Purpose/ Overview

The North Carolina curriculum for English Language Arts, grades 9-12, should promote growth in students’ use of language within certain contexts crucial for responsible citizenship, for a fulfilling cultural life, and for economic productivity. The curriculum defines these contexts as communication environments, settings for exchanging information that all of us enter when we need to communicate with clarity, purpose, and care. By teaching specific aptitudes that each environment requires from users of oral language, written language, and media and technology, the curriculum strives to involve itself as deeply as possible in the world beyond the classroom.

During grades 9-12, students are guided through a sequence of studies that move from emphasizing relatively familiar, concrete experience to focusing on more generalizable and abstract ideas. The curriculum does not assume, however, that ninth graders should avoid generalizing or that twelfth graders should not continually seek to discern the personal relevance of their studies. Indeed the curriculum seeks to give all students at all levels as full an experience as possible with the most rewarding uses of language.

A communication environment includes the following: a message sender, a message, a message receiver, and a social setting with relevant subject matter. To become proficient and skillful users of language, students should understand and demonstrate control of these elements of communication and employ language for different purposes, to different audiences, and in different contexts (why, to whom, and in what situations). They also should develop sophisticated understanding and control of how to communicate by the following strands:

  • oral language (speaking/listening),
  • written language (reading/writing),
  • other media and technology.

Because language is the means by which we construe and communicate most of what is significant in our lives, the curriculum encourages study of language itself as it functions in the communicative environments. Students need to learn about, and develop increasing control of, their language and its conventions as they read, write, speak, and listen; they need to become aware of how different language conventions are used in different contexts.

 

Competency Goals And Objectives

The high school English Language Arts program is based on the following goals, all of which bring together oral language, written language, and using media and technology. These goals and objectives build upon the sound foundation created by the middle school English Language Arts curriculum, which introduces students to these different types of communication by purpose, audience, and context.

Expressive communication involves exploring and sharing personal experiences and insights. The writer/speaker of expressive text addresses the reader/listener as a confidante, a friendly, though not necessarily personally known, audience who is interested in how thoughtful people respond to life. As authors, students write, speak and use media for expressive purposes; as readers and listeners, they learn to appreciate the experiences of others. Expressive communication is stressed in English I and reinforced in English II, III, and IV. Expressive communication can include personal responses, anecdotes, memoirs, autobiographies, diaries, friendly letters, and monologues.

 

 

 

 

Informational/explanatory communication involves giving information to explain realities or ideas, to teach people who want to know what the writer or speaker knows. The writer/speaker of informational text should be knowledgeable and should communicate so that the audience may gain the knowledge as well as circumstances required. Informational texts often depend on the traditional prompts of who, what, when, where, and how, and can include definitions, instructions, histories, directions, business letters, reports, and research. English I introduces informational communication, English II stresses it, and English III and IV reinforce the concepts.

 

 

 

 

Argumentative communication involves defining issues and proposing reasonable resolutions. The writer/speaker is an advocate who discerns the grounds of an issue and convincingly supports a claim to resolve it. The reader/listener is considered to be a skeptic who may become another advocate as a result of the communication. Argumentative texts include advertisements, debates, letters of complaint, editorials, sermons, speeches, letters to the editor, and the senior project. English I, II, and III establish the building blocks for sophisticated argumentation, and English IV focuses upon them.

 

 

 

 

Critical communication involves interpreting, proposing, evaluating, and judging. The critic approaches the reader/listener as an independent consumer who is interested in thinking more keenly about the subject. The critic may establish and apply criteria and may offer new ways of discerning how the subject is meaningful. Critical texts include media or book reviews and essays that provide critical analysis of literature, media, ideas, people, or language. English III stresses critical communication after sufficient background has been built in English I and II, and critique is reinforced in English IV.

