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

In addition to directly responding to the Albemarle County School Board goal of eliminating the
achievement gap, this articulation also addresses Goal I: Prepare all students to succeed as members of a
global community and global economy, and Goal IV: Achieve recognition as a world-class educational
system. Teachers will notice that this articulation requires students to achieve beyond the Virginia
Standards of Learning. Most notably, all of the process of research requirements have been shifted to
middle school, thus allowing students to actively use their research skills within content area instruction in
high school. The ninth- and tenth-grade courses have been aligned to mirror students’ work in social
studies and to include more diverse perspectives and literature, including an emphasis on comparative
analysis of Western and Eastern literature. These changes, among others, move Albemarle County Public
Schools in front of the national trend in language arts instruction.
This curriculum framework is intended to be dynamic, allowing for change as new research becomes
available. Although complete in its articulation, this document will continue to evolve as work across the
division affects the language arts classroom. As such, the language arts vertical team anticipates adding
benchmarks, assessment information, exemplar lessons and units designed through the Framework for
Quality Learning, and instructional strategy resources in the 2006-07 school year. As teachers begin to
work with this curriculum framework, we also anticipate changes to the lists of notable works and authors.
This continued work will be completed in conjunction with and/or parallel to the work of other division
teams, thus acknowledging that no one group or document reflects every aspect of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment.
This work reflects three years of research and conversation among language arts vertical team members,
teachers throughout the division, professors at The University of Virginia, and other experts in the field.
Many professional organizations and resources contributed to the thinking behind the conversation,
including but not limited to National Council for Teachers of English, International Reading Association,
American Library Association, and The College Board. Textual resources are referenced in the annotated
bibliography included in the appendices.
© Albemarle County Public Schools, May 2006 ii