Standards for the

1 INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION800 Barksdale Road, Box 8139, Newark, Delaware 19714-8139 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 Standardsfor theEnglishLanguageArts IRA Board of DirectorsDolores B. Malcolm (President), St. Louis Public Schools, Missouri; Richard T. Vacca (President-Elect), Kent StateUniversity, Ohio; John J. Pikulski (Vice President), University of Delaware, Newark; Richard L. Allington, State Universityof New York at Albany; James F. Baumann, National Reading Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens; JohnElkins, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia; Yetta M. Goodman, University of Arizona, Tucson; KathleenStumpf Jongsma, Northside Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas; Sandra McCormick, The Ohio StateUniversity, Columbus; MaryEllen Vogt, California State University, Long Beach; Barbara J. Walker, Montana StateUniversity, Billings; Carmelita Kimber Williams, Norfolk State University, Virginia; Alan E.

2 Farstrup (Executive Director).NCTE Executive CommitteeBeverly Ann Chin (President), University of Montana, Missoula; Carol Avery (President-Elect), Millersville, Pennsylvania;Sheridan Blau (Vice President), University of California at Santa Barbara; Miriam T. Chaplin (Past President), RutgersUniversity, Camden, New Jersey; Judith M. Kelly (Representative at Large), Hine Junior High School, Washington, ;Diane T. Orchard (Representative at Large), Lapeer Community Schools, Michigan; Greta D. Price (Representative atLarge), Willowbrook Middle School, Compton, California; Kathy G. Short (Elementary Section Chair), University ofArizona, Tucson; Joan Naomi Steiner (Secondary Section Chair), School District of Marinette, Wisconsin; Kay ParksBushman (Secondary Section Associate Chair), Ottawa High School, Kansas; Betty C. Houser (Secondary SectionAssociate Chair), Belmond/Klemme High School, Iowa; Frank Madden (College Section Chair), Westchester CommunityCollege, Valhalla, New York; Gail E.

3 Hawisher (College Section Assistant Chair), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Lester Faigley (CCCC Chair), University of Texas at Austin; Carol A. Pope (CEE Chair), North Carolina StateUniversity, Raleigh; Donald L. Stephan (CEL Chair), Sidney High School, Ohio; Miles Myers (Executive Director).Cover design: Boni Nash, IRA Graphic Design CoordinatorInterior design: Larry Husfelt, IRA Design ConsultantManuscript editors: Michael Greer, Rona S. Smith, Lee Erwin, NCTEIRA Stock Number: 889 NCTE Stock Number: 46767-3050 1996 by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Published by theInternational Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in theUnited States of Credits: Bill Leece (p. 4); Thompson-McClellan Photography (pp. 6, 9, 11, 18, 22, 29, 32, 35, 39, 43, 44); Ray Martens (pp. 15, 54); Susan Lina Ruggles (pp.)

4 50, 57, 58, 59, 62); George Rattin and Mike Jankowski (p. 64).[Photography has been omitted from the online version of this work.]High School Vignette 4 is adapted from The Writer s Craft, Orange Level; copyright 1992 by McDougal, Littell &Company, Box 1667, Evanston, IL 60204. All rights reserved. [This vignette has been omitted from the online version ofthis work.]The Korean text appearing in Middle School Vignette 3 is excerpted with permission from Classroom Publishing: APractical Guide to Enhancing Student Literacy, published by Blue Heron Publishing, Hillsboro, Oregon. [This text hasbeen omitted from the online version of this work.]Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNational Council of Teachers of for the English language bibliographical 0-8141-4676-7 (pbk.)1. Language arts United States Standards . I. InternationalReading Association. II. 1996808'.042'071 dc2096-3238 CIPCONTENTSI ntroductionvChapter 1: Setting Standards in the English Language Arts1 Defining the Standards1 The Need for Standards2To Prepare Students for the Literacy Demands of Today and Tomorrow2To Present a Shared Vision of Literacy Education5To Promote Equity and Excellence for All6 Learning How to Learn7 Equal Access to Resources7 Adequate Staffing8 Safe, Well-Equipped Schools8 Chapter 2: Perspectives Informing the English Language Arts Standards9 Literacy and Language Learning.

5 An Interactive Model9 Content11A Broad Range of Texts11 Processes and Strategies11 Systems and Structures of Language12 Purpose12 For Obtaining and Communicating Information12 For Literary Response and Expression12 For Learning and Reflection13 For Problem Solving and Application13 Development13 How Students Acquire Knowledge and Develop Competency over Time14iiiHow Students Should Be Able to Use Language 15 Clearly15 Strategically15 Critically15 Creatively15 Context16 Chapter 3: The English Language Arts Standards18 IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts19 The Standards in Detail19 Standard 119 Standard 221 Standard 322 Standard 424 Standard 525 Standard 626 Standard 727 Standard 828 Standard 929 Standard 1030 Standard 1131 Standard 1232 Realizing the Standards32 Chapter 4: Standards in the Classroom33 Elementary Vignettes34 Middle School Vignettes38 High School Vignettes42In Conclusion46 Glossary47 Appendix A: List of Participants54 Appendix B: History of the Standards Project84 Appendix C: Overview of Standards Projects86 Appendix D: State and International English Language Arts Standards88 Appendix E: Resources for Teachers93 Appendix F: Response to Standards for the English Language Arts106ivStandards for the English Language ArtsIntroductionvThe International Reading Association andthe National Council of Teachers ofEnglish are pleased to present these stan- dards for the English language arts.

6 This documentis the result of an intensive four-year project involv-ing thousands of educators, researchers, parents,policymakers, and others across the country. Ourshared purpose is to ensure that all students areknowledgeable and proficient users of language sothat they may succeed in school, participate in ourdemocracy as informed citizens, find challenging andrewarding work, appreciate and contribute to ourculture, and pursue their own goals and interests asindependent learners throughout their English Language Arts Standards Project isone of many efforts undertaken in recent years to de-fine outcomes or goals for various school project was first proposed in an August 1991 let-ter to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexanderfrom Judith Thelen, then president of theInternational Reading Association (IRA), and ShirleyHaley-James, then president of the National Councilof Teachers of English (NCTE).

7 If the federal gov-ernment were to fund a voluntary Standards projectin English, then IRA and NCTE wanted to be in-volved. Our officers and committees believed andstill believe that English language arts standardsmust be grounded in what we know about languageand language learning. If the Standards do not havethis very important foundation, then they could un-dermine our nation s commitment to educating allstudents, to emerging conceptions of literacy, and topublicly funded schools. The Standards presentedhere grew out of current research and theory abouthow students learn in particular, how they the fall of 1992, the Department ofEducation awarded a grant for the Standards Projectfor the English Language Arts to educators at theCenter for the Study of Reading at the University ofIllinois with the agreement that the Center wouldwork closely with IRA and NCTE to develop the stan- dards . Federal involvement ended in 1994, and fromthat time until the present the project has been fund-ed solely by IRA and principles endorsed by the NationalAcademy of Education (McLaughlin and Shepard1995, p.)

8 Xviii) have been central to our work: Because there is not one best way to organizesubject matter in a given field of study, rigor-ous national Standards should not be restrict-ed to one set of Standards per subject area. Content Standards should embody a coher-ent, professionally defensible conception ofhow a field can be framed for purposes of in-struction. They should not be an exhaustive,incoherent compendium of every group s de-sired its inception, the English Language ArtsStandards Project has been field-based. A guiding be-lief has been that the process of defining standardsmust be an open, inclusive one. As a result, thou-sands of K 12 classroom teachers have been in-volved in writing, reviewing, and revising the manysuccessive drafts of this document and have guidedits development every step of the way over the lastthree-and-a-half years. Hundreds of parents, legisla-tive leaders, administrators, researchers, and policyINTRODUCTIONviStandards for the English Language Artsanalysts in English language arts have played criticalroles at each stage of the project.

9 (Appendix A listsparticipants in the process.)In generating this document, we have sought toreflect the many different voices, interests, and con-cerns of these diverse contributors. While we recog-nize that no single publication, no single set ofstandards, can satisfy all interests and concerns, wefervently hope that this work captures the essentialgoals of English language arts instruction at the turnof the century in the United States of America. Mostimportant, we hope that it offers a coherent visionfor the future, complementing other current efforts todefine performance Standards , opportunity-to-learnstandards, and assessment Standards not only in theEnglish language arts but in other school subject ar-eas as well. Many states and local districts are alreadyusing these Standards in their deliberations, and wehave benefited from the responses of language artscoordinators in every publication of this document represents notonly the end of one process, that of defining thestandards, but also the beginning of a new one that of translating them into practice in classroomsacross the country.

10 The conversation about Englishlanguage arts Standards must and will continue. Tothat end, we are enclosing a response form at theend of this document. We invite you in fact, weurge you to tell us what you think about our visionof the English language arts extend our deepest thanks to the thousands ofindividuals who have participated in the standardsproject to date. Thank you for contributing yourvoices to this important national conversation. Wealso wish to thank the College Board and the JohnD. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for theirfunding of the project at the beginning of the E. FarstrupInternational Reading AssociationMiles MyersNational Council of Teachers of EnglishREFERENCEMcLaughlin, M. W., & Shepard, L. A., with O Day, J. A. (1995).Improving education through Standards -based reform: A re-port by the National Academy of Education Panel onStandards-Based Education Reform. Stanford, CA: NationalAcademy of document describes Standards for theEnglish language arts that is, it defineswhat students should know about lan-guage and be able to do with language.