Research Project: ELA Standards for Grades 6-12 - Chuks

Massachusetts State Curriculum Standards/Frameworks for English Language Arts (Grades 6-12)

Source: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/ela/0311.pdf

STANDARD #2 – “Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.”

STANDARD #7 – “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.”

STANDARD #8a – “Analyze the meaning of literary texts by drawing on knowledge of literary concepts and genres.”

Rationale/Comments:

In the future, I would like to teach either a 9th grade or 10th grade English Language Arts/American Literature course. I believe that each of the Massachusetts frameworks and standards for that specific content area presents an opportunity for me to modify a curriculum to prepare open-minded, critical thinkers in my classroom. Each standard seems to be broadly-based on the contextualization and conceptualization of main ideas. Therefore, I could definitely see myself trying to shape a curriculum around a theme like social justice and equity using such frameworks. Take one of my favorite books, To Kill A Mockingbird, for example. As part of a lesson plan for one of my classes, I might have the students investigate the concept of social justice and equity as characterized in the novel to be able to decipher the role of a good, moral citizen. With this, I would hope that they will be able to draw rationale conclusions about the right and wrong ways to treat fellow human beings. I could also have them visually summarize and illustrate their ideas on this topic using graphic organizers like Semantic Maps (which we could later use to compare and contrast ideas in an open forum as a class).