Grade 7
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Language
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Reading: Informational
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Reading: Literature
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Speaking & Listening
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Writing
Arizona ELA Standard: 7.W.2.a
Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
What’s In My Brain: Grass vs Mold
Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?
Order to Chaos: Dominoes or Dam?
Sometimes outside forces turn order into chaos. But sometimes chaos comes from within.
Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other
Chaos can contain order. Order can contain chaos! Is chaos ever truly random?
Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative
Sometimes we want order, but sometimes we need chaos!
Introducing Order and Chaos
Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.
Power Big Idea Worksheets
Your students will investigate statements like: Power leads to change, Power comes in many forms, Power can be used or abused.
Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet
Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.
Improving Shakespeare’s Repetition
Let’s help William Shakespeare with his use of repetition.
A System Similar to a Cell
Which parts of a cell serve a similar job to the parts of a cruise ship, human body, computer, or other system?
Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season
Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!
Compare and Create New Year’s Traditions
Hey! Our New Year traditions have a lot in common.
Create A Civ: Capital City
Every great capital is part geography, part human design. Research real ones, then build your own from scratch.
Categorize and Re-Categorize Countries
Put these countries into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same places reveal new patterns and give new insights?
Categorize and Re-Categorize Animals
Put these animals into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same creatures reveal new patterns and give new insights?
Famous Structures
The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.
What’s In My Brain!? Gold vs Wood
Some of these examples are conductors and some are insulators!
What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds
Let’s look at living vs non-living things.
Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
Introducing Universal Theme of Change
Everything changes. But how does it change? Students brainstorm dozens of examples and boil them down to one big idea.
Introducing Universal Theme of Power
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Power? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Not Like The Others: Types of Diseases
Four diseases. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.
Plant Adaptation Tournament
Who will win in a tournament of eight plants with Interesting adaptations!?
Precipitation Tournament
Eight types of precipitation battle it out in this tournament.
Parabolic Curve Art
Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.
Animal Adaptation Tournament
Which animal has the most interesting, most valuable, or strangest adaptations?
Not Like The Others: Types of Rocks
Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic — and one that doesn’t fit. But which one? Depends on your argument.
Not Like The Others: Deserts
Which of these deserts is not like the others?
Not Like The Others: Branches of the US Government
How is each part of the United States Government not like the other parts?
New Uses for a Paperclip
So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?
Create A Civilization: Design A Flag
What makes for a good flag? What makes a bad flag?
Tournament of Presidents
So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?
Ultimate (or Inception) Tic Tac Toe
What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
Concept Attainment: Art
Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?
Analyze Paragraphs: Baseball
Three paragraphs about baseball. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Analyze Paragraphs: Cucumbers
Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Cram
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!
Thinking With Art: Head Down
One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!
The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers
Sure, students might know the difference between a producer and a consumer… but have they considered how they feel about each other? What, in a producer’s opinion, are the pros and cons of a consumer?
Generalization: Change Leads to More Change
Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”
Order Can Be Natural or Constructed
When is order natural and when is it designed by people?
Generalization: Problems Lead to New Rules, Which Lead to New Problems
Problems create rules. Rules create new problems. Can you trace the cycle in history, stories, and your own life?
Generalization: Systems Are Made up of Other Systems
A clock is a system. So is a rainforest. So is your school. Once you see systems inside systems, you can’t unsee it.
Invisible Power Can Have Visible Effects
Can you think of times when power is unseen, but we can clearly see its effects?
What’s In My Brain: May vs May
The word “may” can be used for possibility or permission. It’s a modal auxiliary verb!
Plurals: An Inductive Spelling Lesson
Plural nouns in English are deliciously fascinating. Yet most plural lessons are so dull! In this experience, students are given a pile of plurals and then inductively create groups and pull out rules and patterns.
How Renewable Is That Resource?
Which resource is more renewable? And which is easier to find?
Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences
Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.
Create A Civilization: A Change In Government
It’s a great moment for your civilization! Power is moving from the hands of a few to a more democratic government.
What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah
Can students spot similes vs metaphors?
Simple or Compound Sentences – What’s In My Brain?
Can your students spot simple sentences vs compound sentences?
Investigating Christmas Trees
Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
How have you changed over time? Students introduce themselves through the lens of change — and learn a Depth and Complexity tool in the process.
Welcome, Students!
A video to welcome students to Byrdseed.TV.
Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!
Chomp
Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.
What Would Poetry Think About Prose?
Poetry and Prose meet at a party. What would they say to each other? How would they feel about each other’s style?
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
Building Creative Analogies
We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.
The Thinking Hats
So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.
Developing Extension Questions: Zooming In
Every topic has details that get glossed over in a sentence. Zoom in on one and you’ve got an entire unit hiding inside a paragraph.
Improving Presentations 3: The Storyboard and Slides
It’s time to turn that outline into a storyboard and then some actual slides.
Improving Presentations 2: Planning The Outline
After watching some great presenters, let’s outline your presentation!
Content Imperatives: Paradox
How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!
Create A Civilization: From Hunter Gatherers to Farmers
What happens when your civilization suddenly has a surplus of food? Think of the possibilities!
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Pull on one thread and watch the whole topic move. Contribution asks: what single factor is quietly shaping everything else?
Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea
Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.
Depth and Complexity: ⏳ Change Over Time
Want to get students thinking about how a topic has changed or might change in the future? The ⏳ Change Over Time thinking tool is just what you need!
Create A Civilization Introduction
Your students build a civilization from scratch — rivers, flags, calendars, currency, government. Social studies, science, and writing woven into one year-long project.
Elements of The Fantasy Genre
Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.
How to Play Go
Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!
Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)
When a student’s brain is full of worries, everything feels urgent. Brain Plate helps them sort what’s real from what’s noise — and actually do something about it.
Creating A Classroom Motto
Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!
Teaching Criticism
Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.
Writing Clear Directions
Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?
Intellectual Intensity
Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?
Engineering: Build A Bridge
Using real bridges as their starting point, students will construct bridges out of straws and paperclips.
Add Layers To Direct Instruction
Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.
Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea
We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.