In grade 7, students participate in discussions, making their ideas and reasoning clear to their listeners and recognize the contributions of group members. Students paraphrase longer pieces of text and revise with coherence in mind. Students demonstrate an emerging sophistication in their ability to read challenging complex texts closely in order to cite multiple instances of specific evidence to support their assertions. By the end of grade 7, students should be able to recognize the effect of setting, plot, and characters on the theme and mood of a text. Their vocabulary has developed to the point that they can distinguish between denotative and connotative meanings and can use their knowledge of Greek roots to determine the meanings of words. Students gain the ability to write compound-complex sentences, the most advanced sentence structure, which they can use in narrative, informative, and argumentative modes. In research, students determine not only the relevance and reliability of sources but also the validity. They continue to consume, critique, and create multimodal content. Students play with modes and genres while writing independently and explore genres while reading independently.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework for improving student learning experiences and outcomes through careful instructional planning focused on the varied needs of all students, including students with visible and non-visible disabilities, advanced and gifted learners, and English learners.

Some general ideas for implementing the UDL lens in an ELA lesson, PK-12, are provided in this chart.

These exemplar lesson plans showcase best practices for English language arts. These lessons are aligned to the Oklahoma Academic Standards and bundle together multiple objectives to showcase the recursive nature of ELA. Each lesson plan includes helpful explanations about the instructional plan and steps. Teachers can review these sample lessons on their own, with a colleague, and/or with their professional learning community, to reflect on the highlighted ELA practices and how they mesh with their own current classroom practices.

Lesson plans are available for each grade featuring texts from the following genres: fiction, nonfiction, & poetry.

Moreover, an exemplar lesson plan sequence regarding Standard 6 research is available for each grade band.

This suite of writing resources includes:

• student-friendly checklists for the narrative, informative, argumentative, and research modes
• editing checklists for the beginning and middle of the school year
• examples of teacher feedback on student writing
• a peer feedback lesson plan with a slideshow and handout

• Engagement Strategies
• 7th Grade ELA Standards (pages 80-87)