| Document Date: 11/15/07 | ||
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The objectives assessed on MSA at each grade level are embedded in the Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC). They are identified with the notation, Assessment limit. Assessment limits provide clarification about the specific skills and content that students are expected to have learned for each assessed objective. Even though some objectives in the VSC may not have an Assessment limit at a given grade-level, these non-assessed objectives still must be included in instruction. They introduce important concepts in preparation for assessed skills and content at subsequent grade levels.
The 'VSC Toolkit' provides additional resources for understanding and teaching the content standards.
Standard 1.0 General Reading Processes
Topic
Indicator
- 1. Read orally at an appropriate rate
Objectives
- Read familiar text at a rate that is conversational and consistent
Indicator
- 2. Read grade-level text with both high accuracy and appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression
Objectives
- Apply knowledge of word structures and patterns to read with automaticity
- Demonstrate appropriate use of phrasing
- Attend to sentence patterns and structures that signal meaning in text
- Use punctuation cues to guide meaning and expression
- Use pacing and intonation to convey meaning and expression
- Adjust intonation and pitch appropriately
- Increase sight words read fluently
Topic
D. Vocabulary
Students will use a variety of strategies and opportunities to understand word meaning and to increase vocabulary.
Indicator
- 1. Develop and apply vocabulary through exposure to a variety of texts
Objectives
- Acquire new vocabulary through listening to, independently reading, and discussing a variety of literary and informational texts
- Discuss words and word meanings daily as they are encountered in text, instruction, and conversation
Indicator
- 2. Apply a conceptual understanding of new words
Objectives
- Classify and categorize increasingly complex words into sets and groups
- Explain relationships between and among words
Indicator
- 3. Understand, acquire, and use new vocabulary
Objectives
- Use context to determine the meanings of words
Assessment limits:
- Above grade-level words used in context
- Words with multiple meanings
- Use word structure to determine the meaning of words
- Use resources to confirm definitions and gather further information about words
- Use new vocabulary in speaking and writing to gain and extend content knowledge and clarify expression
Topic
E. General Reading Comprehension
Students will use a variety of strategies to understand what they read (construct meaning).
Indicator
- 1. Develop and apply comprehension skills through exposure to a variety of print and non-print texts, including traditional print and electronic texts
Objectives
- Listen to critically, read, and discuss texts representing diversity in content, culture, authorship, and perspective, including areas such as race, gender, disability, religion, and socio-economic background
- ** Read a minimum of 25 self-selected and/or assigned books or book equivalents representing various genres
- Discuss reactions to and ideas/information gained from reading experiences with adults and peers in both formal and informal situations
Indicator
- 2. Use strategies to prepare for reading (before reading)
Objectives
- Survey and preview the text
- Set a purpose for reading the text
- Make predictions and ask questions about the text
- Make connections to the text from prior knowledge and experiences
Indicator
- 3. Use strategies to make meaning from text (during reading)
Objectives
- Reread the difficult parts slowly and carefully
- Use own words to restate the difficult part
- Read on and revisit the difficult part
- Skim the text to search for connections between and among ideas
- Make, confirm, or adjust predictions
- Periodically summarize while reading
- Periodically paraphrase important ideas or information
- Visualize what was read for deeper understanding
- Use a graphic organizer or another note-taking technique to record important ideas or information
- Explain personal connections to the ideas or information in the text
Indicator
- 4. Use strategies to demonstrate understanding of the text (after reading)
Objectives
- Identify and explain the main idea
Assessment limits:
- Of the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain what is directly stated in the text
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain what is not directly stated in the text by drawing inferences
Assessment limits:
- From the text or a portion of the text
- Draw conclusions or make generalizations about the text
Assessment limits:
- From the text or a portion of the text
- Confirm, refute, or make predictions and form new ideas
Assessment limits:
- The development, topics, or ideas that might logically be included if the text were extended
- Paraphrase the main idea
Assessment limits:
- Of the text or a portion of the text
- Summarize
Assessment limits:
- The text or a portion of the text
- Connect the text to prior knowledge or personal experience
Assessment limits:
- Prior knowledge or experience that clarifies, extends, or challenges the ideas and/or information in the text or a portion of the text
Standard 2.0 Comprehension of Informational Text
Topic
A. Comprehension of Informational Text
Indicator
- 1. Develop and apply comprehension skills by reading a variety of self-selected and assigned print and non-print informational texts, including electronic media
Objectives
- Read, use, and identify the characteristics of nonfiction materials such as textbooks, appropriate reference materials, research and historical documents, personal narratives, diaries, and journals, biographies, newspapers, letters, articles, web sites and other online materials, other appropriate content-specific texts to gain information and content knowledge
Assessment limits:
- Grade-appropriate informational texts
- Read, use, and identify the characteristics of functional documents such as sets of directions, science investigations, atlases, posters, flyers, forms, instructional manuals, menus, pamphlets, rules, invitations, recipes, advertisements, other functional documents
Assessment limits:
- Grade-appropriate functional documents
- Select and read to gain information from personal interest materials such as brochures, books, magazines, cookbooks, catalogs, and web sites
Indicator
- 2. Identify and use text features to facilitate understanding of informational texts
Objectives
- Use print features such as large bold print, font size/type, italics, colored print, quotation marks, underlining, and other appropriate content-specific texts
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Use graphic aids such as illustrations and pictures, photographs, drawings, sketches, cartoons, maps (key, scale, legend, graphs, charts/tables, and diagrams, other graphic aids encountered in informational texts
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Use informational aids such as introductions and overviews, materials lists, timelines, captions, glossed words, labels, numbered steps, bulleted lists, footnoted words, pronunciation key, transition words, end notes, works cited, other informational aids encountered in informational texts
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Use organizational aids such as titles, chapter titles, headings, subheadings, tables of contents, numbered steps, glossaries, indices, transition words, other organizational aids encountered in organizational texts
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Use online features such as URLs, hypertext links, sidebars, drop down menus, home pages, site maps, other features characteristic of online texts
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain the contributions of text features to support the main idea of the text
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 3. Develop and apply knowledge of organizational structure of informational text to facilitate understanding
Objectives
- Identify and analyze the organizational patterns of texts such as sequential and/or chronological order, cause/effect, problem/solution, similarities/differences, description, main idea and supporting details, transition or signal words and phrases that indicate the organizational pattern
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Explain how the organizational pattern clarifies and reinforces meaning and supports the author's/text's purpose
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 4. Determine and analyze important ideas and messages in informational texts
Objectives
- Identify and explain the author's/text's purpose and intended audience
Assessment limits:
- Purpose of the author or the text or a portion of the text
- Connections between the text and the intended audience
- Identify and explain the author's opinion
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- State and support main ideas and messages
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Summarize or paraphrase
Assessment limits:
- The text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain information not related to the main idea
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Explain relationships between and among ideas such as comparison/contrast, cause/effect, sequence/chronology
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Relationships between and among ideas in one or more texts
- Synthesize ideas from text
Assessment limits:
- From one text or a portion of the text or across multiple texts
- Distinguish between a fact and an opinion
Assessment limits:
- In one or more texts or a portion of a text
- Explain how someone might use the text
Assessment limits:
- Application of the text for personal use or content-specific use
- Topics and ideas within a text or across texts that may have implications for readers or contemporary society
- Connect the text to prior knowledge or experience
Assessment limits:
- Prior knowledge that clarifies, extends, or challenges the ideas in the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 5. Analyze purposeful use of language
Objectives
- Analyze specific words or phrases that contribute to the meaning of a text
Assessment limits:
- Significant words and phrases (e.g., figurative language, idioms, etc.) in the text or a portion of the text
- Connotations of grade-appropriate words in context
- Denotations of above-grade-level words in context
- Analyze the effect of repetition of words and phrases on meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 6. Read critically to evaluate informational text
Objectives
- Explain whether the text fulfills the reading purpose
Assessment limits:
- Connections between the content of the text and the purpose for reading
- Analyze changes or additions to the structure and text features that would make the text easier to understand
Assessment limits:
- Connections between effectiveness of format and text features in clarifying the main idea and/or purpose of the text
- Connections between effectiveness of organizational pattern and clarity of the main idea and/or purpose of the text
- Analyze the text and its information for reliability
Assessment limits:
- Connections between the credentials of the author and the information in the text
- Verification of information included in the text
