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.

Students will complete a close reading of Ted Kooser’s poem, Abandoned Farmhouse.  Students will use their knowledge about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl to determine the setting and characters in the poem. After analyzing the author’s style, use of figurative language, and structure of the poem, students will write an ORIGINAL POEM in the spirit of Abandoned Farmhouse by using the same syntax.  Using the original poem and a template as a guide, students will compose a poem that reveals who they are through the voice of important objects in their homes.

The purpose of this project is two-fold: first, to encourage students to make the reading of poetry a creative act; and, second, to help students appreciate particular literary devices in their functions as semaphores or interpretive signals. Those devices that are about the imagery of a poem (metaphor, simile, personification, description) can be thought of as magnifying glasses: we see most clearly that upon which the poet focuses our gaze. Similarly, those poetic devices that are about the sound of the poem (alliteration, consonance, enjambment, onomatopoeia, and repetition) can be thought of as volume buttons or amplifiers: we hear most clearly what the poet makes us listen to most attentively.

This interactive unit encourages students to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of figurative langauge in Amy Tan's nonfiction narrative essay Fish Cheeks paired with the poem Face It by Janet Wong. This lesson will assist students in understanding the power of language. Students will be compelled to write by the conclusion of this lesson.

This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.

This lesson introduces a new opening routine that students will follow throughout Unit 2. This routine allows 10 to 15 minutes for students to work with the portion of the novel they read for homework. Students share their structured notes homework and are encouraged to add to their notes based on this discussion.

This lesson signals the transition from students’ very short research project to the writing of their poems. Students analyze two poems from the novel using the same note-catcher they used in Unit 1 to analyze word choice in order to make them aware of the use of language in an effective poem.

During today’s assessment, students independently analyze how the Harper Lee uses allusions, perspective, and text structure to convey meaning in a piece of literature.

The Mid-Unit 2 Assessment Part 2 is broken down into three parts: The first part (a) requires students to analyze an author’s word choice. The second part (b) requires students to explain how Shakespeare uses a classic myth in his play and how he renders it new, and the third part (c) requires students to analyze the structure of two texts and explain how they contribute to the meaning of each.

The Mid-Unit 2 Assessment has two parts, taking two lessons to complete. In Part 1, students read a new myth and plot the narrative structure on the same Narrative Structure note-catcher used in Lesson 6 of this unit.

Worksheets and activities with answer keys to help students of differing levels identify and/or determine the types of irony used in selected passages.

In this lesson, students complete a literary analysis on a Shakespearean Sonnet, understand the language that empowers the piece, and gain inspiration from Shakespeare's words to write their own sonnet.

Students will read an explanation and examples of verbal irony. Students will then read paragraphs to write and justify the examples of verbal irony they find in the paragraphs. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read an explanation and examples of puns. Students will then read sentences, identify the puns, and write to explain the meanings of the puns. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Poets achieve popular acclaim only when they express clear and widely shared emotions with a forceful, distinctive, and memorable voice. But what is meant by voice in poetry, and what qualities have made the voice of Langston Hughes a favorite for so many people?