The Life Starter
Sign up
Grade 7 · unit review

Review: Plan Explanations and Supported Arguments

Apply choose a controlling statement, choose an organization principle, select an appropriate register, revise at the right level using supplied texts and original responses.

Download reviews and answer keys

Bring the unit skills together

Use these 4 new cases to check your reasoning. Choices are temporary and are not saved to an account, sent to staff or recorded as school grades. Download your current review choices before leaving or reloading.

Unit review questions
1. Original excerpt A: This explanation shows how a crease lets a paper hinge bend. Use excerpt A only. What type of controlling statement is supplied?
Need a hint?
  • An argument needs a position, not just a topic.
  • A list of unrelated subjects is not a thesis.
2. Original excerpt B: Paragraphs describe materials, then mechanism, then the single trial’s limit. Use excerpt B only. What organization is used in the passage?
Need a hint?
  • One paragraph can develop one reason.
  • Adding a heading does not fix unrelated content.
3. Original excerpt C: Audience/task: address new builders unfamiliar with hinge and crease. Use excerpt C only. Which register is most suitable for the supplied audience and purpose?
Need a hint?
  • Technical does not mean needlessly difficult.
  • Changing register should preserve the claim’s meaning.
4. Original excerpt D: After explaining the crease, the paragraph shifts to an unrelated basketball score. Use excerpt D only. Which revision directly addresses the supplied problem?
Need a hint?
  • A spelling repair does not explain a missing reason.
  • Do not rewrite the entire piece for one isolated typo.

The download contains your current choices and any checked feedback. Keep the separate transfer-task work in your own document; downloading its instructions does not mark it complete.

Use the skills in a new task

Make a short complete response demonstrating the four skills in this unit. Write a short explanation of a fictional paper hinge using supplied facts: folded paper joins two cardboard panels; it bent five times in one test; durability beyond five bends is unknown. Organize parts, mechanism and limit. Write a separate two-reason argument for testing longer, and explain how each evidence detail matters. Longer writing targets in optional extensions can be completed in a later session.

Work on paper or in your own document. Explain the choices you made.

  • Identify what the statement asks the rest of the text to develop. Plan only details that serve that job.
  • Read the supplied paragraph plan, identify the grouping rule and verify that each paragraph has a distinct role.
  • Identify reader and task, then choose a register that makes the meaning accessible. Informal varieties are not inherently inferior.
  • Identify the reported difficulty and perform a targeted repair. Recheck whether the text now serves its controlling statement.
Compare with a model response

Explanation—parts: folded paper joins two cardboard panels. Mechanism: the pressed crease directs bending, so the panels can turn while remaining connected. Limit: the supplied record covers five bends in one trial; later durability is unknown. Argument: We should test longer. First, five recorded bends cannot answer a question about repeated use beyond five. Second, one trial cannot show whether the result repeats in another comparable trial. Those reasons use the supplied duration and replication limits; they do not report a new test result.

A different response can also meet the criteria. Compare the evidence and reasoning, rather than copying the wording.