English Language Arts — Grade 8

Where do the Lumbee live?

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 2.8

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 3–4 and 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gazelia Carter.

What does it mean?

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 2.7

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.

Paideia seminar plan: "A Soldier Recalls the Trail of Tears"

In this Paideia seminar, students examine the text of an 1890 letter written by an American soldier. In the letter, the soldier, now eighty years old, recalls being tasked with helping to forcibly relocate North Carolina's Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma in 1837–1838.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Terry Roberts.

N.C.- The Rip Van Winkle State

This lesson introduces students to Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle" and correlates it with the history of North Carolina. In the 1800s North Carolina was nicknamed "The Rip Van Winkle State."

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

By Kay D. Lopossay.

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 Historical content includes American slavery, the turn of the century, and the Great Depression.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.

Learning literary elements through African and African American folktales

In this eighth grade lesson, students will apply their knowledge of literary elements (plot structure and archetypal characters) to the analysis and creation of African and African American folktales. Students will work in groups to read several picture book versions of African and African American folktales. Each group then creates a plot map for a story and highlights other literary elements identified within the text. Students then compare the folktales with fairy tales from other cultures and explain what they learned about African and African American culture from reading the folktales. Finally, students work independently to write their own modern-day folktale.

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

By Hardin Engelhardt.

Good medicine

Students will examine changes in technology, medicine, and health that took place in North Carolina between 1870 and 1930 and construct products and ideas which demonstrate understanding of how these changes impacted people living in North Carolina at that time. To achieve these goals, students will employ the eight intelligences of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory.

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

By Leslie Ramsey.

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 and Theater Arts Education)

By Lynn Carter.

Comparing resumés

In CareerStart lessons: Grade eight, page 1.1

In this lesson plan, students will work in groups, acting as hiring committees for a college newspaper staff. Students will use two candidates' resumés to determine which applicant is the best fit for the job.

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

By Andrea Fedon, Gail Frank, and Cindy Neininger.

The case of the disappearing pitcher plants

This lesson addresses the cause and effect relationship between human interaction and a North Carolina endangered plant species. A role-playing scenario allows students to view the situation from a variety of positions and to collectively arrive at a solution to the problem.

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

By Eddie Hamblin.

Walk Two Moons: An integrated unit

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is a bittersweet story of a teenager who desperately wants to be reunited with her mother. This unit is an integrated study combining setting, theme, point of view, character, and plot with geography and geometry.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Janet Fore.

Resources on the web

You can't spell the word "prefix" without a prefix

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students learn in a cooperative setting to identify, define, and construct words with prefixes. First, students guess at initial meanings and spellings of words. They then correct misspellings using spelling strategies developed... (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

Scaling back to essentials: Scaffolding summarization with fishbone mapping

Students learn effective reading strategies in this lesson that focuses on a nonfiction piece about nature. The lesson includes explicit instruction on how to use repeated references as a strategy for determining important information in a text and how... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Scaffolding comprehension strategies using graphic organizers

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, collaborative strategic reading (CSR) is initially presented to students through modeling and whole-class instruction. To facilitate comprehension during and after reading, students apply four reading strategies: preview,... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Reciprocal revision: Making peer feedback meaningful

This lesson from ReadWriteThink is designed to help middle school students develop more constructive peer feedback on writing through the use of reciprocal teaching strategies. Students observe online examples of artwork, and use the strategies of predicting,... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Persuasive essay: Environmental issues

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students explore environmental issues that are relevant to their own lives, self-select topics, and gather information to write persuasive essays. Although this lesson focuses on the environment as a broad topic, many other... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Literature circle roles reframed: Reading as a film crew

Students read and analyze books in this lesson where film production roles are substituted for the traditional literature circle roles. After students brainstorm roles found in film crews, they consider what the possible responsibilities of these jobs would... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Leading to great places in the middle school classroom

In this lesson that examines leads in literature, students consider how an author's description of setting, action, character, and use of reflection can create strong leads. After the teacher shares examples of great leads, students rate and discuss their... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Found poems/Parallel poems

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will write found poems using a descriptive passage from a piece of literature they are reading. Then they will underline key words, and using these key words, and following the format in their found poems, they... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink