| Language Arts
The Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) set forth the basic skills for Oklahoma students. These skills are meant to be used by educators in developing language arts curriculum appropriate to the needs of their students.
There are several English/Language Arts sections in the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Form M:
Reading - - assesses Vocabulary, World Analysis, and Reading Comprehension
Vocabulary - - assesses the students' verbal ability
Language Arts - - assesses Listening, Spelling, Capitalization, Punctuation, and Language Usage & Expression/Writing Process
The Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (SAT-9) contains six subtests for Language Arts levels Primary 1 through Primary 3. At the higher levels, there are seven subtests.
The Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (P.A.S.S. Exam) for reading and writing offers descriptors of student performance levels for grade 5, grade 8, and English II.
The English section of the ACT contains five reading passages and seventy-five multiple-choice questions:
* Ten questions dealing with punctuation
* Twelve questions dealing with grammar
* Eighteen questions dealing with sentence structure
* Eleven questions dealing with revising and strengthening a passage
* Twelve questions dealing with changing words for style and clarity
* Twelve questions dealing with explaining or supporting a point of view clearly and effectively
The Reading section of the ACT contains four reading passages dealing with the following topics:
* Natural Science
* Social Studies
* Humanities
* Literature
The Oklahoma PASS sets forth standards for Language Arts.
Grade 9
The Oklahoma PASS provides learning goals for language arts that students must meet by the end of ninth grade.
The Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (P.A.S.S. Exam) for reading and writing offers descriptors of student performance levels for students in English II.
The American College Test (ACT) is typically given to students in the later years of high school prior to applying to colleges.
Spelling
The Spelling Unit includes studying language and word structure knowledge to discern the correct spelling of words. It includes skills related to editing passages for correct spelling by making connections between spelling, meaning, and structure.
Study and Research Skills
The Study and Research Skills Unit includes developing organization and research skills needed to find appropriate resources, to judge resources as relevant or not relevant to a given topic, to categorize and synthesize information, to take notes in class, and to study for exams.
Language Mechanics
The Language Mechanics Unit includes comprehending and applying the rules that govern punctuation and capitalization when writing and editing written works.
Media
The Media Unit includes the study of information and entertainment communications. Topics include: advertising, art, journalism, film, and media messages, forms and productions.
Speaking
The Speaking Unit focuses on techniques and strategies (voice modulation, body language, ordering of ideas, visual aids, etc.) to convey meaning and to present information and opinions to groups. This unit includes formal and informal communication, debate skills, and verbal/nonverbal communication.
Viewing/Representing
The Viewing and Representing Unit focuses on constructing meaning from visual sources and conveying meaning through visual representation. Meaning is conveyed by applying writing processes (prewriting, writing, revising, publishing) to visual representations of information.
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