Grade 7 · printable course

Reading Arguments, Writing Positions: Grade 7 English Language Arts

Grade 7 · 445 pages · 73 lessons · PDF, print at home

A year-long grade 7 ELA course built around tracing and evaluating arguments, reading contrasting points of view, and writing evidence-based positions that answer counterclaims. Students move from short public-domain nonfiction and myth/folklore through a novel, informational paired texts, poetry, drama, and research, using each unit's texts to deepen the same core moves: cite evidence, weigh its sufficiency, compare perspectives, and write with acknowledged counterclaims. All texts are public domain or provided. Aligned to CCSS ELA-Literacy standards only.

Delivered by email within minutes as a PDF stamped with your name. Print any part as often as you need for the children in your household; the link never expires.

$27.99

one household licence

Want every Grade 7 subject at once? Letters & Devotion Grade 7: The Complete Year is one PDF for $145.99.

What is inside

Every unit and lesson in this book, in order. The same lessons are taught online at lettersanddevotion.com, so a family can move between paper and screen.

Reading Arguments, Writing Positions: Grade 7 English Language Arts

73 lessons · try a lesson online free

Unit 1: Tracing and Testing an Argument9 lessons
  1. 1.The structure of claim and reason in a persuasive paragraph
  2. 2.The definitions of claim, reason, evidence, counterclaim, and sufficiency
  3. 3.The sufficiency of evidence in a marked persuasive text (relevance, amount, credibility)
  4. 4.The argument structure and evidence sufficiency of a novel, unscaffolded persuasive text
  5. 5.The necessity test for textual evidence supporting an inference
  6. 6.The divergence between an argument's persuasiveness and its logical sufficiency
  7. 7.The counterclaim-acknowledgment structure in argumentative writing
  8. 8.The sufficiency of evidence in an argument from a domain and era not covered in instruction
  9. 9.The generalizability of the sufficiency framework beyond persuasive-essay genre
Unit 2: Two Sides, Same Facts: Comparing Points of View8 lessons
  1. 10.Unit 1 argument vocabulary (claim, evidence, sufficiency, counterclaim)
  2. 11.The distinction between point of view and purpose
  3. 12.Word choice as a signal of point of view
  4. 13.Selection of fact as a driver of differing point of view across two texts on one event
  5. 14.The Unit 1 sufficiency filter applied to competing evidence in a two-text comparison
  6. 15.Selection and framing as the source of disagreement between factually accurate texts
  7. 16.Strength of a stated counterclaim relative to the actual opposing position
  8. 17.An original comparative claim on a new pair of opposing-viewpoint texts, including counterclaim acknowledgment
Unit 3: A Perspective Sustained: Novel Study9 lessons
  1. 18.First-person vs. third-person limited narration in the novel
  2. 19.Narrator's limited access and its effect on shown causes of plot events
  3. 20.The inference-evidence filter applied to character motive
  4. 21.Change in a character's point of view across chapters of the novel
  5. 22.Character motive at an unmodeled turning point in the novel
  6. 23.Generalized principle of narrative omission applied to an unseen text
  7. 24.Counterclaim-and-rebuttal paragraph structure for a literary motive argument
  8. 25.Unit 1 argument vocabulary: claim, evidence, counterclaim, sufficiency
  9. 26.Peer's textual evidence for a character motive claim
Unit 4: Myths, Archetypes, and Cultural Point of View9 lessons
  1. 27.Archetype patterns (trickster, hero, hubris/nemesis) in a single myth text
  2. 28.Greek/Latin roots hubris, nemesis, -log-, -path- and derived words
  3. 29.Two tellings of the same myth (point of view differences)
  4. 30.Relationship between a specific textual difference and a culture's values
  5. 31.Recurrence of archetype patterns across unrelated cultures
  6. 32.Theme as culturally situated rather than universal
  7. 33.Cultural values inferred from an unfamiliar myth's archetype and details
  8. 34.Comparative essay structure with claim, evidence, and counterclaim addressed with evidence
  9. 35.Complete comparative essay on two myth tellings' point of view and cultural values
Unit 5: The Speaker's Stake: Poetry and Inference9 lessons
  1. 36.The distinction between a poem's speaker and its poet
  2. 37.Line breaks, stanza breaks, and form as structural choices in a poem
  3. 38.The modeled three-step reasoning chain linking a structural choice to a stance, on the same poem used to teach it
  4. 39.The relationship between a structural choice (e.g., short lines, an abrupt stanza break) and the speaker's inferred stance
  5. 40.Figurative language as textual evidence for an inference about speaker stance
  6. 41.Two speakers' contrasting stances on a shared theme, as an instance of point of view
  7. 42.The counterclaim-acknowledgment structure, at the 'address and rebut with evidence' level
  8. 43.Speaker's stance in a wholly unfamiliar poem
  9. 44.Structure-as-evidence for inference, generalized across genres
Unit 6: Staged Conflict: Drama and Contrasting Motives9 lessons
  1. 45.The distinction between dialogue and stage directions as two separate categories of textual evidence in a script
  2. 46.The three basic formatting elements of a script page (character header, stage direction, dialogue), applied to a page not previously annotated in class
  3. 47.The inference filter question applied to a character's motive, evidenced by a specific line of dialogue
  4. 48.Protagonist versus antagonist as contrasting points of view within one conflict
  5. 49.Dramatic irony as an information gap between audience and character
  6. 50.Director/actor staging choices as an added layer of point of view not present in the script text itself
  7. 51.Justification of a character's motive using dialogue evidence filtered for sufficiency
  8. 52.Counterclaim rebuttal using dialogue evidence, at the 'rebut with evidence' rigor level specified in the course's rising counterclaim structure
  9. 53.Transfer of the dialogue-evidence inference method to an unfamiliar play text
Unit 7: Evaluating Sources10 lessons
  1. 54.Authority as a credibility criterion tied to a specific claim
  2. 55.Primary vs. secondary source classification
  3. 56.Currency as a claim-dependent, not universal, criterion
  4. 57.Corroboration versus citation as distinct relationships between two sources
  5. 58.Synthesis of multi-format sources on one research question
  6. 59.Sufficiency as a property of a source SET rather than a single source
  7. 60.Credibility ranking and written justification across a disagreeing source set
  8. 61.Diagnostic application of credibility criteria to an unrehearsed source pair
  9. 62.Generalization of credibility criteria beyond the taught source formats
  10. 63.Unit 1 vocabulary: sufficiency and counterclaim
Unit 8: The Research Argument: Position, Evidence, Counterclaim10 lessons
  1. 64.The difference between a genuinely debatable research question and a settled-fact or single-answer question
  2. 65.Lateral reading as a method for verifying source credibility
  3. 66.Paraphrase with attribution versus plagiarized restatement
  4. 67.Sufficiency of a multi-source evidence set, applied from the Unit 1 sufficiency concept
  5. 68.Synthesis of multiple sources into one claim-driven paragraph
  6. 69.Rebuttal of a counterclaim using cited evidence, the top stage of the Unit 1-6 counterclaim progression
  7. 70.Criteria for a fair test between disagreeing sources on an unfamiliar topic
  8. 71.Counterclaim-handling technique in a professionally published argumentative text
  9. 72.The Unit 1 argument vocabulary set (claim, evidence, counterclaim, sufficiency)
  10. 73.The name/address/rebut-with-evidence classification applied to a peer's draft writing

More for Grade 7

Everything for Grade 7 · All printable books