Communications Competencies
Reading, Speaking, and Writing
Prepared by the Competencies Task Force of CEI—The North Carolina Conference of English Instructors
August 11, 1995

Reading Competencies
with Acquisition and Assessment Strategies

The student will become competent in comprehension, analysis, interpretation and evaluation, language and style, and research.
  1. Comprehension Competencies
    The student will
    1. Comprehend the meaning of literary texts, business documents, and textbooks.
    2. Identify and differentiate between main ideas or themes and supporting details, noting transitions.

    1. Acquisition Strategies
      The student will
      1. Summarize and paraphrase articles and documents.
      2. Use reading strategies such as previewing, annotating, note taking, and outlining.
      3. Read a variety of texts such as periodicals, speech manuals, novels, poems, and plays.
      4. Read a variety of workplace documents such as written instructions and technical descriptions, contracts, proposals, and reports which include charts, graphs, and tables.
      5. Bring a variety of documents to class to analyze or to use as models of a particular organizational pattern.
      6. Demonstrate a comprehension of a text's or document's organization by writing a document using the same form of organization.
      7. Interpret illustrations such as tables and figures (graphs, maps, and diagrams).
      8. Identify an implied thesis.
      9. dentify author's pattern(s) of organization such as cause and effect, comparison/contrast, and definition.
      10. Use context clues and word attack skills.

    2. Assessment Strategies
      The instructor will
      1. Ask students to summarize and paraphrase.
      2. Encourage class participation.
      3. Administer standardized reading tests.
      4. Hold instructor-student conferences.
      5. Require students to keep journals.
      6. Institute collaborative peer assessment.
      7. Teach students to use self assessment.
      8. Assign brief written responses.
      9. Require oral presentations.
      10. Assign topics for peer teaching.

  2. Analysis Competencies
    The student will
    1. Differentiate between fact and opinion.
    2. Understand the writer's point of view or bias.
    3. Identify the ethics, assumptions, and cultural and historical context.
    4. Recognize logical arguments and logical fallacies.

    1. Acquisition Strategies
      The student will
      1. Take an opposing viewpoint from the author.
      2. Determine the credibility of the author.
      3. Distinguish between fact and opinion.
      4. Read articles on the same topic from different sources and highlight words which show bias.
      5. Recognize and identify logical fallacies.
      6. Recognize diverse values, ethics, and cultural backgrounds.
      7. Identify cultural change throughout history.

    2. Assessment Strategies
      The instructor will
      1. Ask students to summarize and paraphrase.
      2. Encourage class participation.
      3. Administer standardized reading tests.
      4. Hold instructor-student conferences.
      5. Require students to keep journals.
      6. Institute collaborative peer assessment.
      7. Teach students to use self assessment.
      8. Assign brief written responses.
      9. Require oral presentations.
      10. Ask students to rewrite a short passage from a different point of view.
      11. Require that students present research to support or oppose the author's case.
      12. Hold debates—formal or informal.
      13. Use role-playing.

  3. Interpretation and Evaluation Competencies
    The student will
    1. Interpret, evaluate, draw inferences, and support conclusions with evidence from a text.
    2. Recognize the presence of ambiguity and multiple interpretations.
    3. Relate texts to life situations.

    1. Acquisition Strategies
      The student will
      1. Relate lesson of literature to workplace.
      2. Evaluate and/or interpret works from several different genres.
      3. Read differing interpretations of the same work.
      4. Identify the literary elements such as character, setting, symbolism, structure, point of view, style, diction, tone, and irony; then argue how they convey meaning in a work.
      5. Read and discuss how a particular work relates to current cultural, social, or political situations.
      6. Read thematically from different literary genres.

    2. Assessment Strategies
      The instructor will
      1. Ask students to summarize and paraphrase.
      2. Encourage class participation.
      3. Administer standardized reading tests.
      4. Hold instructor-student conferences.
      5. Require students to keep journals.
      6. Institute collaborative peer assessment.
      7. Teach students to use self assessment.
      8. Assign brief written responses.
      9. Require oral presentations.
      10. Require that students read editorials on the same topic or two articles on the same story and compare them orally or in writing.
      11. Participate in a debate or panel discussion with peers based on response to reading.
      12. Role-play a dialogue (conversation, interview) between the author and the reader.

  4. Language and Style Competencies
    The student will
    1. Identify the author's tone, voice and diction, developing an appreciation for the author's style, artistry, and perspective.
    2. Develop an awareness of inference and of denotative and connotative meanings of words.
    3. Comprehend the uses of figurative language.

    1. Acquisition Strategies
      The student will
      1. Analyze tone, voice, style, and diction and determine how these elements relate to the target audience.
      2. Understand the use of figurative language by recognizing metaphor, simile, hyperbole, idiom, cliché, personification, allusion, irony, and paradox.
      3. Identify cues that signal levels of formality of language.
      4. Recognize the use of connotation to express meaning.
      5. Use vocabulary strategies to learn the meaning of unfamiliar words.

    2. Assessment Strategies
      The instructor will
      1. Ask students to summarize and paraphrase.
      2. Encourage class participation.
      3. Administer standardized reading tests.
      4. Hold instructor-student conferences.
      5. Require students to keep journals.
      6. Institute collaborative peer assessment.
      7. Teach students to use self assessment.
      8. Assign brief written responses.
      9. Require oral presentations.
      10. Ask students to mimic styles of authors orally or in writing.

  5. Research Competencies
    The student will
    1. Use indexes, dictionary, thesauruses, and other library resources.
    2. Read and understand basic information and text in electronic media.

    1. Acquisition Strategies
      The student will
      1. Prepare annotated bibliographies.
      2. Use reference tools (text and electronic) to gather information to conduct background research, support a point, or refute a point.
      3. Use a dictionary to trace etymologies and to determine meaning and pronunciation.
      4. Locate information on unfamiliar terminology.
      5. Use a thesaurus to improve diction and precision.

    2. Assessment Strategies
      The instructor will
      1. Assign library research exercises.
      2. Require vocabulary journals.
      3. Administer dictionary tests.

CEI - North Carolina Conference of English Instructors - Est. 1972