English Language Arts

The discipline of English language arts includes reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and producing texts, broadly defined. These texts include various narrative, informational, and literary genres, as well as visual information, both on the written page and in digital mediums. We define the core purpose of teaching English language arts as developing in human beings the ability to use a wide repertoire of tools for communicating one’s own ideas, experiences, and perspectives, and for receiving, interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating the communication of others. As such, the English language arts support people to construct meaning in, and to interrogate and interact with their immediate environment and the world at large.

 

We operate with some core assumptions about English language arts:

Nearly everything can be considered a text, insofar as it conveys meaning and requires interpretation–a reading, broadly defined. We are surrounded daily by multiple texts that demand our reading, and we each produce volumes of texts in any given day.

Language is inherently interactional, social, and political. Its uses and interpretations are influenced by culture and experience. Because some forms of language are highly valued by schools, one’s ability to decode, interpret, and use these chosen forms of language plays a part in determining their access to certain coveted forms of social and economic power.

There are multiple forms and adaptations of the English language based on culture, geography, and other social factors that impact communication. Part of being skilled in English language arts includes knowing when, why, and how to move between various forms of language, all of which have value and purpose.