Standards - English Language Arts

Demonstrate command of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics when writing.

Use commas, parentheses, or dashes to set off nonrestrictive or parenthetical elements.

Revise writing for correct mechanics with a focus on commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, colons, and semicolons.

Compose and revise writing by using various pronouns and their antecedents correctly.

Choose language that maintains consistency in style and tone in a variety of formal and/or informal settings.

Summarize ethical guidelines and explain how they govern the process of finding and recording information from primary, secondary, and digital sources, with guidance and support.

Assess the relevance, reliability, and validity of information from printed and/or digital texts.

Use an audio or audio-visual source of information to obtain the answer to a question.

Write about research findings independently over short and/or extended periods of time.

Quote, paraphrase, and summarize information from sources and present findings, following an appropriate citation style, with guidance and support.

Utilize research findings to communicate relevant details, opinions, and ideas about a topic or text in oral presentations.

Answer questions in discussions about their research findings.

Discover word meanings by analyzing word parts, examining connotation and denotation, or using print or digital reference tools.

Discover word meanings through active listening in various contexts.

Use academic vocabulary in writing to communicate effectively.

Use vocabulary to create specific reactions or effects when speaking in various classroom and digital situations.

Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

Use context clues to determine meanings of unfamiliar spoken or written words.

Use digital and electronic tools appropriately, safely, and ethically when researching and writing, both individually and collaboratively.

Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

Assess the formality of occasions in order to speak or write using appropriate language and tone.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Evaluate the contributions of informational text elements, including categories, point of view, purpose, and figurative, connotative, and technical word meanings, to develop central and supporting ideas.

Evaluate how effectively an author uses structures of informational texts, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, and substantiated or unsubstantiated claims and evidence, to achieve a purpose.

Explain how the author’s choice of setting, plot, characters, theme, conflict, dialogue, and point of view contribute to and/or enhance the meaning and purpose of prose and poetry, using textual evidence from the writing.

Evaluate literary devices to support interpretations of literary texts using textual evidence, including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, imagery, tone, symbolism, irony, and mood.

Evaluate rhetorical strategies used to develop central and supporting ideas in recorded or live presentations, including point of view, purpose, comparison, categories, and word meanings (figurative, connotative, and technical).

Evaluate the speaker’s use of hyperbole, tone, symbolism, imagery, mood, irony, and onomatopoeia in a live or recorded presentation.

Produce clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writing in which the development, organization, style, and tone are relevant to task, purpose, and audience, using an appropriate command of language.

Write narratives to convey a series of events incorporating key literary elements, establishing a clear purpose, using narrative techniques (dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection), and sequencing events coherently (chronological and/or flashback).

Write informative or explanatory texts with an organized structure and a formal style to examine ideas or processes effectively while developing the topic and utilizing appropriate transitions, precise vocabulary, and credible information or data when relevant.

Write an argument to defend a position by introducing and supporting claim(s), acknowledging alternate or opposing claims, and presenting reasons and relevant text evidence from accurate and credible sources.

Participate in collaborative discussions about arguments by evaluating claims, findings, and evidence from a source.

Participate in collaborative discussions about prose and poetry by evaluating the use of literary devices and elements.

Assess subject, occasion, audience, purpose, tone, and credibility of various digital sources.