§110.32. English Language Arts and Reading, English II (One Credit), Beginning with School Year 2009-2010.
(a) Introduction.
(1) The English Language Arts and Reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are organized into the following strands: Reading, where students read and understand a wide variety of literary and informational texts; Writing, where students compose a variety of written texts with a clear controlling idea, coherent organization, and sufficient detail; Research, where students are expected to know how to locate a range of relevant sources and evaluate, synthesize, and present ideas and information; Listening and Speaking, where students listen and respond to the ideas of others while contributing their own ideas in conversations and in groups; and Oral and Written Conventions, where students learn how to use the oral and written conventions of the English language in speaking and writing. The standards are cumulative--students will continue to address earlier standards as needed while they attend to standards for their grade. In English II, students will engage in activities that build on their prior knowledge and skills in order to strengthen their reading, writing, and oral language skills. Students should read and write on a daily basis.
(2) For students whose first language is not English, the students' native language serves as a foundation for English language acquisition.
(A) English language learners (ELLs) are acquiring English, learning content in English, and learning to read simultaneously. For this reason, it is imperative that reading instruction should be comprehensive and that students receive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and word attack skills while simultaneously being taught academic vocabulary and comprehension skills and strategies. Reading instruction that enhances ELL's ability to decode unfamiliar words and to make sense of those words in context will expedite their ability to make sense of what they read and learn from reading. Additionally, developing fluency, spelling, and grammatical conventions of academic language must be done in meaningful contexts and not in isolation.
(B) For ELLs, comprehension of texts requires additional scaffolds to support comprehensible input. ELL students should use the knowledge of their first language (e.g., cognates) to further vocabulary development. Vocabulary needs to be taught in the context of connected discourse so that language is meaningful. ELLs must learn how rhetorical devices in English differ from those in their native language. At the same time English learners are learning in English, the focus is on academic English, concepts, and the language structures specific to the content.
(C) During initial stages of English development, ELLs are expected to meet standards in a second language that many monolingual English speakers find difficult to meet in their native language. However, English language learners' abilities to meet these standards will be influenced by their proficiency in English. While English language learners can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, their level of English proficiency may impede their ability to demonstrate this knowledge during the initial stages of English language acquisition. It is also critical to understand that ELLs with no previous or with interrupted schooling will require explicit and strategic support as they acquire English and learn to learn in English simultaneously.
(3) To meet Public Education Goal 1 of the Texas Education Code, §4.002, which states, "The students in the public education system will demonstrate exemplary performance in the reading and writing of the English language," students will accomplish the essential knowledge, skills, and student expectations in English II as described in subsection (b) of this section.
(4) To meet Texas Education Code, §28.002(h), which states, "... each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of textbooks," students will be provided oral and written narratives as well as other informational texts that can help them to become thoughtful, active citizens who appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation.
(Source: Texas Education Agency at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/)
You see that unbelievable wall of text up there? That's the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) for second year High School English, well, the introduction for it at least. What it provides, however, is a basic understanding for the importance of the English and Language Arts curriculum. It helps me, as a future educator, understand and plan for the needs of the Modern Student. I can tell you that, based on the information above, that I will incorporate many discussions in my classroom. Literature is great, to me at least. I don't expect that every student who enters my door will believe the same thing. So why bang on indefinitely while the students slowly descend into zombification when I can Introduce them to the literature and then help them explore it for themselves through meaningful discussion?
"I am become scholar..."
Why do I think this is important, in keeping with the required TEKS? My dear readers, it is because we have become a society of social inepts. Many of our graduates today have trouble communicating at the supermarket with their cashier...much less something as intimidating as sharing new ideas with the world to further our understanding as a species. This discussion of literature helps students find not only the importance of communicative ideas through literature, but also as a (small and localized) classroom society that can debate and reach consensus and understanding of complex subjects. If you tell a student "why" then they can regurgitate the answer on a test, if the student is given the ability to discover "why" then they are able to contribute to the global discourse of our world.
