English in K to 12

To understand what the Senior High School (SHS) Core Subject called “Reading and Writing” is all about, we should not look only at its course description but at the entire Curriculum Guide for English, starting with Kindergarten. The reason is that all subjects are now spiraled.

Spiraling means that the student is taught a subject in Kindergarten, that subject is enhanced a little bit in Grade 1, enhanced a little bit more in Grade 2, and so on, such that, by SHS, the student will have mastered the subject.

Let us take the English curriculum as an example. (I will quote verbatim from the curriculum guides available on the website of the Department of Education.)

The English curriculum is based on the guiding principle that “students enhance their language abilities by using what they know in new and more complex contexts and with increasing sophistication (spiral progression).” Spiral Progression is described in this way: “Skills, grammatical items, structures and various types of texts will be taught, revised and revisited at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. This will allow students to progress from the foundational level to higher levels of language use.”

There are five skills (called “sub-strands”) that are highlighted in the curriculum: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing. Since we cannot discuss all of the skills or competencies in the curriculum guide, let us take one “language arts domain” common to all these sub-strands, namely, Vocabulary Development.

In Kindergarten, the student is expected to “actively engage in meaningful conversation with peers and adults using varied spoken vocabulary,” while “acquiring new words / widening his/her vocabulary links to his/her experiences.”

In Grade 1, the student “demonstrates understanding of familiar English words for effective communication, demonstrates understanding of word meaning for correct usage, uses basic vocabulary to independently express ideas about personal, home, school and community experiences,  and correctly uses familiar words in speaking activities.”

In Grade 2, the student “demonstrates understanding of suitable vocabulary used in different languages for effective communication and uses familiar vocabulary to independently express ideas in speaking activities.” Note the addition of the terms “suitable” and “independently.”

In Grade 3, the student “demonstrates understanding of English vocabulary used in both oral and written language in a given context and proficiently uses English vocabulary in varied and creative oral and written activities.” Note the addition of the terms “given context” and “creative,” as well as the introduction of writing.

In Grade 4, the student “demonstrates understanding that word meaning can be derived from different sources, demonstrates understanding that words are composed of different parts and their meaning changes depending on context, uses different resources to find word meaning, and uses strategies to decode the meaning of words in context.” Note the stress on context and on finding the meanings of words.

In Grade 5, the student “identifies different meanings of content specific words (denotation and connotation) and infers the meaning of unfamiliar words (compound, affixed) based on given context clues (synonyms, antonyms, word parts) and other strategies.” Note the introduction of connotation, synonyms, and antonyms.

In Grade 6, the student “infers meaning of idiomatic expressions using context clues; infers meaning of borrowed words and content specific terms using context clues, affixes and roots; clarifies meaning of words using dictionaries, thesaurus, online resources.” Note the addition of online resources.

In Grade 7, the student “distinguishes between slang and colloquial expressions in conversations, uses appropriate idiomatic expressions in a variety of basic interpersonal communicative situations, explains the predominance of colloquial and idiomatic expressions in oral communication, discriminates between literal and figurative language, identifies figures of speech that show comparison (simile, metaphor, personification) or contrast (irony, oxymoron, paradox), categorizes words or expressions according to shades of meaning, identifies collocations used in a selection, determines words or expressions with genus-species (hyponymous) relations in a selection, identifies words or expressions with part-whole (partitive) relations, uses lexical and contextual cues in understanding unfamiliar words and expressions, analyzes relationships presented in analogies, supplies other words or expressions that complete an analogy, gives the various meanings of identified homonymous or polysemous words or expressions, identifies words or expressions used in a selection that show varying shades of meaning (gradients), and creates or expands word clines.” Note the introduction of what are essentially literary devices.

In Grade 8, the student “determines the meaning of idiomatic expressions by noting context clues and collocations; uses appropriate strategies in unlocking the meaning of unfamiliar words and idiomatic expressions; determines the meaning of words and expressions that reflect the local culture by noting context clues; distinguishes between and among verbal, situational, and dramatic types of irony and gives examples of each; identifies figures of speech that show emphasis (hyperbole and litotes); explains the meaning of a word through structural analysis (prefixes, roots, suffixes); and analyzes intention of words or expressions used in propaganda techniques.” Note the addition of more literary devices, the stress on culture, and the warning on propaganda. (Next week: English in Grades 9 to 12)