INTRODUCTION TO ELA

Of all the language arts, many adult educators con sider communication skills to be the missing link in learning. Without them, people may be considered illiterate. This is not because of a cognitive deficiency but, rather, a lack of engagement and involvement in the communication process. Communication is extraordinarily complex and embodies both physical and cognitive attributes, as listed below.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

COGNITIVE ATTRIBUTES

Hearing

Listening

Reading

Comprehending

Talking

Speaking

Writing

Composing

Often, the relationship between physical and cognitive attributes is overlooked. Physical attributes alone are ascribed as proof of learning taking place. That is not the case with any communication skill. Many students spend much of their school time hearing, not listening. Few students are listening learners. Actual communication through listening occurs through active involvement in school, work, family, and community affairs.

Composing is not copying, not handwriting, not spelling, not letters of the alphabet. Composing is encoding the abstract thought into concrete symbols which can be decoded by the writer and others. Composing may also shape informal thoughts and ideas into meaningful expression for both writer and reader. It is, again, a cognitive process requiring thinking. Learning to read begins with decoding the encoded message in a common language and moving toward making sense, comprehending the written symbols. Reading, like composing, actively engages the reader in shaping meaning, in comprehending a text.

Speaking is yet another example of a cognitive attribute. Speaking requires thinking, but it is not the same as talking. Talking requires little or no thinking.

“I was in the dark, confused, and scared. When I went to class for the first time, I had it in my mind what people were going to say when they found that I didn't know how to read or write”

--Luz A.

Many adults who enter classrooms have difficulty accomplishing these communication tasks and may be considered illiterate using an organizational definition of literacy. Therefore, it is the role of the teacher/facilitator in the adult education classroom to provide experiences that promote both narrative and organizational forms of literacy and build on diversity.

Narrative Literacy Richard Darville defines narrative literacy as the sharing of stories that relate us to one another or to one another's experience. Narrative literacy is revealed through speaking, listening and sometimes writing that is grounded in personal and community experience and expression.

Organizational literacy encompasses the reading, writing, and speaking tasks that relate us to one another, and to objects and events. However, needs assessment all too commonly involves a measure of organizational literacy rather than narrative literacy.

Research points out that lack of facility in organizational literacy in no way indicates a lack of cognitive ability or logic. These same adults come to us with an ability to tell stories and a personal and community dialect that should be honored in the classroom.

“It may have seemed that I was O.K., but inside I was scared… The day I got here, I did not want to come into the building… Then I had to walk up the steps – one flight, two flights, and there were more… I got to the top of the steps and I came to the door, and my body would not move… I just wanted to go back home, but I said to myself, ‘You came too far to stop here.’”

-Ian C.

The whole language or language experience approach to literacy development encourages instructors to begin by generating personal stories from their students. By establishing a narrative framework in the classroom, instructors lead learners along the literacy continuum toward understanding and mastery of society's dominant literacy, that is organizational literacy.

Teachers might begin by initiating an ongoing dialogue in a safe environment. This means the affective nature of listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be considered when addressing the reality of linguistic diversity in the student population. Immediately, learners should be understood and accepted in the context of their own lives. Teachers should listen to the emotional clues provided by their students the first day they enter the classroom and speak to the common experiences that unite everyone as human beings. Imposing standardized forms of expression on adult literacy students who have a great emotional investment in their cultural dialect may set the stage for resentment between learner and instructor, an anathema to both the learning process and to individual student empowerment.

“I learn to read and write it took me 5 years. It took me very long time. I feel very good learning to read and write. This has made life different, more exciting. At one point I was desperate, and confused, and felt that I could never learn or have a life of my own.”

--Gilbert S.

Once students feel safe, the teacher can easily expand upon the original student -generated dialogue. Here the learners tell their own stories of what it means to be and become literate. They may create characters who are considered effective communicators within their personal and community realms, yet who falter with requirements of organizational literacy such as reading a contract, or identifying the correct grammatical structure of a sentence. They may ask what impact this has on someone's life and explore other available choices.

In this way, instructors and students can operate from a position of learner strengths. Together, they can find ways to combat the fear and inadequacy associated with coping with the everyday demands of self-sufficiency. Providing students with a vehicle for expressing the emotions associated with exclusion while, at the same time, helping them acquire the skills they need to gain access to these institutions may in itself provide the mechanism for real change.

As teachers lead students along the continuum between narrative and organizational literacy, they must recognize that ultimately students will decide how far they wish to take the journey. Not all students wish to master standardized English; their communication goals are as individual as the human fingerprint. While it is important to understand that students who do not have access to standardized English are less likely to succeed economically than their peers who do, they can only be armed with the knowledge and skills to make choices for themselves. The dialogue may become the means for learning and inquiry for both student and teacher.

“I want to understand my children when they speak English to each other and to their friends. I want to be part of their new lives here.”

--Mei Ying T.

The profiles for the English language arts curriculum indicate performance levels for beginning (Level 1), intermediate (Level 2), and advanced (Level 3) adult students. In applying these levels within an adult literacy program, they may be thought of in this way:

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3


New or beginning readers and writers (ABE)

Pre-GED

GED

These profiles for literacy development should be viewed as markers along a performance continuum that proceeds from novice to expert. They are not intended as rigid constructs that become barriers to student progress and learning. Students will be at multiple points along this continuum.

The English language arts learning standards are presented in three major sections: Listening & Speaking, Reading, and Writing. Each standard is repeated as appropriate in each section to help demonstrate the interrelevancy of the standards at the K-12 level to the three adult levels.

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

READING

WRITING

“I'm like most people. I didn't realize that I have a book or two in me. Well maybe not. All you have to do is write about it. Not talk about it. You may even be able to write a book, a little book.”

--Barbara G.

English Language Arts

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

Adult Goal

Learning Standards

Adult Goal 1. Learners will listen and speak for
social interaction in personal, family, school, work,
and community contexts.

ELA
4

Language for Social
Interaction

Adult Goal 2. Learners will listen and speak to gain
information and acquire understanding in personal,
family, school, work, and community contexts.

ELA
1

Language for Information
and Understanding

Adult Goal 3. Learners will listen and speak for
critical analysis and evaluation in personal, family,
school, work, and community contexts.


ELA
3

Language for Critical
Analysis and Evaluation

Adult Goal 4. Learners will listen and speak for
personal pleasure and satisfaction in personal,
family, school, work, and community contexts.

ELA
2

Language for Literacy
Response and Expression

Language for Social Interaction

ELA 4

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

Adult Goal 1: Learners will listen and speak for social interaction in personal, family, school, work, and community contexts.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will
practice the elements of appropriate listening and speaking in conversation with individuals and small and large groups.

 
  • Use language appropriate to purpose, occasion, and practice the elements of appropriate audience -- differentiating between formal and listening and speaking in informal interaction.
  • Identify social cues that indicate when to speak and when to listen and avoid interrupting others.
  • Relate ideas to personal experiences or prior knowledge.
  • Respect the speaker's unique or different manner of communicating and obtain meaning despite unusual accent, alternate means of speaking, or vocal quality.
  • Offer ideas related to the topic.
  • Respond to listeners' needs and reactions.
  • Use "I" messages in reflection from listener to speaker.
  • Make relevant and coherent statements either to initiate a conversation or to respond appropriately.
  • Seek clarification, if necessary, by asking questions.
  • Paraphrase and summarize to clarify.
  • Explain and clarify meaning of ideas.
  • Contribute to groups with ideas, suggestions, and effort.
  • Seek to reach common ground in conflict situations.

Language for Information and Understanding

ELA 1

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

Adult Goal 2: Learners will listen and speak to gain information and acquire understanding in personal, family, school, work, and community contexts.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will demonstrate ability to follow and give oral directions.

  • Identify and provide essential details.
  • Note and give sequence of steps accurately.

Objective B: Learners will demonstrate ability to listen for and relate essential information.

  • State ideas clearly.
  • Support ideas with relevant details.
  • Identify ideas either directly stated or implied.
  • Clarify the relationships between ideas.

Objective C: Learners will demonstrate ability to identify and use critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

  • Identify and describe a problem under consideration.
  • Provide clear and complete information about the problem.
  • Anticipate speaker's line of reasoning.
  • Identify conflicting or missing information in order to seek clarification.
  • Obtains information from existing sources or creates it.
  • State tentative hypotheses and predict possible outcomes.
  • Use a clear line of reasoning to develop solutions.
  • Suggest one or more possible solutions.
  • List pros and cons.
  • Select a solution.
  • Try the solution and assess it.
  • Try another solution, if previous one does not work.

