8th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for core texts being of publishable quality and worthy of careful reading and considering a range of student interests.

Core texts cover a range of topics of interest to Grade 8 students. Many of the core texts are written by award-winning authors, and many of the texts themselves have also won awards.

Examples of central texts that are worthy of careful reading include the following:

• Module 1:
  
  • The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander (John Newbery Award)
• Module 2:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
• Module 3:
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare
• Module 4:
  • Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose (John Newbery Award)

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards. The materials contain a balance of both informational and literary texts. There is also a variety of text types, including multimedia, novels, poetry, paintings, videos, articles, photos, music, and drama.

Examples of core texts and supplemental texts from the module are listed below:

Literary

• The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander (novel)
• All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (translator, A.W. Wheen) (novel)
• In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae (poem)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare (drama)
• EPICAC, by Kurt Vonnegut (short story)

Informational

• Filthy McNasty, by Horace Silver (musical selection)
• The Block, by Romare Bearden (painting)
• Slam, Dunk, & Hook, by Yusef Komunyakaa (video)
• The War to End All Wars, by Shari Lyn Zuber [Cobblestone article] (historial account)
• Gassed, by John Singer Sargent (painting)
• What is Love? Five Theories on the Greatest Emotion of All, by Jim Al-Khalili, Philippa Perry, Julian Baggini, Jojo Moyes, and Catherine Wybourne (opinion piece)
• In the Brain, Romantic Love Is Basically an Addiction, by Helen Fisher (scientific account)
• Small Change, by Malcolm Gladwell (article)
• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose (historical account)

The instructional materials for Grade 8 meet the expectations that the majority of texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task.

Though some texts fall outside the recommended Lexile range, the materials are accompanied by a qualitative analysis that provides a rationale for use of each text. Texts in the lower end of the Lexile range are typically used to foster student interest or supplement knowledge or evidence needed to complete more demanding tasks. For example, in Module 1 students read the text, The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander. The text has a quantitative measure of 750L. While the narrative is straightforward, it provides a complex account of a young boy’s experience of conflict, loss, and familial relationships. The structure of the text will be unfamiliar to students. The novel-in-verse is built as a single narrative divided into discrete poems that are further sectioned into four quarters, like the four quarters of a basketball game. There is heavy use of descriptive, figurative, and sensory language. The cultural knowledge could present a challenge for students not familiar with professional basketball, and the novel also often alludes to rap, hip-hop, and jazz musicians. However, lessons, questions, and tasks throughout Module 1 as well as the Focus Questions and class discussions allow this text to be accessible to Grade 8 students.

The instructional materials for Grade 8 meet the expectations that materials support students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. Each module builds in rigor over the course of the school year, providing students opportunities to learn and demonstrate literacy skills at grade level by the end of the school year. Series of texts have a variety of complexity levels and are accompanied by tasks that provide opportunity to practice increasingly rigorous skills. Using the Appendix A- Text Complexity found in the Appendices of each module gives teachers access to the quantitative and qualitative features of each Core Text, including the knowledge, structure, and language use within the texts.

Modules 1-4 provide ample opportunities to increase students' literacy skills throughout the school year. Each of the anchor texts are sufficiently complex, with qualitative factors that are diverse and authentic. While the quantitative scores of the anchor texts span from 750L-1170L, the supplementary texts provided in each module give students balanced reading opportunities, both for the development of skills as well as knowledge and vocabulary. The Module Assessments show increasing complexity of student thinking and provide students opportunities to demonstrate their reading and thinking skills. Teachers are supported in measuring student growth with multiple assessment exemplars located in each module.

The knowledge, structure, and language use within the texts expands through the modules. Though some of the Lexile levels fall below the recommended grade band range for 6-8, these texts are qualitatively complex. Evidence of this expanding rigor is found in the following examples:

• Module 2: All Quiet on the Western Front (830L): The text conforms to the conventions of a novel set in first person. At the outset of the text there are many flashbacks, which could be a bit disorienting, but the only major structural shift occurs on the last page of the novel. There are references to military equipment and groups (such as billets, CO, CB), German culture (such as one mark, twenty pfennig, Prussians), historical events, and medical terminology (such as carbolic).
• Module 4: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (1170L): Hoose structures his account of Claudette’s story linearly. The text is divided between narration and direct transcripts of interviews with Claudette Colvin. There are also frequent text features, such as photos and text boxes, that provide additional background information for students. Overall, the language in the text is grade appropriate and accessible with the exception of specific legal language and terms. The text is very engaging and accessible and offers frequent asides and rich text features designed to build content knowledge of key issues of the time, but some additional background knowledge may be needed with regards to the Civil Rights Movement and its major figures.

The instructional materials for Grade 8 meet the criteria for providing information to the teacher about the text complexity and features of the anchor texts. Anchor texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis. A rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level is included.

Each text is accompanied by a text complexity rubric found within the Teacher Edition in Appendix A of each module. The text complexity rubric provides the quantitative, qualitative and reader/task considerations. There is a rationale for each selection presented under the title and author's name, along with a key learning objective. The information provided includes a list of Common Core standards that are met within the piece. The rubric also offers a detailed explanation of the qualitative areas such as meaning/purpose, structure, language, and knowledge demands. On this same page, the quantitative Lexile measure is stated.

Materials also include a rationale for placement, which is located in the Module Summary section that states in a few sentences why most texts are applicable to the student. For example, the Module 1 Summary is found below:

• “In this module, students examine storytelling as a personal, social, and cultural form of expression that we use to make sense of ourselves and our worlds. As we create narratives from our experiences, we produce our identities, our beliefs, and our views of the world. Exemplifying a seamless combination of exact words and expansive ideas, personal voice and collective values, narrative has a distinctive significance in our lives. In this module, students build an understanding of the power that stories and storytelling hold. They learn the social power of stories, with their potential to help humans navigate complex social situations, become more empathetic to others, and integrate different world views. In addition, students discern the imaginative power of stories, ultimately understanding storytelling as essential to our humanity.” (GM, Grade 8, Module 1, Module Summary)

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for core texts and supporting materials providing opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade-level reading.

Each module includes lessons with supplementary texts of varying lengths. These texts are read in groups, independently, aloud, and silently, offering multiple opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading. Materials also offer multiple novels across the year. Teachers read aloud the back cover of a novel, the first chapter of a novel, and sample sentences to highlight the structure of the text or specific vocabulary terms pertinent to the text. Students then take responsibility for group or independent reading. Opportunities for teacher read alouds and small group work are also available during the scaffolding options component. Students engage with the the majority of content reading independently as homework.

The list below demonstrate the range and volume of reading across all 4 modules and include additional independent reading from the “Parent Tip Sheet.” Examples of texts include:

• Module 1
  • 1 novel, 1 journal, 1 literary nonfiction, 1 piece of music, 2 paintings, 3 poems, 2 scientific accounts, 1 speech, 5 videos
  • Books to Read at Home include:
    • Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters
    • Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai
    • Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
    • Witness, Karen Hesse
    • The Red Pencil, Andrea Davis Pinkney
• Module 2
  • 1 novel, 4 films, 5 historical accounts, 1 journal, 2 paintings, 2 poems
• Module 3
  • 1 drama, 1 opinion piece, 2 paintings, 1 scientific account, 1 short story
  • Books to Read at Home include:
    • Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbit
    • Emma, Jane Austen
    • Who Was William Shakespeare?, Celeste Mannis
• Module 4
  • 1 historical account, 2 articles, 1 sculpture, 1 video, 1 speech

The materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-specific and require students to engage with the text directly and to draw on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the texts. Questions draw the reader back into the text and support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year. Reading and writing (and speaking and listening) are done in a cohesive learning environment. Students read and reread to write and discuss. The materials provide opportunities for evidence-based discussions and writing. Examples of student directions include: “Cite evidence as you participate in Socratic Seminar," “Please remember to include proper citations for your textual evidence,” and "A writing rubric requires students to use textual evidence that develops your idea.”

