reading assignments 7th grade

Grade 7 Reading Comprehension Worksheets

History Of Soccer

The Power Of Words

The Real History Of Black Friday

Emo Through The Ages

Webcam The World

A Lion And A Crocodile

In Lincoln’s Own Words

The Call Of The Wild

Poetry And Principles

Soil 101: Summarizing Basics

Understanding Erosion

Retell, Relate, Review, Reflect

Interpreting Verses

Connecting With Content

Character Sketch

All about these 15 worksheets.

These worksheets are designed to help 7th grade students enhance their reading skills and comprehension abilities. The worksheets typically of passages or texts followed by a series of questions and exercises related to the reading material. The passages can cover various genres, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and informational texts.

The questions and exercises in the worksheets aim to assess students’ understanding of the reading material, as well as their ability to analyze and interpret the text. They may involve multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, vocabulary exercises, inferential questions, critical thinking prompts, and more.

The core language arts skills that these worksheets focus on include:

Comprehension – Students are required to comprehend the main ideas, details, and supporting evidence presented in the text.

Vocabulary – Worksheets often include vocabulary exercises to help students expand their word knowledge and understand context clues.

Inferences and Critical Thinking – Students are encouraged to make logical inferences and draw conclusions based on the information provided in the text. Some worksheets include questions that require students to think critically and analyze the text’s deeper meaning or evaluate the author’s perspective.

Literary Devices – Students may be introduced to literary devices such as similes, metaphors, symbolism, and imagery, and asked to identify and analyze them within the passages.

What Reading Skills Do We Work On in 7th Grade?

A grade 7 student should be proficient in reading complex texts across multiple genres with accuracy and fluency. Their vocabulary should be extensive, allowing them to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases using context, knowledge of Greek and Latin roots, and other strategies. They should be adept at analyzing the structure of a text, understanding how paragraphs and sections contribute to broader themes and ideas. Critical thinking is vital; students should evaluate arguments and claims in a text, discerning sound reasoning from fallacious or biased points. They should be capable of comparing and contrasting multiple texts, understanding how authors approach similar themes or topics differently. 7th graders should also be able to synthesize information from various sources to form a coherent understanding of a subject or to make informed judgments.

The learning objectives for 7th grade reading comprehension typically include the following:

Reading Fluency – Develop the ability to read fluently and accurately with appropriate speed and expression.

Comprehension Strategies – Apply various comprehension strategies, such as predicting, summarizing, making connections, visualizing, questioning, and monitoring comprehension.

Vocabulary Development – Expand and strengthen vocabulary by learning new words, understanding word roots and affixes, and using context clues to determine word meanings.

Text Analysis – Analyze and interpret various types of texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and informational texts, by identifying main ideas, supporting details, author’s purpose, tone, and point of view.

Inferential and Critical Thinking – Make inferences and draw conclusions based on explicit and implicit information within the text. Develop critical thinking skills by evaluating the validity of arguments, analyzing different perspectives, and identifying bias or propaganda in texts.

Literary Elements – Recognize and analyze literary elements such as plot, character development, setting, theme, figurative language, and literary devices.

Text Structure and Features – Identify and understand different text structures, such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and chronological order. Utilize and understand features specific to informational texts, such as headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, tables, and graphs.

Media Literacy – Develop the ability to critically analyze and interpret media messages presented in various forms, including online articles, advertisements, videos, and social media posts.

Active Reading Strategies – Employ active reading strategies such as annotating, highlighting, note-taking, and summarizing to enhance comprehension and retention of information.

A 7th grade student can enhance reading comprehension by engaging in regular deep reading sessions, focusing on understanding rather than speed, and taking notes to capture essential ideas. They should challenge themselves by reading diverse materials, from novels to news articles, to gain exposure to varied language structures and concepts. Creating mind maps or outlines can help in organizing information, aiding in the visualization of relationships within the text. Engaging in group discussions or book clubs allows students to gain different perspectives, promoting deeper insights and clarifying misunderstandings. When encountering challenging vocabulary or concepts, it’s beneficial to research and seek external resources, like dictionaries or reference materials. It also can help to focus on periodic self-quizzing on the material, or explaining the content to someone else, can reinforce understanding and highlight areas needing further review.

What Novels Do 7th Graders Commonly Read in School?

The novels that 7th graders read in school can vary depending on the curriculum and the school district. However, here are some popular novels that are commonly taught in 7th-grade English/language arts classes:

• “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
• “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
• “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank
• “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
• “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio
• “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan (first book in the Percy Jackson series)
• “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner
• “The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963” by Christopher Paul Curtis
• “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
• “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor
• “The Westing Game” by Ellen Raskin
• “Freak the Mighty” by Rodman Philbrick
• “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson
• “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen

These novels often provide engaging stories and themes that resonate with 7th-grade students while exploring important concepts such as friendship, identity, social issues, resilience, and empathy.

However, it’s important to note that the specific novels taught in 7th-grade classrooms can vary, and the above list is not exhaustive. The curriculum may differ based on the school, district, or individual teacher preferences.

Reading Comprehension Worksheets & Tests

Free, printable and accessible online – made especially for the seventh grade

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7th grade worksheets instructions

All worksheets have 3 versions:.

Just the text

The text with the questions

The text with the questions and the answers

We constructed it this way in order to reduce the amount of pages you need to print. We encourage you to print the version with the answers just once, for your own reference.

Use these texts online

We more strongly encourage you to use these texts online. Other than ecological reasons, practicing reading comprehension online is also much easier to grade, simplifies tracking of progress, adaptive to the level of the specific student, and increases motivation to practice with the students.

