NATIONAL PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION K-12 - NEW STANDARDS AND SPEAKING LISTENING/VIEWING/

The standards movement aims to reform K-12 education in the U.S. by ra ising expectations for student performance, by applying expectations t o all children, and by monitoring achievement through authentic assess ments. Prospects for implementing oral communication instruction in cl assrooms can be enhanced by aligning with this movement. New Standards is a nationally based, highly visible program for developing and prom ulgating performance standards in several curricular areas, including. The oral communication standards incorporated into New Standards prom ote several principles. (1) Oral communication assessment can be integ rated into common learning activities; by the same token, oral communi cation activities facilitate learning. (2) Oral communication skills m anifest developmental patterning. (3) Oral communication instruction b ridges individual expression with academic discipline. (4) Oral commun ication is learned across the curriculum. (5) Speaking and listening p erformance can be assessed and documented authentically. New Standards is not a flawless vehicle for promoting oral communication instructio n in K-12, but it can exert substantial impact for increasing classroo m teachers' attentiveness to oral communication instruction.