Core Curriculum Components and Initiatives

Core Curriculum

Saskatchewan's Core Curriculum includes seven Required Areas of Study (of which English Language Arts is one), the Common Essential Learnings, the Adaptive Dimension, and Locally-determined Options. In addition, Saskatchewan Education has implemented a number of related initiatives in the areas of Indian and Métis education, gender equity, and resource-based learning. This section describes these components and initiatives, and their particular application to the English language arts program.

Adaptive Dimension

The Adaptive Dimension is the effective teaching practice of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs. It provides the teacher with the scope and flexibility to make curriculum materials and topics, instruction, assessment, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student (The Adaptive Dimension in Core Curriculum, Saskatchewan Education, 1992).

The essence of the Adaptive Dimension lies in the phrase "seeking other ways". Providing students with alternative means of accessing and expressing their ideas and knowledge facilitates their abilities to use language and to learn through language. Just as physical environments can be made more accessible through modifications such as ramps or wider doorways, learning environments can be made more accessible through adjustments in settings, instructional strategies, or resources.

The Adaptive Dimension serves to maximize student learning and independence, reduce discrepancies between ability and achievement, promote a positive self-concept and sense of belonging, and foster a willingness to become involved in learning. Teachers are encouraged to engage in collaborative planning for instruction which may involve consultation with students, parents/guardians, and other professionals in order to determine the adaptations necessary to curriculum content, instructional strategies, and the learning environment to enable all students to maximize their potentials as independent learners.

As the Adaptive Dimension means tailoring content, instruction, and environment to meet individual student needs, the extent of adaptation and the duration of adaptation will not be uniform for all students. This is also why groupings of students should be for short durations, a response to needs rather than a permanent structure.

Some guidelines for incorporating the Adaptive Dimension include the following:

• Create a classroom environment in which students' backgrounds, cultures, interests, language abilities, and learning styles are accepted and respected.
  
• Vary instructional strategies and methods to meet the needs of all students.
  
• Use a variety of assessment techniques to ensure the observation, recording, and reporting of student growth, strengths, and needs.
  
• Alter the pace of the mini-lesson to ensure that students understand the concept being presented or are being challenged by the presentation. Give students sufficient time to explore, create, question, and experience as they learn.
  
• Encourage a variety of responses and culminating activities, including oral, written, visual, and multimedia.
  
• Incorporate flexible grouping, co-operative learning strategies, peer response, and collaborative groups to promote language and social skills.
  
• Involve students, as much as possible and appropriate, in planning for learning, instruction, and assessment.
  
• Establish individual spelling and vocabulary lists. Students should focus on the spelling of words that they need to use in their writing and develop a vocabulary that is relevant to their needs.

The Adaptive Dimension includes all practices teachers employ to make language and literature more meaningful and appropriate for students. Informed decisions are critical factors in making sound professional judgements about individual needs and abilities. As well, it is important to be flexible; the less rigid the setting and approach, the easier it is to adapt.

Common Essential Learnings

The Common Essential Learnings refer to those learnings that are common to all subject areas and can be incorporated in relevant contexts throughout the year. English language arts offers many opportunities for developing the Common Essential Learnings (C.E.L.s) in an authentic manner. Some guidelines for incorporating each of the C.E.L.s follow.

Communication

The teacher should:

• integrate a balance of the language processes--listening, speaking, reading, and writing--into the daily activities
  
• develop students' language arts vocabulary so they acquire the terms and the language with which to discuss literature selections and genres, and the listening, speaking, reading, and writing processes and strategies
  
• value students' existing language competencies and extend the language abilities of all students, by building on the language knowledge and skills that they bring to the classroom
  
• follow student responses with requests for elaboration, clarification, evidence, and judgement.

Critical and Creative Thinking

The teacher should:

• encourage reflective, emotional, and imaginative personal responses
  
• encourage students to articulate interpretations and conclusions, then support their ideas and make judgements
  
• develop students' ability to read like writers, examining the writer's craft, and to write with the reader(s) in mind
  
• extend students' revising and editing/ proofreading abilities
  
• encourage students to defend their assertions and responses to ideas and literature, and to the writing of their peers
  
• have students analyze the content and presentation of popular media--music, movies, or television--for accurate and realistic portrayal of human behaviour
  
• encourage students to use analogies and metaphors in descriptions, in comparisons, and in attempts to understand new concepts, ideas, and principles
  
• encourage students to look for and create patterns or relationships among ideas, literary genres, real and vicarious experiences, and literary characters and events
  
• extend students' abilities to sequence and categorize ideas and information, orally and in writing
  
• involve students in activities that encourage them to review or rethink previous learning, conclusions, topics, and ideas.

