English Language Arts Grades 7-8 (2023)
Lesson Plans

Reading (7-8.R)

Students will learn to proficiently read and comprehend grade level literature and informational text, including seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band, with scaffolding as needed. *Standard R.4 includes an asterisk to refer educators back to the Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges in the introduction of the standards.

Standard 7-8.R.5:

Cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (RL & RI)

• A Story of Epic Proportions: What makes a Poem an Epic?
  Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.
• Abolition: The Catalyst for the Women's Rights Movement
  This lesson examines the beginnings of the women?s suffrage movement as an outgrowth of the abolitionist movement. Students will learn about key figures who were involved in both movements and analyze primary source documents to compare abolitionist and women?s suffrage arguments.
• Analyzing Opinions For and Against Women's Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896
  In this lesson, students will analyze primary source excerpts from various viewpoints. Students will use these sources to interpret why most Utah women?s voting rights were granted, rescinded, and returned between 1870 and the achievement of statehood in 1896.
• Annotate Text in Google Docs
  Students learn how to annotate text in Google Docs.
• BBC My World Media Literacy
  My World Media Literacy, developed in partnership by BBC Learning, BBC World Services, and Microsoft, is a free educational platform for students ages 11-14 designed with the goal of increasing global media literacy and the evaluation of information presented in modern journalism. Featuring ten 45-minute lesson plans, each with activities and a companion video, these 21st century resources increase students? critical thinking skills needed to be responsible consumers of news while inspiring them to become citizen journalists in order to navigate the news and form their own opinions.
• Dr. Cannon Goes to Washington: Utah Statues in National Statuary Hall
  Students will engage with primary source documents to explore the reasons behind memorializing people in public art. Students will craft written or oral statements to support an argument in favor of installing a statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Philo T. Farnsworth, or Brigham Young in National Statuary Hall.
• Examining History with Maya Angelou's Poetry
  Well known for addressing social issues in the world through her poetry, Maya Angelou's moving poems serve to teach historical topics in this lesson. To understand the world that surrounded her, students practice their visual literacy skills as they first examine photographs from the Library of Congress. These primary sources illustrate some of the events that affected her life and thus her writing. Next students research these events in order to create trading cards using the ReadWriteThink Trading Card Creator Student Interactive. While reading Angelou's poems, students share the trading cards to better understand the background for her writing.
• Examining the Struggle for Suffrage & Utah Statehood through Political Cartoons
  This lesson utilizes political cartoons to showcase the national public?s changing attitudes about most Utah women?s rights, from the late 1860s to 1920.
• How the Sego Lilly Became Utah's State Flower: Examining Primary Sources
  In this lesson, students will examine, compare and synthesize information from primary sources to determine when, how and why the sego lily became Utah?s state flower.
• Imagery and Strategies Used in the Women's Sufferage Movement: Developing a Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign
  Students will analyze primary source documents from the women?s suffrage movement?both nationally and in Utah?to examine the tactics, strategies, and imagery used in this social movement. They will also evaluate the effectiveness of these tactics and strategies in affecting social and civic change.
• Listening Guide: Chatbots are supercharging search: Are we ready?
  Our guest on this episode is Will Knight, senior writer about artificial intelligence at Wired magazine. We discuss how ChatGPT is being applied to search and what some of the potential and pitfalls are of this new class of technology known as ?generative AI.?
• Listening Guide: Flagrant foul: Misinformation and sports
  In today?s episode of our podcast Is that a fact?, guest host Jake Lloyd digs into how misinformation manifests in the sports world with author and journalist Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of the Spotify podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered. Hill discusses not only how sports falsehoods spread, but also how the nature of sports reporting makes it more resistant to manipulation than news coverage.
• Listening Guide: Opinion creep: How facts lost ground in the battle for our attention
  Have you ever scratched your head when reading an article or watching the news and wondered if you were getting facts or opinion? If so, you?re not alone. News organizations have not made it easy for consumers to differentiate between news and the views of an individual or media outlet.
• Philip Reid and Freedom
  How are concepts, such as freedom, represented in works of art? What do specific works of art or architectural features tell us about what was important to the people who designed or made them, particularly if they are telling a story about the importance of freedom?
• Secession and the Senate
  What is secession? How did secession of the southern states from the Union during the Civil War affect the Senate and how did the members respond?
• The Clean Water Act
  How does a bill become a law? What is the role of Congress and the President in this process? How did the Clean Water Act of 1972 become a law?
• The Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said
  To what shared principles did the Founding Fathers appeal as they struggled to reach a compromise in the Constitutional Convention? In this lesson, students will learn how the Founding Fathers debated then resolved their differences in the Constitution. Learn through their own words how the Founding Fathers created"a model of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise."
• The Easiest Way to Write a Synopsis
  When we need to quickly summarize an event, idea, or text, a 101-level synopsis won?t always do the trick. Sometimes the text is more complicated -- it contains a central tension or conflict that needs to be addressed. In that case, a Pivot Synopsis will do the trick. It?s the more nuanced cousin of Synopsis 101 that allows a writer to say something more sophisticated while still summarizing quickly.
• The Federalist Debates: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments
  This lesson focuses on the debates among the U.S. Founders surrounding the distribution of power between states and the federal government. Students learn about the pros and cons of state sovereignty vs. federalism and have the opportunity to argue different sides of the issue.
• The U.S. House of Representatives and the Gag Rule
  What is a gag rule? Why was a gag rule imposed by the House of Representatives? What are the implications for the country if the House of Representatives should pass other gag rules?
• The World of Haiku
  Explore the traditions and conventions of haiku and compare this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art.
• Utah Women and the Railroad
  Despite the fact that women do not appear in photographs of railroad workers and businessmen celebrating the project?s completion, they are part of the story, too. Learn more about how they were involved and how the railroad impacted them through the use of primary documents and short activities.

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http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Naomi  Watkins and see the Language Arts - Secondary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.