8th Grade English Language Arts
Fall Semester | |||
Unit Title | Setting Literacy Foundations | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Informational Texts | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Literary Texts |
Time | 5 weeks | 7 weeks | 6 weeks |
Understandings | Students practice daily writing (micro-writing) and establish core reading routines, including building focus and stamina through sustained independent reading.
Students practice deep comprehension by combining textual details with background knowledge to draw logical conclusions (inferences) and generate predictions. They learn to evaluate details to determine the explicit or implicit meaning and distinguish between significant and insignificant details (key ideas).
Students analyze connections between the text’s content and various societal contexts, including past, present, and future influences. They compare personal experiences with themes, characters, and events in texts.
Students develop their first writing piece, a narrative (a story), focusing on components of the writing process such as planning, revising, and publishing.
Students apply grammar rules focusing on capitalization, subject-verb agreement, compound verbs, and the proper use of parentheses. | Students analyze informational texts, focusing on determining the controlling idea (thesis) and evaluating the credibility and relevance of supporting evidence.
Students learn to synthesize information from multiple texts, identify patterns, and formulate an original thesis or claim supported by organized evidence.
Students analyze the use of text and graphic features (headings, charts, images, forewords) to reinforce the author’s purpose, gain background information, and assess potential bias.
Students practice summarizing and paraphrasing accurately, and differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism, especially when gathering information from various sources.
Students compose a fully processed informational essay using a clear controlling idea and appropriate genre characteristics.
Students strengthen writing conventions, focusing on phrases (appositives, participials) and clauses (essential, nonessential). | Students analyze how themes develop through the interaction of characters and key plot events.
Students analyze characters' internal motivations and external behaviors and explain how they influence the progression and resolution of conflicts.
Students identify and analyze non-linear plot techniques, such as flashbacks, foreshadowing, subplots, and parallel plots, comparing them to linear structure.
Students analyze how setting (cultural, historical, and geographical aspects) influences character worldview, values, and plot development.
Students identify and analyze literary devices, including multiple points of view and irony, evaluating their effect on tone, mood, and message.
Students compose a literary analysis essay arguing an interpretation of the text, supported by textual evidence |
TEKS | 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.5G, 8.5H, 8.6B, 8.6F, 8.7A, 8.9F, 8.10A, 8.10Di, 8.10E, 8.11A | 8.5C, 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.5G, 8.5H, 8.6D, 8.6E, 8.8Di, 8.8Dii, 8.8Diii, 8.9B, 8.9C, 8.10A, 8.10Bii, 8.10E, 8.11B, 8.12D, 8.12F, 8.12G, 8.12Hi, 8.12I, 8.12J | 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.5G, 8.5H, 8.6A, 8.6B, 8.6C, 8.6F, 8.6G, 8.7A, 8.7B, 8.7C, 8.7D, 8.8A, 8.9A, 8.9D, 8.9E, 8.9F, 8.10A, 8.10C, 8.10E, 8.11C |
TEKS embedded in all units | 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.1C, 8.1D, 8.2A, 8.2B, 8.2C, 8.3, 8.4 | ||
Spring Semester | ||||
Unit Title | Poetry and Drama Exploration | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Argumentative Texts | Literacy Practices for STAAR Success | Book Clubs |
Time | 5 weeks | 5 weeks | 4 weeks | 5 weeks |
Understandings | Students analyze poetry and drama, focusing on how themes are developed through character and event interaction.
Students analyze the effect of graphical elements in poems (punctuation, line length) across various poetic forms (epic, lyric).
Students analyze how playwrights develop dramatic action through the structure of acts and scenes.
Students identify and analyze literary devices, including multiple points of view and irony, and explain how they contribute to mood and voice.
Students practice writing a fully processed Extended Constructed Response (ECR) using paired texts to demonstrate literary analysis.
Students learn to apply conventions for active/passive voice, prepositions, and coordinate adjectives. | Students analyze argumentative texts by identifying the author's claim, intended audience, and supporting ideas.
Students identify and analyze rhetorical devices (analogy, juxtaposition) and logical fallacies (bandwagon, circular reasoning) and explain their impact on the audience and argument.
Students identify and explain counterarguments, analyzing the author’s use of concessions and rebuttals to strengthen the argument.
Students conduct research, synthesizing information, examining sources for credibility/bias, and composing a fully processed argumentative essay.
Students monitor comprehension and adjust reading strategies (re-reading, annotating, questioning) when understanding breaks down.
Students apply conventions for pronouns (possessive, reflexive). | This unit reinforces all reading, writing, and analytical TEKS learned throughout the year across multiple genres (fiction, informational, literary nonfiction).
Students reinforce core comprehension skills such as making connections, making inferences and generalizations using evidence, evaluating details to determine key ideas, and synthesizing information to create new understanding.
Students practice planning, revising, and editing high stakes assessments such as Short Constructed Responses (SCR) and Extended Constructed Responses (ECR) to effectively convey and organize ideas.
Students focus on reviewing grammar and mechanics (comma usage, sentence combining, verb usage, punctuation) based on identified student needs. | Students read self-selected novels in Book Clubs, collaboratively applying analytical skills (theme, character analysis, plot).
Students establish a purpose for reading, generate questions, and use mental images to monitor comprehension and deepen understanding of the text.
Students analyze how a character’s internal motivations and external behaviors influence major events and the resolution of the conflict.
Students use the correct tone and format for an audience to compose formal or friendly correspondence (letter, email) that expresses an opinion, complaint, or request related to their reading.
Students learn conventions for complex sentences and coordinate adjectives. |
TEKS | 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.5G, 8.5H, 8.6B, 8.6C, 8.6F, 8.7A, 8.8B, 8.8C, 8.9E, 8.9F, 8.10A, 8.10Bii, 8.10C, 8.10E | 8.5I, 8.6G, 8.6I, 8.6J, 8.8Ei, 8.8Eii, 8.8Eiii, 8.8F, 8.9A, 8.9G, 8.10A, 8.10Bi, 8.10Bii, 8.10C, 8.10E, 8.11C, 8.12A, 8.12B, 8.12C, 8.12D, 8.12E, 8.12F, 8.12G, 8.12Hi, 8.12Hii, 8.12I | 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.5G, 8.5H | 8.5A, 8.5B, 8.5D, 8.5F, 8.5H, 8.6C, 8.6F, 8.6H, 8.7A, 8.7B, 8.9F, 8.10A, 8.10Bi, 8.10Bii, 8.10C, 8.10Di, 8.10E, 8.11D |
TEKS embedded in all units | 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.1C, 8.1D, 8.2A, 8.2B, 8.2C, 8.3, 8.4 | |||