English Language Arts — Grade 8

Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines

This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn-of-the-century, and the Great Depression.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Kathryn Walbert.

Life history slide show

Students will use photos to create a slide show of their life. They will plan a presentation based on significant episodes of their life and describe their personal experiences in writing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–9 English Language Arts)

By Mary Lou Faircloth.

Freedom with Harriet: Life on the Underground Railroad

This lesson for grades 6–8 will help students understand the experiences of slaves in the South who sought freedom via the Underground Railroad. Students will analyze a painting and create a living tableau that reflects the issues and emotions the painting evokes.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Dianne Harlow.

Effective communication for successful careers

In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 1.7

In this lesson plan, students consider the elements of effective communication and write an informative or persuasive paper with a particular audience in mind.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Andrea Fedon, Gail Frank, and Cindy Neininger.

E-pal adventure

Students will be paired with an e-pal they will hopefully meet during their 8th grade trip to the coast.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Social Studies)

By Hilda Hamilton.

Dialect Awareness in Literature and Life

Dovey Coe, a young adolescent novel by Frances O'Roark Dowell of Boone, North Carolina, takes place in the 1930s in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The use of mountain dialect continues to remind the reader of the importance of setting in this novel. The study of a selection from this novel will help students realize the impact of dialect in literature as well as their own speaking and writing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Barbara Groome and Jo Peterson Gibbs.

Civil War journals

Integrates creative writing with social studies and enhances knowledge of the effects of the Civil War on people.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gwen A. Jones.

Resources on the web

Writing alternative plots for Robert C. O'Brien's “Z for Zachariah”

In this lesson that concludes a class reading of Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah, students pick a part of the story where Ann makes a critical decision, and they rewrite the remaining portion of the plot. After reading... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Writing a flashback and flash-forward story using movies and texts as models

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students are introduced to examples of flashbacks and flash-forwards through the film The Sandlot and/or illustrated books. Students learn to incorporate details, description, characterization,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Would you have helped out?

Students will investigate the dangers faced by escaping slaves and their helpers on the Underground Railroad. Students consider whether they would have helped the escaping slaves. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts, Guidance, Information Skills, and Social Studies)

Provided by: National Geographic

What portraits reveal

Students recognize that portraits, whether paintings or photographs, can tell us more about people of the past than just what they looked like. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Traveling the road to freedom through research and historical fiction

Students learn about and discuss slavery and the Underground Railroad in this lesson that explores historical fiction and webquests. Once students have brainstormed characteristics of historical fiction, the teacher reviews characterization and explains... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Revolutionary tea parties and the reasons for revolution

Contains five activities for students exploring the context and significance of the Boston Tea Party of 1774. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

A picture's worth a thousand words: From image to detailed narrative

The old cliche “A picture is worth a thousand words” is put to the test in this ReadWriteThink lesson. While students may not actually write exactly a thousand words, they will have the chance to think critically about their interpretations... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Orphan trains

In this lesson students will develop their ideas about social trade-offs by examining the history of the Orphan Trains and the New York Children's Aid Society, created in 1853. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

My life/your life: A look at your parents' past

The goal of this lesson is to help students make connections between their experiences and those of their parents through reflection and writing. After students become familiar with the format of interviews by evaluating sample questions and answers of... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Memories Matter: "The Giver" and Descriptive Writing Memoirs

Students read The Giver by Lois Lowry, as well as short biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs in order to understand the differences between them. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Introducing each other: Interviews, memoirs, photos, and internet research

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students read, write, speak, listen, and research as they interview a partner and write an article, write a personal memoir, take partner photographs, and use the Internet to find pictures and information illustrating... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Graphic life map

This lesson from ReadWriteThink features a prewriting activity for personal memoir or autobiographical writing. Students brainstorm for important memories, create graphics or symbols for their most important memories, and construct a life map on tag board... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Fairy tale autobiographies

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will work in groups to read and analyze fairy tales, brainstorm for events in their lives that could be changed into fairy tales, and develop setting, characters, and plot for their fairy tale. Students will... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink