7th Grade ELA (Alaska Standards)

Reading Standards for Literature

• RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of text evidence to support analysis of explicit meaning and inferences.
• RL.7.2 Find a theme or central idea, trace how it develops and summarize events in the right order.
• RL.7.3 Analyze how parts of a story or play affect each other (e.g. how setting shapes characters or plot).
• RL.7.4 Work out figurative and connotative meanings and analyze the effect of rhymes and repeated sounds on a section of text.
• RL.7.5 Analyze how the overall structure, rhyme and repeated sounds (such as alliteration) of a play or poem add to meaning.
• RL.7.6 Analyze the author's purpose and how the author develops and contrasts characters' or narrators' points of view.
• RL.7.7 Compare a written story, drama or poem with its film, audio or staged version, e.g. Call of the Wild, and the effects of each.
• RL.7.9 Compare how fiction portrays a time, place or person with a historical or cultural account of the same.
• RL.7.10 By year's end, read literature from many cultures in the upper grade 6 to grade 8 complexity range, with support as needed.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

• RI.7.1 Cite several pieces of text evidence to support analysis of explicit meaning and inferences in an informational text.
• RI.7.2 Find the central idea and subtopics, trace how they develop and summarize the text in order.
• RI.7.3 Analyze how individuals, events and ideas interact in a text.
• RI.7.4 Work out figurative, connotative and technical meanings and analyze how word choice affects meaning and tone.
• RI.7.5 Analyze how an author organizes a text, including how major sections develop the ideas.
• RI.7.6 Find the author's purpose (inform, persuade, entertain, critique) and how the author sets their view apart from others.
• RI.7.7 Compare and contrast a text with its audio, video or multimedia version, analyzing how each medium portrays the subject.
• RI.7.8 Follow and judge an argument: is the reasoning sound and is the evidence relevant and enough?
• RI.7.9 Analyze how two or more authors writing on the same topic shape their presentations by stressing different evidence or interpretations.
• RI.7.10 By year's end, read literary nonfiction in the upper grade 6 to grade 8 complexity range, with support as needed.

Writing Standards

• W.7.1 Write arguments that back claims with clear reasons and fitting evidence.
  • a. Introduce claims, acknowledge opposing claims and organize reasons and evidence logically.
  • b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence from accurate, credible sources.
  • c. Use linking words and clauses to tie claims, reasons and evidence together clearly.
  • d. Set up and keep a formal style.
  • e. End with a conclusion that follows from and supports the argument.
• W.7.2 Write informative texts that explore a topic by choosing, organizing and analyzing information.
  • a. Introduce a topic, preview what is to follow and organize ideas with strategies such as definition, classification, comparison and cause/effect.
  • b. Build up the topic with relevant facts, definitions, specific details, quotations or examples.
  • c. Use suitable transitions to create cohesion and clarify relationships among ideas.
  • d. Use precise language and subject vocabulary.
  • e. Set up and keep a formal style.
  • f. End with a conclusion that follows from and supports the information.
• W.7.3 Write narratives of real or imagined experiences with effective technique, relevant details and clear sequence.
  • a. Engage the reader by setting the context and point of view, introduce narrator and characters and order events logically.
  • b. Use dialogue, pacing and description to develop events and characters.
  • c. Use a variety of transitions to show sequence and shifts in time or setting.
  • d. Use precise words, telling details and sensory language to advance the action and convey events.
  • e. Write a conclusion that follows from the narrated events.
• W.7.4 Produce clear, coherent writing whose development, organization and style suit the task, purpose and audience.
• W.7.5 With help from classmates and adults, improve writing by planning, revising, editing or rewriting, keeping purpose and audience in mind.
• W.7.6 Use technology and the internet to produce, publish and link to and cite sources, and to collaborate.
• W.7.7 Do short research projects, drawing on several sources and raising questions for further research.
• W.7.8 Gather information from several print and digital sources with effective searches, judge credibility, quote or paraphrase without plagiarism and cite.
• W.7.9 Use evidence from literature or informational texts to back up analysis, reflection and research.
  • a. Apply grade 7 reading standards to literature in writing.
  • b. Use the grade 7 informational reading skills when writing about nonfiction.
• W.7.10 Write routinely over long and short time frames for many discipline-specific tasks, purposes and audiences.

Speaking and Listening Standards

• SL.7.1 Take part well in many kinds of discussions with different partners about grade 7 topics and texts.
  • a. Come prepared and refer to evidence to probe and reflect on ideas.
  • b. Follow rules for collegial discussion, track progress toward goals and deadlines and define roles.
  • c. Ask questions that draw out others' reasoning, respond with relevant comments and bring talk back on topic.
  • d. Acknowledge new information from others and adjust one's own views when warranted.
• SL.7.2 Analyze the main ideas and details presented in visual, quantitative or oral formats and how they clarify a topic.
• SL.7.3 Outline a speaker's argument and judge whether the reasoning holds up and the evidence is relevant and enough.
• SL.7.4 Present claims and findings coherently with relevant evidence and details, using eye contact, volume and clear pronunciation.
• SL.7.5 Include multimedia and visual displays to clarify claims and findings and stress key points.
• SL.7.6 Adapt speech to different contexts and tasks, using formal English when suitable.

Language Standards

• L.7.1 Use correct standard English grammar when speaking and writing.
  • a. Explain what phrases and clauses do in general and in particular sentences.
  • b. Pick simple, compound, complex or compound-complex sentences to show how ideas relate.
  • c. Place phrases and clauses correctly, fixing misplaced and dangling modifiers.
• L.7.2 Show command of capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.
  • a. Use a comma between coordinate adjectives.
  • b. Spell correctly.
• L.7.3 Apply what is known about language and its rules in writing, speaking, reading and listening.
  • a. Choose exact, concise wording and cut wordiness and repetition.
• L.7.4 Work out unknown and multiple-meaning words using a range of strategies.
  • a. Use context and word structure (affixes, roots, base words, word origins) as clues to meaning.
  • b. Use familiar Greek and Latin word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes) as meaning clues.
  • c. Use print and digital references to find pronunciation, precise meaning or part of speech.
  • d. Check a first guess at a word's meaning.
• L.7.5 Understand figurative language, how words relate and fine shades of meaning.
  • a. Interpret figures of speech such as literary, religious and mythological allusions and euphemisms in context.
  • b. Use relationships between words (synonym/antonym, analogy) to understand each better.
  • c. Distinguish the feelings carried by near-synonyms (e.g. polite, diplomatic, condescending).
• L.7.6 Learn and use grade-level general academic and subject-specific words, gathering vocabulary knowledge when needed.