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MCS Language Arts Standards
Standard #1:
Students should be able to speak and write appropriately for specific purposes and audiences.
This standard provides opportunities for students to effectively communicate with different audiences, through a variety of mediums, to achieve different purposes. Classrooms that seek to develop the expressive skills of students are filled with opportunities to speak and write, and included in these opportunities are chances to engage in self-correction and reflection. For example, when young children compose stories, poems, or plays, they spend a great deal of time editing and revising their work, generally with both peer and teacher assistance. They may still be using some instances of invented spellings or ungrammatical constructions, but they are given the opportunity to assess the benefits, risks, and consequences of their choices. Engaging in peer editing also requires students to work with team members from diverse backgrounds as they are perfecting their abilities to use standard English. When an intermediate student delivers a persuasive speech to a targeted audience, that child must first assess the needs, interests, and perspectives of the recipients. The student is also developing, presenting, and following logical reasoning. As high school students participate in journalistic activities, they are expected to use a style of writing appropriate to the task and content. They must also check their sources of information in order to assure that their finished articles or editorials clearly distinguish between fact, opinion, and interpretation. The wise journalist must also be acutely aware of the social and cultural context within the school and take care to deliver a message that is knowledgeable of cultural diversity within the school.
The mission of the Memphis City Schools is "to prepare all children to be successful citizens and workers in the 21st century." Students in all classrooms will be learning to communicate effectively with others, both locally and in distant sites. With a system-wide understanding that communication involves both oral and written modes, all students will be challenged to infuse their communications with cultural understanding and logical reasoning. As they progress toward this standard with its emphasis on appropriate use of written and oral English, they will be preparing themselves for lifelong success.
Specific Expectations
1. Compose texts and responses that demonstrate appropriate grammatical and mechanical conventions of speaking and writing.
2. Write narrative, descriptive, and imaginative texts (stories, plays, poems, etc.) that demonstrate different rhetorical forms, characterizations, and points of view.
3. Write informative texts that conform to appropriate formats and contain source documentation.
4. Write and present persuasive and argumentative texts that support a position with quotations and other's opinions.
5. Formulate, organize, and deliver a message, selecting and using appropriate presentation style to fit the situation.
6. Use elements of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, editing/revising, and sharing/ publishing) as appropriate to selected writing tasks.
Standard #2:
Students should be able to derive literal, implied, and personal meaning from different kinds of texts and presentations (literary, informative, and technical).
This standard provides opportunities for students to become active, critical, and creative consumers of diverse kinds of information. Students in the Memphis City Schools are trained to be more than passive recipients; they must critically analyze the information which comes to them through written, oral, and visual means. Comprehension no longer addresses only spoken and written messages; today's students must also listen attentively and understand the intended messages or main ideas expressed in spoken messages conveyed through film, television, commercial and political advertising, photography, and many other forms of communication which have yet to be discovered or publicly disseminated. For example, when a young child designs a story map or creates a story frame, that student is demonstrating the ability to read with comprehension and identify the main points expressed in written text. The student is demonstrating an understanding of plot, characterization, and theme. When intermediate students analyze a political speech or editorial cartoon, they are preparing to assume their roles and responsibilities as citizens in a democratic society. The students are also showing that they can perceive issues and circumstances from different points of view and that they can distinguish between fact, opinion, and interpretation. High school students working collaboratively also demonstrate the ability to read with comprehension when they transpose Shakespeare into modem English, and inherent in any collaborative project is the need for students to work with team members form diverse backgrounds to accomplish group goals.
Futurists predict that the workplace of the 21st century will look vastly different from that of today, and our students must be prepared for the changes to come. Skillful communication is a primary key to both professional success and personal fulfillment. As students progress toward this standard with its emphasis on constructing, examining, and extending the meaning of all kinds of texts, they will be preparing themselves for lifelong success in both arenas.
Specific Expectations
1. Read unfamiliar texts for a variety of purposes (information, pleasure, analysis/criticism), using effective strategies for decoding words and comprehending meaning.
2. Demonstrate understanding of oral and printed texts and presentations by interpreting the impact of the author's and speaker's decisions (such as form, content, style, rhetoric, voice, vocabulary, and literary devices).
3. Extend the meaning of printed, electronic, and oral texts beyond their literal intent.
Standard #3:
Students should be able to access, organize, evaluate, and use information obtained by listening, reading, and viewing a variety of texts.
This standard provides opportunities for students to set goals and identify the steps and resources necessary to attain them. Classrooms that promote research encourage students to investigate meaningful problems and to work both collaboratively and independently to achieve their goals. For example, when young children use the card catalog to select books on topics of interest, those students are engaging in research. They are practicing skills such as using alphabetical order, and they are clearly locating and organizing different kinds of information. When intermediate and secondary students embark on a plan to rectify a particular social or environmental inequity, they are showing that they know their fundamental rights and understand how political decisions affect their daily lives. Students may also need to design, administer, and consolidate the results of survey instruments. This process is time-consuming and requires planning, persistence and continual revision. Thus, students must persevere when tasks are not easily accomplished. In modern classrooms students of all ages search the Internet for information needed to complete research projects and use computers or video cameras to organize and display the results of their research findings; they clearly use technology to solve problems and produce quality products.
Modern classrooms are active environments where learning is integrated and students are encouraged to question, investigate, and explore. This standard, with its emphasis on all aspects of the research process, carries the mandate that young adults of the 21st century must be prepared to integrate mathematical reasoning, an understanding of the scientific method, and effective communication skills In so doing, they will be preparing themselves for lifelong productivity and success.
Specific Expectations
1. Identify, locate, and select relevant information to answer questions and build knowledge.
2. Organize, manipulate, and use relevant information and ideas to complete real-world projects.
3. Assess the validity and usefulness of sources and information.
Standard #4:
Students should be able to use literary knowledge as a basis for understanding themselves and society.
This standard provides opportunities for students to use literature as a source of information, guidance, and inspiration. In order to learn from literature, students must be able to perceive issues and circumstances from different points of view. The IRA/NCTE Standards for the English/Language Arts encourage students to read a wide variety of materials, and classrooms which promote this kind of activity make available a multitude of reading and viewing materials from all historical periods, cultures, and genres. When high school students analyze the surprise endings in 0. Henry's works they are learning about irony, thus showing that they can comprehend more than the literal meaning of a text, and they are clearly reading with comprehension. When intermediate students debate the causes of the American Revolution, referring to information gained from history books, movies, and fictional texts (such as Johnny Tremaine), they certainly discuss alternative ways to resolve or deal with conflicts as well as assessing the benefits, risks and consequences of decisions and actions. Young children also learn to perceive information within its cultural context and learn from literature. When two elementary students produce a mock talk show, where one student acts as the interviewer and the other as a character from a literary work, both students must listen attentively and show that they understand the messages of the other.
Students of today live in an increasingly complex and diverse society. Information comes to them quickly and from a multitude of sources and directions. If they are to be literate, productive, and intelligent citizens for the 21st century, it is essential that they learn from history and from other cultures Progress toward this standard prepares them for lifelong success.
Specific Expectations
1. Analyze the impact of sensory, intellectual, and emotional devices on personal responses to literature.
2. Relate actions and consequences found in literature to personal and societal decisions and situations.
3. Make connections between literary texts, fictional characters, real people, current events, cultures, and recurring themes.