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English Language Arts

The Souderton Area School District's Language Arts Standards are aligned with the Pennsylvania Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Language arts instruction and assessment are framed within the structure of the Pennsylvania Literacy Framework (2001). The basic foundation for literacy instruction is the Reading Workshop and the Writing Workshop. Within the workshop structure teachers integrate fourteen specific instructional formats (in bold below), creating a complete and balanced literacy program.

Children will learn to read by listening to and discussing a read aloud book each day, by spending time reading independently across a wide variety of genres within the Reading Workshop, and by establishing a lifetime reading habit. As writers, children will engage in journal writing and a daily Writing Workshop. Speaking and listening, critical components of the language arts program, are developed through student-centered discussions and by having students rehearse formal presentations for a variety of purposes.

Reading and writing skills extend beyond the classroom into the real world, so children are given opportunities to read materials in the content areas as well as use their writing to learn across the curriculum.

To equip children for understanding the characteristics of the English language, students will create vocabulary notebooks, learn to investigate language, and be instructed in the spelling, grammar, mechanics and usage of our language.

Finally, in an effort to help our students view learning as a lifetime passion, our children will engage in learning major research skills (I-Search) and using technology to enhance their learning.

A primary goal of our literacy curriculum is to not only encourage children to be proficient readers and writers of varied texts for various purposes, but to become people who will love to read and write for pleasure, information and learning for a lifetime.