amplify ela: california edition grade 8 scope & sequence...

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Amplify ELA: California Edition

Grade 8 Scope & Sequence 2015–2016Units A–G

8th Grade ELA Scope and Sequence Table of Contents 2¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

8th Grade ELA Scope and Sequence Table of Contents

8th Grade ELA Scope and Sequence Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit A: Dahl, WWII & Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit B: Biography & Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit C: Liberty & Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit D: Science & Science Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit E: The Frida & Diego Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit F: The Space Race Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit G: Advanced Story Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Lapham’s Archive III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

8th Grade ELA Scope and Sequence Outline 3¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

8th Grade ELA Scope and Sequence Outline

Unit Texts Unit Overview

Unit A: Dahl, WWII & Narrative

24 lessons, including 10 personal narrative lessons, 10 text-based lessons, and 4 essay lessons

Going Solo by Roald Dahl

Lexile® measure: 1080L

Character & Narrator: Make inferences about a character’s values

Writing: Compare an author’s portrayal of two characters

Text Structure: Strong verbs and sensory details

Content: British colonial Africa and Middle East

Unit B: Biography & Literature

22 lessons, including 14 text-based lessons, 5 essay lessons, and 4 Flex Days

Optional Quest: Declare Yourself!

Excerpts from Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin documents (letters and other documents authored by Franklin)

Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress

Lexile range: 1370L–1450L

No Lexile measure exists yet for Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

Character & Narrator: Trace the development of a historical character’s ideas across time

Writing: Describe different sides of a character and reconcile his contradictions

Text Structure: Biography and autobiography; humor; persuasion

Content: Colonial America; founding democratic principles

Unit C: Liberty & Equality

30 lessons, including 19 text-based lessons, 5 essay lessons, and 6 Flex Days

Optional Quest: The Emancipation Project

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs

Excerpts from The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War by Jim Murphy

Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

Lexile range: 1060L–1980L (no Lexile measure available for poetry)

Character & Narrator: Analyze a memoirist’s purpose in including or omitting details from his or her life

Writing: Evaluate which of two texts has a stronger impact on a reader

Text Structure: Texts that cross genre: poetry & prose

Content: American slavery, abolition, and the Civil War



Unit D: Science & Science Fiction

30 lessons, including 17 text-based lessons, 5 essay lessons, 5 creative writing lessons, and 3 Flex Days

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly

Lexile measure: 1170

Excerpts from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 1818 edition

Introduction to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 1831 edition

History of a Six Weeks’ Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni by Mary Shelley

Excerpts from The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Chapter 1, “Ada, Countess of Lovelace”) by Walter Isaacson

“Debate on the Frame-Work Bill, in the House of Lords, February 27, 1812,” by Lord Byron

“The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth

“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” by Richard Brautigan

Character & Narrator: Apply abstract concepts to an author’s portrayal of a character

Writing: Argue opposing claims about a character and resolve the contradiction

Text Structure: Graphic novels; 19th century British English

Content: 19th century scientific and technological developments

Unit E: The Frida & Diego Collection

20 lessons, including 3 Information Literacy lessons

“Rockefellers Ban Lenin in RCA Mural and Dismiss Rivera,” The New York Times, May 10, 1933

My Art, My Life: An Autobiography, “Statement by Frida Kahlo” and “Frida Becomes My Wife” by Diego Rivera, 1960

“Detroit Industry: The Murals of Diego Rivera” by Don Gonyea (NPR), April 22, 2009

The Letters of Frida Kahlo: Cartas Apasionadas, “Letter to Ella and Bertram Wolfe” by Frida Kahlo, October 18, 1934

Frida’s Fiestas, “Life With Frida” by Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle, 1994

“Frida Kahlo” by Phyllis Tuchman, 2002

Character & Narrator: Identify various sources’ perspectives on a topic

Writing: Synthesize information from several sources to develop an argument

Text Structure: Various types of historical and cultural documents

Content: 20th century art world in Mexico and US



Unit F: The Space Race Collection

17 lessons, including 3 Information Literacy lessons

Introductory Essay

From Rocket Boys: A Memoir by Homer Hickam, 1998

A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957—The Space Race Begins by Michael D’Antonio, 2007

“Memorandum for the Vice President,” John F. Kennedy (April 20, 1961)

“Moon Speech—Rice Stadium,” John F. Kennedy (September 12, 1962)

“A Seagull in Flight,” from Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965, by Francis French and Colin Burgess, 2007

“First to Fly,” from Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965, by Francis French and Colin Burgess, 2007

“In the Event of Moon Disaster,” speech written by William Safire (July 18, 1969)

From Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith, 2005

From “Buzz Aldrin on His Lunar Home, the Eagle” (The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2013) by Marc Myers

From Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race by David Scott and Alexei Leonov with Christine Toomey, 2004

From Flight: My Life in Mission Control by Christopher C. Kraft, 2001

From “What the Moon Rocks Tell Us” (National Geographic, December 1969) by Kenneth F. Weaver (with photo)

From Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan, 1994 (with photo)

From “Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023, Dutch firm claims” (The Guardian, April 21, 2013) by Karen McVeigh

Character & Narrator: Compare and contrast perspectives on a topic

Writing: Develop a question, conduct research, and create a media project

Text Structure: Various types of historical and cultural documents

Content: 20th century competition between US and USSR

Unit G: Advanced Story Writing

22 Lessons

N/A Character & Narrator: Create a believable character

Writing: Write an original short story

Text Structure: Dialogue; plot structure

Content: Creative writing



Lapham’s Archive III

Chinese Cultural Revolution and Propaganda excerpts from Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen; Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution by Moying Li

Cesar Chavez excerpts from “Founding the United Farm Workers” by Cesar Chavez; Migrant Daughter: Coming of Age as a Mexican American Woman by Frances Esquibel Tywoniak and Mario T. Garcia

Gandhi excerpts from Mohandas Gandhi by Anne M. Todd; Gandhi: The Young Protester Who Founded a Nation by Philip Wilkinson

Japanese Internment Camps excerpts from Only What We Could Carry by Lawson Fusao Inada; Camp Nine by Vivienne Schiffer

The Silk Road excerpts from “Stories of Silk and Paper” by Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis (World Literature Today); The Story of Marco Polo by Noah Brooks

Students exercise their close reading and research skills by reviewing texts and images focused on a theme and accompanied by guiding, overarching research questions.

Students conduct both short and sustained research projects, gaining substantial understanding of a topic.

Students develop collaborative and individual presentation skills.

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit A: Dahl, WWII & Narrative 7¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit A: Dahl, WWII & Narrative

Lesson Objectives In-Class Text Focus CA Common Core State Standards

Get Started

Lesson 1: What Grabs Your Attention

Students will use details to write about one moment from their lives, and will review classroom rules and routines for Writing and Sharing.

n/a CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.3

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.10

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1

Lesson 2: Focus on a Moment

Students will write about a personal experience and practice responding to one another’s writing with positive and specific feedback.




Lesson 3: Experiments in Revision: Focusing More Deeply

Students will practice the skill of focus by selecting one small part of a painting to describe so richly that their readers can “see” it.



Lesson 4: Showing and Telling

Students will practice the skill of showing by revising sentences that “show” into those that “tell”—and vice versa.


Lesson 5: Slowing Down & Zooming In

Students will revise specific portions of their writing and assess the impact of these changes.



Lesson 6: The Just-Right Verb

Students will learn to practice using strong verbs to describe actions precisely.

Students will use strong verbs to write about a moment from their own experiences.


Lesson 7: Experiments in Revision: Showing More

Students will write about a moment from their experiences, and assess how powerfully the concrete details of their descriptions convey the narrator’s emotional experience.





Lesson 8: Varieties of Showing

Students will continue to examine the difference between showing and telling and to explore the variety of showing details writers can use to create a vivid picture for readers.



Lesson 9: Experiments in Revision: The Power of Dialogue

Students will study strong sentences and consider the impact that vivid details, strong verbs, and dialogue can make in their own writing.



CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.A

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.B

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.C

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.D



Going Solo by Roald Dahl

Lesson 1: The Voyage Out

Students will get to know the hero and narrator of the memoir, and explore the distance that stretches between the younger man starting out on this adventure and the older man who writes about it.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “The Voyage Out”

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI.8.2


Lesson 2: The View from the Porthole

Students will deepen their understanding of Roald Dahl’s character by examining the scene where he watches Major Griffith and his wife running around the deck naked.


Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “Dar es Salaam”

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RL.8.1



Lesson 3: Two Kinds of Hot

Students will compare 2 different descriptions of the same scene—the sweltering deck of the ship—in order to explore the impact made by an author’s small choices.


Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “Dar es Salaam”




Lesson 4: Experiments in Revision: Focusing More Deeply

Students will complete differentiated Revision Assignments to deepen the way they used textual evidence in response to a recent Writing Prompt.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, all preceding excerpts






Lesson 5: What War Means

Students will explore the differences between Dahl’s and Mdisho’s attitudes towards war.

Students will closely examine Dahl’s confrontation with the Germans trying to escape from town, considering how “heroic” his story is at different moments in the scene.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “The Beginning of the War”




Lesson 6: Warriors and War Stories

Students will use the Magnificator app to evaluate and rank Dahl’s moments of heroism at moments in the text.

Going Solo,Roald Dahl, “The Beginning of the War”



Lesson 7: Exactly Equal

Students will analyze Mdisho’s account of killing the plantation owner, and consider how differently he tells his war story.

Students will explore the ways in which Dahl and Mdisho are—and are not—“exactly equal.”

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “Mdisho of the Mwanumwezi”



CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.1.B

Lesson 8: Experiments in Revision: Use of Evidence

Students will complete differentiated Revision Assignments to deepen the way they used textual evidence in response to a recent Writing Prompt.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, all preceding excerpts





Lesson 9: Alone in the Sky

As they move through the chapter, students will assess how bad Dahl’s situation is—and then complicate these assessments by exploring those moments where things might not be as bad as they seem.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “Survival”

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “First Encounter with a Bandit”





Lesson 10: A Bit of Water in the Jug

Students will compare how Dahl slows down and speeds up time when describing what it’s like inside the cockpit of a fighter plane, and what it’s like to fly one through an aerial dogfight.

