ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS FORMS THE BACKBONE OF THE K-12 CURRICULUM

DOLOR R. SALAZAR

The various subject and activities falling under this rubric-reading, composition, listening, spelling, grammar(especially studying the parts of speech, better writing, literature, using the dictionary-occupied more time at the elementary level and more teachers at the secondary level(combining both junior and senior high schools) than any other subject.

The dominant emphasis throughout was an teaching basic languages use skills and mastering mechanics-capitalization, punctuation, paragraphs, syllabication, synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, part of speech etc. these were repeated in successive grades of the elementary years, were reviewed in the junior high years and reappeared in the low track of the senior highs schools. Scattered among these basics were activities suggesting more self-expression and creative thoughts-story telling, interviews and the like. In lists of what they taught, teachers at the junior and senior high level included biography, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, folk tales, short stories, creative writing, keeping a journal, writing original poetry and short stories.

Reading instruction in the junior and senior high appeared to be a matter of remediation involving the mechanics of word recognition, phonics, and vocabulary developments. In English, there was still substantial emphasis on the basics of grammar and composition-punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, paragraph organization, word analysis, parts of speech.

The most common offered courses in English at the high school level were those combining mechanics with some literature courses in grammar and compositon-in that order. These formed the core of te required English in our high schools. Beyond this core were electives in journalism, speech, and creative writing.

— oOo—

The author is SST I at Betis High School