8th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topics and/or themes to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

Grade 8 materials are grouped around topics such as Unit 1’s focus on the immigration experience in the early twentieth century, Unit 2’s focus on women’s rights, and Unit 4’s focus on how animals and humans are connected; this intense focus builds not only literacy skills but students’ content knowledge. The instructional materials allow students to develop a range of reading and writing skills. Texts are set up to increase in complexity both in regards to the reading difficulty, as well as the writing tasks complexity.

• Unit 1’s topic, “And, above all, we had to learn English,” presents students with “a series of texts related to immigration, and more specifically the experiences of immigrants passing through Ellis Island into the United States in the early twentieth century. Students examine historical photographs, a video, and websites that represent the history of Ellis Island.” Students are provided with a variety of text types at various Lexile levels so that teachers can assign texts based on reading comprehension levels, interests, or developing skills. This flexibility allows teachers to prepare individual students to independently perform a “close reading, questioning, analysis, and summary of one of the three related texts.”

• Unit 2 asks students to make evidence-based claims through activities centered around the topic of Women’s Rights. “The Footprints of Legends” is centered on three related texts: Sojourner Truth’s 1864 “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, Shirley Chisholm’s 1969 “Equal Rights for Women” speech, and Venus WIlliams’s 2006 Times op-ed “Wimbledon Has Sent Me a Message: I’m a Second Class Champion.” These texts address issues of women’s rights in their distinct historical and cultural contexts and offer students the opportunity to develop familiarity with claims within texts and how authors use evidence to support them. This process builds toward students writing and supporting their own claims.

• Unit 3 focuses on conducting research to deepen understanding and is centered on the topic “Animals and Humans: How are we Connected?” The instructional materials provide a common text that can be used to build background information for teacher modeling and as the focus for skill development lessons. The sources have been chosen because they are relevant to one of the possible Areas of Investigation that students may be exploring. Unit 3 texts include, but are not limited to:
  • “EARTH: A New Wild” - PBS Trailer
  • “Caring for Animals May Have Shaped Human Evolution” - Jeremy Hsu
  • “Why do we care about some animals more than others?” - NPR Talk
  • “Animal Rights” - Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection

• Unit 4 asks student to write evidence-based arguments centered on the topic, “E Pluribus Unum.” The instructional materials state, “The topic area and texts focus on the broad area of immigration and more specifically on issues and controversies related to immigration law and policy in the United States, historically and currently.” A common text set is provided. Students will use these texts to move from guided to independent practice for the close reading skills associated with analyzing an argument.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

Grade 8 materials contain sets of coherently questions and tasks that require students to analyze the texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics. Consistently throughout the materials, higher order thinking questions are provided in the form of both text-dependent and text-specific questions. These questions are embedded into Questioning Path Tools that are used by students as guides when analyzing texts.

• Unit 1, students read a variety of texts centered around the topic “And, above all, we had to learn English.” Students analyze these texts via Questioning Path Tools which provides questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure. For example:

Text 5: On the Trail of the Immigrant, Ch. 5 “ At the Gateway”

Text 6: The Future in America, Ch. III

• In Unit 2, students read a three speeches centered around the topic of Women’s Rights. Students analyze these texts via Questioning Path Tools which provides questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure. For example:

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?": What is Truth referring to as her “cup” in paragraph 3? What point is Truth trying to make about rights with her “cup” metaphor?

Shirley Chisholm’s “Equal Rights for Women”: What do you notice about how the text is organized or sequenced? According to Chisholm, what are the assumptions of the “calculated system of prejudice” that lie behind the question, “Do you type?”

Venus Williams’s “Wimbledon Has Sent Me a Message: I’m Only a Second Class Champion”: How does Williams begin her article in the first two paragraphs? How does her beginning relate to the “culmination” she refers to in paragraph 3 and her “disappointment” in paragraph 5? What arguments does Williams present against Wimbledon’s claim that “women’s tennis is worth less”?

• In Unit 3, students read a variety of texts on the topic, “Water: Why is it so valuable?” The Guiding Questions Handout is used to analyze sources for perspective and includes text dependent questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure such as “What details or words suggest the author’s perspective?”

