How English is taught in American schools

Typical day in the life of an American student

Elementary School

  • Read a lot of adventure books.
  • Write short paragraphs. i.e dinosaur
  • Keep a journal.
  • Graded on daily journal, short stories, and presentation of books read. This escapes memorization and test taking skills. It concentrates on demonstrating practice and investing time in learning.

Middle School

  • Read non-fiction books
  • Write Point Evidence Explanation paragraphs
  • Discuss characters, storyline, and author’s perspective
  • Graded case studies where we wrote about the characters and analyzed the stories. Demonstrate grammar usage and sentence structure. Encourages improving language usage.

High School

  • Use figurative language in our essays.
  • Essays would have multiple revisions.
  • Our scores would depend on essays.
  • We were graded mostly on reading, paragraph answers, and how we argued.

College

  • Vocabulary usage, clarity, and flow
  • quotation – illustrate a point, provide evidence, or add credibility to the writer’s argument
  • citation – a word or a few details that tells us where that excerpt is from
  • Multiple revisions with professional writer/professor.
  • UCI 39A, 39B, 39C – scores depended on essays, their contents, and argument perspective.