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South Carolina'S Dynamic Classrooms:
Linking Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Kathy Neal Headley
Clemson University
Clemson, SC

At the present time, these three components operate in tandem with our state's assessment instrument, the South Carolina Basic Skill Assessment Program (BSAP). Since BSAP promotes only basic knowledge of reading and writing, isolated skills instruction has run rampant. Teachers seeking to integrate instruction and make learning relevant for their students have had to build their own support system. During my work with in-service education, teachers have continually expressed frustration with "teaching to the test." The current BSAP, while good for the time of its creation, is now out of date and out of touch with the realities of effective instruction and learning.

In 1992, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce surveyed businesses in order to identify skills and competencies needed by public school graduates to be successful in the workplace. The final report included 37 workplace skills and competencies. A successful employee, according to the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Education Study, is someone who displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity and honesty; thinks creatively; makes decisions; solves problems; conceptualizes; knows how to learn and how to reason; acquires and uses information; works well with others; reads, writes, listens, speaks, and performs math at a level that allows him or her to do their job well; organizes, plans, and allocates resources; works well with a variety of technologies; and appreciates and understands how social, organizational, and technological systems work.

With these competencies and knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment in mind, our writing committee for the South Carolina English Language Arts Framework (South Carolina State Department of Education, 1996) set about the task of composing a document that would support effective learning in our state's classrooms. This curriculum blueprint focuses on communication through reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and the inter-relatedness within the language arts and across all content areas. While students are immersed in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, skills are taught, applied, and evaluated in meaningful ways. Chapter One of the Framework notes our committee's vision for learning:

The English language arts of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are the foundation of learning. Experience with the rich beauty and heritage of literature and the English language leads to personal fulfillment and an understanding of ourselves and others.

Therefore, South Carolina's English language arts instruction must enable learners to become confident, effective users of language as citizens of a world community, as competent members of the work force, and as thoughtful, creative individuals. (7)

Strand: Using Language to Learn

• Standard 1. Use language processes and strategies for continuous learning.
• Standard 2. Use personal experience, the printed word, and information gained from observation as a basis for constructing meaning.
• Standard 3. Use language to clarify thought.
• Standard 4. Synthesize information from a variety of sources.
• Standard 5. Critically analyze and evaluate language.

Strand: Using the Conventions and Forms of Language

• Standard 6. Demonstrate competence in standard English.
• Standard 7. Use language in a variety of forms.

Strand: Using Language to Communicate

• Standard 8. Use language processes and strategies effectively to communicate.
• Standard 9. Use language for a variety of real purposes and audiences.
• Standard 10. Communicate effectively in various ways.

Strand: Appreciating Language

• Standard 11. Select and read from a wide range of literature.
• Standard 12. Demonstrate an understanding of the aesthetics of language.

As described in South Carolina's Framework, a diversity of informational text, literature, and technology require students to employ a variety of strategies as they communicate with others. Such learning is not taught through "skill and drill" or measured by multiple choice questions which merely tap literal comprehension levels. Instead, students engage in real world tasks. Meaningful tasks and interesting text create motivated learners who are prepared to solve problems outside our schools' walls.

South Carolina's English Language Arts Framework guides teachers to establish effective learning as outlined by Cambourne's (1988 ) seven conditions for learning: immersion, demonstration, employment, responsibility, expectations, approximation, and response. When surrounded by language, provided with meaningful models, and given opportunities to apply learning to real-life situations with practice, supportive feedback, and high expectations, students claim ownership for their own learning. Hence, students become effective users of language and develop necessary skills for the workplace and life in general.

Creating a classroom climate that fosters effective learning is not difficult. One example includes the integration of reading and writing with two outstanding children's literature selections: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox (1985) and When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (1982). The instructional plan that I have designed for young learners includes the following aspects:

1. From the title and key vocabulary words, predict what Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge will be about.
2. Read the story. Compare with your prediction.
3. Create your own list of special memories for a memory basket. Share your ideas with a friend.
4. Read When I Was Young in the Mountains.
5. Listen for words which help describe Rylant's childhood memories. Discuss your examples with classmates.
6. Examine how Rylant uses language to awaken your five senses.
7. Select a memory from your basket's listing.
8. Write a rough draft describing your special memory.
9. Share your draft with another classmate. Using feedback, revise your draft.
10. Conference with the teacher for additional editing.
11. Publish or share your memory writing with others.

For older leamers, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge may be paired with Eudora Welty's "Visit of Charity" in an instructional plan including the following components:

1. Describe your thoughts and reactions as you walk down the hallway of a residential care facility to visit an elderly friend or family member.
2. From key vocabulary words, predict what you think Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge will be about.
3. After reading, summarize the main idea of the book.
4. Compare your earlier predictions with your summary.
5. Read the story, "Visit of Charity."
6. Describe Wilfrid Gordon; describe Marion from "Visit of Charity." Compare the two characters.
7. What was the message intended by Mem Fox? What was the message communicated by Eudora Welty?
8. Which story was more realistic? Why do you think so?

With instructional practices supporting integrated learning within classrooms, our assessments must evolve likewise. Assessment should include direct measures of student knowledge and performance. Results from performance of real world tasks should communicate individual student achievement and guide classroom instruction. Currently, BSAP is undergoing revisions which should supply information about individual student achievement and for effective classroom instruction. As I worked with fellow writing team members and additional teachers representing various grade levels, descriptions of what students should know and be able to do were produced for grades three, six, eight, and twelve. Our specific descriptions, South Carolina English Language Arts Academic Achievement Standards (1996), have been used to create innovative and integrated performance tasks for the revised BSAP. Students will now respond to longer text passages and open-ended writing prompts.

As the curtain opens for the final act, South Carolina's Board of Education members and state legislators will consider adoption of English/Language Arts Grade by Grade Standards of Learning, a document that merges Virginia's standards with our own Academic Achievement Standards. The combination seems to wed integration with specific skills. This critical development, now seemingly out of the hands of classroom teachers and other South Carolina educators, follows a national push to return to basics.

During the 1997 fall session, Congress considered passage of a bill that will endorse phonics as the national reading program. Media tabloids flashing headlines blame whole language, the reading profession at large, and teachers in general for the current decline in literacy acquisition. Phonics is the answer to our educational crisis, say supporters of this movement.

If South Carolina's educators and the children we serve receive informed and knowledgeable support from our legislators and board members, ongoing progress in our state's curriculum, instruction, and assessment plans will continue the cycle of increased learning for both students and teachers. If, instead, our policy makers respond to biased scare tactics, successful change will be impeded. Our students, teachers, parents, and community members must voice commitment to increased expectations for learning, not merely on paper and pencil tasks, but with engagements that challenge all students to learn about life and living.

Works Cited

Cambourne, B. The Whole Story. Auckland, New Zealand: Ashton Scholastic, 1988.

Fox, M. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. Brooklyn, NY: Kane/Miller, 1985.

International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. Standards for the English Language Arts. USA: Author, 1996.

Rylant, C. When I Was Young in the Mountains. NY: E.P. Dutton, 1982.

South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. What Work Requires of Schools. Columbia, SC: Author, 1992.

South Carolina State Department of Education. South Carolina English Language Arts Academic Achievement Standards. Columbia, SC: Author, 1996.

South Carolina State Department of Education. South Carolina English Language Arts Framework. Columbia, SC: Author, 1996.

Welty, Eudora A Curtain of Green and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979.

Kathy Neal Headley is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Clemson University. She coordinates the Clemson Reading Conference, serves as state coordinator for the SC State Council of the International Reading Association, and represents Clemson as site coordinator for Reading Recovery. In addition to participating as a writing team member for the SC English Language Arts Curriculum Framework, she chaired the writing committee for SC's English Language Arts Achievement Standards.