our seventh grade program
Humanities
At St. Anne's School, we find that students learn best when they topics they study are meaningful and integrated. The humanities curriculum, through explorations of history and literature, using written and oral expression, encourages students’ natural curiosity by making connections and building an understanding of the world around them and their place in it.
Through the humanities curriculum, students are exposed to an array of integrated literature and social studies topics. Students take a trip around the world, through time and place developing cultural awareness and skills to interpret both historical and literacy sources and develop their own abilities, evolving as thinkers, writers and citizens.
Students learn and apply skills such as the writing process, reading strategies, identification and interpretation of historical sources, grammatical structures and spelling. In particular, the writing process is emphasized: students identify topics that matter to them, and draft, revise and polish finished pieces of poetry, fiction and memoir.
Seventh Grade Humanities
The Seventh Grade Humanities curriculum centers on the question, “How do we get order from disorder?”
Students read world literature, identifying universal themes and gaining a better understanding of diverse cultures. Genres include the heroic and religious quests, biography, and film; special focuses include media literacy and the processes of political and social change. Students also examine broad geographic tools and concepts including map reading skills and the five themes of geography. Students learn and refine note taking, test preparation and summary skills through direct instruction and current event study.
Areas of study include the United States, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Students learn the MLA format for researching through an integrated science, language arts and social studies unit. They choose a bridge, research why it was built and its the effects on the area; simultaneously they are constructing a specific type of bridge in Science. During the study of the Middle East, students look at the major economic and religious influences impacting the area with specific emphasis on the region’s natural resources.
Students practice several reading strategies including questioning, predicting and inferring. They learn and apply advanced strategies including analysis, interpretation and annotation. Students alsoengage in independent reading and complete projects and the whole class engages in a workshop approach for independent writing. Direct instruction in grammar, vocabulary and spelling is also a part of the curriculum. The year culminates in a research paper and a unit on debate.
The Seventh Grade Humanities skills include:
- Reading Strategies: summarize; predict; annotate; plotlines; reader’s theatre; interpret, analyze and synthesize; evaluate reliability of sources including Web sites; develop research questions based on reading
- Writing Strategies: analytical essay writing – thesis development, coherence and use of text as evidence; creative writing – writing with a purpose and for an audience; engaging leads; character development; dialogue and multimedia forms; research writing – thesis development, MLA style, context and analysis, introductions and conclusions; timed writing as a part of test-taking skills
- Small group work: work in groups to read, discuss and interpret texts; brainstorm, draft and edit independent writing
- Correctly write and punctuate compound sentences, verb forms
- Use Greek and Latin roots to understand new vocabulary; use a variety of strategies to determine vocabulary through context
- Write a coherent analytical or research paper with a thesis, introduction and conclusion, and body paragraphs that provide context and analysis; correctly cite sources using MLA style
- Identifying and understanding the basic elements of maps and globes
- Locating the hemispheres, the five oceans and the continents
- Identifying longitude and latitude on the map and using a grid system to find location.
- Differentiating between primary and secondary sources.
- Reading a variety of texts for information, taking notes, researching, outlining, referencing materials and utilizing Internet technologies.
- Sequencing dates and information.
- Challenging and questioning information
- Viewing information from multiple perspectives.
- Presenting information to an audience
- Working as part of a group
- Visualizing, planning and completing student choice projects
- Understanding the elements of debate
- Developing leadership skills while working in groups
- Enhancing ability to view problems through multiple perspectives
- Writing for the purpose of summarizing information, supporting opinions, and responding to essay questions
- Researching and writing a research paper utilizing MLA format