8th Grade - Gateway 2

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

All units provide students and teachers with a unit goal, which is located within the “Unit at-a-glance” box. All texts are centered around each unit goal, as students must complete Extension tasks, Culminating Writing tasks, Cold Read tasks, and various other formative assessments. The topics include, but are not limited to intelligence, conservation, and the interaction of humans and animals.

• In "Sugar" Unit, the unit goal is, “Students read literary and informational texts to understand the impact that sugar production and trade had on the economic and social course of world history. Students express their understanding by exploring conflicting information about sugar through research, determining text credibility, and comparing and contrasting texts to make informed claims.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as information about sugarcane farming and how its production changed the world, poems about sugarcane, and an image of cane cutting. The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science.
• In “Conservation” Unit, the unit goal is, “Students read various informational and literary texts about the beauty of the natural world and the duty of mankind to leave resources for future generations. Students understand and express their understanding of how the various authors use language, devices, and connections between ideas to motivate others to take up the conservation cause.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as information about Theodore Roosevelt, John James Audubon, and John Muir as conservationists and stories like “Requiem for a Nest” and “Birdfoot’s Grampa.” The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, “Conservation as a National Duty.”
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, the unit goal is, “Students read literary and informational texts about human interaction with animals and nature. They understand how authors portray animals to serve a purpose and make a comment about human interaction with animals. Students then explore scientific and personal accounts of animal cognition to express their understanding of Jack London’s portrayal of Buck and his interaction with humans in The Call of the Wild.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as information about the intelligence of animals and the ways of nature, and stories like “To Build a Fire.” The Culminating Writing Tast and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, The Call of the Wild.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation 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.

Students independently and as a whole group complete questions and tasks that require analysis of individual texts. Students complete multiple reads of texts with scaffolds, such as read aloud, partner reading, and independent reading. Students answer questions and/or complete tasks that move from a literal understanding of the text to deep analysis within the texts or multiple texts. This scaffolded progression occurs across units, sections, lessons, and assessments.

In the "Flowers for Algernon" Unit, Lesson 22, students complete a Cold Read practice with the text, “Flowers for Algernon.” Students are given 25 minutes to reread a section from the text and answer the following multiple-choice questions:

• Part A: Which of the following sentences describes the response and the reason for the people at the restaurant’s reaction to the dishwasher breaking the dishes?
• Part A: What do the words vacant and vacuous mean as used in the passage?
• Part A: Charlie feels ashamed in the scene at the restaurant. What does this moment reveal about Charlie?
• Part A: What is the main claim Charlie makes in the report from May 20?

In the "Sugar" Unit,  Lesson 38, students complete a Cold Read task. Students have 25 minutes to complete three questions and 15 minutes to view a video and answer two questions. The article comes from “200 Years of Progress in the Louisiana Sugar Industry: A Brief History” by Dr. Charley Richard. Questions include:

• What is the main idea of the “200 Years of Progress in the Louisiana Sugar Industry: A Brief History?”
• Which statement from the passage best supports the answer to Part A?
• How does paragraph 6 of the passage refine the idea of the growth in the sugarcane industry?

In the “Tell-Tale Heart” Unit,  Lesson 14. students begin reading “The Ransom of Red Chief,” and they define words in context and analyze how words, phrases, and details reveal aspects of a character. Students listen to the first fourteen paragraphs of the story and mark the words, phrases, and/or sentences that reveal information about the narrator, his partner, Ebenezer Dorset, and Ebenezer’s son (the kid or “Red Chief”). Students complete a close reading of two sentences and then answer these questions: "From where is the story being told? How many narrators are there? How much does the narrator know? How reliable is the narrator? What is the narrator’s orientation?"

In the “Conservation” Unit, Lesson 6, students practice point of view and meaning in “Requiem for a Nest.” Students read the poem and make a prediction: “Consider the title and make a prediction about what the poem is about.” Students are then paired based on similar language abilities and are required to complete the following questions:

• Paraphrase: Put the poem into your own words. Make sure you tell what is happening at the beginning, middle, and end. Tell what is really happening, not what the poet is figuratively saying.
• Connotation: Look at the poem beyond the actual events. Look for figurative language, imagery, etc.
• Attitude (Tone): What is the speaker’s tone? Is there more than one attitude or tone in different parts of the poem?
• Shifts: Are there any changes in the speaker or attitude? Look for keywords, time change, punctuation.
• Title: Look at the title again. Why is the title important to the poem?
• Theme: What is the theme about? What is the poet saying about the subject? What message is the poet trying to send?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

Students have frequent opportunities to think about, discuss, and write about multiple texts within the daily lesson structure and as part of culminating activities and assessments. Students are often asked to reflect on texts as they relate to one another and revisit their understanding of texts after they have experienced new selections. Cold Read tasks, Culminating Writing tasks, and Extension tasks often include writing prompts that ask students to synthesize understanding across texts.

