Grade 7 English Language Arts

In grade seven, students will continue to develop the ability to cite relevant evidence when interpreting or analyzing a text or supporting their points in speaking and writing. Your child will also build academic vocabulary as he or she reads more complex texts, including stories, plays, historical novels, poems, and informational books and articles. Activities in these areas will include:

• Analyzing how the form or structure of a play or poem contributes to its meaning
• Analyzing how particular elements of a story or play interact (like how the setting shapes the characters or plot)
• Determining how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text
• Conducting short research projects, drawing on several sources and identifying related questions for further research and investigation
• Engaging in a range of classroom discussions on topics and texts, expressing ideas clearly and building on the ideas of others
• Identifying a speaker’s argument and specific claims and evaluating the reasoning and evidence behind these claims
• Using clues such as word roots or add-ons to a word (such as the prefix hyper–, which means ‘excessive’ in the words hyperactive and hypersensitive) to determine the meaning of a word
• Interpreting figures of speech or references to literature or mythology in a text
• Writing for a range of purposes and audiences

Parent Roadmap - Supporting your child in 7th Grade English Language Arts