English Language Arts — Grade 8

Where do the Lumbee live?

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 3.6

Introduction Knowing the location of a community, city, state or nation is important. More important, however, is understanding of the personality of the location. Robeson County, home of the Lumbee Tribe, is more than a North Carolina county that...

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gazelia Carter.

What does it mean?

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 3.5

Introduction Visual symbols can be important ways of communicating ideas. Individuals, corporations, communities, and organizations use logos, seals, flags, icons, and other visual symbols to represent their values, share their histories, and send...

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gazelia Carter.

Teen job search

In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 1.3

In this lesson plan, students research three jobs and draft a written response explaining how their skills and experiences have prepared them for those jobs.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Andrea Fedon, Gail Frank, and Cindy Neininger.

Stories from the Holocaust

This lesson is designed to supplement a study of World War II. Students will read first hand accounts of individuals who escaped Nazi persecution and eventually settled in Asheville, North Carolina. This lesson may be used as an 8th grade Social Studies or English project(It could also be used as an integrated project), 10th grade English, or 11th grade US History. This lesson uses the NCEcho portal to access the material.

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

By Billie Clemens.

Seven directions: Making connections between literature and American Indian history

This middle school lesson uses picture books to integrate American Indian culture and belief systems with language and visual arts.

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

By Edie McDowell.

Lumbee English

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 3.1

Introduction Linguist Walt Wolfram, a professor at North Carolina State University says, “The Lumbee English dialect bears the imprint of the early colonization by the English, Highland Scots, and Scots-Irish. Moreover, Lumbee American Indians’...

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gazelia Carter.

Feel in the blanks

The following lesson is designed to function as a review of beginning, middle, and end and an introduction to individualized imagination, creativity, and perspective as it relates to the development of dialogue (i.e. improvisation).

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

By Lei Knight.

Differences across the curriculum: Part 2

This set of lessons can be used with "Differences across the curriculum: Part 1" as an integrated approach to exploring diversity with eighth graders. The unit will revolve around the use of the drama version of "The Diary of Anne Frank." Students will learn how diversity creates bias, which leads to conflict, where students confront their bias and practice tolerance. These parts reflect the four core curricula in an interwoven approach to teaching students to confront their biases, learn tolerance, and infer the impact of these on today's society. This activity, Part 2, is meant to augment the pre-reading activities completed in Part 1 in a Social Studies class.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Lynn Carter.

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.

Children at Work: Exposing child labor in the cotton mills of the Carolinas

In this lesson, students will learn about the use of child labor in the cotton mills of the Carolinas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They will learn what life was like for a child worker and then write an investigative news report exposing the practice of child labor in the mills, using quotations from oral histories with former child mill workers and photographs of child laborers taken by social reform photographer Lewis Hine.

Format: lesson plan

By Dayna Durbin Gleaves.

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

Why Do We Remember Revere? Paul Revere's Ride in History and Literature

Contains four activities for students to examine how the historical Paul Revere's ride differs from the account in Longfellow's poem, then reflect on why this event is so significant in American cultural history. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Weaving the Threads: Integrating Poetry Annotation and Web Technology

This lesson from ReadWriteThink engages students in meaningful research using poetry as a focal point. Students identify words and phrases in a poem by a Native American and in the process, learn about Native American culture and history. Students create... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Wartime poetry: Working with similes

Students view photographs of children evacuated from Britain during World War II in this lesson that introduces similes. Students choose one character from the photo and describe how that child might have felt. Maintaining the character persona, students... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using QARs to develop comprehension and reflective reading habits

This ReadWriteThink lesson provides a foundation for building reflective reading habits, which enable students to develop higher-level comprehension strategies. Students are introduced to a variety of question-answer relationships (QARs) in an effort to... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to explore identity, stereotyping and discrimination

Using I Can Hear the Sun by Patricia Polacco, The Woman Who Outshone the Sun from a poem by Alejandro Cruz Martinez, and The Secret Footprints by Julia Alvarez,... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using classic poetry to challenge and enrich students' writing

Students learn to read and analyze classic poetry and then write original pieces in this lesson. After looking closely at and discussing each poem collectively, students work together to create an open-ended writing prompt or “link” to stimulate... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using children's literature to develop classroom community

This lesson introduces students to the concept of collaborative learning with an activity based on Shel Silverstein's poem, “What's in the Sack?”. After developing a foundation for group and partner work, students explore children's literature... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

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