Spur 7-Language Arts

Course Description:
In this full-year seventh-grade course, students develop a mastery of reading, writing, and language arts skills. Engaging literary and informational reading selections prompt students to read critically, analyze texts, and cite evidence. Students explore fictional texts, including The Outsiders, Dragonwings, and a short story by Walter Dean Meyers. In the course, students explore the drama The Miracle Worker, paired with Helen Keller’s autobiography. They also read the poetry of Langston Hughes and William Butler Yeats. To help students comprehend text structure, author’s purpose, and argument, the course delves into nonfiction, from the informational text Exploring the Titanic to a speech by Cesar Chavez. Students sharpen their vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills through explicit modeling and ample practice. Students also take part in routine, responsive writing based on texts they have read. In more extensive, process-based writing lessons, students write topical essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats Course Prerequisites:
Acceptance into Spur Virtual Academy Required Materials:
A computer (or similar device) and access to high speed internet. Course Accessibility:
Spur Virtual Academy uses the Edgenuity program for students in grades 6-12 and VLNPartners for students in grades K-5. Both platforms wantall users to have equal access to the information and functionality of the learning materials and are committed to making their educational resources and websites accessible to individuals with disabilities and to meet appropriate standards includingWeb Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0at Conformance Level AA. Course Participation:
Student participation in this course is documented by the following:

• Student active time in course logged by the learning management system.
• Coursework submissions recorded by the learning management system.
• Percentage of coursework completed. Completion of weekly steps.
No
• Synchronous time with the class, a group or the virtual education teacher recorded by the learning management system or teacher.
• The virtual education teacher verifies participation in the course 1-3 times a week.
• Teachers will verify one or more of the following as course participation: 60 or more active minutes for the course recorded in the LMS,weekly coursework submitted for the course in the LMS, recommended weekly steps completed for the course in the LMS, 3% progress completed for the course recorded in the LMS, attendance at a synchronous session for the course recorded by the teacher of record.