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.

In this lesson, students will use compare/contrast and question/answer text structures to analyze how nonfiction text is structured, identify transitions that support text structures, and cite evidence to support the identification of text structures.

In this three week unit, students will practice skills related to argumentative writing. They will ultimately write an argumentative/persuasive letter to the school board regarding school safety policy.

In this lesson, students perform a close reading of an informational text to learn about the history of the Blackstone Canal.

Students share opinions about the tone and content of two commercials presented during the Super Bowl.They then work with a partner to critique a commercial from a past Super Bowl, and then assess the commercials that run during a half-hour television show.

Students become familiar with the similarities and differences between electronic and printed text by comparing the textual aids included in a textbook with those of an educational website.

This lesson aligns with the 7th grade Social Studies curriculum and works best when integrated into an interdisciplinary unit, such as Reliving the Middle Ages Across Lliterary Genres. Interdisciplinary Units are effective when teachers from two different content areas collaborate to plan lessons, assessments, activities and projects that support their content skills and standards. The content being taught in one course supports the content in another and students approach difficult, content-specific texts with more familiarity and gain better comprehension.  Students read two nonfiction articles about the Middle Ages, which lasted from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500. Both texts examine one of the most significant events of this time period-- the spread of the bubonic plague, or the Black Death. Each text is organized into cause-and-effect pattern of organization. One outlines HOW the disease spread (causes) and the other explains how it affected Europe (effects). Students analyze two texts by different authors writing about the same topic, the Black Plague, and compare/contrast how each author shapes their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence. 

This lesson asks students to write a profile of a classmate, with a particular focus on a talent, interest, or passion of that classmate. As an introduction to the feature article, students compare the characteristics of a hard news story to those of a feature story. They then practice writing about the same event in the two different styles.

Students will explore the Articles of Confederation and the Articles' influence in revising the Constitution of 1787. Students will experience the sentiments of Federalists and Anti Federalists by participating in a partner debate as either North Carolina Federalist James Iredell or Anti Federalist Willie Jones.

Suggestions on how to guide students through the writing process when writing editorials "” from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work "” and all the steps in between.

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.

Students will read scientific text about top predators in Arctic marine ecosystems and how they may be affected by global climate change. Students will work individually or collaboratively to write a report based on the scientific text they have read and participate in a large-group discussion session based on their analysis.

Confronting the Truth This lesson allows students to see how propaganda has led to devastating ends such as the genocide of millions of Jews and others based on the work of the Nazi Josef Goebbels. This lesson was developed by Sheila Wood as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Confronting Propaganda Students will look at more current ways that propaganda is used. They will try to determine which are real news articles and which are promoting something different. This lesson was developed by Sheila Wood as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Confronting the Media Today we are looking at some of the major news agencies, in various mediums, and how we can learn to question what we are told and learn to discover truths on our own. The media holds much power in every country, not only ours. It is the “truth” that is repeatedly broadcast to millions of people daily. Sometimes the media is the personal truth of the leader of a country – especially those that are under the rule of a dictator. This lesson was developed by Sheila Wood as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Confronting the Facts - Today we will confront the facts head-on! Today we will use all of the information that we have at our very fingertips to learn the facts. Today we will look at research that has already been done to find what the experts have said about propaganda and finding the truth. This lesson was developed by Sheila Wood as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson students will read and analyze the lyrics of "The Star Spangled Banner" and determine why it was written. This lesson was developed by Megon Mancini as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This lesson is for 2, 50 minute, class periods. Students will begin research on a country of their choice and begin to explore how that country demonstrates patriotism and analyze the lyrics of that country's national anthem. Students will work to determine the meaning of the lyrics and think about why countries have a national anthem. By analyzing the lyrics of the coutry's anthem, the student will have to infer how that leads to patriotism in that given country. This lesson was developed by Megon Mancini as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.