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.

In this lesson, students will discover a policy within their school or district that is important to them and that they'd like to change. They will conduct an investigation of the policy in question and write a letter with their claim, results, and recommendation to the appropriate audience.

Birth of a Colony explores the history of North Carolina from the time of European exploration through the Tuscarora War. Presented in five acts, the video combines primary sources and expert commentary to bring this period of our history to life. The opening segment describes the forces that motivated European exploration and colonization of the New World. Explorers and colonists encountered native peoples with agricultural lifestyles, strong communities, and respect for the land. These Indian communities saw themselves as part of nature, and they lived in harmony with the natural world. Their spiritual practices, such as the Green Corn Ceremony, reflected this worldview. The Europeans came to the New World primarily in search of land and riches. With two such different cultural viewpoints, clashes were inevitable. This teacher's guide includes a strictly social studies lesson and a complementary ELA lesson (writing assignment).

The lesson includes an exploration of the genre of letters to the editor, a review of persuasive writing structure and letter format, and an emphasis on multi-draft writing. The lesson focuses on the character Roy Eberhardt from Carl Hiaasen’s Newbery Honor Book Hoot for its examples. Students can complete the activity for any book that they have read.

Students become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), learn the process of writing entries for the OED, and write a new entry themselves. Students will follow up their entry with a persuasive essay and a competition in which the strongest contender for the title of New Word is chosen. Extensions will offer students a chance to evaluate old lists of "new words" and discuss the power dynamics of dictionaries.

Students examine books, selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list, and write persuasive pieces expressing their views about what should be done with the books at their school.

Students research the three tenets of cell theory and describe the scientific evidence that supports this theory. After students complete their research, they will engage in all steps of the writing process, including prewriting, outlining, revising, and editing. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will create a three-paragraph argumentative essay to examine the cell theory and the scientific evidence that supports this theory.

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.

Students read and discuss the Founding Fathers of our country indulgence in gripe sessions. In fact, a list of grievances comprises the longest section of the Declaration of Independence; however, the source of the document's power is its firm philosophic foundation. You can capitalize on the inclination of your students to complain to increase student awareness of the precedents behind the Declaration of Independence. Students will summarize the contributions of the "Founding Fathers" to the development of our county as well as explain how key historical figures exemplified values of American democracy.

Students will build on their existing knowledge of the solar system as they research one of the planets in order to determine whether a manned mission to that planet would be feasible. Students will collect information about the geology, composition, and orbit of their assigned planet. They will then work collaboratively to create a proposal for or against planning a trip to the planet to be presented to the rest of the class.

In this lesson the students will be using a variety of skills to analyze fiction and expository texts. This combines the reading of detective fiction with written expository analysis in the form of a Detective’s Handbook. Each student reads a detective mystery, and the class watches and analyzes Murder She Purred to establish a collective example.

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.

Suggestions on how to guide students through the writing process when writing editorials "” from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work "” and all the steps in between.

After having learned about how other cultures embrace entomophagy and reading arguments for why Americans should eat more insects, students will now synthesize their learning into a persuasive essay. This lesson was developed by Katherine Zamarra as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students use the evidence gathered in the previous lesson to respond to a constructed-response question independently for an End of Unit graded Assessment.

This lesson is a continuation of the work with the theme of survival in A Long Walk to Water and practice for the type of explanation of evidence that students will do for the End of Unit 2 Assessment essay.

In this lesson, students will decide and write the claim for their essay and the reasons they will use to support their claim.

In this lesson, students start a Writing Improvement Tracker that they will return to after writing the essay in each module for the rest of the year.

In this lesson, students begin the draft of their essay about Lyddie. The lesson also includes peer critique.