Objective D: Learners will
demonstrate ability to interpret and
use nonverbal cues, such as body
language and visual aids, that
contribute to an oral message.
  • Use appropriate facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, and posture to reinforce oral message, appreciating that facial expressions differ by culture.
  • Recognize relationship between what is seen and what is said.
  • Interpret posture, facial expressions, and gestures displayed by speaker.

“Yesterday I had a test about the five Great Lakes. First, I had to say them. Then I had to show on a map where the Great Lakes were. After that, I had to spell their names. It wasn’t easy but I did it. It made me feel good about myself.”

--Beatrice L.

Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ELA 3

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

Adult Goal 3: Learners will listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation in personal, family, school, work, and community contexts.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will demonstrate ability to formulate and express judgments about content, organization, and delivery of oral communication.

  • Select and present ideas that are appropriate to purpose and audience.
  • Judge quality of content and delivery based on needs of audience, purpose, and context.
  • Form judgments about appropriateness of ideas used in meeting requirements of purpose and audience.
  • Evaluate influence of delivery on content.
  • Organize presentation so ideas and information are clear.
  • Enhance delivery by effective use of voice, language, posture, gestures, and visuals.

Objective B: Learners will demonstrate ability to evaluate and state their opinions, personal preferences, and values.

  • Judge relevance of statements in relation to topic.
  • Judge appropriateness of reasons, examples, or details used to support statements.
  • Make statements based on opinions, personal preferences, or values.
  • Communicate thoughts, feelings, and ideas to justify a position.

Objective C: Learners will demonstrate ability to evaluate and use persuasive techniques.

  • Identify fallacies of logic that lead to unsupported conclusions.
  • Discriminate between an apparent message and a hidden agenda.
  • Convince an individual or group, e.g., responsibly challenging existing procedures, policies, or authority.
  • Use body language, gestures, and visuals to increase impact of presentation.
  • Exhibit self-control and respond to feedback unemotionally and nondefensively.

Objective D: Learners will demonstrate ability to evaluate and present ideas and information transmitted by non-print media, visual aids, and other technologies.

  • Use appropriate visual aids, non-print media, and other technologies to enhance intended message.
  • Evaluate impact of medium on the message.
  • Compare information from print and non-print media such as a news story in a newspaper and on television

“Today in class I read about Dr. Martin Luther King, a very important man to us. It felt great.”

--Ricardo M.

Language for Literacy Response and Expression

ELA 3

LISTENING
& SPEAKING

Adult Goal 4: Learners will listen and speak for personal pleasure and satisfaction in personal, family, school, work, and community contexts.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will listen to and share personal experiences, stories, and drama.

  • Give full attention to oral presentation or performance.
  • Identify details or examples that are appealing or interesting.
  • Create an emotional response by relating or interpreting personal experiences, stories, or a drama.

Objective B: Learners will appreciate and orally interpret sounds, words, imagery, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm patterns in language.

  • Identify and use sounds and words to create images.
  • Interpret and use figurative language effectively.
  • Identify and use repetition and rhyming patterns which create an emotional or aesthetic effect.

“I never gave up studying English. I did not have any chance to speak English because I worked in a Chinese factory. I always said to myself that one day I would speak good English, but I always was impatient with myself. I felt ashamed and awkward when I spoke English with my friends.”

--Syinta C.

Student Profiles

LISTENING
& SPEAKING


The profiles for the English language arts curriculum indicate performance levels for beginning
(Level 1), intermediate (Level 2), and advanced (Level 3) adult students.

Level 1

Listeners/Speakers may:

  • speak a variety of English forms that reflect both personal and community dialects.
  • demonstrate limited mastery of the standardized English form, i.e., phonology (sounds), grammar, and sentence structure.

They may not differentiate between hearing and listening, and not realize the importance of listening to effective communication. Although these students may not exhibit a rule-based manner of speaking, they may have an unconscious awareness of these standardized English forms through daily immersion in the classroom and continuous
exposure to the media, i.e., television, radio, film.

Level 1 Listeners/Speakers should be able to:

  • repeat a line or phrase that someone reads
    aloud.
  • follow a simple set of oral directions.
  • ask the teacher a question.
  • share a personal story.
  • listen to a poem.

Level 2

Listeners/Speakers may:

  • understand listening is an acquired skill.
  • demonstrate an ability to attend to the content and meaning of oral communication.

In addition, some evidence of critical thinking and problem solving will emerge at this intermediate level. Some mastery of standardized English is evident, but students
will demonstrate a greater facility in and strong
preference for their personal and community
dialect.

Level 2 Listeners/Speakers should be able to:

  • paraphrase and summarize to clarify.
  • note and give sequence of steps accurately.
  • identify and describe a problem under
    consideration.
  • select and present ideas that are appropriate to purpose and audience.
  • demonstrate a sensitivity to nonverbal cues.
  • create an emotional response by relating or interpreting personal experiences, stories, or a drama.
  • master critical thinking and problem-solving
    techniques.

Level 3

Listeners/Speakers show a movement toward mastery of the standardized English form.

At this level, they may:

  • demonstrate the ability and the confidence to make dialect shifts appropriate to
    purpose and audience.
  • continue to make numerous errors, but the difficulty level of the error will be proportionate to the high level of risk taken by these more accomplished students.
  • The profile of students exiting this level should include an ability to listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation in a variety
    of contexts.

Level 3 Listeners/Speakers should be able to:

  • clarify the relationships between ideas.
  • use a clear line of reasoning to develop solutions.
  • formulate and express judgments about content, organization and delivery.
  • evaluate and use persuasive techniques.
  • interpret and use.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

ADULT GOAL

LEARNING STANDARD

Adult Goal 1. Learners will prepare for reading by
activating prior knowledge and drawing upon
personal experience.

ELA
2

Language for Literacy
Response and Expression

Adult Goal 2. Learners will read and construct
meaning from text using a variety of materials
related to own purposes.

ELA
1

Language for Information
and Understanding

Adult Goal 3. Learners will apply reading skills in
contexts of home, work, education, community,
personal affairs, and pleasure.

ELA
1

Language for Information
and Understanding

Adult Goal 4. Learners will develop and expand
learning strategies.

ELA
3

Language for Critical
Analysis and Evaluation

Adult Goal 5. Learners will utilize critical thinking
skills in reading for school, work, and pleasure.

ELA
3

Language for Critical
Analysis and Evaluation

Language for Literacy Response and Expression

ELA 2

Reading

Adult Goal 1: Learners will prepare for reading by activating prior knowledge and drawing upon personal experience.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will set personal goals for reading.

  • Choose texts based on specific goals and interests. Note: goals and interests may change during instructional period, especially when there is an increase in reading proficiency.
  • Relate texts to their own lives and experiences.
  • Develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts represent.
  • Identify various types of reading materials that correspond to reading purposes such as reading to learn and reading to perform for home, work, community, personal affairs, and pleasure.

Objective B: Learners will use pre-reading strategies.

  • Use pictures, sub-headings, differences in print types, and reading questions.
  • Scan texts for familiar and unfamiliar words and concepts.
  • Generate guiding questions to prepare to understand meaning.
  • Anticipate and predict content such as guessing the message of a newspaper article by reading the headline.
  • Determine organization of text.
  • Choose pages to read by consulting index or table of contents.
  • Develop an appropriate reading rate. NOTE: Most ABE students need to increase reading rates, but some students read too quickly and must decrease reading rates.

Language for Literacy Response and Expression

ELA 1

Reading

Adult Goal 2: Learners will read and construct meaning from text using a variety of materials related to own purposes.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will develop reading comprehension strategies.

  • Relate prior knowledge and experiences to new information.
  • Draw references from beginning and ending segments.
  • Answer questions formulated during pre-reading such as prediction or confirmation.
  • Accurately assesses own knowledge, skills, and abilities.
  • Read to learn in order to expand knowledge base.
  • Recall important details and concepts from text.
  • Determine the author's purpose and point of view such as to entertain, inform, or persuade.
  • Comprehend information presented in charts, tables, graphs, and maps.

Objective B: Learners will use a variety of strategies, when needed, to identify unfamiliar words and to construct meaning.

  • Use sight vocabulary including survival words.
  • Use phonic, syntactic and semantic cues to decode unfamiliar words.
  • Recognize root words.
  • Use contextual clues and word clues to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
  • Determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word using definition clues, example clues, synonym clues, and antonym clues.
  • Use common affixes to read unfamiliar words.
  • NOTE: Readers of all levels will be able to use all of the above strategies. However, non-readers and beginning readers will also:
  • Build sight vocabulary of “survival” words for home, work, education, community, personal affairs, and pleasure.
  • Discriminate visually between upper and lower case letters.
  • Recite alphabet in proper sequence.
  • Recognize rhyme.
  • Segment and blend phonemes.
  • Use letter-sound relationships.
  • Recognize word patterns.
  • Dictate text to be used for reading (language experience approach).