• In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Unit, Lessons 42-43, students complete a Cold Read task where they respond to questions and demonstrate their knowledge through a task. Questions are: “What is the meaning of the word 'wonderment' as it is used in paragraph 2? Which sentence from the story best supports the answer to Part A? How does the difference in point of view between Professor Hugo in “Zoo” and the reader create irony?” The task is: “According to 'Zoo' and 'The Blind Men and the Elephant,' what role does perspective or point of view play in understanding a situation? Write an extended response that analyzes how this idea is developed through characters, setting, and plot in both the story and the poem. Cite evidence from both texts to support your response.”
• In the “Flowers for Algernon” Unit, Lessons 6-8, students read and analyze the informational article, “What’s in an Inkblot? Some Say, Not Much” by Erica Goode. In Lesson 9, students use the knowledge they gained from reading the article and “Flowers for Algernon” to make a claim about Charlie’s suitability for the experiment.
• In the “Conservation” Unit, Lesson 1, students read, summarize, and make inferences about the short story, “Autumntime” by A. Lentini. In Lessons 2-3, they read and analyze “Conservation as a National Duty” by Theodore Roosevelt. In Lesson 4, students explain in a written response how “Autumntime” represents the claims in Roosevelt's speech, citing evidence from the text.
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, in Lessons 37-41, as part of the Extension task, students synthesize the knowledge they gained from reading several selections: excerpts from “Do Animals Think and Reflect?” from The Ways of Nature by John Burroughs, “How Smart are Animals” from PBS, “Animal Minds” by Virginia Morrell, and the portrayal of Buck in The Call of the Wild. After reading, they write an argumentative essay in response to the question, “Given Jack London's characterization of Buck in the novel and your understanding of animal cognition, should he be considered a ‘nature faker’? Why or why not?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic (or, for grades 6-8, a theme) through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

The materials contain lessons and tasks that build to culminating activities. Each unit has an established goal that is described for the teacher in the introduction to the unit and to the students in the first lesson of the unit. The students are also informed in the opening of the first lesson how they will eventually demonstrate that they met the goals of the unit, which is their successful completion of the culminating tasks. Each unit contains three culminating tasks: a Culminating Writing task, an Extension task which is either narrative or research in nature, and a Cold Read task. For each of the culminating tasks, the materials provide student directions, rubrics, and exemplars.

• In the “Conservation” Unit, the unit goal is “Students read various informational and literary texts about the beauty of the natural world and the duty of mankind to leave resources for future generations. Students understand and express their understanding of how the various authors use language, devices, and connections between ideas to motivate others to take up the conservation cause.” At the conclusion of the “Conservation” Unit, students complete an Extension task where they “work collaboratively to research a modern conservation group (e.g., the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the National Park Service) that uses research and exploration to conserve wildlife.” They are instructed to follow these steps: "Write an expository, research-based essay in which you explain how the group’s values and goals support the conservation movement of today. Explain what impact that organization has had on wildlife conservation and support your ideas using credible and relevant evidence. Properly cite and quote sources, avoiding plagiarism. After researching, each group will deliver a multimedia presentation about the goals of your organization and the importance of your work in our community today.”
• In the “Tell-Tale Heart” Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts to understand the role of the narrator and point of view. Students also understand how the narrative voice of a text can blur the line between fact and fiction. Students express their understanding through writing in different points of view and examining motives and bias in various media.” For the Cold Read task, students read a new selection: “Zoo” by Edward Hoch. They answer a series of multiple choice questions, followed by a writing section where they respond to the prompt: “According to ‘Zoo’ and ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant,’ what role does perspective or point of view play in understanding a situation? Write an extended response that analyzes how this idea is developed through characters, setting, and plot in both the story and the poem. Cite evidence from both texts to support your response.”
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts about human interaction with animals and nature. They understand how authors portray animals to serve a purpose and make a comment about human interaction with animals. Students then explore scientific and personal accounts of animal cognition to express their understanding of Jack London’s portrayal of Buck and his interaction with humans in The Call of the Wild.” For the Culminating Writing task, students write a literary analysis in response to the question, “What central idea or theme about humans’ treatment of animals does The Call of the Wild convey?” In order to answer this question, they are instructed to “Select key incidents from the novel in which Buck interacts with his various owners. Describe Buck’s point of view about the incident and his owners’ traits. Examine the outcome of each incident and how each owner’s treatment and Buck’s point of view impacted the outcome. Determine a central idea or theme of The Call of the Wild based on London’s depiction of Buck’s relationship with his many owners and the outcomes of their various interactions.”
• In the "Flowers for Algernon" Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts about knowledge and intelligence to show what happens when humans manipulate the minds of others and how our understanding of intelligence has evolved over time. Students express their understanding of these ideas by exploring how authors draw on traditional stories and develop characters and themes to teach us about ourselves and others.” In the Extension task, students write an informative essay to explain how the understanding of intelligence has changed over time. In order to do complete the task, students have to participate in a discussion and research the history of the work on intelligence. Some possible places for the students to research are listed.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

