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7th Grade

Seventh Grade Curriculum Overview

English/Language Arts
Seventh grade students use oral language, written language, and media and technology for expressive, informational, argumentative, critical, and literary purposes. Students also explore the structure of language and study grammatical rules in order to speak and write effectively. While emphasis in seventh grade is placed on argument, students also:
  • Express individual perspectives in response to personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
  • Interpret and synthesize information.
  • Critically analyze print and non-print communication.
  • Use effective sentence construction and edit for improvements in sentence formation, usage, mechanics, and spelling.
  • Interpret and evaluate a wide range of literature
Writing
Argument communication is the focus of Grade 7 English language arts and is assessed in this grade by the North Carolina Writing Assessment. Continuing to build on the foundation of argument, students in Grade 7 focus on the importance of the effective use of language and examine how an argument is affected by style and tone. On the North Carolina Writing Assessment, students demonstrate that they can focus on an argumentative writing task by organizing their thoughts so that their writing progresses logically; by providing sufficient support and elaboration to present their ideas clearly; and, by skillfully controlling their writing so that it is appropriate to the purpose, the audience, and the context of the writing task. Students are prepared for this assessment through studying a variety of argumentative works; by learning to analyze problems and solutions in various contexts and situations; and by creating arguments that evaluate by justifying judgments with logical relevant reasons, clear examples, and supporting details.

Mathematics
Students in the middle grades represent real numbers using manipulatives, pictures, number lines, and symbols in a variety of contexts. Relationships among rational numbers are explored and equivalence among fractions, decimals, and percents is recognized and explained. Students extend their understanding of place value to decimal and scientific notation and use the properties of real numbers, including zero, one, and inverses. Numerical comparisons are expressed as ratios and rates and problems are solved using ratio, proportion, and percent.
Students develop fluency in computation with rational numbers as well as with relationships among numbers, including primes, composites, factors, and multiples. They explain exponents and square and cube roots of numbers, develop skills with estimation and mental computation, and use calculators appropriately.

Major concepts and skills in Grade 7 include:
  • Computation with rational numbers
  • Ratio and proportion
  • Factors and multiples
  • Volume and surface area
  • Measures of central tendency
  • Box plots and histograms
  • Equations and inequalities
  • Solving relevant and authentic problems using appropriate technology and applying these concepts as well as those developed in earlier years.
Social Studies
The focus for seventh grade is on the continued development of knowledge and skills acquired in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade studies of North Carolina, the United States, and Europe and South America by considering, comparing, and connecting those studies to the study of Africa, Asia, and Australia. As students examine social, economic, and political institutions they analyze similarities and differences among societies. While concepts are drawn from history and the social sciences, the primary discipline is geography, especially cultural geography. This focus provides students with a framework for studying local, regional, national, and global issues that concern them, for understanding the interdependence of the world in which they live, and for making informed judgments as active citizens.

Science
Learners will study natural and technological systems. All goals should focus on the unifying concepts of science defined by the National Science Education Standards: Systems, Order, and Organization; Evidence, Models, and Explanation; Constancy, Change, and Measurement; Evolution and Equilibrium; and Form and Function. The skills of inquiry and technological design are targeted for mastery.
The concepts for which in-depth studies should be designed at the seventh grade level include:
  • Scientific Inquiry
  • Technological Design
  • Atmosphere
  • Human Body System
  • Heredity and Genetics,
  • Motion and Forces
Health/Physical Education
Seventh grade students are instructed on the health-related benefits of health and physical activity and how these benefits can be acquired and maintained.

Major focuses in 7th grade include:
  • Recognizing and managing habits
  • Recognizing incidence of high-risk behaviors
  • Mutually faithful relationships
  • Communication skills
  • Realizing various nutrition-related concerns
  • Health risks involved with harmful substances
  • Activities that are means to fitness
  • Diversity issues
  • Sportsmanship and fair play
  • Integration with other course areas
  • Application of game strategie
Computer Skills/Technology
The strength of technology is that it provides an excellent platform where students can collect information in multiple formats and then organize, link, and discover relationships between facts and events. An array of tools for acquiring information and for thinking and expression allows more students more ways to enter the learning enterprise successfully and to live productive lives in the global, digital, and information-based future they all face.

The focus for 7th grade Computer/Technology Skills includes:
  • Responsible and safe use of online resources
  • Using Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines
  • Refining application skills
  • Using formulas in a spreadsheet
  • Using search strategy with two or more criteria in a database
  • Increasing productivity and accuracy in keyboarding
  • Using word processing, spreadsheet, database, and multimedia for assignments in all subject areas
  • Locating and retrieving information using telecommunications
  • Evaluating resources and information for accuracy and usefulness
  • Selecting and using a variety of technology tools