Looking for ways to plan project based learning activities? Suzie Boss suggests borrowing ideas from your colleagues and adapt or remix to fit your context.

Suzie borrowed ideas from professional development and learning conferences for teachers who may need a boost to get their project-based learning off the ground.

This 8th grade unit highlights main events of the Civil Rights Movement and navigates to the life of Jackie Robinson and watching the movie 42.

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.

Students will learn about Princeville, NC, the oldest town in the United States incorporated entirely by African Americans. Students will learn about the challenges that faced newly freed slaves.

In this lesson, students learn the importance of effective organization in writing and delivering a speech.

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.

Students learn about methane hydrate ice worms and hydrate shrimp, including how they obtain their food and interact with other species in deep sea ecosystems. Students will work in collaborative groups to research these organisms to develop hypotheses about the relationship between methane hydrates, ice worms, and hydrate shrimp and present their hypotheses to the class. In an extension activity, students will construct models of methane hydrate molecules.

In this lesson, students will make sure that the purpose of an oral presentation or speech and the intended audience are compatible in order to become better speakers.

Using a paper bag or a gift bag, students create a book report providing information on the elements of the book.

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

In this lesson, students will analyze written documents for position of writer and content. They will then synthesize a historical position based upon document analysis and connect historical struggles for equality with current movements.

Students work in groups to read and discuss a book, keeping track of their feelings and opinions about the book, as well as facts and quotations, as they read. Students then decide which parts of their review they wish to annotate, with each student in the group responsible for one topic. Each student writes about his or her topic, including bibliographic information.

In this lesson, students create an oral presentation that uses a visual aid to sell their books to their classmates with the goal of trying to get their classmates interested in reading the book.

In this lesson, students will explain steps to guide another student to reproduce a drawing. Students will also do peer evaluations critiquing articulation abilities.

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

In the spring, 8th grade students are already choosing a track for high school. This is a big decision and it's easier to make when you have created goals for your future. Secondary education is important whether you choose to attend a community college, technical institute, or 4-year university. This unit allows students to explore their future career and evaluate which type of secondary education is the best fit for them. The products leading up the the college fair (interviews, essay, quizzes, etc.) help them make informed decisions.

This unit is designed to teach about the causes and effects of the Great Depression, and provide an introduction to the use of primary sources in the study of history. This historical discovery approach will emphasize the role of the historian as detective using such skills as observation, discrimination, analysis, and synthesis to research and record history. Students will explore primary sources including photographs, poems, song lyrics, documents, maps, cartoons, as well as, secondary source texts in print and online.