Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Current selections are shown below (maximum of five)
clear Content Area: Visual Arts - 2022 // Grade Level: Middle School 1 // Standard Category: 1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend
clear Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019 // Grade Level: Sixth Grade // Standard Category: 3. Writing and Composition
Visual Arts - 2022
Middle School 1, Standard 1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing, or making.
- 3. Practice critical and analytical skills by using academic language to discuss works of art and visual culture.
- 6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of expertise in skills and techniques for personal and/or professional endeavors.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Apply the language of visual art and design to distinguish and differentiate meanings.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Respond verbally or in written format justifying and interpreting a work of art using the language of art and design.
- Develop from oneself and various cultures a mental storehouse of images and the uses, symbolism and meaning of those images.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:
- Establish goals for communication using the language of visual art and design and plan out steps accordingly. (Interpersonal Communication)
- Students can cite textual evidence from content-specific sources to demonstrate understanding and support analysis, experiment and the creation of works of art and design. (Interpersonal Communication)
Inquiry Questions:
- How can students justify formal decisions used in artworks to communicate visual effects?
- How can students use life experiences to create visual symbols for creative expression?
- How can students apply analysis strategies to create a new understanding?
- What common language is used to improve communication about art?
Learning Experience and Transfer:
- Artists create a visual vocabulary and library.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing, or making.
- 5. Interpret works of art and design in the contexts of varied traditions, histories, and cultures.
- 6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of expertise in skills and techniques for personal and/or professional endeavors.
- 7. Allow imagination, curiosity, and wonder to guide inquiry and research.
- 8. Engage in the reciprocal relationships between visual art and communities.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Compare art from various historical, contemporary and cultural sources.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Describe and discuss the general characteristics of a work of art from various historical time periods.
- Interpret a variety of works of art while being respectful and mindful of culturally sensitive themes.
- Analyze works of art from various time periods and world cultures by their components of style and design.
- Evaluate how interpretations of works of art change based on the viewer's time, place and culture.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:
- Connect knowledge of art and design (facts, theories, etc.) from personal ideas/understandings to civic engagement which includes referencing historical, contemporary and cultural sources. (Community Member)
- Students can analyze and use information presented visually to support interpretations. (Problem Solver)
Inquiry Questions:
- How can students recognize stylistic differences and commonalities of artwork created across time and cultures?
- How can students value the influence of belief systems on the interpretation and analysis of works of art?
- How can students use the reciprocal relationship of art and culture to uncover meaning?
Learning Experience and Transfer:
- Artists and designers analyze visual characteristics in cultural contexts.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing, or making.
- 6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of expertise in skills and techniques for personal and/or professional endeavors.
- 7. Allow imagination, curiosity, and wonder to guide inquiry and research.
- 10. Develop new knowledge by actively doing and making (artistic praxis), acknowledging relationships between materials, objects, ideas and lived experience.
Grade Level Expectation:
3. Utilize key concepts, issues and themes to connect the visual arts to other disciplines.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Identify skills, ideas and themes in the visual arts that are influenced by other content areas.
- Create works of art using skills from other disciplines.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:
- Collaboration between disciplines can be found during the entire creative process. (Collaboration and Teamwork)
- Students can analyze content-specific texts to distinguish the factual evidence offered, reasoned judgments made and conclusions drawn, and speculative ideas offered. (Critical Thinking and Analysis)
Inquiry Questions:
- How can students solve interdisciplinary problems using visual art and design?
- How can students investigate artworks through the lens of other disciplines?
- How can students recognize the visual arts encompass and reflect multiple aspects of life throughout time and cultures?
Learning Experience and Transfer:
- Artists employ varied disciplines harmoniously.
Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019
Sixth Grade, Standard 3. Writing and Composition
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Prepared Graduates:
- 6. Craft arguments using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Write arguments that support claim(s) using clear reasons, relevant evidence, credible sources, and a formal style.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. (CCSS: W.6.1)
- Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. (CCSS: W.6.1a)
- Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. (CCSS: W.6.1b)
- Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons. (CCSS: W.6.1c)
- Establish and maintain a formal style. (CCSS: W.6.1d)
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented. (CCSS: W.6.1e)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Look for and value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills, Adaptability/Flexibility)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
- Demonstrate confidence in sharing ideas/feelings. (Professional Skills, Self-Advocacy)
Essential Questions:
- How do writers determine a point of view?
