TEACHER GUIDEs
Grade 7 ELA Locker Missions

Activity 1: Cognition
Teachers, Part One of this four-part 7th grade Language Arts activity leads students to "reflect on learning experiences by analyzing personal learning growth and changes in perspective, examining changes in self throughout the learning process, and determining how personal circumstances and background shape their interaction with text." (Standard Course of Study, Grade 7, Objective 1-4)

It is important that students make choices that accurately reflect the way they work and interact with others and with their environment. Here are three "ground rules" to help you set the stage for this activity:

1. Students need to understand that all the letter choices and four-letter combinations have equal value. One is not better than another. They simply demonstrate that we are all unique human beings and that we all have different personality preferences and behaviors.
2. Read the two choices aloud to students, and then give plenty of examples.
3. Ask students to keep their choices and final four-letter codes a secret until you collect their papers.

Collect and save each student's 4-letter code for the next activity.

What are the personality types in your classroom? What is your personality type? How does it affect the way you deliver instruction, how you interact with the students, and how well they learn under your supervision? How can we employ technology to enhance learning and increase achievement for the differing personality types and learning modalities?

"Personality preferences (dispositions or temperaments) strongly impact the learning process, affecting how learners take in information, how they organize during learning and when applying learning, what they value when making decisions, and their orientation to others. We are born with these preferences or temperaments. The place we call home - where we feel most comfortable on each of these four areas of behavior - remains relatively unchanged throughout life. . . Knowing how we and our students take in information is critical both to teaching content and guiding behavior."
(Differences in this area are at the root of most friction, exasperation and, occasionally, the complete inability to get along with people--family, friends, co-workers, students." Source: Kovalik, Susan and Olsen, Karen D. (2001) Exceeding Expectations: A User's Guide to Implementing Brain Research in the Classroom.Covington, WA: Books for Educators, Inc.

Back to Mission 1  |  ELA Locker  |  Grade 7 Hovercraft

Activity 2: Critical Stance
Teachers, Activity 2 of this four-part 7th grade Language Arts activity is designed to help students synthesize and use information from a variety of sources. (Standard Course of Study, Grade 7, Goal 2, Objective 2-1)

Give each student a copy of his or her matching "Famous Person" card.

You can print directly from the Famous Person Web page or download the FamousPerson.rtf file.

The Knowledge Flow is the time-saving place to go whenever you want to lead students to conduct real research on a topic that is meaningful and relevant. As you know, this is a great time to team up with the media or technology specialist and deliver an action-packed teaching unit on information skills.

Sample a few of the activities from the Knowledge Flow.

• Finding the Right Information Source
• Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills
• Using Internet Search Engines Effectively
• Understanding Copyright, Writing Citations and Obtaining Permission

Back to Mission 2  |  ELA Locker  |  Grade 7 Hovercraft

Activity 3: CONNECTIONS

The (not so) Genteel Genetics Debate:
This lesson explores the controversial issues surrounding the "nature vs. nurture" debate. Blending English Language Arts Goal 3 (Use of Argument) with Science Goal 3 (heredity and genetics), students dig deeper into their "famous person" research to make associations among family characteristics. The activity ends in a lively debate with students refining the use of argument (Objective 3.3) to justify their judgment in the nature vs. nurture controversy.

This provides a rich opportunity to show that technology is used as a tool for inquiry and higher order thinking. If students are not accustomed to serious intellectual inquiry, they will be inclined to dig up and list basic facts. You, as a facilitator, can move them into an authentic, mindful-learning experience with generous amounts of questioning and redirecting.

Back to Mission 3  |  ELA Locker  |  Grade 7 Hovercraft

Activity 4: INTERPRETATIONS

As students develop an informational product or presentation (Goal 2, Obj. 2.2), encourage them to:

• use and cite at least three print or non-print sources
• create an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context
• develop a complete understanding by comparing, contrasting, and evaluating information from different sources about the same topic
• explain the significance, clarify, adapt ideas and concepts
• evaluate information for extraneous details, inconsistencies, relevant facts, and organization
• draw conclusions and make inferences

Back to Mission 4  |  ELA Locker  |  Grade 7 Hovercraft