English Language Arts, grade 7, mapped

41 claims across 16 strands · 85 of 189 skills in grades 5-7 appear here

10 more claims reach back to a grade below this window. They are named in the lists below and not drawn — the picture holds grades 5-7 and nothing else.

Pick a skill to light what it rests on.

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.

  1. 7.9.G leans on 6.9.G from another strand named devices and fallacies with their purposes lean on rhetorical devices already told from logical fallacies

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking--oral language. The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.

  1. 7.1.D leans on 7.1.A that discourse also leans on messages already interpreted with questions building on the ideas of others
  2. 7.1.C leans on 6.1.C from another strand critiquing a literary work, film, or production leans on organized presentations already given with a stance and steady delivery
  3. 7.1.D leans on 6.1.D from another strand discourse with constructive feedback leans on discussions already led with suggestions, notes, and agreement weighed

Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.

  1. 7.12.B rests on 7.12.A a plan developed and revised takes those selected and guided questions already generated, this year again
  2. 7.12.C rests on 7.12.B a research question refined through secondary questions takes that plan already developed, this year again
  3. 7.12.F rests on 7.12.D synthesizing from a variety of sources takes relevant information already gathered from them, this year again
  4. 7.12.H leans on 7.12.E examining sources leans on primary and secondary already told apart, this year again
  5. 7.12.I leans on 7.12.G that ethical use leans on paraphrase already told from plagiarism, this year again

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--literary elements. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.

  1. 7.7.A leans on 7.7.C multiple themes within and across texts lean on plot elements already analyzed, foreshadowing and suspense among them
  2. 7.7.D leans on 7.7.C how the setting shapes character and plot leans on that same analyzed arc, which is what a setting acts on

Other

  1. 5.5 leans on 5.4 self-selecting a text and staying inside it leans on decoding that has stopped competing with understanding for attention
  2. 6.3 leans on 5.4 adjusting fluency to the reading purpose leans on grade-level text already read with rate, accuracy, and prosody

The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.

  1. 6.1.C leans on 5.1.C presenting with a stance and position leans on organized presentations already given with eye contact and steady delivery
  2. 6.1.D leans on 6.1.A student-led discussion with notes and votes leans on messages already interpreted and answered appropriately
  3. 7.1.C leans on 6.1.C from another strand critiquing a literary work, film, or production leans on organized presentations already given with a stance and steady delivery
  4. 7.1.D leans on 6.1.D from another strand discourse with constructive feedback leans on discussions already led with suggestions, notes, and agreement weighed
  5. 5.1.C leans on 4.1.C from grade 4, below this window organizing a whole presentation and adding natural gestures to it leans on a year of holding eye contact, rate and volume while making a point

The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.

  1. 5.2.B leans on 5.2.A spelling a consonant change such as music to musician leans on already reading that same shift off the page
  2. 5.3.C leans on 5.2.A from another strand saying what trans- or -logy contributes to a word leans on already decoding a word whose base is bent by that prefix or suffix

The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.

  1. 5.13.B rests on 5.13.A following a research plan still starts from a question clarified down to something answerable
  2. 5.13.C rests on 5.13.B gathering relevant information still waits on a plan that says which sources to open first
  3. 5.13.E rests on 5.13.C demonstrating you understood the research rests on a variety of sources already sitting gathered in front of you
  4. 5.13.H leans on 5.13.E knowing what there is to deliver helps, though the recursive cluster lets a family pick the mode before the understanding is shown
  5. 6.12.A leans on 5.13.A questions selected and guided for inquiry lean on a topic already questioned for formal and informal inquiry
  6. 6.12.B rests on 6.12.A a plan developed and revised takes those selected and guided questions already generated
  7. 6.12.C rests on 6.12.B a research question refined through secondary questions takes that plan already developed
  8. 6.12.F rests on 6.12.D synthesizing from a variety of sources takes relevant information already gathered from them
  9. 6.12.H leans on 6.12.E examining sources leans on primary and secondary already told apart
  10. 6.12.I leans on 5.13.G citations displayed and used ethically lean on a bibliography already developed
  11. 6.12.I leans on 6.12.G that ethical use leans on paraphrase already told from plagiarism
  12. 5.13.D rests on 4.13.D from grade 4, below this window weighing how far a source can be trusted rests on primary and secondary already being told apart

The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

  1. 6.8.B leans on 5.9.B taking up meter and line breaks in a poem leans on already explaining how its sound devices work and telling the poet from the speaker
  2. 6.8.C leans on 5.9.C characters built through dialogue and staging lean on drama already explained through tags, acts, scenes, and directions
  3. 5.6.C leans on 5.9.A from another strand correcting a prediction partway through leans on already holding the shape of a folktale, a myth or a tall tale in mind
  4. 5.10.B rests on 5.9.D from another strand analyzing what logical order or order of importance achieves rests on that pattern already being recognized in the text
  5. 5.12.C leans on 5.9.E from another strand arguing an opinion of your own leans on already explaining how another author put facts for and against one
  6. 6.11.B leans on 6.8.D from another strand that essay also leans on informational structures already analyzed for how they carry a topic
  7. 6.11.C leans on 6.8.E from another strand that argument leans on argumentative structures already analyzed for how they carry a claim
  8. 5.9.B leans on 4.9.B from grade 4, below this window telling the poet apart from the speaker leans on a year already spent explaining the images a poet builds out of simile and metaphor
  9. 5.9.B leans on 4.10.D from grade 4, below this window explaining what a sound device does inside a poem leans on already describing what an author's alliteration and assonance achieve

The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.

  1. 5.8.A leans on 5.8.C the arc already laid out helps several themes surface, though children read theme out of a story before they can label its parts
  2. 5.8.D leans on 5.8.C having the rising and falling action named helps, though a setting acts on a plot's events rather than on the words for its parts
  3. 6.7.A leans on 5.8.A inferring themes within and across texts leans on multiple themes already inferred within one text
  4. 6.7.A leans on 6.7.C those themes lean on plot elements already analyzed, flashback among them
  5. 6.7.B leans on 5.8.B how inward and outward responses develop the plot leans on relationships and conflicts among characters already analyzed
  6. 6.7.C leans on 5.8.C plot with rising, climax, falling, resolution, and flashback leans on that same arc already analyzed without the flashback
  7. 6.7.D leans on 6.7.C that shaping leans on the plot elements already analyzed, which is what the setting acts on
  8. 5.10.A leans on 5.8.A from another strand naming the purpose behind a text leans on having already pulled its themes out of what the text itself says
  9. 5.12.A leans on 5.8.C from another strand building a made-up story toward a climax and out again leans on taking apart the same arc in somebody else's
  10. 5.8.A leans on 4.8.A from grade 4, below this window finding several themes running through one text leans on a year already spent inferring a basic one and backing it with evidence
  11. 5.8.B leans on 4.8.B from grade 4, below this window explaining how characters act on each other helps, though grade 5 drops the changes they undergo and puts conflict in their place

The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.

  1. 6.6.G leans on 5.7.G writing about explicit and implicit meanings leans on specific ideas already discussed for what they mean
  2. 5.7.A rests on 5.6.E from another strand a described connection between a source and your own life reuses the connecting comprehension does while the reading is still going on
  3. 5.7.C rests on 5.6.F from another strand quoting the text to hold up a response reuses the evidence already collected while inferring what the text meant
  4. 5.7.G rests on 5.6.G from another strand arguing which ideas in a text matter most rests on the detail-by-detail weighing that settled the key ideas in the first place

The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.

  1. 5.10.A leans on 5.8.A from another strand naming the purpose behind a text leans on having already pulled its themes out of what the text itself says
  2. 5.10.B rests on 5.9.D from another strand analyzing what logical order or order of importance achieves rests on that pattern already being recognized in the text
  3. 7.9.G leans on 6.9.G from another strand named devices and fallacies with their purposes lean on rhetorical devices already told from logical fallacies
  4. 5.10.G leans on 4.10.G from grade 4, below this window identifying an anecdote and saying what it does helps, though grade 4 already states the portion of this being claimed
  5. 5.10.G leans on 3.10.G from grade 3, below this window explaining the purpose of hyperbole leans on the exaggeration itself already being spotted and explained in an earlier year

The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful.

  1. 6.11.B leans on 5.12.B a multi-paragraph essay with a thesis leans on brief compositions already conveying information with a central idea
  2. 6.11.C leans on 5.12.C multi-paragraph argument leans on opinion essays already composed with genre characteristics and craft
  3. 6.11.D leans on 5.12.D letters of opinion, complaint, or request lean on correspondence already composed to request information
  4. 5.12.A leans on 5.8.C from another strand building a made-up story toward a climax and out again leans on taking apart the same arc in somebody else's
  5. 5.12.C leans on 5.9.E from another strand arguing an opinion of your own leans on already explaining how another author put facts for and against one
  6. 6.11.B leans on 6.8.D from another strand that essay also leans on informational structures already analyzed for how they carry a topic
  7. 6.11.C leans on 6.8.E from another strand that argument leans on argumentative structures already analyzed for how they carry a claim

The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.

  1. 5.6.C leans on 5.9.A from another strand correcting a prediction partway through leans on already holding the shape of a folktale, a myth or a tall tale in mind
  2. 5.7.A rests on 5.6.E from another strand a described connection between a source and your own life reuses the connecting comprehension does while the reading is still going on
  3. 5.7.C rests on 5.6.F from another strand quoting the text to hold up a response reuses the evidence already collected while inferring what the text meant
  4. 5.7.G rests on 5.6.G from another strand arguing which ideas in a text matter most rests on the detail-by-detail weighing that settled the key ideas in the first place

The student uses newly acquired vocabulary expressively.

  1. 5.3.C leans on 5.2.A from another strand saying what trans- or -logy contributes to a word leans on already decoding a word whose base is bent by that prefix or suffix
  2. 5.3.A leans on 4.3.A from grade 4, below this window tracing a word back to its origin in a dictionary entry leans on already using that entry for meaning, syllabication and pronunciation
  3. 5.3.D leans on 4.3.D from grade 4, below this window explaining the joke inside a pun leans on already explaining that two words which sound alike carry different meanings

The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions.

  1. 5.11.B rests on 5.11.A a draft carrying depth of thought still starts from a genre, topic, purpose and audience already settled on
  2. 5.11.C rests on 5.11.B improving sentence structure and word choice rests on sentences already drafted to improve
  3. 5.11.D leans on 5.11.C hunting splices and run-ons leans on revision having already settled where each sentence begins and ends
  4. 5.11.E leans on 5.11.D publishing a piece for an audience usually waits until standard conventions have had their own pass

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Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills · CC BY 4.0 US · Common Curriculum, Inc. · verified 2026-09-05

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