• In Unit 4, students read a variety of texts on the topic of modern immigration issues. Students analyze these texts via Questioning Path Tools which provides questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure. For example:

Text 1.2: “Immigration”

Text 4.2: “Immigration Policy Should be Overhauled to Take National Identity Seriously”

In the middle of her text, Chua most clearly states her position, introducing it by saying, “The right thing for the United States to do…” What is Chua’s middle-ground position about immigration? What are her “five suggestions” to respond to the problems of immigration and assimilation in the United States? What evidence does she provide to support these suggestions?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials contain text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across texts.

These questions are provided through Questioning Path Tools and the Guiding Questions Handout. These questions guide teachers as they support student growth in analyzing language, determining main ideas and supporting evidence, identifying author’s purpose and point of view, and analyzing structure of text. Both the student work with individual and multiple texts and teacher materials provide support in growing analytical skills of students. .

• In Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 1, the Questioning Path Tools provides text-dependent questions such as, “In lines 1-6, what details and words does Lazarus use to create a picture of the 'mighty woman with a torch'? Why might Lazarus refer to her as 'Mother of Exiles'?” These questions help student analyze texts as they build content knowledge about immigration.

• In Unit 2, students examine the speeches by Sojourner Truth, Shirley Chisholm, and Venus Williams which focus on Women’s Rights. Students work across these texts in chunks to make evidence-based claims. Throughout the unit, students encounter several opportunities to respond to text dependent questions and tasks that require them to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across these texts. For example, In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 2, students answer text-dependent questions such as, “In paragraph 2, what four parts of her experience does Truth describe before asking the question each time, 'Ain’t I a Woman?'”

• In Unit 3, students read a variety of texts and use information from these sources to organize a body of research and write a reflective research narrative that communicates their evidence-based perspective on their area of investigation, which can also be expressed in an optional multimedia presentation. In the Researching to Deepen Understanding Common Source Set section, the instructional materials provide text-dependent questions to help process sources as they build knowledge. Questions include, “What does the website suggest about the topic area: “Animals and Humans: How Are We Connected? What other human and animal connections does it make you think about?”

• In Unit 4, students read a variety of texts and use information from these sources to write an argumentative essay. The instructional materials provided text-specific questions, via Questioning Path Tools, to help students analyze some of these common sources. For example, in Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students answer questions such as, “What details and ideas does the text provide about the more recent problem of illegal 'aliens' or immigrants in the United States?”; questions like this one help students see the topic of immigration law and policy from different perspectives.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a and/or theme through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

Grade 8 materials include sets of questions and tasks to support students to complete culminating tasks in which they are demonstrating knowledge of topics and/or themes. Each module has several “Questioning Path Tools” that scaffold the material to encourage the successful completion of culminating tasks. The materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to each culminating task. Tasks engage students in speaking, listening, reading, and writing which provide learning through integrated skills. Culminating tasks showcase students' demonstration of topics and themes through a combination of skills, print, and nonprint texts.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1’s culminating task asks students to write a text-based explanation about one of three final texts, The Promised Land, Rebels: Into Anarchy, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In preparation for this writing, students read and discuss the texts, and then analyze the texts independently. Because the focus on this unit is for student to read closely for textual details, the instructional materials integrate the development of explanatory communication skills into the close-reading process and provide Questioning Path Tools to guide students. For example, in Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 2, students participate in structured text-centered discussions in which they examine their first impressions of the texts.

• In Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 4, students write an evidence-based essay using claims they created based on the texts, “Ain’t I a Woman?”, “Equal Rights for Women,” and “Wimbledon Has Sent Me a Message: I’m Only a Second-Class Champion” as a way to demonstrate their mastery of the unit’s objectives. This activity requires students to express their understanding of the text through writing. In Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 5, “the class discusses final evidence-based claims essays...and reflects on the Literacy Skills and Academic Habits involved in making and communicating evidence-based claims.” This activity asks students to speak about “the process through which they arrived at their claim - how it emerged from their reading of the text and how they honed it.” They also listen as other students share their experience.

• In Unit 3, students write a reflective research narrative that communicates their evidence-based perspective on their area of investigation centered around the topic, “Animals and Humans: How Are We Connected?” To prepare for this final task, students explore topics, collaborate with peers, pose and refine questions, and organize information. Questions and tasks are designed to help students analyze connections that “aid in comprehension, deepen understanding, and prepare students to express their evolving perspective.” For example, students build their listening and speaking in Unit 3, Part 1 when they are initiating inquiry. Students initially explore a topic and build background knowledge through reading and text-centered discussion, then initiate inquiry by generating questions collaboratively that can frame and direct their research.

