Standard Notes: These reading literature standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year's grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Reading Informational Text
Standard Notes: These reading informational text standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades.
Writing
Standard Notes: Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each succeeding year' grade-specific writing benchmarks and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Speaking and Listening
Standard Notes: The following speaking and listening standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of communication skills and applications.
Language
Standard Notes: The following language standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of language skills and applications. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each succeeding year's grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Visit the specific benchmark webpage to find related instructional resources.
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LAFS.7.L.2.3 (Archived Standard):
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
- Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.
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LAFS.7.L.3.4 (Archived Standard):
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
- Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., belligerent, bellicose, rebel).
- Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
- Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
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LAFS.7.L.3.5 (Archived Standard):
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
- Interpret figures of speech (e.g., literary, biblical, and mythological allusions) in context.
- Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonym/antonym, analogy) to better understand each of the words.
- Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., refined, respectful, polite, diplomatic, condescending).
- LAFS.7.L.3.6 (Archived Standard): Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
- LAFS.7.RI.1.1 (Archived Standard): Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- LAFS.7.RI.1.2 (Archived Standard): Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
- LAFS.7.RI.1.3 (Archived Standard): Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
- LAFS.7.RI.2.4 (Archived Standard): Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
- LAFS.7.RI.2.5 (Archived Standard): Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
- LAFS.7.RI.2.6 (Archived Standard): Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
- LAFS.7.RI.3.7 (Archived Standard): Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).
- LAFS.7.RI.3.8 (Archived Standard): Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
- LAFS.7.RI.3.9 (Archived Standard): Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
- LAFS.7.RI.4.10 (Archived Standard): By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
- LAFS.7.RL.1.1 (Archived Standard): Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- LAFS.7.RL.1.2 (Archived Standard): Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
- LAFS.7.RL.1.3 (Archived Standard): Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
- LAFS.7.RL.2.4 (Archived Standard): Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
- LAFS.7.RL.2.5 (Archived Standard): Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
- LAFS.7.RL.2.6 (Archived Standard): Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
- LAFS.7.RL.3.7 (Archived Standard): Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
- LAFS.7.RL.3.9 (Archived Standard): Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
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LAFS.7.SL.1.1 (Archived Standard):
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
- Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.
- Follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.
- Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed.
- Acknowledge new information expressed by others and, when warranted, modify their own views.
- LAFS.7.SL.1.2 (Archived Standard): Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.
- LAFS.7.SL.1.3 (Archived Standard): Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
- LAFS.7.SL.2.4 (Archived Standard): Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
- LAFS.7.SL.2.5 (Archived Standard): Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.
- LAFS.7.SL.2.6 (Archived Standard): Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
- LAFS.7.W.3.7 (Archived Standard): Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.
- LAFS.7.W.3.8 (Archived Standard): Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- LAFS.7.W.4.10 (Archived Standard): Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
- ELD.K12.ELL.LA.1: English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
- ELD.K12.ELL.SI.1: English language learners communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting.