Bring the vocabulary of film to life through the processes of filmmaking. Students learn terminology and techniques simultaneously as they plan, film, and edit a short video.

8th Grade Historical Literacy consists of two 43 minute class periods. Writing is one 43 minute block and reading is another. The teacher has picked themes based on social studies standards, and a read-aloud novel based on social studies serves as the mentor text for writing and reading skills. More social studies content is addressed in reading through teaching nonfiction reading skills and discussion. Standards reflect CCSS ELA, Reading, and Social Studies Standards for History.

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.

This is an activity to help students create characters for narrative writing or creative writing. Some students struggle to develop a character for a story and therefore creative writing becomes frustrating for them. This is a great way to help students think about their character with more depth.

In this second module, students will continue to develop their ability to closely read text while studying the theme of taking a stand. During the first half of Unit 1, students will read two speeches reflecting examples of real people taking a stand. By reading these speeches they will build background knowledge about the module’s overarching theme, engage in a study of the speaker’s perspective, and analyze the craft of forming an argument. In the second half of Unit 1, students will read Part 1 ofTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and continue to study the theme of taking a stand as it is revealed in the novel. Students will engage in a character study of Atticus by analyzing his actions and words, and what others say about him, to better understand him as a character. This analysis will provide details and evidence for students to use in their end of Unit 2 argument essay. In addition to reading and studying the text, students will view excerpts of the To Kill a Mockingbird film that strongly convey the novel’s themes, and they will analyze how the film remains true to the original text as well as how it veers from the original.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .