How to Teach English Standards of Learning
Due to the No Child Left Behind Act, most states have created standards to become educational guides for teachers. Teachers must know and understand them in order for their students to do well on the achievement tests.
Instructions
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Decide What Standards to UseFirst, teachers need to know if they will be using national or state standards. The National Council of English Teachers has developed a set. The National Board of Professional Teachers has created one for language arts teachers to follow to become a National Board Certified Teacher. And, most states have academic content area ones for specific subject areas. For this explanation, the Ohio English Language Arts Academic Content Standards will be used as an example.
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Understand How They Are OrganizedContent standards are the knowledge and skills. Benchmarks are more detailed in the type of knowledge they describe. Grade-level indicators are what students should know and be able to do. Assessing the indicators is a way to check that students are working toward the benchmarks.English Language Arts includes ten distinct ones. The Ohio K-12 English Language Arts Academic Content Standards are organized as follows:Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency; Reading Process: Concept of Print, Comprehension Strategies, and Self-Monitoring Strategies; Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text; Reading Applications: Literary Text; Writing Processes; Writing Applications; Writing Conventions; Research; and Communication: Oral and Visual.The standards are then broken into benchmarks and grade-level indicators. The benchmarks have grade bands, such as K-3, 4-7, 8-10 and 11-12. Within the benchmark, there are specific grade indicators. Those are what teachers will teach and what students should know.
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How to Teach ThemThe best way to make sure that all grade level indicators are taught in a year is to make a chart. Each time a lesson or unit covers one, check it off the chart. Some schools provide a chart listing them for each grade and subject area, and some school require that they are listed on the teacher's lesson plans. The key is that they are not only taught but mastered. In addition, there are companies have made test preparation booklets based on them and on-line practice sites. The Ohio Department of Education website has lesson plans based on them and there are other lesson resources on the Internet.
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Example LessonStep 1First, to teach the standards, you have to know the standards and choose the appropriate ones. In the Ohio ELA Standards, the grade 8 benchmark D. says to explain how different events have influenced and changed the English language in the the Acquisition Vocabulary Standard. The grade 8 indicator asks to examine and discuss the ways that different events (e.g.,cultural, political, social, technological, and scientific events) impact and change the English language. The following lesson is created around this benchmark and indicator.Step 2Start a class discussion on how a mouse can mean a little furry creature who likes to eat cheese and a tool to move the cursor on the computer screen. Discuss how the vocabulary word changed and how in different settings it has different meaning. Also, discuss how computer technology has changed and impacted our language.Step 3Reserve a computer lab that has Internet access in advance. Break students into five groups. Group one will research cultural changes in vocabulary; group two will research political changes; group three will research social changes, group four will research technological changes and group five will research scientific events. Each group's goal is to find around 10 vocabulary words from their event or topic have impacted and changed the English language. Step 4Students will create a poster that has the group focus, i.e. cultural, political, etc, and have the examples creatively listed. Color and neatness count. Photos, pictures and art can be added for visual interest. When the groups have completed their posters, they will present them to the class.This is one example of how to create a lesson based on standards, benchmarks and indicators.
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Prepare for the Test Based on ThemIn Ohio, spring means testing. At each grade level, different content is tested. However, reading is tested in grades 3 through 8 and then again at the 10 grade as part of the Ohio Graduation Test. Writing is tested in grades 4, 7, and 10. Different states have different test schedules. Check out your state's department of education's website to find out when testing occurs and when the indicators need to be taught.
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Tips & Warnings
Take time in the summer to read the state academic content standards book. It will help to give you understanding of what information students should know when they come to your classroom and what they will learn the following year.
