English Language Arts — Grade 8

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.

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 Historical content includes American slavery, the turn-of-the-century, and the Great Depression.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

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I Have A Dream” speech

Students will display their understanding of the symbolism and references that Dr. King used to enrich his famous speech on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by constructing a “jackdaw,” a collection of documents and objects.

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

By Charlotte Lammers.

Is no man an island?

This unit is designed to encourage thinking about our connectedness to and responsibilities toward others. Materials in this unit are used to demonstrate humankind's need to refute an impersonal natural order.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Jewell Kendrick.

Interpreting a short story

Students will study the literary genre of the short story and examine how, through writing, an author can comment directly/indirectly on our society as a whole. Hopefully, the students will develop an awareness of the problems/concerns facing our society and an appreciation of how a skilled writer can mirror society's ills and sometimes offer solutions for the problems that plague us.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Regina Johnson.

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.

Folklife

Students will learn North Carolina folklore, traditions, war activities, local legends, superstitions, food preparation traditions, art, songs and dances which are unique to the area.

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

By Carolyn Early.

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.

Resources on the web

You know the movie is coming—Now what?

After exploring cinematic terms, students read a literary work with director's eyes and then try to predict what elements would be present in the film version of the book. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Writing Free Verse in the "Voice" of Cesar Chavez

Students familiarize themselves with the characteristics of free verse and write a free verse poem using written material about labor activist Cesar Chavez. Students take notes about experiences that helped shape the life of Chavez, compose free verse poetry... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

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

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 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

Timelines and texts: Motivating students to read nonfiction

Students use a historical timeline and their prior knowledge to predict when specific inventions were produced and explain their reasons for placing an invention in a particular year. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Seeing integration from different viewpoints

This lesson from ReadWriteThink uses The Story of Ruby Bridges, by Robert Coles, as a basis for a Directed Reading-Thinking Activity. A prereading strategy captures students' interest using a question and a during-reading strategy focuses their... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Scaling back to essentials: Scaffolding summarization with fishbone mapping

In this lesson, students work in pairs and cooperative groups as they complete fishbone maps that highlight the main ideas and relevant details from a cause-effect text. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Myth and Truth: "The First Thanksgiving"

By exploring myths surrounding the Wampanoag, the pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving, this lesson asks students to think critically about commonly believed myths regarding the Wampanoag Indians in colonial America. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

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