District 11 Educational Support Services
Literacy & Language Arts

 

Grade 7, Quarter 1:  September Unit
Nonfiction / Expository Writing
(@ 21days)

Overview                                                                              
In weeks four through six, you will continue to read nonfiction texts.  As you read about and research different topics, you'll learn to write summaries of those readings and to learn about the different text structures that writers use to organize their writing.  You'll practice writing expository paragraphs to explain your own discoveries about certain topics.  As you get further into the quarter, you'll move from paragraph writing to longer, extended essays with multiple paragraphs. 

For Teachers
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Yearly Overview

Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

  • Different strategies and skills are required to understand a variety of texts.

  • An effective communicator knows his/her audience and purpose.

  • An effective communicator uses standard English language rules.

  • Independent learners use critical thinking skills.

  • Literature provides an understanding of human experience.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

  • What is text?  How do we apply different strategies and skills to understand a variety of texts?

  • How do we communicate?  What is effective communication? Why does effective communication require a process?

  • What is standard English?  Why do we need to know and use standard English rules?

  • How do we apply stylistic elements and appropriate formats?

  • What is critical thinking?  How do we think critically in our lives?

  • What is literature?

  • How can we make personal connections through literature?

Standards
  Highest Frequency Standards High Frequency Standards Other Standards & E-skills

Reading

 

1c/1f/4e.  Determine the main idea or essential message in a text/Find support in the text for main ideas/Explain    the text's main point and use relevant details to support the explanation.
1i.  Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

5d.  Locate and select relevant information and justify the information selection.


    1g.  Use words recognition skills (roots, prefixes, suffixes) to comprehend text.

    1h.  Find the sequence of steps in a technical publication.

    4a.  Recognize an author's or speaker's point of view and purpose.

    5b.  Use library and interlibrary catalog databases and organizational features of electronic information.

    5c.  Paraphrase, summarize, organize, and synthesize information about a topic in a variety of ways (for example:

              graphic organizer, Venn Diagram, outline, or timeline).

    5e.  Locate others' ideas, images, or information in a bibliography, works cited page, or text features (for example:

              quotations, italics, parenthesis, and footnotes).

    6a.  Read, respond to, and discuss a variety of novels, poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and plays.

    6d.  Read, respond to, and discuss literature that represents points of view from places, people, and events that are familiar and unfamiliar. 

 

        1a.  Compare and contrast texts with similar characters, plots, and/or themes.

        1b.  Summarize text read. 

        4b.  Use reading to solve problems and answer questions. 
        5f.   Locate meanings and pronunciations of unfamiliar words using dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources


Writing

 

2a.  Write in a variety of genre - expository.
2b.  Develop ideas and content with significant details, examples, and/or reasons.

2c.  Organize ideas so that there is an inviting introduction, logical arrangement of ideas, and a satisfying conclusion.
 3a.  Identify parts of speech, such as nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.
3b.  Use standard English usage in writing, including subject/verb agreement (pronoun referents, modifiers, homonyms, and homophones.)
3c.  Write in complete sentences.

3d.  Use paragraphs correctly so that each paragraph is differentiated by indenting or blocking and includes one major but focused idea. 
3e.  Use conventional spelling in published work.
3f.   Punctuate correctly (for example:  apostrophes, quotation marks, end marks, and commas).

 

    2d.  Use transitions to link ideas.
    2e.  Plan, draft, revise, and edit for a legible final copy.

    2f.  Use a variety of sentence structures with varied length.

    2g.  Write with voice appropriate to purpose and audience.
    2h.  Choose a range of words that are precise and vivid.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Lesson 1 Title
Duration: @ 1 class period

Standard information #: 
District Indicator:
 
Enduring Understanding:
 
Essential Questions:
 
Assessment:
 

Activities

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Resources

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Differentiation
Extension:
 
Support: