Overview
Language is the central means through which students formulate thoughts and communicate their ideas with others. The English Language Arts curriculum identifies the processes of thinking that support students’ abilities to use language to make meaning of texts, whether they are producing texts of their own or interacting with texts created by others.
Experiences with texts are designed to enhance students’:
- ability to be creative
- capacity to respond personally and critically
- celebration of diversity
- understanding of metacognition and critical thinking
- use of knowledge and language strategies
The English Language Arts curriculum supports literacy development through both integrated experiences and the teaching of discrete skills in speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and representing. The curriculum at all levels encompasses multiple literacies which enable students to interact with and create a variety of digital, live, and paper texts. As students use, interact with and create texts, they increase their knowledge, experience, and control of language. The curriculum also fosters students’ understanding of self and others as well as their ability to be clear and precise in their communication.
The English Language Arts curriculum creates opportunities for balance and integration among six strands of learning:
Speaking and Listening
- Students will be expected to speak and listen to explore,extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Students will be expected to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Students will be expected to interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
Reading and Writing
- Students will be expected to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Students will be expected to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Students will be expected to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Students will be expected to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre.
Writing and Representing
- Students will be expected to use writing and other forms of representation to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imagination.
- Students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
While the strands are delineated separately for the purposes of explanation in curriculum guides, they are taught in an integrated manner so that the interrelationships between and among the language processes are virtually indistinguishable; the processes of making meaning from and with texts are continual and recursive in nature.
Related Documents
Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum (1996)
Elementary
The Elementary English Language Arts curriculum is designed to equip students with tools to help them meet the demands of reading and writing increasingly longer and more complex text. Students are encouraged to reflect on themselves as readers, writers and speakers to identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
The curriculum encourages student engagement in a range of experiences which encourages them to become reflective, articulate and critically literate individuals who successfully use language for learning and communicating in personal and public contexts.
Elementary English language arts is designed to enhance students’ ability to:
- analyze issues related to fairness, equity and social justice
- analyze the structure and elements of a variety of text types
- apply knowledge of language conventions in creating texts
- create increasingly complex text, using a variety of text forms
- extend endurance for independent reading
- practice comprehension strategies on more complex text and begin to select appropriate strategies to help them make sense of text
- read appropriate text fluently with expression and confidence
- understand the author’s underlying message
- use a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand text
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- Grade 3
- Grade 4
- Grade 5
- Grade 6
Intermediate
Intermediate English Language Arts focuses on students’ interaction with and creation of texts. The curriculum emphasizes the personal, social and cultural contexts of language learning and the power that language has in those contexts. Through discussing and creating a variety of texts, students grow in their critical thinking and understanding of the impact language has on them and others.
Intermediate English Language Arts is designed to enhance students’ ability to:
- articulate their thinking about their learning as producers and consumers of information
- be creative and imaginative in their oral communication, writing and representing
- independently apply strategies when navigating or creating texts
- interact with a wide variety of texts including, digital texts, drama, fiction, non-fiction, media texts, poetry and visual texts
- think and respond critically to texts they read, view or hear
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- Grade 7
- Grade 8
- Grade 9
High School
High School English Language Arts continues the philosophy and methodologies of the Intermediate English language arts curriculum. It continues to focus on students’ interaction with and creation of texts through the six strands of language arts: speaking, listening, reading, viewing, writing and representing. The strands are taught in an integrated manner designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to become successful language learners who think and communicate personally, creatively and critically.
This program is designed to enhance students’ ability to:
- assume responsibility for their own learning
- interact with a wide variety of texts
- respond creatively when using digital, live or paper texts
- respond personally
- think and respond critically to texts they read, view or hear
- understand their own thinking about how they learn
- use knowledge and strategies as they navigate and create texts
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- English 1201
- English 1202
- Literacy 1204
- English 2201
- English 2202
- Writing 2203
English 3201
English 3201 is an academic course, designed for the majority of students entering Level lll. Students participate in practical and engaging learning experiences as they navigate increasingly complex and sophisticated texts. English 3201 emphasizes the study and creation of literary texts and is intended to enable students to respond personally, critically, and creatively.
Students will:
- analyze and evaluate content, style, and stylistic techniques in a variety of texts
- create a variety of increasingly complex texts for a wide range of audiences and purposes
- develop and justify an increasingly sophisticated interpretation of texts
- express themselves precisely and clearly using a variety of text forms
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Nota: Un examen public est administré à la fin de l’année scolaire.
English 3202
English 3202 is designed for students entering Level lll who continue to require extra support to strengthen essential literacy skills. Students participate in practical and engaging learning experiences as they respond personally, critically, and creatively to a variety of texts of increasing complexity based on their interests, abilities, and learning needs.
Students will:
- adapt language and delivery to suit the purpose and audience
- create a variety of texts for a range of purposes
- evaluate the effectiveness of and respond to texts they read, view, hear, and create
- formulate and justify their own responses to social, political, ethical, and economic issues
- use and analyze the conventions of written and spoken language
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