Licensure Standards

Standards for Effective Practice: Initial Licensure in Communication Arts and Literature

 

A.  A teacher of communication arts and literature understands central concepts common to the teaching and learning of communication arts and literature content. The teacher must understand and apply:

1. language development, cognition, and learning;
2. the phonological, grammatical, and semantic functions of language;
3. philosophy and theories of communication arts and literature instruction;
4. technological resources including software, databases, and networks that can be used to gather, synthesize, create, and communicate knowledge;
5. language for independent learning and enjoyment;
6. communication which is clear, fluent, strategic, critical, and creative;
7. the aesthetic dimensions of communication arts and literature;
8. strategies that allow appropriate engagement in communication tasks for a variety of purposes and audiences;
9. the integration of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing;
10. strategies for selecting and using texts and materials that correlate individual student abilities with developmentally appropriate learning experiences;
11. strategies for selecting and using texts and materials which recognize and accept a broad range of common and diverse perspectives;
12. research methods encompassing content;
13. the social, intellectual, and political importance and impact of communication;
14. the meanings of messages, content and relational;
15. communication and its value in exploring and expressing ideas; and
16. communication arts and literature activities such as forensics, debate, journalism, literary journals, and related activities.

B.  A teacher of communication arts and literature demonstrates understanding and skills essential to the teaching and learning of reading, writing, speaking, listening, media literacy, and literature. The teacher must demonstrate the:

1. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach reading including:

a. the interactive and constructive nature of reading comprehension and how it functions in the literal, inferential, and schema-based levels of understanding;

b. the stages of the reading process so as to model and teach strategies that occur before, during, and after reading;

c. content area reading strategies to encourage competence and independence for lifelong learning;

d. comprehension strategies for a variety of purposes to various materials and tasks, including everyday life situations;

e. the ability to find and synthesize information from a variety of textual and nontextual sources;

f. the selection and teaching of vocabulary in all settings; and

g. the use of books and other printed sources for personal growth and lifelong learning;

2. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach writing including:

a. various stages of the writing process, including prewriting, writing,  conferencing, revising, and publishing used in teaching writing;

b. diverse strategies for assessing and responding to student writing;

c. the functions of language and how they influence effective written communication; and

d. conventions for presenting, arranging, and organizing information in particular genres or media;

3. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach speaking including:

a. relationships among the verbal and nonverbal components of the speaking process across a variety of contexts including small group, interpersonal, and public;

b. methods and steps necessary to construct meaning for participants in both formal and informal speaking situations;

c. methods of managing and overcoming communication anxiety and apprehension; and

d. ethical responsibilities of a speaker associated with competent and effective communication in society;

4. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach listening including:

a. relationships between and among the components of the listening process;

b. the different listening skills appropriate for diverse types and levels of listening;

c. how to identify and manage barriers to listening; and

d. ethical responsibilities of a listener;

5. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach media literacy including:

a. relationships among the elements of the communication process across various types of print and nonprint media;
b. effects of the various types of electronic audiovisual media on the communication process;
c. competent participation as a consumer and producer of media communication; and
d. functional, aesthetic, and ethical values of media communication;

6. knowledge, skills, and ability to teach literature including:

a. repertoire of literary texts, including fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works, and works written for preadolescents and adolescents by a diversity of authors;

b. characteristics of various literary genres, including poetry, drama, novel, short story, and essays;

c. tools of interpretation including literary devices, critical theories, and various methods of analysis, interpretation, presentation, and evaluation of literature;

d. how to help students respond to, interpret, and evaluate texts in a variety of ways, including text centered and reader centered approaches;

e. how to encourage students to respond to texts through written and oral communication, both privately and publicly;

f. how to help students construct meaning out of texts through various processes applied before, during, and after reading;

g. how context shapes meaning; and

h. how to encourage students to become lifelong readers and writers.

 

C.  A teacher of communication arts and literature demonstrates an understanding of the teaching of communication arts and literature that integrates understanding of communication arts and literature with their understanding of pedagogy, students, learning, classroom management, and professional development.  The teacher of communication arts and literature to preadolescent and adolescent students in grades 5 through 12 shall:

1. understand and apply educational principles relevant to the physical, social,  emotional, moral, and cognitive development of preadolescents and adolescents;
2. understand and apply the research base for and the best practices of middle level and high school education;
3. develop curriculum goals and purposes based on the central concepts of   communication arts and literature and know how to apply instructional strategies and materials for achieving student understanding of this discipline;
4. understand the role and alignment of district, school, and department mission and goals in program planning;
5. understand the need for and how to connect students' schooling experiences with everyday life, the workplace, and further educational opportunities;
6. know how to involve representatives of business, industry, and community   organizations as active partners in creating educational opportunities;
7. understand the role and purpose of cocurricular and extracurricular activities in the teaching and learning process;
8. understand the impact of reading ability on student achievement, recognize the varying reading comprehension and fluency levels represented by students,  and possess the strategies to assist students to read more effectively; and
9. apply the standards of effective practice in teaching students through a variety of early and ongoing clinical experiences with middle level and high school students within a range of educational programming models.