Register to ReadTheory and unlock the answers to all worksheets on the site.

7th grade teaching tips

An important skill that’s emphasized in seventh-grade reading classes is understanding the use of fiction to alter history. That is, students are challenged to recognize how a literary piece can take creative license with actual historical events, thereby resulting in a compelling historical fiction novel. Likewise, it is expected that seventh-grade readers be able to analyze how characters interact with one another, their environment, events, ideas, and so forth. For example, students should be able to tell in their own words how a particular character is influenced by the events in his or her life. The strategies outlined below can assist students in developing these skills. Go over the worksheets below and add your own exercises based on these strategies.

Create Character Posters

A character poster combines reading and art by having students draw a character from a reading. In addition to the drawing, students are asked to list quotes from the text that best display the character’s personality. Students are further asked to explain how those personality traits have been shaped by the character’s life experience. This is an excellent activity for building analytical skills.

Provide Structure for Reading Historical Fiction

Providing students with structured reading time for historical fiction allows you to help direct their attention as they read. Specifically, ask students to pay attention to the details in the reading and analyze whether those details are accurate, in their opinion. For example, ask students to consider if the author has accurately described the historical period, if the plot follows actual events, and if the characters belong in the timeframe of the reading. If so, how? If not, why not?

Ask Students to Cite Evidence

When analyzing character development and historical accuracy, students must be able to cite evidence to support their position. Model this practice by using a short passage and then presenting your own opinion about the reading based on specific details in the text. Then ask students to do the same, having them write down 2-3 pieces of evidence that support their opinion.

You can also find hundreds of 7th-grade reading comprehension worksheets available for purchase at readtheoryworkbooks.com  

7th grade worksheets

Below are 10 reading comprehension worksheets and tests that are accurately measured to fit the 7th grade level.

Ultramarathons

Lexile level

Num of questions

Types of questions

Central message, lesson or moral, Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view, Facts vs. opinions inference

Text & Questions

Text, Questions & Answers

The American Crow

lesson or moral, Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view

Cause and effect comprehension, Central message, Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view

Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view, Facts vs. opinions inference

Joey and The Field Guide

Considering Cockroaches

Central message, Facts vs. opinions inference, Cause and effect comprehension, Identifying the author’s point of view.

Central message, lesson or moral, Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view, Cause and effect comprehension

An Honorable Tradition

Central message, Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view, Cause and effect comprehension,Identifying intent and conclusions.

All the Wonders

Central message, Facts vs. opinions inference, Identifying the main topic and key ideas.

A New Parking Garage

Identifying the main topic and key ideas, Identifying the author’s point of view, Cause and effect comprehension, Identifying a problem and solution described in the text

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7th Grade Worksheets & Activities

Welcome to our 7th grade worksheets! As the middle school learners make their way through another year, they are journeying deeper into their skills and content matter.

In particular, seventh grade learners must write confidently about themes, nonfiction, and analyze readings to understand how they fit together and what they reveal. At this grade level, learners will need to show more command when organizing their writing and citing details to support their ideas in more extended responses. They will be writing with multi-page responses. These learners will also need to think more critically about their speaking and listening skills as they aim to meet the rising challenges of upper K-12 schoolwork.

Types of Poetry Examples and Activities

There are many different types of poetry, such as: haiku, limerick, acrostic, cinquain, concrete, free verse, odes, and more. These varieties can be used for different occasions and modes of expression; each is unique. Below, you’ll find links to our printable resources for different types of poetry examples and activities.…

Metaphor Worksheets

Welcome to our library of printable metaphor worksheets for elementary and middle school students! Metaphors are powerful tools that enrich our understanding and communication by drawing imaginative comparisons between seemingly unrelated things. For young students, mastering metaphors can significantly enhance their reading comprehension, creative writing, and overall language skills. Our…

Inference Worksheets

There’s no doubt that inferencing skills are some of the most challenging to teach (and learn) in any classroom. Students need close reading skills, as well as the confidence, to make a strong inference about what they’re reading. If you’re looking for resources on teaching this skill to your students,…

Book Report Templates

Book reports often ask students to summarize, reflect, and share their ideas. We’ve created a series of book report templates that you can use or adapt based on a variety of learning needs. While this task may reflect individual preferences and insights, it can be collaborative. Students can share in…

Essay Outline Templates

Looking for a great way to help your students learn how to organize their essays? Organization is one of the key elements of successful writing, but it’s true that sometimes students struggle to get their ideas on paper in a way that is coherent. Use our printable essay outline templates…

Context Clues Anchor Chart

It’s all about the clues! Utilizing context clues involves using patience and strategies in order to determine the meaning of an unknown word. For early literacy students, this is essential. Use our printable context clues anchor chart on paper or as a digital resource. Remember, anchor charts can be used…

Inference Anchor Chart

Inferencing skills depend on the learner’s use of text clues and information in combination with what they already know. For many students, building prior knowledge and close reading are important aspects of developing sound inferencing skills. Students have to build confidence in both skills in order to determine educated assertions…

Designing Solutions Skills Extension Activity

Let’s think and plan with our Designing Solutions Skills Packet! Crafted for teachers instilling a passion for critical thinking, this resource guides students through real-world problem-solving scenarios. Differentiated for diverse learners, it fosters creativity and equips students with the skills needed to think about effective design solutions for others.This is…

Predicting Outcomes Extension Activity

Master the art of foresight with our Predicting Outcomes Extension Activity Packet! Ideal for educators shaping strategic thinking skills, this resource challenges students to analyze scenarios and anticipate results. This is also a great tool to promote organized discussion, teamwork, and empathy. A student’s ability to make informed predictions with…

Black History Extension Activity: Modern Influencers (4-part activity)

Who’s in the news? None other than these modern influencers! Black History Month is a time to celebrate the vibrant history of Black Americans and to honor the achievements continued by current generations. In our Black History Month: Modern Influencers Extension Activity Packet, choose from worksheets that help students explore…

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Reading Games, Videos, and Texts for 7th Grade

Textual Evidence

Textual Evidence and Inference

How Ideas Are Related

How ideas are related

Determine Two or More Central Ideas in a Text

Central Ideas in a Text

Citing Textual Evidence 8th Grade

Textual evidence and inferencing

Analyzing Elements in a Story

Elements of a short story

Comparing Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction

How Does an Author Distinguish Their Point of View

Author's Point of View and Goal

Citing Evidence

Author's Point of View from Inferences

Comparing a Text to Audio

Print vs. Multimedia Text

Developing Theme

Thematic development

Determining Central Ideas in a Text

Making Textual Connections

Text development

Structure of a Story, Drama, or Poem

Relating Pieces to the Whole

Analyzing Structure

Text Structure

Comparing Text to an Audio or Video Version

How Does Text Structure Contribute to Ideas?

Determining Textual Interactions

Making Text Connections

Contrasting Point of View

Using Evidence To Support Inferences In A Text

Cite textual evidence

Reading Activities and Teaching Resources for 7th Grade

In reading, 7th graders are learning a thing or two about what happens between the lines, analyzing complex texts, and starting to write their own literary masterpieces. Students are reading more critically, applying knowledge from multiple sources, and developing the skills they’ll need to accurately interpret an ever-more-opaque media landscape.

For a more comprehensive look at eSpark's standards-aligned sixth grade reading teaching resources, check out the breakdown of covered domains and the skills students will be working on here:

Some of the skills students will master in eSpark include:

Reading Literature

• Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
• Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
• Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
• Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
• Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

Reading Informational

• Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
• Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
• Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
• Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).
• Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
• Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.

eSpark is truly unique in the world of online learning. Our holistic, student-centered approach blends the proven benefits of play-based learning with systematic, explicit, and direct instruction. It’s proof that learning can be fun, personalized, and effective, all at once!

eSpark meets the criteria for evidence-based interventions under ESSA guidelines, and has been proven in multiple studies to improve student performance in math and reading.

When you sign up for an eSpark account, your students experience these activities via adaptive, differentiated independent pathways and teacher-driven small group assignments. Teachers also have access to detailed usage and progress reports with valuable insights into standards mastery, student growth trends, and intervention opportunities.

With the addition of the game-changing Choice Texts for the 2023-2024 school year, eSpark has cemented its status as the most loved supplemental instruction option for students and teachers alike. Claim your free account today and see the difference for yourself!

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7th Grade Reading Comprehension Activities: Games, Reports, Read-Alouds, And Resources

February 24, 2024 //  by  Nicole Muir

By the time your student reaches the 7th grade, he should be acclimated to the middle school environment. 7th grade students will strengthen the reading skills they learned in the 6th grade. They will do this by reading more complex texts and essays.

The students will be responsible for more deeply analyzing texts and providing textual evidence as support. These textual details will allow the 7th grade students to analyze, develop ideas, and make inferences which will strengthen their reading comprehension skills.

This article will provide you with activities to assist you as you help your students become better readers.

1. 40 Anchor Charts to Increase Reading Comprehension

These 40 anchor charts will help you increase the understanding of story elements, context clues, literary elements, characters, and more as you strive to increase 7th-grade reading comprehension skills. Start using these charts today! You can find these charts here.

Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots

2. Body Biographies

This character poster engages your 7th grade students and provides them with lots of fun! This activity can be used to teach character analysis for a character in any book the students are reading. It allows students to infer character traits and values from details found within the text. You can find this fun and engaging lesson here.

Learn More: Study All Knight

3. Body Biographies

This excellent activity can be used with any book and any grade level, but it is perfect for seventh-grade reading classes. Your students will learn about character development, character traits, and character conflict as the teacher guides them through this terrific lesson. You can learn about this amazing activity here.

Learn More: Amy Lemons

4. Story Element Cards

Use this great activity for a review of story elements. These editable cards allow you to create a story element wall or bulletin board for any book your 7th graders are reading in class. They will learn all about exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Begin using these cards today! Find out more about this great activity here.

Learn More: Caffeine Queen Teacher

5. Socratic Soccer Ball

The Socratic soccer ball activity is a terrific activity to keep your 7th grade students engaged! You can use any soccer ball and a permanent marker to create this activity. Fill the ball with literary questions that can be used with any 7th grade reading level text . To learn more about this story ball, check here.

Learn More: Building Book Love

6. Prediction Passages

This valuable lesson encourages students to use their pre-reading skills. Students will use their prior knowledge to make predictions and inferences about the 7th grade level text they are about to read. This activity is also a terrific way to teach about foreshadowing. Please visit this site to learn more about how to implement this activity with your 7th graders.

Learn More: English Oh My

7. Sticky Notes to Teach Reading Strategies

Middle school students love sticky notes!  Therefore, 7th graders will enjoy learning reading comprehension strategies with sticky notes. Students will learn more about monitoring comprehension, activating prior knowledge, making connections, synthesizing, visualizing, and making inferences. Visit this site to learn how to use sticky notes to teach reading strategies to your students.

Learn More: The Pathway 2 Success

8. Retell, Relate & Reflect

This book analysis technique is a wonderful way to get your 7th-grade students to think about their reading in a more helpful way. This reading strategy will help them to dig much deeper into their thinking by first summarising the story in retelling it. In the next step, encourage them to relate to the characters or plot, before reflecting on what they’ve read.

