7th Grade Curriculum

Listed below are the skill sets and knowledge expected of all seventh grade students by the end of the year. Please be aware of these expectations and work in cooperation with your child's teacher to assist your child in acquiring these skills. If you have any questions about the expectations, please contact your building principal. The expectations are separated into the four core curriculum areas.

Language Arts/Reading

• Use synonyms and antonyms
• Identify key ideas and author's purpose
• Read books independently
• Identify and compare literary elements
• Interpret fiction/non-fiction text
• Respond to literature by answering open-ended questions
• Develop compositions with a variety of sentence structures
• Write developed narrative, expository, and persuasive pieces
• Prepare and deliver a presentation to fit within a given time limit
• Write a grade level appropriate research paper

Mathematics

• Use statistics to display and interpret data and predict results
• Use concepts of probability
• Demonstrate knowledge of operations with integers
• Demonstrate knowledge of operations with fractions
• Demonstrate knowledge of operations with decimals
• Demonstrate knowledge of operations with percents
• Use formulas to find circumference, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume
• Draw and describe transformation images using coordinates
• Recognize angle relationships
• Recognize and use problem solving strategies
• Solve equations and inequalities
• Use exponents and square roots
• Model a function with a table, equation, and graph

Science

• Understand that all living things are composed of cells
• Explain the process of cell division
• Understand genetic material in cell reproduction
• Understand photosynthesis
• Compare physical and chemical changes of matter
• Define and distinguish properties of matter
• Describe the relationship between elements and compounds
• Identify basic properties of waves: frequency, wavelength, velocity
• Understand that objects in the solar system are in regular and unpredictable motion
• Identify differences among inner and outer planets

Social Studies

• Analyze political ideas in the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and Bill of Rights
• Explain effects on economy: importing, exporting, specialization, technology
• Describe and make inferences about events using maps/models
• Explain the colonies' fight for independence and its reflection in the Declaration of Independence
• Describe the ways the Constitution changed through amendments and Supreme Court decisions
• Describe how the US developed as a world political power
• Describe the effects of European exploration and expansion on the world
• Describe characteristics of communities/families in America during the colonial/frontier period-19th Century
• Analyze events that shaped world history
• Explain how people use tools to analyze and navigate the earth
• Explain how human activity is affected by geographic factors and resources
• Analyze how human processes influence settlement patterns