7th Grade ELA (Colorado Academic Standards)

Standard 1: Oral Expression and Listening

• RWC.7.1.1 Join discussions with varied partners on grade 7 topics, building on others' ideas and sharing clear views. (being checked)
  • 1. Take part in productive discussions with varied partners on grade 7 topics, building on others' ideas.
  • 1.a. Come prepared from reading or research and cite evidence to probe ideas.
  • 1.b. Follow discussion norms, track progress toward goals and deadlines and assign roles when needed.
  • 1.c. Ask questions that draw out more detail and reply with relevant points that bring talk back on topic.
  • 1.d. Acknowledge new information from others and change your views when justified.
  • 2. Find key ideas and details in varied media and explain how they clarify the topic.
  • 3. Outline a speaker's argument and claims and judge whether reasoning and evidence are strong enough.
• RWC.7.1.2 Prepare formal talks and use suitable delivery. (being checked)
  • 1. Present claims and findings in a focused way with relevant detail, eye contact, good volume and clear speech.
  • 2. Add multimedia and visuals to presentations to clarify claims and stress key points.
  • 3. Adapt speech to settings and tasks, using formal English when the situation calls for it.

Standard 2: Reading for All Purposes

• RWC.7.2.1 Study how literary elements interact to understand stories, dramas and poems. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Back up stated and inferred points about a text with several pieces of evidence.
  • 1.b. Find a theme or central idea, trace how it grows and write an objective summary.
  • 1.c. Explain how story or drama elements interact, e.g. how setting shapes characters or plot.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Work out word and phrase meanings, including figurative and connotative ones, and the effect of repeated sounds.
  • 2.b. Explain how a poem's or drama's form, such as a soliloquy or sonnet, adds to meaning.
  • 2.c. Examine how an author develops and contrasts the views of different characters or narrators.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Compare a written work with its audio, film or staged version and the techniques each medium uses.
  • 3.b. Contrast fictional portrayals of a period or person with historical accounts and how fiction alters history.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. By year's end, read grades 6–8 literature independently, with help on the hardest texts.
• RWC.7.2.2 Summarize and evaluate informational texts to show understanding. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Use several pieces of evidence to back up stated points and inferences.
  • 1.b. Find two or more central ideas, trace how they develop and write an objective summary.
  • 1.c. Examine how people, events and ideas in a text influence one another.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Work out word and phrase meanings, including technical ones, and how word choice affects tone.
  • 2.b. Study how a text is organized and how each major section adds to the whole.
  • 2.c. Identify an author's view or purpose and how it differs from other writers' positions.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Compare a text with its audio, video or multimedia version and how each presents the subject.
  • 3.b. Trace an argument and its claims and judge whether the reasoning holds and evidence suffices.
  • 3.c. Analyze how two authors on one topic shape their accounts through chosen evidence and interpretations.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. By year's end, read grades 6–8 literary nonfiction well, with support on the hardest texts.
• RWC.7.2.3 Use how words relate, form and fit sentences to work out new terms in harder texts. (being checked)
  • 1. Work out unknown and multiple-meaning words from grade 7 texts using flexible strategies.
  • 1.a. Use context such as the sentence's meaning or a word's position as a clue.
  • 1.b. Use common Greek or Latin word parts (affixes and roots) as meaning clues.
  • 1.c. Use print or digital dictionaries, glossaries or thesauruses for pronunciation, meaning or part of speech.
  • 1.d. Confirm a first guess at meaning by checking context or a reference.
  • 2. Understand figurative language, word relationships and shades of meaning. (being checked)
  • 2.a. Interpret figures of speech, including allusions, in context.
  • 2.b. Use relationships such as synonyms, antonyms or analogies to understand each word better.
  • 2.c. Tell apart words with similar definitions by connotation, e.g. polite versus condescending.
  • 3. Use grade-level academic and subject vocabulary accurately, looking up key terms when needed.

Standard 3: Writing and Composition

• RWC.7.3.1 Write well-organized arguments with sound reasoning, credible evidence, counterclaims and formal tone. (being checked)
  • 1. Argue a position with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
  • 1.a. Introduce claims, acknowledge opposing views and order reasons and evidence logically.
  • 1.b. Back claims with sound reasoning and accurate, credible sources that show understanding.
  • 1.c. Use transitions to show how claims, reasons and evidence connect.
  • 1.d. Keep a formal, consistent style.
  • 1.e. End with a section that supports the argument made.
• RWC.7.3.2 Write well-organized informative texts with logical structure, relevant support, precise words and formal style. (being checked)
  • 1. Explain a topic by choosing, organizing and analyzing relevant content.
  • 1.a. Introduce and preview the topic, organize ideas by methods such as comparison and add useful visuals.
  • 1.b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, details, quotations or examples.
  • 1.c. Use transitions that link ideas and show how they relate.
  • 1.d. Use precise words and subject vocabulary to inform or explain.
  • 1.e. Keep a formal style.
  • 1.f. End with a statement that wraps up and supports the explanation.
• RWC.7.3.3 Write engaging real or imagined stories with description, sensory detail, dialogue and steady pacing. (being checked)
  • 1. Write real or imagined narratives with good technique, vivid detail and well-ordered events.
  • 1.a. Set the context, point of view and narrator or characters and order events so they unfold naturally.
  • 1.b. Use dialogue, pacing and vivid description to develop experiences, events or characters.
  • 1.c. Use varied transitions to show order and shifts in time or setting.
  • 1.d. Use exact words, vivid details and sensory language to bring the action to life.
  • 1.e. End with a conclusion that reflects on the events told.
  • 1.f. Use sound devices, figurative language and layout to convey a personal or narrative voice.
• RWC.7.3.4 Plan, draft, revise and edit clear writing that follows conventions and suits audience and purpose. (being checked)
  • 1. Use standard English grammar in writing and speaking.
  • 1.a. Explain what phrases and clauses do, in general and in particular sentences.
  • 1.b. Choose simple, compound, complex or compound-complex sentences to show how ideas relate.
  • 1.c. Place phrases and clauses correctly and fix misplaced and dangling modifiers.
  • 2. Use correct capitals, punctuation and spelling in writing.
  • 2.a. Use a comma between coordinate adjectives but not between cumulative ones.
  • 2.b. Spell common words correctly and check references or peers for unfamiliar ones.
  • 3. Use knowledge of language when writing, speaking, reading and listening.
  • 3.a. Choose precise, concise wording and cut wordiness and repetition.
  • 4. Write clearly and coherently with development, organization and style fitting the task, purpose and audience.
  • 5. With some help, improve writing by planning, revising, editing and rewriting.
  • 6. Use digital tools and the web to produce, share and cite work and to collaborate.
  • 7. Write regularly over long periods for research and revision and in short sessions for many tasks.

Standard 4: Research Inquiry and Design

• RWC.7.4.1 Frame research questions, combine answers from credible sources and share findings in a suitable format. (being checked)
  • 1. Do short research projects that answer a question from several sources and raise new focused questions.
  • 2. Gather information from varied print and digital sources, check credibility, quote or paraphrase responsibly and cite.
  • 3. Use evidence from literary and informational texts to support analysis and reflection.
  • 3.a. Use grade 7 reading skills on literature, e.g. comparing fiction's view of history with historical records.
  • 3.b. Apply grade 7 reading standards to nonfiction, e.g. judging whether an argument's reasoning and evidence hold up.