Learn More: Minds In Bloom

9. Chit Chat Cards for Brian’s Winter

Brian’s Winter  is a terrific novel to use with 7th grade students. This excellent activity offers Chit Chat cards that allow students the opportunity for discussion. They read the chapter cards and have conversations about the chapter with mall groups, partners, or the entire class. Students will be engaged as they reflect and discuss. Find this free activity here.

Learn More: Mrs. Beers

10. Summary Sentences

Using summary sentences with your students allows you to understand what your students are comprehending from different sections of reading passages. These sentences can be used with various lengthen fiction and nonfiction texts. Visit this site to learn more about summary sentences.

11. Reader’s Notebooks

Reader’s notebooks can be so helpful throughout upper elementary. By seventh grade, students tend to become more and more independent, while teachers push them to build on this skill. Providing students with guided notebooks to enhance different comprehension skills is vital to their knowledge and understanding.

12. Choice Board

Providing students with a choice board gives helps them to decide what types of learning and projects they like most. It gives them the space to be both creative and independent. Giving students the chance to play games with the choice board can be even more engaging.

Pro tip: Even 7th graders love free time! Offer incentives for the most points or total class points. 

Learn More: Smore

13. Reading Rubrics

It’s no secret that students are becoming more and more curious about how their grades are calculated by 7th grade. Therefore, providing students with a detailed outline of which points and direction teachers are looking for is essential for student success. Reading rubrics is a simple and great way to do exactly that! They can also be tailored to meet the curriculum and standards that are trying to be met.

Learn More: Mary Idefalco

14. Cereal Box Book Reports

Every year I get students who are obsessed with art projects. It’s so important in seventh grade to foster that creativity. One great way to spread it across the curriculum is by finding different books that are able to be made into book reports. The cereal box book reports are one of my go-to’s that students absolutely love!

Learn More: SBSD

15. Figurative Language Task Cards

Figurative language is found throughout all types of reading. Whatever the genre, Figurative language is there. Therefore, understanding it will absolutely help to enhance your 7th graders’ reading comprehension. Incorporating task cards with QR codes into the classroom can be a fun way to let students check their own work.

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

16. Writing Prompts

It’s no surprise that there is a huge correlation between reading and writing. Designing your writing prompts around your reading curriculum can be a huge part of the overall understanding from students. When students can form a layout through their writing, they can better understand the author’s overall layout and hopefully, better understand the writing overall.

Learn More: 54 7th Grade Writing Prompts

17. Goal Setting

Setting goals becomes part of daily life during middle school. Students are used to having objectives and goals set for them throughout elementary and younger grades. By 7th grade, it’s time to start setting their own goals! Setting reading goals is one of the best ways to help your students do this.

Learn More: Classroom Nook

18. Push Pin Poetry

Push pin poetry is a fun way to expand comprehension beyond simple fiction or non-fiction texts. This interactive display will inspire and encourage your kiddos to make connections between a range of words as they add to it, growing the collaborative poems! They’ll also be inferring meaning from their classmates’ work as they add to the board!

Learn More: Laughter And Literacy

19. Stop and Jot

Seventh graders are hard because they’re stuck in the in-between of teenagers and kiddos. It’s hard to find activities that they’ll love, while still providing them with age-appropriate learning techniques. This poster will be a great visual in the classroom to help remind them of the best comprehension strategies and skills they’ve learned in previous grades.

Learn More: Pinterest

20. Mind Maps

Mind maps are some of the best ways to help your students to be creative, while also being problem solvers and note-takers. Creating a mind map specific to a book can help them put everything they read into their own creative thoughts. Making it easier to comprehend, process, and display the information. Here is an example of how to integrate them into your classroom.

Learn More: Mind Werx

21. RACE Approach

Most likely by 7th grade your kiddos have probably heard of or used the RACE acronym in their reading classes. If they haven’t it might be time to chat with the other teachers in your school about integrating it! This is an easily explainable and engaging strategy to comprehend different reading materials.

Learn More: Henry County Schools

22. Riddles, Riddles, Riddles

Rindles are a fun and engaging pastime that students of all ages will love. The best part about riddles is that they’re engaging, but also extremely beneficial for gaining a better understanding of context. There are many different aspects to understanding context, thankfully riddles help your kiddos expand on their current knowledge.

Learn More: 100 Riddles To Keep Your Students Engaged and Entertained!

23. Understanding Reading Comprehension

Understanding the entire idea of reading comprehension could be really beneficial to your students. It’s sort of like giving them certain objectives to reach. It helps students to monitor and assess their own learning and where they’re at with their understanding.

Pro tip: After this video, work together with students to create some reading objectives for the month, year, quarter, whatever!

Learn More: My ABC English

24. Audiobooks

Audiobooks are extremely helpful for students and their comprehension development. Listening to audiobooks helps students to learn more advanced vocabulary and allows them to relax and draw better mental images.

Learn More: Tristan Mason

25. Read Alouds

Even in 7th grade, read-alouds are still important for students and their reading skills. Students may be older and less engaged, but deep down, they need to be listening to different stories. This will help to both improve their fluency and improve their mental imagery.

Learn More: Imagination Soup

26. Collaborative Reading

Working off one another is always helpful for any student. Whether they need help with comprehension or fluency, working with peers almost always shows improvement. Using prompts during these short readings can be very beneficial to each member or partner in a group.

27. Text Message Analysis

Getting students to analyze a text can be very challenging in the middle school grades. This activity provides students with plenty of engagement potential as they will love the text message format.

28. Making Inferences

Making inferences is essentially using the information that is presented and making assumptions about the unknown. This is huge when reading different types of texts! Using a picture of the day to encourage students to make inferences is an engaging and adequate way to get the  wheels turning .

Learn More: Mung Fali

29. Roll a Response

When it comes to reading projects, doing the same thing can be a little bit daunting. Not only for students but also for teachers. Therefore, Roll a Response is a perfect way to provide different projects to students or groups in the classroom.

Learn More: Simple K12

30. Asking Questions

Build rapport with your students, while getting them to answer tough questions. Asking and answering questions is never easy, especially when reading or working in groups. Especially, when you’re 12. Providing students with an outlet and making questions asking a totally acceptable thing in your classroom will help to build a community between students.

Learn More: Battle Creek Middle School

31. Responsible 7th Graders

Handing out a syllabus in the 7th grade might just be your next biggest adventure. Honestly, giving seventh graders a syllabus just helps them to become more responsible. Not only giving it to them but also constantly referring back to it. This will help them throughout their classes as they grow.

Learn More: Slide Player

32. Daily Reading Comprehension

The Evan-Moor daily book set is one of the most helpful additions to any classroom. These pages can be used daily and are linked across the curriculum to a variety of standards. They can also help you and your students to teach objectives within a short amount of time.

Learn More: Amazon

33. Comprehension Jenga

No matter the age or grade, when games are brought into the classroom, students are engaged. Incorporating Jenga into your centers or reading lessons can be a great way to provoke student conversation.

Pro tip: Write questions on pieces of paper and tape them onto Jenga blocks to be used for multiple subjects.

Learn More: Jodi Ann

34. Game Show Quiz

If you’ve read a book or a story and need a fun way to get students engaged in their learning, create a game show quiz! Better yet, have students create their own Game Show quiz! They will absolutely love creating and participating in these Game Show activities.

Learn More: Worldwall

35. Create a Matching Game

Another great online game that students can create is a matching game. These can be made to practice vocabulary, learn new words in a story, or really anything that requires students to memorize! It’s a perfect way to build up vocabulary and ultimately comprehension skills.

36. Video Lessons

Video lessons can be a super way to add a little excitement to your comprehension activities. Edpuzzle is a fantastic resource where you can craft your own video lessons for your class, including your own video and audio, YouTube videos, and interactive questions. These lessons would be perfect for your kids to work through at a computer or device with some headphones in to keep them focused!

Learn More: Edpuzzle

37. Exit Tickets

As kiddos get older, assessments get more complicated. Exit tickets are great informal assessments that can really be used for any grade, in any subject. These reading exit tickets are a great way to assess students’ understanding of a specific chapter or story read.

38. Vision Boards

Creating vision boards with students is so much fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re working with figurative language, poetry, or just simple book reports integrating vision board creation can be icing on the cake. Students will love getting their hands on cutting up magazines and printing from computers to create their visionary masterpieces.

Learn More: Develop Good Habits

Concluding Thoughts

Since 7th graders must learn to more deeply analyze a text and provide evidence from the text, these activities are great resources to help you achieve these goals with your students. You should be able to implement these activities into your lesson plans to increase your students’ reading comprehension skills and help them become the best readers they can be!

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Printable 7th Grade Reading & Writing Worksheets

Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

7th Grade Reading: Informational Text

For seventh graders, this Common Core area helps students gain mastery of the deeper tasks involved in reading a non-fiction text. No matter what they are reading, the standards require students to increase the complexity in the texts they read and deepen their understanding of the connections within and between texts. Among the complete standards for this grade, seventh graders will be asked to: support a textual analysis with multiple direct citations and textual inferences, analyze the structure that authors use within a text to convey meaning, understand how an author has structured their writing to distinguish their meaning and analysis from other texts on the same subject, begin to analyze how stories change when presented in audio, video or multimedia versions of the text, read text appropriate to grade level while increasing in the level of text complexity throughout the year.

Active and Passive Transport

Week 5 Reading Comprehension (E-5). This reading segment describes how a membrane allows things to move in and out of the cell. Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science.

Bartering for Basics

Week 6 Reading Comprehension (E-6). A passage about early Native American Indian groups and how they bartered for goods. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Customs and Traditions

Week 3 Reading Comprehension (E-3). Reading passage and questions about the customs and traditions of native American Indian groups in rth America Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Drawing a Conclusion

This worksheet on drawing conclusions will take your student into the realm of fantasy.

Main Idea Organizer

Teach your students how to organize their writing with this helpful Main Idea Organizer. Students will be asked to complete the worksheet by writing their own main idea, three details, and a summary. This will help your students better understand how to organize their ideas for writing in the future, especially when writing an essay!

Understanding the Author’s Language: Across the Plains

Sometimes it is difficult to know what the author means when you read his writing. Figurative language can be hard to understand. Here is a free worksheet with an excerpt fom Across the Plains to print out. After your students read it, they will answer questions on what the author meant when he said certain things.

Water Cycle

Week 25 Reading Comprehension (E-25). A reading passage about water’s three different forms or states: solid, liquid, gas. Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science.

What’s in Your Cells?

Week 2 Reading Comprehension (E-2). This passage describes how living things are made up of cells, and cells have specific structure Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science.

Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Your student can read about the life of Abraham Lincoln and write a short summary in this worksheet.

Coyote: the Survivor of North America

Your student will read a short informational passage about the coyote and then practice finding supporting evidence.

Draw a Conclusion: Visual Details

Your student will use visual clues to make inferences about a group of pictures in this worksheet.

