Grade 7 ELA Arkansas standards Standards

Conventions

Structure

Language

Presentation

Speaking and Listening Comprehension

Collaborative Communication

Vocabulary

Research

Production

Style

Writing

Reading Information

Reading Literature

Reading Fundamentals

Reading Comprehension

Express ideas in a collaborative setting, using effective discussion strategies.

Include relevant multimedia to clarify claims and findings.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using appropriate eye contact, tone, and pacing.

Demonstrate command of standard English when indicated or appropriate.

Recite a passage from a well-known poem, play, or speech.

Come to discussions prepared, referring to researched evidence on the topic, text, or issue.

Follow rules for collegial discussions, tracking progress towards specific goals and deadlines, and defining individual roles as needed. Collegial discussions should include:<ul><li>One-on-one</li><li>In small groups</li><li>Teacher-led</li></ul>

Acknowledge new information expressed by others and modify one's own views as needed.

Explain how central ideas and supporting details from non-textual sources clarify a topic, text, or issue.

Articulate a speaker's argument and specific claims, evaluating the accuracy of the evidence.

Present claims and evidence, emphasizing primary points in a focused, coherent manner.

Sequence ideas logically.

Support claims, central ideas, and/or themes with descriptions, facts, details, and examples.

Use nouns effectively:<ul><li>Direct and indirect objects</li></ul>

Choose language that precisely expresses ideas, eliminating redundancy.

Set off restrictive, nonrestrictive, and parenthetical elements, using commas, parentheses, dashes.

Use commas to separate coordinate adjectives, set off series, phrases and clauses, and direct address.

Join elements of a series when individual items of the series already include commas, using a semicolon.

Indicate dialogue, quotes, and titles, using quotation marks.

Use knowledge of reading foundational skills, spelling patterns, and generalizations such as syllable patterns, ending rules, and meaningful word parts (i.e., morphology) to spell correctly.

Use pronouns properly:<ul><li>Intensive and reflexive pronouns</li><li>Relative pronouns</li></ul>

Ensure pronouns have a clear antecedent and are appropriate in number and person.

Use verbs effectively:<ul><li>Perfect verb tenses</li><li>Shifts in mood</li><li>Active and passive voice</li><li>Subject/verb agreement</li><li>Linking verbs</li></ul>

Use verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) correctly.

Use modifiers effectively:<ul><li>Proper adjectives</li><li>Predicate adjectives</li></ul>

Correct misplaced and dangling modifiers.

Produce compound-complex sentences, using dependent clauses, subordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, correlative conjunctions, and coordinating conjunctions.

Identify types of phrases and clauses based on their functions in sentences.

Provide an objective summary of a text.

Identify the theme in an original, adapted, or modernized drama, poem, folktale, or story from American literature (beginnings through 1850), explaining its historical and/or contemporary significance.

Describe how the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas impact the development of a text.

Describe how the major sections of a text influence the overall structure and development of ideas, themes, or arguments.

Examine how an author distinguishes his or her purpose, point of view, and/or perspective in a text from alternate or opposing positions.

Compare and contrast how an individual, issue, or idea is portrayed in a written text and in multimedia.

Evaluate the argument and supporting claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is logical and if the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

Compare and contrast how two or more authors write about the same topic, including how key information is presented, how evidence is explained, and how facts are interpreted or promoted.

Identify the central idea in a nonfiction work from or about American literature (beginnings through 1850), explaining its historical and/or contemporary significance.

Determine how a central idea and/or theme of a text is developed through supporting details.

Cite text evidence to support an analysis of what a text states, using background knowledge to justify inferences drawn from the text.

Demonstrate reading comprehension of age and grade-appropriate texts by speaking or writing.

Examine how the interaction of literary elements impacts a story or drama, including how setting shapes the characters or plot or how imagery affects the mood of a text.

Describe how elements in the overall structure of a story, drama, or poem contribute to its meaning.

Determine how an author develops multiple points of view and perspectives of characters or narrators in a text.

Recognize the differences between reading a text, listening to an audio recording of a text, and/or watching a multimedia version of a text; differences of which:<ul><li>Literary elements are imagined when reading a text, and</li><li>Multimedia techniques are observed when listening and/or watching.</li></ul>

Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character with the historical account of the corresponding time, place, or character.

Use general academic and content-specific words and phrases accurately.

Decode and encode words, using knowledge of Greek combining forms and Latin prefixes, bases, and suffixes and connectives as needed.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing from a range of effective techniques:<ul><li>Use common Greek or Latin affixes and roots (i.e., morphology),</li><li>Trace the origins of words (i.e., etymology),</li><li>Use context,</li><li>Consult reference materials to clarify pronunciation and/or parts of speech, and/or</li><li>Use word relationships such as cause and effect, part to whole, and item into category to clarify the meaning of each word.</li></ul>

Examine words with similar denotations, considering how their connotations and nuances impact the words' meanings.

Determine how word choice, including rhyme and repetition, contributes to the meaning, style, and/or tone of a text.

Demonstrate an understanding of figurative language in context, including allusions and analogies.

Compose an argument, using clear reasons and supporting evidence.<ul><li>Introduce claims.</li><li>Acknowledge alternate or opposing claims.</li><li>Support claims with credible sources.</li></ul>

Increase independent writing with support and collaboration from peers and adults, employing the stages of the writing process (e.g., draft, revise, edit) with a focus on audience.

Include headings, graphics, and various multimedia to clarify information.

Maintain formal style when appropriate, editing writing to include grade-appropriate conventions for publishing.

Conduct research to explore a topic and/or answer a question, refocusing the inquiry for further research, investigation, or refinement.

Assess the credibility and accuracy of sources.

Quote or paraphrase data and conclusions, crediting sources and/or authors.

Follow a standard format for citation, including bibliographic information.

Write to inform about a topic.<ul><li>Introduce a topic with a preview of what is to follow.</li><li>Convey ideas, concepts, and information.</li><li>Choose relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, and examples.</li></ul>

Write to express real or imagined experiences and/or events.<ul><li>Establish the topic, context, narrative elements, and point of view and/or perspective.</li><li>Use relevant, descriptive details and precise language.</li><li>Develop well-structured event sequences.</li><li>Use narrative techniques (e.g., dialogue, pacing, description).</li></ul>

Construct clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.

Organize writing logically, constructing an introduction, body, conclusion, and/or reflection when appropriate.

Use a variety of sentence types (i.e., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex).

Choose precise words, phrases, and clauses to clarify relationships among ideas, claims, reasons, and/or evidence about a topic.

Choose a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, to signal shifts from one time or setting to another, and/or to clarify the relationships among ideas.

Develop writing stamina during single sessions and over extended periods of time.