skip to main content

English Language Arts

Overview

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

—Frederick Douglass

All Students are Expected to:

  1. Read strategically to construct, extend, and examine meaning with different types of age-appropriate materials for various purposes: literary experience, to be informed, and to perform a task.
  2. Express thoughts clearly and effectively in speaking and writing.
  3. Make deliberate and independent decisions as strategic readers and writers.
  4. Express thoughts clearly and effectively in speaking and writing.
  5. Write for various audiences addressing a variety of purposes: to inform or explain, to persuade, and to express personal ideas.
  6. Control sentence structure, word choice, and the conventions of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
  7. Engage in purposeful and active listening practices.
  8. Demonstrate an appreciation for literature as a form of personal expression.
  9. Demonstrate an appreciation of the nature, structure, and history of language.
  10. Deepen students’ analytical and critical skills, and expand vocabulary while engaging students in a challenging reading program, inclusive of fiction and non-fiction texts.

Howard County Public Schools are committed to ensuring that all students graduate College and Career ready. To this end, the objectives of the English Language Arts Program are to:

  • provide students with a solid foundation in the skills and processes of literacy
  • produce strategic independent readers who value reading as a lifelong pursuit
  • accelerate student achievement in language arts
  • provide rigorous language arts curriculum and assessments reflecting Maryland College and Career Readiness Standards for English/Language Arts
  • integrate language arts instruction into content areas and writing instruction.

The Elementary Language Arts Program is designed to provide every student in grades PreK-5 with opportunities to become successful communicators, to read comprehensively, write effectively, speak meaningfully, and listen critically. The core of Howard County’s Language Arts program is based on current research that children develop language skills by using them in authentic contexts in an atmosphere where students are constantly immersed in language and print. Howard County’s program uses a student-centered, integrated instructional approach to ensure that learners become thinking, probing users of language.

Teachers foster this approach by engaging students in conversations that are grounded in a variety of texts that students read, hear, or write. Students also process a large amount of written language; thus, the program provides multiple opportunities for students to read independently and in instructional settings. Deep learning occurs when students increase their ability to read and comprehend across content areas by using a wide range of strategies for discussing and writing about text with peers and adults. Integrating language arts instruction with other content areas provides opportunities for students to practice and extend their literacy skills throughout the school day.

Family and Community Resources

These resources have been created to provide parents with support in English / Language Arts instruction.

Learn more about the Secondary English Curriculum

Curriculum for Grades K–12

Curriculum for Grades K–12

Elementary Reading Intervention

Reading Intervention and the Ready to Read Act →