Standards Correlations

R.1, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will make inferences to better understand events in a story.

Key Skills

inference, text features, vocabulary, character’s motivation, problem and solution, making a personal connection, critical thinking,  narrative writing

Complexity Factors

Levels of Meaning: The story explores themes of cultural heritage and self-confidence. 

 

Structure: The story is chronological and is presented  in a graphic fiction format.

 

Language: The language is conversational. Some figurative language and some Spanish are used.

 

Knowledge Demands: No prior knowledge is needed.

Levels

Lexile: 500L-600L 

Guided Reading Level: S 

DRA Level: 40

SEL Connection

This story and lesson plan promote self-awareness and social awareness skills.

Lesson Plan: Seventh Grade

Essential Questions

  • What does it mean to “be yourself”? When might it be difficult to be yourself?
  • What qualities do we typically admire in others? 

Literature Connection

  • Novel: Well, That Was Awkward by Rachel Vail
  • Poem: “Oranges” by Gary Soto

1. Preparing to Read 

Activate Prior Knowledge (5 minutes)

Ask students to think back to the first day of school. How did they feel? Nervous? Excited? How did they prepare for the day? Give students a few minutes to journal on the subject, and then ask for volunteers to share their responses. Discuss possible explanations for their feelings on the first day of school.

Preview Text Features (5 minutes)

Guide students to locate the story. Then preview text features with the following prompts:

  • Look at the story’s title, first illustration, and subtitle (the text at the bottom of the first illustration). What do these features tell you about the story? Based on these features, you can tell that the main character is a kid named Victor Rodriguez, that it’s the first day of seventh grade, and that Victor is going to try to impress the girl he likes. She seems to be the one looking back at him in the illustration, surrounded by hearts.
  • Skim through the story and note the features of graphic fiction: illustrations, speech bubbles, thought bubbles, narration boxes, and  sound effects. Find and describe an example of each one. Answers will vary.
  • Note how the story progresses through the panels: top to bottom and left to right. Have you read other stories that look like this? Answers will vary.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Direct students’ attention to the vocabulary box. Read the words (electives, irresistible, scowl, impress) aloud and discuss their definitions.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

  • Before students start to read, set a purpose for reading by telling them that they will make inferences about “Seventh Grade.” Explain that making an inference means figuring out something that isn’t directly stated by using clues from the text. (You may also consider showing our video “Skills in Action: What Is an Inference?”)

2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

  • Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • Why does Victor’s friend Michael keep making a strange face? What does this tell you about what’s important to him? (inference) Michael is scowling because he thinks it will get girls to notice him. You can tell that attention from girls is important to him.
  • Why does Victor pretend he can speak French? (character’s motivation) Victor pretends he can speak French because he hopes Teresa will be impressed with him if she thinks he can speak French. He wants Teresa to like him.
  • Victor agrees to help Teresa with her French, but he doesn’t actually speak French. How does he plan to solve this problem? (problem and solution) At the end of the story, Victor is headed for a library shelf labeled “French.” You can tell that he plans to teach himself some French so he’ll be better prepared to help Teresa.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • If you could give Victor some advice on how to get Teresa’s attention, what would you tell him? (making a personal connection) Answers will vary. Students might say that Victor could try relaxing more and just being himself. He doesn’t need to go out of his way to impress her (for example, by pretending to speak French). He should try to be the best version of himself and not be shy about trying to get to know Teresa.
  • What questions does the story leave you with? Which characters do you want to know more about? What do you want to know about them? (critical thinking) Answers will vary. Students may say that they want to know what’s so special about Teresa. We don’t learn much about her, though it seems clear that she is friendly and nice.  

3. Skill Building and Writing

Learn Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Study an Author.

The author of “Seventh Grade” is Gary Soto, the beloved writer of many novels, short stories, and poems. To find out what he thinks about love, writing, and middle school, watch our video: “Author Visit: Gary Soto.”

Next, read Soto’s poem “Oranges.” (Note: The poem is on two pages. After reading the first page, click the arrow on the right to go to the second page.) Once you’ve read the poem, discuss the following questions with a small group of your classmates::

  • As a kid, what kind of work did Soto do? What did he use the money for? What character in “Seventh Grade” has a similar experience?
  • About how old is Victor in “Seventh Grade”? How old is the speaker of “Oranges” (the person telling you what happened) when the events in the poem take place? What does Soto say about the lives of people this age?
  • Who does Victor want to impress? Who does the poem’s speaker want to impress? Who did Soto want to impress when he was the same age?
  • What problem does Victor have at the end of French class? Why doesn’t Mr. Bueller say anything about it?
  • What problem does the speaker of the poem have in the store? How does the saleslady help? Why doesn’t she say anything?

Based on your answers to these questions, what do you think Gary Soto is saying about crushes in both the story and the poem? What idea is he sharing about how people act when they have a crush? Do you agree with this idea?

ELL Springboard

Take a picture walk to preview the story.

Graphic novels (and short graphic stories) are a great way to teach multilingual learners at all levels of language acquisition. Before reading the story, take a “picture walk” with students. Ignoring the text, view the panels and ask students what they see and what they can infer about the story. Use these questions to guide the walk:

  • Page 13: Where does this scene take place? (It takes place outside a school.) One character is surrounded by hearts; why do you think this is? (The hearts probably mean love or a crush.)
  • Page 14: Where does this scene take place? (It takes place inside a school.) Do the two boys seem to be getting along? (Yes, they look relaxed.)
  • Page 15: Who’s looking at the girl surrounded by hearts? (The boy in the orange shirt is looking at her.) What do you think this means? (The boy probably likes the girl.)
  • Page 16: At the end of this scene, how does the boy feel? (He feels embarrassed.) How can you tell? (He’s blushing.)
  • Page 17: When does this scene take place? (It takes place at lunchtime.) Does the boy in orange talk to the girl he likes? (No.)
  • Page 18: Why are there drops of liquid coming off the boy’s face? (He’s sweating; maybe he’s nervous.)
  • Page 19: What are the boy and girl doing in this scene? How do they feel? (They’re talking, and they look happy.)

Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.

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