English Language Arts Teacher Responsibilities

An English language arts teacher is involved in the development of English language in the students and help them in precise understanding of the academic subject matter. The main English language arts teacher responsibilities include inculcating educational, behavioral, and social skills in students for their overall development into capable, responsible, and mature individuals.

English language arts teacher is involved in teaching language skills to their students, including the basics like reading, writing, and speaking. Since the language arts teachers are associated with teaching the basics of the English language, they teach primarily at the middle school and high school level. Although the scope of English language arts teacher at the kindergarten and early elementary levels is very limited, an English language arts teacher may find a satisfactory role in teaching at this level.

Key Responsibilities

Core responsibilities of an English language arts teacher include planning, developing, and compiling a comprehensive language based educational program for students and delivering quality instructions to students, resulting in their overall development. Although the teaching method adopted in the classroom varies from school to school, the key responsibilities of an English language arts teacher remain the same. An English language arts teacher may develop a particular style in teaching, depending on the level of understanding of the students; but the teaching curriculum and instructional information have to affirm with the national and state laws and the school curriculum.

The key responsibilities of an English language arts teacher include:

1. Academic
   • Providing interactive and meaningful learning material to students, maintaining positive learning environment for active participation of students, assigning homework, and conducting class tests for analyzing their progress
   • Implementing and delivering quality instruction to students and executing the instructional program by demanding higher order thinking activities from students in a progressive manner
   • Designing the curriculum that challenges the learning ability of students and ensuring overall development of language
   • Preparing home assignments and test materials, evaluating the tests' results, and creating innovative methods of teaching as per the students' varying backgrounds, learning style, and grasping power
   • Providing learning material and language reference books to the students, utilizing available resources in school curriculum to monitor, access, and evaluate students' learning abilities

2. Administrative
   • Collaborating with specialist education teachers for creating innovative methods of learning as per the students' abilities and requirements, and identifying the root of behavioral learning problems in students
   • Optimizing the use of Internet and other interactive technology for strengthening and supporting instructional programs
   • Establishing and maintaining a healthy relationship with students, parents, and other working staff members, managing the students' behavior in the classroom and the school premises, and implementing appropriate behavior management program
   • Developing the instructional program pertaining to the current educational trends and updating their knowledge on latest research based educational developments
   • Maintaining the instructional process and evaluating system of the students as per the state law adopted by the school
   • Maintaining the students' progress reports, identifying areas of weakness in the student for their overall improvement in studying habits, behavioral issues, and organizational skills
   • Filing and maintaining all forms of physical and computerized documents, records, and reports of the students for general and academic records
   • Working in accordance with the latest classroom teaching policies implemented by the state and national legislation, and school regulation
   • Actively participating in all important departmental and parents' meetings as well as other school related activities

Apart from these regular duties, an English language arts teacher also offers his services in school management like monitoring and supervising the classroom, school hallways and grounds, interacting with parents and offering external support for the benefit of students with behavioral learning issues, etc.

Required Qualifications and Skills

For a successful career in the field of teaching, the basic qualification required is Bachelor's Degree in English language or its equivalent from an accredited college / university. Also, they must have the teaching license / certificate from the respective state in which they are applying. The teaching license can be obtained once the candidate has passed successfully in the teaching certificate exams conducted separately in all the states. Knowledge about the administrative laws in that particular state is preferred.

Apart from educational knowledge, the key for successful accomplishment of the duties of English language arts teacher is communication. A language teacher is required to have strong interpersonal skills for effectively transferring the knowledge they have. Fluency in communication is acquired by experience, and hence the experienced professionals are given more preference in this field. Knowledge of additional language apart from English, previous experience in language teaching, post-graduation in English language, etc., are other additional attributes which are considered before selecting a candidate for this post.

Responsibilities of an English language arts teacher are very dynamic, as the teacher directly deals with complex young minds, still in the developing stage. Language learning is a very complex process and hence the English language arts teacher may have to go beyond their regular responsibilities and tackle the unique challenges that come along the way while implementing the language learning program.