Objective C: Learners will use critical thinking and decision making skills when reading.

  • Select and analyze information.
  • Assess validity and accuracy of information given in text.
  • Judge authenticity of text.
  • Evaluate effectiveness of text.

“I didn’t stay in school because I couldn’t read as good as the kids in my class. I was always reading lower level books, and I felt left out and stupid.”

--Daisy C.

Language for Information and Understanding

ELA 1

Reading

Adult Goal 3: Learners will apply reading skills in contexts of home, work, education, community, personal affairs, and pleasure.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will read in order to accomplish specific tasks.
  • Read instructions and apply them to filling in forms, repairing objects, taking medicine, following recipes, and so forth.
  • Read in order to pass a test in the context of work and education.
  • Read in order to assist a child with schoolwork.
  • • Read to facilitate personal development. • Read to research job opportunities and community resources. • Read to better job performance.

Objective B: Learners will determine if purpose for reading has been satisfied.
  • Summarize ideas, concepts and information based on reading.
  • Formulate solutions and make decisions based on informed judgment.
  • Apply and relate text to own cultural context.
  • Discuss text with peers, teachers, family members, co-workers, and others.
  • Transfer knowledge from reading to new learning and situations.

Objective C: Learners will apply reference strategies.
  • Identify and use parts of books, magazines, and newspapers such as table of contents, index, copyright page, glossary, preface, and so forth.
  • Use dictionary skills including employment of guide words and cross-referencing to find definitions of unfamiliar words or phrases.
  • Use encyclopedias, telephone books, periodical indexes, manuals, and other reference materials to locate information.

Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ELA 3

Reading

Adult Goal 4: Learners will develop and expand learning strategies.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will enhance study strategies.
  • Identify own personal style of learning and studying.
  • Set goals for studying and rank in order of importance.
  • Organize study time, allocating time to other required activities.
  • Apply study strategies such as notetaking, underlining, story mapping, and mnemonics.
  • Use typographical aids in reading such as major headings, sub-headings, italics, numerals, illustrations, figures, and various fonts and ink colors.
  • Monitor progress and revise goals if necessary.

Objective B: Learners will check own comprehension and change strategy when text does not make sense.
  • Monitor and adjust reading rate as needed.
  • Reread text when necessary to improve comprehension.
  • Ask questions to improve comprehension and other reading skills.
  • Divide the reading task into manageable parts.

“When my daughter is awake I get her, sit her on my lap, and get a book, and start to read to her. She sits right still and listens. I think reading is good for my child.”

--Mary B.

Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ELA 3

Reading

Adult Goal 5: Learners will utilize critical thinking skills in reading for school, work, and pleasure.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will develop and expand interpretive and analytical skills.

  • Analyze author's use of language and text characteristics.
  • Distinguish between fact, opinion, and “gray areas” in written text.
  • Distinguish between information contained and not contained in the text.
  • Distinguish between personal point of view and biases, and those of the author.
  • Interpret author's style of writing such as narrative, persuasive, descriptive, and expository.
  • Identify cause and effect relationships.
  • Draw comparisons and contrast ideas.
  • Make sense of and appreciate literary devices in text.
  • Use knowledge of affixes, idioms, and colloquialisms to infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase.
  • Make connections within a text.
  • Make generalizations based on information in charts, tables, graphs, and maps. Learners will enhance study strategies.

“I look around the class and I see a lot of books. There are books to the left side. Books to the right side. There are books all around me.”

--Ricardo M.

Student Profiles

Reading

The profiles for the English language arts curriculum indicate performance levels for beginning (Level 1), intermediate (Level 2), and advanced (Level 3) adult students.

Level 1

Level 1 Readers are only beginning to tap
prior knowledge and apply it to what they
read, so they may lack the confidence to
make their own meaning from written text.
These students are generally unfamiliar with
strategies for:

  • developing vocabulary
  • improving reading comprehension
  • using higher-order thinking skills.

Level 1 Readers may not be aware that texts
and purposes for reading vary. They may
not be familiar with the conventions of
written language, either in presentation
(basic word structure, sound-symbol
relationship, graphic and meaning
relationship) or in concept formation (object
names, category names, concrete versus
abstract).

