Spur Language Arts 7

In this full-year seventh-grade course, students develop a mastery of reading, writing, and language arts skills. Engaging literary and informational reading selections prompt students to read critically, analyze texts, and cite evidence. Students explore fictional texts, including The Outsiders, Dragonwings, and a short story by Walter Dean Meyers. In the course, students explore the drama The Miracle Worker, paired with Helen Keller’s autobiography. They also read the poetry of Langston Hughes and William Butler Yeats. To help students comprehend text structure, author’s purpose, and argument, the course delves into nonfiction, from the informational text Exploring the Titanic to a speech by Cesar Chavez. Students sharpen their vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills through explicit modeling and ample practice. Students also take part in routine, responsive writing based on texts they have read. In more extensive, process-based writing lessons, students write topical essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats