The requirements for the Adolescence and Young Adulthood/English Language Arts certificate are organized into the following fifteen standards. These standards have been ordered to facilitate understanding, not to assign priorities. They are each important facets of the art and science of teaching English language arts to adolescents and young adults. They regularly occur in conjunction with one another given the seamless quality of exemplary practice.

Preparing the Way for Productive Student Learning

I. Knowledge of Students
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers systematically acquire a sense of their students as individual language learners.

II. Knowledge of English Language Arts
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers know their Þeld and draw upon this knowledge to set attainable and worthwhile learning goals for students.

III. Engagement
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers actively involve each of their students in language learning.

IV. Fairness
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers demonstrate through their practices toward all students their commitment to the principles of equity, strength through diversity, and fairness.

V. Learning Environment
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers create an inclusive, caring and challenging classroom environment in which students actively learn.

VI. Instructional Resources
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers select, adapt and create curricular resources that support active student exploration of language processes and of a wide range of literature.

Advancing Student Learning in the Classroom

VII. Integrated Instruction
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers frequently integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening opportunities in English studies and across the other disciplines.

VIII. Reading
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers engage their students in reading and responding to literature, as well as interpreting and thinking deeply about literature and other sources.

IX. Writing
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers immerse their students in the art of writing for a variety of purposes.

X. Discourse
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers foster thoughtful classroom discourse that provides opportunities for students to listen and speak in many ways and for many purposes.

XI. Language Study
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers strengthen student sensitivity to and proÞciency in the appropriate uses of language.

XII. Assessment
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers use a range of formal and informal assessment methods to monitor student progress, encourage student self-assessment, plan instruction and report to various audiences.

XIII. Self-Reþection
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers constantly analyze and strengthen the effectiveness and quality of their teaching.

XIV. Professional Community
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers contribute to the improvement of instructional programs, advancement of knowledge, and practice of colleagues in the Þeld.

XV. Family Outreach
Accomplished AYA/ELA teachers work with families to serve the best interests of their children.