Below are examples of text-dependent/specific questions included in each module:

• Module 1, Lesson 3:
  
  • “What action or experience is being captured in this poem?”
  • “What do you notice about how the writer uses descriptive and sensory language in this poem?”
• Module 2, Lesson 22:
  • “What is the passage saying about annihilation? What does the choice of the word annihilation reveal about the novel’s attitude towards war?”
  • “What techniques does the filmmaker use to convey the idea of annihilation?”
• Module 3, Lesson 9:
  
  • “As they stop to rest, what is Hermia telling Lysander to do?”
  • “What is Lysander’s pun with the words lying and lie in 2.2.58?”
• Module 4, Lesson 18:
  
  • “What might Wired’s motivations be for publishing an article about social media? What implicit bias might they have?”
  • “How does examining the publication that published Gustin’s article help you understand his purpose?

Instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectation that they should contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to a culminating task that integrates skills to demonstrate understanding. Each module begins with an Essential Question; each module also contains multiple Focusing Questions that deal with the core text. Each of the daily lessons work toward answering the Focusing Questions while building the skills and knowledge needed to complete the End-of-Module Task. Supplementary texts help to build knowledge while integrating skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

For example, in Module 3 the Core Text is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare. The Essential Question is, “What is love?” The End-of-Module Task is, “Write an argument essay that argues whether the outcome of a romantic relationship between one of the four lovers is directed by agency or fate.” During the Module lessons student read, discuss, and write to build knowledge through various activities and routines. Students work towards understanding the Focusing Questions to build knowledge and complete the culminating task.

Focusing Questions for Module 3 include:

• Focusing Question 1: How do the characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream understand love?
• Focusing Question 2: What defines the experience of love?
• Focusing Question 3: What makes love complicated?
• Focusing Question 5: Is love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream a result of agency or fate?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations providing students frequent opportunities to practice academic vocabulary and syntax in their evidence-based discussions. Each module gives the students ample opportunity to hold evidence-based discussions with Think-Pair-Share, Socratic Seminars, Jigsaw discussions. Gallery Walk/follow-up discussions, etc. The materials offer scaffolds to help students hold academic conversations, including evidence to support students’ claims. Scaffolds include sentence starters, evidence graphic organizers, and teacher-facilitated discussions.

Academic vocabulary instruction is found throughout the modules. Teachers use multiple strategies in introducing, discussing, and using new vocabulary. Each module contains Appendix B, entitled Vocabulary, which clarifies the category in which each word is listed. The materials vocabulary is presented in three categories: Content Vocabulary, Academic Vocabulary, and Text-Critical Vocabulary. Students create vocabulary journals and also participate in Vocabulary Deep Dives and Style and Conventions Deep Dives.

Examples of how students have opportunities for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary include:

Module 1:

• Students engage in a Socratic Seminar in which they will evaluate multiple meanings of the word crossover in The Crossover, especially as they develop the novel’s themes and structure.

Module 2:

• In Lesson 10, after reading pages 59-64 of All Quiet on the Western Front, students will engage in a Think-Pair-Share, answering given discussion questions.

Module 3:

• In Lesson 32, students participate in a Socratic Seminar on the reality of love by addressing the question: Is love real?

Module 4:

• In Lesson 9, students participate in a Socratic Seminar to debate Claudette Colvin’s motivation to create change.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Speaking and listening work requires students to gather evidence from texts and sources. Opportunities to ask questions and hold discussions with peers and teachers about research, strategies, and ideas are present throughout the year.

