Students will be reading and writing myths. They will follow the structure of short stories and eventually publish their work.

The 7th grade poetry unit gives an in depth approach to poetry involving the four strands within the core. I've included worksheets, rubrics, and answers keys where applicable. I have also used literature examples from the core.

Students will be creating a variety of poetry as well as analyzing poetry. They will work with Language standards and take a performance assessment at the end of the unit.

In this lesson students use a structured format (an adaptation of Think-Pair-Share) to discuss and deconstruct complex text. The new core standards emphasize the importance of developing students' speaking and listening skills as well as helping them access complex text through reading, re-reading, re-thinking, and re-examining.The purpose of this lesson is to get the students to focus and stay on topic while they talk. As a result, students are required to think more extensively about a topic by repeatedly reading and discussing with others.

This activity focuses on retelling and performing a story that has been formatted from a traditional version to the setting of the Old West. When retelling a story to someone else, it is important to have the sequence and all parts to the story in correct order. The beginning of a story generally tells who the characters in the story are and what the problems may be. The middle generally explains what attempts were made to solve the problems, and the end generally has the solution, results, and how the story ends. For this activity, students should be familiar with the original tale so they will see the parallel between the original and the adapted version. As you are preparing to retell/role-play the story, you will need to discuss the main characters the students will be portraying and decide what simple props, if any, may be helpful in telling the story.

In this lesson, students analyze the allusions, slang, and literary analogies used in "Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara. To extend understanding, they will then write their own allusions and analogies.

In this lesson students use the Informational Text Analysis Tool to deconstruct the essential elements of informational text. Informational text is more important to teachers than ever before, especially with the rise of the new Core standards. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for finding and using texts to build students' reading skills.Through a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational and primary source texts, students build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.

In this lesson Students individually consider a visual text and draw conclusions based on what they see. They write about their conclusions and explain the evidence used to make that determination. Students will be able to analyze a visual text. Students will be able to develop and support a claim about the visual text based on evidence found in the text.

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.

In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to apply their understanding of rate and ratio. They will analyze the fees of different campgrounds and use that information to make decisions about where to camp. Students will be able to use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems by using tables to organize equivalent ratios.

This lesson will involve work in oral language, concepts of print, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing with the use of one book, The Black Snowman.

In this set of lessons which extend over several days, students read excerpts from "The Death of Benny Paret" by Norman Mailer and "The Fight" by William Hazlitt. Students annotate the text, specifically looking for metaphor and simile, tone, and syntax. Working with a partner, students write three paragraphs, analyzing metaphor or simile, tone, and syntax in "The Death of Benny Paret." Working independently, students write one paragraph, choosing to analyze metaphor or simile, tone, or syntax in "The Fight."

This set of lessons extends over several weeks and incorporates all acts of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. Students will closely read The Crucible. Students will cite textual evidence and make interpretations about character development. Students will combine the textual evidence with their interpretations and write interpretive statements. In the culminating activity, students will write a character analysis.

This set of lessons extends over several days and focuses on "The Crisis, No. 1" by Thomas Paine. Students closely read and annotate the text. Students identify and evaluate claims and evidence in the text. Students present their findings to the class. Finally, students collaboratively write short arguments identifying claims and evidence in "The Crisis, No. 1." Students present their arguments to the class, and the class discusses and assesses the arguments.

This set of lessons extends over several days. Students watch a Prezi and take notes about the classical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos). Students then read and annotate (focusing on the classical appeals) Winston Churchill's "Be Ye Men of Valour" and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation." Students work in groups to complete a graphic organizer which helps them analyze the classical appeals in the speeches. Finally, students write an analysis of ethos, pathos, and logos in one of the speeches.

In this lesson Students use the Cornell notes tool (developed by Walter Pauk from Cornell University) to do close reading of informational text. Students will be able to read closely and analyze the key details of what they read. Students will be able to summarize informational text.

