DOCUMENT RESUME ED 461 863 CS 217 813 AUTHOR Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. TITLE Standards in Practice, Grades 6-8. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-4694-5 PUB DATE 1996-00-00 NOTE 133p.; For grades 9-12 standards in practice, see CS 217 814. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 46945-3050: $13.95 members, $18.95 nonmembers). Tel: 800-369-6283; Web site: http://www.ncte.org. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052)-- Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Classroom Techniques; Diversity (Student); *Educational Practices; *English Curriculum; *Language Arts; *Literacy; Middle Schools; *Standards IDENTIFIERS International Reading Association; National Council of Teachers of English ABSTRACT The challenge of middle school teaching is brought to life in this book, a narrative companion to the Standards for the English Language Arts developed by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. According to the book, team teaching and student-created materials form the framework for myriad assignments that directly use the standards as a base for literacy learning. The book states that the students use the standards as a base for literacy learning, and use a wide range of strategies to reinforce their awareness of their own learning--from reader response techniques to hypermedia tools they have developed for an extended project. Samples of teacher handouts and student work are included throughout the book, illustrating the substantive results of using the English language arts standards in the middle school. Detailed bibliographic references and highlighted standards guide educators in their quest to bring the standards in line with their own curriculum and classroom practices. (Contains 23 references) . (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. \s ; Cr) 1/4.0 00 1/4.0 47-) ID A A PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY M. A. r'lvete,) TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 This.document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 3 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. LUST COPYAVAILABLE-1 IFAM3ARDS EH PRACTCE GRADES 5°O t+, NCTE Executive Committee: President Beverly Ann Chin; President-Elect Carol Avery; Vice President Sheridan Blau; Past President Miriam T. Chaplin; Representatives-at-Large Judith M. Kelly, Diane T. Orchard, Greta D. Price; Elementary Section Chair Kathy G. Short; Secondary Section Chair Joan Naomi Steiner; Secondary Section Associate Chairs Kay Parks Bushman, Betty C. Houser; College Section Chair Frank Madden; College Section Assistant Chair Gail E. Hawisher; CCCC Chair Lester Faigley; CEE Chair Carol A Pope; CEL Chair Donald L. Stephan; Executive Director Miles Myers; Deputy Executive Director Charles Suhor; Associate Executive Director Karen Smith; Associate Executive Director for Higher Education Patricia Lambert Stock; A ssociate_Executive Directorfor_BusinessKatie Hope 5.7A N DA R 3 5, 11M PE' ACTECCE GRADES 6°8 JEFFREY D. WILHELM National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 5 Manuscript Editor: Sheila A Ryan Production Editor: Peter Feely Cover and Interior Design: R. Maul Cover and Interior Photographs: Thompson-McClellan Photography - NCTE Stock Number: 46945-3050 ©1996 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Although every attempt is made to ensure accuracy at the time of publication, NCTE cannot guarantee that published electronic mail addresses are current. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., 1959- Standards in practice, grades 6-8 / Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8141-4694-5 I. Language artsUnited States. 2. Language artsStandards- -United States.I. Title. LB1576.W48766 1996 372.6044dc20 95-49758 CIP FOR -WORD This book is one of four in the NCTE Standards in Practice series. The idea for this series grew out of requests from many teachers around the country who participated in the development of the NCTE/IRA standards and who asked if we could publish a book or a series of books that would illustrate what the standards might look like in actual classrooms at different grade levels. This request was both inviting and challenging. Becauseone of the main goals of NCTE is to support classroom teachers, providinga series of books that would help define the standards seemed like the sort of thingwe should doand it is the type of thing, we like to think we do quite well. At thesame time, there were many challenges in developing these books. We wondered: Could we do it? -What might these books look like? What standards wouldwe use? How important would uniformity and consistency beamong the books in the series? The four authors and I spent time exploring these questions and itsoon became evident that the development of this series was, perhaps, both simpler and even more important than we had originally thought. We decided that if we asked English language arts teachers who were doing interesting and challenging work in their classrooms to reflect in writingon their practices and to tell us their stories, the standards would be there, already at work in students' learning. After all, the English language arts standards didemerge from those practices that our membership and the IRA membership said they valued most. The standards do not stand above and apart from the practices of actual classroom teachers, or dictate to themrather they represent what those teachers and the many others involved in English language arts educationagree is the best and most productive current thinking about teaching and learning. We also decided that each book in the series did not have to follow thesame generic format. What each book should do instead is tell its own story anduse the format that best fits and supports the story or stories being told. All of us agreed that we wanted the books in this series to be storiesor rich illustrations of classroom practice. Stories, we thought, would allow the writers to capture the rich and complex activities of teaching and learning and, in addition, would illustrate the interconnectedness of the English language arts and of the standards themselves. We also wantedour readers to see how 7 teachers create contexts as well as learning experiences. We thought it was important for the readers to experience both the struggles and the successes teachers and students encounter. And we hoped that the stories wouldmake explicit the importance of the teacher as researcher: We believe thestandards are dynamic in nature and will changeand improve only if teachers actively and deliberately interrogate their own practicelearning and growingfrom their professional and classroom experiences. In these four books we meet caring teachers who meet all our mostchal- lenging criteria for teaching and learning. They are women and menwho think deeply about the quality of life and intellectual growth they providefor their students. Some of the teachers we meet in the series are new to theprofession and are trying out ideas for the first time. Others have been teachingfor many years but, as always, are reflecting onand questioning some of their practices, and in their stories we see them making changes. All of them, whetherthey are teaching five-year-olds oreighteen-year-olds, whether they themselves have been teaching for five or for eighteen or more years, put students' learning at the center of their curricula and engage their students in challenging,authentic experiences. By presenting an array of classroom portraits, these volumes clearly show that standards are always present in good practice and thatthere is no one way for the standards to berealized. I want to commend the teachers and students who are featured inthis series and the writers who told their stories. They have openedtheir class- rooms to us and let us look in, and, in sodoing, they have enriched our under- standings of what matters most in the English language arts. Karen Smith Associate Executive Director National Council of Teachers of English CONT-NTS NCIE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts viii Acknowledgments 1. National Standards, Community Conversations 2 2. Getting to Know You 14 3. Incredible Journeys: The Drama of Experiencing Story Worlds 36 4. Working into the World: Student-Designed Learning on Hypermedia 68 5. Putting It All Together 96 Works Cited 116 Author 118 NCTIECIA STANDARDS FOR THE _LINGLIISHLANGUAGIE ARTS The vision guiding these standards is that all students must have the oppor- tunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life's goals and to participate fully as informed, productive members of society. These standards assume that literacy growth begins before children enter school as they experience and experiment with literacy activitiesreading and writing, and associating spoken words with their graphic representations. Recognizing this fact, these standards encourage the development.of curricu- lum and instruction that makes productive use of the emerging literacy abilities that children bring to school. Furthermore, the standards provide ample room for the innovation and creativity essential to teaching and learning.