ELA Instruction -Assignment #1

     ELA instruction is based around Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language. To ensure these five components of ELA instruction is properly implemented into a curriculum, teachers are expected to conform to the Common Core Learning Standards. Standards generally are a measure of what students should know and be able to do at the end of each school year and the Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts give the specifics of what students are expected to know and be able to do in ELA to be college- and career-ready. As students move through the grades, they are expected to build knowledge and skills through reading and writing in a variety of genres and to read books of greater complexity. Through this process, students are expected to become literate, knowledgeable and proficient users of language so that they can become a successful part of society. 

    It’s important to realize how the Language Arts and its components can be interdisciplinary and how literacy skills span subjects. Something is the standards that really caught my eye was one of the vignettes written in the Standards which discusses how students became interested in African history and its relationship to European colonialism after reading Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ and Alan Paton’s ‘Cry, the Beloved Country’. They even prepared a multimedia presentation on the topic, bringing in a technology aspect as well. There was so much involved in this literature lesson from the history aspect to the technology aspect to the group work and presentations, allowing for a well-rounded and motivational ELA lesson, all in alignment with the Common Core standards.