 

 

 

 

The study of literature, which includes print and non-print texts, is extremely important in the English Language Arts curriculum. Students should develop a deep appreciation for literature, understand its personal, cultural, and historical significance, and learn how to understand and analyze its meaning and relevance. As Robert Probst, in "Five Kinds of Literary Knowing" (1992), has observed, knowing about literature involves different kinds of knowing:

  • knowing about self, concentrating on how and why one personally responds to literary texts.
  • knowing about others, their experiences, and their ideas through literature and literary responses.
  • knowing about texts, especially elements, structure, and characteristics of literature.
  • knowing about contexts and how the personal and cultural experiences of the reader influence the reading of the text as well as how the personal and cultural experiences of the author influenced the composing of the text.
  • knowing about processes of making meaning, including raising questions, remembering other texts, connecting ideas, hypothesizing, prioritizing relevant information, rereading, and interpreting and reinterpreting.

Literary study should revolve around meaningful and significant conversations about the texts students are reading. Students should learn to participate in, not merely learn about, literary discussions (Applebee, 1996). Written and oral conversation provides students a way to explore, analyze, and develop ideas and concepts of literature. Through conversation, students gain control of their own interpretations, the language and vocabulary of the discipline, and the concepts and conventions of literary analysis.

Finally, the study of literature should involve the following:

  • making connections between literature and personal experiences.
  • making connections between features of different pieces of literature.
  • connecting themes and ideas in literature.
  • making connections between literature and historical and cultural significance.

Literary study in high school focuses on building understanding as the students progress through the courses. English I provides a foundation for literary analysis. Students develop an understanding of literary concepts, elements, genres, and terms as a foundation for further study of world, American, and British literature.

In English II, students learn about both classical and contemporary world literature (excluding British and United States authors). They build upon their understanding of literary concepts, elements, genres, and terms and apply those understandings to the interpretation of world literature. They examine literary works in a cultural time and context to appreciate the diversity and complexity of world issues. They learn how literature can grow from historical and cultural contexts, including oral traditions and political conditions. They also connect global ideas to their own experiences.

In English III, students study U. S. literature, including how the literature reflects the culture and history of our nation. In addition to studying a literary work as being situated in a cultural time and place, English III students also study the connections of themes, ideas, and movements in United States literature across time. The study of United States literature may be organized by literary and historical periods or by a thematic approach, but students should read and understand representative works from the colonial, romantic, realistic, modern, and contemporary eras.

In English IV, students study British literature, including how the literature of Great Britain has influenced the literature of the United States. English IV students also study the connections of themes, ideas, and movements in British literature. Study of British literature may be organized by literary and historical periods or by a thematic approach, but students are expected to read representative works from various eras.

In English I, II, III, and IV, students learn different approaches to literary criticism. Students should learn many approaches to the interpretation of literature, since no single approach is "privileged." Instead, they understand how different approaches use different perspectives (e.g., historical, cultural, psychological, philosophical, aesthetic, linguistic) to analyze and interpret literature differently.

 

 

 

 

Grammar and Language Usage is a goal that focuses on students’ developing increasing proficiency in the understanding and control of their language, including vocabulary development, word choice and syntax, and oral and written communication. Students should learn how to use effective and interesting language including:

  • standard English for clarity.
  • technical language for specificity.
  • informal usage for effect.

Students should also continue to develop increasing control over grammatical conventions, including sentence formation, conventional usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. Most students do not learn grammatical conventions efficiently through memorizing the parts of speech and practicing correct usage and mechanics only through drills and exercises, with the assumption that students will transfer what they learn in grammar study to their own writing and speaking.

Grammar conventions are most efficiently learned when they are learned as part of a practical, functional grammar that:

  • is concerned with how the language works in context to achieve a particular purpose with a specified audience.
  • uses a minimum number of grammatical terms and a maximum number of examples. The goals of each course specify the important terminology which students should know.
  • focuses on grammatical components that relate to meaningful sentences in speaking and writing.
  • teaches both correct, standard usage and effective sentence sense and style (e.g., the power of dialects in literature and film, the conve