8th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics (or, for grades 6-8, topics and/or themes) to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

The Grade 8 materials are organized around the theme of Challenge. Each unit takes on a facet of this theme: Unit 1: The Challenge of Heroism, Unit 2: The Challenge of Utopia, Unit 3: The Challenge to Make a Difference, and Unit 4: The Challenge of Comedy. Within each unit, texts are also connected to appropriate topics, such as self-driving cars and the Holocaust, as well as, influential leaders in history. The texts included follow a logical sequence that scaffold students toward reading increasingly more difficult texts independently including stories, dramas, poetry, literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts. The Planning the Unit page of the materials provides the rationale for the goal of the unit and details the scaffolding that will be used to help students increase their skills by the end of the unit and ultimately by the end of the year.

Evidence includes, but is not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students explore the theme of “The Challenge of Heroism.” Students examine a series of texts in various media forms from film clips to epic poetry, a graphic novel, short stories, personal narratives, and essays to formulate their own definition of heroism. Each text builds on the concept of heroism in various contexts including titles such as the following: Odyssey by Homer, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, “O Captain My Captain” by Walt Whitman. The Planning the Unit page states that in the first half of the unit, students focus on learning the hero’s journey archetype to develop a deeper understanding of heroism in a classical sense. In the beginning, students spend time analyzing how various texts represent each stage of the hero’s journey archetype. By the second half of the unit, students focus on integrating the texts that they have read throughout the unit to establish and explain their own expectations of a hero by completing an informational text to explain their definition of a hero.
• In Unit 2, students explore the theme of “Challenges of a Utopia.” The texts either have a utopian or dystopian theme. The Planning the Unit page states that in the first half of the unit, students read a novel that encompasses the theme. To prepare the students for this theme, in Unit 2, Activity 2.3, students read a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, entitled “Harrison Bergeron,” which contains both utopian and dystopian elements. In Unit 2, Activities 2.4 through 2.9, students read either The Giver by Lois Lowry or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, at the discretion of the teacher. The Giver focuses on a utopian society whereas Fahrenheit 451 focuses on a dystopian society. After reading the texts, students participate in a debate and prepare an informational (compare/contrast) piece of writing.
• In Unit 3, the texts are organized around the theme of “The Challenge to Make a Difference” and are tied to the topic, the Holocaust. Students read a variety of texts, including a novel, speeches, poetry, memoirs, a drama, and informational texts which examine how individuals and groups of people respond when they are faced with significant challenges and hardships. Some of the titles included are as follows: Night by Elie Wiesel, Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. At the end of the unit, using the information they have learned throughout the unit, students select an issue of national or global significance and collaboratively create a plan to use diverse media in order to convince a specific audience to take action on the students' chosen issue.
• In Unit 4, the texts are organized around the theme “The Challenge of Comedy.” In Planning the Unit, it states, “Students have learned that overcoming challenges is not easy, but they have also experienced that finding humor in life can help along the way. In Unit 4, students identify and analyze the elements commonly found in humorous writing and visual media.” Texts include film clips, essays, poetry, and plays. Students examine the ways authors create humor for effect, as through anecdotes and word choice, and demonstrate their understanding by writing a literary analysis essay examining a humorous text and by analyzing and performing scenes from a Shakespearean comedy. For example, in Embedded Assessment 2, the students “present your assigned scene in front of your peers to demonstrate your understanding of Shakespeare’s text, elements of comedy, and performance.”

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.

