Grade 7 English Language Arts
11 units matched to the New Brunswick Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- 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.
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.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Reading Comprehension · 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.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis and Criticality · 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.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis and Criticality · tone and mood
Unit 4
Whose Story?
Telling first, second and third person apart, finding the clues, and imagining how a different narrator would change the story.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis and Criticality · point of view and perspective
Unit 5
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.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Process · persuasive techniques
Unit 6
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.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis and Criticality · checking sources for accuracy and bias
Unit 7
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.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · clauses and sentence structure in writing
Unit 8
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).
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · modifiers and parallel structure
Unit 9
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.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · semicolons, colons and dashes
Unit 10
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.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · commonly confused words
Unit 11
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.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · writing and reading poems
Ready to try Gradelings?
Curriculum-matched practice for Kindergarten to Grade 9 in British Columbia and Ontario and Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba and Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with kind hints, learning games and no ads. Subscribe now, or try everything free for 30 days with no card.