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Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
Version Description
The purpose of this course is to increase reading fluency and endurance through advanced integrated experiences in the language arts. This course incorporates reading and analysis of literary and informational selections to develop critical and close reading skills. At the end of 7th grade students are expected to read and comprehend texts in the 6-8 grade complexity band proficiently and read texts at the high end of the band with support.General Notes
Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Advanced courses require a greater demand on students through increased academic rigor. Academic rigor is obtained through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted. Students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning. Honors level rigor will be achieved by increasing text complexity through text selection, focus on high-level qualitative measures, and complexity of task. Instruction will be structured to give students a deeper understanding of conceptual themes and organization within and across disciplines. Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work.
Important Note: Reading and writing courses should not be used in place of English language arts courses; reading and writing courses are intended to be used to supplement further study in English language arts.
General Notes:
The content should include, but not be limited to, the following:
- demonstrating successful reading of argument, including recognizing bias and supporting details;
- demonstrating successful reading of fact and opinion, including recognizing inferences and main ideas;
- demonstrating successful reading of high-quality literature, including the use of text craft and literary effects to develop theme and tone;
- demonstrating knowledge of a variety of organizational patterns and their relationships in the comprehension of text, including recognizing purpose and tone of informational reading;
- demonstrating successful understanding of academic vocabulary and vocabulary in context;
- integrating reading and writing, including extensive written responses to print and digital text;
- using effective listening, speaking, and viewing strategies with emphasis on the use of evidence to support or refute a claim in multimedia presentations, class discussions, and extended text discussions;
- collaborating extensively amongst peers.
Special Notes:
Instructional Practices: Teaching from well-written, grade-level instructional materials enhances students’ content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any purpose. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning.
- Reading assignments from longer text passages, as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
- Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.
- Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
The College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards and grade-specific standards are necessary complements-the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity-that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate at each grade level. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each succeeding year's grade specific benchmarks, retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades, and work steadily toward meeting the more general expectations described by the CCR anchor standards.
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Language Arts. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/la.pdf
General Information
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Qualifications
As well as any certification requirements listed on the course description, the following qualifications may also be acceptable for the course:
Any field when certification reflects a bachelor or higher degree plus Reading Endorsement.
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Learn how the sound devices of rhyme and repetition are used in the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and analyze how they contribute to the poem's meaning.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to use context clues—including definitions, synonyms, and antonyms—to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in this baseball-themed, interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the classic American novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott in this interactive English Language Arts tutorial. Using excerpts from chapter eight of Little Women, you'll identify key characters and their actions. You'll also explain how interactions between characters contributes to the development of the plot.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about Greek and Latin roots (anti, capit, bene, bon, and mal) and 12 modern words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice using these words and hopefully add them to your vocabulary!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about ancient Latin roots — Ante, Post, Scrib, and Script — and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the form and meaning of William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 18.” In this interactive tutorial, you’ll examine how specific words and phrases contribute to meaning in the sonnet, select the features of a Shakespearean sonnet in the poem, identify the solution to a problem, and explain how the form of a Shakespearean sonnet contributes to the meaning of "Sonnet 18."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about three roots from ancient Latin and Greek — Per, Seque, and Mis — and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about five roots from ancient Latin and Greek—frag, fract, cret, syn, and sym—and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about 3 Latin roots (Am, Ab, and Ad) and 12 new words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll make some interesting language connections and hopefully add some new words to your vocabulary!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to analyze the interaction among setting, character development, and plot using the classic short story "To Build a Fire." Examine how a story's setting frames the events of the entire story with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to paraphrase grade-level content in this tutorial that includes passages about some of America's most notable pioneers.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify aspects of setting and character as you analyze several excerpts from “The Yellow Wallpaper," a chilling short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. You'll also determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting better reveal her emotional and mental state.
This interactive tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. By the end of Part Two, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting. Click below to launch Part Two.
The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part Two
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine several excerpts from the chilling short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. In Part Two of this tutorial series, you'll determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting reveal its impact on her emotional and mental state. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch "The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part One."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mysterious poem “The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in this interactive tutorial. As you explore the poem's message about the past, you’ll identify the features of a villanelle in the poem. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a villanelle contributes to the poem's meaning.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem "The New Colossus." By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part One: Exploring the Significance of 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine how setting influences characters in excerpts from The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez with this interactive tutorial.