The Resource Library for each unit includes a “Vocabulary Guide” that includes words and phrases to teach, words and phrases to define, and two whole-class instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary: semantic mapping and word displays. Each unit contains a text complexity and vocabulary analysis document. The vocabulary analysis portion provides a list of vocabulary words and where they appear in the anchor text. The words are categorized by whether they can or can not be determined in context and whether they demand less or more teaching time. “Section Supports” outline a protocol for explicitly teaching vocabulary and provide specific “Vocabulary Tasks” and “Mentor Sentence Language Tasks.” Within the lesson plan structure, the “Let’s Work With Words!” section focuses on the development of vocabulary and language through explicit instruction and formative practice.

• In the “Vocabulary Guide,” teachers examine their vocabulary instruction across the year and throughout all lessons and units. Suggestions are given to teachers to speed up vocabulary growth for all students, including, but not limited to “reading aloud texts that are written at a level above the students’ independent reading levels, or prompting students to read a series of texts on the same topic.”
• In the "Christmas Carol" Unit, “Section Supports” provide additional support for teachers including “Protocols for Explicitly Teaching Vocabulary.” In these section, teachers are given steps to explicitly teach the word “conclusions.” The steps include teacher presentation, definition, explanation, connections, and application.
• In the Sugar" Unit, Lesson 15, students complete a “Let’s Work With Words!” section within the lesson. Students are presented with the word “indulgence,” and given a sentence stem: “The word ‘indulgence’ means…” Students are placed in pairs, and this section of the lesson ends with a whole classroom discussion: “Conclude the discussion by asking pairs to complete one of the following sentence stems to help explain how they determined the meaning of ‘indulgence.’ ‘Another way to say ‘indulgence' is…’ ‘I made meaning of the word/phrase by looking at other words and/or phrases in the sentence, such as...’ ‘I looked at...’ ‘I noticed that...’”
• In the “Conservation” Unit, Lesson 6, students complete a TP-CASTT (title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude/tone, shifts, title, and theme) handout. Specifically, students practice identifying connotation (C): “Direct students to highlight the words or phrases from the poem that stick out to them using the following key: Yellow highlighter for words or phrases with a positive connotation; blue highlighter for words or phrases with a negative connotation.” Students are then instructed to “take a look at the words you highlighted and let me share what I highlighted with you.” Then, students must write the two sets of words on the C: Connotations portion of the TP-CASTT organizer. Students should be sure to separate the positive and negative connotations on the handout.”
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, Lesson 3, students complete a “Let’s Work With Words!” section. Students read an excerpt from the anchor text and focus on the word, “metamorphosed”: “What does the word 'metamorphosed' mean? Why is this word choice significant?” Students complete these questions with a partner. The teacher is provided with the following instructions: “After 4 minutes, engage the class in a brief discussion to refine their definitions until you reach an accurate definition. Prompt students to share the context clues that helped them refine their definition. As needed, give the definition to students for each word...Have students write the word and definition in their vocabulary chart. If time permits, they can complete the row of the chart or do so for homework. Engage students in a whole-class discussion about the significance of the word ‘metamorphosed.’ If needed, use the prompting questions below to spark discussion and support student understanding.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation 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.

Writing is used across lesson plans and assessments as a learning tool and as a way for students to express their understanding. Lesson plans are scaffolded so that students develop their understanding of texts thoroughly before having to write thoughtfully about them. Within lessons, students complete smaller writing tasks such as taking notes, filling in graphic organizers, and writing quick responses to guiding questions before they are asked to complete more demanding writing tasks for more complex selections at the end of the unit. Classroom discussion is used as a regular tool to prepare students for writing assignments, and more in-depth writing assignments are broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks to prepare students for writing the rough draft. Students learn the components of good writing on a smaller scale through language tasks that focus on sentence-level meaning and writing structures. Each unit concludes in a multi-draft Culminating Writing task that synthesizes the students’ understanding of the texts. Additionally, Extension tasks are included for either narrative or research-based writing.

