Introduction

This Supplement is designed to be used with the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (2001), which contains learning standards written for two-year grade spans from 1-2 through 11-12. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) for English Language Arts is based on these standards. Massachusetts students are currently assessed in English language arts at grades 3, 4, 7, and 10. However, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires annual testing in reading at each grade from grades 3 through 8, beginning with a first operational test in spring 2006. Therefore Department staff, working with committees of educators, drafted grade-level standards for grades 3, 5, and 7, as presented in this Supplement. These grade-level standards are based on the twelve Framework standards that have always served as the basis for MCAS reading assessments. In drafting these standards, the Department has not changed the Curriculum Framework. Rather, the standards presented in this Supplement, when used with those already available in the Framework, offer educators, students, and parents detailed guidance about the learning expected at each grade level from grades 3 through 8.

Grade 7 Standards

Language Strand

Continue to address the grades PreK-6 standards as needed.

Standard 4: Vocabulary and Concept Development

Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.

· Determine the meanings of unfamiliar words using context clues (for example, contrast or cause and effect stated in the text).

· Determine the meanings of unfamiliar words using knowledge of common Greek and Latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes.

· Determine pronunciations, meanings, alternate word choices, parts of speech, or etymologies of words using dictionaries and thesauruses.

Standard 5: Structure and Origins of Modern English

Students will analyze standard English grammar and usage and recognize how its vocabulary has developed and been influenced by other languages.

· Recognize the basic patterns of English sentences (for example, noun-verb; noun-verb-noun; noun-verb-noun-noun).

· Distinguish phrases from clauses.

· Identify past, present, and future verb tenses.

· Identify prepositional phrases.

· Identify simple, compound, and complex sentences.

· Recognize appropriate use of pronoun reference.

· Identify correct mechanics (for example, comma after introductory structures), correct usage (for example, subject and verb agreement) and correct sentence structure (for example, complete sentences, properly placed modifiers).

Standard 6: Formal and Informal English

Students will describe, analyze, and use appropriately formal and informal English.

· Identify the language styles of different characters in literary works.

Reading and Literature Strand

Continue to address the grades PreK-6 standards as needed

and as they apply to more difficult texts.

Standard 8: Understanding a Text

Students will identify basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.

· Use knowledge of genre characteristics to analyze a text.

· Interpret mood in a text and give supporting evidence.

· Identify evidence in a text that supports an argument.

Standard 10: Genre

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the characteristics of different genres.

· Identify how authors use characteristics of various genres (for example, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short story, dramatic literature) to accomplish different purposes.

Standard 11: Theme

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of theme in a literary work and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify and supply evidence for a theme in a selection.

Standard 12: Fiction

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Analyze the connections among setting, characterization, conflict, plot, and/or theme.

· Analyze characters’ personality traits, motivations, and interactions with others and give supporting evidence from their words, actions, or thoughts.

· Analyze the ways characters change or interact with others over time and give supporting evidence from the text.

Standard 13: Nonfiction

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purposes, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify and use knowledge of common textual features (for example, in addition to features listed for earlier grades, introduction, conclusion, transition words, concluding sentences).

· Identify and use knowledge of common graphic features to analyze nonfiction texts.

· Identify common organizational structures (for example, logical order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect relationships).

· Recognize arguments for and against an issue.

· Identify evidence in a text that supports an argument.

Standard 14: Poetry

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of poetry and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify and respond to the effects of form, sound, figurative language, and graphics in order to uncover meaning in poetry.

v Form (haiku, epic, sonnet)

v Sound (alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme schemes)

v Figurative language (personification, metaphor, simile, hyperbole)

v Graphics (capital letters, line length, word position)

Standard 15: Style and Language

Students will identify and analyze how an author’s words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and will provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify and analyze imagery and figurative language.

· Identify how an author’s use of words creates mood.

Standard 16: Myth, Traditional Narrative, and Classical Literature

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of myths, traditional narratives, and classical literature and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify conventions in epic tales (for example, the extended simile, the hero’s tasks, special weapons, clothing, helpers).

· Identify and analyze similarities and differences in mythologies from different cultures (for example, ideas of the afterlife, roles and characteristics of deities, types and purposes of myths).

Standard 17: Dramatic Literature

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of drama and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

· Identify and analyze elements of setting, plot, and characterization in plays that are read, viewed, written, and/or performed.

v Setting (for example, place, historical period, time of day)

v Plot (for example, exposition, conflict, rising action, falling action)

v Characterization (for example, character motivations, actions, thoughts, development)

· Identify and analyze the similarities and differences in the presentations of setting, character, and plot in texts, plays, and films.