Unit Plan 28 (Grade 7 ELA): Cause & Effect and Evaluating Claims
Grade 7 ELA unit: students analyze how events and ideas connect in informational texts and speeches, trace claims, and evaluate reasoning and evidence. They write concise evaluations judging whether arguments are logical, relevant, and sufficiently supported.
Focus: Event/idea relationships; tracing & evaluating claims in texts/speeches
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Informational; Speaking & Listening—Argument Evaluation)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Information doesn’t just happen—ideas and events cause other ideas and events. Meanwhile, authors and speakers make claims about those relationships using stronger or weaker evidence. This week, students will map cause–effect chains, trace and evaluate claims in texts and short speeches, and write concise judgments about whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence relevant and sufficient.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Analyze how individuals, events, and ideas interact in a text; map cause → effect relationships over time (RI.7.3).
- Trace and evaluate an author’s or speaker’s argument and specific claims, judging the soundness of reasoning and the relevance/sufficiency of evidence; identify irrelevant evidence (RI.7.8; SL.7.3).
- Write a short evidence-based evaluation that clearly states a claim about argument quality and supports it with textual or spoken evidence.
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7
- Reading Informational 7.3 (RI.7.3): Analyze interactions among individuals, events, and ideas in a text.
- Reading Informational 7.8 (RI.7.8): Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims, assessing reasoning and evidence (including irrelevant evidence).
- Speaking & Listening 7.3 (SL.7.3): Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating soundness and relevance/sufficiency of evidence.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can draw a cause–effect chain that shows how one event leads to another idea or action.
- I can trace a claim with its reasons and evidence and judge whether each piece is relevant and sufficient.
- I can explain whether an argument’s reasoning is logical or flawed, with examples.
- I can write a clear, concise judgment backed by specific evidence.