Delaware English Language Arts Standards
Writing Learning Progressions
GRADES 9-10: Writing Standard 1
College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Writing Standard 1:Write arguments to support claim(s)s in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Grade 8:
Write arguments to support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence. / Grade 9-10:
Write arguments to support claim(s) in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. / Grades 11-12:
Write arguments to support claim(s) in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
- Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claim(s), and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaim(s), reasons, and evidence.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Identify a debatable, substantive issue
- Narrow the issue to a reasonable scope
- Select a position or claim
- Engage reader with an intriguing opening
- Narrow and refine the claim to establish a precise thesis
- Provide context to the claim (e.g. put essay in perspective)
- Develop relevant reasons to support the claim
- Identify alternate or opposing claims
- Prioritize and organize reasons and evidence logically to support claims
- Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claim(s), and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaim(s), reasons, and evidence.
- Substantive topics
- Claim
- Opening (e.g. vivid description, engaging questions, anecdote, quotation, statement of fact)
- Thesis statement
- Context
- Alternate or opposing claims
- Evidence
- Reasons
- Relationship between claims and reasons
- Strategies for dealing with opposing point of view (e.g., rebuttal, concession, acknowledgement)
- What argument are you making about this topic, i.e., what is your claim?
- How can I refine my topic/claim to produce a more precise thesis?
- What is the connection between your claim and the evidence or reasons you have chosen?
- Have you established a purpose for your essay?
- How can you order the evidence, reasons, and counter claim to best support your claim?
- Develop claim(s) and counterclaim(s) fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Evaluate evidence based on credibility and relevance
- Develop claim from evidence
- Support claims with strongest evidence
- Assess the audience’s level of knowledge and concerns
- Acknowledge limitations but emphasize the strengths of the claim
- Rebut/refute or concede the opposing claim to strengthen the argument
- Develop claim(s) and counterclaim(s) fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.
- Multiple perspectives
- Valid reasoning
- Claim
- Counterclaim
- Fair (accurate representation of evidence)
- Differences between relevant and irrelevant reasons, evidence
- Strategies for dealing with opposing point of view (e.g., rebuttal, refutation, concession)
- Audience analysis (e.g. needs, knowledge, concerns)
- What evidence or reasons work best to support your claim?
- What is the connection between your claim and the evidence or reasons you have chosen?
- Are you treating the opposing argument or claim fairly and accurately?
- How can you use the opposing claim to strengthen your argument?
- How do you need to adjust your writing to meet the needs of the audience?
- Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaim(s).
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Recognize connections among claims, reasons and evidence
- Recognize connection between claim and counterclaim
- Clarify connections using appropriate transitional words, phrases and clauses
- Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaim(s)
- Cohesion
- Words, phrases, and clauses that work as transitions between major sections in the text
- Relationships between
- Claims-reasons
- Reasons-evidence
- Claims-counterclaim
- What are the connections among claims, reason and evidence?
- What are the connections between the claim and counterclaim?
- Which words, phrases, and/or clauses link one major section of your writing with the next?
- Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Recognize the difference between formal and informal style
- Recognize the characteristics of an objective tone
- Establish and maintain an objective tone throughout a piece of writing
- Select an appropriate writing format
- Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing
- Differences between formal and informal style
- Norms and conventions of the discipline in which you are writing
- Objective tone (e.g., academic, formal, reasoned, fact-based)
- Is the language you have chosen precise and clear?
- Have you maintained a formal writing style?
- Is the tone consistently objective?
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Identify key concepts to review
- Construct a brief recap of the key concepts
- Reiterate how the support for the claim outweighs the opposing or alternate claim
- Provide an impactful final statement that addresses the significance of the argument
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
- Final statement (e.g. call to action, final insight, so what, next steps)
- What key elements from your argument should appear in the conclusion?
- How do the ideas in your conclusion logically follow from all that you said in the essay?
- Will the final statement make a lasting impact on the audience?
9-10W10: Range of Writing - Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
GRADE 9-10: Writing Standard 2
Grade 8: Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. / Grades 9-10: Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. / Grades 11-12: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Select an appropriate topic open to examination, discussion, or explanation
- Engage reader with an intriguing opening
- Prioritize and organize reasons and evidence logically to support thesis
- Select and utilize appropriate graphics, formats and/or multimedia to support thesis and add clarity to the paper
- Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
- Opening (e.g. vivid description, engaging questions, anecdote, quotation, statement of fact)
- Thesis statement
- Context
- Formatting
- Graphics
- Multimedia
- What is your subject—and what are you saying about it?
- Is your topic an interesting, yet manageable, subject for writing?
- Has your thesis clearly captured your topic and complex ideas?
- Have you introduced your topic in an interesting and engaging way?
- What organizational patterns and/or techniques will you use to clarify and emphasize your ideas (e.g., concept definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect, problem-solution, time order)?
- Do your ideas build in a logically organized way?
- Can any specific formatting, graphics and/or multimedia help your explanation?
- Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Assess the audience’s level of knowledge and concerns and address those in the writing
- Evaluate and select information and examples based on significance and relevance
- Support thesis with the strongest examples
- Use evidence to effectively elaborate on the topic
- Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
- Relevant facts
- Concrete details
- Elaboration
- Extended definitions
- Understanding of audience needs, knowledge, concerns
- What are the purpose, audience, and situation for this writing?
- What criteria should you apply when choosing which facts, details or other information to include?
- What ideas, details, or sources are most important to include?
- What is the most effective way to develop this topic?
- Have you developed the topic thoroughly?
- How do you integrate and interpret the evidence to support your thesis?
- Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Recognize connections between thesis, concepts and evidence
- Clarify connections using appropriate transitional words, phrases and clauses
- Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts
- Cohesion
- Words, phrases, and clauses that work as transitions between major sections in the text
- What is the relationship between your thesis, concepts, and evidence?
- Do your transitions create cohesion among ideas and concepts?
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Identify or determine appropriate domain-specific vocabulary
- Use domain-specific vocabulary to increase precision and clarity
- Use precise language and appropriate domain-specific vocabulary and terms to manage the complexity of the topic
- Domain-specific vocabulary
- Is the language you have chosen precise and clear?
- Are you using vocabulary appropriate for the content-area or domain of the topic?
- Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Recognize the difference between formal and informal style
- Establish and maintain an appropriate style throughout a piece of writing
- Differences between formal and informal style
- Norms and conventions of the discipline in which you are writing
- Objective tone (e.g., academic, formal, reasoned, fact-based)
- Is the language you have chosen precise and clear?
- Have you maintained a formal writing style?
- Is the tone consistently objective?
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Construct a brief recap of the key concepts
- Provide an impactful final statement that addresses the significance of the topic
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic)
- Final statement (e.g., final insight, so what, next steps)
- What is the best way to lead into your concluding section?
- What are the main ideas you discuss or emphasize in the conclusion—and
- How do the ideas in your concluding statement or section logically follow from all that you said prior to the conclusion?
- Does my conclusion move beyond summary (e.g., reinforcing the importance of the information, raising related issues and/or generating a hypothesis)
9-10W10: Range of Writing - Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
GRADE 9-10: Writing Standard 3
College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Writing Standard 3:Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.Grade 8: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. / Grade 9-10: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. / Grades 11-12: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Create/select experiences or events to establish an observation, problem, conflict, or situation
- Establish one or multiple points of view from which the narrative is told
- Create or establish a narrator and/or key characters
- Create or establish a purpose and context for the narrative (e.g. hint at the larger meaning of the story, set the stage for the lesson that might be learned, or show how the character relates to the setting in a way that matters)
- Organize a story structure which draws the reader in and clarifies what is happening and who is involved
- Create a smooth progression of experiences or events
- Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or event sequences
- Observation/Problem/ Conflict/Situation
- Point of view
- Story structure/Plot (e.g., inciting event or exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement or resolution)
- Purpose
- Context
- What experience (observation/problem/ conflict/situation) will you write about? Why did you select this one?
- What do you want your audience to take away after reading this story?
- How will you introduce your characters and narrator?
- From what point(s) of view is your narrative written? Why did you select this/these point(s) of view?
- Have you chosen details strategically, based on the purpose and context you’ve created for the narrative?
- How will you organize the events in a way that they would make sense to a reader? Are they logical? Is the relationship among the events evident?
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Use specific details to describe people, places, experiences, and/or events
- Use dialogue to show how characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution
- Use dialogue, reflection, description, and multiple plot lines to bring the characters alive
- Use a character’s actions or words to indicate his/her development within the narrative
- Adjust pacing to speed up or slow down the story to help the reader focus on key events and/or details
- Incorporate characters’ reflection about their situation or reactions to help develop the narrative
- Provide or withhold key details for effect
- Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
- Dialogue
- Pacing
- Description
- Reflection
- Multiple plot lines
- Characterization
- How do the various plot lines help develop your narrative?
- How can you use dialogue to develop the plot?
- Which character(s) changed throughout the narrative and how did you make that apparent to the reader?
- How have you used a narrative technique to show a change in a character?
- How can you use dialogue to show characters’ thoughts or feelings?
- When or where did you slow the pace of the narrative and why?
- When or where did you quicken the pace of the narrative and why?
c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Use transitional words, phrases, and clauses to organize events in a sequence
- Show the transition of time in a variety of ways
- Use transitional phrases and clauses to alert readers to changes in setting or connections among experiences or events
- Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole
- Cohesive and transitional devices (e.g., words, phrases, clauses)
- Organizational pattern(s)/sequence of events (e.g., chronological/linear, reflective, flashback, circular)
- How does your narrative transition/flow from one idea or event into the next?
- When or where does your narrative shift from one time or place to another and why?
- What transitional expressions can you use to show the relationships among experiences and events?
- How do you signal to the reader the shifts in time or place?
d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Select words and phrases that evoke the experience or the sense of place and people involved
- Use descriptive language to evoke an emotion or mood in the reader
- Use carefully chosen words and phrases to precisely convey experiences and prevent wordiness
- Use sensory details (things you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell) to create vivid pictures/images in the reader’s mind
- Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
- Description
- Sensory language
- Figurative language
- Imagery
- Telling details
- What mood are you trying to create?
- What descriptive details or other aspects of this experience are important to include in the narrative?
- How do the sensory details you have included help create vivid images in the reader’s mind?
- How do the descriptive details you have chosen enhance the narrative?
- How and where can you use sensory language to convey the experience, events, setting, and/or characters?
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
Progression to Mastery / Key Concepts / Guiding Prompts
- Prepare the reader for the end of the narrative or the resolution of the conflict by sequencing the final events/experiences/details in a logical way
- Provide a conclusion that reflects on the central situation or conflict presented in the narrative
- Provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative
- Conclusion
- Logical sequence
- Reflection
- Resolution
- How will you provide an effective conclusion to the narrative?
- How do the specific details in the final segment of your narrative help the reader understand the conclusion?
- How did you connect the ending back to another part of the narrative? Why did you do this?
- How does your conclusion offer a reflection of the narrative’s experiences or events?
9-10W10 Range of Writing: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
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