Welcome to 8th Grade English Language Arts. Throughout the school year, we will work together to improve our reading, writing, and communication skills. These will be addressed through the following teacher-designed units:*
Quarter 1
Unit 1: Telling Our Stories: From Fiction to Memoir
Module 1: Short Story Unit
Short Story Study & Narrative Writing
Writing: Personal Narrative (Common App prompts)
Module 2: Finding Home: Refugees
Central Text: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
Focus: Poetry + Memoir focus, refugee experiences
Writing: Character Analysis
Unit 2: Journeys of Identity and Justice
Module 4: Novel Study
Central Text: Nyxia by Scott Reintgen (class novel)
Focus: Perception vs. Reality, identity, power structures
Writing: Fiction and story writing
Module 3: The Civil Rights Movement and the Little Rock Nine
Central Text: A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls LaNier
Focus: Civil Rights history, memoir, primary sources
Writing: Informational / explanatory essays (Civil Rights connections)
Unit 3: Food, Persuasion, and the Power of Choice
Module 4: The Sustainability of the World’s Food Supply
Central Text: The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Readers Edition) by Michael Pollan
Focus: Informational text structure, rhetorical appeals, logical fallacies
Writing: Argumentative research paper (food sustainability)
Quarter 4
Unit 4: Power, Comedy, and Control
Module 5: The Comedy of Control
Central Text: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Focus: Drama, figurative language, characterization, and theme
Writing: Research-based argumentative essay (Shakespeare’s context)
*Note: Timeline and content could change based upon teacher discretion and text availability.