7th Grade Reading Lesson Plans: Ideas for Parents and Teachers

Reading Lessons for 7th Graders

Book vs. Movie

After reading a book, watch the movie adaptation. Be sure to pass out a worksheet or graphic organizer so the students can actively record any similarities and differences between the two versions. If necessary, you may want to give specific aspects for them to look out for, such as narration and camera angles.

Then, have the students write a paper comparing the two versions. Which version was more effective, and why? How are the camera angles in the movie related to point of view in the book?

Historical Context

If your child is interested in history, then this interdisciplinary lesson will be especially beneficial. Teachers may want to coordinate this lesson with the social studies curriculum, so the students understand the historical context.

Read a historical fiction book in class, like Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. Then, read a nonfiction account from that time period. You might even refer to the students' social studies textbook, or use an online article. For The Red Badge of Courage, you might ask students to look for inconsistencies between the nonfiction Civil War article and what occurred in the novel. Have the students compare the perspectives: a single man's experience and an objective, third-person narrator retelling the facts.

Points of View

Read a text that shifts narrators or provides a variety of points of view. Discuss the different ways each character interpreted what was happening in the story. How might one person's point of view be very different from another's, even if they were viewing the same event? Then, have your students or child get up and view the room from a different point of view. For instance, have everyone crouch down and look at the room from an ant's point of view.

Next, have the students write using different points of view. First, they should describe the most amazing thing they've ever witnessed from their own point of view. Then, instruct your students or child to retell that same event from someone else's perspective. Compare the differences that the new point of view made.