This lesson contains three student experiments: How Light Travels, Comparing Light Sources, and Reflective Surfaces.

This lesson contains three student activities: Rainbows, Refraction with Prisms, and What Color Is It?

Lesson focuses on creating equivalent expressions. Isolating the variable.
Focus Questions:
What value of the variable will create two equivalent expressions? How can this solution be checked?How can inverse operations be used to isolate the variable?What operation(s) will be needed to isolate the variable?
Lesson Segment 1: Accessing Background knowledge, Launch-Finding Equivalent Expressions.
Lesson segment 2: What value of the variable will create two equivalent expressions? How can this solution be checked?
Lesson Segment 3: How can inverse operations be used to isolate the variable?
Lesson Segment 4: Summarize
Assessment Plan:observation, questioning, performance

In this lesson, students will learn about a topic in three different text formats. They will then evaluate each format to determine the pros and cons. Students will also assess the credibility of each text.

GIST is a strategy to help students write brief, accurate, and complete summaries of material they read. In this lesson students work together summarizing larger and larger portions of text, but keeping their summaries at 25 words or fewer. Students will be able to summarize portions of informational or literary text. Students will be able to work in small groups to think critically about and discuss text.

This lesson plan asks students to analyze two primary sources, in the form of letters, that address the issues relating to religious freedom for the newly formed United States and its relation to the nature of citizenship and equality in a religiously diverse society. Students will also analyze the 1st. Amendment and develop an argument regarding 1st amendment issues today.

In this lesson students will use information from articles about microorganisms and their prior knowledge to identify both the positive and negative aspects of microorganisms.

This activity emphasizes the importance of teaching reading and writing strategies for students to use with informational text.

Students will organize and analyze data to make decisions about which rides to choose on their vacation to Disneyland.  The students will be given average wait times for a variety of rides at an amusement park and then analyze the data.

In this lesson students will use UV beads to observe and draw energy. Students will describe how light can be produced, reflected, refracted, and separated into visible light of various colors.

In this lesson students build their knowledge base and learn to read and summarize informational texts. Students will be able to read and summarize informational text, identify key details from surprising details, and recognize the main ideas/concepts presented in articles. They will also be able to listen, take notes, and discuss the issues presented in informational texts with a small group.

The lesson provides an opportunity for students to not only read and view the importance of choosing career choices now, but gives them an opportunity to write about their future career goals and think about the best way to achieve them starting now.

This activity helps students understand that science writing is organized in identifiable patterns called text structures. Understanding and using these different text structures help refine students abilities to both read and write in science.

This is an introductory lesson on cells. Student learning begins with the teacher modeling the use of a T-chart graphic organizer while reading an article comparing simple and complex carbohydrates. Students then move to independent practice using the T-chart graphic organizer to compare simple (prokaryotic) cells and complex (eukaryotic) cells.

This activity is designed to teach the attributes of each coin (penny, nickel, dime and quarter), including physical characteristics and value.

In this lesson students perform a line dance to reinforce story telling through movement.

Students will use the Lunar Language Graphic Organizer to draw and describe the phases of the moon.

All the activities in this lesson are addition and subtraction based. It is not designed to introduce addition and subtraction, rather, to supplement and enrich lessons already being taught. This lesson is not designed to be completed in one sitting. It may be done throughout an entire addition and subtraction unit. These activities may be used as starter activities when introducing new math concepts, particularly those that relate to addition and subtraction.

In this lesson students will observe and read about microorganisms so that they can create an information book on microorganisms.

In this lesson students will work in small groups to arrange moon phase cards into the correct sequence. Students will learn to explain patterns of changes in the appearance of the moon as it orbits Earth.

This lesson provides music and drama activities to help students improve their comprehension skills.

Students will learn and apply techniques to develop and present a personal narrative/memoir. They will take their writing through all stages of the writing process. Their writing will reflect clear understanding of plot, dialogue, transitions, and descriptive details.