Viewing, recognising, listening and reading must come before writing a language

The foremost aim of language instruction is that the student should be prepared to become a competent and thoughtful reader, listener of spoken language from the textual material and a variety of other sources of information as put forth by Alaska standards of language instruction in schools

A student who meets this Alaska standard should be able to:

• Comprehend meaning from written text and oral and visual information by applying a variety of reading, listening, and viewing strategies; these strategies include phonic, context, and vocabulary cues in reading, critical viewing; and active listening;

• Reflect on, analyze, and evaluate a variety of oral, written, and visual information and experiences including discussions, lectures, art, movies, television, technical materials, and literature; and

• Relate what the student views, reads, and hears to practical purposes in the student's life, to the world outside, and to other texts and experiences.

The following provisions can positively affect students’ success in reading as per the Alaska standards:

• Regular opportunities to read and respond to fiction and nonfiction or technical information;

• Many opportunities for students to explore independent reading;

• The opportunity to read for personally significant purposes;

• The opportunity for students to use reading as a tool for learning in all subject areas;

• Rich and varied opportunities for vocabulary development;

• Links between student background knowledge and new content presented in text;

• Opportunities to become independent readers who use varied cueing systems-semantics and syntax,

• Opportunities to use recognized strategies before, during, and after reading in order to read literature, textbooks, primary and other sources successfully.

It is expected that students must be capable readers and active listeners to take in the information to analyse and evaluate the information and ideas. Across all subjects in schools, the abilities to read and listen, to write and speak are of paramount importance. Applying what they view, read, and hear to their own circumstances can enrich their lives.