Planning and Assessing the Curriculum in the English Language Arts / Stephen Tchudi.

Resisting the notion that there is a single English language arts curriculum that all schools can or should follow, this book focuses on processes for designing, implementing, and evaluating curriculums suited to the needs of individual schools and students. Part 1 of the book (The English Language Arts Curriculum in the 1990s), provides the theoretical underpinnings for this approach to curriculum. It begins with a historical overview of the evolution of English language arts programs. It then describes the origins of a "new English" that has been emerging over the past 3 decades and outlines its most promising characteristics. Part 2 of the book (Successful Curriculum Development in the English Language Arts), presents current curriculums and patterns of development. One chapter reports a survey of national Centers of Excellence in English in which curriculum makers describe the processes that led to their successful programs. A second chapter presents first-person narratives by four curriculum leaders from around the United States, describing a range of curriculum problems. Part 3 of the book (A Curriculum Developer's Handbook), offers a variety of tasks that individual curriculum developers and curriculum teams can undertake. Chapters discuss an assessment base for English programs, the curriculum framework, development and implementation of an English language arts curriculum, and (re)assessment of the skills and standards of the English language arts program. A postscript discusses the English language arts curriculum of the future. Appendixes include: "The English Coalition Report" by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Modern Language Association (MLA); "Criteria for Planning and Evaluation English Language Arts Curriculum Guides" by the NCTE; "Evaluation Policy" by the Canadian Council of Teachers of English (CCTE); and a list of survey respondents. (SR)

Practitioners. ericd

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