The Grade 8 SpringBoard materials provide text-dependent questions and activities to build students’ comprehension and knowledge over the school year. The texts, including, but not limited to, poems, novels, speeches, paintings, and plays, require students to carefully analyze the text for use of language, key ideas, details and craft, and structure. The tasks and questions are sequenced over the course of an activity, unit and school year to progress from more literal and scaffolded tasks, to more rigorous and independent ones. In the Teacher Wrap, teachers are provided with guidance, instructions, scaffolds, and suggestions for the planning and implementation of questions and tasks to utilize in class. Teachers are provided with formative and summative tasks that show mastery of the concepts included in each unit.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students “focus on the challenge of heroism” as they are “introduced to the archetype of the Hero’s Journey and study various examples of heroes and how their journey fits the archetype.” In Activity 1.5, students read “Ithaka” by C.P. Cavafy and answer questions such as, “What is the mood of this poem? How do you feel reading it? Explain how the author’s use of language contributes to the mood.” In Activity 1.8, students read an excerpt from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and then answer questions such as, “The word devouring is used in paragraph 1. What is the effect of this word choice on the mood of the opening?” In Unit 1, Activity 1.14, students read an excerpt from “White House Funeral Sermon for Abraham Lincoln” by Dr. Phineas D. Gurley and then answer the question, “What effect does the quote ‘...though the friends of Liberty die, Liberty is immortal’ have on the reader?”
• In Unit 2, Activity 2.5, students read part of a novel, either Fahrenheit 451 or The Giver, and analyze key details in order to identify conflicting perspectives in the story. Students complete graphic organizers, which include the following prompts: “Conflict among people or between people and society is a result of conflicting perspectives. Support this idea by identifying a topic that has created the most important conflict so far in the story and contrast two different perspectives about the topic. Write a summary of the plot of the novel so far. Tell how the characters' conflicting perspectives influence the events.”
• In Unit 3, Activity 3.4, students read the poem, “First They Came for the Communists” by Martin Niemoller. The students reread and analyze the poem for structure and craft, answering questions such as, “How does each stanza contribute to a developing sense of doom? Which words does the poet use to build mood in the poem?” and “Why do you think the poet ends the poem with a two-line stanza rather than a three-line stanza like the others? How does this change in the stanza’s length reflect his message?”.
• In Unit 4, Activity 4.6, students first watch a film clip that uses satire. Students are asked how the satirist uses “derision to denounce the subject” without further explanation. Then, students read “Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs” from The Onion. Students are required to use textual support to answer questions regarding the structure of the article, the use of quotations within the article to develop the main idea, and the word choice of using present tense in the last quotation.
• In Unit 4, Activity 4.16, students conduct a close read of a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and examine language, word choice, key details, craft, and structure by responding to the following questions: “Which details in Hermia's opening statement reveal her emotions? How does this set the tone of the scene? How does the use of apostrophes affect the meaning of the lines in this excerpt? Explain how this scene is intended to be comical onstage. What elements of comedy are represented?”.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria 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.

In the SpringBoard Grade 8 materials, the majority of the questions and tasks in the materials support students’ analysis of knowledge and ideas. The teacher materials found in the Teacher Wrap section provide teachers with guidance on sequencing questions and tasks, as well as guidance on scaffolding and differentiation. The materials provide opportunities for students to integrate knowledge over a single text and multiple texts in each unit. Students are also provided with the opportunity to analyze their independent reading selections with the texts read in class through the Independent Reading Checkpoints and in some cases, the opportunity to analyze primary and secondary sources on the same topic. By the end of each unit and the program, students are integrating their learning from all the activities associated with that unit.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 1.6, students analyze “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury. A series of text-dependent questions are listed in the Teacher Wrap section to scaffold analysis of the text. For example, Question 7 states, “How does the general's comment, ‘Do you know now you're general of the army when the general's left behind?’ prove to be a decisive moment in the conversation between him and Joby? What theme is developed through their interaction? How does Joby feel about his drum after the general's speech to him? How does Joby's role as the drummer make him ‘the general of the army’? RL.8.2; RL.8.3.”
• In Unit 1, Activity 1.17, Independent Reading Checkpoint, students analyze across multiple texts when connecting their Independent Reading Selection to the texts read in class. Students respond to the following prompt: “Look back at the article about Tristan Segers in Activity 1.12. Compare how his life and the life of the hero in your independent reading text fit into the hero's archetype that you have learned about in this unit.”
• In Unit 2, Activity 2.16, students read “Five Challenges for Self-Driving Cars: Experts weigh in on the roadblocks and research efforts” by Laurel Hamers to examine the claims the author makes and identify the evidence used to support the claims. Students respond to questions, such as: “Reread paragraphs 1–4 and analyze the thesis that is presented. What evidence is provided by the author to support her thesis throughout the article?”
• In Unit 3, Activity 3.4, students read Night by Elie Wiesel. Then, they answer questions explaining how the wartime setting affects the characters’ beliefs and feelings, using evidence to support their reasoning. Students also analyze characters’ decisions, for example why Moishe the Beadle returned to Sighet and what the effects of such a decision had on the story. Finally, students respond to a prompt asking them what they learned about standing up for others who are being mistreated from this memoir and how the author uses foreshadowing to convey this message.
• In Unit 3, Activity 3.4 students read an excerpt from Night by Elie Weisel and the poem “First They Came for the Communist” by Martin Niemoller. Students complete a graphic organizer comparing the text’s structure, language, and theme. Questions include, “How are ideas presented?”, “Why might the author have chosen one word over another?”, and “What lesson has each narrator learned from experiencing these events?”.
• In Unit 4, Lesson 4.20, students compare and contrast the written version of Midsummer’s Night Dream to its film version. Students respond to the changes and the effects of the changes on the viewer’s/reader’s understanding of the text

