CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
COMMON CORE CLUSTERS AND FOCUS STANDARDS
READING LITERARY
QUARTER ASSESSMENT
RL.7.6: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of
different characters or narrators in a text.

READING INFORMATIONAL

RI 7.3 Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text
(e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas
or events).
RI. RI 7.6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze
how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others
RI 7.9 Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their
presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing
different interpretations of facts.

Q1 On demand –
response to text
Informative
Q1 Information
Writing
Q1 Narrative
Writing
Semester One
WRITING
W.7.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
W 7.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
W 7.5 With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and
strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a
new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
(Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–
3 up to and including grade 7 on page 52.)
SPEAKING AND LISTENING

SL.7.3: Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the
soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
SL 7.3 Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the
soundness of the reasoning L 7.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning

words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.


Midterm
Assessment of
Learning
Q2 MultiMedia
Presentation
Q2 Explanatory Essay
Q2 On-Demand
Argument Writing
LANGUAGE
L.7.3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking,
reading, or listening.
L 7.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words
and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a
range of strategies
L.7.4©Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries,
glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a
word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
COMMON CORE CLUSTERS AND FOCUS STANDARDS
QUARTER ASSESSMENT
L.7.4(d)Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase
(e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
Semester Two
READING LITERARY
RL.7.5: Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure contributes to its

meaning.
RL.7.7: Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio,

filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique
to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
RL.7.3: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how
setting shapes the characters or plot).
Q3 On-Demand
Argument Writing
Multi media
presentation,
Video Broadcast
OR Explanatory
essay
READING INFORMATIONAL
RI.7.3: Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text
(e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas
or events).
RI.7.9: Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape
their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or
advancing different interpretations of facts.
RI.7.2: Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their
development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the
text.
WRITING
W.7.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas,
concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of
relevant content.
W.7.7: Conduct short research projects from multiple print and digital sources,
using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source;
and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
COMMON CORE CLUSTERS AND FOCUS STANDARDS
plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
QUARTER ASSESSMENT


SPEAKING AND LISTENING
SL.7.2: Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media
and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify
a topic, text, or issue under study.
SL.7.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one on one, in
groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and
issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.7.1(c): Pose questions that illicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions
and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion
back on topic as needed.
SL7.1(d): Acknowledge new information expressed by others and, when
warranted, modify their own views.

Final assessment of
learning
Q4 On-demand
Informational
Essay
Q4 Research
Writing
LANGUAGE
L.7.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
L.7.4: Determine of clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words
and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a
range of strategies.
L.7.4(b): Use common, grade-appropriate, Greek or Latin affixes and roots as
clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., belligerent, bellicose, rebel).
L.7.4(d): Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase
(e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Grade 7 : Unit 1: Literature Reflects Life: Making Sense of Our World
Title: Literature Reflects Life: Making Sense of Our World (Grade 7): In this first unit of seventh grade,
students begin their year-long study of the human condition by examining how a variety of genres can
address the human condition: fantasy, comedy, tragedy, the short story, and poetry.
Instructional Days: 4-6 weeks
Overview:
Although students read from various genres, writing and class discussions focus on how literature can
help us make sense of our world. In particular, students will examine “point of view,” analyzing how
authors develop different points of view. The overall goal of this unit is for students to experiment with
a variety of reading, writing, speaking, and listening strategies and skills. The unit ends with an
informative/explanatory essay in response to the essential question: Is literature always a reflection of
life?
Essential Question:
Is literature always a reflection of life?
Student Objectives (what students will be able to do):
1.
2.
3.
4.
Describe how point of view is developed in a variety of genres-drama, short stories, and poetry.
Explain the basic characteristics of comedy and tragedy.
Compare novels and their theatrical and film versions.
Identify a common theme in different novels and advance an argument about theme.
Literary Texts:
Novels/Novellas
Walkabout (James Vance Marshall)
Prairie Songs (Pam Conrad)
Nonfiction
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Prairie Visions (Pam Conrad)
Short Stories
Little Worlds: A Collection of Short Stories for the Middle School (Peter Guthrie)
“Story of an Hour” (Kate Chopin)
“The Diamond Necklace” (Guy deMapssant)
“The Open Window” (Saki)
“The Interlopers” (Saki)
“The Monkey’s Paw” (W.W. Jacobs)
“The Last Leaf” (O. Henry)
“The Ransom of Red Chief” (O. Henry) To be used for on-demand, not instruction.
“Gift of the Magi” (O. Henry)
“The Clarion Call” (O. Henry)
“After Twenty Years” (O. Henry)
“The Cop and the Anthem” (O. Henry)
Folklore
“Icarus and Daedalus” (Josephine Preston Peabody)
“Demeter and Persephone” (Anne Terry White)
Aesop’s Fables
Drama
Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand)
Poetry
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
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The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic (Allan Wolf)
Art, Music, Media:
Film
“The Cop and the Anthem” (O. Henry) DVD
“The Last Leaf” (O. Henry) DVD
“The Ransom of Red Chief” (O. Henry) DVD (Text used for on-demand; may use this AFTER on-demand.)
“Gift of the Magi” (O. Henry) DVD
“The Clarion Call” (O. Henry) DVD
Art
“The Flight of Icarus and Daedalus” (Roger Brown)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zJpnTu57Koc/R_VKHO6j77I/AAAAAAAADFc/CKllvn4muD4/s1600-h/LI-sculp2015b.jpg
“The Abduction of Persephone” (Rembrandt)
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/prec/www/course/mythology/0700/807b.jpg
“Nighthawks” (Edward Hopper)
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/images/standard/WebLarge/WebImg_000143/187455_15013
65.jpg
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
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Quarter 2 Embracing Heritage
Instructional Days 4-6 Weeks
Essential Question: How does heritage define us individually and as a nation?
Unit Summary
Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants
and revolutionists. Franklin Roosevelt
America is a nation of immigrants. This diversity has helped to make our country rich in ideas,
traditions, and customs. Except for the Native Americans, every American came here from somewhere
else – or is born of ancestors who did. People have come, and continue to come, to America to seek
freedom and opportunity. Some did not come here voluntarily, and some immigrants encountered
prejudice. To learn more about the role of immigration in American heritage, students read and discuss
a variety of fictional & informational texts. To appreciate how we are shaped by the experiences we
have and the people we encounter, students do a Generations Project, in which they consider
perspectives from different generations within a family. The project also helps hone students’ interview
& research skills. In addition, students create semantic maps of the phrase “embracing heritage” in
order to represent visually their understanding of this phrase. They write an informational/explanatory
essay in response to the essential question: How does heritage define us individually and as a nation?
Note: This unit provides an example of how cross-curricular collaboration can naturally occur between
English & other content areas. Students can read informational texts in history class, and compare those
accounts to personal narratives and accounts about immigrants’ experience read in English class. Much
discussion centers on the ways in which background information enhances understanding of literature
(whether on immigration or any other history/science topic of teachers’ choosing.) This unit also
demonstrates how reading & writing standards provide instructional connectivity between learning in
English & other content areas.
Skills (What Students need to be able to do)




