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.13:

Not applicable to RL.Evaluate an argument and specific claims in a text, assessing the validity of key statements by examining whether the supporting evidence is relevant and sufficient. (RI)

• 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 Students will use these sources to interpret why most Utah women?s voting rights were granted, rescinded, and returned between 1870 and the achievement of statehood in 1896.
• 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.
• 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.

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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.