Seventh Grade Curriculum

Biology

The major emphasis of the biology course is the use of scientific processes in the study of the natural world. Scientific process includes understanding background information, forming a hypothesis, controlling variables, gathering and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and communicating results.

While carrying out a plant and fertilizer experiment, students learn about environmental requirements for germination and growth, the function of various plant structures, photosynthesis, and plant reproduction.

Students work on the microscope to investigate life at the cellular level. They learn about various organelles and DNA. They study mitosis (cellular division) and meiosis (division to create sex cells). They investigate the processes of respiration and protein synthesis students study DNA, genes, chromosomes, and heredity. Ethical and legal issues related to genetic engineering and stem cell research are discussed.

The health of the human being is studied through the organization of functional systems including the circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems. Students understand the links between organs of one system and organs of related systems. A unit on reproductive education and values is taught at this time.

The role of technology in shaping the images of the past, present, and future are covered in a unit on microscopy. Students will study a wide range of microscopic organisms to appreciate how our understanding of the natural world is determined by our ability to see it.

A survey of the Animal Kingdom begins with the study of invertebrates. Living and preserved specimens will be observed. Anatomy, physiology, growth and development will be compared through several phyla of animals.

These studies will be accomplished through a balance of interactive lectures, group discussion, laboratory experiments, textbook readings, library research projects, model building, written assignments, and tests. Students are required to keep a separate biology section in their binder. Organization of this binder will allow students to have immediate reference for tests and long-term laboratory projects.

Students are evaluated on the basis of their class preparedness and participation, their ability to follow directions, the quality of their class work and homework, their test performance, and their respect for equipment, supplies and classmates.

Language Arts

The goal of the seventh grade program is to help foster and develop independent learners and thinkers. In seventh grade language arts, most of the writing will be in response to the literature we read as a class. Students will develop these responses, practice the traditional five-paragraph essay, and learn key revision and editing strategies to apply to all types of writing.

Students will read a variety of books and short stories, learn to analyze literature more in-depth, and make connections to their own lives. Seventh grade titles include: Buddha Boy, selected short stories and novels, Seedfolks, The Pigman, and The Outsiders. Students will also read books of their own choosing throughout the year, for book reports and personal enjoyment. Students will use Wordly Wise 7 for studying vocabulary.

Math

• Middle School Mathematics Pathways and Placement

Objectives:

• To maintain and extend previously acquired skills and concepts.
• To provide new experiences in all strands of the mathematics curriculum: Geometry, Numbers and Operations, Probability and Statistics, Measurement, Relations and Functions, Logical Thinking, Algebra, and Calculator Usage.
• To strengthen study and organizational skills.

Expectations: All students will be expected to:

• Maintain an organized notebook and binder section.
• Correct all homework.
• Save and correct all tests and quizzes.
• Seek extra help when necessary.
• To be in class on time with necessary materials and to work purposefully and cooperatively.

Evaluation: Students will be graded on the basis of their performance on homework, class work, class participation, tests, quizzes, notebook, binder section, problems of the week and other special projects.

Homework: Students will have a daily assignment in math and should spend 20-30 minutes each night on assignment completion or study of notes. It is the responsibility of the student to make up any work missed during an absence.

Extra Help: The teacher is available for extra help by appointment during Opportunities. Students are also encouraged to seek occasional help from their peers, who often make excellent teachers.

Conferences: We would enjoy the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with you. Please call or email your child’s teacher for an appointment.

Spanish A & B

The primary goal of the Spanish program is to enable students to read, write, understand and speak effectively in the target language in a natural setting. Another fundamental goal is to promote the understanding and appreciation of Spanish-speaking cultures around the world.

This course introduces the study and development of the basic grammatical structures and develops the student’s oral and written skills in the language. It also emphasizes cultural awareness through an appreciation through art, music and films.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Outcomes test proficiency with the following grammatical concepts and vocabulary:
• Tenses: present, future periphrastic, present progressive, preterit
• Verbs: regular and stem-changing verbs
• Adjectives: adjective agreement including possessive & demonstrative adjectives
• Pronouns: subject, direct and indirect objects
• Vocabulary: likes and dislikes, physical descriptions and personalities, school schedules, materials and activities, after school activities, locations in the community, pastimes hobbies and sports, family and family celebrations, describing a house, food and beverages, clothing, vacations, making purchases, volunteer work and community involvement, entertainment, and technology

Students will demonstrate the following outcomes in listening, speaking, reading, writing and culture:

Listening:

Students will be able to understand native Spanish speakers in basic conversations, dialogues, class skits/situations, and through multi-media.

When listening, students will be able to demonstrate comprehension of the various tenses including present, present progressive, future periphrastic, and preterit. They will also comprehend subject and object pronouns, and noun/adjective agreement.

Chapter quizzes, tests and class assignments will ask students to respond to what they hear in short answers, oral as well as written, true and false statements, cloze exercises and multiple choice formats.

Speaking:

• Students will be able to carry on simple conversations using vocabulary learned and correct grammatical structures.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions in both controlled and spontaneous environments.
• Students will show some creativity in speaking using the present, future periphrastic and preterit tenses.

Reading:

When presented with a selection of reading materials, students will demonstrate comprehension of basic vocabulary and grammatical concepts. Chapter tests, quizzes and class assignments will ask students to respond to what they read in short answers oral/written, true/false statements, and multiple choice format. Translation and paraphrasing may also be used to assess students’ comprehension. Reading selections include those used in the textbook and appropriate supplementary materials to be used at the teacher’s discretion.

Writing:

Students will be able to write sentences and paragraphs in Spanish when given course-related topics using appropriate grammar and vocabulary.

Students will be able to write basic essays and the use of a dictionary will depend on the teacher’s purpose for creating the writing assignment. In class, writings may be shorter and completed without the use of a dictionary on a topic that has been covered at length in class. Writing assignments at home may be lengthier and require the use of a dictionary.

Culture:

• Understand that cultures vary greatly within the Spanish-speaking world.
• Develop respect and understanding of the different traditions, celebrations and customs of each of the Spanish-speaking countries.
• Have a geographical understanding of where Spanish is spoken in the world.

Assessment:

Assessment will be through a combination of outcomes: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Speaking will be assessed through group or individual presentations, interviews, conversations and dialogues. Written skills will be assessed through direct writing, workbook exercises, and short answer and essay responses as well as cultural projects such as brochures, menus, and postcards. Listening and reading comprehension assessments include short answers, matching, multiple choice and open-ended questions.

Methods:

This course will use a variety of methods including direct instruction, modeling, total physical response and a number of student activities designed to engage students in the language including, but not limited to: dialogues, dictations, games, individual and group presentations, interviews, journal writing, question and answer situations, translations, watching videos, singing songs, and using computer-assisted instructional and research materials.

Materials:

The following instructional materials will be used:

• Realidades Level A Student Book and Workbooks
• Realidades Level B Student Book and Workbooks
• Realidades Level A and B ancillary materials

Technology

Realidades textbook offers technology-based learning tools: an interactive textbook, a companion website, and downloadable audio files which provide assistance in grammar, writing, and reading comprehension skills. In this way, the course supports both language acquisition and computer-literacy proficiency. We also utilize other Spanish-related websites for enriched educational experiences.

High School Placement

During the third trimester of Spanish B, students will be evaluated on their ability to move on to the next level of Spanish in high school. This evaluation will be comprised of reading, writing, listening and oral assessments, classroom participation and trimester grades. The Spanish B teacher will then make a recommendation to the student’s high school counselor for appropriate placement in Spanish for the following year.

Physical Education

Expectations: Our philosophy and goal in Physical Education is to make students more aware of how mind, body and spirit work together as one entity. Therefore, this will teach the importance of lifelong fitness/sports skills, as well as health principles that will enable students to make informed choices when it comes to their health and self-image. In order to accomplish this, we expect all students to complete all assignments and to behave in a respectful and cooperative manner with consideration of others. Remember, “success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”

Activities: Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Hockey, Rugby, Non-traditional/Cooperative Games, Flag Football, Team Handball, Ultimate Frisbee; Indoor Soccer; Physical Fitness; Pickleball/Speedminton, Tumbling, Gymnastics, Track and Field, Ping Pong, Dance:(Ballroom, Line, Square), Badminton, Softball

Materials: Students are required to have athletic shoes and socks, and the standard Kent uniform (red Kent shorts and shirt). Sweatshirts and sweatpants are needed for cold weather (gray Kent sweats are perfect!) Sweats are to be worn over the uniform. No street clothes are to be worn underneath uniforms.

Daily Grading: Based on punctuality, behavior, participating, suiting up, and sportsmanship.

Procedures: In order for a student to be excused from participation due to illness or injury, an explanatory note specifically stating the problem and signed by a parent or guardian is required on the day the student is to be excused. Please provide your son’s/daughter’s teachers with an inhaler to store in the Physical Education offices if your child should need it.

Student responsibilities:

• Active, positive participation.
• Taking uniforms home on Friday to be washed and brought back on Monday.
• Having name on all P.E. clothes and personal equipment.
• Completing any homework assignments.
• Paying $5.00 for lost or stolen locks issued by the school.
• Taking care of equipment and paying for any that is carelessly damaged.

After School Sports: Kent provides the opportunity for inter-scholastic competition. Those boys and girls in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade who are interested in competition on a higher level may participate in the following sports: Basketball, Volleyball, Cross-country, Track, and Flag Football. If a student participates in after school sports, he/she must have a written consent form on file with the school. They are available in the front office or from your coach.

World History

Important ideas, inventions, political and religious institutions, movements of people, and great civilizations will be emphasized. Students will have many opportunities to widen their acquaintance with, and deepen their appreciation for, the humanities. Art, architecture, law, philosophy, and ethics will be incorporated in this class. We will begin our survey with the fall of the Roman Empire and proceed through Medieval Europe and the rise of Christianity. Our studies will also include the rise of Arabic Civilizations and Islam, and Ancient and Medieval Africa. We will round out our curriculum with the Renaissance and Reformation, completing the year with the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, the Age of Discovery, and Pre-Columbian America. Throughout, the goal is to create an environment, which will teach, challenge, inspire, excite, and develop critical thinkers and life-long learners.

Band and Chorus

Zero Period Band: The zero period band meets before school at 7:45 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week and is a continuation of the sixth grade band program. Students continue to work on their reading and playing skills through traditional band arrangements, scale studies and rhythmic studies. Students who choose to participate in zero period band also have the option of changing to a different instrument with parent and instructor permission. Instruments may be rented and/or purchased through local music stores. Students are expected to practice their instrument at home and rehearse in class in preparation for two concerts during the school year: a winter concert that takes place at the end of January and a spring concert that takes place in early June.

Zero Period Chorus: The zero period chorus also meets at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday of each week. Students learn songs of differing musical styles and time periods and we sing in other languages besides English, such as Latin or Spanish. We sing in unison, two part, three part and even four part harmony in a large choral setting. High importance is placed on independence of parts as well as continued work on rehearsal technique, note reading and rhythmic skills within the repertoire. Students are expected to practice their chorus music at home with the assistance of the music web page and rehearse in class in preparation for two concerts during the school year: a winter concert that takes place at the end of January and a spring concert that takes place in early June.

Expressions

All seventh graders take this course, which extends the regular language arts program. The curriculum is designed to teach narrative writing, creative writing, and poetry. Working with published and student models, students will have the occasion to focus on the process of creating their own prose and poetry.

Enterprise

In this course, students develop a – anything from scented candles to wooden puzzles to luminescent clothing – and then set up a business to promote and sell the product to raise money for a charity. To create the product, students must research customer preferences, product design, building techniques, and profit prospects. Building the product requires planning, skill, collaboration, and hard work. To promote the product, the young entrepreneurs design and produce ads, a promotional video, and a web site. Students will move between the art room and the maker space to complete their enterprise project. For the business to be successful, students will need to spend some after-school time on several Wednesdays selling and promoting their product to other students.

Performing Arts

The goal of the seventh grade program is to help students develop skills and gain confidence in the performing arts. The course focuses on:

• Stage Presence: How actors use their bodies to express a character.
• Characterization: How actors research and understand the whole character to inform performance.
• Ensemble work: The ways in which actors on stage interact with each other.
• Improvisation: How actors stay engaged on stage to stay within a scene and adapt to what’s happening around them.
• Vocalization: How to use the body to speak clearly and audibly. Also how to modulate one’s speech to convey a character’s mood or emotions.