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Define the word heritage and review the word culture.
Explore U.S. immigrant experiences through historical fiction & nonfiction texts.
Analyze multiple accounts of U.S. immigration from different points of view & describe
important similarities & differences in the details they provide.
Conduct interviews to gather information from human “ primary sources” (e.g., with family
members).
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
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
Summarize information gleaned from interviews.
Explain the importance of oral tradition.
Conduct research on countries from which family members emigrated.
Write arguments about the proposition that “America is a land of opportunity.”
Define related words & define their parts of speech (e.g., migrate, immigrate, emigrate, etc.)
Informational Texts:



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





Coming to America: The Story of Immigration (Betsy Maestro & Susannah Ryan)
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America (Andrea Davis Pinkney & Brian Pinkney)
A History of Us: Reconstructing America 1865-1890 (Book 7) (Joy Hakim) (EA)
Immigrant Kids (Russell Freedman) (EA)
We Were There Too (Phillip Hoose)
If Your Name was Changed at Ellis Island (Ellen Levine and Wayne Parmenter)
Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors: A Step-by-Step Guide to Uncovering Your Family’s History
(Maureen Alice Taylor)
A Night to Remember: A Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic (Walter Lord)
You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Titanic! One Voyage You’d Rather Not Make (You Wouldn’t
Want to… Series) (David Evelyn Stewart, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Exploring the Titanic: How the Greatest Ship Ever Lost- Was Found (Robert D. Ballard)
Literary Texts





Land of Hope (Joan Lowery Nixon)
Esperanza Rising (Pam Munoz Ryan)
Project Mulberry (Linda Sue Park)
Escape from Saigon: How a Viet Name War Orphan Became an American Boy (Andrea Warren)
One Eye Laughing, The Other Eye Weeping: The diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New
York. 1938 (Dear America Series) (Barry Denenberg)
Art, Music, and Media