By looking closely at the surface details of Dahl’s closing conversation with David Coke, students will explore the depths of feeling that are left implied beneath it.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl, “The Battle of Athens — the Twentieth of April”








Write an Essay

Lesson 1: How Would You Describe the People Dahl Meets?

Students will review the text and gather Dahl’s descriptive details so that they can draft a body paragraph explaining Dahl’s overall impression of one specific character.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl



Lesson 2: Staking a Claim: How Do These People Compare?

Students will choose a second character and follow the same process as in the previous lesson, gathering evidence and drafting another body paragraph, this time comparing the overall impression Dahl gives of each character.




Lesson 3: Introducing Your Essay: Grabbing the Reader

Students will revise their body paragraphs and write an introduction to their essays that shows readers where they’re going with their ideas.


CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.A



Lesson 4: Getting It Right for Your Reader: Conclusions and Editing

Students will write conclusions to their essays, edit their essays, and format their direct quotes. Then they will share part of their finished essays with the class.



CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.C

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.F

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.E

Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit B: Biography & Literature 11¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit B: Biography & Literature

Lesson Objectives In-Class Text Focus

CA Common Core State Standards

Benjamin Franklin

Lesson 1: “The founding father who winks at us”

Students will closely read excerpts from Isaacson’s biography to develop a general understanding of Franklin’s accomplishments and personality.

Selections from Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson, Chapter 1





CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1.C

CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1.D


Lesson 2: Who Is Silence Dogood?

Students will analyze a letter by Franklin’s first literary alter ego and write about how he made her a likable character.

Silence Dogood’s first letter to the New-England Courant





Lesson 3: Why Silence Dogood?

Students will dig deeper into Dogood’s humorous style and write about why Franklin chose to express his ideas through her unique voice.

Silence Dogood’s second letter to the New-England Courant




Lesson 4: Flex Day 1

The teacher will assign students a differentiated Revision Assignment and/or differentiated grammar activities.

For revision, students will add to or further develop their use of evidence from a recent Writing Prompt.

n/a CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.A




CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.E





CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.6






Lesson 5: “The humble inquirer and doubter”

Students will read a passage from Franklin’s autobiography and trace the evolution of his debating style from “positive argumentation” to “modest diffidence.”

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, Chapter 4





Lesson 6: “A soft tongue may strike hard”

Students will practice the argumentative methods that Franklin espoused and those that he eschewed by writing a script for a debate between Franklin and an antagonist.






Lesson 7: Mutual Improvement

Students will learn about 2 of the civic improvement associations that Franklin founded and use his talking points and persuasive techniques in a creative writing assignment.





Lesson 8: Electrical Fire

Students will read Franklin’s descriptions of his experiments with static electricity, recreate them visually, and write about how they led him to draw certain scientific conclusions.

Benjamin Franklin’s May 25, 1747, letter to Peter Collinson






Lesson 9: From Parlor Trick to Science

Students will contrast 2 approaches to electricity, analyze the character traits that served Franklin as a scientist, and elaborate on Isaacson’s claim that he was “the perfect person to turn electricity from a parlor trick into a science.”

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson























Lesson 11: Franklin in France

Students will read about the concepts that Franklin symbolized for the French, analyze the physical appearance he adopted while in France, and write about whether they like or dislike his willingness to “play the part that Paris imagined for him.”

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson





Lesson 12: The Layers of Autobiography

Students will analyze excerpts from Franklin’s autobiography, noting the way he characterizes his younger self and considering whether the passages offer insight into the older Franklin, as well.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin







Lesson 13: The Many Sides of Franklin

Students will synthesize what they’ve learned about Franklin in a series of activities that prepare them for the writing they’ll do in the Declaration of Independence and Write an Essay lessons.

n/a CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI.8.3






The teacher will assign students a differentiated Revision Assignment and/ or differentiated grammar activities.














Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress

Lesson 1: How to Declare Independence

Students will closely read the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence and write about whether it sounds like Franklin’s handiwork.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin

Declaration of Independence, Continental Congress, paragraph 1





CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1.A






Lesson 2: Self-evident Truths

Students will unpack essential language in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, contrast Franklin’s edits with Jefferson’s rough draft, and write about the philosophical significance of the revision.

Declaration of Independence, Continental Congress, paragraph 2






The teacher will assign students a differentiated Revision Assignment and/ or differentiated grammar activities.














Write an Essay

Lesson 1: Find Your Topic

Students will engage in fun activities to generate ideas for an essay about 2 different sides of Franklin and the relationship between them.

All readings from unit CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.1




Lesson 2: Paragraph 1

Students will draft a paragraph that develops a claim about one side of Franklin and substantiate it with evidence from 2–3 readings from the unit.






Students will draft a paragraph that develops a claim about another side of Franklin and substantiate it with evidence from 2–3 readings from the unit.






Students will develop the third paragraph of their essay, which reconciles the 2 sides of Franklin that they explored in their first 2 paragraphs.







