Senior 1 English Language Arts: A Foundation for Implementation
Implementation Overview: Senior 1
The Senior 1 Learner and the Learning Environment - Part 1
Senior 1 students are approaching the end of the period of rapid physical, emotional, intellectual, and social change that constitutes early adolescence. As they enter the Senior Years, many students are a mixture of the child and the adult, moving between extremes of naiveté and sophistication. They are often self-absorbed, yet they have a high need for approval. They may resist responsibility, yet most thrive on a sense of independence. They expect and want consistent parameters, yet they may question authority. Due to their tendency to be outspoken, critical, and highly sensitive, coupled with their growing powers of observation and expression, many adolescents are outstanding writers and speakers. Senior 1 students are some of the most challenging students in the school system, and some of the most exciting.
Senior 1 students also are at a critical period with respect to their identity. Whether students take pleasure in reading and in using the language arts for self-expression is largely a matter of whether they see themselves as readers, writers, and producers of texts. Whether they approach learning tasks with confidence depends on whether they define themselves as capable learners. For many students, self-definition in these critical areas is established by the time they move into Senior 2, and is fundamental to the literacy habits and attitudes to learning that they will take into adult life.
Many Senior 1 students change dramatically in the course of the school year. Teachers need to be sensitive to the dynamic classroom atmosphere and recognize when shifts in interests, capabilities, and needs are occurring, so that they can adjust learning activities for their students.
Although each student is unique in personality and rate of developmental growth, adolescents also have common characteristics. The following chart identifies some common characteristics of adolescent learners and the implications of these characteristics for teachers.
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