Personal and Social Values and Skills

The teacher should:

• use literature and life experiences to help students acquire rational processes for examining value claims and moral dilemmas
  
• incorporate multicultural literature in units of study whenever possible to extend understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity
  
• extend awareness of cultural, racial, and gender bias in print and non-print resources, and in life experiences
  
• model and encourage sensitive responses to the ideas and abilities of others
  
• provide frequent opportunities for students to work collaboratively
  
• provide guidance and practice for collaborative skills.

Independent Learning

The teacher should:

• encourage students to use a variety of sources and materials for information
  
• involve students in planning unit themes/topics and in evaluating their learning experiences
  
• provide frequent opportunities for individual choice of listening and reading material, and speaking and writing topics
  
• extend students' use of language to reflect on experiences and clarify their thoughts in journals, logs, surveys, reports, essays, poetry, and prose
  
• use collaborative instructional and learning approaches
  
• involve students in a variety of ways to learn (e.g., observing, discussing with others).

Numeracy

The teacher should:

• provide opportunities for students to interpret and produce maps, graphs, and charts to convey information to others
  
• provide opportunities for students to discuss the meaning of commonly used quantitative terms in a variety of language experiences (e.g., in writing or verbalizing comparisons, in understanding newspaper articles)
  
• develop students' understanding of quantitative information as it contributes to their learning in a lesson or unit of study.

Technological Literacy

The teacher should:

• extend students' technological vocabulary and their awareness that technological developments are often the source of new words and language structures
  
• develop students' understanding of how technology impacts on their lives, the environment, and society at large as topics arise within units of study
  
• develop students' understanding of their role in shaping technological developments as these topics are explored in units of study.

The integration of the Common Essential Learnings into language and literature studies will assist students with various personal, social, and academic challenges. For more information, refer to Understanding the Common Essential Learnings: A Handbook for Teachers (1988).

Gender Equity

Saskatchewan Education is committed to providing quality education for all students from kindergarten through grade 12. Expectations based primarily on gender limit students' ability to develop to their fullest potential. While some stereotypical views and practices have disappeared, others remain. Endeavours to provide equal opportunity for male and female students must continue. It is the responsibility of schools to create an educational environment free of gender bias. This can be facilitated by increased understanding and use of gender-balanced resources and language, and by employing non-sexist language and instructional and evaluation approaches.

The suggestions in Gender Equity: Policy and Guidelines for Implementation (Saskatchewan Education, 1991) will help teachers to promote gender equity. The following guidelines reflect the equitable approach incorporated in this English language arts curriculum guide:

• Select and use resources that reflect the current and evolving roles of women and men in society.

• Have equally high expectations for both male and female students.

• Incorporate flexible and diverse groupings for writing and research projects and for literature studies.

• Model gender-fair language in all classroom interactions.

• Instruct students on how to recognize gender inequities in what they read, view, hear, say, and write.

• Examine classroom resources for gender equitable content and discuss gender-biased materials with students.

• Seek a balance of female and male protagonists in literature.

• Try to balance the number of male and female authors and illustrators studied throughout the school year.

• Ensure that students of both genders have comparable time and access to equipment and resources, including the teacher's time and attention.

Resource-based Learning

In a resource-based curriculum, teachers can assist the development of attitudes and abilities needed for independent, lifelong learning by using a variety of resources and instructional approaches. Teachers, in collaboration with teacher-librarians or other personnel, can plan and teach units in which resources are used in diverse ways for different purposes. This approach teaches students the processes needed to find, analyze, organize, and apply information.

Resource-based learning offers students and teachers increased opportunities to share the responsibility for determining the skills and resources needed in learning. Students in resource-based classrooms learn to select resources and learning strategies best suited to their abilities, needs, and interests. Resource-based education accommodates all learning styles and provides opportunities for the exceptional student and for the student who learns in a different manner.

The following guidelines will help teachers to implement resource-based learning in English language arts classrooms:

• Involve students in the planning process. Discuss topics, objectives, resources, activities, interests, and needs.

• Allow flexibility and choice over the course of the school year. Negotiate topics, activities, and projects with students.

• Consider the selection of a wide range of visual, auditory, and human resources.

