Exploring language and identity: Amy Tan's Mother Tongue and beyond

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9

• Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
  • Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
    • scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
    • vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
    • appreciation for the significance of the account.
    • a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (individually and in groups) to a variety of expressive texts (e.g., memoirs, vignettes, narratives, diaries, monologues, personal responses) in a way that offers an audience:
    • an understanding of the student's personal reaction to the text.
    • a sense of how the reaction results from a careful consideration of the text.
    • an awareness of how personal and cultural influences affect the response.
• Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
  • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:
    • uses varying sentence types (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) purposefully, correctly, and for specific effect.
    • selects verb tense to show an appropriate sense of time.
    • applies parts of speech to clarify and edit language.
    • addresses clarity and style through such strategies as parallelism; appropriate coordination and subordination; variety and details; appropriate and exact words; and conciseness.
    • analyzes the place and role of dialects and standard/nonstandard English.
    • uses vocabulary strategies such as roots and affixes, word maps, and context clues to discern the meanings of words.

Grade 10

• Goal 1: The learner will react to and reflect upon print and non-print text and personal experiences by examining situations from both subjective and objective perspectives.
  • Objective 1.01: Produce reminiscences (about a person, event, object, place, animal) that engage the audience by:
    • using specific and sensory details with purpose.
    • explaining the significance of the reminiscence from an objective perspective.
    • moving effectively between past and present.
    • recreating the mood felt by the author during the reminiscence.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (through small group discussion, class discussion, journal entry, essay, letter, dialogue) to written and visual texts by:
    • relating personal knowledge to textual information or class discussion.
    • showing an awareness of one's own culture as well as the cultures of others.
    • exhibiting an awareness of culture in which text is set or in which text was written.
    • explaining how culture affects personal responses.
    • demonstrating an understanding of media's impact on personal responses and cultural analyses.

Grade 11

• Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
  • Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
    - elaborating upon a significant past episode from the student's current perspective.
    - projecting the student's voice in the work through reflective interpretation of relationships to people and events.
    -writing for a specific audience and purpose.
  • Objective 1.02: Reflect and respond expressively to texts so that the audience will:
    - discover multiple perspectives.
    - investigate connections between life and literature.
    - explore how the student's life experiences influence his or her response to the selection.
    - recognize how the responses of others may be different.
    - articulate insightful connections between life and literature.
    -consider cultural or historical significance.
• Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
  • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
    - decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
    - discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
    - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
    - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
    -analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events.

Grade 12

• Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text as well as to personal experience.
  • Objective 1.01: Compose reflective texts that give the audience:
    - an understanding of complex thoughts and feelings.
    - a sense of significance (social, political, or philosophical implications).
    - a sense of encouragement to reflect on his or her own ideas.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond to texts so that the audience will:
    - empathize with the voice of the text.
    - make connections between the learner's life and the text.
    - reflect on how cultural or historical perspectives may have influenced these responses.
    - examine the learner's own response in light of peers' responses.
    -recognize features of the author's use of language and how the learner relates these features to his/her own writing.
• Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
  • Objective 6.01: Apply knowledge of literary terms, grammar, and rhetoric in order to write clearly, succinctly, and accurately by:
    - understanding how to use and apply grammatical, metaphorical, or rhetorical devices.
    - recognizing how to use different language conventions (such as loose or periodic sentences, effective use of passive voice, or the importance of strong verbs).
    - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
    - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of British literature.
    - analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic presentations, or public speaking events.