A 7th-grade teacher describes a unit on the elderly involving films, books, a visit to a local nursing home, and other activities. Resources for teaching about old age are listed. Suggestions for preparing for and following up on a nursing home visit and ideas for related activities are presented. (MT)

Describes a locally developed, grade 7 unit focusing on the migration of the earliest people of the Polynesian region. Inquiry strategies and activities encouraging inferential thinking are used with the unit. (JN)

Presenting diagnostic teaching units for grade 7 science and Science 14, this handbook is intended to be used along with the companion handbook 1, "Evaluating Students' Learning and Communication Processes: Integrating Diagnostic Evaluation and Instruction." The student activities of the diagnostic teaching units in the handbook have…

Describes a six-week seventh-grade project in which students create their own continent. The project helps students learn about weather and climatic patterns, use map scales and legends, describe relationships between natural resources and human activities, solve problems, and work effectively in groups. (Author/KC)

A unit on medieval religion, monasteries, and convents for seventh-grade students is presented. Students converted the classroom into a monastery and experienced as realistically as possible the life and spirit of medieval religion. (RM)

To help students understand cultural differences, a seventh-grade social studies teacher devised a unit on ethnocentrism among the Iroquois Indians and on textbook bias toward ethnic groups in general and toward the Iroquois in particular. Six textbook excerpts are presented and activities based on the excerpts are suggested. (DB)

Describes an eight-week unit on Israel for seventh graders and shows how the unit relates to the 1981 "California History/Social Science Framework." The unit introduces students to framework content goals in history and the humanities. Activities include journal writing, artifact building, archaeological simulations, and a geographical…

Presenting a diagnostic teaching unit for grade 7 language arts, this handbook is intended to be used along with the companion handbook 1, "Evaluating Students' Learning and Communication Processes: Integrating Diagnostic Evaluation and Instruction." The student activities of the diagnostic teaching units in the handbook have been…

A mini-unit introducing seventh grade students to their new school and its surrounding area can be adapted for use in any school. Following a list of learning objectives and evaluation methods, the document provides a short vocabulary lesson and five student activities and worksheets for learning to read school, city, state, and county maps. A…

Designed to be used in a cooperative effort between the school counselor and the classroom teacher, this guide contains activities for improving students' self-concepts. The following items are included: (1) a planned course statement; (2) six activities for improving self-understanding; (3) six activities for improving rational thinking regarding…

Addressing the need for world geography classes to consider demography and other cultures, this paper presents a teaching unit to be included in seventh grade world geography courses. The primary focus of this unit is an individual project in which each student chooses a country and uses basic geographical skills and knowledge to analyze the…

This article makes a case for special classes for gifted students and answers objections to special classes raised by the middle school movement and the cooperative learning movement. A sample "Celebration of Me" unit taught to gifted seventh graders which involved poetry, literature, personal development, art, music, and physical fitness is…

This teacher's guide begins with sample unit plans for junior high school art teachers. Unit plans cover specific themes, approaches, objectives, concepts, motivation, resources, study approaches, evaluation, and related activities. A description of how the units relate to the objectives and concepts of the art program's curriculum guide is also…

Assessed the level of cognitive demand inherent in the manner in which students were held accountable for activities and tasks in seventh grade life science classes. Notes that most tasks placed minimal cognitive demand on students, as they involved copying or simple step-by-step procedures. (SKC)

Designed to challenge students to think critically and to motivate them to relate their own personal experiences to a broader panorama of society, this curriculum guide presents a seventh-grade unit on "The Struggle for Equality" and an eighth-grade unit on "The Movements of People." The three related goals of the curriculum…