Lesson 5: Tie It All Together

Students will review, revise, and put the finishing touches on their 3 paragraph essays.




Quest: Declare Yourself!

The Declare Yourself! Quest is an opportunity to inject higher stakes into the study of the Declaration of Independence. In order to create those stakes, this Quest poses the same question to students as that which confronted the Second Continental Congress: “Should we sign this declaration or not?” To arrive at an answer, students adopt the identities of various delegates to the Second Continental Congress, assume the delegates’ positions on the debate, and try to win over their opponents using evidence, argument, and teamwork. The Quest will breathe life into students’ desire to read primary source documents closely and critically and will give them an opportunity to level emotionally charged arguments based on those texts.

Quest Day 1 Introductory Speeches

Students will deliver introductory speeches, and analyze each other’s arguments.

The Declaration of Independence



Quest Day 2 Rebuttals

Students will write rebuttals to each other’s speeches.

The Declaration of Independence


Quest Day 3The Letters

Students will read through short primary source documents to find evidence for their position.

Dozens of primary sources from the 1770s




Quest Day 4 First Speeches

Students will write an opinion piece based on the evidence they’ve collected.




Quest Day 5 Second Speeches and Conclusion

Students will write opinion pieces based on the evidence they’ve collected.




Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit C: Liberty & Equality 16¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit C: Liberty & Equality



Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Lesson 1: “Song of Myself” Section 4

Students will read a small section of Whitman’s epic poem and consider the split self Whitman describes—a split they will practice applying to their own lives. Next, they will notice how the poem’s structure mimics its content.

“Song of Myself” Section 4





Lesson 2: “Song of Myself” Section 6

In this second Whitman lesson, students will practice what they learned about looking at a poem’s structure to help understand its meaning.

Students will first practice interpreting Whitman’s metaphors by choosing and thinking about one from the poem’s first section. They will then move to the second section to see how the grass gradually becomes a way for the dead to teach the living.

“Song of Myself” Section 6




Lesson 3: Beginning

Students will read the first six paragraphs of the narrative to see what they can understand without support.

Students will consider how their understanding changes after watching and listening to a dramatic reading done by Chadwick Boseman.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapter 1, paragraphs 1–6





Lesson 4: “I was born in Tuckahoe”

Students will consider what is important to Douglass in the first three paragraphs, and work with a partner to dig into why he begins his autobiography with a list of what he does not know. They will write about what Douglass’s choices reveal about what is important to him.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapter 1


CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1.B






Lesson 5: “I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing.”

Students will practice using tools for paraphrasing and work with partners to paraphrase a short section of text, focusing on one sentence in particular:

“It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant.” (Chapter 1, 8)

Students will compare their paraphrases with their partners to get at Douglass’s meaning.








Lesson 6: Engaging a Reader in Suffering

Students will look at the end of Chapter 1, where Douglass writes descriptions of how slaves suffer from physical abuse. The goal is for students to compare the impact of different sorts of writing and try to understand what it is about slavery that Douglass is trying to convey in each one.

Students will compare the impact of reading Douglass’s narrative to that of watching and listening to a dramatic reading by Chadwick Boseman.











Students will work to revise a piece of writing, incorporating a new understanding of grammar or vocabulary.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapters 1 –3
















Lesson 8: Singing

Students will read very closely Douglass’s description of slave songs to understand how the songs express the slaves’ feelings about living in slavery, focusing on a song’s dual emotional register and the paired terms Douglass uses to describe their emotions. Students will analyze how Douglass positions the rest of the world’s reading of the songs in light of his own understanding.





Lesson 9: Surprising Oppositions

This lesson takes students through close readings of two sections of text. In each reading, students look carefully at Douglass’s language to appreciate how he seems to describe opposing elements—young and old, horses and people, slave and free—only to show how these opposites intertwine or strengthen each other.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapters 3–4





Lesson 10: Liberty and Learning

This day is divided into three sections to give students a chance to read independently, answer questions to check their reading, and then to discuss that reading with the class.







Lesson 11: Planning and Preparing a Reading

Students will spend time studying the choices that actor Reggie D. White has made in his reading of Douglass’s Narrative—and they will consider how those choices affect the meaning of the text.

Students will choose their own passages to master and practice their presentations.

























Lesson 13: Performances

Students will recite the passage they selected and practiced, demonstrating the choices they made in their delivery. The student audience will write notes on their classmates’ tone, pace, and the pronunciation of the word “freedom.”





Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs

Lesson 1: My Father and Grandmother

Students will read another account of slavery, focusing on the effects that Harriet Ann Jacobs’s relationships with her father and grandmother had on her early life—before and after she learned she was a slave.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Chapters 1–2






Lesson 2: Cruelty

Students will analyze why Jacobs uses New Year’s Day to highlight the cruelty of slavery, and they will compare her assessment of slavery’s cruelty to Douglass’s assessment.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Chapter 3











Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Chapters 1–3













The Boys’ War by Jim Murphy

Lesson 1: What Makes a Civil War?

Students will read this secondary source to draw out the basic facts about why the North and South were fighting a war and why young children were involved in the fighting.