Jacob Riis, various photographs
Music and Lyrics

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“Coming to America” (Neil Diamond)
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Grade 7 : Unit 3, Quarter 3
Title: Courage in Life and in Literature (Grade 7): This third eight-week unit of seventh grade delves
more deeply into character analysis, focusing on determined and courageous people in both
informational texts and literature.
Instructional Days: 4-6 weeks
Overview:
Students read, study, and discuss excerpts from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Students choose
another non-fiction or fictional work to explore how courage is projected through these works.
Students see how and where these stories fit within informational texts on World War 2. They also
compare the ways in which Frank’s diary is similar to and different from the play version of her story.
Students focus their reading on in depth analyses of interactions among individuals, events, and ideas in
a variety of texts comparing the ways in which different authors shape similar stories. This unit ends
with an informative/explanatory essay in response to the essential question.
Essential Question:
How can reading about literary characters and real people form our understanding of History and the
adversities and the courage it took for individuals to persevere?
Student Objectives (what students will be able to do):
1. Define courage.
2. Read and discuss fictional and informational texts about people, real and fictional, that face
conflict.
3. Explain how knowing the historical context of a story may enhance your understanding of a
story.
4. Analyze two accounts of the same event and describe important similarities and differences in
the details they provide.
5. Explain how an author’s style can help convey the theme of their stories, poems, or speeches.
Compare and contrast texts to dramatic interpretations for stage and screen.
Literary Texts:
Novels/Novellas
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
BARRINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Wave (Strasser, Todd)
Night (Ellie Weisel)
Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)
Kris’ War (Carol Matas)
Lisa’s War (Carol Matas)
The Art of Keeping Cool (Janet Taylor Lisle)
I Am David (Holm, Anne)
The Devil’s Arithmetic (Yolen, Jane)
Out of the Dust (Karen Hesse)
No Promises in the Wind (Irene Hunt)
Short Stories
“Horton Hears a Who” (Dr. Seuss)
“Yertle the Turtle” (Dr. Seuss)
“The Sneetches” (Dr. Seuss)
Drama
The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play (8th grade PH)
The Wave (A play adapted from the book by Todd Strasser: READ Magazine Vol.55 March 10, 2006)
I Am David (Excerpted from the screenplay by Paul Feig: READ Magazine Vol. 54 October 8, 2004)
Hannah Szenes—A Song of Light (Maxine Rose Schur: Vol. 52 October 11, 2002)
Poetry
Poems from War and the Pity of War (Neil Philip and Michael McCurdy)
The Poetry of Hannah Szenes (READ Magazine Vol. 52 October 11, 2002)
Memoirs
“Daddy’s Coat” (Bitton-Jackson, Livia: READ Magazine Vol. 52 October 11, 2002)
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
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“Never Shall I Forget” (Excerpted from Night by Elie Wiesel: READ Magazine Vol.55 March 10, 2006)
Literary Non-Fiction:
Diary of Anne Frank (Frank, Anne)
My Bridges of Hope (Jackson, Livia Bitton)
Informational Texts:
The Holocaust: How Could it Have Happened? (READ Magazine Vol.55 March 10, 2006)
Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow. Susan Campbell Bertoletti
The Children of the Dustbowl: The Story of Weedpatch School
Essays/Articles
The Swastika in My Binder (Chase, Elizabeth: READ Magazine Vol.55 March 10, 2006)
Speeches
“Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: Address to Pariliament on May 13th, 1940” (Winston Churchill)
“Declaration of War on Japan” (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Art, Music, Media:
Film
The Wave
I Am David
The Sneetches
Horton Hears a Who
One Survivor Remembers
The Journey of Natty Gann
Goodbye Miss Fourth of July
Art
Cutting “Leuss” with Dr. Seuss/The Political Dr. Seuss (printed lesson packet)
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CURRICULUM MAP GRADE 7
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Grade 7 : Unit 4, Quarter 4
Title: Perseverance: Building upon the study of character by examining those who persevered in a
variety of challenging circumstances.
Instructional Days: 4-6 weeks
Overview:
Students read an array of novels and informational texts. They reflect on the impact that historical
events have on people, but also delve more deeply into internal and external conflicts that characters
experience and the qualities they possess that help them overcome challenges. Students continue to
hone skills about how characters develop and compare their development to the development of ideas
in an informational text. This unit ends with an informative/explanatory essay in response to the
essential question: How do individuals, real and fictional, use words and actions to demonstrate
perseverance?
Essential Question:
How do individuals, real and fictional, use words and actions to demonstrate perseverance?
Student Objectives (what students will be able to do):
1. Define perseverance.
2. Read and discuss fictional and informational texts featuring real people or characters that
demonstrate perseverance.
3. Analyze how the setting (historical context) of a story or biography affects character
development.
4. Explain authors’ use of literary techniques (such as diction and imagery).
5. Compare and contrast texts to film and other print versions.
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Literary Texts:
Novels:
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie (Gregory, Kristiana)
Deathwatch (White, Robb)
After the Dancing Days (Rostkowski, Margaret)
Mississippi Trial: 1955 ( Chris Crowe)
Zlata’s Diary (Zlata Filipovic)
Short Stories
“Most Dangerous Game” (Connell, Richard)
“Seventh Grade” (Gary Soto)
“The Island of Doctor Moreau” adapted from the novel by HG Wells
“Dr. Franklin’s Island” (Excerpt from the novel by Ann Halam)
Literary Non-Fiction:
Unbroken [excerpts] (Hillenbrand, Laura)
Soul Surfer (Bethany Hamilton)
Informational Texts:
Getting Away with Murder (Crowe, Chris)
“Mawson’s Antarctic Trek: The Greatest Survival Story” (Roberts, David)
Erik Weihenmayer article
Ernest Shackleton article
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Poetry
“Oranges” (Gary Soto)
Art, Music, Media:
Film
Eyes on the Prize
Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance
The Ernest Greene Story
Soul Surfer
Photographs
Collection of Dorothea Lange photographs (found on Google images)
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