Within this curriculum there are multiple opportunities for speaking and listening that include whole group discussions and small group discussions. In addition, through the lessons there are instructions for the teacher and tips on facilitating whole group, small group, and partner speaking and listening. Students specifically practice these skills in every module in Socratic Seminars. Materials include speaking and listening rubrics, as well as the Socratic Seminars. There is a tracking form that helps the teacher track students’ ability to perform skills with speaking, listening, and reading (citing evidence).

Module 1, Lesson 3:

• Students offer observations about shared characteristics, based on their observations from Lessons 1 and 2 as well as their reading homework. The teacher records student responses on the "Characteristics Poems Share" anchor chart.

Module 2, Lesson 10:

• After the teacher reads aloud pages 59–64 of All Quiet on the Western Front (from “At regular intervals we ram in the iron stakes” to “vilest baseness to use horses in war,” s/he instructs students to Think-Pair-Share in response to specific text-dependent questions. The teacher facilitates a brief whole-group discussion after each question to ensure student understanding. Students record short answers and notes from the discussion in their response journals.

Module 3, Lesson 28:

• Groups perform Readers’ Theater pieces one at a time, using well-chosen oral strategies, gestures, and visual pieces, such as costumes and props.

Module 4 Lesson 9

• Students participate in a Socratic Seminar to debate Claudette Colvin’s motivation to create change.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations that materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects. Students write both "on demand" and "over extended periods" throughout every nine-week module. Materials include short and longer writing tasks and projects. Writing tasks and projects are aligned to the grade level standards being reviewed. Evidence from two modules demonstrates the variety of writing tasks.

• Module 2: .Writing Focus: Explanatory Writing

Students study the use of well-chosen evidence as they begin their work with explanatory writing, focusing especially on incorporating different types of evidence (such as statistics or first-person accounts) to develop a specific purpose. Students then use this understanding of evidence in a module-long craft progression in narrative and explanatory writing that focuses on using broad conceptual categories, rather than plot or character, as an organizing structure in writing. Students also explore the use of a conclusion that states the larger significance of a piece of writing. Especially in their EOM explanatory essay, students apply what they have learned about well-chosen evidence, categories, thesis statements, and conclusions in order to write a clear, logical essay that examines the nuances of a psychological effect of war in literature.

• In Module 2, students write two explanatory paragraphs that identify and explain the British and American reasons for joining World War I.
• In Module 2, students write a one-page letter from the point of view of a character from All Quiet on the Western Front that demonstrates an understanding of the conditions of the front and their effects on a soldier.
• In Module 2, students return to their notice and wonderings about the novel’s preface from Lesson 6 and write a one sentence response to the following question: “How do your questions and observations about the start of the novel compare with what you know after reading chapter 11?”

• Module 4: Writing Focus: Informative Writing with Research

In this final module, students engage in independent research about a social issue and teen change agent of their choice. Students are first introduced to new research skills as a whole class, before practicing and executing those skills independently. The focus of this instruction includes assessing relevance and credibility of sources, including how to assess credibility of sources found online, and the synthesis of evidence from multiple sources. Students also work with sources in various mediums, which extends their reading skills around different mediums. Finally, students apply their established understanding of informative writing by applying their informative writing skills to a research essay.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills over the course of the school year.

Examples of writing prompts found throughout the modules that show how the materials meet the expectations of these indicators include:

• Write a narrative sequence of three poems demonstrating effective use of narrative elements.
• Write a cover letter explaining the story, the relationship between form and content, and an understanding of the power of storytelling.
• Write three ToSEEC (i.e., a paragraph containing a Topic Statement, Evidence, Elaboration, and a Concluding Statement) paragraphs that compare and contrast the content and form of two poems from The Crossover.
• Write two explanatory paragraphs that identify and explain the British and American reasons for joining World War I.
• Write a one-page letter from the point of view of a character from All Quiet on the Western Front that demonstrates an understanding of the conditions of the front and their effects on a soldier.
• Write two informative/explanatory paragraphs that explain how the love triangle in Kurt Vonnegut’s EPICAC draws on the complexities of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and also makes this pattern of events new.
• Write an argument essay that argues whether the outcome of a romantic relationship between one of the four lovers is directed by agency or fate.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations that materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing with evidence. Writing opportunities are focused around students' analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills over the course of the school year.

