MICHIGAN FORESTS FOREVER TEACHERS GUIDE
| ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS |  |
Michigan Department of Education -
English Language Arts
Version on this website as of summer, 2001
STRANDS, STANDARDS, & BENCHMARKS USED IN THIS WEBSITE
Strands are in GREEN and indented.
Standards are in BROWN.
Benchmarks are in RED.
Note: The Language Arts Framework does NOT have Strands. Only Standards
and Benchmarks. To conform to coding used for the other content areas, "Strand
I" is used for all Language Arts references.
"Strand I" (Content Standards from MCF website)
English language arts education in Michigan incorporates the teaching and learning of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. Integration of the English language arts occurs in multiple ways. First, English language arts curriculum, instruction, and assessment reflect the integration of listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing. The English language arts are not perceived as individual content areas, but as one unified subject in which each of the five areas supports the others and enhances thinking and learning. Secondly, there is integration of the teaching and learning of content and process within the English language arts. The common human experiences and the ideas, conflicts, and themes embodied in literature and all oral, written, and visual texts provide a context for the teaching of the processes, skills, and strategies of listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing. Finally, literacy educators believe that the knowledge, skills, and strategies of the English language arts are integrated throughout the curriculum, enabling students to solve problems and think critically and creatively in all subject areas.
In grades K-12, a locally developed English language arts curriculum, embodying these state content standards, will ensure that all students are literate and can engage successfully in reading, discovering, creating, and analyzing spoken, written, electronic, and visual texts which reflect multiple perspectives and diverse communities and make connections within English language arts and between English language arts and other fields.
Standard 1 Meaning and
Communication
All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.
LA.I.1.ms1 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.1.ms2 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.1.ms3 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.1.ms5 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
Standard 2
Meaning and Communication
All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and
grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.
LA.I.2.ms1 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.2.ms2 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.2.ms3 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
LA.I.2.ms4 No benchmarks listed on MDE MCF website.
Standard 3. Meaning
and Communication
All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view,
read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.
LA.I.3.ms1 Integrate listening, viewing, speaking, reading, and writing skills for multiple purposes and in varied contexts. An example is using all the language arts to prepare and present a unit project on career exploration.
LA.I.3.ms2 Begin to implement strategies to regulate effects of variables of the communication process. An example is selecting a format for the message to influence the receiver's response.
LA.I.3.ms3 Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately, view critically, and represent creatively. Examples include reporting formally to an audience, debating issues, and interviewing members of the public.
LA.I.3.ms4 Practice verbal and nonverbal strategies that enhance understanding of spoken messages and promote effective listening behaviors. Examples include altering inflection, volume, and rate, using evidence, and reasoning.
LA.I.3.ms5 Select appropriate strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to, viewing, or creating texts. Examples include generating relevant questions, studying vocabulary, analyzing mood and tone, recognizing how authors and speakers use information, and matching form to content.
LA.I.3.ms6 Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in oral, visual, and written texts by using a variety of resources, such as semantic and structural features, prior knowledge, reference materials, and electronic sources.
LA.I.3.ms7 Recognize and use varied techniques to construct text, convey meaning, and express feelings to influence an audience. Examples include identification with characters and multiple points of view.
LA.I.3.ms8 Express their responses and make connections between oral, visual, written, and electronic texts and their own lives.
Standard 4. Language
All students will use the English language effectively.
When we use the English language, we use it in many different ways and forms. The forms of language that we use depend upon the audience and the type of message we want to communicate. Our language is different when we use it in a formal setting, such as speaking to an assembly or writing to apply for a job, as opposed to talking with friends about a recent event or writing a personal diary. As we grow in our ability to use language, we learn what forms and types of language are best suited for different situations. Instruction, as well as experiencing language in many different settings, helps us learn to understand and use the forms and types of language which are best suited for our purposes.
LA.I.4.ms5 Demonstrate how communication is affected by connotation and denotation and why one particular word is more effective or appropriate than others in a given context.
Standard 5. Literature
All students will read and analyze a wide variety of classic and contemporary literature
and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment, and understanding of their
individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and the rich diversity of our
society.
One of the important ways we learn to use language effectively is through our close reading of a wide range of well-constructed texts used for a variety of purposes. The reading of both fiction and non-fiction high-quality literature allows us to experience and learn things that we might not experience in our daily lives; reading helps us to understand the actions, thoughts, and feelings of others who may or may not be like us. Exploring texts that our ancestors felt important, as well as texts that represent other cultures and other times, helps to increase our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our world.
LA.I.5.ms4 Investigate and demonstrate understanding of the cultural and historical contexts of the themes, issues, and our common heritage as depicted in literature and other texts.
Standard 6. Voice
All students will learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and
demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written, and visual texts that
enlighten and engage an audience.
Our ability to create oral, written, and visual texts that engage audiences is enhanced when we view ourselves as effective users of the English language arts. We develop our own voices by listening, reading, viewing, speaking, and writing about issues that are of great importance to us. Exploring how authors work provides us with opportunities to examine a variety of writing models from which we can learn the tools of language such as style, word choice, persuasiveness, and sentence structure.
LA.I.6.ms2 Demonstrate their ability to use different voices in oral and written communication to persuade, inform, entertain, and inspire their audiences.
Standard 8. Genre and Craft
of Language
All students will explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts,
aesthetic elements, and mechanics--including text structure, figurative and descriptive
language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar--to construct and convey meaning.
Reading a variety of texts helps us develop an understanding and appreciation of the writer's craft. We learn that there are many different and effective ways to convey meaning. Exploring how artists, writers, and speakers communicate successfully helps us employ effective techniques in our own efforts to communicate meaning based on our purpose, content, and audience. We increase our ability to use the mechanics of writing to achieve correctness and clarity when we reflect upon and create a variety of genre.
LA.I.8.ms1 Select and use mechanics that enhance and clarify understanding. Examples include paragraphing, organizational patterns, variety in sentence structure, appropriate punctuation, grammatical constructions, conventional spelling, and the use of connective devices, such as previews and reviews.
LA.I.8.ms3 Describe and use characteristics of various informational genre (e.g., biographies, newspapers, brochures, and persuasive arguments and essays) and elements of expository text structure (e.g., multiple patterns of organization, relational links, and central purposes) to convey ideas.
LA.I.8.ms4 Identify and use aspects of the craft of the speaker, writer, and illustrator to formulate and express their ideas artistically. Examples include color and composition, flashback, multi-dimensional characters, pacing, appropriate use of details, strong verbs, language that inspires, and effective leads.
Standard 9. Depth of
Understanding
All students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and
recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across texts.
We can explore complex human issues by learning to identify key concepts and themes in literature, by examining and reflecting upon diverse viewpoints, by summarizing arguments, and by presenting our own positions. We learn to use themes and topics from texts to make connections, see patterns, and demonstrate a deep and rich understanding of the enduring issues and recurring problems that characterize human experience.
LA.I.9.ms1 Explore and reflect on universal themes and substantive issues from oral, visual, and written texts. Examples include coming of age, rights and responsibilities, group and individual roles, conflict and cooperation, creativity, and resourcefulness.
LA.I.9.ms2 Synthesize content from multiple texts representing varied perspectives in order to formulate principles and generalizations.
LA.I.9.ms3 Develop a thesis using key concepts, supporting evidence, and logical argument.
Standard 10. Ideas in Action
All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives and
the lives of others.
Themes and issues explored in texts provide us with many ideas about the world, our communities, and our own place within them. Continued research and analysis of these themes enable us to enhance the skills needed to respond to the issues in our lives that concern and inspire us. It is critical that we use these skills to choose appropriate responses in areas that are important to us now in order to prepare for the future.
LA.I.10.ms1 Analyze themes and central ideas in literature and other texts in relation to issues in their own lives.LA.I.10.ms2 Perform the daily functions of a literate individual. Examples include acquiring information from multiple sources and then evaluating, organizing, and communicating it in various contexts.
LA.I.10.ms3 Use oral, written, and visual texts to identify and research issues of importance that confront adolescents, their community, their nation, and the world. Examples include using research findings to organize and create texts to persuade others to take a particular position or to alter their course of action with regard to a particular school/ community issue or problem.
Standard 11. Inquiry
and Research
All students will define and investigate important issues and problems using a variety of
resources, including technology, to explore and create texts.
An important use of the English language arts is to understand concepts and to create new knowledge. As we continue to improve our ability to collect, analyze, and evaluate information, we will increase our ability to contribute to the businesses that employ us and the communities in which we choose to live. In order to best accomplish this, we need to be able to find information in a variety of forms and to organize it in a way that allows better understanding and new insights. Many tried-and-true methods work well, such as library searches, interviews, card files, and outlines. Today, we have new technologies that can facilitate this process, such as electronic library catalogs, e-mail, and fax machines. Use of technology gives us more time to concentrate on the most important component of research, the thinking skills of inquiry, which we use when we formulate questions and hypotheses, analyze and synthesize information, and draw reasonable conclusions.
LA.I.11.ms2 Explain and use resources that are most appropriate and readily available for investigating a particular question or topic. Examples include knowledgeable people, field trips, tables of contents, indexes, glossaries, icons/headings, hypertext, storage addresses, CD-ROM/laser disks, electronic mail, and library catalogue databases.
LA.I.11.ms3 Organize, analyze, and synthesize information to draw conclusions and implications based on their investigation of an issue or problem.
LA.I.11.ms4 Use different means of developing and presenting conclusions based on the investigation of an issue or problem to an identified audience. Examples include election ballots, hypertext, and magazines and booklets including graphics.
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This website was developed and created by Michigan State University Extension for the teachers of the State of Michigan. The website is maintained by the Delta-Schoolcraft Independent School District in support of the Michigan Forests Forever CD-ROM from the Michigan Forest Resource Alliance. |
Page Name: MCF/LangArts.htm
Please provide comments to Bill Cook: cookwi@msu.edu
or 786-1575
.