The Boys’ War, Preface; Chapter 1



CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.D


Lesson 2: What Does a Civil War Make?

Students will reread the text and analyze the impact that the fighting had on these very young soldiers.

The Boys’ War, Chapters 3–4






The Boys’ War, Preface; Chapters 1, 3, 4

CSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.A















The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

Lesson 1: A New Nation

Students will paraphrase the first sentence to figure out what Lincoln claims is new and particularly special about America. Students will reread the first paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence to determine why Lincoln references it here.

Gettysburg Address, paragraph 1; Declaration of Independence




Lesson 2: Dedicate

Students will figure out what the role is of the people who assembled at Gettysburg and trace how the meaning of “dedicate” changes over the course of the text, and what this reveals about the Gettysburg Address.

Gettysburg Address CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI.8.4








Lesson 3: How a President Revises

The students will look closely at 1–2 revisions Lincoln made to his speech and determine the impact of the revisions.

Students will explore the third paragraph of the address by comparing it to an interpretation of the text done by an artist in an animated video.

Finally, the students will revisit their understanding of the word “dedicate,” and consider in a Writing Prompt what Lincoln was trying to accomplish with such varied use of the same word.

Gettysburg Address, The Bliss Version and the Nicolay Version





Lesson 4: The Speech

Students will listen to several different renditions of Lincoln’s speech to consider the impact of difference voices, production methods, and reading rates.

Students will practice reciting the passages of the speech, first in small groups, and then—for a few students—in front of the whole class.

Gettysburg Address, The Bliss Version

CCA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RI.8.4









Gettysburg Address CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.L.8.1.A












Write an Essay

Lesson 1: Making a Claim

Students will compare Douglass’s and Lincoln’s literary efforts to redefine Americans’ view of equality.

Declaration of Independence; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Gettysburg Address





Lesson 2: Writing Body Paragraphs

Students will write the body paragraphs of their essays, focusing on describing and explaining each piece of textual evidence in a way that would convince even the most skeptical reader.







Students will work to revise part of their essays, incorporating a new understanding of grammar or vocabulary.

















Lesson 4: Revising and Writing an Introduction

Students will revise their body paragraphs, focusing on describing their evidence. Then they write their introductions.







Lesson 5: Writing a Conclusion and Editing the Essay

Students will write their conclusions, edit their essays for flow, and then edit for 8th-grade conventions.



CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.2.F



Quest: The Emancipation Project

In this Quest, students will practice the historian’s real task: assembling big stories and big ideas by sorting through the scattered voices contained in a host of primary source documents. As they go deeper into primary sources, they’ll begin to understand historical attitudes and to ponder complicated questions about the experience of being a slave.

Quest Day 1 The Narratives

Students will read other first-hand accounts of life as a slave, and compare them to Douglass’s story.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass



Quest Day 2 The Questionnaire

Students will read the questionnaire used to produce the narratives they read on Day 1, and analyze how the questions might have affected the former slaves’ answers.




Quest Day 3 The Work Songs

Students will read and listen to the lyrics of work songs sung and recorded in the 1930s. Students will use the ideas and terminology they learned in Days 1 and 2 to trace the origins of these songs back to the days of slavery.





Quest Day 4 The Runaway Notices

Students will read newspaper advertisements from the 19th century offering rewards for runaway slaves and use their new knowledge of slavery to draw inferences about the slaves in question.





Quest Day 5 Conclusion

Students will write a fictional narrative of their own, or an explanatory essay, to summarize what they’ve learned.




Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit D: Science & Science Fiction 24¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit D: Science & Science Fiction



Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly

Lesson 1: Meet Victor Frankenstein

Students will learn about the graphic novel format of Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, read the first chapter of Volume 1, and create a family tree to keep track of the characters and their relationships to one another.

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly, Epigraph

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly, Volume 1, Chapter 1





Lesson 2: Victor’s Scientific Passions

Students will examine Victor’s scientific preoccupations and how they shape his character.





Lesson 3: How Victor Views His Creation

Students will study 2 of Victor Frankenstein’s first encounters with his creation, analyze the feelings behind the language he uses in each scene, and compare their personal responses to Victor’s.

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly, Volume 1, Chapters 4 and 6



























Lesson 5: The Creature Speaks

Students will read the scene where Victor and his creature speak to one another for the first time, paraphrase the dialogue, and explain what Victor means by his final words in the scene: “For the first time I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were” (85).







Lesson 6: The Creature’s Tale, Part 1

Students will “read” the creature’s story as it’s presented in images, write their own captions for selected passages, and match selections from Shelley’s text to Grimly’s illustrations.

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly, Volume 2, Chapters 3–4

Frankenstein (1818), Mary Shelley, Chapters 11–12




Lesson 7: The Creature’s Tale, Part 2

Students will read the remainder of the creature’s story, analyze how much sympathy or antipathy they feel toward him in each chapter, and write about why their feelings changed or stayed the same.

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly, Volume 2, Chapters 5–6

Frankenstein (1818), Mary Shelley, Chapters 15–16








Lesson 8: The Creature’s Request

Students will read the scene where the creature demands a mate and debate whether Victor should comply.


























