This resource accompanies our Rethink 8th Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 8th grade ELA content.

This lesson was designed to help students gain social studies/history content knowledge by using textual evidence to answer text-dependent questions.In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

José feels he is destined to a life filled with physical labor because both of his parents work hard. His mother works at a sewing machine all day, and his father works for the telephone company and often tells José that life is hard. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In “Broken Chain,” Alfonso, a seventh grader, dislikes his appearance. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This resource contains a collection of worksheets and practice quizzes on the proper use of capitalization.

The main character is unhappy about her family’s move to Cincinnati and spends most of her time in her room, miserable. Then one day, she goes grocery shopping for her parents and falls in love with the bag boy. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This resource contains a Powerpoint on commas, colons, and semicolons, as well as worksheets on the correct use of commas.

This resource contains a collection of worksheets on the proper use of contractions.

Students will use conventions of punctuation (including but not limited to commas, parentheses, dashes,ellpsis, semicolons, quotations, apostrophes) in student written sentences.

Students will be taught the "drill skill and kill" method to be used on grammar concepts within an argumentative paper.

This story is set in a Tennessee peach orchard on the night before the Civil War battle of Shiloh. A young drummer briefly considers staying behind when the fighting begins. Then a man walks by and stops to talk, and the boy discovers that this man is his general. From their discussion, the boy arrives at a new understanding about his role in the battle to come. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this resource from PBS Learning Media, students will learn how to use ellipses to indicate omitted portions from a quoted text.

This lesson moves beyond typical character analysis lessons by asking students to identify reasonable occupations for characters based on the characters’ qualities as evidenced in the story. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This speech, presented as an address in 1927 to the mayor of Chicago, William Hale Thompson, sought to reform the stereotypical image of American Indians in history textbooks and classes. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

A mentally challenged man is presented with an opportunity to have an operation that will triple his intelligence. The story chronicles the journey that he takes as his intelligence progresses and regresses. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

Johnny, the narrator, and McDunn, the lighthouse keeper (Johnny's boss), are working in a lighthouse on a November evening. McDunn shares his experience of witnessing strange sea mysteries, including the sighting of a monster that appears at this time each year. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students use a newspaper employment advertisement and work together to rewrite the ad using complete sentences. Student then rewrite the advertisement.

In this personal essay by Isaac Asimov, the author relates his journey of becoming a science fiction writer. Asimov explains discovering science fiction through magazines despite his father’s objections. He also recounts publishing his first science fiction story at the age of eighteen and the challenges of being an immigrant. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.