This lesson plan provides a basic introduction to Freytag's Pyramid and to the literary element of plot. After viewing a brief presentation about plot structure, students brainstorm the significant events in a story with which they are all familiar and place those events on Freytag’s Pyramid. They work in small groups to map the plot of another story.

In this lesson, students seek supporting proof of major conflicts and themes in the novel "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton

This lesson uses the postmodern picture book Black and White, by David Macaulay, to engage students in a deep analysis of writer's craft. Macaulay's book presents four separate story lines that playfully interact with one another throughout the text. Students explore ways in which authors use words and illustrations to create unexpected plots and connections within a text.

This lesson can be used after the reading of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. The lesson encourages students to use higher level thinking skills and asks them to examine different character perspectives. Students demonstrate comprehension of the story by actively involving themselves in group and whole-class discussions. Information about the author contributes to their understanding of historical fiction. By further analyzing the characters in preparation for a class "press conference," students can better understand the characters' impact in the story. The development and responses to critical-thinking questions lead to deeper understanding of the story.

In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a culture’s values and everyday experience. Students first discuss how proverbs convey cultural knowledge and values, as well as how proverbs from other cultures are similar to and different from American proverbs. Next, students share family proverbs and explain their significance. Finally, they select one or two proverbs and use art materials, PowerPoint, or a word processor to create mini-posters that reflect the culture from which the proverbs originated.

This lesson will be completed once students have read the script of the play A Raisin in the Sun and watched the film adaptation. Students will complete a learning menu that includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. All students will complete the same appetizer and entree but will then have a choice for their dessert.   

For this lesson, students create their own booklets to provide information on the elements of a novel, including plot, setting, character, major and minor conflicts and theme.

Reading Guides help students navigate reading material, especially difficult textbook chapters or technical reading. Students respond to a teacher-created written guide of prompts as they read an assigned text. Reading Guides help students to comprehend the main points of the reading and understand the organizational structure of a text.

This two week unit will have students analyze and then write their own 2 Minute Mystery stories.  Students will immerse themselves in the genre of 2 Minute Mysteries, learn mystery terms, identify literary devices, and eventually write their own mysteries.

This resouce include an editable document of a Choice Board that can be used for students to create presentations at the conclusion of reading a piece of literature. The choice board provides customizable options for students to express their understanding of the literature read and to convey it creatively through digial means. The choice board can be used for whole class reading of the same text, small groups reading the same text, or for individual students reading different texts. The teacher has the flexibility to add to/delete/change the activities and the digital methods used by students to create their presentations.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 7th Grade English Language Arts.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 7th Grade ELA. 

A mongoose, Rikki-tikki-tavi, comes to live with an English family in their bungalow in colonial India. Two cobras—Nag and Nagaina—live in the garden surrounding the bungalow and threaten the lives of Rikki-tikki’s human family. Through a series of battles, Rikki-tikki-tavi kills Nag and Nagaina, protecting his human family and winning their trust and affection. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This teachers guide for Searching for Silverheels by Jeannie Mobley includes a prereading activity, discussion questions, and writing and research activities for after reading.

Selective Highlighting/Underlining is used to help students organize what they have read by selecting what is important. This strategy teaches students to highlight/underline ONLY the key words, phrases, vocabulary, and ideas that are central to understanding the reading.

Within the physical science strand of 7th grade science, students focus on forms of energy, energy transfer, and transformation and conservation in mechanical systems—in other words, potential and kinetic energy, work, and mechanical advantage and efficiency in simple machines. In this task, students working in groups design a simple machine or simple machine system that would be able to lift and relocate a 13 kg cinder block after reading an excerpt from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien, a novel about genetically engineered rats who assist a mouse by moving her home out of danger in a farmer’s field. The interdisciplinary and inquiry based nature of this activity allows students to build meaningful connections while promoting creativity and 21st Century Skills. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a legend about King Arthur’s court and the Knights of the Round Table. During a New Years celebration, a strange man, only referred to as the Green Knight, enters the court and challenges the knights to a game. He will allow whoever accepts the challenge to strike him with his own ax. There is one condition, the challenger must return in one year for the Green Knight to return the same blow. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This lesson encourages students to evaluate how the setting influences the characters interactions and how that motivation propels the plot in Rudyard Kipling's, Rikki-tiki-tavi. Students will also evaluate the effectiveness of Kipling's use of personification. During this lesson, students will annotate the text through coding, create trading cards for the characters, compose an exposition, and produce a brochure based on a focused research assignment.

This teachers guide for Somewhere There is Still a Sun by Michael Gruenbaum with Todd Hasak-Lowy includes discussion questions and prompts for interpretation for each part of the book, assignments and worksheets, ideas to integrate visual media, and writing assignment ideas.

Story Maps are used for teaching students to work with story structure for better comprehension. This technique uses visual representations to help students organize important elements of a story. Students learn to summarize the main ideas, characters, setting, and plot of an assigned reading.