The following examples demonstrate evidence-based writing opportunities across all four modules:

Module 1:

• Students complete a graphic organizer, citing evidence that supports the claim of the power of storytelling, across three informational texts.

Module 2:

• Students write a three-paragraph explanatory essay that evaluates how a scene from Lewis Milestone’s 1930 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front interprets war’s effect on humanity in comparison to the original novel. They must synthesize evidence in order to effectively analyze a scene in the novel.

Module 3:

• Students write a one-paragraph argument that is supported with reason, evidence, and elaboration about whether love is strange or true. Students must establish a claim and acknowledge an alternate or opposing claim. They also must elaborate and expand on evidence to support a claim.
• Students read a new informational article, What is love? Five Theories on the Greatest Emotion of All. Students then write two short-answer responses that explain aspects of arguments in the article. They must identify a claim, including the strongest evidence to support the claim.

Module 4:

• Students analyze the author’s point-of-view by answering: “Which quotations and facts support the claim, 'The new tools of social media have reinvented social activism?' Which quotations and facts contradict that claim?” Students record their evidence of support and contradiction of the claim on a graphic organizer.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet expectations for explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of the context. Each lesson has a deep dive in either vocabulary or style and conventions for 15 minutes of instruction, allowing students to practice the skills throughout the modules. Writing rubrics include grammar and conventions, and there are checklists at the End-of-Module tasks to assess application of conventions listed in the language standards.

Examples include:

Module 1:

• Lesson 2: Identify and form verbs in the indicative, imperative, and interrogative moods in pairs.
• Lesson 8: Correct inappropriate shifts in verb mood and form, and use verbs in the indicative and imperative moods to express understanding of figurative language.
• Lesson 10: Identify simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and describe the effects of each structure.
• Lesson 14: Use simple and compound sentences to summarize a poem.
• Lesson 19: Explain the function of a dash and a comma in sentences.
• Lesson 20: Employ commas and dashes to create pauses for emphasis in poetry.
• Lesson 25: Create complex and compound-complex sentences and select the sentence that best represents understanding of the Focusing Question.
• Lesson 28: Revise writing to establish a variety of sentence structures and clarity of ideas.

Module 2:

• Lesson 15: Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in indicative, imperative, and interrogative verb moods.
• Lesson 21: Identify active and passive verb voices.
• Lesson 23: Write sentences in the active and passive verb voices.
• Lesson 24: Use active and passive verb voices to emphasize the actor or the action.

Module 3:

• Lesson 3: Use commas with interrupters.
• Lesson 11: Identify the traits of the conditional verb mood and recognize verbs in the conditional mood.
• Lesson 23: Create a sentence using the subjunctive verb mood.
• Lesson 25: Form and use verbs in the subjunctive verb mood to express formal suggestions and ideas contrary to fact.

Module 4:

• Lesson 1: Explain the function of verbals.
• Lesson 2: Sort verbals by functions.
• Lesson 4: Differentiate between past and present participles and explain their functions.
• Lesson 7: Use past and present participles and explain the function of participles in sentences.
• Lesson 13: Differentiate between infinitives and prepositional phrases and and explain the function of an infinitive.
• Lesson 14: Identify infinitives and explain their roles in sentences.
• Lesson 21: Explain the role of gerunds and identify gerunds in sentences.
• Lesson 24: Identify verbals and explain their functions in sentences.
• Lesson 25: Determine and evaluate the effects of the active and passive verb voices.
• Lesson 30: Determine and evaluate the use of the subjunctive and conditional verb moods to achieve particular effects.