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.6:

When reading texts, including those from diverse cultures, determine a theme, analyze its development including its relationship to the characters, settings, and plot, and provide an objective summary that includes textual evidence. (RL)
When reading texts, including those from diverse cultures, determine the main idea, analyze its relationship to supporting ideas, and provide an objective summary that includes textual evidence. (RI)

• 8th grade poetry
  Students will be creating a variety of poetry as well as analyzing poetry. They will work with Language standards and take a performance assessment at the end of the unit.
• A Long Walk To Water Connection Experience
  In this co-taught 80-minute face-to-face lesson (assessment is homework or given time in a second class session) students will rotate through stations to make personal connections with the book, A Long Walk to Water by  Linda Sue Park. (Stations can be removed or customized to allow for time, budget, or supervision constraints.) Please note, this lesson works best when you have several adult volunteers to run stations. This lesson is best co-taught with an ELA teacher who will be reading and discussing the book with their students. (It can be slightly adapted to fit similar stories.) It is also an effective way to deepen understanding and connections after the class has read the book. Thumbnail Image: Woodwayne, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
• 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.
• 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.
• Book Reports
  This lesson plan meets the secondary requirements for The Engish Language Arts Standard Reading: Literature Grades 7-12 with the option of meeting the additional standard of Speaking and Listening. This lesson offers specific details with flexibility for implementation in the classroom. Students can work independently or in groups and be able to create their final book project using technology. 
• Can Words Lead to War?
  C3. Inquiry based lesson plan. Using supporting questions and formative performance assessments, students explore the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Students analyze a summary of the plot of the book, find the main idea(s), look at connected videos, illustrations, and utilize graphic organizers to assess the power of words within this specific historical context.
• Character Changes Lesson and iPad Assignment
  This is a lesson plan is meant to assist in teaching and assessing students' ability to identify character development, types, and changes. This resource can be modified to fit a novel unit study, short stories, or plays. The resource is intended to be used as a digital element in an in-person class but can be modified to fit other class types and modalities.Cover image: Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
• One Pager for Novel Response
  My project is making One Pagers to show their understanding of the text they have read, in this case, a novel that they read independently. One Pagers can be used to respond to a variety of texts, but for this lesson plan, I have the One Pager for students responding to a novel that they have read independently. I have included the requirements for both 7th and 8th grade as some of the requirements are different. I have also included some websites on how others use One Pagers. Anchor Standard 2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize key supporting details and ideas.Anchor Standard 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas interact over the course of a text. The photo that I am using for my thumbnail was taken by me, Melanie Shurtz. 
• S is for Shoes Off in the House | ABC's of AAPIs
  This lesson plan encourages classroom discussions and reflections on cultural norms, mores, and folkways and uses the coloring sheet and poem: "S is for Shoes Off in the House" to propel critical thinking about students' own cultures in relation to others and how we can show respect, tolerance, and acceptance.
• Student Storytelling Podcast Episode (GarageBand)
  This lesson plan describes a project done by students for an online, at-home Honors ELA course (6th grade). Students find a published, narrative story that they would like to retell. They evaluate the quality of that story using a rubric. Then they learn about performance techniques (diction, inflection, and pacing) and practice their storytelling. Eventually, they audio-record themselves telling the story using GarageBand. This audio file is submitted as the project, and is graded with a rubric. I published the audio files onto a Google Site and called it our class podcast! Viking ship image by pixabay.com

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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.