7th Grade

Welcome to Seventh Grade!

Welcome to the seventh grade webpage at St. Catherine Laboure! Our seventh graders are busy with positive activities- in leadership, faith, sports and of course academic excellence! Throughout the school year we look forward to a time of growth, learning, discovering, and yes, fun along the way!

Seventh Grade is a year of great challenges and opportunities for the children as they mature physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually. Students’ will be expected to assume responsibility for their own learning. This will include homework assignments, and long-range projects, as well as developing time-management, organizational and study skills. Building a community of responsible, life-long learners ensures each child will reach their full potential.

May our collaborative efforts succeed in providing the best education possible for your student, and may he or she always be challenged and encouraged to fully use and explore the unique gifts given by God.

Please feel free to contact me with any concerns you may have so that I may better meet the needs of your child. You may reach me via email rcampanelli@sclschool.com, or you can leave a message with the school office and I will return your call as soon as possible. I look forward to a positive and exciting year for each of my students!
Ms. Campanelli

Religion
Liturgy and Worship: A Course on Prayer and Sacraments, Sadlier, Faith and Witness.
It is in the Church's liturgy, especially the seven sacraments that Catholics celebrate all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus through the working of the Holy Spirit. Our salvation was made possible through the paschal mystery of Christ's passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. This mystery is made present to us in the sacred actions of the Church's liturgy. As members of the Church, we are called upon to enter into the mystery of faith and truly be people of both word and sacrament. This is where our lives of faith are proclaimed, formed, and nourished. If young people are to be strong and faithful followers of Christ, they must make the liturgical life of the Church their own.

Seventh grade will participate in student-prepared liturgies, prayer services, and numerous service projects throughout the year. All students’ will also be required to perform 15 hours of service.

Family Life
The basic theme of the Family Life Program, Benziger Publishing, is the integration and development of the personality. It shows the importance of external influences on the student as her or she grows in body, mind, emotion, and spirit. Family Life 7, stresses the need to balance intellectual knowledge and emotional growth with a solid foundation in Catholic Christian principles and values. This text helps students view his or her personal development in the context of family, community, and Church.

English
The goal of the 7th grade English curriculum is to develop effective writing, reading, research, and communication skills within an integrated curriculum that fosters the growth of grammar, composition, spelling, vocabulary, research, and critical reading skills in preparation for high school, college, and life. Students partake in an intensive study of English language grammar, usage, and mechanics that encompasses the study of 8 parts of speech – including sentence diagramming; punctuation; essential elements of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences; and phrases and clauses. Voyages in English, Loyola University Press, is the English grammar textbook. Written composition skills include paragraph development with the use of effective introductions, conclusions, transitions, and thesis statements in the writing of formal compositions. The following forms of formal compositions are completed: comparison/contrast, persuasive, process, classification, explanatory, descriptive, characterization, as well as various forms of creative writing.

Research skills are developed through the completion of M.L.A. style research papers that include works cited lists and in-text citations. Reading comprehension instruction focuses on the development of expository and critical reading skills as well as the appreciation of literature and literary elements through a series of poetry, short story, and novel studies.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary in Action, Loyola University Press, is a specialized vocabulary development program. With this comprehensive program, students study and learn hundreds of words that were researched and selected for frequency, occurrence, and relevance to the real world as well as standardized assessment.
The student workbook is designed to improve oral and written vocabulary through interactive vocabulary practice, giving students a larger and more descriptive vocabulary. Student books pair with online resources and teacher instruction to provide vocabulary instruction that is introduced, reinforced, and applied in engaging, systematic ways.

Reading
Seventh grade will use the literature anthology text, Elements of Literature, First Course; Holt, Rinehart & Winston, focusing on a skill–centered approach with a foundation in literature. Students are able to learn and master one skill at a time while immersed in classic and contemporary literature, including short stories, plays, poetry, nonfiction, etc. The program as described will be supplemented throughout the year with a selection of award-winning contemporary novels. Individual works include, Where The Red Fern Grows, The Giver, and The Outsiders, while utilizing the anthology as a resource to cover additional concepts.

Accelerated Reader Program
Independent reading will be fostered through the Accelerated Reading Program. Students are assessed on the attainment of points accumulated within the AR Program.

Spelling
Spelling Workout, Modern Curriculum Press, provides interesting and varied exercises along with more fun activities than plain rote learning. Based on a phonetic model, cross-curricular reading passages, high-interest writing activities, and fun riddles & puzzles will help students move from simple sound-letter relationships to more complex spelling patterns. The 36 lessons each focus on a spelling rule or pattern.

Social Studies -6th, 7th, & 8th Grades
Sixth Grade
The sixth grade social studies text, People, Places, and Change, by Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, provides a geography based look at the regions of the world and the people that inhabit those regions. It emphasizes understanding different people through the study of their culture, their history, and their environment. Student to student interviews with 6th graders from all over the world open each chapter and enable the reader to respect and appreciate lifestyles and points of view that can be very different from their own.

Sixth graders are expected to maintain a social studies spiral which should contain homework assignments from the text (generally section and chapter reviews). Students are introduced to a variety of note-taking strategies, including, graphic organizers. Chapter notes and summaries may also be written in these spirals. Homework is checked daily for completion, but spirals are not graded. Report card grades are based on quizzes, tests, projects and class participation. As we finish each cultural group, students will have the opportunity to experience some of the food and native crafts of that particular culture.

Seventh Grade
The seventh grade social studies text, Call to Freedom, by Holt Rinehart, & Winston, focuses on the study of American history from the First Native Americans to the First Presidents. The main focus of the year is the United States Constitution. This study begins in the late winter and culminates in the federally- mandated US Constitution and American Flag Test. These tests are administered during the first part of the third quarter. Students must pass this test as a requirement for graduation from elementary school.

Eighth Grade
The eighth grade also use the Call to Freedom, Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, social studies text, but their program covers American history from the Civil War to the present. Students also study the Illinois Constitution, and must pass a state mandated test as a requirement for graduation from elementary school. Students will also be required to complete several major computer generated projects as part of the eight grade social studies curriculum.

Seventh and eight grade students are familiar with and utilize a variety of note-taking styles, including graphic organizers. Each student is expected to maintain a social studies spiral containing class notes and homework assignments. Homework is checked daily for completion, but spirals are not collected for grading. It is the responsibility of the individual student to make corrections and additions to his/her spiral based on class discussions, and to maintain the spiral as a study guide for tests. Grades are based on quizzes, tests, projects, and class participation. Eighth graders know from experience that their spirals can be their single biggest resource in studying for a test or writing an essay.

*This series offers resources online and to enhance lessons and help students build understanding at all three levels. Students are able to review lessons, take practice tests and explore content further through many enrichment links. Students will be accessing these sites both in the classroom and at home.