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Model Competency-Based Language Arts Program

How to find this information:

The road traveled to find this information was relatively simple. The Ohio Department of Education offers this for free. The number that I called to receive the information was (614) 466-4049.

Program Goals:

• The program will enable learners to develop and use an expanding knowledge base and essential process for effective communication through reading, writing, listening, viewing, and speaking.
• The program will enable learners to construct meaning and apply critical and analytical thinking strategies when engaged in reading, writing, listening, speaking, or viewing.
• The program will enable learners to become proficient in the selection, comprehension, and appreciation of good literature.
• The program will enable learners to participate in a community of learners that supports multidisciplinary learning and the use of technology and media.
• All students engage in independent reading programs which are tailored to their individual interests, needs, and personalities and which are supported by classroom, school, and community libraries.

The Approach Used to Teach the Goals:

Although it is important to achieve goals, it is more important to exhibit flexibility. Everyone (school personnel, language teachers, and those responsible for curriculum development) have different but complimentary roles. Teachers and administrators should become familiar with the philosophy and program goals. The curriculum should be taught comprehensively in scope and sequenced so as to provide developmentally appropriate instruction as necessary for K-12.

Assessment:

There is a difference between accountability and instructional assessment.
Large-scale assessments including district-wide tests for competency-based education are best used to inform policy making relevant to curricular programs.
To ensure the credibility of accountability tests, both the incentives and the means to distort scores must be removed.
The achievement tests required of students in grades four, six, eight, and ten, as well as the ninth-grade proficiency test, may serve to meet the district-wide grade level assessment requirements of competency-based education.

Unique Qualities:

Informed decisions about individual students, including the need for intervention services, are best accomplished through assessment strategies conducted at the classroom level.
Learners gain understanding when they construct their own knowledge and develop their own cognitive maps of the connections among concepts and facts.
It is possible to assess students' thinking process in useful and undistorted ways.
Teacher observations and other assessment activities in the classroom have great accuracy concerning student learning.

Modifications Made for Hearing Impaired/Special Needs:

The teacher must be able to identify the need for intervention, design the instructional form it will take, and implement the action. This intervention requires a great deal of skill in classroom remediation, reinforcement, and enrichment activities. Teachers must have the capacity to use content material for these activities, instruct for specific knowledge/skill deficiencies, and group students for special needs. The ability to understand and use various diagnostic instruments, analyze assessment data, and teach prescriptively is a critical element of effective intervention.

Uploaded by: Jessica Soltesz/Kent State University/Deaf Education Major