This event connects to the following NCTE Standards for English Language Arts:
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
This event connects to the following best-practice elements of the NCTE's Position on the Teaching of English: Assumptions and Practices:
Assumptions about Learners and Teachers
Every person is a learner. It is the nature of everyone to learn: to grow and change through interacting with others and responding to experiences. Learning is not confined to school times. It is ongoing and limited only by the sensory and reflective powers of the learner.
Teachers and students are a community of learners. Learning is a collaborative effort. Teachers are learners--from self and others. Learners are teachers of self and others. Through genuine interaction, teacher-learners grow and change. Students and teachers build predictable yet fluid structures for interaction. Teachers listen to and observe students, collecting data from and about them, and use a variety of strategies to engage them in learning.
Teachers and learners assume many roles, often shared, often overlapping, always interdependent and interactive. They respect each other in these roles. Teachers have a repertoire of roles with reflective, authentic stances: mediator, facilitator, and participant. They delicately balance the roles of manager/director and enabler/interactor with individuals, small groups, and the whole class. Teachers provide information and direction, respond thoughtfully to students' efforts, demonstrate appropriate actions and attitudes, and systematically observe students to assess their progress toward desired ends. Teachers are authorities on learning and pedagogy. They are also researchers, working both theoretically and practically. Teachers plan, organize, choose materials and teaching strategies, and set up structured learning environments to foster desired academic and social interactions.
Teachers are reflective practitioners, aware of the theoretical bases from which they operate, making informed judgments for which they are accountable. In charge of their classroom, they are professionals responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating the process of learning.
Learners are problem solvers and decision makers.
Learning entails making mistakes in a climate of trust. Students make mistakes in the process of acquiring knowledge and skill. In a climate of trust, learners are valued as those who have much to give, demonstrate, and teach others, thus permitting them to take responsibility for and maintain ownership of their learning. A trusted individual becomes a risk taker. Support for risk taking requires acceptance of error as a part of learning.
The classroom setting contributes to the climate of the learning. The class schedule provides opportunity to reflect on personal and community actions, allowing students and teachers to engage in language activities for real purposes. Uninterrupted time blocks allow for learning, not "just covering." Freedom to use time in a flexible way helps students to become committed to the tasks at hand. The pace of the classroom is determined partly in response to the development and inquiry of the students.
The variety of materials available reflects the diversity of the students. Students have easy access to learning materials of all types, which are organized and accessible to entice and accommodate students. Students are free to choose materials and texts, work in a variety of situations, and interact with all class members in an environment that is predictable but not static, exciting but not chaotic, disciplined but not restrictive.
Assessment reflects what is valued in education. The community of learners uses diverse kinds of assessment, including self-assessment, as opportunities for reflection on individual growth and change. Beyond simple recall of facts, assessment, which is always limited, grows naturally from classroom learning and is an extension of that learning.
Assumptions about Knowledge
Knowing is active and ongoing, a process of interactive learning. The classroom is a place where knowledge is socially constructed through interaction among teachers, students, and materials. Knowledge is not neutral, but political, enabling the knower to make choices among conflicting sources.
Knowledge is not information, yet it requires information. Because the world's diverse information base is expanding at a rapid rate, teachers cannot limit their classes to narrow lists of information or sets of readings. Although students use certain resources, they also know that a much larger body of resources exists and that they can gain access to these resources. Individualized, learner-based pedagogy requires that students have access to a variety of texts through libraries and other sources.
Knowledge is more than a mastery of facts and processes. It includes an understanding and use of these facts and processes in historical, social, political, and personal contexts. Students bring substantial knowledge to the classroom. Teachers build on that information.
English/Language Arts Practices
In the English/language arts curriculum, students should have guidance and frequent opportunities to:
- read whole texts in their original versions, sharing written and oral meanings, not simply supplying workbook answers or responses to predetermined questions
- collaborate in writing many whole texts, not answers to exercises
- work with teachers and other students as a community of learners, observing their teachers as readers and writers
- have their work assessed by many measures:
- extended oral and written responses to reading
- essay tests with sufficient time for planning and revising, scored by a variety of means: holistic, primary trait, analytic
- records of reading in class and outside class
- one-to-one or small group conferences
