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

English Language Arts
Curriculum Framework
Language is the essential condition of knowing,
the process by which experience becomes knowledge.
-Michael Halliday
Philosophy
Language gives people access to the richness of life. It is for this reason that authors write about the
world in which they live and those things about which they wonder. It is for this reason that literature
becomes timeless through universal themes that cross cultural boundaries.
Because language is fundamental for all other learning, educators in Albemarle County Public Schools
must provide children access to rigorous, high-quality curriculum. The English language arts curriculum
allows children to explore the many facets that construct the richness of language and the many genres
through which authors express ideas about the world. In doing so, children must grapple with the big
ideas contained in the structures of language and the complexities of text, through reading, writing, and
speaking. In doing this, children will explore what it means to think about language and literature and to
think through language and literature.
Systems of Language
The pervasive nature of language in life requires that children have access to those experiences that will
infuse language instruction throughout the curriculum. Furthermore, children must acquire precise
language to clearly communicate their ideas.
• As language is a tool for learning in all curricular areas, it must be taught in conjunction with and
as appropriate to each discipline.
© Albemarle County Public Schools, May 2006 1