In the 2022-2023 school year, teachers and students will make the seismic shift from the Language Arts Florida Standards (LAFS) to the Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards for English Language Arts. These new standards differ drastically in theory, structure, and content from the previous ones. To help both teachers and students better understand the demands of these new learning goals, Pelican K-12, Inc. has developed a comprehensive guide to understanding and applying these grade level requirements. The company decided to start with the critically important tenth grade. Appropriate instruction during this pivotal year can turn struggling students around in time to graduate and, at the same time, lead on-grade level students to new heights of comprehension and communication.

Diving into Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards for English Language Arts, Grade 10 is NOT a test preparation book. Instead, the authors have written a thorough explanation of the NEW Florida literacy standards and their accompanying benchmarks. In an easy-to-follow structure, students are walked through each standard and its accompanying benchmarks as laid out in the B.E.S.T. Standards Map found in the state standards document. Following explicit instruction, application of the benchmark demands is modeled for the students using content-rich texts. Then in partnerships or small groups, students work collaboratively to practice the skills needed to answer constructed responses, demonstrating understanding of the complex, grade-level texts. To make sure all students can be successful, the instruction of each benchmark is chunked into manageable pieces and includes brain breaks to support student ownership of their learning.