Junior Great Books Meets Key ELA Standards

A teacher leans against a bookshelf and smiles while meeting ELA standards using Junior Great Books

ELA teachers need to help their students reach myriad standards nationwide. Here are 10 key standards that almost all state and district-level documents call for educators to address. Students who participate in Junior Great Books® develop these key skills that are critical not only in English language arts but across the curriculum.

ELA Standards

Reading

  1. Read closely, determine what a text says explicitly, make logical inferences, cite specific textual evidence, and support conclusions.
  2. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
  3. Interpret words and phrases in a text.
  4. Evaluate an argument, the validity of the reasoning, and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

Speaking and Listening

  1. Participate in conversations and collaborations.
  2. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence.
  3. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence; follow a line of reasoning.

Writing

  1. Write arguments to support claims using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
  2. Produce clear and coherent writing.

Language

  1. Understand figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meaning.

Junior Great Books

Find out how you can use Junior Great Books in your classroom to help students read for deeper comprehension, increase critical thinking skills, discuss engaging texts collaboratively with peers, synthesize their ideas in writing, and more. Contact your Great Books Foundation educational consultant today!

Senior Professional Learning Consultant Linda Barrett has over 20 years of experience as both a professional development coach and a training instructor with the Great Books Foundation, working with a wide range of student populations in schools throughout the country and abroad. She has supported Great Books implementations, including several Comprehensive School Reform projects in the New York City area. Now based in Florida, Linda continues to support a number of large Junior Great Books implementations, while also growing multi-school Junior Great Books initiatives in several Florida counties and a number of other states.