• The final goal of Unit 4 is for students to be able to write an evidence-based argument on the topic, “E Pluribus Unum.” In Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 1, “students learn about the collaborative, question-based approach to developing and improving writing...in the context of talking out a first draft.” This is part of the four components of the Collaborative Workshop. Through this collaborative process, students read each other’s papers and write and edit their own papers. This process is driven through peer editing where students speak and listen about their own writing and the writing of others.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

Grade 8 materials meet the expectation for supporting students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year. Students are supported through the writing process in well-designed lessons, models, and protocols for teachers to monitor writing development. Feedback is provided by peers, the teacher, and self-evaluations to ensure that students' writing skills are increasing throughout the year. Students apply their learned knowledge to their writing and continue to build on it to make it strong and meet grade-level expectations following rubrics and standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 5, “students write a short paragraph explaining their analysis of the text and reference (or list) supporting textual details.” In Part 3, Activity 3, “student groups consider a comparative question and individually write an explanatory paragraph using their question.” The writing assignments in Unit 1 lead, guide, and instruct students to the final project, which require students to independently write a text-based explanation by including paragraphs that are drawn from their notes and from one of the three final texts that they have read.
• In Unit 2, Part 4, Activity 3, students work in pairs to write “a paragraph that communicates an evidence-based claim using one of their claims” from previous assignments. In Part 5, Activity 4, students independently draft an evidence-based essay. The writing assignments in Unit 2 lead, guide, and instruct students to the final project which require students to write an evidence-based claim that is one to two paragraphs in length.
• In Unit 3, Part 2, Activity 5, the teacher models for students how to take notes related to a specific topic through research. In Part 3, Activity 4, “students develop evidence-based summaries and evaluations of relevant sources using their notes and annotations.” The writing assignments in Unit 3 lead, guide, and instruct students to the final project which require students to write a reflective research narrative.
• In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 5, “students develop and write a multipart evidence-based claim about the nature of the issue.” In Part 2, Activity 7, “students write short essays analyzing an argument.” The writing assignments in Unit 4 lead, guide, and instruct students to the final project which require students to write an evidence-based argument.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials.

Units 1 and 2 build skills, such as reading closely for textual details and making evidence-based claims, that will be needed to conduct the research projects outlined in Units 3 and 4. Units 3 and 4 encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and sources. Students engage in research projects that require them to analyze different aspects of the topic using multiple texts and source materials.

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 5, students use Guiding Questions to independently explore Scholastic’s “Interactive Tour of Ellis Island.” This activity asks students to “apply close-reading skills in the context of Internet research, but also enrich their understanding of the topic and other texts they will encounter in the unit.” This activity also asks students to share information they acquired through the Internet research with their small groups.

• In Unit 2, Part 2, Activity 1, “students independently read part of the text...to look for evidence to support a claim made by the teachers.” For this activity, students read and analyze Shirley Chisholm’s “Equal Rights for Women” speech. This activity also helps prepare students for later research by asking them to find supporting evidence from a nonfiction text to support a claim.

• In Unit 3, students conduct research centered on the topic, “Animals and Humans: How Are We Connected?” Students choose an area to investigate and gather information to deepen their knowledge on the topic using multiple texts and sources. There is a learning progression in this unit to help guide students through the research process. For example, in Unit 3, Part 2, Activity 5, students “annotate sources and record key information, personal impressions, and ideas for further exploration.” In Part 4, Activity 2, students organize evidence and evidence-based claims in preparation for the culminating writing task.

• In Unit 4, students conduct research centered on the topic, “E Pluribus Unum” and write argumentative essays; students choose an area to investigate and gather information to deepen their knowledge on the topic using multiple texts and sources. There is a learning progression in this unit to help guide students through the research process. For example, in Unit 4, Part 2, Activity 3, “student teams read and delineate arguments and write an evidence-based claim about one position on the issue.” This activity prepares students for the culminating task by asking them to analyze “The Easy Problem” which is an “accessible model argument to begin with for most students.”