Writing And Thinking For The Middle School English Language Arts Curriculum Essay

As a future teacher of a fast-changing generation that searches restlessly for new interests, I believe that old and new must meet to keep the basic values of a balanced literacy. Focusing on prior knowledge, collaborating with colleagues, peers, families, and community, creating connections with our surrounding, and empowering students’ learning style throughout the process of gaining knowledge of reading and writing. Foremost, my personal philosophy of teaching literacy is based on constructivism and sociolinguistic, where hands on experience and guidance are priority in an informational world. To facilitate a child’s acquisition of literacy skills , as I plan for literacy instruction for my future classroom, I will take into consideration

The English language is particularly complex in almost all aspects. Many of the words in the English language have different meanings for the same word. This is not unlike the definition of the different levels of usage. McCrimmon defines the three levels, formal, moderate, and colloquial, by their sentence structure, diction, and tone (McCrimmon 193). ¹ Using McCrimmon’s definitions, authors can determine what type of writing is applicable to each of the three levels. For the formal writings, an adequate example of where readers can find it is in a professional journal, and an appropriate place to find an example of the moderate level is in a weekly news magazine. Also, the best place to look for an example of the colloquial level is in certain sections of the newspaper. All of the levels of usage apply to these different types of writings and assist in defining what each level involves.

Presently there is a rising number of English Language Learners (ELLs) entering into classrooms all over the country. According to the three research studies that I utilized, there are several varied assessment approaches for teaching ELLs in reading (Davis-Lenski, Ehlers-Zavala, Daniel, & Sun-Irminger, 2006; Dreher, & Letcher-Gray, 2009; Ebe, 2010). English Language Learners (ELLs) consistently struggle with some aspects of reading because, they lack background knowledge in terms of the generalized text selections, which they are often given (Davis-Lenski, Ehlers-Zavala, Daniel, & Sun-Irminger, 2006; Dreher, & Letcher-Gray, 2009; Ebe, 2010). The data across all three journal documents agrees that there is an achievement gap where ELLs

Starting middle school was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. There was a brand new campus to explore, but we were also nervously anticipating the academic program that was about to begin. Most of my grade had been together since the age of four and by this time there were clear social divides. There were the girls who were seen as popular, and then there was everybody else. You could say that I was part of the popular crowd, though at the time I didn’t notice myself standing apart from the others. As a group of friends we got on well, we’d hang out, go to the cinema, have sleepovers, all the usual things friends do. Then things gradually started to change.

The classes that have been observed and that will be analyzed in this essay are the English Honors and AP English courses which took place at Cerritos High School during the second semester of the academic year 2015/2016. This analysis will focus on the instructor of said classes, David Hind, and on their curriculum, specifically on how the assessment of the students’ learning took place.

Just as the needs of students vary teachers methods of instruction should vary. Meeting the literacy needs of students should be done through a wide variety of instructional strategies that meet the needs of students and meet the requirements of a balanced literacy program. The following information shares 12 instructional procedures to be used in a third grade classroom. The procedures are from the Tompkins’ Compendium shared in the text Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (6th ed.).

The English-Language Arts Department at DVHS is based on the Common Core State Standards. English courses emphasize critical reading, composition, and speaking skills in the context of various literature and non-fiction texts including but not limited to short stories, poetry, drama, novels, periodicals, essays, speeches, and articles.  The challenging content is designed to prepare students for career and college readiness. In addition to reading, varied writing assignments and projects are also designed to help students prepare for college, future

The National Middle School Association (NMSA) is now known as the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). It has been a “voice for those committed to the educational and developmental needs of young adolescents” since 1973. This organization is the only national education association specifically committed to those in the middle level grades. There are over 30,000 members including principals, teachers, central office personnel, professors, college students, parents, community leaders, and educational consultants. The AMLE is recognized across the United States, Canada, and 46 other countries. In addition, AMLE has a network of “58 affiliate organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia that strengthen outreach to the regional, state, provincial, and local levels.” The Association for Middle Level Education’s mission is dedicated to improving the educational experiences of all students ages 10 to 15 by providing vision, knowledge, and resources to educators and leaders. (National Association of State Boards of Education, n.d., paragraph 1).

