Mrs. Moira Lust
(708) 233-4525
[email protected]
August 22, 2014
Volume 1, Issue 1
7th Grade Honors
The Language Arts Ledger
Characters with Character
Our first quarter unit for seventh grade is titled “Characters with
Character”. Throughout the unit, the seventh grade students will
be exploring the question: How do characters and events in literature help shape our understanding of the world today? As we’ve
begun this unit, the students have read “The Highwayman”,
which is a narrative ballad poem written by Alfred Noyes. The
poem is set in the 1700s and the language of the poem reflects
the time period. After multiple readings, the students have an
excellent understanding of the plot of the poem. Over the next
few days, the students will engage in learning tasks designed to
explore the craft of the text and its characters. Once we have
completed “The Highwayman”, we’ll begin reading Soldier’s
Heart by Gary Soto. Soldier’s Heart is a novel set during the Civil
War and will be read with multiple nonfiction texts covering the
same time period.
Cyclic Learning
Our district grade-level curriculums have been designed to align
to the Common Core Standards for Career and College Readiness. These standards were created in a way where related skills
are revisited with each school year and built upon. For example,
in sixth grade the students crafted argumentative writing that
proved their claims. In seventh grade, the related standard
reviews all of those same skills and adds the ability to refute an
opposing claim. This structure allows for the seventh grade
teachers at Conrady to review and strengthen sixth grade skills
while teaching new and related skills. This encompasses all areas
of learning, ranging from reading comprehension and vocabulary
analysis to craft writing through cursive, print, and digital forms.
UPCOMING DATES:
8/27– Parent Orientation
begins at 6:30
8/29—Half Day of School;
student dismissal is at 11:08
9/1—Labor Day; school is
not in session
9/3—Team Day; students
are dismissed at 1:04
VOCAB TO KNOW
 Schema: background
knowledge
 Inference: a conclusion
drawn from evidence and
schema
 Character: the mental and
moral qualities unique to
an individual