The following standards are presented as facets of the art and science of teaching English language arts to young adolescents. They are an analytical construct, created to provide a closer accounting of the critical aspects of accomplished practice. However, in real time these segments of teaching occur concurrently because teaching is a seamless activity with many disparate purposes being served in the classroom at any given moment.

Preparing the Way for Productive Student Learning

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

II. Curricular Choices
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers set attainable and worthwhile learning goals for students and develop meaningful learning opportunities while extending to students an increasing measure of control over how those goals are pursued.

III. Engagement
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers elicit a concerted effort in language learning from each of their students.

IV. Learning Environment
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers create a caring, inclusive and challenging environment in which students actively learn.

V. Instructional Resources
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers select, adapt and create curricular resources that support active student exploration of literature and language processes.

Advancing Student Learning in the Classroom

VI. Reading
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers engage their students in reading and responding to literature, and in interpreting and thinking deeply about literature and other texts.

VII. Writing
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers immerse their students in the art of writing.

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

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

X. Integrated Instruction
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening opportunities in the creation and interpretation of meaningful texts.

XI. Assessment
Accomplished EA/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.

Supporting Student Learning through Long-Range Initiatives

XII. Self-reþection
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers constantly analyze and strengthen the effectiveness and quality of their teaching.

XIII. Professional Community
Accomplished EA/ELA teachers contribute to the improvement of instructional programs, advancement of knowledge, and practice of colleagues.

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