Four units in a junior high school language arts program--literature, rhetoric, language, and reading--are presented in this curriculum guide. The introduction argues that a viable language arts program should be relevant to the immediate needs of the students, should emphasize self-discovery, and should attempt to unify the content and process of learning so that students not only learn linguistic skills but also become more sensitive people. Each section of the guide begins with a position paper outlining the goals of that particular discipline and then presents a teaching or resource unit to accomplish these goals. The literature section offers a teaching unit in popular music as literature and a unit in the novel, "The Old Man and the Sea." The rhetoric section has a resource unit on writing a visual description of a person. The language section includes a resource unit on the varieties of English and an appendix entitled "A Mature Attitude toward Usage." The reading section presents a resource unit on vocabulary. The final section of the guide lists recommended textbooks and print and nonprint materials. (Author/DI)