Unit 1

Grade 7 ► Unit 1 Character and Community

Essential Questions: What does it mean to be a member of your community?

Students explore a variety of literary works including short stories, and the summer reading novel depicting middle school experiences similar to their own. Inspired by a theme of teaching tolerance, students explore characters’ decision-making as it relates to being an upstander in the community. Students begin the unit with activities focused around the summer reading book, and then launch into discussions of how elements of a story interact and practice citing textual evidence in the subsequent texts. This unit ends with a narrative essay connected to the essential question.