For example:

• In the "Flowers for Algernon" Unit, Lesson 4, students engage in a class discussion to analyze the myths of Prometheus and Pandora then express their understanding of the lesson by writing a paragraph in response to the questions: “What is a theme of ‘The Story of Prometheus’? How do Prometheus’ and Jupiter’s actions develop a theme of the text?”
• In the “Tell-Tale Heart” Unit, Lesson 23, students evaluate the reliability of the narrator of “Tell-Tale Heart.” They discuss the question “How would “The Tell-Tale Heart” change if the story were told from another point of view?” Students then write a response to the same question in their Reading Logs to show their understanding of the lesson.
• In the "Sugar" Unit, Lesson 26-29, students write a multi-draft essay in Culminating Writing task in response to the prompt: “What is the author’s perspective or purpose for writing Sugar Changed the World and how do they respond to conflicting viewpoints?” They are instructed to "Write an essay that explains how the authors convey their perspective or purpose in writing Sugar Changed the World, including how they respond to conflicting viewpoints."
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, Lessons 32-36, students complete a Culminating Writing task where they write a multi-draft literary analysis in response to the question, “What central idea or theme about humans’ treatment of animals does The Call of the Wild convey? Select key incidents from the novel in which Buck interacts with his various owners. Describe Buck’s point of view about the incident and his owners’ traits. Examine the outcome of each incident and how each owner’s treatment and Buck’s point of view impacted the outcome. Determine a central idea or theme of The Call of the Wild based on London’s depiction of Buck’s relationship with his many owners and the outcomes of their various interactions."

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation 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.

Students engage in lessons and activities where they gather information from sources for the purposes of research and to supplemental understanding of texts. They draw evidence from literary and informational selections to discuss the texts and support claims they make about the texts. Students also complete larger research projects at the end of units that require them to obtain information from multiple credible sources and synthesize that information to convey their understanding of a topic or task.

For example:

• In the "Sugar" Unit, Lesson 5, students participate in a lesson to “analyze how the authors’ make connections among individuals, ideas, and events in history.” This skill is necessary to conduct research and is needed for the research task later in the unit: “Students write an argumentative, research-based essay that (1) makes a claim about the role of sugar, (2) argues what impact that role of sugar had on the world, and (3) defends the claim using evidence.”
• In the "Flowers for Algernon" Unit, Lessons 36-41, Extension task, students research how the understanding of intelligence has changed over time. Students are provided with a list of possible resources and are required to present at least two different theories of intelligence and explain why each theory is or is not widely accepted today.
• In the “Tell-Tale Heart” Unit, Lessons 34-41, Extension task, students create a multimedia presentation on an issue that they researched to illustrates how others try to influence perspective in order to shape what people believe to be true.
• In the “Conservation” Unit, Lessons 33-39, students work in small groups to research a modern conservation group that uses research and exploration to conserve wildlife. They write a research-based expository essay about how the group’s values and goals support the conservation movement. Then students create a multimedia presentation about the goals of the chosen organization and the impact of its work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Students have frequent opportunities to engage in independent reading through scaffolded lessons and self-selected materials. Students read portions of the anchor text independently after the teacher reads the text to them and after students read in pairs. Students also reread selections independently after having listened to them or read them in pairs. Students are held accountable through the use of reading logs, discussion, formative, and summative assessments. For Cold Read tasks, students read selections independently and complete multiple choice questions and writing tasks to show their understanding. Each unit comes with a “Family Resource” document with a suggested book list to deepen students’ knowledge of the topic being studied. It also provides suggestions for how parents can plan and encourage independent reading activities at home. For the independent reading project, the teacher materials include a letter to parents that outlines and encourages student accountability.

• In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Unit, Lesson 2, students are introduced to their independent reading for the unit. Students choose form Monster by Walter Dean Myers or Nothing but the Truth by Avi. They are given a reading log and are encouraged to create an independent reading schedule. In Lessons 27 and 28, they prepare and conduct a literature circle discussion based on their independent reading.
• In the "Flowers for Algernon" Unit, Lesson 11, students read Progress Reports 4-8 of “Flowers for Algernon” and analyze Charlie’s character and the author’s use of irony to develop meaning. Students continue reading to learn more about Charlie before and after the surgery. Students are directed to “read Progress Reports 5-8 independently and continue adding to their before/after surgery chart while they read.”
• In the "Sugar" Unit, Lesson 10, students continue reading Part Two of “Sugar Changed the World” and annotate the text to identify the main ideas. Students also close read the text and use a graphic organizer to record the central idea and analyze the relationship between the central idea and supporting ideas in the text. On Card 11 (Homework) students read Part Two of "Sugar Changed the World" (pages 63-70).
• In the "Call of the Wild" Unit, Lessons 22 and 23, students complete a practice Cold Read task where they independently read an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Call of the Wild and answer questions to determine their understanding of the text.