Argumentation is one of the central practices in science learning and helps deepen students' conceptual understanding. Students should learn how to communicate ideas including procedure tests, data interpretations, and investigation outcomes in verbal and written forms through argument structure. This article presents a negotiation model to…

"The Power of Probability" is a new math program aligned with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and Common Core State Standards, which gives students opportunities to practice their skills and knowledge of the mathematics of probability. Developed by The Actuarial Foundation, the program's lessons and worksheets motivate…

Describes an autobiography writing assignment. State that the resulting texts are entertaining, enlightening, and contain facts and anecdotes that reflect the personalities of the authors. (RS)

Describes how a teacher integrated an audio cassette version of a Ray Bradbury story into a computer-supported creative writing project in her seventh-grade literature class. (SR)

Describes a project for 7th graders that involves English and Texas history classes, and that includes 19th-century Texas history, several types of writing, and a great deal of creativity. (SR)

Shares a writing activity in which students create riddles to define a particular number. (MG)

Presents a lesson plan for seventh-grade students in which they learn respect for themselves and others and apply social studies skills. Explains that the students create timelines, interview someone of an older generation, and create a Venn diagram comparing that person's life to their own. Includes suggestions for writing assignments based on…

Discusses how fairy tales provide the vehicle by which students become genuinely engaged in reading and writing short fiction. Outlines a three-step process moving students from familiar stories, to variations on traditional tales, finally to new stories. Details how writing, revising, illustrating, and binding a fairy tale engages students. (PM)

Describes a lesson design facilitating students' comprehension of human beliefs and behaviors indigenous to foreign cultures, and making culturally implicit meanings explicit to learners in a different culture. Involves teachers and learners through reading and discussion of a story introduced with an advance organizer. (RS)

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…

Describes the use of primary source documents and maps in a seventh-grade geography class. Maintains that 90 separate topics were divided into 6 main categories for student research. Asserts that the use of primary documents encouraged the development of the students' critical thinking skills. (CFR)

Describes a variety of writing activities and community service projects designed to develop middle school students' civic identity and pride in being citizens of the state of Kentucky. Includes teaching ideas and a project evaluation. (PRA)

Who is responsible for loss of life and property when one empire is conquered by another? It is the year 1473 A.D., 20 years after the fall of Constantinople. On May 29, 1453, the Eastern Roman Empire came to an end with the military takeover of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. How could an empire cease to exist? What were the people in and…

An experiment sought to determine the effectiveness of a program for improving achievement among black seventh and eighth grade social studies students. The aim was to develop a media center service program that would support school district efforts to provide educational and support services for the black male. An audiovisual tutoring program…

Presents a series of lesson plans for a seventh-grade world studies class. The lessons use the discovery of a 5,300-year-old "iceman" in the Austrian Alps as a starting point for a series of simulated archaeological activities. Includes descriptions and drawings of the iceman's remains and artifacts. (MJP)