Lesson 10: A Broken Promise

Students will read excerpts from the scene where Victor works on a second creature and analyze why he changes his mind.





Lesson 11: More “murderous machinations”

Students will read about the deaths of Henry, Elizabeth, and Victor’s father and write about their sympathy for Victor, using evidence from the text.







Lesson 12: A Tale of Two Wretches

Students will compare the scene where Victor pursues his creature to earlier passages to discover how similar these characters have become.





Lesson 13: A Final Farewell

Students will analyze the creature’s response to Victor’s death and write about what he has learned.









Lesson 14: Sympathy Debate

Students synthesize their experience of reading Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein by debating who better deserves sympathy, the creature or Victor.

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly
























Write an Essay

Lesson 1: Make an Outline

Students will brainstorm various definitions of “man” and apply them to Frankenstein.






Lesson 2: Draft Paragraph 1

Students will decide whether they think the creature is or is not human, and will draft a first body paragraph citing evidence from the text.





CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.1.D




Students will draft a second body paragraph, arguing against the position they took in their first paragraph. They will use evidence from the text in support of their argument.






Students will draft a paragraph resolving the contradiction posed in their first 2 paragraphs by explaining how, ultimately, the creature should be characterized.





Lesson 5: Review and Revise

Students will review and revise the claims they have made in their paragraphs, then they will edit and add citations to their essays.






“Poetical Science”

Lesson 1: "The Tables Turned"

Students will analyze the ideas conveyed in Wordsworth’s “The Tables Turned” and apply them to Frankenstein.


“The Tables Turned,” William Wordsworth






Lesson 2: Byron and Looms

Students will read Lord Byron’s 1812 speech to Parliament in which he defends British textile workers’ destruction of the mechanized looms that threatened their livelihoods. They will explore Byron’s use of irony and evaluate his attitude toward technical innovation.

“Debate on the Frame-Work Bill, in the House of Lords, February 27, 1812,” Lord Byron





Lesson 3: Poetical Science

Students will read about Ada Lovelace’s background and evaluate the belief that an immersion in mathematics can counteract “poetic imagination.”

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson, Chapter 1, “Ada, Countess of Lovelace”



Lesson 4: Lovelace’s Insights

Students will read about Ada Lovelace’s work and analyze the significance of her contributions.




Lesson 5: Man and Machines

Students will read a poem by Richard Brautigan and reflect on how Lovelace, Byron, or the speaker in Wordsworth’s poem might respond to it.

“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” Richard Brautigan




Write a Story

Lesson 1: Lovelace’s Machine

To prepare to write a scary story about the machine Lovelace envisioned, students will identify the elements of such a machine and brainstorm its benefits and dangers for humanity.


“Sketch of The Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage,” L.F. Menabrea, translated with notes by Ada, Countess of Lovelace






Lesson 2: Setting and Mood

Students will review how Shelley made use of setting to establish mood in Frankenstein and practice describing various settings and creating a range of moods.

Frankenstein (1831), Mary Shelley, Introduction

History of a Six Weeks’ Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni, Mary Shelley



Lesson 3: Write Your Story, Part 1

Students will begin work on their short stories, focusing on character and description.


Lesson 4: Write Your Story, Part 2

Students will continue working on their short stories, focusing on plot and pacing.


Lesson 5: Short Story Salon

Students will share their writing with one another, reflect on the range of stories that came from a single idea, and analyze the values implied in their choices.

All readings from unit CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.RL.8.5


Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit E: The Frida & Diego Collection 30¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit E: The Frida & Diego Collection



Information Literacy

The Information Literacy sub-unit is included within each Collections Unit, allowing teachers to choose which skills their students need to develop and when.

The lessons in this sub-unit provide students with essential skills required for conducting research. They learn how to validate and corroborate sources; recognize the distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; and avoid plagiarism by properly citing sources, framing quotes,and paraphrasing.

Lesson 1: Evaluating Sources, Part 1

Students will work collaboratively to assess the credibility of a variety of provided sources, distinguishing reliable sources from unreliable sources.

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/




Students will review several Internet sources, working collaboratively to assess them with a credibility checklist.

Selected Internet sources



Lesson 3: Avoiding Plagiarism

Students will learn how to frame direct quotes and paraphrase information in order to avoid plagiarism. They will learn how to provide basic bibliographic information.

“Pilot Dropped Candy Into Hearts of Berlin,” ABC News

“The Sweet Lure of Chocolate,” Jim Spadaccini

“Prehistoric Americans Traded Chocolate for Turquoise?” Christine Dell’Amore

ProjectEd plagiarism videos




Scavenger Hunt & Internet Research

Lesson 1: Scavenger Hunt: Introducing the Collection

Students will explore a selection of texts and images in the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Collection, developing and practicing close reading skills and discussing their findings.

Primary and secondary source documents, images, and multimedia files from the Collection


Lesson 2: Scavenger Hunt: Exploring the Collection

Students will explore a selection of texts and images in the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Collection, developing and practicing close reading skills and discussing their findings.







