The second half of this standards-based unit involves reading classic novels, "BookCircles" for discussion and presentation, book-to-movie critiques and personalized "locker book spine" displays. Using a variety of tech tools students will learn about figurative language and connotations, and story structure, among other literary devices using familiar stories and fables. Short videos and group discussion provide a less formidable introducion to these concepts and give eighth grade students a foundation on which to build their interest in classical literature.

Wikipedia, while not suited for scholarly research, is considered appropriate for basic basic informational research by many educators. This online site is easily accessed by students and its interactive component that allows users to edit content provides students with possibly their first opportunities to contribute to a widely used source in a more educative and intellectual manner than posting on social media. This lesson's standards-based goal is to engage eighth grade students in determining research reliability based information published and sources used by Wikipedia. Another major part of the lesson is to develop a question that drives the research with a strong emphasis on using digital sources and tools. When students complete this lesson, which introduces research with a focus on credibility of sources, they will be prepared to start learning how to conduct more in-depth research. A follow-up project also encourages students with exceptional writing skills to become Wikipedia editors, either contributing research to the site or looking for and correcting inaccuracies.

Students learn how literature and history coincide as writers describe and immortalize historical events. The goal of this lesson is for students to understand how media like poetry and drama evoke emotional responses of historical figures, events, and their effect of those event.

Goal: To broaden students' awareness of the world and where specific continents or located, as well as countries on specific continents, by researching host countries for the olympic games. Objectives: 1. Students will be assigned to a group using the name of a continent and will research countries that have hosted olympic games, the year(s) each country hosted the games, and where it is located on the continent. 2. Students will individually or collaboratively create a map of one of the countries on their continent that hosted Olympic Games. 3. Each student will create a poster providing a look at the Olympic Games the year(s) his/her country hosted the olympics using multimedia. 4. Students will share poster in a variety of media with various audiences.

The goal of this lesson plan for Christian Schools is for students at all grade levels, 1-12, understand how Biblical figures inspire creation of fictional characters and how these archetypes are depicted in literature. Younger children learn the similarities and differences in the stories of Jesus and Superman. Then students in upper elementary grades learn to identify literary techniques and allusions to characters in a book or movie. Students in middle and high school use these resources to identify archetypes in books and movies about heroic characters.

Using classic fables and fairy tales to analyze themes that are easily identified, this two-part lesson prepares 8th grade Language Arts Students to read and analyze themes in classic children's literature.

Goal: Start the new school year establishing a relationship with each students' parents. Send a short text or email introducing your students' family to the teacher and permission to send or drop by with a short list of things students can do to get ready to start the school year, each of which relates to the nine activities planned for the first week of school. Objectives: 1. Students and parental figuers will get acquainted with teacher, expectations for students and PF's participation in class activities. 2. Students and PF's will learn things about each other and establish a rapport. 3. Students will be asked to complete specific simple tasks and to be sure to bring very specific items to them the first day of school. 4. Students and parents will be introduced to and experience flipped classroom activities right from the start of school, using fun activities for children and adults. 5. Students will engage in several mysterious activities that will have them anticipating the first day eagerly. 6. Parents will be provided with contact information and told they will be contacted by text or email regarding their children's progress and/or any issues that may arise. 7. Students will also have an opportunity to communicate with teacher before the first day of school.

Students in eighth grade are facing the end of middle or junior high school and in the not-so-distant future the start of high school. Between then and now they have a great deal of academics to learn, state tests to pass, and the pressures of being adolescents. So why not start the year celebrating their final year in middle or junior high school in classic Hollywood fashion? This first week of 8th grade ELA unit does just that! Show your students just how special they are while assessing basic language and writing skills. Roll out the red carpet, notify the paparazzi, and let your students have a great time watching movie trailers, writing reviews, looking back at summer, and getting the star treatment; while introducing collaborative learning and project-based activities. Start the school year with high expectations and watch your students soar.

This CCSS-based 8th grade lesson, which can be done in two lessons plus flipped classroom practice, helps to reinforce and remediate instruction in punctuation and capitalization with fun technology-based group and pair activities.

This interactive activity demonstrates the Electoral College to students from primary grades to middle school students, as well as students with special needs. Students create their own election with or without teacher assistance based on their questions regarding our most recent election in which one candidate won the popular vote and the other one won the election by winning the most electoral votes. The goal of this activity is to help students understand how this happened and why, as well as who created this system and when. An activity involving three rounds of voting to help students understand what happens when the votes in states with smaller populations are given the same weight as states with larger populations in the Electoral College, giving all states equal powers to choose the President. This activity can be individualized to address questions asked during inquiry. Or the activities can be used to create inquiry following each cycle of voting, or all of the questions can be asked at the end of all three voting cycles. Links to two videos explaining how the Electoral College works that can be used to help explain the process to middle students or gifted students in lower grades are also included. Hopefully, these activities will help students understand the confusion after our recent election about who won and why, as well as the importance of voting to have their voices heard.

A Story is a Great Way to Engage Students. This story is an old one that was handed down through many generations, told usually while sitting on a front or back porch. The goal for this lesson is to allow students to discover the role language, math, history, science, and art have in storytelling and to get them to create their own stories using skills they learn in the classroom.

This science project for students interested in particle physics, specifically the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, can be investigated by one student or a group of independent learners and/or students who need support from expert peers. Although it is an ELA lesson that includes constructing an argument within a formal letter, this is primarily a science project using technology-based learning tools. Teachers' roles are as facilitators and resources of information, but mainly to provide assistance with writing the letters, the major artifact of this project. Letters should present and support an argument, in alignment with CCSS. They should also follow the protocols for well-written formal letters.

Goal: To engage students with snow and other powdery media as artists Objectives: 1. Students will learn to use powdery substances like snow as an art medium. 2. Students will preserve their snow art and use it for decorative effects. 3. Students will show off photographs of their work in a gallery showing. All images are from Google Images

WARM-U.P.S. Warm (Us with Portable Shelter) Goal: To make students aware that not all people have warm clothes for the winter and how they can address this need Objectives: 1. Students will become aware of the lack of warm for clothing people living on the street. 2. Students will address this need through a class project after seeing how some people are addressing it. All images are from Google Images

This Language Arts lesson provides students to 'compare and contrast' individual experiences at a Chili's Restaurant using various parts of speech, Students would then 'compare and contast" the experience two police officers had at a Chili's Restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas, to the experience a disabled vet had at a Chili's Restaurant in Dallas, Texas. Emphasize that the negative experience received more media coverage than the positive one. A good follow up to this Language Arts lesson might be to go to lunch at a nearby Chili's Restaurant with parents and see how many parts of speech could be used to describe the ambience, food, and service.

After watching dozens of adults totally miss the English contribution to this simple little game, I thought this would be a great way to teach students how to recognize the difference between what words describe and what numbers calculate. Toward that end, I created an exercise to show how “English vs Mathematics” solves the puzzle within this game. I’ve also listed activities that can be used at each grade level from PreSchool to grade eight to help students make the distinction between language usage and mathematical language using manipulatables in the lower grades, as well as more intellectual ideas about the differences in language and mathematics which they all unknowingly use every day (another resource to come).

Students in eighth year are facing the end of middle or junior high school and in the not-so-distant future the start of high school. between then and now they have a great deal of academics to learn, tests to pass, and the pressures of being adolescents. So why not start the year celebrating their final year in middle or junior high school in classic Hollywood fashion? This first week of 8th year English-Language Arts unit does just that! Show your students just how special they are whilst assessing basic language and writing skills. Roll out the red carpet, notify the paparazzi, and let your students have a great time watching film trailers, writing reviews, looking back at summer, and getting the star treatment; whilst introducing collaborative learning and project-based activities. Start the school year with high expectations and watch your students soar.

Goal: To give students an historical view of the food pyramid and it's effect on the eating habits of Americans at home and at school Objectives: 1. Students will study the history of the food pyramid and how it has changed. 2. Students will investigate how the food pyramid is used to promote good nutrition in school lunches and meals at home and elsewhere and how food is part of culture. 3. Students will create their own "healthy food" posters based on eating foods from outdoor markets, fast food, food trucks, restaurants, taco stands, vending machines, bakeries, vegan eateries, etc. 4. Students will contribute to a healthy snack food pyramid for their classroom. 5. Students will compare and contrast the traditional food pyramid with the recent "my plate." 6. Students will create a food pyramid for fictitious and real foods featured in a popular movie. 7. Students will create a new concept for a food chart and create a graphic of it as an ad promoting their new and improved food chart with a catchy name, 21st century "app" logo, with hypothetical nutritional information for each for food item, as well as recipes and suggestions for complimentary foods.

This project helps students in grades three and up become pro-active when they are someone else being bullied.

Goal To improve school and classroom climate by taking proactive measures regarding bullying behavior and victimization of those who are different Objectives 1. Students will participate in activities and discussion regarding their feelings about those different from them which may or may not been exacerbated by recent political rhetoric. 2. Students will be able to feel safe in a non-threatening environment that will protect them from threatening behavior and speech. 3. Students will express their thoughts voluntarily without ridicule, using words and graphics. 4. Students will listen to each other and summarize what they heard a peer say before sharing their thoughts/feelings. 5. Students will make an empathic statement regarding any feelings he/she has in common with another student or students. 6. Students will work with an "empathy partner" or partners to create a graphic that expresses their feelings, including their empathy with each other's feelings. 7. Parents of students exhibiting violent speech and/or behavior will be contacted and apprised of the incident and suggest professional help for her/him.