Unit Plan 25 (Grade 7 ELA): Reading Biographies & Timelines

Focus: Chronology; key events; integrating visuals and multimedia

Grade Level: 7

Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Informational; Media/Visual Literacy)

Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session

I. Introduction

Biographies tell a life as a sequence of connected events, not just dates on a page. This week, students learn to trace chronology, identify key events that shape a person’s ideas and impact, and integrate visuals/multimedia (timelines, photos, maps, short clips) to deepen understanding. The week culminates in a concise, evidence-based profile plus a student-created timeline that highlights cause/effect turning points.

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…

1. Analyze interactions among individuals, events, and ideas in a biography (how one event shapes another; how context influences choices) (RI.7.3).
2. Determine central ideas of the biography and write an objective summary that highlights key events (RI.7.2).
3. Integrate information from a text with visuals/multimedia (timeline, photo, map, short video/audio) and explain how each medium contributes to understanding (RI.7.7).

Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7

• Reading Informational 7.3 (RI.7.3): Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas.
• Reading Informational 7.2 (RI.7.2): Determine two or more central ideas of a text and provide an objective summary.
• Reading Informational 7.7 (RI.7.7): Compare/contrast a text to its audio, video, or multimedia version; analyze each medium’s unique portrayal/information.

Success Criteria — student language

• I can place key life events on a timeline and explain how one leads to another.
• I can name the text’s central ideas and write a neutral summary using key events.
• I can explain what a photo/map/clip adds that the text alone does not.