The student writes clear, coherent text that develops a central idea or tells a story.

The writing shows consideration of the audience and purpose. The student progresses

through the stages of the writing process (e.g., prewriting, drafting, revising,

and editing successive versions).

a. Selects a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based on purpose,

genre expectations, audience, length, and format requirements.

b. Writes texts of a length appropriate to address the topic or tell the story.

c. Uses traditional structures for conveying information (e.g., chronological

order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a

question).

d. Uses appropriate structures to ensure coherence (e.g., transition elements).

The student produces a narrative (fictional, personal) that:

a. Engages readers by establishing and developing a plot, setting, and point of

view that are appropriate to the story (e.g., varied beginnings, standard plot

line, cohesive devices).

b. Creates an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.

c. Includes sensory details and concrete language to develop plot, setting, and

character (e.g., vivid verbs, descriptive adjectives, and varied sentence structures).

d. Uses a range of strategies (e.g., suspense, figurative language, dialogue,

expanded vocabulary, movement, gestures, expressions).

e. Excludes extraneous details and inconsistencies.

f. Provides a sense of closure appropriate to the writing.

The student produces writing (multi-paragraph expository composition such

as description, explanation, comparison and contrast, or problem and solution)

that:

a. Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a speaker’s voice, and

otherwise developing reader interest.

b. Establishes a statement as the main idea or topic sentence.

c. Develops a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject.

d. Creates an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.

e. Develops the topic with supporting details.

English Language Arts

f. Excludes extraneous and inappropriate information.

g. Follows an organizational pattern appropriate to the type of composition.

h. Concludes with a detailed summary linked to the purpose of the composition.

The student produces technical writing (friendly letters, thank-you notes,

formula poems, instructions, web pages) that:

a. Creates or follows an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience,

and context.

b. Excludes extraneous and inappropriate information.

c. Follows an organizational pattern appropriate to the type of composition.

d. Applies rules of Standard English.

The student produces a response to literature that:

a. Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a speaker’s voice, and

otherwise developing reader interest.

b. Demonstrates an understanding of the literary work.

c. Advances a judgment that is interpretive, analytic, evaluative, or reflective.

d. Organizes an interpretation around several clear ideas, premises, or images.

e. Supports a judgment through references to the text.

f. Provides a sense of closure to the writing.

The student produces a multi-paragraph persuasive essay that:

a. Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a speaker’s voice, and

otherwise developing reader interest.

b. States a clear position of a proposition or proposal.

c. Supports the position with organized and relevant evidence.

d. Excludes information and arguments that are irrelevant.

e. Creates an organizing structure appropriate to a specific purpose, audience, and context.

f. Anticipates and addresses readers’ concerns and counter-arguments.

g. Provides a sense of closure to the writing.

a. Uses organizational features of electronic text (e.g., bulletin boards, databases,

keyword searches, e-mail addresses) to locate relevant information.

b. Includes researched information in different types of products (e.g., compositions,

multimedia presentations, graphic organizers, projects, etc.).

c. Cites references.

a. Plans and drafts independently and resourcefully.

b. Revises manuscripts to improve the organization and consistency of ideas

within and between paragraphs.

c. Edits to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

Conventions are essential for reading, writing, and speaking. Instruction in language

conventions will, therefore, occur within the context of reading, writing,

and speaking, rather than in isolation. The student writes to make connections

with the larger world. A student’s ideas are more likely to be taken seriously when

the words are spelled accurately and the sentences are grammatically correct.

Use of Standard English conventions helps readers understand and follow the

student’s meaning, while errors can be distracting and confusing. Standard English

conventions are the “good manners” of writing and speaking that make communication

fluid.

a. Identifies and uses the eight basic parts of speech and demonstrates that words

can be different parts of speech within a sentence.

i. Identifies and uses nouns – abstract, common, collective, plural, and

possessive.

ii. Identifies and uses pronouns – personal, possessive, interrogative,

demonstrative, reflexive, and indefinite.

iii. Identifies and uses adjectives – common, proper, and demonstrative.

iv. Identifies and uses verbs – action (transitive/intransitive), linking, and

state-of-being.

v. Identifies and uses verb phrases – main verbs and helping verbs.

vi. Identifies and uses adverbs.

vii. Identifies and uses prepositional phrases (preposition, object of the

preposition, and any of its modifiers).

viii. Identifies and uses conjunctions – coordinating, correlative, and common

subordinating.

ix. Identifies and uses interjections.

b. Recognizes basic parts of a sentence (subject, verb, direct object, predicate

noun, predicate adjective).

c. Identifies and writes simple, compound, and complex sentences, avoiding

fragments and run-ons.

d. Demonstrates appropriate comma and semicolon usage (compound and

complex sentences, appositives, words in direct address).

English Language Arts