- How do writers know if they have convinced others that their opinions are valid?
- How do writers select evidence to best support their claims?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Inform thinking and writing by following the writings of professionals in areas of personal interest.
- Consider others' perspectives to expand thinking and persuasiveness.
- Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, fact and opinion.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 7. Craft informational/explanatory texts using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Write informative/explanatory texts characterized by appropriate organization, ample development, precise language and formal style.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. (CCSS: W.6.2)
- Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (for example: headings), graphics (for example: charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. (CCSS: W.6.2a)
- Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. (CCSS: W.6.2b)
- Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. (CCSS: W.6.2c)
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. (CCSS: W.6.2d)
- Establish and maintain a formal style. (CCSS: W.6.2e)
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented. (CCSS: W.6.2f)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Test hypotheses/prototype with planned process for getting feedback. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Inquiry/Analysis)
- Evaluate information through the use of technologies. (Professional Skills, Use Information and Communications Technologies)
Essential Questions:
- How do we organize texts to help readers understand?
- How do writers monitor their work to include information that is relevant to the topic?
- How is word selection important to a piece of writing?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Understand that personal assumptions can affect how a reader understands and interprets a text.
- Ask critical questions to improve thinking.
- Present information in a clear manner so others can understand the conveyed information.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 8. Craft narratives using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
3. Write engaging real or imagined narratives using techniques such as sensory language, dialogue, description and sequencing to convey experiences and events.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. (CCSS: W.6.3)
- Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. (CCSS: W.6.3a)
- Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. (CCSS: W.6.3b)
- Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. (CCSS: W.6.3c)
- Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events. (CCSS: W.6.3d)
- Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events. (CCSS: W.6.3e)
- Use stylistic techniques (for example: alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme scheme); figurative language (for example: simile, metaphor, personification); and graphic elements (for example: capital letters, line length, word position) to express personal or narrative voice.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Creativity/Innovation)
- Assess personal strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a "growth mind-set." (Personal Skills, Self-Awareness)
- Establish goals for communication and plan out steps accordingly. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Communication)
Essential Questions:
- How do we help our readers visualize the character, setting, and plot in a text?
- How is word selection important to a piece of writing?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Generate a variety of ideas, responses, solutions, or questions.
- Add details in order to modify or expand upon an idea.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 9. Demonstrate mastery of their own writing process with clear, coherent, and error-free polished products.
Grade Level Expectation:
4. Plan, draft, edit, and revise as needed to craft clear and coherent writing that demonstrates a grasp of standard conventions for grammar, usage, and mechanics as well as a style appropriate for purpose and audience.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (CCSS: L.6.1)
- Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, and possessive). (CCSS: L.6.1a)
- Use intensive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves). (CCSS: L.6.1b)
- Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person. (CCSS: L.6.1c)
- Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents). (CCSS: L.6.1d)
- Recognize variations from Standard English in their own and others' writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language. (CCSS: L.6.1e)
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (CCSS: L.6.2)
- Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements. (CCSS: L.6.2a)
- Correctly spell frequently used words and consult reference materials (for example: dictionaries, both print and digital, spell check, and/or trusted peers and/or adults) to determine the spelling of less frequent vocabulary. (adapted from CCSS: L.6.2b)
- Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. (CCSS: L.6.3)
- Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style. (CCSS: L.6.3a)
- Maintain consistency in style and tone. (CCSS: L.6.3b)
- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in grade level expectations 1 and 2 above.) (CCSS: W.6.4)
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (CCSS: W.6.5)
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others. (adapted from CCSS: W.6.6)
- 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. (CCSS W.6.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, initiative/self-direction)
- Focus on learning goals by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement and evaluate progress, making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills, Perseverance/Resilience)
- Demonstrate task management attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: work positively and ethically, manage time and projects effectively, multi-task, and clearly communicate with others. (Professional Skills, Task/Time Management)
Essential Questions:
- Why is proofreading important?
- How can writers create strong sentence fluency in their work?
- How can resources be used to edit and critique a work in progress?
- How do we collaborate to improve reading?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Explain the rationales for conventional rules for grammar, punctuation, usage, spelling, and presentation.
- Explain how intentional violations of the conventional rules impact a reader's perceptions.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us