Unit One: Uncovering One's Identity
Nothing works unless YOU do.
OVERVIEW: The English Language Arts curriculum for 7th grade is in its fourth year. It was revised to aligned with the new rigors and demands of the spring CMAS assessments. First quarter required reading includes the novel The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. This novel contains a great deal of references and allusion to Shakespeare, so we will be tackling various excerpts of Shakespeare's plays to enhance student understanding. In addition, students will be learning and practicing argument writing. Argument writing requires that students support a position (their claim) with evidence and reasoning, followed by an explanation. They will practice these skills several times a week in informal writing assignments and in lengthy formal essays. Students will learn how to follow the proper MLA (Modern Language Association) format for writing. Throughout the first quarter, students will also be practicing speaking, listening and media viewing skills.
District 51 7th Grade ELA Unit One Plan: https://connect.d51schools.org/staff/instructional/resources/ELA/Middle%20School/7th%20Grade/Unit%20Plans/gr07_ela_unit1.pdf
District 51 7th Grade Unit One Resources: https://connect.d51schools.org/staff/instructional/resources/ELA/Middle%20School/7th%20Grade/Unit%20Resources/gr07_ela_unit1_resources.pdf
Wednesday Wars Author's Website: http://www.hmhbooks.com/schmidt/
District 51 7th Grade Unit One Resources: https://connect.d51schools.org/staff/instructional/resources/ELA/Middle%20School/7th%20Grade/Unit%20Resources/gr07_ela_unit1_resources.pdf
Wednesday Wars Author's Website: http://www.hmhbooks.com/schmidt/
What do annotations look like? Above is an example!
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Week One (including August 8-10): The school year will begin with an introduction to 7th grade ELA. Classroom procedures and expectations will be covered. Students will be introduced to their weekly reading logs. To kick the year off students will attend library orientation, build their Thinker's Notebooks, and participate in a couple of "get to know me" activities. Next, we will read and annotate a few short stories while we learn and review some important literary terms and devices.
Week Two and Three: Students will be taking a quiz to identify their top three "genre personalities". They will learn what type of reader they are, which will help them make wise choices about their independent reading books. Students will be composing Auto-Biopoems about themselves and turning them in for a grade. Students will be learning how to write an argument in the form of a Short Constructed Responses for their reading logs. Students will also take a Literary Terms Pretest.
Week Four: Students do not have school due to the Labor Day holiday Monday. On Tuesday students will learn to annotate and practice this skill with our first short story, "7th Grade". At the end of the week students will be taking the fall session of the ELA NWEA assessment.
Please go to the new Schoology grading system through the D51 Classlink for ELA updates and information!
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