A 30-minute exploration of the traits and choices that define an "extraordinary" individual, using the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur to examine bravery, intellect, and moral character in 6th grade.

A comprehensive weekly assessment of plot, character, theme, and setting.

A 60-minute lesson exploring resilience through Henley's 'Invictus' and Williams' 'The Use of Force' using the 'I Do, We Do, You Do' model.

Evaluating how setting influences mood and craft in realistic fiction.

Identifying the underlying messages and moral foundations in myths.

Analyzing how characters grow and change in realistic fiction.

Deconstructing the framework of a story using plot structures in fables.

A challenging 20-minute mini-lesson for 7th graders analyzing how POV and character motivation reveal Julia Alvarez's purpose in humanizing the Mirabal sisters.

Students analyze the climax of Section II, focusing on the father's physical transformation into a figure of authority and the symbolic significance of the apple attack.

Students examine the conflict between the mother and sister regarding the removal of furniture, debating whether keeping the room 'human' helps or hinders Gregor.

Students analyze the family's financial situation through Gregor's eavesdropping, exploring his feelings of shame and the revelation of his father's secret savings.

Students explore the opening of Section II, focusing on Gregor's developing animal instincts, his changing food preferences, and the sister's emerging role as his primary caretaker.

A persuasive writing lesson using the OREO method to tackle the ultimate breakfast debate: Is cereal a soup? Students learn to structure their opinions with clear reasons, examples, and transition words.

A station-based activity where students investigate and identify nine different types of figurative language through standalone sentence examples.

This lesson guides students through identifying sectional main ideas and synthesizing them into a central theme using the historical passage 'Picturing Our Planet'.

A high-energy set of activities designed to master comparative and superlative adverbs through movement, sorting, and creative sentence construction.

A comprehensive two-hour test preparation lesson focusing on Process of Elimination (POE) and prompt paraphrasing, utilizing 2025 NYS Grade 7 ELA released items to build student confidence and accuracy.

A comprehensive lesson teaching students how to organize their writing using specific structures for narrative, opinion, informational, and compare/contrast genres. Students will learn to use the Story Mountain, Hamburger Map, First-Next-Last sequences, and Venn Diagrams to ensure their writing follows a clear, linear path.

A lesson focused on the suffixes -ation, -cation, and -ition and how they transform verbs into nouns. Students analyze word pairs like 'inform' and 'information'.

A lesson focused on the suffix -ion involving spelling changes such as dropping the final 'e' or changing 'd' to 's'. Students analyze pairs like 'operate' and 'operation'.

An introductory lesson for Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, focusing on the historical context, the Montague-Capulet feud, and the iconic prologue as a narrative device.

A lesson focused on the suffixes -ion and -ian with no spelling change to the base word. Students analyze nouns like 'invention', 'magician', and 'musician'.

A lesson focused on the suffix -ion and how it changes verbs into nouns with no spelling change to the base word. Students analyze word pairs like 'collect' and 'collection'.

Examine Judith Ortiz Cofer's 'The Latin Deli,' focusing on the poetry of everyday moments. Students draft a final body paragraph on how specific places have shaped their voice and finalize their full essay.

Study Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue' and her mastery of syntax and diction to explore complex identity. Students draft a body paragraph on how the people they were raised by have shaped their voice.

A targeted grammar lesson focusing on subject-verb agreement through the high-interest lens of professional soccer. Designed for advanced students who need to master complex compound subjects and prepositional phrase interference.

Students become Word Alchemists, learning to transform common, 'base' vocabulary into high-powered academic language through context and connotation.

Day 4: Students participate in a 'Grand Jury' collaborative discussion to synthesize their evidence from the week and reach a final verdict on the unit's key texts.

Day 3: Students dive into 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, using textual evidence to infer the poem's deeper meanings about power and time.

Day 2: Students examine a non-fiction article about the Mary Celeste to distinguish between explicit facts and inferences while citing several pieces of evidence.

Day 1: Students analyze Roald Dahl's 'The Landlady' to practice making inferences and citing evidence to support their claims about the story's eerie outcome.

An introductory exploration of five major writing types: Narrative, Creative, Expository, Persuasive, and Argumentative. Students learn to distinguish between these forms based on purpose, structure, and audience impact.

Analyze Cabeza de Vaca's 'La Relación,' focusing on his use of vivid imagery to convey survival. Students draft a body paragraph on how obstacles and challenges have shaped their voice.

Focus on Zora Neale Hurston's 'How It Feels to Be Colored Me' and her use of figurative language to create a defiant, celebratory tone. Students draft their first body paragraph on how culture has shaped their personal voice.

Students learn to distinguish between 'weak' and 'strong' evidence using a detective-themed approach. They will analyze high-interest short stories to select the evidence that best supports a given claim, focusing on relevance and specificity.

A lesson focused on the suffixes -en, -ize, and -ify. Students investigate how these suffixes transform base words into verbs representing actions or states.