Colorado State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 10

CO.1. Oral Expression and Listening

1.1. Content that is gathered carefully and organized well successfully influences an audience. Students can:

1.1.a. Organize and deliver a presentation that influences a specific audience

1.1.b. Reflect on the content and approach to a presentation

1.1.c. Select organizational patterns and structures and choose precise vocabulary and rhetorical devices

1.1.d. Make decisions about how to establish credibility and enhance appeal to the audience

1.1.e. Rehearse the presentation to gain fluency, to adjust tone and modulate volume for emphasis, and to develop poise

1.1.f. Use feedback to evaluate and revise the presentation

1.2. Effectively operating in small and large groups to accomplish a goal requires active listening. Students can:

1.2.a. Listen actively in groups to accomplish a goal

1.2.b. Contribute effectively in both small and large groups to collaboratively accomplish a goal

1.2.c. Choose specific words for intended effect on particular audiences

1.2.d. Facilitate (or lead) a group by developing an agenda designed to accomplish a specified goal

1.2.e. Support others in discussions, activities, and presentations through active listening

1.2.f. Participate in group activities through full engagement in individual roles and responsibilities that support the specified goal of the group

CO.2. Reading for All Purposes

2.1. Literary and historical influences determine the meaning of traditional and contemporary literary texts. Students can:

2.1.a. Generalize about universal themes, cultural or historical perspectives from multiple texts

2.1.b. Evaluate the contribution to society made by traditional, classic, and contemporary works of literature that deal with similar topics and problems

2.1.c. Relate a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting

2.1.d. Analyze how literary components affect meaning

2.1.e. Explain the relationship between author's style and literary effect

2.2. The development of new ideas and concepts within informational and persuasive manuscripts. Students can:

2.2.a. Provide a response to text that expresses an insight (such as an author's perspective or the nature of conflict) or use text-based information to solve a problem not identified in the text (for example, use information from a variety of sources to provide a response to text that expresses an insight)

2.2.b. Analyze how a concept is presented and developed in multiple texts

2.2.c. Compare the development of an idea or concept in multiple texts supported by text-based evidence

2.2.d. Describe how the author's use of persuasive vocabulary influences readers' opinions or actions

CO.3. Writing and Composition

3.1. Literary or narrative genres feature a variety of stylistic devices to engage or entertain an audience. Students can:

3.1.a. Use conventional structures and expectations of literary genres (such as short story, personal narrative, script, poem, or song) to select content, represent ideas, make connections, generate new insights, and develop an organizational structure for drafting

3.1.b. Write literary and narrative texts using a range of stylistic devices (poetic techniques, figurative language, imagery, graphic elements) to support the presentation of implicit or explicit theme

3.1.c. Enhance the expression of voice, tone, and mood in a text by selecting and using vivid and precise diction, syntax, and punctuation

3.1.d. Use a variety of strategies to evaluate whether the writing is presented in a creative and reflective manner (e.g., reading the draft aloud, seeking feedback from a reviewer, scoring guides)

3.1.e. Revise texts using feedback to enhance the effect on the reader and clarify the presentation of implicit or explicit theme

3.2. Organizational writing patterns inform or persuade an audience. Students can:

3.2.a. Devise and adjust a topic, claim, or thesis

3.2.b. Select and apply the organizational pattern best suited to purpose and audience

3.2.c. Choose and develop an effective appeal

3.2.d. Collect, organize, and evaluate materials to support ideas

3.2.e. Revise writing by evaluating relationship of central idea, evidence, and organizational pattern

3.2.f. Explain how writers use organization and details to communicate their purposes

3.2.g. Present writing to an authentic audience and gauge effect on audience for intended purpose

3.3. Grammar, language usage, mechanics, and clarity are the basics of ongoing refinements and revisions within the writing process. Students can:

3.3.a. Apply dashes, colons, and semi-colons to create varied sentences, to emphasize important ideas, and to show relationships among ideas.

3.3.b. Identify instances where sentences are not grammatically parallel and revise sentences to establish parallelism

3.3.c. Identify the various types of clauses and use this knowledge to write varied, strong, correct, complete sentences

3.3.d. Distinguish between the active and passive voice, and write in the active voice

CO.4. Research and Reasoning

4.1. Collect, analyze, and evaluate information obtained from multiple sources to answer a question, propose solutions, or share findings and conclusions. Students can:

4.1.a. Define and narrow a topic for research, developing the central idea, focus, or question at issue

4.1.b. Formulate research questions that are clear and precise

4.1.c. Identify and evaluate potential sources of information for accuracy, reliability, validity, and timeliness

4.1.d. Use a variety of strategies (such as search engines, online databases , interview) to collect and organize relevant and significant information

4.1.e. Distinguish between types of evidence (such as expert testimony, analogies, anecdotes, statistics) and use a variety of types to support a particular research purpose

4.1.f. Use in-text parenthetical citations to document sources of quotations, paraphrases and information

4.2. An author's reasoning is the essence of legitimate writing and requires evaluating text for validity and accuracy. Students can:

4.2.a. Analyze the logic (including assumptions and beliefs) and use of evidence (existing and missing information, primary sources, and secondary sources) used by two or more authors presenting similar or opposing arguments (such as articles by two political columnists that address the same issue)

4.2.b. Evaluate the accuracy of the information in a text, citing text-based evidence, author's use of expert authority, and author's credibility to defend the evaluation

CO.5. Prepared Graduate Competencies in Reading, Writing, and Communicating: The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

5.1. Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others, and contribute ideas to further the group's attainment of an objective

5.2. Deliver organized and effective oral presentations for diverse audiences and varied purposes

5.3. Use language appropriate for purpose and audience

5.4. Demonstrate skill in inferential and evaluative listening

5.5. Interpret how the structure of written English contributes to the pronunciation and meaning of complex vocabulary

5.6. Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational, literary, and persuasive texts

5.7. Evaluate how an author uses words to create mental imagery, suggest mood, and set tone

5.8. Read a wide range of literature (American and world literature) to understand important universal themes and the human experience

5.9. Seek feedback, self-assess, and reflect on personal learning while engaging with increasingly more difficult texts

5.10. Engage in a wide range of nonfiction and real-life reading experiences to solve problems, judge the quality of ideas, or complete daily tasks

5.11. Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail

5.12. Effectively use content-specific language, style, tone, and text structure to compose or adapt writing for different audiences and purposes

5.13. Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language

5.14. Implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work

5.15. Master the techniques of effective informational, literary, and persuasive writing

5.16. Discriminate and justify a position using traditional lines of rhetorical argument and reasoning

5.17. Articulate the position of self and others using experiential and material logic

5.18. Gather information from a variety of sources; analyze and evaluate the quality and relevance of the source; and use it to answer complex questions

5.19. Use primary, secondary, and tertiary written sources to generate and answer research questions

5.20. Evaluate explicit and implicit viewpoints, values, attitudes, and assumptions concealed in speech, writing, and illustration

5.21. Demonstrate the use of a range of strategies, research techniques, and persistence when engaging with difficult texts or examining complex problems or issues

5.22. Exercise ethical conduct when writing, researching, and documenting sources