ENGLISH Curriculum Guide GRADE SEVEN

ENGLISH Curriculum Guide

GRADE SEVEN

LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 2011-2012

English Leadership Team

Steve Barham Freyja Bergthorson Laura Bolyard Melanie Buckley Neelum Chaudhry Chris Cuozzo Cassandra Donahue Meghann Donohue Shelli Glynn Michelle Haseltine Colleen Milligan Jim Noland Shelah Novak

Shannon O'Neill Marcia Owens Jo Ann Pearson Holly Sharp Sonja Polcen Laura Purvis Toni Rader Phil Rosenthal Fatima Scherer Karen Skees Tammy Svitek Allyson White Jason White

Dr. Edgar B. Hatrick Superintendent

Sharon D. Ackerman Assistant Superintendent, Instruction

Eric L. Stewart

Dr. Michele Schmidt Moore

Director, Curriculum and Instruction Supervisor, English/Language Arts

David Arbogast English Specialist

This document, based on the Virginia Department of Education's English Standards of Learning Curriculum Framework (2010) provides extensions and additions to form the Loudoun County English Curriculum

LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS ENGLISH 7 CURRICULUM GUIDE

Mission Statement

1

Introduction

2

Middle School English Instructional Framework

Writing

3

Reading

12

Research

17

Communication

20

English Pacing Guide

21

Quarter One

27

Quarter Two

80

Quarter Three

124

Quarter Four

141

Contribute to the Conversation

183

VDOE Curriculum Framework

184

Appendix

210

Reading Lists Grade Seven

212

Internet Safety

213

LCPS Plagiarism Policy

215

LCPS Middle School English Video/DVD Policy

216

Copyright Questions and Answers

217

Latin and Greek Affixes and Roots

219

MISSION STATEMENT

1

LCPS English Department Mission Statement

Here are six beliefs that we strive to make true for all of our students:

Students communicate and collaborate effectively in written and oral discourse in everchanging, real world situations.

Therefore, we will o develop active and involved listeners o teach students to self-advocate and ask for clarification o show students how to use the right language and diction for informal and formal situations o develop learning activities that encourage students to communicate in authentic contexts o provide opportunities for collaborative learning in research and other projects.

Students think critically. Therefore, we will provide opportunities to critically analyze language and media teach processes for critical thinking and making informed decisions show students how to refine their arguments based on new information.

Students understand and respect multiple perspectives and cultures. Therefore, we will o explore literature that reflects many cultures o engage students in multiple perspectives and ideas.

Students value and appreciate the power of language through reading and writing. Therefore, we will o provide opportunities for students to choose and engage in relevant and meaningful texts o provide opportunities for students to choose the audience and purpose for their writing.

Students take on challenges and reflect on progress. Therefore, we will o provide opportunities for increased rigor in assignments o provide frequent opportunities for students to reflect on their growth as communicators.

Students are well versed in technology tools used to help them communicate. Therefore, we will o integrate technology tools in our teaching and in student learning.

LCPS MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

2

The Conversation Begins Here...

Brown Sugar is a film in which the main character is writing a book that becomes her love letter to hip-hop. It is a book that explains all that she loves and finds interesting about the creation of the music genre of hip-hop. This curriculum guide is the district's love letter to reading and writing instruction in the middle school. You will notice that it is written in an informal tone. This is intentional. We hope that this guide will become like many of our trusted resource books like Nancy Atwell's In the Middle, Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Katie Wood Ray's Study Driven, Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading, Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmermann's Mosaic of Thought, or Nancy Allison's Middle School Readers. What each of these books has in common is that they are the beginnings of a conversation. Each of these authors invites you into his or her classroom and has a conversation with you about reading and writing instruction. We love their books because we can imagine our classrooms and our students being like their classrooms and their students.

This guide is written by many authors from across our school district. In particular, we would like to acknowledge David Arbogast, Michelle Haseltine, Colleen Milligan, Sonja Polcen, Laura Tucker, and Allyson White for their contributions. In it you will find some familiar pieces like benchmark checklists and an updated VDOE curriculum framework. However, you will also find some new pieces like an instructional framework for teaching reading and writing to middle school students and core units of study.

Okay, we saw you cringe when you read core units of study. So let's talk a bit about the elephant in the room, by first stating what this does not mean. It does not mean that you must replicate each minilesson word for word at a specific time on a specific date. Each of the minilessons in a core unit represents a collection of teachers' thoughts on how this unit might be carried out with students. Can you substitute minilessons? Absolutely! Can you make the unit your own? Most definitely! Creativity in teaching is something we honor and want to foster.

So what is expected of me? you might ask. We have aligned each reading and writing unit to a particular quarter that in turn is aligned to skills in the pacing guide for that quarter. We ask that you give your students a common experience that is shared with students across our district and that you honor some basic tenets of reading and writing instruction. We ask that you adhere to the big ideas that guide the unit by using the unit provided for you OR by creating a unit of your own that addresses the rationale, essential questions, knowledge, skills, and summative assessment that are outlined for that unit.

As we generate variations of the core unit as a district we are able to collaborate, share, and strengthen our ideas. As you implement the core units this school year, take note of the variations that you implement. What formative and summative assessments did you use? What minilessons did you add? What minilessons did you remove? How did you integrate technology into the unit? How did you differentiate the unit for all of your students? What record keeping systems did you build to keep track of your conferences, anecdotal notes, and observations? One of the sections in this guide asks you to contribute your ideas to the conversation. We hope that you will do so.

LCPS MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM GUIDE

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