Grade 7 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 7 english language arts in the New Brunswick Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Interactions: Expression. Describe and contribute thoughts, feelings, and experiences and compare to those of their peers.
- Interactions: Exchanges. Seek and respond to questions to clarify or explain ideas, concepts, problems and solutions.
- Interactions: Reception. Critically reflect on the contributions of others.
- Reading: Word Study. Apply knowledge of advanced word structures as word-solving strategy.
- Reading: Fluency. Read an increasing variety of text with accuracy and expression, both silently and aloud.
- Reading: Vocabulary. Recognize how different strategies are used to determine the meaning of words.
- Reading: Reading Comprehension. Construct meaning from a variety of text considering the source, intended audience, and purpose.
- Reading: Text Analysis and Criticality. Independently select, read, and construct meaning from a range of texts representing all voices.
- Representing: Process. Develop strategies to enhance clarity in multi-modal works.
- Representing: Craft. Create a variety of texts with purpose and understand the influence of the writer/creator including authorship in digital contexts.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Read what they are interested in: graphic novels, sports pages, series. Then talk about it.
- Ask for the main idea and one piece of evidence from the text.
- Have them write real messages: a thank-you note, a short review, a note to a relative.
- Read their writing aloud to them; they often spot their own mistakes by ear.
What each unit covers
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.
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.
Tone & Mood
Telling the writer's attitude (tone) apart from the reader's feeling (mood), and seeing how word choice and connotation shape both.
Whose Story?
Telling first, second and third person apart, finding the clues, and imagining how a different narrator would change the story.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Working below
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excelling
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the New Brunswick report card guide.
Common questions
Read what they are interested in: graphic novels, sports pages, series. Then talk about it. Ask for the main idea and one piece of evidence from the text. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The New Brunswick Curriculum Grade 7 english language arts units include close reading, literary devices, tone & mood, whose story?, persuasive power, source check.
Free printable Grade 7 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.