The elementary school standards are set at a level of performance approximately equivalent to the end of the fourth grade. The middle school standards are set at a level of performance approximately equivalent to the end of the eighth grade. The high school standards are set at a level approximately equivalent to the end of the tenth grade. It is expected that some students might achieve these levels earlier and others later than these grades.

An array of work is required to achieve any single standard. The work becomes increasing refined and sophisticated as students get older. The complexity of the tasks used to generate the work also increases. This notion of requiring students to hone the sophistication of their performances while simultaneously working with increasingly complex assignments cuts across all the English Language Arts Standards.

These standards allow for oral performances of student work whenever appropriate.

Much writing can be classified as belonging to the public arena. New Standards, however, defines public documents to mean those pieces of text that are concerned with public policy, that address controversial issues confronting the public, or that arise in response to controversial issues or public policy. Public documents are included in the Reading standard at middle school level (E1d) and constitute a separate standard at the high school level (E6). At the middle school level, the issues students write about come primarily from the school or local community. At high school, student should address issues, which are of national importance.

Functional writing is writing that exists in order to get things done. Functional writing is ordinarily considered technical writing, and, as such, is often not part of the typical English curriculum. New Standards requires students to demonstrate proficiency with functional writing because such writing is of increasing importance to the complex literacy of our culture. Functional documents are included in the Reading standard at middle school level (E1e) and constitute a separate standard at the high school level (E7).

The number of books required for E1a does not increase as students get older, but the length and complexity of what is read does increase (as indicated by the sample reading lists), so, this standard becomes increasingly formidable.

E1a assumes an adequate library of appropriate reading material. In some places, library resources are too meager to support the amount of reading required for every student to achieve this standard. Where a shortage of books exists, better use of out-of-school resources must be made; for example, students may have to be assured access to local or county libraries.

Reading twenty-five books a year entails a substantial amount of time. Students may use materials read in conjunction with their regular class work, including courses other than English, to satisfy this requirement.

E1. Reading/E6. Public Documents/E7. Functional Documents

E1a. The student reads at least twenty-five books or book equivalents each year. The quality and complexity of the materials to be read are illustrated in the sample reading list. The materials should include traditional and contemporary literature (both fiction and non-fiction) as well as magazines, newspapers, textbooks, and on-line materials. Such reading should represent a diverse collection of material from at least three different literary forms and from at least five different writers.

E1b. The student reads and comprehends at least four books (or book equivalents) about one issue or subject, or four books by a single writer, or four books in one genre, and produces evidence of reading that:

• makes and supports warranted and responsible assertions about the texts;
• supports assertions with elaborated and convincing evidence;
• draws the texts together to compare and contrast themes, characters, and ideas;
• makes perceptive and well developed connections;
• evaluates writing strategies and elements of the author’s craft.

E1c. The student reads and comprehends informational materials to develop understanding and expertise and produces written or oral work that:

• restates or summarizes information;
• relates new information to prior knowledge and experience;
• extends ideas;
• makes connections to related topics or information.

E1d. The student demonstrates familiarity with a variety of public documents (i.e., documents that focus on civic issues or matters of public policy at the community level and beyond) and produces written or oral work that does one or more of the following:

• identifies the social context of the document;
• identifies the author’s purpose and stance;
• analyzes the arguments and positions advanced and the evidence offered in support of them, or formulates an argument and offers evidence to support it;
• examines or makes use of the appeal of a document to audiences both friendly and hostile to the position presented;
• identifies or uses commonly used persuasive techniques.

E1e. The student demonstrates familiarity with a variety of functional documents (i.e., documents that exist in order to get things done) and produces written or oral work that does one or more of the following:

• identifies the institutional context of the document;
• identifies the sequence of activities needed to carry out a procedure;
• analyzes or uses the formatting techniques used to make a document user-friendly;
• identifies any information that is either extraneous or missing in terms of audience and purpose or makes effective use of relevant information.

Computer manuals; instructions; contracts. See also the reading lists included in award books corresponding to reading provided by the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and the Boy Scouts of America.

E2b is meant to replace the repertoire of responses that students traditionally write when they respond to literature. This type of response requires an understanding of writing strategies.

The work students produce to meet the English/Language Arts standards does not all have to come from an English class. Students should be encouraged to use work from subjects in addition to English to demonstrate their accomplishments. The work samples include some examples of work produced in other classes that meet requirements of these standards.