Lesson 3: Internet Research

Students will identify a topic from a specific text or image in the Collection, generate a research question, and conduct Internet research to find the answer.

Valid Internet sources CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.7



Descriptive Writing & Collection Research

Lesson 1: Descriptive Language

Students will close read Frida Kahlo’s narrative portrait of Diego Rivera and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. They will then work independently to write their own contrary love letter.

My Art, My Life: An Autobiography, Diego Rivera, Statement by Frida Kahlo

Sonnet 130, William Shakespeare




Lesson 2: Descriptive Writing

Students will work independently to write their own descriptive text in the style of Kahlo or Shakespeare.






Lesson 3: Collection Research

Students will identify a topic from a specific text or image in the Collection and answer the accompanying close-reading questions.





Socratic Seminar & Internet Research

Lesson 1: Preparing for the Socratic Seminar

Students will learn how to construct open-ended questions and will collaboratively develop rules for the seminar.



Lesson 2: Conducting the Socratic Seminar

Students will use the Socratic method to discuss issues surrounding the definition of art as they pertain to Frida Kahlo’s and Diego Rivera’s lives, following class-established protocol.







Primary and secondary source documents, images, and multimedia files from the Collection, and valid Internet sources







Write an Essay

Lesson 1: Gathering Evidence

Students will choose between multiple research project options. They will learn how to plan their research and begin the project.

Primary and secondary source documents, images, and multimedia files from the Collection and Internet sources




Lesson 2: Making a Claim and Writing a Body Paragraph

Students will use their research skills to explore the Internet, identifying dependable sources for information about their chosen topics. They will create first drafts of body paragraphs for their research essays.





Lesson 3: Writing a Body Paragraph and an Introduction

Students will learn how to organize their research information and will examine the elements of a good introduction. They will then write an introductory paragraph for their papers.





Lesson 4: Revising and Writing a Conclusion

Students will write body and final paragraphs for their papers. They will then revise their work, adding evidence if needed.




Lesson 5: Finishing and Editing the Essay

Students will add bibliographic information to their writing, including in-text citations and a Works Cited page. Students will correct errors, incorporate revisions, and piece together their final drafts.




Lesson 6: Creating Citations and a Works Cited List

Students will use citation guidelines to complete both in-text citations and a Works Cited page for their sources.



Lesson 7: Media Project

Students will create a digital collage based on their research and essay using Picasa.




Lesson 8: Media Presentation

Students will discuss their research experience as they present their final multimedia projects to the class.

n/a CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.4


Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit F: The Space Race Collection 33¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit F: The Space Race Collection



Information Literacy

The Information Literacy sub-unit is included within each Collections Unit, allowing teachers to choose which skills their students need to develop and when.

The lessons in this sub-unit provide students with essential skills required for conducting research. They learn how to validate and corroborate sources; recognize the distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; and avoid plagiarism by properly citing sources, framing quotes,and paraphrasing.


Students will work collaboratively to assess the credibility of a variety of provided sources, distinguishing reliable sources from unreliable sources.

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/



Students will review several Internet sources, working collaboratively to assess them with a credibility checklist.

Selected Internet sources



Lesson 3: Avoiding Plagiarism

Students will learn how to frame direct quotes and paraphrase information in order to avoid plagiarism. They will learn how to provide basic bibliographic information.

“Pilot Dropped Candy Into Hearts of Berlin,” ABC News

“The Sweet Lure of Chocolate,” Jim Spadaccini

“Prehistoric Americans Traded Chocolate for Turquoise?” Christine Dell’Amore

ProjectEd plagiarism videos




Scavenger Hunt & Internet Research

Lesson 1: Scavenger Hunt: Introducing the Collection

Students will explore a selection of texts and images in The Space Race Collection, developing and practicing close reading skills and discussing their findings.




Lesson 2: Scavenger Hunt: Exploring the Collection

Students will explore a selection of texts and images in The Space Race Collection, developing and practicing close reading skills and discussing their findings.










Valid Internet sources





Space Blogs and Collection Research

Lesson 1: Space Blogs: Lesson 1

Students will explore the Space Card collection and write a profile of the astronaut or cosmonaut they will focus on during the next two lessons.





Lesson 2: Space Blogs Lesson 2

Students will explore primary and secondary sources to find material about their astronaut or cosmonaut, and then write a blog from space in that person’s identity.







Students continue to explore texts and images in the Collection, choosing one of each to focus on, and then come together in groups to discuss what they have learned.





Socratic Seminar & Internet Research

Lesson 1: Preparing for the Socratic Seminar

Students will learn how to construct open-ended questions and will collaboratively develop rules for the seminar.



Lesson 2: Conducting the Socratic Seminar

Students will use the Socratic method to discuss The Space Race Collection, following class-established protocol.






Students will identify a topic from a specific text or image in the Space Race Collection, generate a research question, and conduct Internet research to find the answer.

Primary and secondary source documents, images, and multimedia files from the Collection, and valid Internet sources







Write an Essay

Lesson 1: Gathering Evidence

Students will choose between two topics for their essays.They will learn how to plan their research and begin the project.





