Hitch Elementary School - 8Th Grade Language Arts Overview
Hitch Elementary School - 8th Grade Language Arts Overview
Listed below are potential texts used throughout the school year. This year we will begin a transition over to a workshop based curriculum. This may change how we work through each unit but not what we read.
Essential Questions / Potential TextsIdentity Unit
Who am I?
Is it more important to fit in or be an individual?
How do authors convey theme in a fictional text?
How can I best support a written claim? / WHOLE CLASS
“Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara
“Stop the Sun” by Gary Paulsen
“Born Worker” by Gary Soto
SMALL GROUP
“Zen and the Art of Faking it” by Jordan Sonnenblick
“Slam” by Walter Dean Myers
“Schooled” by Gordon Korman
“Crackback” by John Coy
“A Mango Shaped Space” by Wendy Mass
“Peak” by Roland Smith
Genre Focus: Utopian/Dystopian
What elements make up the Dystopian/Utopian genre?
How are modern pieces similar to and different from class pieces and film versions?
How does my writing change throughout the writing process? / WHOLE CLASS
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
SMALL GROUP
“1984” by George Orwell
“Shipbreaker” by Paolo Bacigalupi
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
“The Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld
Poetry Unit
What techniques do poets use?
How they use those techniques in an effective way?
Are poets’ personal experiences reflected in their poems? How? / WHOLE CLASS
“I, Too” , “Mother to Son”, “Harlem” by Langston Hughes
“The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost
“I’m Nobody, Who are You?”, “Hope is the thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson
“Oranges” by Gary Soto
“Late to you on the Blue Line” by Kevin Coval
Shakespeare-“Romeo and Juliet”
Is fate real or can people make their own destiny?
How do little decisions have big consequences?
Does Shakespeare’s themes apply to our lives today? If so, how? / WHOLE CLASS
“No Fear Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet”
“Chew on This” Unit
What formats do authors use to structure their fictional texts?
How do authors convey a specific message or point of view? How do they deal with conflicting viewpoints?
How has the fast food industry economically and socially changed America? / WHOLE CLASS
“The Ominvore’s Dilemma” (Young Readers Edition) by Michael Pollan OR “Chew on This” by Eric Schlosser
EXTENSION TEXTS
“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair
Holocaust Unit
What human qualities allow us to survive and thrive?
How do challenges in life change a person? What similarities and differences exist between characters that survive hardship?
How do my experiences lead me to understand the world? / WHOLE CLASS
“The Diary of Anne Frank” by Anne Frank
INDEPENDENT READING
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne
“Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry
“Night” by Ellie Wiesel
…and many more (any Holocaust related book students are interested in)
“The House on Mango Street” Unit
How do our personal experiences shape the way we view ourselves?
What roles do neighborhood and community play in shaping who we become?
What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change?
Can literature serve as a vehicle for social change? How? / WHOLE CLASS
“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
SMALL GROUP
“Mexican Whiteboy” by Matt de la Pena
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
“The Circuit” by Francisco Jimenez
8th Grade Grammar Focus
Quarter 1: Review Parts of Speech, Functions
Quarter 2: Phrases
Quarter 3: Clauses
Quarter 4: Sentence Types