Professor Steve has been working at Lake Superior College since 2001, he is also involved in Teacher’s Education, and has served as the President of the LSC Faculty Union. Before he started tutoring at Lake Superior College, Professor Steve taught High School English in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Shiprock in New Mexico. In addition, Professor Steve has a Master’s Degree in English from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

Pea Ridge High School (PRHS) has long prided itself of being a high achieving school in academics; it is number six in the state for the 2013-2014 school year. Since the implementation of the Common Core Standards, PRHS has found itself having to reteach educators to use the literacy standards because most in the non-literacy/math disciplines still use the Arkansas Frameworks. Not only has the literacy standards been an arduous task to implement in the literacy areas, the high school struggles with the concept of teaching literacy in the areas that are not necessarily considered literacy areas. According to the schools’ Arkansas Consolidated School Improvement Plan (ACSIP) of which the author of this essay and project is the literacy chair for the high school, two things that is essential and requires immediate implementation in all areas is the teaching of literacy and closing the achievement gap for the target groups which are considered lower socioeconomic (free/reduced lunch), minorities, and English language learners. In an effort to ease the minds of the educators and administration, this project was instituted to help those of history, science, art, physical education, and other areas to implement the literacy standards assigned by the state. It also gives assistance and clarification for those not only in the literacy

The use of formal and informal reading assessments provide important data that allow educators to identify at risk students (Tompkins, 2010). The data collected from the assessments address any factors that may prohibit the development of students’ reading and writing skills. In addition to the assessments, the more an educator can learn about students’ backgrounds and their past reading, language development, and writing experiences the more instructional strategies can be designed to specifically meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom.

School has always been a place of business, in my opinion. A place where we are educated and prepared for life, essentially. And the proper way of doing so, as I believe most people have been taught, is to enhance all skills such as vocabulary, grammar, mathematics, etc... This is why we are taught so many subjects, being tested and guided to follow whichever path we feel most comfortable or skilled at doing. During the process, is where skills are established and developed. The product that is intended after having gone through school is to shape a well skilled, educated, and productive person that can benefit society as a whole. In limiting the teaching of Standard American English, we would be limiting the amount of people that can fulfill their potential, raise the difficulty for teachers, and accept mediocrity. In keeping this dialect, students will gain new skills and learn the language of business to prepare them for any encounters along the way. There is no need, in my eyes, to minimize or put an extent to teaching the English dialect and that is what I will personally support in this essay.

A highly significant change to the national curriculum made at the 2014 update for KS3 is the introduction of assessment without levels (Department for Education, 2014). The system by which children were assigned a numerical level based on their attainment was ceased on the commencement of the new curriculum in September 2014 for all subjects, including science (Department for Education, 2013). This action was implemented based on a report by the Expert Panel for the National Curriculum review, which suggested that due to changes made to the curriculum over various reassessments, the concept of attainment targets, on which level descriptors were based, had been clouded, making levels difficult to understand and apply (Department for Education, 2015). This meant that level descriptors were no longer clear and should be removed to allow assessment to focus more closely on an individuals’ specific strengths and weaknesses on the content within the curriculum, rather than simply focus on ensuring that a child achieved a certain arbitrary level (Expert Panel for the National Curriculum Review, 2011). The abolition of levels has given schools more freedom to design their own assessment framework and address the perceived issue that emphasis of levels as a tool for measuring school performance had led to negative influence on the way individual pupils were assessed (Department for Education, 2015). Bell (2014) suggests that the introduction of assessment without levels is a

One of my most defining traits is being very analytical to what I am passionate about. I feel that critical thinking and analysis are some of the most important skills someone can have in this world today. The ability to look at everything presented to us critically: whether it be our own pop culture, the people around us, the events happening in the world, the social situations close to us, or the crucial decisions you make every day, can lead us to making better judgements by thinking about things with more complexity and understanding. I want to teach high school English for sophomores and seniors, because I feel that those are the most formative years during high school. For sophomores because that’s when they start forming their identity as a young adult, and for seniors because that is when they are about to leave high school and enter the adult world. Those two points in high school feel like the most crucial times we should be teaching literature to high schoolers, as an appreciation for literature and analysis can be very beneficial for students who are grappling with difficult questions and ideas about themselves. The lessons we can learn from literature and the critical thinking skills they would gain through analysis can help benefit the students and help them process the difficult changes they might be facing.

English as a medium of instruction has developed as a global trend for a range of reasons. Nowadays EMI is truly a global phenomenon. In this literature review, I look at the historical backgrounds of EMI in three periods prior to a global phenomenon. What is more, I reflect upon the current developments of EMI at tertiary education focusing on the spread of EMI into the global universities, EMI in European universities, EMI in Asian universities and EMI in Thai universities. In each section, I link the current literature review to my initial research at the end of the sections in order to form my research grounds.