English Language Arts

English Language Arts covers reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

This course defines what students should understand and be able to do by the end of 5th grade. The standards emphasize explicit, systematic phonics instruction as the foundation of literacy. Decoding and fluency are essential to creating proficient readers. Knowledge acquisition should be the primary purpose of any reading approach as systematic building of a wide range of knowledge across domains is a prerequisite to higher literacy.

The benchmarks in this course are mastery goals that students are expected to attain by the end of the year. To build mastery, students will continue to review and apply earlier grade-level benchmarks and expectations.

General Notes

English Language Arts is not a discrete set of skills, but a rich discipline with meaningful, significant content, the knowledge of which helps all students actively and fully participate in our society.

Standards should not stand alone as a separate focus for instruction, but should be combined purposefully.

The texts students read should be meaningful and thought-provoking, preparing them to be informed, civic-minded members of their community.

Curricular content for all subjects must integrate critical-thinking, problem-solving, and workforce-literacy skills; communication, reading, and writing skills; mathematics skills; collaboration skills; contextual and applied-learning skills; technology-literacy skills; information and media-literacy skills; and civic-engagement skills.

English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:

Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Language Arts. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL's need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/la.pdf.