Unit Materials for 7th Grade English
Explore the texts and supporting materials used in each unit of 7th Grade English.
Need to purchase texts for this course?
You can request a current spreadsheet with all unit texts needed to teach Fishtank ELA for the 2025-26 school year by emailing [email protected].
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Longing to Belong: Poems, Essays, and Short Stories
Core Texts
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Excerpt: “Popularity” by Adam Bagdasarian
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Podcast: “This American Life 803: Greetings, People of Earth | Act Four, Jorts and All” by Diane Wu
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Transcript: “Greetings, People of Earth | Act Four, Jorts and All”
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Article: “The Science of Belonging and Connection” by Daniel Leonard
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Poem: “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde
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Website: Northern Plains History and Cultures: How do Native People and Nations Experience Belonging? by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
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Excerpt: “Where You From?” from Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States by Gina Valdés
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Excerpt: “Carmen Perez” from American Like Me by Carmen Perez
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Poem: “I, Too” by Langston Hughes
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Essay: “Hello, My Name is ______: How I Learned to Stop Whitewashing Myself” by Jason Kim
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Poem: “Teenagers” by Pat Mora
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Excerpt: “Why I Learned to Cook” from Fresh Ink: An Anthology by Sara Farizan
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Excerpt: “Introduction” from American Like Me by America Ferrera
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Excerpt: First-Day Fly from Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood by Jason Reynolds
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Poem: “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco
Supporting Texts
Advocating for Change: Uprising & Flesh and Blood So Cheap
Core Texts
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Book: Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011) — 1000L
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Book: Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2011) — 790L
Supporting Texts
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Article: “We Work Non-Stop” by Michael Sainato
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Article: “LA's Garment Workers Face Horrific Workplace Conditions” by Julia Wick
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Speech: “We Have Found You Wanting” by Rose Schneiderman
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Pursuing Dreams: A Raisin in the Sun
Core Texts
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Play: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Vintage, 2004) — 1100-1200L
Supporting Texts
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Article: “A Better Life: Creating the American Dream” by Kate Ellis and Ellen Guettler (American Public Media)
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Article: “How a New Deal Housing Program Enforced Segregation” by Becky Little
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Article: “How Lorraine Hansberry Turned her Family's Story Into a A Raisin in the Sun” by Robert Loerzel
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Article: “The Great Migration” by History.com editors
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Book: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (First Vintage Books Edition, 2011)
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Movie: A Raisin in the Sun
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Podcast: “The Scarlet E, Part II: 40 Acres” by Brooke Gladstone (WNYC Studios)
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Poem: “Harlem” by Langston Hughes (the Poetry Foundation)
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Video: “Great Migration” by Yohuru Williams (History.com)
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Finding Home: The House on Mango Street
Core Texts
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Book: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Second Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 2009) — 870L
Supporting Texts
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Article: “Two Men and Two Paths” by Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
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Article: “Gender Norms and Stereotypes” by Fishtank Staff
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Article: “Young Latinos: Born in the U.S.A., carving their own identity” by Suzanne Gamboa, Sandra Lilley, and Sarah Cahlan
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Article: “This is what happens when gender roles are forced on kids” by Emanuella Grinberg and Victoria Larned
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Essay: “Dear Brown Girl” by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez (HuffPost)
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Poem: “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” by Mother Goose
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Poem: “Abuelito Who” by Sandra Cisneros
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Exploring Identity: American Born Chinese
Core Texts
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Book: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (First Second) — GN530L
Supporting Texts
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Article: “As Chinese Exclusion Act Turns 135, Experts Point To Parallels Today” by Kat Chow (NPR)
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Article: “That's Not Who I Am: Calling Out and Challenging Stereotypes of Asian Americans” by Whitney Pow (Everyday Feminism)
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Article: “Heart and Humor: How American Sitcoms Reflect Society (G7, U5, L5)” by Fishtank Staff
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Article: “This Chinese-American Cartoonist Forces Us to Face Racist Stereotypes” by Joshua Barajas (PBS)
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
