English Language Arts — Grade 8

Resources on the web

Literary characters on trial: Combining persuasion and literary analysis

Students read a work of literature as a class then brainstorm “crimes” committed by characters from that text. Groups of students work together to act as the prosecution or defense for the selected characters, while also acting as the jury for... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Investigating the Holocaust: A collaborative inquiry project

Students explore a variety of resources—texts, images, movies, artwork“to learn more about the Holocaust. Beginning with journal writings and a picture book to introduce the issues, the lesson plan focuses on student-centered inquiry. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Internalization of vocabulary through the use of a word map

Provides students with a concrete way to learn vocabulary through two agents: purposeful sequencing of steps and collaboration with peers. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Inside or Outside? A Mini-Lesson on Quotation Marks and More

Students look closely at their writing, marking quotation marks and considering how the conventions of punctuation apply. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Heroes around us

Students will select, read about, and report on a hero then identify how their hero matches the criteria and characteristics they have already decided upon. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

GIST: A summarizing strategy for use in any content area

This lesson supports comprehension and summarizing skills by engaging students in reading and identifying the “5Ws and the H” in newspaper articles. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Every punctuation mark matters: A mini-lesson on semicolons

Students first explore Dr. Martin Luther King's use of semicolons and their rhetorical significance, then apply the lesson to their own writing by searching for ways to follow Dr. King's model and use the punctuation mark in their own writing. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

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

Students study the social impact of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech by reading Nikki Giovanni’s poem “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.”. Students complete a close reading of the text of King's speech and... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Critical media literacy: Commercial advertising

Conducting an evaluation of television and magazine advertisements, students critique the effect mass media has on American culture. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: 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)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Comic makeovers: Examining race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the media

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students explore representations of race, class, ethnicity, and gender by analyzing comics over a two-week period and then re-envisioning them with a “comic character makeover.” (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Character clash: A mini-lesson on paragraphing and dialogue

When writing dialogue in their stories, student writers often forget to indent paragraphs to indicate a change of speaker, which can create problems in understanding. This ReadWriteThink mini-lesson asks students to look closely at their writing, marking... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Campaigning for fair use: Public service announcements on copyright awareness

In this lesson that introduces issues of fair usage and copyright laws, students create audio public service announcements that can be broadcast over the school's public address system or published as podcasts on the Internet. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: 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)

Provided by: 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)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

The Big, Bad Wolf . . . is this a fact?

This ReadWriteThink lesson combines the nonfiction works of Seymour Simon with teacher modeling, discussion groups, and student-created multimedia presentations to increase comprehension, vocabulary, and research skills, and boost students' willingness... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Authentic persuasive writing to promote summer reading

Invites students to create brochures and flyers that suggest books and genres to explore during the summer months. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Audience, purpose, and language use in electronic messages

This ReadWriteThink lesson explores the language of electronic messages and how it affects other writing. Furthermore, it explores the freedom and creativity for using Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examines the importance of a more formal... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink