Common Core Standard For English Language Arts (Page 28 of 43) in pdf

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

Language

overview

The Standards take a hybrid approach to matters of conventions, knowledge of language, and vocabulary. As noted

in the table below, certain elements important to reading, writing, and speaking and listening are included in those

strands to help provide a coherent set of expectations for those modes of communication.

Figure 16: Elements of the Language Standards

in the Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening Strands

Strand

Standard

r.ccr.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are

used in a text, including determining technical, con-

Reading

notative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how

specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

W.ccr.5. Develop and strengthen writing as

Writing

needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or

trying a new approach.

sL.ccr.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts

Speaking

and communicative tasks, demonstrating com-

and Listening

mand of formal English when indicated or appro-

priate.

In many respects, however, conventions, knowledge of language, and vocabulary extend across reading, writing,

speaking, and listening. Many of the conventions-related standards are as appropriate to formal spoken English as

they are to formal written English. Language choice is a matter of craft for both writers and speakers. New words and

phrases are acquired not only through reading and being read to but also through direct vocabulary instruction and

(particularly in the earliest grades) through purposeful classroom discussions around rich content.

The inclusion of Language standards in their own strand should not be taken as an indication that skills related to

conventions, knowledge of language, and vocabulary are unimportant to reading, writing, speaking, and listening;

indeed, they are inseparable from such contexts.

conventions and Knowledge of Language

Teaching and Learning the Conventions of Standard English

Development of Grammatical Knowledge

Grammar and usage development in children and in adults rarely follows a linear path. Native speakers and language

learners often begin making new errors and seem to lose their mastery of particular grammatical structures or print

conventions as they learn new, more complex grammatical structures or new usages of English, such as in college-

level persuasive essays (Bardovi-Harlig, 2000; Bartholomae, 1980; DeVilliers & DeVilliers, 1973; Shaughnessy, 1979).

These errors are often signs of language development as learners synthesize new grammatical and usage knowledge

with their current knowledge. Thus, students will often need to return to the same grammar topic in greater complex-

ity as they move through K–12 schooling and as they increase the range and complexity of the texts and communica-

tive contexts in which they read and write. The Standards account for the recursive, ongoing nature of grammatical

knowledge in two ways. First, the Standards return to certain important language topics in higher grades at greater

levels of sophistication. For instance, instruction on verbs in early elementary school (K–3) should address simple

present, past, and future tenses; later instruction should extend students’ knowledge of verbs to other tenses (pro-

gressive and perfect tenses

in grades 4 and 5), mood (modal auxiliaries in grade 4 and grammatical mood in grade

8) and voice (active and passive voice in grade 8). Second, the Standards identify with an asterisk (*) certain skills and

understandings that students are to be introduced to in basic ways at lower grades but that are likely in need of being

Though progressive and perfect are more correctly aspects of verbs rather than tenses, the Standards use the more familiar

notion here and throughout for the sake of accessibility.

Common Core Standard For English Language Arts Page 28

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