Unit Plan 3 (Grade 7 ELA): Character, Setting, and Plot Structure
Grade 7 ELA unit: students analyze how plot structure, character change, and word choice shape meaning and tone. Through close reading and writing, they explore pacing, conflict, and diction to understand how authors build tension and emotional impact in stories.
Focus: How plot unfolds; how characters respond/change; word choice & tone
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Literature)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Stories move because characters make choices in places that pressure them. This week, students analyze plot structure (exposition → rising action → climax → falling action → resolution), track how characters respond and change as conflicts escalate, and study the author’s word choice & tone to see how language shapes meaning and mood. They’ll finish with a short on-demand analysis connecting structure, character change, and tone.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Explain how a plot unfolds and how specific structural choices (e.g., foreshadowing, flashback, pacing) create mystery, tension, or surprise (RL.7.5).
- Analyze how characters respond to challenges and how their actions, thoughts, and words reveal changes over the course of the text (RL.7.3).
- Determine the meaning and connotative impact of words and phrases, including how tone influences reader understanding (RL.7.4).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7
- Reading Literature 7.3 (RL.7.3): Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
- Reading Literature 7.4 (RL.7.4): Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds on a verse or stanza.
- Reading Literature 7.5 (RL.7.5): Analyze how a drama’s or story’s structure contributes to its meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can label key plot events and explain how the structure builds tension.
- I can show how/why a character changes, citing actions, dialogue, and internal thoughts.
- I can explain how word choice creates tone (e.g., ominous, nostalgic) and affects meaning.
- I can write a clear paragraph that links structure + character change + tone with evidence.