Virginia SOL 7.RL.2.A
The Standard
Analyze how elements of authors’ styles (e.g., word choice, dialogue, form, voice, rhyme, rhythm, and/or sound devices) contribute to meaning in various forms of prose and poetry.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Craft and Style
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify deliberate language and structure choices in prose and poetry. They explain how those choices shape tone, character, pacing, theme, or another part of the meaning.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students cite a specific phrase, line, exchange, or structural choice. They explain how it shapes tone, character, pacing, theme, or the reader’s response.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name a device without explaining its effect. They may also confuse the narrator’s voice with the author’s personal beliefs or assume rhyme is only decorative.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short poem or prose paragraph with one stylistic choice underlined. Ask: “How does this choice shape the passage’s meaning? Use one detail in your answer.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed prose and poetry strips to sort by technique, then attach a note explaining each technique’s effect.
Ask students to write: “Which stylistic choice most shapes this passage, and what meaning would change if the choice were removed?”
Play Style Detective with cards showing short excerpts, techniques, and effects that teams must match and defend.
Compare a spoken-word poem’s audio and printed versions, then identify how rhythm, pauses, and sound change the audience’s understanding.
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Printable 7.RL.2.A Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 5.RL.2.C
Analyze how the characteristics of a poem and the author’s use of patterns of sound (e.g., rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, consonance) impact meaning.
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- 7.RL.2.B
Analyze how the elements of an author’s style (e.g., word choice, sentence structure, dialogue, figurative language, imagery) are used to influence and develop ...
- 8.RL.2.B
Analyze how the elements of an author’s style (e.g., dialogue, sentence structure and word choices) are used to influence and develop tone and voice.
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