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 topic (or, for grades 6-8, a theme) through integrated skills (e.g., combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

The Grade 8 SpringBoard materials provide culminating tasks for each activity and/or unit that are multifaceted and require students to demonstrate mastery of multiple grade 8 standards. Culminating tasks include, but are not limited to, writing an informational essay, participating in a panel discussion, and presenting their writing orally. The tasks require students to engage in integrated reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Tasks leading up to the culminating tasks are varied and provide teachers with ongoing formative and anecdotal readiness information. Teachers are prompted in the Teacher Wrap to actively engage with students as they are working independently, in pairs, or in groups to access readiness and are provided with scaffolding support, such as guiding questions, if needed. The culminating tasks build to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge about the topic or topics of the unit and/or activity.

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.14, students read about Lincoln and Douglass and then, after considering their possible viewpoints about how voting rights have changed, students role-play a conversation where group members select roles and play Douglass, Lincoln, and a person living in today’s world. The conversation centers on Lincoln and Douglass teaching people today about the ways that exercising the right to vote could make someone a hero. During the role play, students must listen to one another so that the conversation continues logically. After the discussion, students write a summary of the conversation in their Reader/Writer Notebooks. This activity not only demonstrates reading comprehension but also the ability to apply what they have learned to a discussion of heroism using their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
• In Unit 2, Embedded Assessment 1, students choose from two prompts to “Use an informational organizational structure to communicate your understanding of dystopia or the hero’s journey.” This culminating task combines the students learning about a Hero's Journey and the concepts in a utopia. In building to this task, students read and learn about utopia and dystopia, the compare/contrast informational structure, and perspectives of two characters and how the conflict develops the theme through reading and writing. In Activity, 2.4 students begin reading the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Both novels provide students with the concept of a Hero's Journey and Dystopia. Students demonstrate their knowledge about dystopian novels through the analysis of the novel they have read and writing an informative essay. During the drafting stage, students share and respond to each other’s rough drafts in writing groups. When students move to the evaluating and revising stage, they “Form discussion groups for sharing and responding” as group members “listen to evaluate and respond by providing specific feedback based on Scoring Guide criteria.”
• In Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 1, students “Present a panel discussion that includes an oral reading of a significant passage from the texts read by your group. Your discussion should explain how the theme or central idea of ‘finding hope in times of despair’ is developed in each text.” Students demonstrate their knowledge of the Holocaust through reading and researching, writing about a specific Holocaust victim from their research, orally present the information, and listening and responding during the discussion.
• In Unit 4, Embedded Assessment 2, students “Present your assigned scene in front of your peers to demonstrate your understanding of Shakespeare's text, elements of comedy, and performance.” Students demonstrate their knowledge about drama through reading and analyzing the play, writing notes and annotating the scene, orally performing the scene, and listening and responding to the group members throughout the project process.

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

The Grade 8 SpringBoard materials include a cohesive yearlong vocabulary plan that is included in the Vocabulary and Word Connection sections of the materials. Additionally, the words are listed for each activity in the unit. The vocabulary listed is connected to the texts or the tasks in each unit and is hyperlinked to the text. Students engage in vocabulary instruction through direct teaching, using context, and completing a task such as graphic organizers. One graphic organizer used throughout the materials is the QHT framework which is Q—words you have questions about, H—words you’ve heard before, but not sure about the meaning, and T—words you could teach. Students encounter the vocabulary before, during and after reading and carry over multiple texts and/or tasks. Lists of Academic and Literary terms are provided in the Planning the Unit section of each unit. The vocabulary in each unit is embedded in reading, speaking, and/or writing tasks, and builds over the course over the unit.

