7th Grade
“Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.” -Albert Einstein
Course Description
Seventh grade language arts students will expand on the skills built from previous years. Students should expect some things to seem familiar from past years, but the level of precision and sophistication should be growing, along with the level of expectation.
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We will be reading both independently and as a class, but we will also be making connections between the texts we read and the real world. In addition to paraphrasing, summarizing, and evaluating the texts, students will further analyze the differences between fact and opinion. Students will also continue to detect bias in the texts they read as well as applying objective criteria for evaluating texts. Class discussions will become more often and rigorous. In grade seven, students will listen for meaning in conversations and discussions and effectively summarize them. Students will listen more attentively and use critical analysis to formulate appropriate oral responses.
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Vocabulary, grammar, and writing conventions will still be in the forefront of our class, as well as discussion of rhetorical and literary devices (syntax, diction, imagery, symbolism, etc). We will be writing and editing regularly in a variety of different ways in order to make us strong communicators. By the end of this class, we should all have something to say and a good idea of how to effectively say it.
Overall Objectives (Students should be able to):
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Understand and comment on the language, content, structure, meaning, and significance of texts·
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Use language to narrate, describe, analyze, explain, argue, persuade, inform, entertain, and express feelings
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Compare texts and connect themes (also making personal or world connections)
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Express an informed personal response to texts or topics with clarity and coherence in both oral and written communication
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Demonstrate the ability to approach works independently
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Structure ideas and arguments in a sustained and logical way, and supported with relevant examples
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Distinguish the main ideas and themes and make connections
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Use and understand an appropriate and varied range of vocabulary and idioms
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Use correct grammar with appropriate and varied sentence structure
Assigned Reading and Book Summaries
Aside from numerous short stories and independent reading books, we will read from as many of the following novels together as a class (as voted on by the class in 6th grade): Animal Farm by George Orwell, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Please note that while this is the plan, plans may change as the year progresses at the teacher's discretion.
WAAS has a copy of each text for the students to borrow, but I do encourage each student and their family to consider buying their own copy of the books. It is so much easier to be a strong, active reader when you are able to mark in the book. This tremendously aids in building reading comprehension skills. Additionally, students will read many of the these books again in high school and college. Having your own copy is not mandatory, just suggested. Keep in mind, though, that if you use WAAS' copy, you must take care of it, or you will have to replace it.
These reading selections will ask us to take a good luck at our culture (past and present) and at our selves. I stand by my choice in selecting all of the novels, short stories, poems, and/or plays that we will read this year, but if you are honestly uncomfortable reading a text, please come to me immediately so that we can discuss it. I am including a brief summary of the texts listed above for families to have an understanding of what we will be gaining through reading and studying these texts.
Summaries are thanks to Amazon.com and Goodreads.com
Frankenstein
The classic Gothic tale of Mary Shelley, written in 1818. The tale follows that of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, who creates a creature in with an unorthodox experiment. Explore the themes of humanity, knowledge, and morality in this Gothic tale.
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
“There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other.”
Lord of the Flies
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.
Animal Farm
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
A Long Way Gone
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.