7th Grade ELA (Arizona ELA Standards)

Reading Standards for Literature

• 7.RL.1 Cite several pieces of text evidence to support analysis of explicit meaning and inferences.
• 7.RL.2 Find a theme or central idea, analyze how it develops over the text and write an objective summary.
• 7.RL.3 Analyze how parts of a story or play affect each other (e.g. how setting shapes characters or plot).
• 7.RL.4 Work out figurative and connotative meanings and analyze the effect of rhymes and repeated sounds on a section of text.
• 7.RL.5 Analyze how the form or structure of a play or poem adds to what it means.
• 7.RL.6 Analyze how an author builds and contrasts the viewpoints of different characters or narrators.
• 7.RL.7 Compare a written story, play or poem with an audio, film or stage version, analyzing the techniques of each medium.
• 7.RL.9 Compare a fictional picture of a time, place or person with a historical account of that period.
• 7.RL.10 By year's end, read grade 6–8 level literature well on their own, with support for the hardest texts.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

• 7.RI.1 Cite several pieces of text evidence to support analysis of explicit meaning and inferences in an informational text.
• 7.RI.2 Find two or more central ideas, analyze their development and write an objective summary.
• 7.RI.3 Analyze how individuals, events and ideas interact in a text.
• 7.RI.4 Work out figurative, connotative and technical meanings and analyze how word choice affects meaning and tone.
• 7.RI.5 Analyze how an author organizes a text, including how major sections develop the ideas.
• 7.RI.6 Work out the author's viewpoint or purpose and analyze how the author distinguishes it from other views.
• 7.RI.7 Compare and contrast a text with its audio, video or multimedia version, analyzing how each medium portrays the subject.
• 7.RI.8 Follow and judge an argument: is the reasoning sound and is the evidence relevant and enough?
• 7.RI.9 Analyze how two or more authors writing on the same topic shape their presentations by stressing different evidence or interpretations.
• 7.RI.10 By year's end, read grade 6–8 level nonfiction well on their own, with support for the hardest texts.

Writing Standards

• 7.W.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.
• 7.W.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.
• 7.W.3 Write narratives of real or imagined experiences with effective technique, relevant details and clear sequence.
  • a. Engage the reader with a context, point of view and narrator or characters, and order events naturally and logically.
  • b. Build events and characters with dialogue, pacing and description.
  • c. Use a variety of transitions to show sequence and shifts in time or setting.
  • d. Capture the action with exact words, relevant details and sensory language.
  • e. Close with an ending that grows out of the events and reflects on them.
• 7.W.4 Produce clear, coherent writing whose development, organization and style suit the task, purpose and audience.
• 7.W.5 With help from classmates and adults, improve writing by planning, revising, editing or rewriting, keeping purpose and audience in mind.
• 7.W.6 Use technology and the internet to create and share writing, link to sources and collaborate.
• 7.W.7 Do short research projects to answer a question, using several sources and generating further focused questions.
• 7.W.8 Gather information from several print and digital sources with effective searches, judge credibility, quote or paraphrase without plagiarism and cite.
• 7.W.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.
• 7.W.10 Write often, in long projects and short sittings, for many tasks, purposes and readers.

Speaking and Listening Standards

• 7.SL.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.
• 7.SL.2 Analyze the main ideas and details in information from different media and formats and explain how they clarify a topic.
• 7.SL.3 Outline a speaker's argument and judge whether the reasoning holds up and the evidence is relevant and enough.
• 7.SL.4 Present claims and findings coherently with relevant evidence and details, using eye contact, volume and clear pronunciation.
• 7.SL.5 Include multimedia and visual displays to clarify claims and findings and stress key points.
• 7.SL.6 Adapt speech to different contexts and tasks, using formal English when suitable.

Language Standards

• 7.L.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.
• 7.L.2 Show command of capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.
  • a. Use a comma between coordinate adjectives.
  • b. Spell correctly.
• 7.L.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.
• 7.L.4 Work out unknown and multiple-meaning words using a range of strategies.
  • a. Use familiar Greek and Latin word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes) as meaning clues.
  • b. Use context (sentence or paragraph meaning, a word's position or function) as a clue to meaning.
  • 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.
• 7.L.5 Understand figurative language, how words relate and fine shades of meaning.
  • a. Explain figures of speech, including allusions to literature, the Bible and myths, 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).
• 7.L.6 Learn and use grade-level general academic and subject-specific words, gathering vocabulary knowledge when needed.