Additionally the course focuses on building confidence to get students over the hurdle of performing in front of peers. Students are assessed on their participation in class, the written scenes they create and the formal performances they deliver both individually and as part of an ensemble.

Woodshop

Woodworking skills will be refined in these courses. Accuracy and attention to detail will be emphasized. For seventh graders, completing a project by oneself from start to finish can be a daunting task. Seventh grade students will work in small groups of four. A group will design a project of their choosing or select a project from a project book. Each student in the group will build the project. Working in groups promotes good work habits and encourages students to interact and to assist one another. The students will learn the use of the many different types of tools in the shop.

Eighth grade students will continue to refine skills. Each student will work independently from the initial phase of drawing and planning to final assembly of the project. Hardwoods are available for students at times but students will need to compensate the teacher for costs.

Since some woodworking machines are used, a strong emphasis is placed on safety and positive behavior. Only students who display a sense of maturity will be able to use particular machines such as the scroll saw and the drill press. There are particular rules that are inherent in this environment and students will maintain a code of conduct. A respect for tools will be reinforced. Working safely is of the highest priority in the shop. Helping one another is greatly encouraged. All students will have assigned clean up responsibilities.

Evaluation is based on the care taken in constructing the projects. Effort and work habits also strongly prevail in establishing the final grade. The shop is open at lunchtime Monday through Thursday. Any student can visit to work on projects or simply make creations from wood out of the scrap box.

Kentfield School District’s teacher librarians align the K-8 library program with California state standards. A teacher librarian possesses both a California teaching credential and a California teacher librarian services credential. Our library programen compasses information and technology literacy as well as literature appreciation.

The following information is excerpted from the Model School Library Standards for California Public Schools1 adopted by California State Board of Education in September 2010.

More than 60 research studies throughout the nation, from Alaska to North Carolina to California, have shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized tests than their peers in schools without libraries.

School libraries have evolved from simply providing print materials to offering rich selections of print, media,and digital resources; from teaching students how to search a card catalog to teaching students strategies for searching a variety of print, media, and digital resources; from teaching basic reading literacy to teaching information literacy (the ability to access, evaluate, use, and integrate information andideas effectively). However, the skills learned from print transcend their use in books alone.

School Library Standards for Students

School Library Standards for Students incorporate information literacy skills. Students learn to access, evaluate, use, and integrate information and ideas found in print, media, and digital resources, enabling them to function in a knowledge-based economy and technologically oriented society.

The standards are organized around four concepts followed by overarching standards that continue across all grade levels. Each grade or grade span has detailed standards. Students should achieve these standards by the end of each grade level or grade span. In addition, students should have mastered the standards for previous grades and continue to use the skills and knowledge as they advance in school. The classroom teacher and teacher librarian should assess student progress to determine whether students have acquired the prerequisite knowledge and skills and whether there is a need to review or re-teach standards from earlier grades.

These are not stand-alone standards taught in isolation; they are meant to be taught collaboratively by the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian in the context of the curriculum.

Organization of the Standards

1. Students access information

The student will access information by applying knowledge of the organization of libraries, print materials, digital media, and other sources.

1.1 Recognize the need for information.

1.2 Formulate appropriate questions.

1.3 Identify and locate a variety of resources online and in other formats by using effective search strategies.

1.4 Retrieve information in a timely, safe, and responsible manner.

2. Students evaluate information

The student will evaluate and analyze information to determine what is appropriate to address the scope of inquiry.

2.1 Determine the relevance of the information.

2.2 Assess the comprehensiveness, currency, credibility, authority, and accuracy of resources.

2.3 Consider the need for additional information.

3. Students use information

The student will organize, synthesize,create, and communicate information.

3.1 Demonstrate ethical, legal, and safe use of information in print, media, and onliner esources.

3.2 Draw conclusions and make informed decisions.

3.3 Use information and technology creatively to answer a question, solve a problem, or enrich understanding.

4. Students integrate information literacy skills into all areas oflearning

The student will independently pursue information to become a lifelong learner.

4.1 Readwidely and use various media for information, personal interest, and life long learning.

4.2 Seek, produce, and share information.

4.3 Appreciate and respond to creative expressions of information.

*Model School Library Standards for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve. Ed. Faye Ong. California State Board of Education. Sacramento: California Department ofEducation, 2011. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.