National Standards for English Language Arts
Standards for the English Language Arts, NCTE

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.

10. Students whose first language is not English make use of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts and to develop understanding of content across the curriculum.

11. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).National Standards for History.

Standards in Historical Thinking (Grades K-4)
Overview

Children’s study of history rests on knowledge of facts, names, dates, and places. In addition, real historical understanding requires students to engage in historical thinking: to raise questions and to marshal evidence in support of their answers; to read historical narratives and fiction; to consult historical documents, journals, diaries, artifacts, historic sites, and other records from the past; and to do so imaginatively-taking into account the time and places in which these records were created and comparing the multiple points of view of those on the scene at the time.

Real historical understanding also requires that children have opportunities to create historical narratives of their own. Such narratives may take many forms: group stories dictated to the teacher in grades K-1, and individual stories, letters such as a child of the time may have written, journals, and reports in grades 2-4, for example.

Historical understanding also requires that students thoughtfully listen to and read the historical narratives created by others. Well-written historical narratives are interpretative, revealing conditions, changes, and consequences, and explaining why things happened as they did. Following such narratives, and analyzing the events they describe and the explanations they offer, promotes important skills in historical thinking.

Because of the importance of historical fiction in opening the past to children and engaging their interests in the people and events of long ago, it is especially important for children to learn to analyze these stories for their historical accuracy, to compare these stories and their illustrations with primary sources-historical artifacts, photos, diaries, and other records of the past-and to differentiate fact and fiction. Children should also have opportunities to compare different stories about a historical figure or event in order to analyze the facts each author includes or omits, and the interpretations or point-of-view communicated by each-important early steps in the development of students’ abilities to compare competing historical interpretations of events.

Students engaged in activities of the kinds just considered will draw upon skills in the following five types of historical thinking:

1. Chronological Thinking
2. Historical Comprehension
3. Historical Analysis and Interpretation
4. Historical Research Capabilities
5. Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making

These skills, while presented in five separate categories, are nonetheless interactive and mutually supportive. In conducting historical research or creating a historical story of their own, for example, students must be able to draw upon skills in all five categories. Beyond the skills of conducting their research, students must, for example, be able to comprehend historical artifacts and records consulted in their search, analyze their purpose and importance, and demonstrate a grasp of the historical time (e.g., long, long ago) and geographic place in which the problem or events developed.

In short, these five sets of skills, developed in the following pages as the five Standards in Historical Thinking, are statements of the outcomes we desire students to achieve. They are not mutually exclusive when put into practice, nor do they prescribe a particular teaching sequence to be followed. Teachers will draw upon all these Thinking Standards, as appropriate, to develop their teaching plans and to guide students through challenging programs of study in history.

Finally, it is important to point out that these five sets of Standards in Historical Thinking are defined in the following pages largely independent of historical content in order to specify the quality of thinking desired for each. It is essential to understand, however, that these skills do not develop, nor can they be practiced, in a vacuum. Every one of these skills requires historical content in order to function-a relationship that is made explicit in Chapter 3, which presents the standards integrating historical understandings and thinking.

Standard 1
Chronological Thinking

1. Distinguish between past, present, and future time.
2. Identify the temporal structure of a historical narrative or story.
3. Establish temporal order in constructing students’ own historical narratives.
4. Measure and calculate calendar time.
5. Interpret data presented in time lines.
6. Create time lines.
7. Explain change and continuity over time.

1. Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative.
2. Reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical passage.
3. Identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses.
4. Read historical narratives imaginatively.
5. Appreciate historical perspectives.
6. Draw upon data in historical maps.
7. Draw upon visual and mathematical data presented in graphs.
8. Draw upon the visual data presented in photographs, paintings, cartoons, and architectural drawings.

1. Formulate questions to focus their inquiry or analysis.
2. Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, personalities, behaviors, and institutions.
3. Analyze historical fiction.
4. Distinguish between fact and fiction.
5. Compare different stories about a historical figure, era, or event.
6. Analyze illustrations in historical stories.
7. Consider multiple perspectives.
8. Explain causes in analyzing historical actions.
9. Challenge arguments of historical inevitability.
10. Hypothesize influences of the past.

1. Formulate historical questions.
2. Obtain historical data.
3. Interrogate historical data.
4. Marshal needed knowledge of the time and place, and constructs a story, explanation, or historical narrative.

1. Identify problems and dilemmas in the past.
2. Analyze the interests and values of the various people involved.
3. Identify causes of the problem or dilemma.
4. Propose alternative choices for addressing the problem.
5. Formulate a position or course of action on an issue.
6. Identify the solution chosen.
7. Evaluate the consequences of a decision.

1. Understands calendar time in years, decades, and centuries.
2. Knows how to construct time lines in significant historical developments that mark at evenly spaced intervals the years, decades, and centuries.
3. Knows how to interpret data presented in time lines (e.g., identify the time at which events occurred; the sequence in which events developed; what else was occurring at the time).
4. Knows how to identify patterns of change and continuity in the history of the community, state, and nation, and in the lives of people of various cultures from times long ago until today.
5. Distinguishes between past, present, and future time.
6. Understands the broadly defined eras of state and local historical events.

1. Knows how to view the past in terms of the norms and values of the time.
2. Understands that specific individuals had a great impact on history.
3. Understands that specific ideas had an impact on history.
4. Understands that "chance events" had an impact on history.
5. Understands that specific decisions and events had an impact on history.
6. Evaluates historical fiction according to the accuracy of its content and the author’s interpretation.
7. Predicts how events might have turned out differently in one’s local community if specific individuals or groups had chosen different courses of action.

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