Level 1 Readers should be able to complete the
following:

  • translate words to sounds
  • follow directions written in monosyllabic
    words in simple sentences
  • answer a question with the exact words
    from the text
  • Display intermittent control of grammar,
    mechanics, and syntax
  • distinguish fact from opinion in a tabloid
    newspaper
  • read directions on a medicine bottle
  • read health and safety postings in a
    workplace
  • read aloud to children using literature
    written primarily for young children.

Level 2

Level 2 Readers understand that texts and
purposes for reading vary. They have a
moderate amount of reading experience, but
exhibit a preference for oral reading. Sight
vocabulary has been established and
knowledge of sound-symbol relationships
can be used. These students understand the
nature of concepts and can distinguish
between an abstract and a concrete idea.
Although these students may draw from
prior knowledge, they may not distinguish
between information they know and
information the author intended to relay.

These students display greater
self-confidence when reading, but still apply
knowledge of pre-reading strategies
inconsistently. Strategies for developing
vocabulary, improving reading
comprehension, and using higher-order
thinking skills are familiar to these students,
but may not be used accurately or
consistently. Critical thinking, decisionmaking,
and problem-solving skills can be
improved with the foundation of reading
skills developing at this level.
Level 2 Readers should be able to:

  • read in chunks
  • paraphrase a text
  • use context clues to identify unfamiliar
    vocabulary
  • interpret and analyze information in local
    newspapers
  • assist others with content area homework
  • use charts, tables, graphs and maps
  • demonstrate simple test-taking strategies.

Level 3

Readers can distinguish between
different types of text and set their own
personal goals for reading. They can apply
different reading strategies to different kinds of
texts although the application of these
strategies may still need improvement.

These readers have had significant exposure to
written language and feel confident about their
ability to make meaning from written text. At
this level, students draw on life experience to
understand text and display a preference for
silent reading. Strategies for developing
vocabulary, improving reading comprehension,
and using higher-order thinking skills are used
confidently, if not always accurately.

Level 3 Readers should be able to complete the
following:

  • use context clues to define unfamiliar
    vocabulary
  • generate questions from a topical science
    or social studies article
  • summarize and interpret information in
    more difficult magazines and newspapers
  • read technical manuals with assistance
  • assist their children with SAT preparation
    materials
  • apply interpretative and analytical skills to
    visual stimulus materials
  • employ a variety of test-taking and
    “learning to learn” strategies.

“My goal is to be healthy when I am old. I must learn how to read and spell so that when I read about health I know what it means.”

--Manual K.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

ADULT GOAL

LEARNING STANDARD

Adult Goal 1. Learners will write a variety of texts for diverse purposes, both personal and otherwise.

ELA
1

Language for Information
and Understanding

Adult Goal 2. Learners will have an understanding of the writing process.

ELA
2

Language for Literacy
Response and Expression

Adult Goal 3. Learners will use knowledge of the
conventions of writing to write effectively.

ELA
2

Response and Expression

Adult Goal 4. Learners will find pleasure and
satisfaction in the writing process.

ELA
2

Language for Literacy
Response and Expression

Adult Goal 5. Learners will demonstrate an
understanding of qualities of good writing.

ELA
3

Language for Critical
Analysis and Evaluation

Adult Goal 6. Learners will assess personal growth as a writer.

ELA
3

Language for Critical
Analysis and Evaluation

Language for Information and Understanding

ELA 1

Writing

Adult Goal 1: Learners will write a variety of texts for diverse purposes, both personal and otherwise.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will write for different purposes.

  • Write to satisfy personal and family writing needs.
  • Write to satisfy own or children's schooling and community needs.
  • Write to satisfy work needs, communicating thoughts, ideas, information, and messages.

Objective B: Learners will write a variety of texts using different forms of writing.

  • Write notes, personal and formal letters, stories, poems, journal entries, invitations, and other forms of writing for a personal-, school-, or community-related context.
  • Write documents such as letters, directions, manuals, memos, reports, forms, a resume, and other types of written expression for a work-related context.

Objective C: Learners will write a variety of texts using different methods of development.

  • Write to express personal feelings, reactions, values, interests, or attitudes in texts such as a friendly letter, a poem, a response to literature, and an autobiographical sketch.
  • Write to narrate a fictional story or account of real events such as a short story, a fable, a folktale, a skit, a script, and a story of personal experience.
  • Write to explain factual information understandably in texts such as directions, a book report, a news article, a caption, an invitation, a business letter, a research report, and a telegram.
  • Write to persuade change in the opinion or actions of the audience in texts such as an editorial, a speech, an essay, an advertisement, and a review of a book, play, or movie.
  • Write to describe images or impressions vividly in texts such as a composition depicting a real or imaginary event or comparing and contrasting places of interest, a classified ad, and an advertisement or the personals' column.
  • Write to expand personal knowledge on subjects of interest in texts such as research reports, personal journals, journal entries in reaction to reading materials, family histories, and investigative articles.

