Language Arts/English Curriculum Frameworks - Albemarle County ...

Framework for Quality Learning
Introduction
The study of English Language Arts should integrate opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and
research through the study of language and world literature. Because students’ understanding of the
complexities of language deepens with cognitive development, the concepts in English Language Arts
should spiral incrementally throughout a child’s school experience. The English Language Arts curriculum
is standards-based and concept-centered; units and lessons are organized around important ideas and
conceptual themes, thereby enabling students to dig deeper into the dynamics of language and the
breadth of literature through increased sophistication and critical thought that reflects student
development. Students explore five interdisciplinary concepts (systems, change and continuity,
communication, aesthetics, and universality) and the correlating concepts for language arts. In this way,
students examine the structure of our morphophonemic language and literary genres as they relate to the
larger system of languages, and how our language and literature have evolved. As readers, writers, and
speakers, students learn the art of author’s craft and the multiple purposes and structures for
communicating thoughts about the world in which we live. The importance of communication and
universality are emphasized as students discover and hone their own voices and contribute their
perspectives on the human experience.
Content knowledge identified in the Virginia Standards of Learning provides the spiraling articulation to
explore key concepts, and instruction is inquiry-based with emphasis placed on students’ ability to raise
and answer important literacy questions. Students work toward county Lifelong-Learner Standards
(Appendix A) that prepare them to meet the challenges of the 21 st Century. Connections to present-day
realities and an increasingly global society are consistently made as students apply their knowledge and
skills to authentic experiences.
Elementary school students participate in language arts instruction that is balanced and comprehensive,
containing a steady daily learning diet comprised of fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and
word study. In the primary grades, students focus on learning to read, write, and develop foundational
literacy skills, with emphasis on the system of language. Teachers also introduce important literary
concepts that allow students to become confident readers and writers with a variety of text structures. In
© Albemarle County Public Schools, May 2006 4