Grade 7 ESL

ESL focuses on systematic, explicit, and sustained language development within the context of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and WIDA. Language is taught within the rich, meaningful circumstances of key academic practices, and the teacher builds on students’ cultural and linguistic knowledge to develop key academic habits of thinking. The Big Ideas and Major Learning Experiences reflect priority language skills across grade-level content and serve as a focus of collaboration between the Multilingual Department and other departments.

Unit

Time

frame

Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions)

Major Learning Experiences from Unit 

Talking about Our Past, Present, and Future


Connect to:

Social and Instructional Language

6 weeks 

  • How can I share stories from my life so that others get to know me?


  • How do I set actionable goals for learning and for life?


  • What do I need to learn and grow in school?

Students will: 

  • NARRATE by sharing ideas about one’s own and others’ lived experiences and previous learning

  • INFORM by sorting, clarifying, and summarizing relationships

  • EXPLAIN by following and describing steps or procedures and their causes and effects

Rational Numbers in Our Lives


Connect to:

Language of Math


and


Social and Instructional Language

6 weeks 

  • How can positive and negative numbers be represented visually and in real-world scenarios?


  • How do we use rational numbers and math operations in the real world?


  • How can we make sense of word problems and plan to solve them?

Students will:

  • INTERPRET MATHEMATICAL EXPLANATIONS by analyzing possible ways to represent and solve a problem

  • CONSTRUCT MATHEMATICAL EXPLANATIONS that state reasoning used to generate solutions

  • NARRATE by connecting stories with images and representations to add meaning (e.g. word problems represented by mathematical expressions))


See Grade 7 Mathematics Overview (Unit 1: Rational Numbers) for more context.

Stories as Windows and Mirrors


Connect to:

Language of ELA


and


Social and Instructional Language

6 weeks 

  • How do stories provide windows into other voices, personalities, and cultures?


  • How do stories provide mirrors that reflect our own experiences and thoughts?


  • How do authors create characters with a clear voice?

Students will:

  • CONSTRUCT LANGUAGE ARTS NARRATIVES that orient audience to context and point of view

  • CONSTRUCT LANGUAGE ARTS NARRATIVES that develop and describe characters and their relationships

  • CONSTRUCT LANGUAGE ARTS NARRATIVES that develop story, including themes with complication and resolution, time, and event sequences

  • NARRATE by sharing ideas about one’s own and others’ lived experiences and previous learning


The focus this year is on narrative writing.  See Grade 7 ELA Overview for more context.

Systems and Cycles in the Scientific World


Connect to:

Language of Science


and


Social and Instructional Language

6 weeks 


  • How do scientific models (diagrams, maps, charts) help explain relationships, flow, and change in a natural system?


  • How do scientists use knowledge of natural systems to design technological and engineering solutions to problems?


Students will: 


  • INTERPRET SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS by defining investigable questions or design problems based on observations, information, and/or data about a phenomenon

  • CONSTRUCT SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS that develop reasoning to show relationships among independent and dependent variables in models and simple systems

  • CONSTRUCT SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS that summarize patterns in evidence, making trade-offs, revising, and retesting

  • EXPLAIN by following and describing cycles and sequences of steps

See Grade 7 Science Overview for more context.

People and Places in History


Connect to:

Language of Social Studies


and


Social and Instructional Language

6 Weeks


  • How are societies influenced by geography and place?


  • How do we select relevant, well-chosen facts to inform our thinking about cultures and societies from history? 


  • How do we connect evidence and examples to our knowledge of the world and the text in order to form a persuasive argument? (CER writing)

Students will:

  • CONSTRUCT SOCIAL STUDIES EXPLANATIONS that develop reasoning, sequences with linear and nonlinear relationships, evidence, and details, acknowledging strengths and weaknesses

  • CONSTRUCT SOCIAL STUDIES ARGUMENTS that introduce and contextualize topic

  • CONSTRUCT SOCIAL STUDIES ARGUMENTS that select relevant information to support claims with evidence gathered from multiple sources

  • EXPLAIN by generating and conveying initial thinking


See Grade 7 Social Studies Overview for more context.