• Encourage students to explore a wide range of print and non-print material for information and enjoyment, and to investigate a variety of sources such as those found in school and public libraries, electronic databases, or the immediate community.

• Model resource use by acting as a co-learner with the students and by choosing diverse resources.

• Include learning experiences that incorporate the need to find, analyze, organize, and apply information.

• Encourage students to determine the skills and resources that they will need to accomplish a learning task or address personal needs and interests.

• Design learning activities that incorporate resource-based assignments and unit projects.

• Collaborate with teacher-librarians and other personnel in planning and teaching units.

Indian and Métis Content and Perspectives

The inclusion of Indian and Métis content, perspectives, and resources in the Middle Level English language arts curriculum fulfils a central recommendation of the Indian and Métis Education Policy from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve (1995) which states:

Saskatchewan Education recognizes that the Indian and Métis peoples of the province are historically unique peoples and occupy a unique and rightful place in society today. Saskatchewan Education recognizes that education programs must meet the needs of Indian and Métis peoples, and that changes to existing programs are also necessary for the benefit of all students (p. 6).

The incorporation of Indian and Métis content promotes the development of understanding and positive attitudes in all students toward Indian and Métis peoples. Incorporating such content is important whether or not there are students from Indian or Métis backgrounds in the classroom. One of the most effective and beneficial ways of doing so is by using quality literature written by and about Indian and Métis peoples. Furthermore, carefully selected quality literature can provide a vehicle whereby racism and its harmful effects on both minority and majority students can be recognized and addressed. Increasing an awareness of one's own culture and the cultures of others develops all students' self-concepts, promotes an appreciation of Canada's cultural diversity, and supports universal human rights.

Students at the Middle Level are in the process of developing social confidence and a sense of self, both at the personal and group levels. As is the case for all students, Indian and Métis youth grapple with the complex factors at work in identity formation (such as gender, family, socioeconomic class, culture, religion, and regional background) and the nature of one's own membership in society and the global community. However, the issues around identity for Indian and Métis students can be further complicated by the negative attitudes and perceptions which they sometimes encounter from society at large. This can result in a serious loss of self-esteem and/or motivation to succeed in school. Informed teachers can counter these negative effects on identity and self-concept through anti-racist teaching and with the knowledge that Indian and Métis students in Saskatchewan possess a wide range of physical characteristics and come from extremely diverse cultural backgrounds and social environments including northern, rural, and urban areas. Furthermore, levels of ethnicity or the degrees to which individuals choose to identify with the cultures of their families of origin also vary and can change over time. It is important that teachers recognize and affirm this diversity and the complex and shifting factors surrounding the identity formation of Indian and Métis students in order to facilitate the development of positive self-concept and success in school. Such teaching enhances the educational experience of all students. As well, curriculum, resources, and teaching and evaluation strategies must foster personally meaningful and culturally identifiable experiences for Indian and Métis students .

The language abilities of Indian and Métis students in Saskatchewan range from fluency in an Indian language, to degrees of bilingualism in an Indian language and in English, to fluency in English. Some students may speak a variety or dialect of English that exhibits features in the areas of pronunciation, grammar, and syntax that are the result of influences from the mother tongue. Such variations in oral language are normal and should not be perceived to be evidence of a language deficiency in need of correction. Teachers must understand and respect this linguistic diversity and use a variety of teaching strategies which build upon their Indian and Métis students' existing knowledge of language and further extend their English language abilities. Cross-cultural education, language acquisition theory, and second language teaching strategies will all assist teachers in meeting the needs of individual students. As well, it is crucial to use a variety of instructional, motivational, and assessment approaches that are sensitive to the range of Indian and Métis cultural values and ways of communicating.

English language arts units of study must include accurate and appropriate Indian and Métis resources and perspectives. Teachers have a responsibility to evaluate all resources based upon criteria of literary and artistic excellence in addition to determination of bias and stereotyping. Students with the ability to think critically will be able to recognize bias and stereotyping in what they read, view, hear, say, and write. Guidelines in Diverse Voices: Selecting Equitable Resources for Indian and Métis Education (1995) can assist teachers and students in understanding examples of bias and stereotyping in resources that inaccurately portray Indian and Métis peoples. These guidelines can help teachers plan classroom experiences that will effectively increase awareness of such bias and develop students' oracy, literacy, and critical thinking abilities. Indian and Métis resources are included in the sample units and in the bibliography developed for Middle Level English language arts to support teachers and students in choosing resources that present Indian and Métis peoples in a fair and accurate manner.

The following points summarize the expectations for inclusion of Indian and Métis content, perspectives, and resources in curriculum and instruction.

• Curricula and materials will concentrate on positive images of and accurate information about Indian, Métis, and Inuit peoples.
  
• Curricula and materials will reinforce and complement the beliefs and values of Indian, Métis, and Inuit peoples.
  
• Resources and materials by Indian and Métis authors will be used whenever possible and appropriate.
  
• Curricula and materials will include historical and contemporary issues.
  
• Curricula and materials will reflect the legal, political, social, economic, and regional diversity of Indian, Métis, and Inuit peoples (Indian and Métis Education Policy from Kindergarten to Grade 12, p. 12).

Multicultural Content, Perspectives, and Resources

Multicultural education fosters understanding, acceptance, empathy, and constructive and harmonious relations among people of diverse cultures. It encourages learners of all ages to view cultures different from their own as a source of learning and enrichment. "All students benefit from an opportunity to experience a wide variety of world views to help learn compassion, acceptance, and understanding. The classroom should be a place that celebrates and honours diversity to the benefit of ALL its members" (Tunney, 1996, p. 3).

While the first and most lasting influence on a child is that of the home environment, educators and the educational institutions have a responsibility for preparing children to function in our culturally diverse society. The educational system must address a variety of issues such as second language programming, teaching and learning styles, curriculum and resource material, teacher attitudes and expectations, student grouping, and assessment and evaluation. Sound teaching practices such as being aware of a child's social and psychological background, encouraging the development of self-esteem and security in identity, and responding to individual needs are consistent with the philosophy underlying multicultural education.

Multicultural Education and Heritage Language Education Policies (Saskatchewan Education, 1994) identifies goals that provide a foundation for multicultural education in the classroom. These goals include self-concept development, understanding and relating to others, spiritual development, and membership in society.

Teachers can demonstrate and promote cultural sensitivity and understanding in the following ways:

• affirming each student's language use as unique and important
  
• accepting and respecting the language that each student brings to the classroom
  
• becoming educated about the cultural backgrounds of the students
  
• determining if unexpected behaviours reflect a student's culture
  
• respecting students' knowledge about their own cultures
  
• building a classroom environment which discourages racial put-downs or put-downs of others' language usage and abilities
  
• dealing with racist incidents if they occur
  
• viewing students of all cultures as having equal potential
  
• nforming themselves and their students about a variety of cultures
  
• helping students to understand that individual identities are shaped by many factors, one of which is cultural background
  
• giving students opportunities to select the literature that they read and to which they respond
  
• encouraging students to read a variety of literature representative of cultural groups with which they do and do not identify
  
• encouraging students to take risks with their written and spoken English
  
• using interpreters for second language speakers (e.g., parents, community members)
  
• using a variety of instructional and assessment strategies to accommodate students' cultural learning preferences and backgrounds
  
• developing students' collaborative and co-operative skills through group work, problem-solving discussions, and consensus activities
  
• encouraging students to talk and write about their experiences and places they have lived
  
• providing opportunities for students to tell their stories orally and in writing
  
• choosing literature and media selections which represent a diversity of cultures and cultural perspectives
  
• being accepting of the different responses students have to different literature and the cultural perspectives it portrays
  
• discussing stereotypical beliefs and cultural biases in literature and media.

The inclusion of multicultural content, perspectives, and resources in English language arts helps students to develop multicultural perspectives that prepare students to live more enriched and fulfilled lives while contributing harmoniously to a pluralistic society.

Portrayal of Persons with Disabilities

Portrayal of persons with disabilities in literature and media has been varied and often has depicted them in negative ways. This has served to give readers inappropriate information and has engendered attitudes ranging from feelings of pity or revulsion to expectations of superhuman powers of intellect or insight. It is critical that the language arts teacher use materials that portray persons with disabilities realistically and fairly.

Wherever possible, ability rather than disability should be stressed. Materials that imply that persons with disabilities must be cared for or pitied should not be used. Language of the materials should convey respect for the individuality of persons with disabilities. For example, "people with disabilities" or "has a disability" should be used rather than "the less fortunate", "afflicted", or "suffers from a disability".

Heim (1994) suggests that when choosing material for use, it is important to be aware that literature and media frequently portray people with disabilities in a stereotypical way. When evaluating material for use in the English language arts classroom, consider the following: