constructively evaluating others’ use of evidence. These skills will help students in every facet of his/her studies.

To prepare for high school, 8th grade students will work with major works of fiction and nonfiction that extend across cultures and centuries. As they work to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, students must also learn to question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and assess the accuracy of his/her claims. They also must be able to report findings from their own research and analysis of sources in a clear manner.

To become ready for college and career, high school students will learn to evaluate intricate arguments and surmount the challenges posed by complex written materials independently. Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary nonfiction of increasing sophistication, students will expand their literary and cultural knowledge and better understand references. They will also develop the flexibility, concentration, and fluency to produce high-quality, first drafts of writing under tight deadlines. Additionally students will be able to revisit and make improvements to a piece of writing over multiple drafts as needed. High school students will learn to master the essential rules of standard written and spoken English and resolve usage issues by consulting style and usage guides. By writing and participating in a variety of conversations, students will assert and defend claims and show what they know about a subject using appropriate examples and evidence.

Sources:

Corestandards.org

Pta.org