- Determine and explain whether or not the author's argument or position is presented fairly
Assessment limits:
- Evidence of opposing points of view
- Identify and explain information not included in the text
Assessment limits:
- Information that would enhance or clarify the reader's understanding of the main idea of the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain language and other techniques intended to persuade the reader
Assessment limits:
- Significant words and phrases that have an emotional appeal
Standard 3.0 Comprehension of Literary Text
Topic
A. Comprehension of Literary Text
Indicator
- 1. Develop and apply comprehension skills by reading and analyzing a variety of self-selected and assigned literary texts including print and non-print
Objectives
- Listen to critically, read, and discuss a variety of literary texts representing diverse cultures, perspectives, ethnicities, and time periods
- Listen to critically, read, and discuss a variety of literary forms and genres
Indicator
- 2. Analyze text features to facilitate understanding of literary texts
Objectives
- Identify and explain how organizational aids such as the title of the book, story, poem, or play, titles of chapters, subtitles, subheadings contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain how graphic aids such as pictures and illustrations, punctuation, print features contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain how informational aids such as introductions and overviews, materials lists, timelines, captions, glossed words, labels, numbered steps, bulleted lists, footnoted words, pronunciation keys, transition words, end notes, works cited, other information aids encountered in informational texts contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain how print features such as large bold print, font size/type, italics, colored print, quotation marks, underlining, other print features encountered in informational texts contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 3. Analyze elements of narrative texts to facilitate understanding and interpretation
Objectives
- Identify and distinguish among types of narrative texts such as short stories, folklore, realistic fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, essays, biographies, autobiographies, personal narratives, plays, poetry
Assessment limits:
- Grade-appropriate narrative texts
- Analyze details that provide information about the setting, the mood created by the setting, and ways in which the setting affects characters
Assessment limits:
- Details that create the setting and/or mood in the text or a portion of the text
- Connections among the characters, the setting, and the mood in the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze characterization
Assessment limits:
- Character's traits based on what character says, does, and thinks and what other characters or the narrator says
- Character's motivations
- Character's personal growth and development
- Analyze relationships between and among characters, setting, and events
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text or across multiple texts
- Analyze internal and/or external conflicts that motivate characters and those that advance the plot
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain the author's approach to issues of time in a narrative
Assessment limits:
- Identify and explain the point of view
Assessment limits:
- Connections between point of view and meaning
- Conclusions about the narrator based on his or her thoughts and/or observations
Indicator
- 4. Analyze elements of poetry to facilitate understanding and interpretation
Objectives
- Use structural features to distinguish among types of poems such as haiku, form/shape poetry, cinquain, etc.
- Identify and explain the meaning of words, lines, and stanzas
Assessment limits:
- Literal versus figurative meaning
- Identify and explain how sound elements of poetry contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Rhyme, rhyme scheme
- Alliteration and other repetition
- Onomatopoeia
Objectives
- Use structural features to distinguish among types of plays
- Identify and explain the action of scenes and acts
Assessment limits:
- Literal versus interpretive meaning
- Identify and explain how stage directions create character and movement
- Identify and explain stage directions and dialogue that help to create character
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 6. Determine important ideas and messages in literary texts
Objectives
- Analyze similar themes across multiple texts
Assessment limits:
- Experiences, emotions, issues, and ideas across texts that give rise to universal themes
- Paraphrase
Assessment limits:
- The text or a portion of the text
- Summarize
Assessment limits:
- The text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain personal connections to the text
Assessment limits:
- Connections between personal experiences and the theme or main ideas
- Explain the implications of the text for the reader and/or society
Assessment limits:
- Ideas and issues of a text that may have implications for the reader
Indicator
- 7. Analyze the author's purposeful use of language
Objectives
- Analyze specific words and phrases that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Significant words and phrases (e.g., idioms, colloquialisms, etc.) with a specific effect on meaning
- Denotations of above-grade-level words used in context
- Connotations of grade-appropriate words and phrases in context
- Identify and explain figurative language that contributes to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze how sensory language contributes to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Specific words and phrases in the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze how repetition and exaggeration contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 8. Read critically to evaluate literary texts
Objectives
- Determine and explain the plausibility of the characters' actions and the plot
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain questions left unanswered by the text
Assessment limits:
- Questions and predictions about events, situations, and conflicts that might occur if the text were extended
- Identify and explain the relationship between a literary text and its historical and/or social context
Assessment limits:
- Implications of the historical or social context on a literary text
- Identify and explain the relationship between the structure and the purpose of the text
Standard 4.0 Writing
Topic
A. Writing
Indicator
- 1. Compose texts using the prewriting and drafting strategies of effective writers and speakers
Objectives
- Use a variety of self-selected prewriting strategies to generate, select, narrow, and develop ideas
- Evaluate topics for personal relevance, scope, and feasibility
- Begin a coherent plan for developing ideas
- Explore and evaluate relevant sources of information
- Select, organize, and develop ideas appropriate to topic, audience, and purpose
- Organize information logically
- Use effective organizational structures
- Select or eliminate information as appropriate
- Verify the effectiveness of paragraph development by modifying topic, support, and concluding sentences as necessary
Indicator
- 2. Compose oral, written, and visual presentations that express personal ideas, inform, and persuade
Objectives
- Compose to express personal ideas by experimenting with a variety of forms and techniques suited to topic, audience, and purpose to develop an awareness of voice and tone
- Describe in prose and/or poetic forms to clarify, extend, or elaborate on ideas by using vivid language such as imagery, figurative language, and sound elements
- Compose to inform using relevant support and a variety of appropriate organizational structures and signal words within a paragraph
- Compose to persuade by supporting, modifying, or disagreeing with a position, using effective rhetorical strategies
- Support, modify, or disagree with a position and generate convincing evidence to support it
- Consider the effectiveness of diction, audience appeal, and organization
- Use connotation, repetition, and figurative language to control audience emotion and reaction
- Use authoritative citations
- Use writing-to-learn strategies such as dialect journals, quickwrites, and mindmaps to make connections between learning and prior knowledge
- Manage time and process when writing for a given purpose
Indicator
- 3. Compose texts using the revising and editing strategies of effective writers and speakers
Objectives
- Revise texts for clarity, completeness, and effectiveness
- Eliminate redundant and irrelevant words and ideas
- Clarify meaning through the placement of antecedents, modifiers, connectors, and transitional devices
- Coordinate equal ideas within a sentence
- Subordinate less important ideas within a sentence using phrases and clauses
- Maintain consistent person, number and tense
- Modify sentences from passive to active voice
- Vary sentence types and lengths to clarify and extend meaning and to develop style
- Use suitable traditional and electronic resources to refine presentations and edit texts for effective and appropriate and conventions such as capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and pronunciation
- Self edit
- Peer edit
- Dictionary
- Thesaurus
- Spell checker
- Language handbook
- Grammar checker
- Prepare the final product for presentation to an audience
Indicator
- 4. Identify how language choices in writing and speaking affect thoughts and feelings
Objectives
- Use precise word choice, formal to informal, based on audience, situation, or purpose
- Consider the connotative and/or denotative meanings of words when selecting vocabulary
- Consider how word choices affect the audience
Indicator
- 5. Assess the effectiveness of choice of details, organizational pattern, word choice, syntax, use of figurative language, and rhetorical devices in the student's own composing
Objectives
- Assess the effectiveness of diction that reveals his or her purpose
- Language appropriate for a particular audience
- Language suitable for a given purpose
- Words/phrases/sentences that extend meaning in a given context
- Explain how the specific language and expression used by the writer or speaker affects reader/listener response
- Evaluate the use of transitions in a text
Indicator
- 6. Explain how textual changes alter tone, clarify meaning, address a particular audience, or fulfill a purpose
Objectives
Indicator
- 7. Locate, retrieve and use information from various sources to accomplish a purpose
Objectives
- Identify, evaluate, and use sources of information on a self-selected and/or given topic
- Use various information retrieval sources (traditional and/or electronic) to obtain information on a self-selected and/or given topic
- Use appropriate note taking procedures, organizational strategies, and proper documentation of sources of information
- Appropriate strategies for taking notes
- Appropriate strategies for organizing source information or notes
- Information to include or exclude when using a note taking method
- Advantages, disadvantages, or limitations of a given strategy or procedure for recording or organizing information
- Advantages, disadvantages, or limitations of asources of information such as bias, accuracy, availability, variety currency
- Use a recognized format for documentation such as MLA