Earthquakes

Your student will determine the contextual meaning of words in this informative passage about earthquakes.

Grand Canyon

Your student will learn about the Grand Canyon and determine the meanings of words in the passage.

Inference Practice 2: Where Am I?

Here’s some inference practice for your middle school student.

Main Idea Graphic Organizer

Staying organized can be difficult, especially when you are trying to keep your writing and ideas well organized. With this printable Main Idea Graphic Organizer, students can keep their thoughts and ideas organized and separated based on their order of importance.

Susan B. Anthony and the Right to Vote

Susan B. Anthony was very important in women’s right to vote. Here is a exercise for students to read and then answer related questions.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

In this worksheet, your student will be asked to analyze the influence of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Americans.

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7th grade reading & vocabulary

Unit 1: trailblazing women, unit 2: mysteries of the past, unit 3: living tongues.

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537 Comments

School marm.

I assigned a nonfiction passage and test and posted it to Google Classroom through this site. How do I retrieve the scores? Thanks!

I do not store any student data due to COPPA regulations.

Please read this for more information about score collecting / keeping: https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/e-reading-worksheets/remote-learning-resources-for-covid-19-shutdowns/#how-to-assign-an-ereading-worksheet

I am loving these online test so fun

Sometimes on the iPad the online versions of the worksheets freeze. Is there something I can do? I’m having my daughter work on the inference one specifically right now. Thank you

I will look into it…

tabletpc.news

clues climber and Super Grammar Ninja, could you recommend similar games or activities for practicing context clues and grammar? Thank you!

Leslie Sammarco

What a gold mine! Thank you so much for creating and sharing this!

Question: Is there a way to print answer keys to the context clue vocabulary worksheets? Or are they only available to view?

If you try PRINTING the page, I think they format pretty nicely. Let me know what you think.

Dominica Brandon

Can I find past scores from quizes?

No, no student data is stored on this site.

Thanks so much for all your hard work. We are not supplied adequate curriculum in our school, so are always having to hunt down the best ways to teach different concepts. Your materials are rigorous, but also easy to understand. Thanks again!

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45+ Ways to Teach Social-Emotional Learning Every Day

Incorporate SEL all day long.

In addition to, and during all the reading, writing, and arithmetic that students learn in school, they’re also learning social-emotional or SEL skills. Social-emotional skills include self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship building, and decision making. Whether or not your school uses an SEL curriculum, you can incorporate SEL skills throughout the day with activities that help students think about feelings, build relationships, resolve conflict, and make good decisions. Here are our favorite ways to incorporate SEL into your school day with ideas for preschool through high school, because SEL skills are skills you never stop learning!

Learn more: What is social-emotional learning?

1. Reference an emotions bulletin board

Little kids have big feels, and they need to learn the words to match their emotions. Use this free bulletin board kit to create a reference for students as they’re learning feelings. Have students identify the way they are feeling during morning meeting. Or, for older students, use the bulletin board to name feelings and synonyms for various feelings. And, have students refer t to the bulletin board when they are analyzing literature and characters’ feelings.

Learn more: Free Emotions Bulletin Board Kit

2. Start the day with a greeting

Start the day at your door greeting each student. Use this greeting sign to give students choice in how they greet you each day. A daily greeting starts the day off to a good start, and gives you a quick check in with each student. Kindergarteners may want to tell you all about their weekend, while you may notice that a high schooler is looking stressed. 

Learn more: Classroom Greeting Sign

3. Use a Feelings Chart

Talk about feelings on the regular. Use this feelings bundle to incorporate a feelings check in each day with younger students, and to provide older students with all the words they need to describe their feelings in a journal prompt. The more practice students have at expressing their feelings, the better they are at managing them. 

Learn more: Feelings Chart 

4. Set a daily mindfulness routine

At the start of a lesson or day, take a few minutes for mindfulness. Choose mindfulness activities that match your class. Yoga for a busy bunch, music for older students, or a guided meditation for students who love to visualize a story. 

Learn more: Mindfulness Activities for Kids 

5. Practice positive affirmations

The way students talk to themselves impacts how they persist, feel about their day, and how they interact with others. Use these daily affirmation cards to help students develop positive self-talk. Pass them out at the start of a week and have students reflect on what each statement means to them. Can they incorporate their statement into their internal talk this week? At the end of the week, have them share or write a reflection about how the statement shaped their week. 

Learn more: Positive Affirmation Cards

6. Get into the habit of journaling

Younger students can get in the habit of writing their thoughts and feelings with weekly journal prompts. Older students can use a mindfulness journal to track how they feel and what they’re thinking across a week, month, or school year. 

Learn more: Mindfulness Journal

7. Take regular brain breaks

Brain breaks-where you completely set aside academic work and spend time moving, listening, or even being silent-help students reset and get ready for more learning. Younger students can do a dance or movement break. Older students can color to music for one minute. 

8. Use the Worry Iceberg

Building emotional resilience includes understanding how first impressions can be incomplete. Help students develop emotional resilience with a worry iceberg activity. Have students think about a situation that made them anxious. What could they see? What was also happening underneath? How does knowing the whole “iceberg” help them understand the situation? And, what can they do in the future to get the whole “iceberg” when a situation arises? 

Learn more: One-Minute Activities to Build Emotional Resilience

9. Maximize transitions for self-awareness

Use transitions to reinforce self-awareness by having students breathe like an animal, strike a yoga pose, or check in with how they feel.

Learn more: How to use Transition Times for Emotional Health Check-Ins

10. Introduce the Zones of Regulation

Another way for students to check in with their emotions is using the Zones of Regulation. Students identify their feeling zone using the colors. Once they know their zone, they can identify which strategy to use to get back to green (if they’re not there). 

Learn more: Zones of Regulation Activities

11. Schedule a morning meeting

Morning meeting is an important part of elementary school and provides a time for students to reflect on their feelings and actions, talk about concerns that arise during the day, or engage in collaborative decision making. Even in the upper grades, a once-a-week 10 minute check in can serve the same purpose.

12. Teach active listening skills

Students’ are better able to learn, build relationships, and increase social awareness when they’re listening. Teach or reinforce whole body listening to students know what listening looks like, and how to manage their bodies so they are understanding what others say to them.

13. Build in behavior reflection

As students develop self-awareness and self-management, reflecting on their behaviors is an important step. Use behavior reflection sheets to guide students’ reflection and turn behavior situations into a learning opportunity.

Learn more: Behavior Reflection Sheets

14. Create a calm-down corner

A calm down corner is a space students can go to when they need to calm down. Even going to the calm down corner when they are overwhelmed or upset shows that students are developing self-awareness and self-management skills. 

Learn more: How to Create a Calm Down Corner in any Learning Environment

15. Create calm-down jars

A calm-down strategy that students can take with them, a DIY calming jar is a great craft that you can use to talk about the importance of emotional regulation and self-management.

Learn more: DIY Calm Down Jars

16. Try calming mind-body exercise worksheets

Older students can use meditative exercises, like coloring mandalas or doing guided visualizations. Use a variety of mindfulness exercises so each student can find one that works for them.

Learn more: Calming Mind-Body Exercises to Do with Students

17. Model and practice positive self-talk

The words students tell themselves impacts their self-management, persistence, and ultimately their success. Model and reinforce positive self-talk with a self-talk poster. Use these phrases when you’re doing think-alouds and prompting students and encourage them to do the same.

Learn more: Positive Self-Talk Poster for Teens

18. Make DIY stress balls

Part classroom craft project, part SEL activity, DIY stress balls are so much fun! Make them using balloons, slime, beads, and more.

Learn more: 4 Different Ways to Make Stress Balls

19. Assign classroom jobs

Classroom jobs build self-management and responsibility. While younger students ask for classroom jobs, they’re effective for high schoolers too (the tasks of whiteboard cleaner and technology helper come to mind).

Learn more: The Big List of Classroom Jobs

20. Read SEL stories

A story can be a model for social-emotional skills or it can introduce students to scenarios they haven’t experienced yet. For younger students, read picture book and talk about what happens and how the characters feel. For older students, read and discuss novels with SEL themes.

Learn more: Best Social Skills Books for Kids

21. Set and track actionable goals

Setting goals contributes to responsibility, but it doesn’t come naturally. We have to teach students how to set meaningful, reasonable targets, and then give them the tools to track their progress. Seeing how they are progressing also helps students build resilience and perspective.

Learn more: Back-to-School Goal Setting page or Goal Tracking and Stamina worksheets

22. Track important habits

Building new habits takes time and persistence. Use a habit tracker to keep track of how students are progressing towards their goals.

Learn more: Free Habit Tracker Bundle

23. Ask ice-breaker questions

Icebreakers are great for the first day of school, but you can actually incorporate them all year long. Use them when you form new project groups, or when you change the seating around in your room. Talking about different topics helps student practice conversation skills.

Learn more: 200 Fun Icebreaker Questions for Kids and Teens.

24. Hang kindness posters

This free set of printable kindness posters helps spread important messages. When you first put them up, take time to discuss them with your students. Ask them for examples of what kindness looks like, and encourage them to share stories of a time when their kindness made a difference.

Learn more: Kindness Posters

25. Use Social Stories

For young students, and students with disabilities who require explicit instruction in social skills, a social story is a great way to teach them step-by-step approaches for social situations. For all students, social stories can help develop social awareness.

Learn more: Free Printable Social Stories for Kids

26. Teach students to be upstanders

Upstanders reach out to others, especially those who seem like they might be hurting or struggling. Teach kids about the concept, their role in helping build classroom community and helping those who might not feel included, and hang these free printable upstander posters in your classroom. The tear tags offer positive affirmations.

Learn more: Take-One Posters

27. Celebrate students’ diversity

Understanding diversity is important for self-awareness and relationship building. Engage students in thinking about how they are unique, and how our diversity makes us stronger.

Learn more: Diversity and Inclusion Printable Activities

28. Use videos to teach relationship building

Everyone can use a reminder about how to make and keep friends. Use friendship videos in morning meeting to talk about how to make and keep friends. Or, with older students, use them as a friendly and funny reminder of what students likely already know but might not be practicing. As students learn more about relationships, use anti-bullying videos to start a conversation about this topic.

Learn more: 30 Friendship Videos to Teach Kindness and Compassion and 20 Best Anti-Bullying Videos

29. Practice empathy with scenarios

Help students understand and work through common scenarios that engage their empathy as they think about the scenario, how they would feel, and what they would do.

Learn more: 33 Empathy Prompts

30. Use Band-Aids to learn about fairness

Tired of hearing kids whine, “But that’s not fair!”? Build students’ social awareness with teacher Aimee Scott’s fairness lesson. Her quick and simple exercise helps kids understand that fairness doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing—it means everyone gets what they need to be successful.

Learn more: The Band-Aid lesson

31. Play a cooperative game

Kids get plenty of exposure to healthy (and unhealthy) competition, so use classroom time to shift the focus to cooperation instead. Cooperative games encourage kids to communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve together. Point out the skills they’re using during the cooperative games that will help them in relationships as well.

Learn more: Cooperative Games to Promote Camradery and Healthy Competition

32. Create collaborative art

Art is about expressing your individuality, but you can also make something pretty incredible when people pool their talents. Murals, hallway and bathroom displays, kindness rock gardens, and other art projects bring students together to bond over creativity and artistic vision.

Learn more: 50 Collaborative Art Projects

33. Engage in fishbowl discussions

Encourage active listening and communication skills with this classroom idea. After taking some time to think about a topic, a small group of students discusses the issue while other students watch and take notes. After a time, the teacher opens the discussion to the entire group, using notes they made while they watched the small-group discussion.

Learn more: How I use Fishbowl Discussions to Engage Every Student

34. Sticky-note discussions

Teacher Erin Castillo popularized this concept on her Instagram account , and now teachers everywhere use this idea. We love it as a unique way to take attendance or as a bell ringer/entry activity. All you do is post a question on your whiteboard, and ask students to respond (anonymously or with names attached) using sticky notes. You can use “Would You Rather” questions , or try these SEL prompts to really get students thinking and sharing.

35. Play board games

Whether kids are playing to win or working together to achieve a common goal, board games teach lots of decision-making skills. Players have to analyze information, consider their options, and imagine the impacts of their moves on themselves and others.

Learn more: 41 Best Board Games and Other Games

36. Discuss philosophical questions

One of the most incredible ways to encourage critical thinking and self-exploration is to ask kids thought-provoking questions. Hearing the responses and exchanging ideas can really expand our perspectives and leave us with important food for thought.

Learn more: 125 Philosophical Questions for Kids and Teens

37. Get a classroom pet

Want to teach kids about responsibility in an incredibly meaningful way? A class pet could be the answer! When kids work together to care for a hamster, goldfish, lizard, or tarantula(!), they have to make responsible choices about what’s best for the animal. Sure, it’s a challenge for the adults involved, but the benefits can really add up.

Learn more: Best Classroom Pets According to Teachers

38. Set up an escape room

Students love the interactivity of an escape room, where they have to work together to solve a series of problems before their time is up. Escape rooms encourage a lot of responsible decision-making skills, both individually and as a group.

Learn more: How to Set Up and Run a Classroom Escape Room

39. Use Choice Boards

If we want kids to make smart decisions, we’ve got to give them the chance to make choices on their own. One way to do this in the classroom is Choice Boards. These interactive tools give kids several options to choose from on an assignment. They can evaluate the possibilities, and choose the one that seems right to them.

Learn more: How I use Choice Boards to Increase Student Engagement

40. Teach safe online decision making

Let’s face it: Kids and teens aren’t necessarily focusing much on safety—their own or anyone else’s. So it’s important for the adults in their lives to help them learn why safe choices matter, and what they look like to begin with. We’ve got resources for talking to students about prescription drug safety , internet safety , bike safety , underage drinking , and inclusive sex ed .

41. Play Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) can be a fantastic classroom game, and it encompasses a wide range of social-emotional learning activities. Players need to work together, know their own strengths and weaknesses, make smart choices, and so much more.

Learn more: Teachers are Using D&D to Teach SEL Skills.

42. Talk about tough topics

School shootings, racially motivated violence, abortion, gun control—these are topics most teachers tend to shy away from in the classroom. The thing is, kids need a safe place to talk about these issues. They need adults who will help them sort out their thinking and separate fact from opinion. Students need to learn to respectfully disagree with one another and how to have constructive conversations that may lead to compromise.

Learn more: Our Students Want to Talk about Tough Topics

43. Read the news as a class

If you’re going to make smart decisions, you need to be informed. But many kids only learn about the news and current events from single news sources, usually whatever’s playing on their TV at home. Show students how to find a variety of sources to learn about current events. Teach them to think critically and evaluate articles to separate provable facts from opinion. Many teachers love using Newsela, since the articles can be differentiated for different reading levels.

Learn more: 9 Ways to Use Newsela with your Students

44. Have students reflect while they work

As students are working on math problems, have them jot down how they’re feeling at each step of the process. They can jot down emojis or words that show where they were confident, confused, distracted, or frustrated. This can be helpful when reviewing work and thinking about how their emotional state impacted their learning. 

45. Get inspired by SEL heroes

History is full of role models that students can learn from. Use these free character education posters to talk about the qualities you want students to emulate and how they’ve helped others in history. Assign students an SEL hero to research and present about so students can see how others have used SEL skills to change the world.

Learn more: Character Education Posters

46. SEL Superpowers

As students learn about social-emotional skills, encourage them to think about their SEL superpower, or the skills they are best at. Once students have identified their superpower, talk about how they can use their SEL superpowers to help others. To share your superpowers, draw superheroes, put students’ pictures on each one, and write about your SEL superpowers and how your students use them around school.

47. Get in the habit of gratitude

Use a bullet journal or list to reinforce gratitude. In younger classrooms, have students call out the things they are grateful for and create a class list. With older students, spend the last 5 minutes of each class or week reflecting on what they are grateful for. 

Learn more: Bullet Journal Ideas

48. Send home an SEL progress report

We love the idea of giving kids and their families feedback on their SEL skill development! An alternative progress report like the one this teacher uses can help kids zero in on their strengths and weaknesses.

Learn more: SEL Progress Report

What are your favorite social-emotional learning activities? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out 15 ways to teach kindness and gratitude., you might also like.

This Free Mindfulness Journal Will Bring Some Calm to Your Secondary Classroom

Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience. —Jon Kabat-Zin Continue Reading

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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