After reading the novel The Outsiders, students will be asked to write down the “dream life” that each of the main characters could be living, describing in detail the different things that would be in the different lives of three main characters. They will then design these ideal lives from their writing on three Merge Cubes using three cospaces designs. Students will then look at each other’s cubes and try to guess which character fits with each side of the cube and why while they document their thought process with each cube examination.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 7th Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Students will examine the different perspectives of characters in the text. They will analyze how those perspectives are created by the author and they will show those relationships between the characters by creating tableau vivants with a green screen.

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 7th grade ELA content.

In this unit, students will be reading and writing myths following the structure of short stories and eventually publishing their own work.

This teacher's guide for Addie on the Inside by James Howe contains discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.

Seventeen-year-old best friends dream of becoming light-weight boxing champions of the world. They train together until they find out that they will meet in the ring to determine who will fight in a championship tournament. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

 This is a hands-on project that uses George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm, as the touchstone text. Students work in groups to construct a functioning windmill that can generate electricity. Each student has a role based on the characters in the book. There are also segments of the project that focus on extracting key information from the text.

In this lesson, students will learn about the use of argumentative strategies by discovering and identifying them in stories and essays.

A teachers guide for Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange, including chapter-specific questions for increased comprehension, questions for class discussion, and suggestions for further study.

This teacher's guide for The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson with Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson contains discussion questions and activities for reading comprehension, learning about craft and structure, integrating information, and writing practice.

As the narrator sends her son Laurie off to kindergarten, she fears that her sweet child may be thrown out of school. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students compare and contrast two versions of the same fairy tale. Students use a Venn diagram to graphically illustrate the similarities and differences in the two stories.

This curriculum guide covers six works of Laurie Halse Anderson (Chains, Forge, Ashes, Fever 1793, Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution, and Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving), and contains discussion prompts, key vocabulary terms, and ideas for assignments and activities related to each book.

This teacher's guide for The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman contains a summary of the text, discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.

The story's narrator notices one morning that his nine-year-old son is ill. The boy reveals that while at school in France he heard that a person cannot live with a temperature over 44. The father explains the difference between the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales and tells his son that he is not going to die. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students explore figurative language and point of view in the novel "Jacob I Have Loved".

Students will examine the different perspectives of characters in the text. They will analyze how those perspectives are created by the author and they will show those relationships between the characters by creating tableau vivants with a green screen.

Students will create and record character monologues based on a character in Alan Wolfe's The Watch that Ends the Night. Students will analyze a particular character’s attitude toward and interpretation of various events and other characters in a story. Students will analyze what their character does, says, and thinks throughout a text in order to determine how the author has developed and communicated his/her unique perspective. Students will then present in collaboration stations and will analyze and connect other characters and their perspectives to their own. The purpose of the project and the presentation is to enable students to make connections to other characters and perspectives and ultimately to deepen the understanding of the plot and characters. 

 Students will use the green screen to create a newscast in a small group based on the setting of a WWII literature circle novel. Students will first write their informational skit, create text features (charts, diagrams, photos w/ captions, etc) inside of their news presentations in order to teach the class about WWII from their novel's perspective and setting.