STATE GOAL 1: Read with understanding and fluency.

Why This Goal Is Important: Reading is essential. It is the process by which people gain information and ideas from books, newspapers, manuals, letters, contracts, advertisements and a host of other materials. Using strategies for constructing meaning before, during and after reading will help students connect what they read now with what they have learned in the past. Students who read well and widely build a strong foundation for learning in all areas of life.

STATE GOAL 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

Why This Goal Is Important: Literature transmits ideas, reflects societies and eras and expresses the human imagination. It brings understanding, enrichment and joy. Appreciating literature and recognizing its many forms enable students to learn and respond to ideas, issues, perspectives and actions of others. Literature study includes understanding the structure and intent of a short poem or a long, complex book. By exploring the techniques that authors use to convey messages and evoke responses, students connect literature to their own lives and daily experiences.

STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

Why This Goal Is Important: The ability to write clearly is essential to any person’s effective communications. Students with high-level writing skills can produce documents that show planning and organization and effectively convey the intended message and meaning. Clear writing is critical to employment and production in today’s world. Individuals must be capable of writing for a variety of audiences in differing styles, including standard rhetoric themes, business letters and reports, financial proposals and technical and professional communications. Students should be able to use word processors and computers to enhance their writing proficiency and improve their career opportunities.

STATE GOAL 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

Why This Goal Is Important: Of all the language arts, listening and speaking are those most often used on a daily basis at home, school and work or in the community. Skill in speaking is universally recognized as a primary indicator of a person’s knowledge, skill and credibility. In person, by phone or through video, good listening and speaking skills are essential to sending, receiving and understanding messages. To understand messages spoken by others, students must be able to listen carefully, using specific techniques to clarify what they have heard. For speaking properly and making messages understood, grammar, sentence structure, tone, expression and emphasis must be part of students’ repertoires.

STATE GOAL 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information.

Why This Goal Is Important: To be successful in school and in the world of work, students must be able to use a wide variety of information resources (written, visual and electronic). They must also know how to frame questions for inquiry, identify and organize relevant information and communicate it effectively in a variety of formats. These skills are critical in school across all learning areas and are key to successful career and lifelong learning experiences.