Seventh Grade

List of 10 items.

Reading & Literature
- Read and explore novels, short stories, poems, and plays whose protagonists represent a variety of backgrounds and challenges
- Identify literary elements: metaphor, symbolism, foreshadowing, theme, and historical and cultural references
- Independent and in-class reading and literature criticism
- Analyze and identify literary themes: friendship, identity, tolerance, diversity, and beliefs
- Connect literature to history, author, personal experience, and the modern world through discussion, journal entries, and group work
Writing & Language Arts
- Write multi-paragraph essays (narrative, memoir, analysis, and research paper)
- Debate skills at an end of the school year debate
- Practice Courageous Conversations (community circles)
- Focus on the writing process: prewriting, writing, editing, and rewriting
- Develop research skills: internet and library
- Maintain a notebook and practice note-taking and organizational skills
- Strengthen vocabulary and grammar skills
- Make oral and visual presentations
- Analyze and write poetry, short stories, and fiction
Social Studies
- Explore West Africa & South Africa, Japan, China, India, and Medieval Europe
- The Americas Politics
- Economics, geography, and society of different civilizations
- Note-taking skills: history notebook, document analysis, paragraph
- Civilization project
- Cause, effect, and impact of historical events
- Comparison of present-day case studies and literature to historical studies
Mathematics
- Proportional relationships
- Scale drawings
- Percent change
- Circles, angles, triangles, surface area, and volume
- Operations with negative numbers
- Expressions, equations, and inequalities
- Data analysis, probability, and graphing techniques
- Problem-solving strategies
- Interpret and solve problems in real-world situations
- Share multiple perspectives and communicate mathematical thinking
Science
- Work as a scientist: observe, research, develop controlled experiments, create models, communicate
- Evolution
- The microbiome, viruses, the immune system
- Life processes: strategies and solutions from cells to plants to human beings
- Genetics and heredity
- Sex and drug education: accurate information leads to informed decisions
- Cross-grade science projects with Lower School buddies
Spanish
- Project-based learning focused on authentic, meaningful situations. Verbal communication is highly emphasized
- Use Realidades textbook, workbook, and interactive website
- Active learning through Total Physical Response games, art, music, and dance
- Celebration of Latino culture through the study of music, stories, dance, traditional holidays, and geography
- In-depth individual PowerPoint presentations on Mexico
- Interrogatives, the imperative, the preterit tense, formulas tener que + infinitivo and ir + a + infinitivo
Visual Arts
- Drawing: contour lines, shading, grid enlarging, layout, lettering
- Gridded Self-Portraits
- Paper Mache Mask-Making
- Print making: linoleum block carving
- Public art opportunities
- Social Messaging
- Mud Cloths
Music
- Advanced drum ensemble workshop
- Year one drum ensemble
- 5-part 6/8 pattern
- Dividing the beat into three and four parts
- Mayi, Ibo, Samba
- Featured performance at African American Cultural Celebration
- Exploration of the cultural role music plays in a community
- Performance band for instrumentalists
Physical Education
- Understanding that the love of play never has to end
- Analyzing an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and using this analysis in a game situation
- Demonstrating appropriate sportsmanship in game situations
- Working cooperatively with all peers regardless of skill level
Community Engaged Learning
- Research an issue of concern- using historical and present-day Oakland
- Select a partner organization
- Develop and implement an action plan to support the community
- Independent and cooperative learning
- Agency and mutual partnership, perseverance, empathy, and connecting to a larger purpose