• Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources

• Introduce a precise claim, acknowledge and distinguish the claim from a counterclaim, and organize the reasons and evidence logically

• Use precise language and content-specific vocabulary to argue a claim or explain a topic

• Use appropriate transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts

• Provide a concluding statement or section that explains the significance of the argument presented

• Establish and maintain a style appropriate to the writing task

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content

• Introduce a topic clearly; organize ideas, concepts, and information using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect

• Develop a topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples; include formatting, graphics, and multimedia when useful to aid comprehension

• Use appropriate transitions to create cohesion; clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts; provide a concluding statement or section

• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details and sequencing

• Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters

• Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another

• Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events

• Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative

• Create a poem, story, play, artwork, or other response to a text, author, theme, or personal experience

• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

• Conduct research to answer questions, including self-generated questions, drawing on multiple sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate

• Gather relevant information from multiple sources; assess the credibility of each source; quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others; avoid plagiarism and provide basic bibliographic information for sources.

*The Language Strand identifies Conventions of Standard English and Core Convention skills that develop from Grade 6 - Grade 8.

• • Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking

    • Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, and possessive)

    • Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person

    • Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general, as well as in specific sentences

    • Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers

    • Use simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas

    • Explain the function of verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives)

    • Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice and recognize and correct inappropriate verb shifts

  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing

    • Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes, hyphens) to clarify and enhance writing

    • • Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break

    • • Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission

  • Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening

  • Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style

  • Maintain consistency in style and tone

  • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies

  • Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase

  • Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible)

  • Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses) to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech

  • Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

  • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings including personification

  • Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words

  • Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar denotations (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty)

  • Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases; apply vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression