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.

In this lesson, students will evaluate speeches according to volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation, and examine the importance of these values in delivering an oral presentation.

In this middle school lesson from Teaching Tolerance, students will explore the calendar to determine why different religions celebrate different holidays and establish what factors school and government leaders should consider when deciding whether public schools should be closed for religious holidays. Students will work in groups to create solutions for school calendars that respect all students and beliefs.

In this video, students work in small groups to determine what it takes to make the conclusions of their essays stronger. The students read sample conclusions and rank them from weakest to strongest. The use of arguments and textual evidence in these samples allow students to revise their own essay conclusions modeled by the strongest conclusion.

In this lesson, students will learn to distinguish between emotional and logical arguments in advertising.

In this activity, students will divide into two teams to conduct a mock trial based on The Ransom of Redchief by O. Henry.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

Students move around the room to show their level of agreement or disagreement with a statement on a particular issue. Includes prompts and resources for discussion and debate.

In this lesson, students participate in a Socratic seminar discussing a person's right to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

The class will be divided into teams (randomly chosen and assigned). Each team will be asked to either defend the premise of a piece text or refute it. Each team must create an opening statement-make a verbal argument and offer rebuttal.

In this lesson students examine how imagery is used to represent ideas, themes, periods of history, and make cultural connections to poem, "Still I Rise." Students will reflect through written expression how resiliency is in their lives, school, and community.

The poem describes the victorious homecoming of a ship. The Captain responsible for the safe return of his ship and crew has died before reaching port, and the narrator is grief stricken at the loss. While acknowledging the greatness of the victorious return of the ship to port, the poem also laments the loss of the leader responsible. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this PBS Learning Media resource on Oratory Tips and Tricks, students will find a four minute video, various pdf handouts, and tips for effective public speaking.

This resource includes two nonfiction texts, a link to a video, and 17 text-dependent questions (including one optional constructed-response prompt for students). Also includes explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

In this activity students perform a role play of immigrant mothers and daughters arguing over who should get to keep the daughter's wages. This activity is used to teach with the film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl, but can be completed without the film.

Students are introduced to the costs and benefits of credit. It explains credit terms and the "Three C's of Credit" that lenders use to qualify consumers for loans. Learning about the CARD Act will help students understand the financial details involved in using credit, as well as their rights as consumers. The assessment asks students to write tips for the wise use of credit, which should help them in developing better financial decision-making.

In this lesson plan from PBS Learning Media, students will learn to summarize historical speeches in the author’s own words, as well as paraphrase the speech using their own words.