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.

What drives changes to classic myths and fables? In this lesson students evaluate the changes Disney made to the myth of "Hercules" in order to achieve their audience and purpose.

Students use Shakespeare's Secret, a featured title on the Teachers' Choices Booklist (International Reading Association, 2006), as a springboard to exploration of the controversy regarding the authorship Shakespeare's works. The novel makes liberal use of the historical details surrounding William Shakespeare's life, and exposes students to the possibility raised by some theorists that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the works that have long been attributed to the Bard. Students explore the historical references in the novel and generate questions for further research. As they research these questions on suggested websites, they organize their findings with the help of the ReadWriteThink Notetaker. Then they work in small groups to create and present short dramatic skits that creatively connect the novel with the historical facts.

This is a collection of discussion questions and activities to supplement The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.

This language arts lesson offers a hands-on opportunity for students to understand characterization in literature and to connect historical and contemporary culture. Through research and study of Shakespearean England, student pairs get to know about the life of a character in the book Shakespeare Stealer. Students collect props and clues to create a “life box” and a poem about their character. Using props adds a visual and physical dimension to their learning while using words engages mental facilities, making this a whole brain activity. Students must communicate their clues and interpret others clues to reveal character’s identities.

In this introductory lesson, students engage in a hands-on, collaborative investigation of the definition of reading by participating in small group brainstorming sessions and an analysis of a variety of texts and the strategies they need to read them. Students also create individual Reader’s Profiles with an online tool modeled on social networking sites. Sharing these profiles and reflecting on their own learning, students ultimately develop a working definition of reading which they refine during the year.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the genre of folktales and engage in a study of several Russian folktales. They are asked to read the tales aloud, and then to fill in a chart about each one. Next, they analyze the charts, answering questions about the folktales’ setting, main characters, and "uniquely Russian" attributes. They also compare and contrast Russian folktales with folktales they may have heard as young children. The lesson culminates with a writing assignment in which students will analyze the folktales or create their own.

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 an important theme in the novel, the Golden Rule. The Gallery Walk introduction of this theme incorporates a wide variety of worldviews, philosophies, and religions. Students also view a short segment of the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

In this lesson, students practice writing a summary of a literary work. These summaries are useful formative assessment data. Review student writing, provide meaningful feedback, and inform instruction on summary writing in future lessons.

The beginning of this lesson builds in more practice for students to analyze the meaning and structure of a poem, a skill introduced in Lesson 15. However, in this lesson, the analysis does not go as in-depth with questions pertaining to word choice or perspective, since this text is more accessible.

This lesson focuses on characterization of Atticus in particular. The goal is for students to understand more fully why Atticus would take a stand for Tom Robinson. Understanding Atticus is key to writing the argument essay for the End of Unit 2 Assessment.

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.

In this lesson, students read the story “Pyramus and Thisbe,” which is the story the mechanicals are rehearsing throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students closely read the text to gain a deeper understanding of the story before they read how the story is performed in the play within the play.

In this lesson, students read the play within the play, “Pyramus and Thisbe,” performed by Bottom and his group of players for Theseus, Hippolyta, and the lovers. They compare and contrast the two plays to determine why the play “Pyramus and Thisbe” was written into A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In this lesson students compare the structure of the narrative as mapped out on the “Pyramus and Thisbe” Narrative Structure note-catcher from the previous lesson. Students reread Act 5, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in parts, and as a whole group compare the similarities and differences in structure; whole group thinking is captured on an anchor chart.

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.

This resource includes two poems, eleven text-dependent questions (including one optional constructed-response prompt for students), and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.