The sands of the Nile River Valley hold many clues about one of the most mysterious, progressive, and artistic ancient civilizations. A great deal of evidence survives about how the ancient Egyptians lived, but questions remain. Even the wise sphinx would have trouble answering some of them. How were the pyramids built? Who came up with the idea for mummies and why? What was a typical day like for a pharaoh?

These lists for grades 6-8 provide optional texts for students to read on their own to learn more about the module topic. Each grade level document includes texts for all the modules of that grade.

7th Grade Historical Literacy consists of two 43 minute class periods. Writing is one 43 minute block and reading is another. The teacher has picked themes based on social studies standards, and a read-aloud novel based on social studies serves as the mentor text for writing and reading skills. More social studies content is addressed in reading through teaching nonfiction reading skills and discussion. Standards reflect CCSS ELA, Reading, and Social Studies Standards.

Students must "become" a character in a novel in order to describe themselves and other characters using powerful adjectives.

For this lesson students will learn the different parts of the elements of a story. They will be able to watch a catchy movie explaining the parts and apply their knowledge to an interactive website.

Using their new skills in deconstructing advertisements, students will look at advertisements through the lens of gender.  Students will be encouraged to critically analyze the cultural stereotypes for men and women. Students will deconstruct advertisements based on gender representation.Rationale: Students will begin to see how believing in stereotypes can lead towards a negative self image for men and women.  This is Part 4 of a 5 part Unit: Media Manipulation: What Are They Really Saying?

After students learn how jobs are selected in The Giver, they will critically analyze if they would like that process from themselves. Then they will observe classmates to determine an appropriate job for them. Once students receive their jobs for their classmates, they will reflect on the process.

*Please see link included for a more detailed planning document.

Students will be designing a graphic based on the book they have finished reading in their guided reading group.   They will use the app, Canva (www.canva.com),  to create the graphic.  The graphic will include key details, descriptions, themes, plot, summary, as well as other text evidence we have discussed throughout our guided reading time together.  Students will create their graphics, and present them in a gallery walk for the rest of the class.

The content on their graphics will come from our guided reading group questions and discussions . They will record answers in their Google Classroom, based on the questions I post.  Questions will be text dependent, and focus on comprehension, main idea, key details, point of view, and connections. Students will then synthesize the information and discussion topics to create a graphic about their book.

The lessons in this unit provide you with an opportunity to use online resources to further enliven your students' encounter with Greek mythology, to deepen their understanding of what myths meant to the ancient Greeks, and to help them appreciate the meanings that Greek myths have for us today. In the lessons below, students will learn about Greek conceptions of the hero, the function of myths as explanatory accounts, the presence of mythological terms in contemporary culture, and the ways in which mythology has inspired later artists and poets.

Students will be able to read a grade level text,  the novel "The Outsiders". As they read they will have to cite information, make inferences and connections, summarize, compare different mediums (book and movie) and learn about the author and how her experiences shaped the novel. Students will also get to write persuasively and creatively during this unit.

This two week unit will have students analyze and then write their own 2 Minute Mystery stories.  Students will immerse themselves in the genre of 2 Minute Mysteries, learn mystery terms, identify literary devices, and eventually write their own mysteries.

In this activity, you and your students will explore Elizabethan stage practices as the rustic yet enthusiastic amateur actors from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. While it's not necessary to teach Shakespeare's biography while studying his plays, sometimes opportunities to explore his world through his own eyes present themselves in his text. Students' new insights into the text will provide them with a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare’s world. This activity will take one or two class periods.

This lesson invites students to reconfigure Meg’s journey into a board game where, as in the novel itself, Meg’s progress is either thwarted or advanced by aspects of her emotional responses to situations, her changing sense of self, and her physical and intellectual experiences.