Anne Schiano Assistant Director, CI&IT aschiano@mail.nysed.gov    Erik Sweet Associate esweet@mail.nysed.gov

English Language Arts Learning Standards
and Core Curriculum

Learning Standards for English Language Arts

• Standards   pdf
• Student Work  pdf
• HTML Version   plus alternates

English Language Arts Core Curriculum (2005)

• 2005 Core PDF
• 2005 Core Microsoft Word
• 2005 Core HTML

This English Language Arts Core Curriculum (2005) is a standards-based document that provides an additional level of specificity to the learning standards for English language arts adopted by the New York State Board of Regents in 1996. It respects the tradition of local choice in New York State that empowers educators to select texts, identify products, and use a rich array of instructional strategies and activities to meet student learning needs. This core curriculum is designed to provide assistance, while allowing for creativity, in the development of local instructional materials. This revision of the core curriculum is in response to the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate for specificity of performance indicators in grades 3–8. This created an opportunity for New York State not only to expand the level of specificity for prekindergarten–grade 12 but to present together material from both the Early Literacy Guidance: Prekindergarten–Grade 3 and the English Language Arts Resource Guide with Core Curriculum.

Educators are encouraged to use this core curriculum document to align local curricula to the grade-by-grade performance indicators as designated under New York State’s learning standards and key ideas. In addition to subject-specific knowledge and understandings, there are some crosscutting capabilities that are common to all fields and that contribute to successful participation in school, work, family, and community. Such essential skills have been articulated in the report of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) and are included in the Universal Foundation Skills found in the Regents-adopted Learning Standards for Career Development and Occupational Studies.

PHILOSOPHY:

State Education Department staff and educators from across the State who helped in the development, review and revision of early drafts created the document based on shared beliefs. These beliefs include that the English Language Arts Core Curriculum:

• Integrates with other State Education Department curriculum materials, such as The Preliminary Draft Framework pdf 255K, The Learning Standards pdf 72K, The Early Literacy Profile, pdf 552K and The English Language Arts Resource Guide with Core Curriculum; and new assessments at Grades 4, 8, and 11
• Recognizes that English Language Arts learners must be exposed to regular and varied opportunities to read (25 books or their equivalent per year), write (1000 words of more per month), listen (daily), and speak (daily)
• Recognizes that teachers in all content areas share responsibility for the development of reading, writing, listening and speaking competencies
• Suggests the recursive nature of language arts development across the continuum from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12
• Affirms that all students are able to achieve competency in the presence of skilled instruction, adequate time for learning, varied and/or specialized resources, and additional support
• Recognizes that equity and access to technology and other resources must be assured at state, regional, and local levels
• Reflects an understanding for the developmental needs of students as they work to achieve competency in language arts
• Focuses on students as active learners, responsible for and knowledgeable about their own learning.

FORMAT:

The English Language Arts Core Curriculum is organized by the following grade level clusters:

• Grades PreK-1
• Grades 2-4
• Grades 5-6
• Grades 7-8
• Grades 9-12

Each cluster is divided into the four English Language Arts standards and each standard is further divided by the purposes for language use: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The competencies that students should achieve are divided into two groups—those that are specific to the standard and those that cross all standards. The latter are repeated for each standard not because they are more important, but because they cross the standards and are relevant to all of them. Because the study of English Language Arts is integrated, separation into categories is, at time, artificial. However, if the core curriculum is to be helpful to all members of the school community, it is important that each standard and each purpose be emphasized separately.

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Revised: August 17, 2007