Unit Plan 4 (Grade 7 ELA): Personal Narrative – Small Moments
Grade 7 ELA unit: students craft powerful personal narratives by zooming into meaningful small moments. They learn to orient readers, use dialogue and sensory detail, sequence events smoothly, and conclude with authentic reflection and closure.
Focus: Orienting the reader; sequence; reflection; closure
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Writing—Narrative; Language—Conventions)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
We zoom into one small moment—a single scene that mattered—and tell it so the reader feels it. This week, students plan and draft a personal narrative that orients the reader, unfolds in clear sequence, uses show-not-tell craft (dialogue, pacing, description), and ends with reflective closure that follows from the events. Daily moves include mini-lessons on leads, micro-moment sequencing, dialogue punctuation, transitions, and reflection.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Engage and orient readers by establishing context, point of view, and a narrator/characters; organize a logical event sequence (W.7.3a).
- Develop the narrative using dialogue, pacing, and description to reveal experiences and character responses (W.7.3b).
- Use transitions (time/shift markers) to signal sequence and shifts in setting or perspective (W.7.3c).
- Choose precise words, sensory details, and vivid verbs to capture action and mood (W.7.3d).
- Provide a conclusion/closure that follows from and reflects on the narrated events (W.7.3e).
- Plan–revise–edit with feedback to strengthen focus, organization, and style (W.7.5).
- Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, including dialogue punctuation and paragraphing for new speakers (L.7.2).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7
- Writing 7.3a–e (W.7.3a–e): Engage/orient; narrative techniques; transitions; precise language/sensory detail; conclusion.
- Writing 7.5 (W.7.5): Develop/strengthen writing via planning, revising, editing, rewriting.
- Language 7.2 (L.7.2): Command of capitalization, punctuation, spelling (incl. commas, dialogue punctuation, paragraphing).
Success Criteria — student language
- I can write a hook that orients the reader (who/where/what’s at stake).
- I can sequence the moment so each beat flows, using transitions to guide readers.
- I can show the moment with sensory detail, dialogue, and pacing.
- I can end with reflection/closure that grows naturally from the events.
- I can punctuate dialogue and edit for clean capitalization and spelling.