Grade 7 English Language Arts
11 units matched to the Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- Speaking and listening: explore and reflect. Students will speak and listen to explore, extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Speaking and listening: communicate. Students will be able to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Speaking and listening: interact with respect. Students will be able to interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
- Reading and viewing: select and read. Students will be able to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Reading and viewing: interpret and combine information. Students will be able to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Reading and viewing: respond personally. Students will be able to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Reading and viewing: respond critically. Students will be able to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre.
- Writing and representing: explore and reflect. Students will be able to use writing and other ways of representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learning; and to use their imagination.
- Writing and representing: create texts. Students will be able to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Writing and representing: strategies. Students will be able to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond personally (by Grade 9) · reading closely for meaning
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · literary devices in stories and poems
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · tone and mood
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 9) · persuasive techniques
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · checking sources for accuracy and bias
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 9) · clauses and sentence structure in writing
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).
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 9) · modifiers and parallel structure
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 9) · semicolons, colons and dashes
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 9) · commonly confused words
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 9) · writing and reading poems
Unit 11
Whose Story?
Telling first, second and third person apart, finding the clues, and imagining how a different narrator would change the story.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · point of view and perspective
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