E2a. The student produces a report that:

• engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• develops a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject;
• creates an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context;
• includes appropriate facts and details;
• excludes extraneous and inappropriate information;
• uses a range of appropriate strategies, such as providing facts and details, describing or analyzing the subject, narrating a relevant anecdote, comparing and contrasting, naming, and explaining benefits or limitations;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

E2b. The student produces a response to literature that:

• engages the reader through establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• advances a judgment that is interpretive, analytic, evaluative, or reflective;
• supports a judgement through references to the text, references to other works, authors, or non-print media, or references to personal knowledge;
• demonstrates an understanding of the literary work;
• anticipates and answers a reader’s questions;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

E2c. The student produces a narrative account (fictional or autobiographical) that:

• engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a point of view, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• establishes a situation, plot, point of view, setting, and conflict (and for autobiography, the significance of events and of conclusions that can be drawn from those events);
• creates an organizing structure;
• includes sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character;
• excludes extraneous details and inconsistencies;
• develops complex characters;
• uses a range of appropriate strategies, such as dialogue, tension or suspense, naming, and specific narrative action, e.g., movement, gestures, expressions;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

E2d. The student produces a narrative procedure that:

• engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• provides a guide to action for a relatively complicated procedure in order to anticipate a reader’s needs; creates expectations through predictable structures, e.g., headings; and provides transitions between steps;
• makes use of appropriate writing strategies such as creating a visual hierarchy and using white space and graphics as appropriate;
• includes relevant information;
• excludes extraneous information;
• anticipates problems, mistakes, and misunderstandings that might arise for the reader;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

E2e. The student produces a persuasive essay that:

• engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• develops a controlling idea that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment;
• creates and organizes a structure that is appropriate to the needs, values, and interests of a specified audience, and arranges details, reasons, examples, and anecdotes effectively and persuasively;
• includes appropriate information and arguments;
• excludes information and arguments that are irrelevant;
• anticipates and addresses reader concerns and counter-arguments;
• supports arguments with detailed evidence, citing sources of information as appropriate;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

E3a. The student participates in one-to-one conferences with a teacher, paraprofessional, or adult volunteer, in which the student:

• initiates new topics in addition to responding to adult-initiated topics;
• asks relevant questions;
• responds to questions with appropriate elaboration;
• uses language cues to indicate different levels of certainty or hypothesizing, e.g., "what if…," "very likely…," "I’m unsure whether…";
• confirms understanding by paraphrasing the adult’s directions or suggestions.

E3b. The student participates in group meetings, in which the student:

• displays appropriate turn-taking behaviors;
• actively solicits another person’s comment or opinion;
• offers own opinion forcefully without dominating;
• responds appropriately to comments and questions;
• volunteers contributions and responds when directly solicited by teacher or discussion leader;
• gives reasons in support of opinions expressed;
• clarifies, illustrates, or expands on a response when asked to do so; asks classmates for similar expansions;
• employs a group decision-making technique such as brainstorming or a problem-solving sequence (e.g., recognize problem, define problem, identify possible solutions, select optimal solution, implement solution, evaluate solution).

E3c. The student prepares and delivers an individual presentation in which the student:

• shapes information to achieve a particular purpose and to appeal to the interests and background knowledge of audience members;
• shapes content and organization according to criteria for importance and impact rather than according to availability of information in resource materials;
• uses notes or other memory aids to structure the presentation;
• develops several main points relating to a single thesis;
• engages the audience with appropriate verbal cues and eye contact;
• projects a sense of individuality and personality in selecting and organizing content, and in delivery.

E3d. The student makes informed judgments about television, radio, and film productions; that is, the student:

• demonstrates an awareness of the presence of the media in the daily lives of most people;
• evaluates the role of the media in focusing attention and in forming opinion;
• judges the extent to which the media are a source of entertainment as well as a source of information;
• defines the role of advertising as part of media presentation.

E4a. The student demonstrates an understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work, and selects the structures and features of language appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the work. The student demonstrates control of:

• grammar;
• paragraph structure;
• punctuation;
• sentence construction;
• spelling;
• usage.

E4b. The student analyzes and subsequently revises work to clarify it or make it more effective in communicating the intended message or thought. The student’s revisions should be made in light of the purposes, audiences, and contexts that apply to the work. Strategies for revising include:

• adding or deleting details;
• adding or deleting explanations;
• clarifying difficult passages;
• rearranging words, sentences, and paragraphs to improve or clarify meaning;
• sharpening the focus;
• reconsidering the organizational structure.

E5a. The student responds to non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes; that is, the student:

• identifies recurring themes across works;
• interprets the impact of authors’ decisions regarding word choice, content, and literary elements;
• identifies the characteristics of literary forms and genres;
• evaluates literary merit;
• identifies the effect of point of view;
• analyzes the reasons for a character’s actions, taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character;
• makes inferences and draws conclusions about fictional and non-fictional contexts, events, characters, settings, and themes;
• identifies stereotypical characters as opposed to fully developed characters;
• identifies the effect of literary devices such as figurative language, allusion, diction, dialogue, and description.

E5b. The student produces work in at least one literary genre that follows the conventions of the genre.

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