Some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.6, Word Connections, students examine the etymology of the word touchstone. In the Teacher Wrap, the guidance listed asks teachers to point out that “...learning the etymology and history of a word can enrich knowledge of its meaning.” In Unit 2, Activity 2.6 in the Word Connection, the students learn about the etymology of the word censorship.
• In Unit 2, Activity 2.1, Developing Vocabulary, students complete a QHT sort for the following academic and literary vocabulary words in Unit 2: analogy, anecdote, argument, controversy, debate, perspective, seminar, Socratic, antagonist, and protagonist. Student directions state, “Create a QHT chart in your Reader/Writer Notebook and sort the Vocabulary Terms on the Contents page. Use print or online resources to move all of the words into the “T” column by the end of the unit.” Students revisit the terms in Activity 2.10, reflecting on their command of the terms in another QHT sort: “Re-sort the Academic and Literary Vocabulary using the QHT strategy. Use a dictionary to look up any words still in the Q column. Review their definitions. Choose one word from the list and write a concise statement about how your understanding of this term has improved.”
• In Unit 3, Activity 3.7, Vocabulary section, students learn the following literary term: “Mood is the overall feeling or emotion of a story. A story’s mood can be described with an adjective, such as sinister, mournful, angry, or playful. Many elements of a story contribute to the mood, including the setting, the characters’ words and feelings, and the use of imagery and figurative language.”
• In Unit 4, Activity 4.6, Vocabulary section, the following vocabulary words are listed: “Academic: derision, denounce; Literary: satire; [Content/Text Specific] Terms: transpired, outmoded.” Students then read the article “Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs.” Before reading, teachers give students this guidance: “As you read the article, underline words and phrases that make you laugh or that you recognize as humor. Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.” Students work further with the term satire. “Work collaboratively to diffuse and paraphrase the definition of satire. Students view a satirical clip from a tv show and respond to the following question: “You will next view a film clip your teacher shows and take notes on the satire you observe. How is the satirist using derision to denounce the subject?” Under Vocabulary, students receive definitions for satire, derision, and denounce. Students revisit the terms credibility, primary, and secondary sources in Activities 2.7 and 2.13 when working with more texts and conducting research for their information and argument writing tasks for Embedded Assessments 1 and 2.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan to 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.

The Grade 8 SpringBoard materials support students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year and include writing instruction aligned to the standards. The materials include well-designed lesson plans, models, and protocols for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development. Students complete relevant and authentic writing tasks such as, but not limited to, writing a narrative, a research multimedia presentation, and an argumentative essay. Students are provided with ample direct instruction, practice, and application of writing skills that gradually move towards student independence. In the Teacher Wrap, teachers are provided with instructions on leading students to establish a Reader/Writer Notebook to record learning and ideas for their writing and to monitor their own progress and Portfolios to provide a place for storing writing tasks which show growth throughout the year. Each unit contains two Embedded Assessments, most of which are writing prompts. Students are provided the writing prompt at the beginning of the unit for Embedded Assessment 1 and midway through the unit for Embedded Assessment 2. Each activity in the unit helps teach writing skills through analyzing texts and writing prompts scaffold students toward their full length writing in the Embedded Assessment.

Some examples are as follows:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.6, students read “The Drummer Boy Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury and record questions about the text in their Reader/Writer Notebooks. After reading the text, they start drafting their own hero’s journey narrative for Embedded Assessment 1. In planning, students are instructed to do the following task: “In your Reader/Writer Notebook, sketch your image of a hero. Label unique characteristics and give him or her a meaningful name. In the right column, use the prompting questions to brainstorm ideas for a story.” Students revisit the text attending to the structure of the text, specifically the three parts of the Departure Stage, and then “draft the beginning of a narrative using the three steps in this stage (The Call, The Refusal, and The Beginning) to guide your structure and development.” This demonstrates how writing skills are taught through reading activities, in addition to focused writing activities.
• In Unit 2, Activities 2.10-2.17, teachers provide students with instruction and prompts to prepare them for writing an argumentative essay for Embedded Assessment 2. In each of the eight activities, students are provided with texts, such as essays, articles, and editorials, to model their writing after, and/or are provided brainstorming and reflective prompts to provide scaffolding and support. Students are also provided a detailed Scoring Guide with questions prompting them to monitor their own progress during the writing process. After students finish Embedded Assessment 2, teachers suggest the following task to students: “Portfolio: Ask students to organize and turn in work from all steps of the writing process.”
• In Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 2, students “Develop a multimedia presentation that informs your peers about an issue of national or global significance and convinces them to take action.” For this assessment, students need to organize their research into talking points and use their knowledge of rhetorical appeals (pathos, logos, and ethos) to design their presentation.
• In Unit 4, Activity 4.10, students write an informational text comparing the humorous poems, “Mooses” by Ted Hughes and “Is Traffic Jam Delectable?” by Jack Prelutsky. Students are reminded to utilize writing skills they have honed throughout the year including: establishing a controlling idea and supporting it with evidence from the text, using academic and content vocabulary, and utilizing verbals and precise diction.

