Warning: Essay Rant Ahead You know, I have always been confused by the term "Langauge Arts" What the heck is language arts anyway? To me, Langauge Arts is like Social Studies in that they are both ambiguous terms that almost everyone uses, yet few bother to define. Those who (claim) to care, are constantly at odds about what exactly the term means and what all falls under there over-simplified blanket term of choice. I remember a few teachers I talked to, could not tell me. Neither could my friends, who attended PS. It never made sense to me that they had homework for: Reading, Spelling, grammar and "lang. arts." I dont understand the point of doing Language Arts through Primary and Middle school, if you're just going to take 2+ semesters of "English" in highschool.. I thought it was a blanket term for everything to do with reading and writing; such as spelling, grammar, composition, and probably something vague and undefinable like "literary appreciation". I have also always hated taking "English" in Highschool... "What the heck...I speak, read, write and understand perfectly good English, thank you very much! I have been doing school in the English langauge for, oh 8 years now." It ticked me off even more when I realized that by taking "English" you usually studied Shaekspeare (whom I do not even like!) Shaekspeare is no more synonymous with "English" then...Elain Cunningham, (if you're going...'Who the heck is that?' or, even better, "what has she written thats so great?" then thats exactly my point!) I'm sorry, but if in 8 years a child has not been able to master the 8 parts of speech, rules of grammar, and spelling rules + exceptions then that child deserves monetary reperations for the YEARS of their life that has been stolen...I dont care how well Billy Speares utilized Iambic pentameter, or what not, his writing isn't all that great, really. What was hip and revolutionary in the 1600's is hardly news in 2010.... I'm sorry, I've had that bubbling in me for, years! I HATED "English" in 9th grade. Today, I had a discussion with someone about Language Arts and...I just couldn't keep it in anymore.
As I understand it (and after looking through the local school textbooks that claim they are "language arts") I have come to the conclusion that it is a program that incorporates grammar, spelling, writing and reading. The basics. I for one loved english, BUT I hated that I had to read books they chose for me and I had to write a HUGE paper on each one. The 1 thing I hated the most was my senior project. We had to do a project which had to be approved by your english teacher and we had to put 120 hours into it. Then we had to do a presentation at the end of the year to a group of our peers and it was a pass/fail grade. The kicker was that if you failed your senior project you didn't graduate even if you had a 4.0! My project was teaching a child to read and they almost failed me because they didn't like that I taught using phonics.
I think "arts" is the key word here. Like, you can get your bachelors degree in "fine arts", but you'll choose a more defined area (music, art, dance) of study to get it. In doing so, you'll have to take art appreciation, humanities, etc. and learn a little about all of the "arts" before getting your degree. They're all tied together. "Language" arts is an umbrella term that covers all subjects dealing with language (even foreign language, speech, and debate), because they're all intertwined. Learning what you want to say, how to say it, how to write it, how to convey your idea to others in the most appropriate way for the audience... that's language arts. Sure, you might take spelling this year, reading next year, english the next year... but you're still learning all the courses you'll need to appreciate the art of language.
I had this question too. To me Language arts is anything having to do with language-reading, phonics, writing, spelling, vocab, grammar, ect. My state requires me to teach reading AND language arts. It was explained to me by a student teacher "in the most basic terms, reading is reading and language arts is writing..." So this year we're doing phonics and read aloud for reading and spelling and writing stories for language arts....
I copied this from the Time4Learning website, but I like how it lists all the different components included in the term "Language Arts"...
