English Language Arts
Welcome to the Long Beach Public Schools English Language Arts Homepage. Thank you for taking the time to visit the site. If you have any questions about the content of this page or any suggestions, please contact Joshua Anisansel, Director of English Language Arts.
The Common Core State Standards
Currently, the curriculum in New York State is governed by the New York State Education Department’s English Language Arts Standards that were issued in 2005 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/elacore.pdf . These standards will soon be replaced by the New York State Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), New York State’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards.
These standards are significant in that they are few and deep. These are not a reiteration of old standards; rather, they represent six significant shifts in the instructional practices that will prepare our students for career and college (See Common Core Shifts .pdf). Essentially, this standard reform is a response to the gaps that exist between the abilities of our graduating high school students and the expectations and demands of college and career that await them. Essentially, the Common Core asks students to:
• Read more informational text
• Read more complex text
• Write arguments and from sources
• Use and develop literacy skills across all content areas
• Develop an increasingly sophisticated vocabulary through reading
The best place to learn more about the standards, to read them, to read the research that supports the standards, to view samples of curriculum work that are aligned to them, to view video clips, etc. is http://engageny.org/.
We are dedicated to preparing students for the demands of the twenty-first century workplace and higher learning. These require that students are able to:
• read and think critically
• write for a variety of audiences
• speak effectively
• read for pleasure in a way that is pleasurable
• read for information
• evaluate information
• work in teams
• solve problems
• employ self-direction and self-monitoring
• be creative and innovative
The learning activities that we provide for our students every day in all grades help to prepare students to be literate and successful.
Our goal is to cultivate a love of reading and writing in all of our students. Students need to practice independently the literacy skills they learn in all of their classes. Our students will work to develop an awareness of themselves as readers and writers, and it is important that students identify and challenge their comfort areas in the four modalities of language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).
At all levels, parents are encouraged to take time to share in their child's reading experiences. A shared reading experience creates opportunities to discuss literature and life. This can help students as their parents model what it is that lifelong readers do when they discuss books in meaningful and authentic ways. Similarly, parents are encouraged to review their child's writing assignments and notice their development as writers over the years.
A note on testing:
We encourage the community to measure this school district not by the ELA assessments alone, but by all the rich and varied experiences we provide for students throughout the entire school year. Success on these assessments will be a natural byproduct of our efforts to teach students to read and write critically for a variety of audiences and purposes. Students will be exposed to these tests and their formats and they will have opportunities to practice. The state assessments should be treated as another genre of reading and writing. The teachers and students will be able to deconstruct these assessments to isolate and learn the vocabulary, tasks, and skills needed to exceed New York State's expectations.
New York State English Language Arts Core Curriculum, Prekindergarten-Grade 12
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/elacore.pdf (right click and save)
This English Language Arts Core Curriculum (2005) is a standards-based document that provides an additional level of specificity to the learning standards for English language arts adopted by the New York State Board of Regents in 1996. It respects the tradition of local choice in New York State that empowers educators to select texts, identify products, and use a rich array of instructional strategies and activities to meet student learning needs. This core curriculum is designed to provide assistance, while allowing for creativity, in the development of local instructional materials. This revision of the core curriculum is in response to the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate for specificity of performance indicators in grades 3 - 8.
(http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/elarg.html Retrieved August 14, 2008)
New York State Education Department ELA Assessment Page
http://nysedregents.org/
This site is useful to learn about testing, view assessments from previous years, and New York State's ELA curriculum.