The seventh grade academic curriculum will be delivered by a team of five teachers. All students in seventh grade will receive the following academic courses: Communication Arts, Reading, Social Studies, Science, and Math.

Teachers in an academic team cooperate by meeting during common planning times to discuss the instructional needs of the students, plan upcoming activities, plan on how to best utilize instructional time, and design learning experiences which emphasize the interdependence of curricula through projects, common skill instruction, or thematic units.

Communication Arts

The goal of seventh grade communication arts curriculum is to have all students become proficient in reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding, interpreting, analyzing, and synthesizing information. The seventh grade Communication Arts course emphasizes various areas of literature, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, reading skills, and reference usage.

Major units covered in this curriculum include, but are not limited to:

Library Instruction

In conjunction with Communication Arts and Reading, students will have one additional period of library instruction. The goal of the seventh grade library curriculum is to teach the students to become independent researchers. This will be accomplished by reinforcing previously taught skills, as well as introducing advanced methods of traditional and electronic search. Students will have the opportunity to explore print resources, to use databases, and to practice searching for specific subjects on the internet.

Reading

The emphasis of seventh grade reading is on reading to learn. The goal of the seventh grade reading curriculum is to develop independent readers who can learn from different genres of literature, technical, historical, and scientific writings. Previously learned reading and comprehension skills are reinforced and expanded as students learn to become critical and analytical readers.

Major units covered in this curriculum include, but are not limited to:

In addition to meeting each day of the six day cycle, students will have a seventh period of reading one day each cycle. During this additional period, students will participate in Silent Sustained Reading.

Mathematics

The goal of the seventh grade math curriculum is to help students begin to make the transition from the concrete experiences of arithmetic to the abstract reasoning of algebra. During the seventh grade year, classes are designed to reinforce basic skills including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. Ratios, proportions, percents, measurements, integers, informal geometry, graphing, and probability and statistics are also introduced. Calculators are used to reinforce skills and assist in problem solving. Students who show exceptional ability and demonstrate readiness will receive additional instruction in pre-algebra concepts including the use of variables, equations and the use of inequalities.

Major units covered in this curriculum include, but are not limited to:

Math Clinic

Math clinic is available for all students who require additional math support. Support can range from an occasional review before a test, to in-class assistance, or small group instruction. 

Science

The goal of the seventh grade science curriculum is to help students to gain an understanding and appreciation of the tremendous diversity of life on earth and to have students begin to view science as an ongoing and changing discipline. Seventh grade students obtain the basic skills necessary for analysis and understanding of life on earth as well as the relationship between life sciences and physical sciences.

Major units covered in this curriculum include, but are not limited to:

Social Studies

The purpose of the seventh grade social studies curriculum is for students to build a foundation of the physical geography of the world and understand how the features of earth helped determine where the first large groups of people settled on earth and how those groups developed into the modern societies that we know today. 

1. Students will define what a civilization is.
2. Students will apply that definition to the first major cultures that developed worldwide.
3. Students will define and demonstrate an understanding of the physical geography systems within each ancient civilization.
4. Students will examine the geography, history, political systems, economic activities, and religious influences of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Greece, and Rome.

5. Students will examine how civilizations have developed across time from ancient times to more modern civilizations, including Medieval Europe, Medieval Japan, the Renaissance, and Imperial China.