| 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 and independent level text at a rate that is conversational and consistent
- Read instructional level text that is challenging yet manageable
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 and refine a conceptual understanding of new words
Objectives
- Classify and categorize increasingly complex words
- 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. Apply and refine 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
- Select and apply appropriate strategies to prepare for reading the text
Indicator
- 3. Use strategies to make meaning from text (during reading)
Objectives
- Select and apply appropriate strategies to make meaning from text during reading
Indicator
- 4. Use strategies to demonstrate understanding of the text (after reading)
Objectives
- Identify and explain the main idea or argument
Assessment limits:
- Of the text or a portion of the text
- Identify and explain information directly stated in the text
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Draw inferences and/or conclusions and make generalizations
Assessment limits:
- From the text or a portion of the text
- Confirm, refute, or make predictions
Assessment limits:
- The development, topics, or ideas that might logically be included if the text were extended
- Summarize or paraphrase
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. Apply and refine comprehension skills by selecting, reading, and analyzing a variety of print and non-print informational texts, including electronic media
Objectives
- Read, use, and identify the characteristics of primary and secondary sources of academic information such as textbooks, trade books, reference and research materials, periodicals, editorials, speeches, interviews, articles, non-print materials, and online materials, other appropriate content-specific texts
Assessment limits:
- Grade-appropriate primary and secondary texts
- Read, use, and identify the characteristics of workplace and other real-world 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 workplace and real-world documents
- Select and read to gain information from personal interest materials such as books, pamphlets, how-to manuals, magazines, web sites, and other online materials
Indicator
- 2. Analyze text features to facilitate and extend understanding of informational texts
Objectives
- Analyze print features that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze graphic aids that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze informational aids that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze organizational aids that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze online features that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze the relationship between the text features and the content of the text as a whole
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 3. Apply knowledge of organizational patterns of informational text to facilitate understanding and analysis
Objectives
- Analyze the organizational patterns of texts such as common organizational patterns, transition or signal words and phrases that indicate the organizational pattern
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze the contribution of the organizational pattern to clarify or reinforce meaning and support the author's purpose and/or argument
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze shifts in organizational patterns
Assessment limits:
- Portions of text that illustrate a shift in organizational pattern
- Use organizational structure to locate specific information
Indicator
- 4. Analyze important ideas and messages in informational texts
Objectives
- Analyze 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
- Analyze the author's argument, viewpoint, or perspective
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 or ideas peripheral to the main idea or message
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze relationships between and among ideas
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Relationships between and among ideas in one text or across multiple texts
- Synthesize ideas from text
Assessment limits:
- From one text or a portion of the text or across multiple texts
- Explain the implications of the text or how someone might use the text
Assessment limits:
- Application of the text for personal use or content-specific use
- Issues 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 word choice that contributes to the meaning and/or creates style
Assessment limits:
- Significant words and phrases (e.g., figurative language, idioms, colloquialisms, 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
- Discernible styles such as persuasive, informal, formal, etc.
- Analyze repetition and variation of specific words and phrases that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 6. Read critically to evaluate informational text
Objectives
- Analyze the extent to which the text or texts fulfill the reading purpose
Assessment limits:
- Connections between the content of the text and the purpose for reading
- Analyze the extent to which the structure and text features clarify the purpose and the information
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
- Currency of the information in the text
- Verification of information across multiple sources
- Analyze additional information that would clarify or strengthen the author's argument or viewpoint
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
- Analyze the effectiveness of persuasive techniques to sway the reader to a particular point of view
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. Refine 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 and evaluate text features to facilitate and extend understanding of literary texts
Objectives
- Analyze text features that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 3. Analyze and evaluate elements of narrative texts to facilitate understanding and interpretation
Objectives
- Distinguish among types of grade-appropriate narrative texts such as short stories, folklore, realistic fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, essays, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, personal narratives, plays, and lyric and narrative poetry
Assessment limits:
- Grade-appropriate narrative texts
- 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 the actions of characters that serve to advance the plot
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
- Analyze the point of view and its effect on meaning
Assessment limits:
- Connections between point of view and meaning
- Conclusions about the narrator based on his/her thoughts and/or observations
- Analyze the interactions among narrative elements and their contribution to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Connections among narrative elements and meaning
Indicator
- 4. Analyze and evaluate elements of poetry to facilitate understanding and interpretation
Objectives
- Use structural features to distinguish among types of poetry such as ballad, narrative, lyric, elegy, etc.
- Analyze language and structural features to determine meaning
Assessment limits:
- Literal versus figurative meaning
- Analyze sound elements of poetry that contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Rhyme, rhyme scheme
- Alliteration and other repetition
- Onomatopoeia
Objectives
- Use structural features to distinguish among types of plays
- Analyze how dialogue and stage directions work together to create characters and plot
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 6. Analyze and interpret important ideas and messages in literary texts
Objectives
- Analyze main ideas and universal themes
Assessment limits:
- Of the text or a portion of the text
- Experiences, emotions, issues, and ideas in a text that give rise to universal themes
- Analyze similar themes across multiple texts
Assessment limits:
- Experiences, emotions, issues, and ideas across texts that give rise to universal themes
- Summarize or paraphrase
Assessment limits:
- The text or a portion of the text
- Reflect on 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 and evaluate the author's purposeful use of language
Objectives
- Analyze and evaluate how specific language choices contribute to meaning
Assessment limits:
- Significant words (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
- Analyze and evaluate figurative language that contributes to meaning and/or creates style
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
Indicator
- 8. Read critically to evaluate literary texts
Objectives
- Analyze and evaluate the plausibility of the plot and the credibility of the characters
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion of the text
- Analyze and evaluate the extent to which the text contains ambiguities, subtleties, or contradictions
Assessment limits:
- Questions and predictions about events, situations, and conflicts that might occur if the text were extended
- Analyze and evaluate the relationship between a literary text and its historical, social, and/or political context
Assessment limits:
- Implications of the historical or social context on a literary text
- Analyze the relationship between the structure and the purpose of the text
Assessment limits:
- In the text or a portion 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 topic 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 techniques such as graphic organizers and signal words to complete and clarify organizational structures
- 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
- Describe in prose and/or poetic forms to clarify, extend, or elaborate on ideas by using evocative language and appropriate organizational structure to create a dominant impression
- Compose to inform using relevant support and appropriate organizational structures while maintaining an objective perspective
- Compose to persuade by supporting, modifying, or refuting a position, using effective rhetorical strategies
- Write an assertion and use evidence that appeals to audience emotion, reasoning, or trust
- Organize ideas to construct a logical progression
- Use diction and syntax that is sincere, honest, and trustworthy
- Use connotation, repetition, and figurative language to control audience emotion and reaction
- Use authoritative citations when effective and document appropriately
- Use writing-to-learn strategies such as reflective journals, metacognitive writings, and projections based on reflections to analyze and synthesize thinking and learning
- 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
- Clarify the relationships among ideas through coordination and subordination that are purposeful, logical, succinct, and parallel
- Clarify meaning and purpose by using active voice and consistent person, number, tense, and mood
- Vary sentence types and lengths to clarify and extend meaning, to demonstrate style, and to sustain audience interest
- Use suitable traditional or 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
- Style book
- Prepare the final product for presentation to an audience
Indicator
- 4. Identify how language choices in writing and speaking affect thoughts and feelings
Objectives
- Choose a level of language, formal to informal, appropriate for a specific audience, situation, or purpose
- Differentiate connotative from denotative meanings of words to make precise word choices
- Consider how readers or listeners might respond differently to the same words
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 and their effectiveness in a text
Indicator
- 6. Evaluate textual changes in a work and explain how these changes alter tone, clarify meaning, address a particular purpose, or fulfill a purpose
Objectives
Indicator
- 7. Locate, retrieve, and use information from various sources to accomplish a purpose
Objectives
- Identify, evaluate, and use appropriate 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 a systematic process for recording, documenting, and organizing this 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. Apply knowledge of grammar concepts and skills to control oral and written language ***
Objectives
- Consider the meaning, position, form, and function of words when identifying and using all grammatical concepts
- Combine and expand sentences by incorporating subjects, predicates, and modifiers and by logically coordinating, subordinating, and sequencing ideas
- Differentiate grammatically complete sentences from non-sentences
- Compose simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences using independent, dependent, restrictive, and nonrestrictive 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 English usage, involving subject/verb agreement
- Apply consistent and appropriate use of the person, number, and case of pronouns; pronoun/antecedent agreement; special pronoun problems such as who - whom, and incomplete constructions; active and passive voice; and verbal and verbal phrases
- Recognize and correct common usage errors such as misplaced and dangling 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
- Punctuate at the word level
- Hyphen
- Slash
- Use the mechanics of writing correctly
- Use available resources for all mechanics of writing rules that may be in flux
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
- Respond to a speaker's cues appropriately
- Identify regional and social language differences
- Determine and apply criteria to evaluate oral presentations
Indicator
- 2. Demonstrate comprehension and literary analysis strategies and skills for a variety of listening purposes and settings
Objectives
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the elements of the speech or performance or presentation
- Interpret the speech or performance or presentation
- Analyze a speaker's purpose and viewpoint
- Identify and evaluate a speaker's stylistic devices such as clear organization, clear viewpoint, use of support, language appropriate to audience, topic appropriate to audience
- Evaluate a speaker's credibility such as bias, hidden agendas, use of research/information from reliable sources
- Explain and support a personal response to an oral presentation
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
- Refine a presentation using varied media
- Uses a combination of organizational structures such as narrative, cause and effect, chronological/sequential order, description, main idea with supporting details, problem/solution, question/answer, comparison and contrast, making appropriate transitions within a presentation
- Speak to persuade by including a well-defined thesis, differentiating fact from opinion, and support arguments with detailed evidence, examples, reasoning and persuasive language
- *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
