Common Core Standard For English Language Arts (Page 27 of 43) in pdf

Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtS

The research strongly suggests that the English language arts classroom should explicitly address the link between

oral and written language, exploiting the influence of oral language on a child’s later ability to read by allocating in-

structional time to building children’s listening skills, as called for in the Standards. The early grades should not focus

on decoding alone, nor should the later grades pay attention only to building reading comprehension. Time should be

devoted to reading fiction and content-rich selections aloud to young children, just as it is to providing those same

children with the skills they will need to decode and encode.

This focus on oral language is of greatest importance for the children most at risk—children for whom English is a

second language and children who have not been exposed at home to the kind of language found in written texts

(Dickinson & Smith, 1994). Ensuring that all children in the United States have access to an excellent education re-

quires that issues of oral language come to the fore in elementary classrooms.

read-alouds and the reading-speaking-Listening Link

Generally, teachers will encourage children in the upper elementary grades to read texts independently and reflect

on them in writing. However, children in the early grades—particularly kindergarten through grade 3—benefit from

participating in rich, structured conversations with an adult in response to written texts that are read aloud, orally

comparing and contrasting as well as analyzing and synthesizing (Bus, Van Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Feitelstein,

Goldstein, Iraqui, & Share, 1993; Feitelstein, Kita, & Goldstein, 1986; Whitehurst et al., 1988). The Standards acknowl-

edge the importance of this aural dimension of early learning by including a robust set of K–3 Speaking and Listening

standards and by offering in Appendix B an extensive number of read-aloud text exemplars appropriate for K–1 and

for grades 2–3.

Because, as indicated above, children’s listening comprehension likely outpaces reading comprehension until the

middle school years, it is particularly important that students in the earliest grades build knowledge through being

read to as well as through reading, with the balance gradually shifting to reading independently. By reading a story

or nonfiction selection aloud, teachers allow children to experience written language without the burden of decod-

ing, granting them access to content that they may not be able to read and understand by themselves. Children are

then free to focus their mental energy on the words and ideas presented in the text, and they will eventually be better

prepared to tackle rich written content on their own. Whereas most titles selected for kindergarten and grade 1 will

need to be read aloud exclusively, some titles selected for grades 2–5 may be appropriate for read-alouds as well as

for reading independently. Reading aloud to students in the upper grades should not, however, be used as a substitute

for independent reading by students; read-alouds at this level should supplement and enrich what students are able to

read by themselves.

Common Core Standard For English Language Arts Page 27