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. 

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

Informational paried passage mini-assessment that includes two articles and one accompanying recording, thirteen text-dependent questions (including one optional constructed-response prompt for students), and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS. Articles included are “High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens,” by Michelle Trudeau and “High schools will keep starting too early. Here’s why.” by Dan Weissmann

This resource is a collection of discussion questions and resoures to supplement Beacon Hills High, a story about an African American teenager's journey from Baltimore to Los Angeles and how she overcomes body-image, fame, cruel behavior and the other pressures of life.

Students become familiar with the similarities and differences between electronic and printed text by comparing the textual aids included in a textbook with those of an educational website.

E-book readers, or digital readers, are devices that can host thousands of electronic books and allows readers to interact with digital texts through the use of e-book tools and features. In this lesson, students will read e-books and use digital tools (dictionaries and notes) to support their development of vocabulary. Specifically, students will assume roles of “word detectives” as they look up words in digital dictionaries and use other strategies to identify the meaning of vocabulary words.

The content focus for this unit is getting students used to using and manipulating multiple media formats.  We will begin with exposure to multiple different formats, work with them to develop a working knowledge of the content, then move on into producing multimedia projects on their own. The first lesson introduces the topic and incorporates two different media formats. The second lesson incorporates infographics as another form of informational text. Students will produce a graphic organizer in this lesson to compare different types of media.  The last lesson has students pick a historical topic of their own to research, and produce a multimedia product in the form of a Merge cube visual.  

This resource is a collection of discussion questions and resoures to supplement the film, Finding Antwone Fisher.

In this lesson, students will interpret primary source documents that depict what Isaac Newton did while experimenting with light. From this, students will be able to understand where rainbows come from and how a rainbow is formed. From this idea, students will be able to connect the ideas brought about by Newton with the electromagnetic spectrum.

In this lesson, students consolidate their understanding of Excerpt 4 by reviewing the answers to the second read questions and then telling a section of the story using the strategies from the Storyteller’s Toolbox anchor chart.

These English Language Arts/Literacy Units empower students with critical reading and writing skills at the heart of the Common Core: analyzing and writing evidence-based arguments.

This unit develops students’ abilities to analyze arguments from a range of perspectives on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Students also learn to develop, write and revise their own evidence-based arguments.

In this lesson, students will read and listen to/view a speech by Jesse Jackson during the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Students will deeply analyze the speech for content and purpose, focusing on the relevancy and effectiveness of Jackson’s personal story that he uses to conclude his speech. Students will analyze how this concluding section contributes to the whole speech and to the development of ideas expressed throughout the speech. Students will then independently complete a RAFT assignment in which they may self-select the Role, Audience, and Format; all students will have the same topic – reaction to hearing the speech. The RAFT writing will further explore the impact of the personal testimony on the speech as a whole. 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.

In this lesson, student will return to the article, "Teens and Decision Making," in order to self assess their ability to analyze the main idea and supporting details in their homework.

In this lesson, student will learn about slavery in America through various sources, including PBS produced Freedom: A History of US.

In this lesson, students will analyze how a text and a video both use images, quotes, and sequence.

In this lesson, students will analyze the main idea and supporting details and apply it to the video they watch, "Insight into the Teenage Brain."

In this lesson, students will compare and contrast text and video, focusing on making meaning and drawing conclusion from a text by using evidence.

This lesson includes an Internet exploration that focuses on the roles of the eye and brain in the perception of color. It includes an introduction to the anatomy of the eye, including the functions of rods and cones. It is recommended that students complete the first 2 activities (Light 1 and Light 2) prior to this activity.

Students will have an opportunity to develop such "live interviews" with ancient athletes; working in small groups, they will produce a script based on the results of their research and they will perform the interview for other students in the class.

In this lesson, students recognize loaded words when reading and purposefully use them in persuasive writing.