Lesson 2: Making a Claim and Writing a Body Paragraph

Students will deconstruct a sample essay, review the elements of a research essay, and write their claims and first body paragraphs.





Lesson 3: Writing a Body Paragraph and an Introduction

Students will assess their own progress, review elements of an introduction, and write their introductions and second body paragraphs.





Lesson 4: Revising and Writing a Conclusion

Students will revise and strengthen their essays, review elements of a conclusion, and write a conclusion.





Lesson 5: Finishing and Editing the Essay

Students will have a chance to begin the editing process or continue revising their essays.




Lesson 6: Creating Citations and a Works Cited List

Students will use citation guidelines to complete both in-text citations and a Works Cited page for their sources.



Lesson 7: Media Project

Students will work in groups to create interactive timelines using their research in the Space Race Collection.





Lesson 8: Timeline Presentations

Students will discuss their research experience as they present their final timeline projects to the class.

n/a CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.SL.8.4


Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Unit G: Advanced Story Writing 36¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Unit G: Advanced Story Writing



Creating a Believable Character

Lesson 1: Creating a Believable Character

The students will create main characters for their short stories, using photographs of settings and faces for situation, character, and story ideas.

N/A CA CCSS ELA-Literacy.W.8.3


Lesson 2: Choosing a Problem

The students will brainstorm potential problems that could take place in their settings, and will describe one particular problem in detail.




Lesson 3: Creating a Believable Personality

The students will discover more about their characters by imagining their characters’ responses to a variety of situations.



Lesson 4: Reviewing the Shape of a Story

The students will review the shape of a story and identify the four story elements in a picture book that the teacher reads in class.


Lesson 5: Developing the Rising Action

Each student will write his or her first event of rising action, using his or her character’s personality to guide the conflict as it intensifies.


Lesson 6: Analyzing Points of View

The students will discuss how first, second, and third person point of view impact a reader’s experience.




Lesson 7: Introducing Internal and External Monologue

The students will complete a skill drill to practice writing internal monologue, and will then rewrite a passage of their own dialogue to include the main character’s internal monologue.






Lesson 8: Using Sensory Details Effectively

The students will practice making decisions about including essential and nonessential sensory details.


Lesson 9: Experimenting With Perspective

Each student will experiment with perspective by investigating the self-awareness of his or her story’s main character.


Lesson 10: Narrating From Multiple Perspectives

The students will consider how character perspective influences the narration of an event, and will try narrating a fictional situation from more than one character’s point of view.


Experimenting With a Second Character

Lesson 11: Creating a Second Believable Character

The students will create a main character for a second short story. This time they can use just their imaginations, or they can use photographs of settings and faces to generate situation and character ideas.



Lesson 12: Creating a Believable Personality

The students will quickly brainstorm a problem for their new characters and will discover more about their characters by imagining their characters’ responses to a variety of situations.


Lesson 13: Developing Internal Conflict

The students will write about a situation in which their characters experience internal conflict.



Lesson 14: Setting Up Change and Growth in Rising Action

The students will discuss ways that characters change when under the pressure of a difficult situation. Each student will write his or her first rising action event—one scene in which his or her character is under pressure that might lead to change.


Lesson 15: Varying Sentence Structure—Sentence Beginnings

The students will study the importance of sentence variety and practice varying their sentence beginnings for a more vivid reader experience.






Lesson 16: Varying Sentence Structure—Sentence Length

The students will study the importance of varying sentence structure, and practice varying sentence length to impact the pacing of the second event of rising action.



Lesson 17: Experimenting With Narration

The students will learn the differences between limited narration and omniscient narration and will rewrite one of their rising action events to reflect one of these types of narration.



Writing a Short Story

Lesson 18: Choosing a Storyline

The students will choose which story to complete, and will write the third rising action event for that story.


Lesson 19: Developing Character Change and Growth—Turning Point

The students will experiment with three possible turning points for their characters. Each student will then write the turning point moment that shows change and growth in the main character.



Lesson 20: Revising the Use of Sensory Details

The students will complete a teacher-selected revision assignment and a student-selected revision assignment in order to emphasize certain sensory details over others.



Lesson 21: Revising Sentence Length

The students will complete a teacher-selected revision assignment and a student-selected revision assignment to create effective pacing by varying sentence length.



Lesson 22: Editing and Writing the Final Draft

The students will edit their stories for technical errors and write their final drafts. Some students will share passages of their stories. For many students, this session will take two class periods.





Scope and Sequence 8th Grade, Lapham’s Archive III 39¬. | Amplify ELA: California Edition

Scope and Sequence8th Grade, Lapham’s Archive III

Collections Objectives Common Core State Standards

Chinese Cultural Revolution and Propaganda

Cesar Chavez

Gandhi

Japanese Internment Camps

The Silk Road

Students will explore a curated selection of texts, images, and multimedia focused on a topic where they can conduct their own independent research. Teachers have the option to send the work of particularly enthusiastic students to Lapham’s Quarterly, an award-winning history magazine, for encouraging editorial notes.


amplify ela: california edition grade 8 scope & sequence...

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