English Language Arts — Grade 8

Connecting Folktales and Culture in North Carolina and Beyond

Students will explore connections to North Carolina culture as they engage in reading and analyzing three folktales of North Carolina Literary Festival author, William Hooks. After comparing these stories to other versions of the traditional tales, students will become authors and storytellers themselves as they rewrite a tale from a new cultural point of view. Opportunities are also included to extend this study to world cultures and folktales.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Computer Technology Skills)

By Jeanne Munoz.

Creating found poetry from picture books

Students select and read a picture book and afterwards create “found poetry” based on the picture book.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Barbara Groome and Jo Peterson Gibbs.

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.

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.

Jim Crow and segregation

This is an integrated lesson plan that incorporates both eighth grade language arts and history. Using Internet research, literary analysis, and persuasive technique, students will practice reading and writing skills while analyzing the impact of Jim Crow Segregation on African Americans living in North Carolina and elsewhere.

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

By Burnetta Barton.

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 English Language Arts)

By Hardin Engelhardt.

The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe

Students will evaluate a sampling of literary selections by Edgar Allan Poe and assess the influence of Poe's life on his works.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Peggy Stanley.

Maya Angelou: Study and Response to "Still I Rise"

Students read biographical information on Maya Angelou and her poem, "Still I Rise." Students identify support and elaboration in poem, then respond by either writing a letter to the author or his/her own poem in response.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Barbara Groome and Jo Peterson Gibbs.

The Mythology Connection

Mythology is fascinating and students enjoy the research and learning more about different characters. By allowing them to choose some of the activities for the booklet, they take more ownership in learning. They also enjoy dressing up and pretending to become a mythological character. This unit incorporates many goals in a fun and stimulating way.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Cindy Bowman.

Poetry From Prose: A Different Kind of "Book Report"

Students use a word-processing program to write a poem that summarizes important themes or events central to the plot of a novel. Once the poem is proofread, students type the poem according to specific directions. They then print their work and illustrate over or around the writing for an illustrated "book report." Students incorporate details from the novel in their writing and in their illustrations of their poems. In this way, students focus on the themes or events in the novel that appeal to them most -- the ones they feel are most important to the novel's meaning.

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

By Sally Watts.

Understanding the Complexities of Setting

In order to address a variety of learning styles with emphasis upon the tactile learner, students will participate in a class project to construct a wall-sized, three dimensional mural of the setting of the novel, Where the Lilies Bloom. This project cannot be too large. (An outside corridor wall is suggested.) The massive size of the mural makes the project distinctly different from similar art projects attempted in the past; it and also allows students enough space for all of the details desired in the end result of the mural; and affords enough space for all students in the class to display their work.

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

By Pam Altom.

Lesson plans on the web

Battling for liberty: Tecumseh's and Patrick Henry's language of resistance

This lesson extends the study of Patrick Henry's “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech to demonstrate the ways Native Americans also resisted oppression through rhetoric and action. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Book report alternative: Creating a childhood for a character

In this lesson, students examine the character traits of an adult character in a book they have read, create a childhood for the character, and describe that childhood in the form of a short story, journal entry, or time capsule letter. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Book report alternative: Creating careers for characters

Students become characters in a novel or short story they have read and find a job for those characters. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Childhood Remembrances: Life and Art Intersect in Nikki Giovanni's "Nikki-Rosa"

Students use an interactive chart to keep track of their thoughts as they work with their own autobiographical information.
(Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Computer Technology Skills)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Choose your own adventure: A Hypertext writing experience

In this lesson that focuses on reading and writing, students discuss various stories and plan their own adventure story. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Computer Technology Skills)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Cooking up descriptive language: Designing restaurant menus

In this lesson students explore the genre of menus by analyzing existing menus from local restaurants and creating their own original menus. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Entering history: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Students read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in conjunction with Nikki Giovanni’s poem “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.” in order to better understand the speech and the impact it had on observers like Giovanni during the Civil Rights movement and Americans today. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Exploring author's voice using Jane Addams Award-winning books

This lesson uses Jane Addams Award-winning books to explore author's voice and style. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Expository escapade-Detective's handbook

In this lesson, students combine reading the detective fiction genre with expository writing. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE