This case study of a university-school collaborative project examines the roles that seventh grade language arts students can play in classroom curricular decision making, the degree to which a teacher can negotiate with students about content, and how both students and teacher are able to balance the dynamics of control and responsibility for learning within an integrative language arts curriculum. A thematic unit was developed based on student concerns about death of the individual and of the Earth. The instructional outline included a time of reflective thinking and focusing, a time for discussion, and a time for group and individual learning. The teacher's role became one of facilitator, through questioning and asking for clarification of student projects, and negotiator, through identifying the parameters of study and allowing students to make choices and assume responsibilities for their learning. The paper concludes that the students eagerly accepted the invitation of negotiated decision making with their teacher and took their role as partner in learning seriously. An integrative curriculum was found to be a feasible way to approach sharing control in the language arts curriculum. The students actively engaged in content, language activities, social learning, and academic interaction while exercising their values and voices in decision making. Students' personal and social concerns intertwined, motivating students to learn. (Contains 11 references.) (JDD)