Generate Ideas and Questions
You will learn strategies to help you generate questions and ideas about a topic.
Inferring: It’s a Beast!
Using a digital forum, seventh-grade students will collaboratively generate authentic inferences about character motivation. Students will utilize textual evidence and draw from personal schema in order to make logical connections across multiple genres.
Inferring Through Imagery and Figurative Language
Students rotate to four posters which contain a single stanza from a common poem (“Digging” by Seamus Heaney), marking key literary elements (imagery, diction, figurative language) before rotating to explain the connotation of the words and phrases selected by the previous group. After text marking, students regroup to discuss the inferential connections between literary terms and their connotative meaning to theorize thematic meaning within the poem.
Making an Inference
The class will review previous learning about how authors describe characters using speech, thoughts, effects on others, actions, and looks (STEAL). Students will make annotations on an excerpt using the STEAL strategy. We will talk them through making a guided inference. Students will complete a short-answer response on chart paper with evidence and inference for the focus question
Denotation and Connotation (English I Reading)
You will be able to distinguish between the denotative (dictionary) meaning of a word and its connotative (emotions or associations that are implied rather than literal) meaning.
Understatement/Overstatement (English I Reading)
You will be able to recognize and explain the purpose of understatement and overstatement in a text.
Diction and Tone (English I Reading)
You will be able to evaluate the diction in a text and discover the author's tone.
Close Reading of Prose: Practice 1 (English I Reading)
You will read carefully in order to identify diction, tone, and irony and evaluate their impact on the meaning of a text.
Development of Characters Through Literary Devices (English I Reading)
You will be able to recognize how literary devices such as character foils can create complex characters in a short story.
Analyze Literary Essays’ Inclusion of Personal Opinions and Facts (English I Reading)
You will be able to explain why literary essays include personal opinions and facts to describe an event or situation.
Distinguish Between Summary and Critique (English I Reading)
You will learn how to summarize a text in contrast to writing a critique that takes a position.
Analyze How Author's Style and Syntax Support Meaning (English I Reading)
You will be able to analyze how an author's style and syntax support meaning in a text.
Analyze Famous Speeches for Rhetorical Structures and Devices (English I Reading)
You will be able to analyze the persuasive impact of rhetorical structures and devices in famous speeches.
Analyze an Argument: Practice 1 (English I Reading)
You will be able to analyze the quality, relevance, and credibility of evidence that supports or opposes an argument.
Writing an Engaging Short Story with Interesting and Believable Characters
You will be able to write a short story with interesting and believable characters.
Writing an Engaging Short Story with Well-Developed Conflict and Resolution
You will be able to write a short story with a well-developed conflict and resolution.
Writing an Engaging Story with Literary Strategies to Enhance Plot
You will be able to use various literary strategies and devices, including dialogue and suspense, to enhance the plot in a short story.
Write a Short Story: Practice 1
Given a prompt, you will write a short story.
Analyze Various Texts with Similar Themes (English I Reading)
You will learn how to make inferences and draw conclusions about similar themes in various texts by finding supporting evidence within the texts.
Origins and Meanings of Foreign Words (English I Reading)
You will become acquainted with the origins and meanings of foreign words and phrases frequently used in English texts.