This is part 2 in a two-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch "Analyzing the Beginning of The Red Umbrella -- Part One: How Setting Influences Events."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part One, explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
This famous poem also happens to be in the form of a sonnet. In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part Two: How the Form of a Sonnet Contributes to Meaning in 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the beginning of the historical fiction novel The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez in this two-part series. In Part One, you'll examine how setting influences events. In Part Two, you'll examine how setting influences characters.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete the other parts first.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Two in a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Then, make sure to complete Part Three! Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this interactive tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident. Phineas Gage, at the age of twenty-six, survived a traumatic brain injury that would not only challenge the scientific understandings of his time but would also provide interesting revelations about the human brain to this day.
In Part One, you’ll begin to identify what makes a particular event significant, such as how a life-altering injury—like what happened to Phineas Gage—can influence an individual.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how the story elements of plot, setting, and character interact in an excerpt from the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about four text structures often used in informational texts: sequence, compare and contrast, problem/solution, and cause and effect. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying these various text structures using a short article about playing the lottery.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words using synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how poems are organized to express and develop themes. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read "My Pretty Rose Tree" by William Blake and "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson. Using these classic poems, you'll examine the structure of poetry and review several relevant terms including stanzas, diction, and mood.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify the central idea within a text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read an article about video games to practice identifying and explaining the central idea of a passage or text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how different authors can approach the same topic in very different ways. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several informational texts about how insects are a commonly eaten food in certain parts of the world. You'll practice identifying the central ideas of these texts as well as the authors' use of evidence.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify explicit textual evidence and make inferences based on the text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll sharpen your analysis skills while reading about the famed American explorers, Lewis and Clark, and their trusted companion, Sacagawea. You'll practice analyzing the explicit textual evidence wihtin the text, and you'll also make your own inferences based on the available evidence.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to refine your writing by identifying language that is wordy, repetitive, or redundant. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying wordy language and replacing it with more concise language.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the important differences between historical fiction and factual historical accounts. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read the poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You'll examine how Longfellow reshaped the events of history to create this renown piece of historical fiction.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to analyze the differing points of view of various characters within a story. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read a short story about a fender bender that occurs between a teacher and student and identify the objective and subjective statements made by each character as they relay their version of events.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the interactions between individuals, ideas, and events using excerpts from the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In this interactive tutorial, you'll explore the relationships and events that helped shape Douglass's life and his courageous quest for freedom.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words by examining their word parts. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice using prefixes and root words to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to distinguish the theme of the story from its summary. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several short pirate tales to practice summarizing a story, identifying its theme, and analyzing how the theme is expressed.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify sound devices such as repetition, alliteration, and assonance in the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. As you complete this interactive tutorial, you'll read portions of "The Raven," "The Bells," and "Annabel Lee."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences based on the information included in the text in this interactive tutorial. Using the short story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry, you'll practice identifying both the explicit and implicit information in the story. You'll apply your own reasoning to make inferences based on what is stated both explicitly and implicitly in the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to distinguish between figurative and literal language in context. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine excerpts of speeches from John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama. You'll practice identifying the following types of figurative language: similes, metaphors, personification, and onomatopoeia. You'll also practice determining the intended meaning of these examples of figurative language.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice identifying and examining the evidence used to support a specific argument. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several short texts about the exploration of Mars to practice distinguishing relevant from irrelevant evidence. You'll also practice determining whether the evidence presented is sufficient or insufficient.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about 3 Greek and Latin roots (spect, path, and omni) and 12 modern words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice using these words and hopefully add them to your vocabulary!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Tutorials
This interactive exercise will give you practice simplifying sentences with apostrophes. For each practice item, you must simplify a sentence by typing a revision that demonstrates the correct use of an apostrophe. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. If you don’t know which word or words to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This interactive exercise will give you practice simplifying sentences with apostrophes. For each practice item, you must simplify a sentence by typing a revision that demonstrates the correct use of an apostrophe. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. If you don’t know which word or words to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
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