Objective D: Learners will write a variety of texts with an understanding of tone.
  • Write using a personal tone in texts such as a friendly note and letter, a love letter, a personal journal entry, and a telephone message to a family member.
  • Write using a formal tone in texts such as a resignation letter, a resume cover letter, and a letter to a school principal.

Objective E: Learners will write a variety of texts with an understanding of audience.

  • Write to self or family members in texts such as a journal entry, a personal narrative, a note to remember something, and a learning log.
  • Write to others in school or community in texts such as a piece for a learner anthology, a letter to a community board or newspaper editor, a book report, a formal essay, and an article for a school newsletter.
  • Write to individuals at work in texts such as a memo to co-workers or a supervisor, a resume cover letter, a telephone message, a business letter to a customer and a business report.

Language for Literacy Response and Expression

ELA 2

Writing

Adult Goal 2: Learners will have an understanding of the writing process.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will recognize that writing is, most importantly, a meaning-making process.

  • Compose with the intent to communicate ideas to others.
  • Recognize the difference between handwriting, spelling, and composing.
  • Use mechanics or conventions of writing to help clarify meaning.

Objective B: Learners will recognize that writing is a recursive process that involves rehearsing, drafting, revising, and editing stages.

  • Explore writing topics or prewrite before drafting.
  • Draft with the knowledge that text need not be complete.
  • Revise text to clarify meaning.
  • Edit text to remove mechanical errors and make suitable for distribution or publishing.
  • Move between writing stages recursively.

Objective C: Learners will use strategies which assist in the writing process.

  • Use strategies for rehearsing writing topics such as outlining, brainstorming, making mental and written lists, drawing and using graphic organizers.
  • Use strategies for drafting such as free writing or writing without concern for appearance or proper use of mechanics or correct spelling.
  • Use strategies for revising such as asking for feedback from peers and teachers, reading with an author's eye, starting pieces over again, adding, deleting, expanding, inserting, and using notations on drafts such as arrows to indicate changes.
  • Use strategies for editing such as checklists, reading with an editor's eye, read aloud, use a dictionary, and look at conventional writing models in books.
  • Use strategies for spelling such as sound out words, keep a personal log of frequently misspelled words, use a dictionary while editing, and use the memorizing strategies.

Objective D: Learners will recognize the importance of revising texts to bring them to completion.

  • Identify when texts need revising.
  • Revise a wide variety of texts for different purposes such as clarity, style, tone, and audience.
  • Revise texts sufficiently to prepare for editing.
  • Use word processing software to add, delete, and move text
  • Assist others in edit of text.

Objective E: Learners will use computer technology to assist in the writing process.

  • Use word processing software to draft, revise, and edit texts.
  • Use spell-checking features in word processing software to edit texts for spelling errors.
  • Use grammar check, if available, to check accuracy of sentence structures.
  • Format and lay out texts in a variety of ways with word processing software to make texts suitable for publication.
  • Design illustrations with graphics to enhance text.

Language for Literacy Response and Expression

ELA 2

Writing

Adult Goal 3: Learners will use knowledge of the conventions of writing to write effectively.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will edit texts for proper use of mechanics.

  • Edits for correct information, appropriate emphasis, and form.
  • Edit texts for correct use of periods, commas, semi colons, colons, and quotation marks.
  • Edit texts for proper use of capitalization.
  • Edit texts for correct use of possessives and contractions.

Objective B: Learners will edit texts for proper usage.

  • Edit texts for correct subject-verb agreement.
  • Edit texts for proper use of verbs and tenses.
  • Edit texts for correct use of pronoun references.

Objective C: Learners will edit texts for proper use of sentence structure and organization.

  • Edit texts for sentence fragments.
  • Edit texts for run-on sentences.
  • Edit texts for correct use of parallel structure.
  • Edit texts for correct use of paragraphs.

“Never once has anyone ever wanted to put something I wrote in the paper. Just the thought makes joy and happiness come to my heart.” --Elaine D.