- Appropriate strategies for taking notes
- Synthesize information from two or more sources to fulfill a self-selected or given purpose
- Use a recognized format to credit sources when paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting to avoid plagiarism
Standard 5.0 Controlling Language
Topic
A. Grammar
Indicator
- 1. Recognize elements of grammar in personal and academic reading
Objectives
Indicator
- 2. Recognize, recall, and use grammar concepts and skills to strengthen control of oral and written language ***
Objectives
- Recognize the meaning, position, form, and function of words when identifying grammatical concepts such as indefinite pronouns, perfect verb tenses, conjunctive adverbs, and correlative conjunctions
- Combine sentences using knowledge of subjects and predicates, logical placement of modifiers, and logical coordination, subordination, and sequencing of ideas
- Differentiate grammatically complete sentences from non-sentences, including fused sentences
- Compose simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences using independent and dependent clauses, transitions, conjunctions, and appropriate punctuation to connect ideas
Topic
B. Usage
Indicator
- 1. Recognize examples of conventional usage in personal and academic reading
Objectives
Indicator
- 2. Comprehend and apply standard English usage in oral and written language ***
Objectives
- Apply appropriate subject/verb agreement such as with collective nouns, indefinite pronouns, and inverted word order
- Apply consistent and appropriate use of the principal parts of regular and irregular verbs; person, number, and case of pronouns; pronoun/antecedent agreement; and degrees of comparison of modifiers
- Recognize and correct common usage errors such as misplaced modifiers; incorrect use of verbs; double negatives; and commonly confused words such as accept - except
- Use available resources to correct or confirm editorial choices
- Explain editorial choices
Topic
C. Mechanics
Indicator
- 1. Explain and justify the purpose of mechanics to make and clarify meaning in academic and personal reading and writing
Objectives
Indicator
- 2. Apply standard English punctuation and capitalization in written language ***
Objectives
- Use commas and semicolons correctly such as in a compound sentence
- Use parentheses and dashes correctly
- Use appropriate punctuation for special formats such as e-mails, bulleted lists, letters, memos, citations, and outlines
- Use a colon to introduce a list
Indicator
- 3. Explain editorial choices involving mechanics
Objectives
Topic
D. Spelling
Indicator
- 1. Recognize conventional spelling in and through personal and academic reading
Objectives
Indicator
- 2. Apply conventional spelling in written language
Objectives
- Use conventional spelling in personal writing
- Develop self-monitoring strategies for frequently misspelled words
- Use suitable traditional and electronic resources as a spelling aid
Indicator
- 3. Maintain a personal list of words to use in editing original writing
Objectives
Topic
E. Handwriting
Indicator
- 1. Produce writing that is legible to the audience
Objectives
- Write fluidly and legibly in manuscript and cursive
- Use word processing technology when appropriate
Standard 6.0 Listening
Topic
A. Listening
Indicator
- 1. Apply and demonstrate listening skills appropriately in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes
Objectives
- Attend to the speaker
- Ask appropriate questions
- Contribute relevant comments
- Relate prior knowledge
- Use note-taking to assist listening when appropriate
- Maintain visual contact with the speaker
- Maintain focus by identifying and managing barriers to listening
Indicator
- 2. Apply comprehension and literary analysis strategies and skills for a variety of listening purposes and settings
Objectives
- Elaborate on the information and ideas presented
- Make inferences or draw conclusions based on the presentation
- Determine speaker's attitude through verbal and non-verbal cues such as tone of voice, inflections, body language, facial expressions
- Explain how the effects of language contribute to meaning
- Provide constructive feedback to speakers concerning the delivery as well as its overall impact upon the listeners
Standard 7.0 Speaking
Topic
A. Speaking
Indicator
- 1. Demonstrate appropriate organizational strategies and delivery techniques to plan for a variety of oral presentation purposes
Objectives
- Identify the purpose, audience, and setting for a presentation
- Identify the needs and perspectives of the audience
- Select and plan for appropriate use of visual aids
- Select the topic of an oral presentation
- Gather/construct adequate support
- Identify and use a variety of organization structures such as narrative, cause and effect, chronological order, description, main idea and detail, problem/solution, question/answer, comparison and contrast
- *Independent level text (Put Reading First) is relatively easy text for the reader, with no more than approximately 1 in 20 words that are difficult for the reader (95% success). Instructional level text (Put Reading First) is challenging but manageable text for the reader, with no more than approximately 1 in 10 words difficult for the reader (90% success).
- **New Standards identifies the need for students to process 1 million words per year to maintain academic progress.
- ***At each grade level, curricular options include more complex examples of previous years' objectives.
- ****Emphasis is on application of conventions rather than memorization of terms.
Indicators/objectives that include assessment limits are assessed on MSA *New Standards identifies the need for students to process 1 million words per year to maintain academic progress.
11/15/07
