Grade 7 English Language Arts
10 units matched to the BC Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Big Ideas
- Language and text can be a source of creativity and joy.
- Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.
- Exploring and sharing multiple perspectives extends our thinking.
- Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.
- Developing our understanding of how language works allows us to use it purposefully.
Units
Unit 1
Close Reading
Reading original stories, arguments and informational passages, then identifying theme and main idea, making inferences, spotting claims and counterarguments, and explaining why an author made certain choices.
Learning standard: Story/text: forms, functions and genres of text; text features; reading and viewing strategies (inferring, identifying theme, claims and counterarguments, analyzing author's craft)
Unit 2
Literary Devices
Recognizing the tools writers use: figurative language, foreshadowing, flashback, symbolism and the three kinds of irony (verbal, situational and dramatic), plus the parts of a plot.
Learning standard: Story/text: literary elements and literary devices (irony, foreshadowing, flashback, symbolism, imagery, figurative language)
Unit 3
Tone & Mood
Telling the writer's attitude (tone) apart from the reader's feeling (mood), and seeing how word choice and connotation shape both.
Learning standard: Story/text: literary elements (tone and mood); language features: word choice, connotation and formal vs. informal language
Unit 4
Persuasive Power
Identifying appeals to credibility, emotion and logic; spotting weak reasoning like bandwagon, false cause and slippery slope; and judging which evidence and rebuttals are strongest.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: rhetorical techniques and elements of persuasion; evaluating claims, evidence, counterclaims and logical fallacies
Unit 5
Source Check
Researching responsibly: judging whether a source is trustworthy and current, noticing bias, separating fact from opinion, and giving credit through quotation, paraphrase and citation.
Learning standard: Strategies and processes: evaluating the credibility, bias and purpose of sources; fact and opinion; primary and secondary sources; citation, paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism
Unit 6
Clauses & Sentences
Finding independent and dependent clauses, naming the four sentence types, and fixing fragments, run-ons and comma splices, the building blocks of varied, clear sentences.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: independent and dependent clauses; simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences; avoiding fragments, run-ons and comma splices
Unit 7
Modifiers & Parallelism
Revising sentences so describing phrases sit next to what they describe (no misplaced or dangling modifiers) and list items match in form (parallel structure).
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: placement of modifiers and parallel structure; writing processes (revising sentences for clarity)
Unit 8
Semicolons, Colons & Dashes
Using semicolons to join related sentences and separate complex lists, colons to introduce lists and explanations, and dashes to add emphasis or interruptions.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: punctuation conventions (semicolons, colons and dashes) used in context
Unit 9
Word Mix-Ups
Choosing correctly between commonly confused words: its/it's, their/there/they're, then/than, lose/loose, who's/whose, affect/effect, accept/except and more.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: commonly confused words (homophones and near-homophones) and spelling conventions in context
Unit 10
Poetry Lab
Reading short original poems to find rhyme schemes, count stanzas, identify the speaker, recognize forms like haiku, limerick and free verse, and interpret figurative language and theme.
Learning standard: Story/text: forms and genres of text (haiku, limerick, free verse); literary elements and devices in poetry (stanza, rhyme scheme, speaker, metaphor, simile, personification)
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