Amherst-Pelham Regional School District

District Curriculum Overview

Subject: English Course: English Language Arts Grade Level: Seventh

Concepts/Enduring Understandings/Themes	Topics	Unit Content/Skills	Essential Activities/Agreements
Discovering your identity is a healthy, positive, and necessary part of the journey to adulthood.	Identity	§ Characteristics of Fiction § Use comprehension strategies to understand and connect to literature § Critical thinking and analyzing literature thematically § Writing process § Reflective writing § Writing to analyze, inform and explain § Interview skills § Cooperation and group work § Vocabulary in context § Grammar in context	Core texts: An Island Like You –Judith Ortiz Cofer A Suitcase of Seaweed – Janet Wong Writing Agreements: Interview Identity Poem Analytical paragraph/s
The setting (environment and culture) and the individual are in constant interaction. This dynamic relationship results in positive and negative change in both the character and the setting.	Character and Environment Literature Circle	§ Identify paragraph structure, details and transitions § Using text references to support your ideas § Work as a community in literature circles: read, cooperate, share, discuss, thoughtfully complete work § Understanding complexities and interaction of setting and character § Understand writing and reading from a different point of view; empathy § Be able to use paragraph structure and story elements § Writing Process § Reflective writing § Literature in cultural context § Grammar in context § Writing to analyze, inform, and explain § Creative and descriptive writing	Book Agreements: 1 or more Character and Environment Lit Circle books
Poetry	Poetry	§ Know and identify the elements of poetry: figurative language, sound, graphics	Writing Agreements: Original poems
Seeing things through someone else’s eyes helps us to understand differences and to be better world citizens. Differences are valuable. Variation is strength. Humans have more commonalities than differences.	Understanding Differences Literature Circle	§ Understand point of view in literature and writing § Identify own perspective as reader § Analyze literature thematically § Formal discussion skills § Reflective writing § Grammar in context § Writing to analyze, inform, and explain § Writing Process § Creative writing	Book Agreements: 1 or more Understanding Differences Lit Circle books Writing Agreements: Analytical Essay Creative Point of View assignment
All cultures have used mythology to explain and justify how the human and natural worlds came to be. Mythology that endures is literature that offers deeper insight into human nature.	World Mythology	§ Understand the purpose of creation mythology as well as the similarities and differences in myths across cultures § Characteristics of mythology § Identify the symbols § Students will be able to make connections between mythology and the modern world § Literature’s cultural and historical context § Writing Process § Creative myth writing	Core texts: World Myths and Folktales (Holt) How the World Began: Creation in Myths and Legends by Gilly Cameron-Cooper Writing Agreements: Original creation myth