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. 

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

This lesson concentrates on Anne Frank as a writer. After a look at Anne Frank the adolescent, and a consideration of how the experiences of growing up shaped her composition of the Diary, students explore some of the writing techniques Anne invented for herself and practice those techniques with material drawn from their own lives.

Students use Shakespeare's Secret, a featured title on the Teachers' Choices Booklist (International Reading Association, 2006), as a springboard to exploration of the controversy regarding the authorship Shakespeare's works. The novel makes liberal use of the historical details surrounding William Shakespeare's life, and exposes students to the possibility raised by some theorists that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the works that have long been attributed to the Bard. Students explore the historical references in the novel and generate questions for further research. As they research these questions on suggested websites, they organize their findings with the help of the ReadWriteThink Notetaker. Then they work in small groups to create and present short dramatic skits that creatively connect the novel with the historical facts.

Students select a person to research for biographical information. Utilizing resources in the Media Center, students record information on note cards; students then interpret and categorize information for appropriate placement on a graphic organizer.

For this lesson, students will learn how to cite in-text in MLA. They will watch a video, be directed to an easy to understand web page with citation examples, and even be able to complete a worksheet on citing in-text in MLA. Once students are done with this lesson, they will be ready to cite in-text in their own research paper.

In this lesson, students will develop, draft, and elucidate information for a research topic. Students will work collaboratively to write a paper as practice for the final task of writing their own papers.

Students apply the "5Ws of Cyberspace" to sources of information they find online. Assuming the role of a student researching a science project, students must authenticate the information in an online article about the artificial sweetener, aspartame.

In this introductory lesson, students engage in a hands-on, collaborative investigation of the definition of reading by participating in small group brainstorming sessions and an analysis of a variety of texts and the strategies they need to read them. Students also create individual Reader’s Profiles with an online tool modeled on social networking sites. Sharing these profiles and reflecting on their own learning, students ultimately develop a working definition of reading which they refine during the year.

Students will become engaged learners through this unit that prepares students for studying ancient Greece with digital storytelling skills. First students develop a list of questions to research Greek gods, heroes, and creatures. Then with a partner, they choose the topic of their research and divide the questions between themselves. After conducting research, the partners write scripts for their digital story using the online tool PowToon.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In this lesson, students read “They Called Her Moses,” create a “wanted poster”, compose a journal entry imagining they are William Still, and work in groups to create a newspaper depicting the incident of the runaway slaves and events from the time period.

Within the life science strand of 7th grade science, students focus on the processes, structures, and functions of living organisms that enable them to survive, reproduce, and carry out the basic functions of life. In this task, students research endosymbiotic theory and create fictional narratives from the point of view of the prokaryotic cell, aerobic bacterium, and photosynthetic bacterium involved in the collaboration forming the first eukaryotic cell. The interdisciplinary and creative nature of this activity allows students to build meaningful connections while promoting 21st Century Skills. 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.

Learning from past mistakes can help prevent one from repeating those mistakes. The purpose of this lesson is to educate students about the past and prepare them to become concerned and active students. Students study the experience of European Jewish citizens during the Holocaust. Through a reading of a novel set during the Holocaust period, students gain a better understanding of the social injustices and atrocities that occurred. Students then research the experience of the Cherokees during the Trail of Tears and the Japanese Americans during World War II. To compare these three events, students use an online Venn diagram tool. Students write about their reactions to these events in journals and discuss them during class. Critical thinking is encouraged to allow students to come to their own conclusions about these events.

This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.

Science fiction has the potential to spark lively discussions while inviting students to extrapolate from their own working knowledge of scientific principles. They first define the science fiction genre and then read and discuss science fiction texts. Next, they conduct research to find science facts that support or dispute the science included in the plot of the science fiction book they read. Students then revisit their definition of the genre and revise based on their reading. Finally, students complete a project that examines the science fiction genre in relation to real-world science concepts and topics.

As background knowledge to Susan Pfeffer’s novels, The Dead and the Gone and Life as We Knew It, students research natural disasters for this lesson. In these two companion novels set in two different locations in the United States, the world’s environment has been changed because the moon has been pushed closer to the earth. This disturbance causes a series of natural disasters and epidemics. To fully understand the effects natural disasters have had on the world’s environment, each student researches a different natural disaster. Then they use these facts as well as safety tips in unique glogs, online interactive multimedia posters, that will include student-recorded weather announcements.

In this lesson, students begin their research project. While reading a short article, students learn the basics of paraphrasing.