Literary proficiency is determined by how much and how well students
can extract meaning from an authentic piece of writing (reading proficiency)
or how much and how well a student can communicate in writing (written
proficiency). The literacy benchmarks set minimum standards of the tasks
a student should be able to perform on demand with the language. The
literacy standards are based on four criteria: topic, function, text
type, and performance level.
Topics refer
to the subjects a student can read or write. Students at lower
proficiency levels will be limited to reading and writing about
simple themes in their immediate environment, such as objects
or people. At higher levels, students are expected to read and
write about activities, areas of study, and future plans. |
Functions (students are able
to...) describe what a student can accomplish with
the written language. |
Text types
explain the types of texts and their amount of authenticity
for reading and character sets and indicate the amount of language
to be produced for writing. |
Performance levels
measure how well, how much, or how accurate a performance must
be on a particular type of written language in order to meet the
standard. |
For reading proficiency, there are four levels of control.
Decoding: to make a connection
between characters and the sounds represented without necessarily
understanding the meaning of the words or phrases |
Recognize meaning: to
understand the meaning of words and phrases written in hiragana,
katakana, or kanji |
Skim for general idea:
to determine the gist of written discourse in context |
Extract detail: to extract
detailed information from written discourse in context |
For writing proficiency, there is one level of control.
Express meaning: to produce
meaningful written communication in authentic contexts |