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.

The Grade 8 SpringBoard materials provide students opportunities to conduct multiple short and longer research projects spread across a school year and include a progression of research skills appropriate for the Grade 8. The materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge on a topic through embedding research in multiple activities in both the student text and the Teacher Wrap. The materials provide many opportunities for students to apply reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills to synthesize and analyze per their readings. The research topics align with the unit’s topic and to the tasks that students are engaging in during the lessons. For example, the students research actual Holocaust victims before they watch clips from the film, Life is Beautiful.

Examples of “short” projects include:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.10, students complete the following task: “Continue your exploration of heroism by choosing a fiction or nonfiction text about a historical or modern hero for your independent reading. Research the author of the text to find out why they might have chosen to write about this particular hero.”
• In Unit 2, Activity 2.15, students develop a research plan in small groups. The groups write each step on the front of an index card and arrange them logically. After the teacher shares the answers, students discuss the logic behind approaching the research project in that way, requiring effective speaking, listening, and language skills. In addition, they write research questions and locate and evaluate sources. Students practice with the topic of self-driving cars.

An example of a “long” research projects is:

• In Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 1, students research a Holocaust victim, write a narrative from their point of view, and present a panel discussion to “explain the theme or central idea of ‘finding hope in times of despair.’’ Students read and analyze texts about a Holocaust victim and integrate writing, speaking, listening, and language skills to prepare for and conduct the panel discussion.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria 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.

In the SpringBoard materials, students have frequent opportunities to engage in independent reading through scaffolded lessons and self-selected materials. Most texts are organized with built in supports/scaffolds to foster independence. Each activity includes supports/scaffolds called Learning Strategies, such as marking the text, rereading, and using graphic organizers. As indicated in the Teacher Wrap, texts are often scaffolded through completing first reads by the teacher or in small groups or pairs. Students then have the opportunity to independently read the text while responding to text-dependent questions. The text-dependent questions and the Learning Strategies scaffold student understanding in order to foster independence. In each unit, the Planning the Unit section provides a suggested independent reading list of both literature and informational texts which complement the themes and skills found within the unit. The Instructional Pathways section of the materials provides embedded independent reading in each of the units called Independent Reading Links and individual activities with two Independent Reading Checkpoints per unit. In these checkpoints, students are given a prompt for discussion, writing, or an oral presentation and are required to record them in their Reader/Writer Notebook.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.3, scaffolds are provided to support students by starting with a teacher-led reading of the Hero’s Journey Archetype description. Students then work in small groups to check their understanding of each of the parts of the Hero’s Journey. Students also view clips from the film, Big Hero 6 as they complete an organizer. After these activities, students are expected to write independently to explain the Hero’s Journey Archetype. This lesson is paced for two 50-minute classes.
• In Unit 1, Activity 1.4: Planning for Independent Reading, detailed guidance for independent reading for both students and teachers regarding the selection of texts, goal setting, and tracking progress is provided. Students create a section in their Reader/Writer Notebooks for Independent Reading which they use throughout the course to document their learning from independent reading selections. For Unit 1, students choose an independent reading selection which contains a hero’s journey.
• In Unit 2, Planning the Unit, teachers are given a list of both literature and informational text that could be used for independent reading. These titles connect to the theme of the unit. The chart also lists the author and Lexile for each title and teachers are encouraged to provide student choice for independent reading. Some examples of texts for Unit 2 include, but are not limited to, Divergent (700L) by Veronica Roth, Utopia (1370L) by Thomas More, and Silent Spring (1340L) by Rachel Carson.
• In Unit 3, Activity 3.1, students use their Reader/Writer Notebook to create an independent reading plan using the additional titles and book lists found within the materials. Students must "take notes on any questions, comments, or reactions [they] might have to [their] reading," and reference their notes when participating in discussions throughout the unit. In Activity 3.4, the Independent Reading Link task asks students to "look for examples of flashback and foreshadowing. Write down to or three examples, along with a brief description of how each illustrates the literary device."
  
• In Unit 4, students choose humorous independent reading texts for the first half of the unit. Students select poems, short stories, and narrative essays from authors of humorous texts. In Activity 4.11, Independent Reading Checkpoint, students respond to the following prompt: “Consider the connections you made while reading humorous texts. In one paragraph, summarize one message (theme) a particular author tried to convey to the reader through humor. Briefly describe the level of comedy and the elements of humor used by the author.”