To clearly define purposes for the teaching of literature and informational text in secondary schools.
To develop integrated, thematic curriculum relevant to important issues in the world and to the lives, cultural knowledge, and linguistic background of students using a cultural studies approach.
To prepare secondary students for college and career success and for participation toward the development of an interdependent, sustainable, and democratic world order.
To draw on literary theory and scholarship to support teaching of traditional, contemporary, multicultural, young adult, and popular texts in different genres.
To meaningfully integrate the mass media, film, visual, oral, multimedia, and digital texts into English language arts instruction.
To integrate writing, literature, and informational texts; to utilize diverse written, visual, and digital genres to foster student individual and collaborative writing relevant to curricular contexts.
To set high standards and expectations for secondary students.
To apply the Common Core State Standards and the NCTE/IRA Standards for teaching of English to curriculum development.
To use and critically evaluate a variety of instructional techniques for teaching literature.
To create inclusive, engaging, and meaningful small group and large group discussion.
To gather objective data and evaluate discussion leading drawing on best practice.
To support student readers and the development of their understanding of texts and contexts, drawing in particular on reader response and cultural studies approaches.
To demonstrate curricular and instructional planning skills to work effectively with a wide range of secondary students, including students for whom English is a second language (ELLs) and students with special needs.
To utilize computers, electronic devices, and a variety of Internet tools and resources to teach English and communicate with students, parents, colleagues and the broader community in academically meaningful ways.
To assess the depth of student understanging of important ideas, issues, themes and perspectives through the use of both formative and summative measures.
To see themselves as professionals active in state and national professional organizations, reading journals, attending conferences, collaborating with others, and remaining abreast of issues in the field.
