Mythology is traditionally taught in 7th grade. It's one of my favorite units to teach, and my students' favorite units to learn. We start with gods/goddesses, read several myths, and then we do a whole class novel, The Lightning Thief.

Wow, what great suggestions! Thank you

I second looking at what they are studying in history. If it's world history, a couple of short novels that make good read alouds are Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Japan) and Iqbal (Pakistan). The Egypt Game would be good for guided reading or an all-class novel, as well as Master Puppeteer (also Japan - which the boys like a lot).

For a play, you can't go wrong with "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" - an adaptation of an old Twilight Zone episode. The kids like it a lot and the lessons in the play are wonderful.

If you have some higher readers, The Year of Impossible Goodbyes (about the separation of the Koreas) is outstanding. As an all-class novel this would be good for all students at a slightly slower pace.

Maroo and the Winter Caves might be a bit young, but it is a good book too. Someone on Pt mentioned a book about a girl in India - it might be Homeless Bird? and I almost purchased it. It has outstanding reviews. I'm sorry I can't give you any more info than that on it.

Africa is the setting for The White Giraffe and its sequels - all good, but especially the first. For higher readers Listening for Lions is excellent.

Just had a thought - if you enjoyed the O'Henry short stories, look into those by Saki (Munro), "Open Window" for instance. Plenty of irony and keep the students' attention.

I would look at your district's social studies/history and science standards and see if you can tie any novels/authors/themes in that way. It'll be easier to justify teaching them, and the connection will come kind of easier for your students.

Number the Stars

I just transitioned from teaching 8th grade Language arts to 7th grade. In 8th grade I broke the year into 6 units and taught:

1) Flowers for Algernon
2) Anne Frank
3) O'henry Short stories
4) Touching Spirit Bear
5) 12 Angry Men/The Tell Tale Heart (Mock Trial)
6) The giver

For each story I had grammar, vocabulary, spelling and a writng component worked into the unit.

Since I am new to 7th grade, I'm not sure which stories I could use. I want to try to do 6 units, but I'm having a hard time coming up with stories to use or unit suggestions?