This lesson plan, The Power of Freedom, focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King’s most well-known and frequently taught classic works, like “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream.” Students read and discuss the themes in both works and connect to events in their lives today.

A nonfiction, Common Core aligned reading passage, this handout contains textual analysis and inference questions along with central idea skills.

This resource is a nonfiction, Common Core aligned reading passage with textual analysis questions about main idea and supporting details.

This resource is a nonfiction, Common Core aligned reading passage with textual analysis questions about main idea and supporting details. Also incuded are mutiple choice textual analysis questions.

The students will read and reread the passage closely, and focusing their reading through either a series of questions and discussion about the text or the structured journal approach outlined here, students will come away with a working knowledge of the digestive system, its parts, and how they function together.

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 and resource, students use primary sources to practice analysis of primary sources.

This lesson examines the benefits and challenges the Nile brought to the people of ancient Egypt. First, students discuss what problems the United States faces today to compare historical and contemporary events. This helps students to understand continuity and change in societies . Then they read and discuss an article on the problems and promises that the Nile River posed to ancient Egypt. This shows how different physical features influence developments in societies.

Students read about the establishment of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and discuss why it is important to preserve the Mariana Trench and surrounding area.

In this lesson, students learn about proverbs: how they work, how they differ from cliches, how to interpret them, and how they can be culturally and personally significant. Students begin by talking about proverbs, interview family and friends to find proverbs that were not discussed in class, and figuring out the meaning of proverbs by creating a new definition of proverbs based on what they've learned.

This resource discusses the question of power between states and the federal government-a debate that has lasted well over centuries.

Using a variety of magazines for this lesson, students work cooperatively to determine the main idea of a text and how details help support the main idea.

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.

“The Real Story of a Cowboy’s Life” describes a cattle drive from the perspective of real cowboys who rode on one. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

After reading narratives from former slaves that were recorded in the 1930's as part of the Federal Writers' Project, students conduct research on slavery and tell a story based on their findings. The lesson incorporates an exploration of storytelling techniques.

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. 

This resource is a nonfiction, Common Core aligned reading passage with textual analysis questions about main idea and textual support.

This resource is a nonfiction, Common Core aligned reading passage with textual analysis questions about main idea and textual support. Contain multiple choice contextual questions.

This resource is a Common Core aligned reading passage with textual analysis questions about main idea and characterization.