English Language Arts
High School


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Meaning and Communication: Reading
Standard ELA.1

All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

Benchmark ELA.1.HS.1
Use reading for multiple purposes, such as enjoyment, learning complex procedures, completing technical tasks, making workplace decisions, evaluating and analyzing information, and pursuing in-depth studies.

Benchmark ELA.1.HS.2
Read with developing fluency a variety of texts, such as novels, poetry, drama, essays, research texts, technical manuals, and documents.

Benchmark ELA.1.HS.3
Selectively employ the most effective strategies to construct meaning, such as generating questions, scanning, analyzing, and evaluating for specific information related to a research question, and deciding how to represent content through summarizing, clustering, and mapping.

Benchmark ELA.1.HS.4
Selectively employ the most effective strategies to recognize words as they construct meaning, including the use of context clues, etymological study, and reference materials.

Benchmark ELA.1.HS.5
Respond personally, analytically, and critically to a variety of oral, visual, written, and electronic texts, providing examples of how texts influence their lives and their role in society.

Meaning and Communication: Writing
Standard ELA.2

All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.

Benchmark ELA.2.HS.1
Write fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as stories, poetry, personal narratives, editorials, research reports, persuasive essays, resumes, and memos.

Benchmark ELA.2.HS.2
Recognize and approximate authors' innovative techniques to convey meaning and influence an audience when composing their own texts. Examples include experimentation with time, stream of consciousness, multiple perspectives, and use of complex grammatical conventions.

Benchmark ELA.2.HS.3
Plan, draft, revise, and edit their texts, and analyze and critique the texts of others in such areas as purpose, effectiveness, cohesion, and creativity.

Benchmark ELA.2.HS.4
Demonstrate precision in selecting appropriate language conventions when editing text. Examples include complex grammatical constructions, sentence structures, punctuation, and spelling.

Meaning and Communication in Context
Standard ELA.3

All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.1
Integrate listening, viewing, speaking, reading, and writing skills for multiple purposes and in varied contexts. An example is using all the language arts to complete and present a multi-media project on a national or international issue.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.2
Consistently use strategies to regulate the effects of variables on the communication process. An example is designing a communication environment for maximum impact on the receiver.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.3
Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately, view critically, and represent creatively. Examples include speaking publicly, demonstrating teamwork skills, debating formally, performing literature, and interviewing for employment.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.4
Consistently use effective listening strategies (e.g., discriminating, assigning meaning, evaluating, and remembering) and elements of effective speaking (e.g., message content, language choices, and audience analysis).

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.5
Employ the most effective strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to, viewing, or creating texts. Examples include generating focus questions; deciding how to represent content through analyzing, clustering, and mapping; and withholding personal bias while listening.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.6
Determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and concepts in oral, visual, and written texts by using a variety of resources, such as context, research, reference materials, and electronic sources.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.7
Recognize and use varied innovative techniques to construct text, convey meaning, and express feelings to influence an audience. Examples include experimentation with time, order, stream of consciousness, and multiple points of view.

Benchmark ELA.3.HS.8
Analyze their responses to oral, visual, written, and electronic texts, providing examples of how texts affect their lives, connect them with the contemporary world, and transmit issues across time.

Language
Standard ELA.4

All students will use the English language effectively.

Benchmark ELA.4.HS.1
Demonstrate how language usage is related to successful communication in their different spoken, written, and visual communication contexts, such as job interviews, public speeches, debates, and advertising.

Benchmark ELA.4.HS.2
Use an understanding of how language patterns and vocabularies transmit culture and affect meaning in formal and informal situations. An example is identifying distinctions in the verbal and non-verbal communication behaviors of national or world leaders.

Benchmark ELA.4.HS.3
Explore and explain how the same words can have different usages and meanings in different contexts, cultures, and communities.

Benchmark ELA.4.HS.4
Demonstrate ways in which communication can be influenced through word usage. Examples include propaganda, irony, parody, and satire.

Benchmark ELA.4.HS.5
Recognize and use levels of discourse appropriate for varied contexts, purposes, and audiences, including terminology specific to particular fields. Examples include community building, presentations integrating different disciplines, lessons comparing fields of study, promotional material created for an interdisciplinary project, and videos designed to inform or entertain diverse audiences.

Literature
Standard ELA.5

All students will read and analyze a wide variety of classic and contemporary literature and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment, and understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and the rich diversity in our society.

Benchmark ELA.5.HS.1
Select, read, listen to, view, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit.

Benchmark ELA.5.HS.2
Describe and discuss archetypal human experiences that appear in literature and other texts from around the world.

Benchmark ELA.5.HS.3
Analyze how the tensions among characters, communities, themes, and issues in literature and other texts reflect the substance of the human experience.

Benchmark ELA.5.HS.4
Analyze how cultures interact with one another in literature and other texts, and describe the consequences of the interaction as it relates to our common heritage.

Benchmark ELA.5.HS.5
Analyze and evaluate the authenticity of the portrayal of various societies and cultures in literature and other texts. An example is critiquing print and non-print accounts of historical and contemporary social issues.

Voice
Standard ELA.6

All students will learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written, and visual texts that enlighten and engage an audience.

Benchmark ELA.6.HS.1
Assess their use of elements of effective communication in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts. Examples include use of pacing, repetition, and emotion.

Benchmark ELA.6.HS.2
Evaluate the power of using multiple voices in their oral and written communication to persuade, inform, entertain, and inspire their audiences.

Benchmark ELA.6.HS.3
Analyze the style and characteristics of authors, actors, and artists of classics and masterpieces to determine why these voices endure.

Benchmark ELA.6.HS.4
Document and enhance a developing voice with authentic writings for different audiences and purposes. Examples include portfolios, video productions, submissions for competitions or publications, individual introspections, and applications for employment and higher education.

