Language Arts 7

General links
     Discovery Education: Literature & ELA      
     Language Arts resources   
     School2Home: Resources for English Language Arts   


Reading
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development  
1.1  Identify idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes in prose and poetry.
1.2  Use knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to understand content-area vocabulary. 
1.3  Clarify word meanings through the use of definition, example, restatement, or contrast. 

2.0 Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials)
2.1  Understand and analyze the differences in structure and purpose between various categories of informational materials (e.g., textbooks, newspapers, instructional manuals, signs). 
2.2  Locate information by using a variety of consumer, workplace, and public documents. 
2.3  Analyze text that uses the cause-and-effect organizational pattern.
2.4  Identify and trace the development of an author's argument, point of view, or perspective in text. 
2.5  Understand and explain the use of a simple mechanical device by following technical directions.
2.6  Assess the adequacy, accuracy, and appropriateness of the author's evidence to support claims and assertions, noting instances of bias and stereotyping. 

3.0  Literary Response and Analysis 
3.1  Articulate the expressed purposes and characteristics of different forms of prose (e.g., short story, novel, novella, essay). 
3.2  Identify events that advance the plot and determine how each event explains past or present action(s) or foreshadows future action(s). 
3.3  Analyze characterization as delineated through a character's thoughts, words, speech patterns, and actions; the narrator's description; and the thoughts, words, and actions of other characters.
3.4  Identify and analyze recurring themes across works (e.g., the value of bravery, loyalty, and friendship; the effects of loneliness). 
3.5  Contrast points of view (e.g., first and third person, limited and omniscient, subjective and objective) in narrative text and explain how they affect the overall theme of the work.
3.6  Analyze a range of responses to a literary work and determine the extent to which the literary elements in the work shaped those responses. 

Writing
1.0  Writing Strategies
1.1  Create an organizational structure that balances all aspects of the composition and uses effective transitions between sentences to unify important ideas.
1.2  Support all statements and claims with anecdotes, descriptions, facts and statistics, and specific examples. 
1.3  Use strategies of note taking, outlining, and summarizing to impose structure on composition drafts.
1.4  Identify topics; ask and evaluate questions; and develop ideas leading to inquiry, investigation, and research.
1.5  Give credit for both quoted and paraphrased information in a bibliography by using a consistent and sanctioned format and methodology for citations. 
1.6  Create documents by using word-processing skills and publishing programs; develop simple databases and spreadsheets to manage information and prepare reports.
1.7  Revise writing to improve organization and word choice after checking the logic of the ideas and the precision of the vocabulary. 

2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
2.1a  Write fictional or autobiographical narratives: Develop a standard plot line (having a beginning, conflict, rising action, climax, and denouement) and point of view. 
2.1b  Write fictional or autobiographical narratives: Develop complex major and minor characters and a definite setting. 
2.1c  Write fictional or autobiographical narratives: Use a range of appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue; suspense; naming of specific narrative action, including movement, gestures, and expressions).
2.2a  Write responses to literature: Develop interpretations exhibiting careful reading, understanding, and insight.
2.2b  Write responses to literature: Organize interpretations around several clear ideas, premises, or images from the literary work.
2.2c  Write responses to literature: Justify interpretations through sustained use of examples and textual evidence.
2.3a  Write research reports: Pose relevant and tightly drawn questions about the topic. 
2.3b  Write research reports: Convey clear and accurate perspectives on the subject. 
2.3c  Write research reports: Include evidence compiled through the formal research process (e.g., use of a card catalog, Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, a computer catalog, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries). 
2.3d  Write research reports: Document reference sources by means of footnotes and a bibliography.
2.4a  Write persuasive compositions: State a clear position or perspective in support of a proposition or proposal.
2.4b  Write persuasive compositions: Describe the points in support of the proposition, employing well-articulated evidence. 
2.4c  Write persuasive compositions: Anticipate and address reader concerns and counterarguments. 
2.5a  Write summaries of reading materials: Include the main ideas and most significant details.
2.5b  Write summaries of reading materials: Use the student's own words, except for quotations.
2.5c  Write summaries of reading materials: Reflect underlying meaning, not just the superficial details.

Written & Oral English Language Conventions
1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions
1.1  Place modifiers properly and use the active voice.
1.2  Identify and use infinitives and participles and make clear references between pronouns and antecedents.
1.3  Identify all parts of speech and types and structure of sentences.
1.4  Demonstrate the mechanics of writing (e.g., quotation marks, commas at end of dependent clauses) and appropriate English usage (e.g., pronoun reference).
1.5  Identify hyphens, dashes, brackets, and semicolons and use them correctly.
1.6  Use correct capitalization.
1.7  Spell derivatives correctly by applying the spellings of bases and affixes.

Listening and Speaking
1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies
1.1  Ask probing questions to elicit information, including evidence to support the speaker's claims and conclusions.
1.2  Determine the speaker's attitude toward the subject.
1.3  Respond to persuasive messages with questions, challenges, or affirmations.
1.4  Organize information to achieve particular purposes and to appeal to the background and interests of the audience.
1.5  Arrange supporting details, reasons, descriptions, and examples effectively and persuasively in relation to the audience.
1.6  Use speaking techniques, including voice modulation, inflection, tempo, enunciation, and eye contact, for effective presentations.
1.7  Provide constructive feedback to speakers concerning the coherence and logic of a speech's content and delivery and its overall impact upon the listener.
1.8  Analyze the effect on the viewer of images, text, and sound in electronic journalism; identify the techniques used to achieve the effects in each instance studied.

2.0  Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
2.1a  Deliver narrative presentations: Establish a context, standard plot line (having a beginning, conflict, rising action, climax, and denouement), and point of view.
2.1b  Deliver narrative presentations: Describe complex major and minor characters and a definite setting.
2.1c  Deliver narrative presentations: Use a range of appropriate strategies, including dialogue, suspense, and naming of specific narrative action (e.g., movement, gestures, expressions).
2.2a  Deliver oral summaries of articles and books: Include the main ideas of the event or article and the most significant details.
2.2b  Deliver oral summaries of articles and books: Use the student's own words, except for material quoted from sources.
2.2c  Deliver oral summaries of articles and books: Convey a comprehensive understanding of sources, not just superficial details.
2.3a  Deliver research presentations: Pose relevant and concise questions about the topic.
2.3b  Deliver research presentations: Convey clear and accurate perspectives on the subject.
2.3c  Deliver research presentations: Include evidence generated through the formal research process (e.g., use of a card catalog, Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, computer databases, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries).                                        2.3d  Deliver research presentations: Cite reference sources appropriately.
2.4a  Deliver persuasive presentations: State a clear position or perspective in support of an argument or proposal.
2.4b Deliver persuasive presentations: Describe the points in support of the argument and employ well-articulated evidence.