The two most widely taught subjects in the United States are English and language arts.
Classroom
Teaching English and Language Arts
The two most widely taught subjects in the United States are English and language arts.
As an English and language arts teacher, there is little doubt that you can see how much influence English and language arts have on a student’s future academic career.
Education resources
Teaching English and Language Arts
According to the American National Council of Teachers of English, English and language arts are broken up into reading, speaking, writing, viewing, and listening.
Elementary school
In elementary school, language arts focus on writing, reading, and communication skills. Classes consist of cursive writing, thematic writing, silent reading, vocabulary, and syntax. Students develop reading and writing skills as early as possible through these classroom exercises.
Middle school
When students enter middle school, the English curriculum expands and involves increasingly complicated reading comprehension in essays, fiction, and poetry. At this stage, semantics and grammar start to become central to lessons.
Middle school students start to develop writing skills in addition to reading skills. These writing skills may include creative writing, expository writing, and poetry. Vocabulary is also a core part of the English curriculum in middle school. Students are expected to develop a more advanced comprehension of all five language arts at this stage.
High school
High school students are required to take English classes to develop their analytical skills. High school English classes typically include reading fiction, classic literature, and essays. Teachers expect students to analyze, translate and extrapolate key concepts from written material. Classroom discussions revolve around comparing and contrasting elements in the written material, such as themes, plots, and characters.
In the high school classroom setting, proficient writing skills are needed to express viewpoints about the literature being read. Students are also often required to submit research papers or essays that contain their personal opinions on the reading material. Again, high school English is considered an extensive study course; students utilize the five skills above and language arts to better understand literature, its place in history, and its value as a learning tool.
College Preparation
English is also a core component of preparing a student for college material. High school English courses prepare students for the more advanced analytical and research skills they will be expected to have mastered by the time they reach college.
These skills will serve students throughout their time at university. Not only that, but English serves to help students to get into college in the first place, as it is a core component of college entrance exams such as the SATs.
Reading
Grammar and composition are introduced to elementary school students through language arts classes. However, classes solely devoted to reading go a long way toward helping students develop comprehension and analytical skills that will serve them in English studies. Reading classes also help students of all levels achieve a larger vocabulary and an enhanced ability to spell. This is accomplished through a combination of practice, construction, and testing. Reading classes incorporate fiction, nonfiction, visual aids, and reference materials such as the dictionary and the thesaurus.
As reading skills advance with every grade level, skills increase and help to prepare students for higher grades like high school and middle school English. Here, they will be able to apply their basic reading skills to construct more complex comprehension and analytical extrapolation of literature.
Teaching English and Language Arts Effectiveness
Being able to master these basic skills in the younger years helps to ensure that a student will be able to climb the rungs of academic success throughout their entire lives. Of course, being an effective English and language arts teacher requires a certain amount of resources that you may feel are beyond your reach.
To inquire about funding opportunities for teachers of English and language arts, please visit Classful.com.
