Poetry gives writers the opportunity to express the highs and lows of their emotions and their personal experiences. Readers of poetry gain insight into how others feel and think about some of the deepest experiences in life, the experiences of love and loss.
This Grade 7 unit emphasizes the study of poetry and encourages students to consider the essential question What do we learn from love and loss?
The unit offers a wide variety of literature for students to explore this question, including both contemporary and classic works. The selections include poems about family relationships, by Pat Mora, Aracelis Girmay, and Wing Tek Lum, as well as the timeless love poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe and the classic narrative poem, “The Highwayman.”
“Bah! Humbug!”
Ebenezer Scrooge is a bitter, miserly old man who cares for nothing but his money. He despises Christmas, kindness, and anything that brings joy. But on one fateful Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner and three spirits—the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.
As Scrooge is taken on a journey through his own life, he is forced to confront the choices he has made and the future that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Can he learn the true meaning of Christmas before it’s too late?
Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic is a timeless tale of redemption, compassion, and the spirit of giving—a story that has warmed hearts for generations.
Students will have a choice between:
A 5 Paragraph essay to the prompt: How has Scrooge changed over the course of the novel? What character traits did he pose at the beginning of the novel vs. at the end?
OR
A Character analysis project for one of the characters in the novel.
Students will have to analyze one character on their strengths, weaknesses, vices, battles, and other traits from the novel using CERs to identify their trait (C), give evidence from the book (direct quotes- E), and explain how that evidence correlates to their answer (R).
Quarter 2 Short Stories & Texts
Annabel Lee
My Mother Pieced Quilt
Museum Indians
The Walking Dance
Second Estrangement
No Dream Too High: Simone Biles
The Highwayman
Flesh and Blood So Cheap
Tangerine
My Mother Really Knew
Students will have a Studysync Final. This is a DCSD required test to prep students for the iReady and CMAS test. The skills they are tested on are skills that we dive into throughout the unit. Many skills for this test focus on figurative language, parts of speech, and analyzing what the text means literally and figuratively (emotionally).