Maryland ELA SL.7.4

ELA7th GradeSpeaking and Listening

The Standard

Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for English Language Arts (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students tell a story or recount an experience so listeners can follow what happened. They choose useful facts and descriptive details, use clear sentences, and speak loudly enough to be heard.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can recount missing a bus, explaining where they were, what happened, and what they did next. They add a detail, such as the doors closing as they ran, without losing the thread.
Common Misconceptions: Students may add details, such as the color of every backpack, that do not help listeners follow the event. Others jump between events, speak in fragments, or let their voice fade at the end.
How to Assess It: Ask each student to give a 45-second account of a time a plan changed to a partner. Have the partner check for a clear sequence, two useful details, clear sentences, and an audible voice.

Lesson moves

Give pairs three photo cards showing a spilled drink, a mop, and a clean floor; have them arrange the cards and recount the event aloud.
Ask partners which detail better explains missing a bus, its color or its doors closing as they ran, and have them explain why.
Play detail swap: students tell a 30-second story, replace one vague word with a precise detail, then tell it again.
Have students tell an absent classmate about a school event, explaining what happened and adding two details the classmate would need.

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