Grade 7 - Developmental Language Arts - Collection 2 - Perception and Reality
Suggested Time Frame: 6 Weeks, Semester 1
Central Text
Selections
EQ1: Why are things in life not always how we perceive them to be?
EQ2: How can a single action dramatically change a person’s
perception?
Close Reader
Selections
Anchor Text:
Folk Tale: “The People Could Fly”
retold by Virginia Hamilton 430 L,
p. 63
LG: Identify elements of a folk tale and
Close Reader:
Reading Focus
Short Story: “Heartbeat” by David
Yoo p. 70c
Folk Tale
Summary
Conflict
Dialect
Rhyme
Diction
Figurative Language
Sonnet
Meter
summarize the story.
Poem: “The Song of Wandering
Aengus” by W.B. Yeats p.71
“Sonnet 43” by William
Shakespeare p.71
LG: Learn how to analyze a poem’s form
as well as the use of figurative language
and sound devices to understand their
effects on meaning.
Close Reader:
Science Writing: “Saving the Lost”
by Reynaldo Vasquez, p. 88c
Magazine Article: “Magic and the
Brain” by Susana Martinez-Conde
and Stephen L. Macknik 1340L,
p. 77
LG: Analyze how text features contribute
to a text and to summarize text
objectively.
Paradox
Text features
Summarize
Character
Drama
Plot
Exposition
Setting
Listening & Speaking
Focus
Analyze Diverse Media
Perspective and Illusion
Additional
Suggested
Resources
Summative
Assessments:
Online Research
Cite Evidence
Graphic Organizers Performance Task A:
Fishbowl Method
Develop Writing Through Evidence Based Student
Responses
Four Reasons Why to Write List Articles
Kylene Beers Discussion Terms
HMH Writing Resources
Interactive
Whiteboard
Lessons
Teengagement
Language Focus
Intertextual Unit:
“Environments”
(grammar, vocabulary, syntax)
Adverb Clauses
Golden Novel:
Tangerine
(Novel will be
addressed in QBA2
exam) Resources
and the techniques Beever uses to create
the illusion of 3-dimensionality.
Short Story: “Another Place,
Another Time” by Cory Doctorow
1060L, p. 93
LG: Identify and analyze how setting
Vocabulary:
affects characters’ traits, motivations,
and actions.
Vocabulary List
Close Reader:
Novel Excerpt: from A Christmas
Carol by Charles Dickens
Drama Excerpt by Israel Horovitz
make comparisons between a script and a Graphic Story by Marvel Comics
p. 126c
performance.
Anchor Text:
Drama: Sorry, Wrong Number by
Lucille Fletcher, p. 111
LG: Analyze the elements of a drama and
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.


Prepare for a Dramatic Reading: Interactive Lessons:
Give a Presentation
Analyze Form: Interactive Whiteboard Lesson: Form in
Poetry
Conduct Online Research and Evaluating Sources:
Interactive Lessons


Critical Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
abnormal (normal, normalcy, normality, normalize, paranormal, subnormal)
feature (feature article, featured, featureless, featuring, text feature)
focus (autofocus, focused, refocus, unfocused)
perceive (misperceive, misperception, perception, unperceived)
task (multitask, taskmaster)
Extensions - Secondary Gifted Resources
Analyze Media: Perspective and Illusion, Character and 
Setting: Interactive Graphic Organizer: ComparisonContrast Chart

Compare and Contrast: Text Media: Interactive Graphic
Organizer: Venn Diagram

Strategies for Gifted Learners - FL Gifted Frameworks
Formative and
Summative
Assessments
Online Selection Tests
Writing Focus
Public Art: Pavement Chalk Art by
Julian Beever, p. 89
LG: Analyze the purposes of public art

Print Version
Write an Opinion
Essay p.127
Task A: Opinion Essay
Rubric p.130
HMH Writing
Arguments Lessons
Read Write Think:
Essay Map
Performance Task B:
Write an Expository
Essay p.131
Task B: Expository
Essay Rubric p.134
HMH Interactive
Writing Lessons
RWT: Essay Map
Tic Tac Toe Board
Collection 2 Test
Interventions ESE Accommodations - ELL Strategies
Analyze Story Elements: Folk Tale: Interactive Graphic
Organizers: Comparison-Contrast Chart
Determine Meanings: Level Up Tutorial: Figurative
Language
Analyze Structure: Text Features: Level Up Tutorial:
Informational Text



Analyze Diverse Media
Analyze Story Elements: Character: Level Up Tutorial:
Methods of Characterization
Analyze Form: Drama: Level Up Tutorial: Elements of
Drama
Teacher Version
Collection 2 - Perception and Reality
Connection: People are not always who
they appear to be.
In Text 1, the slaves appeared to the
overseer as being weak and powerless.
In reality, they had the power and magic
of flight.
In Text 5, Mrs. Stevenson thinks she
knows her husband as a devoted spouse,
so she doesn’t realize he is planning her
murder.
Text 5: “Sorry, Wrong Number”
In this drama, a bedridden Mrs.
Stevenson tries to place a phone call
when she accidentally overhears a
murder plot. Desperately trying to
trace the call and prevent a tragedy,
Mrs. Stevenson doesn’t realize she is
the intended victim.
Text 1: “The People Could
Fly”
A fantasy tale based on
slaves who possess magic
words that enable them to
literally fly to freedom.
Connecting
Theme:
Perception and
Reality
Connection: Settings influence our perceptions of
reality. In Text 4, the setting changes to a different
reality. The children are still safely on the handcar, but,
around them, everything extends to infinity.
In Text 5, the safety of Mrs. Stevenson’s apartment
belies the danger she faces.
Text 4: “Another Place,
Another Time”
A short story of a boy’s interest
in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
and the significance it has on his
life after the death of his father.
Essential Question:
Why are things in
life not always how
we perceive them
to be?
Connection: The brain can
create cognitive illusions.
In Text 3, neuroscientists
manipulate experiments to
test attention, memory, and
causal inference.
Text 4 explores how time
might be considered a
dimension like space. The
main character breaks
through this “fourth
dimension” in a time travel
adventure.
Connection:
Storytelling includes concrete
symbols as plot elements to express
abstract themes. The AfricanAmerican folk tale told in Text 1
expresses the hope of freedom
through the imagined ability of the
people to fly away from their
present circumstances.
In Text 2, the tale of the fisherman
represents our eternal search for
the perfect love.
Connection:
Text 2: “The Song of Wandering
Aengus”
This poem tells of a fisherman who
catches a silver trout. The fish turns
into a beautiful girl, who then runs
away. In the last stanza, the man
wanders the hills in search of this
lost love.
Connection:
The brain can create sensory illusions.
In Text 2, has the fisherman only imagined that
the trout has turned into a “glimmering girl.”
In Text 3, the aim of magicians and
neuroscientists is to understand how people
misconceive reality.
Text 3: “Magic and the Brain”
A scientific study of how the
techniques of magic affect
cognitive functions and the
brain’s neural circuits to create
visual and optical illusions.
Student Version
Collection 2 - Perception and Reality
Connection:
Text 1: “The People Could
Fly”
Connection:
Text 5: “Sorry, Wrong Number”
Text 2: “The Song of
Wandering Aengus”
Connecting
Theme:
Perception and
Reality
Essential Question:
Why are things in
life not always how
we perceive them
to be?
Connection:
Text 4: “Another Place,
Another Time”
Connection:
Text 3: “Magic and the Brain”
Connection: