Purpose of Bulletin

The effective renewal of an area of study requires the commitment and support of a number of people. This bulletin is designed to provide information and assistance to administrators, classroom teachers, and other school division personnel associated with the renewal of the Elementary Level English language arts curriculum. Support for the renewal process is also available through a provincial group of regional renewal facilitators.

In 1984, Directions identified English language arts (ELA) as one of the Required Areas of Study for all kindergarten to grade 12 students. Directions recommended that 560 minutes per week be devoted to English language arts at the Elementary Level (Grades 1-5).

Since English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level and its accompanying bibliography were introduced to Saskatchewan schools in 1992, a number of activities have been undertaken by Saskatchewan Learning. Some of these activities are described below.

• Provincial Learning Assessments collected data in 1994 and 1996 on Saskatchewan grade 5, 8, and 11 students' reading and writing performance, and in 1998 on grade 5, 8, and 11 students' listening and speaking performance. These assessments identified areas of student strength and areas where students could improve (e.g., while students can make judgements about their reading, they are not experienced at expressing their reasoning in writing).
• Saskatchewan Learning, along with the departments of education in the other western provinces and three territories, collaborated to produce a Common Curriculum Framework for K-12 English Language Arts (1998). This framework identifies common language arts outcomes for each grade level and, as a related project, identifies resources that reflect Western Canadian content to help students listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent more effectively. Saskatchewan's commitment is to ensure that provincial ELA curricula reflect the Western Canadian Protocol framework outcomes.
• In 1998, Saskatchewan Learning conducted an evaluation to determine the extent of curriculum implementation. The ELA 1-5 Curriculum Evaluation Report (1999) concluded that:
• there is widespread support for the ELA curriculum.
• there is extensive evidence of the curriculum being implemented; however, implementation is uneven and appears to be related to strong, positive administrative support.
• a balanced approach and a focus on meaning making has many positive results for students.
• skill acquisition needs to be addressed further - clearer articulation of skills objectives and more specific guidance in the teaching of skills are needed.
• teachers need further help with evaluation, resource collections, and ways to respond to student diversity.
• In 2000, Saskatchewan Learning published Early Literacy: A Resource for Teachers to support teachers of emerging literacy learners (pre-K to grade two). The resource provides diagnostic tools to help teachers clarify the language needs of children and specific instructional activities to respond to these needs. In addition, suggestions are given to teachers who have students in grades 3-5 still in the emerging phase of literacy learning (i.e., ideas for "older students"). Many of the ideas from Early Literacy are incorporated into the renewed curriculum. However, teachers should continue to refer to Early Literacy for detailed descriptions of instructional methods and activities that support students' early literacy development related to oral language, textual foundations, graphophonic foundations, and independent reading and writing.
• Saskatchewan Learning (in conjunction with teachers, educational administrators, trustees, parents, and others) has been reviewing the needs and procedures related to effective implementation and ongoing renewal of Core Curriculum. It has been determined that support is needed on a variety of fronts in order to ensure that areas of study and supporting initiatives advocated in Core Curriculum come to life (or are "actualized") in the classroom and are renewed in a timely and ongoing manner. Refer to Actualization of Core Curriculum (1999) for the policy framework that guides the provincial educational partners in their shared efforts to bring Saskatchewan's Core Curriculum to life in the classroom. Refer to Classroom Curriculum Connections (2001) for a model for teacher-directed professional development in relation to Saskatchewan's Core Curriculum.

The renewed English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level (2002) and its accompanying bibliography address the findings and recommendations of various groups. These groups include a provincial curriculum reference committee, an internal program team, and more than 200 field test teachers and consultants from all regions of the province. Their feedback was used to provide an effective, balanced, and renewed language arts program for Elementary Level students.

The renewed curriculum guide includes:

• objectives for each grade level in each of the language strands (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and representing)
• sample assessment and evaluation tools for classroom teachers to find out what students know and can do at each phase of their language learning
• suggested instructional strategies for each language strand and phase of language learning
• suggestions for teaching the language conventions associated with phonemic awareness, graphophonics, spelling, sentence structures, punctuation, and handwriting
• sample classroom routines, units, and lists of resources that support teachers in addressing the objectives for each grade level.

A new bibliography accompanies the renewed ELA curriculum guide. The accompanying bibliography includes a range of resources to support the curriculum including:

• major integrated resources
• trade books
• multimedia resources
• language study resources
• professional resources.