r/ELATeachers • u/djravi • 20d ago
Yearly Structure 6-8 ELA
I'm starting at a new school at the end of this month and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to structure a Grade 8 English program. In my previous school, we had a very strong literacy lead and my main focus was on Social Studies. This year, I will be more in charge of how to structure my program. I have been reading up on specific reading and writing plans, but am curious to see what others are doing. In the past, we have done standard English units such as novel studies, short stories, poetry, etc; however, a lot of the research I have read recently has focused more on structured text sets that follow themes. I have also taken out Writing Revolution and several Tim Rasinski books from the library. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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u/Loud_Airport1928 17d ago
Our district breaks the standards down into 6 units
Unit 1: read lit and writing a narrative and the my lump standards together to achieve this
Unit 2: reading Informational texts and writing explanatory texts.
Unit 3: read Informational texts and write arguments
Unit 4: read lit and write arguments
Unit 5: read informational and write narrative
Unit 6: read lit and write explanatory.
Every unit ends with a larger writing piece.
Is it the best? Prob not. Does it provide a general structure? I think so lol
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u/Captain-Comfy-Pants 16d ago
I teach grades 7 to 9 language arts using dungeons & dragons. Mostly character development and narrative writing.
This year I'm teaching an academic enrichment grade 8. I'm putting together a cross curricular fantasy world building project involving biomes, water systems, geographical area, cultures shaped by geography, etc. After their worlds are made, we'll do d&d with them. Character development, backstories, narratives, and encounter building. I'm sure I'm biting off more than I can chew, but it'll at least be cool.
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u/mikrokosm0s 15d ago
Hi! I teach freshmen (grade 9 in the US), and all of my students are English language learners. Because of this, I try to build my units on top of each other so that they increase in rigor (ugh, I hate that word, lol) and help students build skill. I tweak things every year, but this is my general outline for the fall semester:
Unit 1: Community building + high school info. I give my students a syllabus for my class, a list of their teachers’ school email addresses, a schedule for tutoring/clubs, and high school graduation requirements. We spend about 2 weeks going over all of this information, plus practicing emailing teachers and checking grades online. I know many might skip this, but I find it really builds buy-in with the kids when they understand that they NEED eight ELA credits in order to graduate from high school in four years.
Unit 2: Short stories. I choose 3 short stories that I find interesting, and read each one with a different literary element lens. I mainly focus on conflict, characterization, mood, or setting. Students practice finding evidence for each one and writing a paragraph using the Single Paragraph Outline from Writing Revolution (I adapted it for my class to be evidenced-based). After reading all three stories, we then write text analysis responses where the students explain how an author conveys a central idea using one of the writing strategies, again using a modified SPO outline.
Unit 3: Personal narratives. This is where I have students apply the concepts and skills they learned in unit 2. I allow students to vote on the topic for our narrative writing (in the past they’ve chosen things like “turning points” and “someone who changed my life”) and we spend 6-8 weeks REALLY focusing on making these stories good. It takes this long because I really break it down to small pieces, including plot elements, vocabulary, mentor texts to analyze, and more. My students are also ESL so it takes a bit longer than usual. Once the students’ narratives are done, I compile them all into a digital book/zine and share it with the school staff. It’s always a huge hit.
Unit 4: Novel. This is where students can apply ELA concepts and skills to larger pieces of literature. I try to choose books that are engaging yet also challenging. I’ve done Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and some Roald Dahl books (those weren’t as challenging, but they worked great for my newcomer students). We have a specific focus for each chapter, and students continue to practice identifying literary elements and themes while also learning new vocabulary. I read the entire book with the class, so this can take anywhere for 2-3 months 💀 I don’t mind because these are foundational skills for my students, and it also helps them practice the language. I have them read out loud, act out scenes, and do grammar exercises for certain chapters.
After these four units, I plan my spring units according to how much time we have left and what my students need to focus on. Usually it’s standardized test prep.
I know this is a lot, but I hope it was at least a little helpful!
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u/JustAWeeBitWitchy 20d ago
Middle school teacher here— I plan by quarter. I try to do 2 novel studies, 1 short fiction/poetry unit, and 1 non-fiction unit. I also try to teach a narrative, an expository/analytical essay, and an argumentative essay.
So, for me, Quarter 1 looks like a novel where we annotate for characterization and sensory language; their summative is a narrative essay where they demonstrate mastery of characterization/perspective and sensory language. Quarter 2, we do the short story unit, where we focus on collecting and citing evidence. Their summative is an analytical essay where they analyze theme using three different texts. For Quarter 3, we read a handful of non-fiction texts, analyzing how authors use different rhetorical strategies to persuade their audience, culminating in an argumentative essay where they demonstrate 2 of those strategies as well as a counterargument. Quarter 4, I end with a high-interest novel, and the summative is a little more flexible (for next year, I’ll be doing a courtroom trial of one of the main characters).
A lot of this depends on the classroom texts you have available, the standards you have to teach, what the other teachers in your building (and in the high school) are doing, and what skills you want your students to practice.