ELA 2

Writing

Adult Goal 4: Learners will find pleasure and satisfaction in the writing process.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will write
independently and without
prompting.
  • Write to learn about self in texts such as personal
    journals and diaries.
  • Write to express self in poems, fiction, plays, and
    other writing for personal pleasure.

“My first day and it looks good so far! We are all writing and talking and feeling good about coming here.”
--Ricardo M.

Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ELA 3

Writing

Adult Goal 5: Learners will demonstrate an understanding of qualities of good writing.

OBJECTIVES EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will use literary devices for appropriate effect.

  • Use dialogue to reveal a characterization.
  • Use leads effectively.
  • Use written language playfully.
  • Use figurative language and imagery for appropriate effect.
  • Create a desired mood.
  • Appeal to emotions of the reader.
  • Sequence events to advance plot.
  • Use literary devices such as flashbacks, plot twists, foreshadowing, and surprise endings for effect.
  • Use metaphor and analogy.

Objective B: Learners will write effective business communications.

  • Write clear, effective memos.
  • Write business messages that can be read and understood.
  • Write business letters that exhibit an apparent subject and make a clear point.

Objective C: Learners will use models of effective essay writing.

  • Reason soundly from premise to conclusion in writing.
  • Identify, early in writing, the problems and/or issues presented by the subject discussed.
  • Possess a clear subject and make clear points about the subject in writing.
  • Exhibit a clear purpose rather than a mere mechanical effort.
  • Write with a clear organizational plan.

Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ELA 3

Writing

Adult Goal 6: Learners will assess personal growth as a writer.

OBJECTIVES

EXAMPLES

Objective A: Learners will use strategies to assess progress in
writing.
  • Assemble a portfolio of writing based on self-identified criteria such as most significant, most difficult, or best pieces.
  • Compare journal entries to assess progress as a writer.
  • Discuss progress with peers and teacher.
  • Write about personal progress in a narrative.

“I thought everything had to be in place, the first time you write it. That spelling had to be just so. That every period, comma, question mark had to be in its place. Then someone told me that the best writers are the worst spellers. Well, let me tell you that’s all I needed to know. That seemed like it just opened up the gates, the gates of words and language."

--Barbara G.

Student Profiles

The profiles for the English language arts curriculum indicate performance levels for beginning (Level 1), intermediate (Level 2), and advanced (Level 3) adult students.

Level 1

As beginning writers, Level 1 writers need consistent practice in composing pieces that have meaning for themselves and others. They may have difficulty with the physical act of writing, i.e., forming letters, and may not be aware of the variety of purposes and audiences for writing. These students may not be familiar with the conventions of writing (grammar, mechanics, syntax) and with strategies for the composing process (rehearsing, drafting, revising, editing). Level 1 Writers should be able to:

  • use the tools of writing (pen and paper, computer)
  • risk writing notes, personal letters, stories, poems or journal entries
  • use a limited number of prescribed writing strategies or methods of development
  • compose with a limited awareness of audience
  • display some understanding of writing as a recursive process
  • display intermittent control of grammar, mechanics and syntax
  • display with assistance the ability to edit texts for proper usage.

Level 2

Level 2 Writers will experiment with composing for a variety of purposes and audiences. These students frequently apply an understanding of the writing process as they compose and display a more consistent control of writing conventions. As a result of increased self-confidence, these students may take greater risks with the writing conventions; teachers should note that an increase in student errors may be directly proportionate to these risks. Level 2 Writers should be able to do the following:

  • risk composing for unfamiliar purposes and audiences
  • use writing strategies or methods of development appropriate for various writing tasks
  • rehearse, draft, revise and edit with some assistance when composing
  • become familiar with external criteria for the assessment of their writing.

Level 3

Level 3 Writers consistently demonstrate the ability to write for a variety of purposes and audiences. They apply the standard conventions of writing to their compositions. Their completed pieces of writing are varied in style, form and structure, and often display evidence of critical thinking and problem solving. Level 3 Writers should be able to do the following:

  • write comfortably for a variety of purposes and audiences
  • select appropriate writing strategies or methods of development appropriate for various writing tasks
  • rehearse, draft, revise and edit when composing
  • apply external criteria to the assessment of their writing.

Subway Station

By Sue Machlin

On the way to my writing class I saw a man washing the white tile wall of the 28th Street Subway Station and whistling Kumbaya, boys, Kumbaya di da da da da da da
When the train came I left him wondering. . . and whistling. . . and wrote it in my journal to share with the class and show them how one can find poems anywhere.