A group of University of New Mexico graduate students enrolled in a seminar about English language arts curriculum forwarded the following statement to Language Arts-New Mexico. The group consisted of several practicing and pre-service teachers as well as doctoral students. They encourage you to read what they’ve written and share your thoughts by sending an email to this site. (Click on the link at the bottom of the left margin of the page.)
Teaching English Language Arts: A Statement of Beliefs and a Call to Action
A Statement of Beliefs
The roots of our common beliefs can be summarized by Mary Jo Schaars’ statement,
…in reality, the teacher is just a ‘fellow seeker of truth’ (Macrorie). How natural this is when students willingly find commitment. We begin by developing mutual trust – a satisfying balance. Students trust me to provide the text. (My responsibility is assumed and natural. They know I would not bring to them something meaningless.) I trust them to read, think, and talk – together and with me.
As truth seekers, teachers and students alike must feel comfortable enough and confident enough to contribute individual responses to class discussions and understand that both can learn from one another. In order for this level of comfort to be established, both parties must trust one another, have a sense of humor, and, most importantly, recognize one another’s common humanity.
We are all social beings who learn new concepts largely through interaction with others. As teachers, we need to encourage cooperative work to foster collaboration. Working together creates a classroom in which students feel safe to contribute, trust each other, and develop confidence.
While group work is essential in creating a learning community, it is also important to recognize individual academic needs and interests.Incorporating the opportunity for choice into the structure of one’s curriculum enables students to assume ownership of their learning process. Awareness of individual students’ interests and abilities enables us to tailor a curriculum to challenge them and meet their needs. The element of choice allows students to challenge themselves to meet the high, but attainable expectations we set for them. Options of texts and assignments should promote risk-taking.
A Call to Action
Learning Community
In his book, Choice Words (2004), Peter Johnston explains:
Some teachers are particularly good at building learning communities in which individuals feel valued and supported, and that sustain productive and critical learning. Children must have the experience of such communities if they are to know what to aim for in constructing their own learning environments…The bottom line is that we need to understand how to construct or become involved in learning communities so that we extend our own development.
If learning is a social process, then why not reduce the isolation of students by facilitating group cooperation, dialogue, peer collaboration and the creation of a classroom environment conducive to shared learning?
Literature
According to Robert Carlsen, there are five stages of literary appreciation. At the first stage, (grades 3-7) students most value plot. At the second and third stages, (grades 7-9) students value characters and conflict. At the fourth stage, their interest shifts to theme. At the final stage, their enjoyment comes from literary devices. At different stages students value different things; we can’t force students from stage to stage. In teaching literature we seldom think in terms of development. That's why it's hard to distinguish the state standards for eighth or ninth graders from the standards for eleventh or twelfth graders.
If students’ develop in stages, then why not teach to those stages?
In Making Meaning with Texts, Selected Essays (2005), Louise Rosenblatt asserts:
No particular type of reading is being urged here as the panacea. There is no formula: not contemporary literature as against literature of the past, not minor as against major works, not even syntactically simpler as against more demanding works. Rather, we need to be flexible, we need to understand where our pupils are in relation to books, and we need a sufficient command of books to see their potentialities in this developmental process. Our primary responsibility is to find the right book for growth.
Perhaps the only way to truly "find the right book for growth" is to allow students to choose (with our help) books that meet their particular developmental needs.
If reading the right book at the right time builds fluency, motivation and engagement, then why not incorporate student-choice into our curriculum?
Literacy
According to NCES (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999) national trends in reading show that average reading scores have not changed significantly since 1971, the year the test began. Yet there is currently a rather unfocused effort in schools to stem a "literacy crisis."
If research shows that reading competency has been consistent for over three decades, then what accounts for the perception that there is a national crisis in literacy? Perhaps we need to identify who is at risk within specific student populations and target our efforts toward students who are genuinely in need.
Grammar
Findings from international research clearly indicate that the teaching of grammar (using a range of models) has negligible positive effects on improving secondary pupils’ writing. Of further concern is the negative impact on pupils’ motivation. [See Wyse, D. (2001). “Grammar for writing; A critical review of empirical evidence.” British Journal of Educational Research, 49, 411-427.]
If research shows that the traditional teaching of grammar (such as parts of speech) does little to enhance writing, then why not emphasize writing and address basic mechanics in context?
Our purpose for writing this is to encourage conversation among teachers in New Mexico and elsewhere. Maybe you agree with our thoughts or maybe you disagree. In either case, please respond and share your ideas by using the email link at the bottom left margin of this page. We promise to reply.
The members of the summer 2005 University of New Mexico “Seminar in English Curriculum and Instruction” course.
language, Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language (Columbia University Press, 2007). We'd tell you more about it here, but it's more informative and entertaining to hear him talk about it, which you can do by clicking here. While you're at it (especially if you're teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this year) you should download the chapter from Lerer's book about "Mark Twain and the Making of the American Idiom." 
