Standards, Benchmarks & Performance Indicators in Arabic
The concept of language arts first emerged in the West, founded on the idea that both art and language are powerful means of expression and communication. It is rooted in the use of language and its various arts, including the four core skills—writing in its different forms, reading in its different forms, listening, and speaking—along with interpreting visual information such as illustrations and images, and the ability to produce text inspired by images. What is most significant about language arts is that it teaches the language itself and immerses students in it, rather than merely teaching about the language. Language arts also includes emphasis on additional skills such as phonemic awareness, phonology, reading comprehension, rhymed literature, rhetoric, handwriting, morphology and root analysis, oratory, oral presentations, editing, vocabulary instruction, spelling, and source citation.
Dr. Hanada Taha developed the first Arabic Language Arts Standards in the Arab world, outlining clear progressions and performance indicators for every grade level from kindergarten through grade twelve. The standards, progress markers, and performance indicators are defined as follows:
Standards:
Broad frameworks that specify what students are expected to know.
Progress Markers:
Used to evaluate a student’s language proficiency through comprehensive, standardized assessments administered at certain stages of their academic journey.
Performance Indicators:
Skills and competencies that students must demonstrate at each grade level in order to achieve mastery of the standards.
The Arabic Language Arts Standards developed by Dr. Hanada Taha provide a comprehensive framework of the knowledge, skills, and practical competencies students are expected to acquire. In addition, the standards outline aligned methods for assessing this knowledge and clarify what students “should know.” One of the most significant advantages of adopting standards in the learning process is the shift they create in the traditional perception of the school curriculum. Commonly, the “school curriculum” is assumed to be the collection of textbooks assigned for the subject. Thus, if the prescribed Arabic language textbook is governmental or commercially published, then that book is assumed to be the curriculum. In reality, a curriculum is not determined by one, two, or even three books. Rather, the standards agreed upon for each grade level—and the importance of covering them—form the foundation of the curriculum. Teachers then select resources and texts from various books in order to teach toward those standards. The standards constitute the “what” of the learning process, as they answer the question: What will the student know after attending this lesson?
The standards developed by Dr. Hanada Taha consist of ten key standards, listed below:
Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition, and Fluency
Vocabulary Acquisition
Text Understanding, Reading Strategies, Comprehension, and Self-Monitoring
Reading Persuasive, Technical, and Informational Texts
Reading Literary Texts
The Writing Process
“Every Genre Has Its Form” in the Writing Process
Linguistic Accuracy in Writing
Research Skills
Oral Communication, Expression, and Listening
Each standard includes detailed progress markers and performance indicators that specify what students must know and be able to do.