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.

Students become more aware of the language and techniques used in print advertising, as well as the impact of advertising on their daily lives. The unit will focus on three key media literacy concepts: construction of reality, representation, and audience. Students will learn to analyze the format and structure of advertisements, differentiate between information and selling, and learn about target audiences.

Students become more aware of the media"™s role in determining what, and who, are perceived as being cool. Through class discussion and activities, students explore the differences between superficial and real "coolness," how marketers use cool to sell products, and how their own attitudes and perceptions are affected by media messages that reinforce specific messages about what coolness is.

This lesson teaches the engineering method for testing wherein one variable is changed while the others are held constant. Students compare the performance of a single paper airplane design while changing the shape, size and position of flaps on the airplane. Students also learn about control surfaces on the tail and wings of an airplane.

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

This lesson aligns with the 7th grade Social Studies curriculum and works best when integrated into an interdisciplinary unit, such as Reliving the Middle Ages Across Lliterary Genres. Interdisciplinary Units are effective when teachers from two different content areas collaborate to plan lessons, assessments, activities and projects that support their content skills and standards. The content being taught in one course supports the content in another and students approach difficult, content-specific texts with more familiarity and gain better comprehension.  Students read two nonfiction articles about the Middle Ages, which lasted from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500. Both texts examine one of the most significant events of this time period-- the spread of the bubonic plague, or the Black Death. Each text is organized into cause-and-effect pattern of organization. One outlines HOW the disease spread (causes) and the other explains how it affected Europe (effects). Students analyze two texts by different authors writing about the same topic, the Black Plague, and compare/contrast how each author shapes their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence. 

Students look at the ways in which consumer frenzy develops around a particular product. They begin by brainstorming the characteristics that make a toy a "must-have" possession; and discuss and reflect on the "Tickle Me Elmo" phenomenon as an example of this sort of marketing occurrence. Students discuss the ethical issues associated with consumerism, and how they respond to "gotta have it" pressures from peers and the media. Students will demonstrate and understanding of the ways in which marketers use hype to sell products, an awareness of how consumers respond to marketing hype, and an awareness of the elements that make a product desirable.

This curriculum guide for The Heart of Everything That Is: Young Readers Edition: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin contains discussion questions for each chapter, key vocabulary terms, and extra activities for after reading.

Students will view a reality television episode and read a news article related to reality television. Then students will complete a graphic organizer to create an argument for or against children participating in reality television. Students will apply supportive details for writing a persuasive paragraph.

This lesson and resource uses point-by-point arguments to help students develop higher order thinking skills by learning to distinguish fact from opinion.

Worksheets and activities with answer keys to help students of differing levels identify and/or determine the difference between fact and opinion in selected passages.

Not every topic warrants a “both sides” approach. Some viewpoints are simply not backed by empirical evidence or are based on false ideas. Journalists and anyone who work with facts have to be careful not to present them as legit debates. If they do, they are creating a “false equivalence.” False equivalence: what does it mean, and why is it helping to spread misinformation online?

Have your students watch the video and respond to the question in KQED Learn.

In this lesson, students read an argument text which links neuroscience and digital media. This lesson continues the implementation of the Tracing an Argument note-catcher, which students will use twice in order to evaluate both sides of a yes/no debate piece on the question “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

This lesson begins the scaffolding toward writing a draft of the position paper, a type of argument essay that will be the Mid-Unit 3 Assessment in Lesson 5. Students must be able to write a clear and coherent position paper. Being able to share their understanding of the arguments they read about in Unit 2 and creating an argument that supports claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence are important skills.

This lesson introduces the text The Big Thirst, which students will work with across Units 1 and 2.

This lesson draws upon students’ understanding of claims and evidence from the previous lesson as well as what makes evidence relevant, which they learned in Module 2. It offers a review for all students, which will help any who may not have been present in Module 2

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.