ELAR 4.1

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking--oral language. The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion. The student is expected to:

• (1) Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances. The student is expected to:
• (2) explain the author's purpose and message within a text;
  • (A) explain how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose;
  • (B) analyze the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;
  • (C) describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices such as alliteration and assonance achieves specific purposes;
  • (D) identify and understand the use of literary devices, including first- or third-person point of view;
  • (E) discuss how the author's use of language contributes to voice; and
  • (F) identify and explain the use of anecdote.
  • (G) Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--writing process. The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions. The student is expected to:
• (3) plan a first draft by selecting a genre for a particular topic, purpose, and audience using a range of strategies such as brainstorming, freewriting, and mapping;
  • (A) develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
  • (B) organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, and a conclusion; and
    • (i) developing an engaging idea with relevant details;
    • (ii) revise drafts to improve sentence structure and word choice by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging ideas for coherence and clarity;
  • (C) edit drafts using standard English conventions, including:
  • (D) complete simple and compound sentences with subject-verb agreement and avoidance of splices, run-ons, and fragments;
    • (i) past tense of irregular verbs;
    • (ii) singular, plural, common, and proper nouns;
    • (iii) adjectives, including their comparative and superlative forms;
    • (iv) capitalization of historical periods, events, and documents; titles of books; stories and essays; and languages, races, and nationalities;
    • (v) adverbs that convey frequency and adverbs that convey degree;
    • (vi) prepositions and prepositional phrases;
    • (vii) pronouns, including reflexive;
    • (viii) coordinating conjunctions to form compound subjects, predicates, and sentences;
    • (ix) punctuation marks, including apostrophes in possessives, commas in compound sentences, and quotation marks in dialogue; and
    • (x) correct spelling of words with grade-appropriate orthographic patterns and rules and high-frequency words; and
    • (xi) publish written work for appropriate audiences.
  • (E) Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful. The student is expected to:
• (4) compose literary texts such as personal narratives and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
  • (A) compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft;
  • (B) compose argumentative texts, including opinion essays, using genre characteristics and craft; and
  • (C) compose correspondence that requests information.
  • (D) Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes. The student is expected to:
• (5) generate and clarify questions on a topic for formal and informal inquiry;
  • (A) develop and follow a research plan with adult assistance;
  • (B) identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources;
  • (C) identify primary and secondary sources;
  • (D) demonstrate understanding of information gathered;
  • (E) recognize the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism when using source materials;
  • (F) develop a bibliography; and
  • (G) use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results.
  • (H) listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information, and make pertinent comments;
  • (I) follow, restate, and give oral instructions that involve a series of related sequences of action;
  • (J) express an opinion supported by accurate information, employing eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, and the conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and
  • (K) work collaboratively with others to develop a plan of shared responsibilities.