Skills and Processes
Standard ELA.7

All students will demonstrate, analyze, and reflect upon the skills and processes used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing.

Benchmark ELA.7.HS.1
Use a combination of strategies when encountering unfamiliar texts while constructing meaning. Examples include generating questions; scanning for specific information related to research questions; analyzing tone and voice; and representing content through summarizing, clustering, and mapping.

Benchmark ELA.7.HS.2
Monitor their progress while using a variety of strategies to overcome difficulties when constructing and conveying meaning, and demonstrate flexible use of strategies across a wide range of situations.

Benchmark ELA.7.HS.3
Reflect on their understanding of literacy, assess their developing ability, set personal learning goals, create strategies for attaining those goals, and take responsibility for their literacy development.

Benchmark ELA.7.HS.4
Demonstrate flexibility in using strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing complex texts in a variety of genre, and describe the relationship between form and meaning. Examples include preparing text for publication and presentation and using strategies appropriate for purposes, such as editorializing an opinion, and developing and justifying a personal perspective on a controversial issue.

Genre and Craft of Language
Standard ELA.8

All students will explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts, aesthetic elements, and mechanics—including text structure, figurative and descriptive language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar—to construct and convey meaning.

Benchmark ELA.8.HS.1
Identify and use selectively mechanics that facilitate understanding. Examples include organizational patterns, documentation of sources, appropriate punctuation, grammatical constructions, conventional spelling, and the use of connective devices, such as transitions and paraphrasing an oral message completely and accurately.

Benchmark ELA.8.HS.2
Describe and use characteristics of various narrative genre and complex elements of narrative technique to convey ideas and perspectives. Examples include use of symbol, motifs, and function of minor characters in epics, satire, and drama.

Benchmark ELA.8.HS.3
Describe and use characteristics of informational genre (e.g., manuals, briefings, documentaries, and research presentations) and complex elements of expository texts (e.g., thesis statement, supporting ideas, and authoritative and/or statistical evidence) to convey ideas.

Benchmark ELA.8.HS.4
Identify and use aspects of the craft of the speaker, writer, and illustrator to formulate and express their ideas artistically. Examples include imagery, irony, multiple points of view, complex dialogue, aesthetics, and persuasive techniques.

Benchmark ELA.8.HS.5
Describe and use the characteristics of various oral, visual, and written texts (e.g., debate, drama, primary documents, and documentaries) and the textual aids they employ (e.g., prefaces, appendices, lighting effects, and microfiche headings) to convey meaning and inspire audiences.

Depth of Understanding
Standard ELA.9

All students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across texts.

Benchmark ELA.9.HS.1
Analyze and reflect on universal themes and substantive issues from oral, visual, and written texts. Examples include human interaction with the environment, conflict and change, relationships with others, and self-discovery.

Benchmark ELA.9.HS.2
Synthesize from multiple texts representing varied perspectives, and apply the principles and generalizations needed to investigate and confront complex issues and problems.

Benchmark ELA.9.HS.3
Develop and extend a thesis by analyzing differing perspectives and resolving inconsistencies in logic in order to support a position.

 

Ideas in Action
Standard ELA.10

All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others.

Benchmark ELA.10.HS.1
Use themes and central ideas in literature and other texts to generate solutions to problems and formulate perspectives on issues in their own lives.

Benchmark ELA.10.HS.2
Function as literate individuals in varied contexts within their lives in and beyond the classroom. Examples include using text resources while thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, and reasoning in complex situations.

Benchmark ELA.10.HS.3
Utilize the persuasive power of text as an instrument of change in their community, their nation, and the world. Examples include identifying a community issue and designing an authentic project using oral, written, and visual texts to promote social action.

 

Inquiry and Research
Standard ELA.11

All students will define and investigate important issues and problems using a variety of resources, including technology, to explore and create texts.

Benchmark ELA.11.HS.1
Generate questions about important issues that affect them or society, or topics about which they are curious; narrow the questions to a clear focus; and create a thesis or a hypothesis.

Benchmark ELA.11.HS.2
Determine, evaluate, and use resources that are most appropriate and readily available for investigating a particular question or topic. Examples include knowledgeable people, field trips, prefaces, appendices, icons/headings, hypertext, menus and addresses, Internet and electronic mail, CD-ROM/laser disks, microfiche, and library and interlibrary catalogue databases.

Benchmark ELA.11.HS.3
Synthesize and evaluate information to draw conclusions and implications based on their investigation of an issue or problem.

Benchmark ELA.11.HS.4
Research and select the medium and format to be used to present conclusions based on the investigation of an issue or problem. Examples include satire, parody, multimedia presentations, plays, and mock trials.

 

Critical Standards
Standard ELA.12

All students will develop and apply personal, shared, and academic criteria for the enjoyment, appreciation, and evaluation of their own and others’ oral, written, and visual texts.

Benchmark ELA.12.HS.1
Apply sets of standards for individual use according to the purpose of the communication context. An example is comparing and contrasting standards in the evaluation of a popular movie, television program, article, or presentation on the same topic.

Benchmark ELA.12.HS.2
Analyze and apply individual, shared, and academic standards in various contexts.

Benchmark ELA.12.HS.3
Use literary history, tradition, theory, terminology, and other critical standards to develop and justify judgments about the craft and significance of oral, visual, and written texts.

Benchmark ELA.12.HS.4
Create a collection of personal work based on individual, shared, and academic standards, justifying judgments about the craft and significance of each selection.

Benchmark ELA.12.HS.5
Apply diverse standards (e.g. rhetorical and societal) to evaluate whether a communication is truthful, responsible, and ethical for a specific context.

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