8th Grade Historical Literacy consists of two 43 minute class periods. Writing is one 43 minute block and reading is another. The teacher has picked themes based on social studies standards, and a read-aloud novel based on social studies serves as the mentor text for writing and reading skills. More social studies content is addressed in reading through teaching nonfiction reading skills and discussion.
Standards reflect CCSS ELA, Reading, and Social Studies Standards.

Artists are often particularly keen observers and precise recorders of the physical conditions of the natural world. As a result, paintings can be good resources for learning about ecology. Teachers can use this lesson to examine with students the interrelationship of geography, natural resources, and climate and their effects on daily life. It also addresses the roles students can take in caring for the environment. Students will look at paintings that represent cool temperate, warm temperate, and tropical climates.
In this lesson students will: Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards; Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards.

This activity is designed to help students understand the debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that shaped America’s legislative branch of government. The primary goal of this activity is for students to discover how a compromise balanced the needs of large states and small states and how this led to the creation of the current House of Representatives and Senate.

In this problem-based learning module, students will work together collaboratively to establish questions and develop these questions into claims after being presented with the problem “How are today’s living standards contributing to the drug resistance disease crisis and what needs to be done to begin to reverse the effects of the contributing factors?”  The students will then work collaboratively to continue researching and will use the research to create a collaborative electronic public service announcement to go along with an individually written letter which will be sent to either a state representative, the FDA, lead community personnel, etc. Both products, the PSA and the letter will include their well defined claim, supported with evidence and backed up with reasoning.Prior to beginning module, please note: Module can be completed in isolation, or can be completed in conjunction with modules "Antibiotic Resistance and Antibiotic Policy" (science) and/or Advancing Change through Public Awareness (social studies) as part of a full interdisciplinary unit between 8th grade social studies, language arts and science.  This would allow for students to have a wider array of questions to guide their claims and the students could build the PSA in social studies and write the letter in Language Arts.

This lesson spans multiple days and explores the value of debate teams in schools. During the first week of the unit, students learned to identify claims and warrants in texts. This week, students will build upon that knowledge by writing a basic argument and learning about the types of support that are used to build an argument. This will culminate with an assessment in which the students choose a position to take after reading a text and develop their claims and warrants with appropriate support and analysis.Cover image: "[Booker T. Washington, half-length portrait, seated]" by Frances Benjamin Johnston from the Prints & Photographs Onlince Catalog at loc.gov  

This lesson is intended to be taught over multiple days, focusing on Chapter XIII: Two Thousand Miles for A Five-Minute Speech from Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington.  The students will also complete a close read of The Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington.  Through the two texts, students will read about the events that led Booker T. Washington to deliver a speech at the Atlanta Exposition.  Students will write and deliver their own speech, supporting their arguments with claims and evidence. Image source: "Booker T. Washington" by skeeze on Pixabay.com

In this module, students analyze arguments and the evidence used to support arguments to determine whether sufficient evidence has been used and whether the evidence is relevant in support of the claim an author or speaker is making. They then research to gather evidence to make their own spoken and written arguments. Students will read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (930L), a literary non-fiction text about where food comes from and about making decisions about what food to buy and eat. They build background knowledge about what happens to food before it gets to the consumer, and the different choices the consumer can make when buying food while analyzing Michael Pollan’s arguments and the evidence he uses to support his claims. In Unit 2, students engage in a robust research project in which they further investigate the consequences of each of the food chains and the stakeholders affected in those food chains. To help students grapple with this issue, they use a decision-making process called “Stakeholder Consequences Decision-Making” (see the end of this document for details). This process will help students understand the implications of various choices, and will scaffold their ability to determine, based on evidence and their own values, to take a position on which food chain they would choose if they were trying to feed everyone in the US. Students finish the module by writing a position paper explaining which of Michael Pollan’s food chain they would choose to feed the US and why, and creating a poster stating their position. This task addresses NYSP12 ELA Standards RI.8.1,W.8.1, W.8.1a, W.8.1b, W.8.1c, W.8.1d, W.8.1e and W.8.9.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

This guide provides student-driven projects that can directly teach subject area standards in tandem with foundational understandings of what AI is, how it works, and how it impacts society. Several key approaches were taken into consideration in the design of these projects. Understanding these approaches will support both your understanding and implementation of the projects in this guide, as well as your own work to design further activities that integrate AI education into your curriculum.

Project 1: AI Chatbots
Project 2: Developing a Critical Eye
Project 3: Using AI to Solve Environmental Problems
Project 4: Laws for AI

Visit the ISTE website with all the free practical guides for engaging students in AI creation: https://www.iste.org/areas-of-focus/AI-in-education

In this guide, students’ exploration of AI is framed within the context of ethical considerations and aligned with standards and concepts, and depths of understanding that would be appropriate across various subject areas and grade levels in K–12. Depending on the level of your students and the amount of time you have available, you might complete an entire project, pick and choose from the listed activities, or you might take students’ learning further by taking advantage of the additional extensions and resources provided for you. For students with no previous experience with AI education, exposure to the guided learning activities alone will create an understanding of their world that they likely did not previously have. And for those with some background in computer science or AI, the complete projects and resources will still challenge their thinking and expose them to new AI technologies and applications across various fields of study.

Project 1: Fair's Fair
Project 2: Who is in Control?
Project 3: The Trade-offs of AI Technology
Project 4: AI and the 21st Century Worker

Visit the ISTE website with all the free practical guides for engaging students in AI creation: https://www.iste.org/areas-of-focus/AI-in-education.

The original Native American story component lesson was developed as part of an Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Washington State Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) project funded through an EPA Region 10 grant. The stories were told by Roger Fernandes of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. Mr. Fernandes has been given permission by the tribes to tell these stories.As these lessons and stories were shared prior to the adoption of the Washington State Science Learning Standards in 2013, there was a need to align these stories with the current science standards. This resource provides a current alignment and possible lesson suggestions on how these stories can be incorporated into the classroom. This alignment work has been funded by the NGSS & Climate Science Proviso of the Washington State Legislature as a part of North Central Educational Service District's award.

Food waste is a major contributor to greenhouse gas. Wasted food and the resources to produce that food are responsible for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In this storyline, students learn about the resources required to produce food through following the carbon cycle and discover how food waste contributes to climate change. They will also learn the farm to table transport chain as well as how to conduct a food waste audit. Finally, the students will research solutions to the problem of food waste that can be applicable to their own lives, their school, and their community. 

This unit shows instructional approaches that are likely to help ELLs meet new standards in English Language Arts. Built around a set of famous persuasive speeches, the unit supports students in reading a range of complex texts. It invites them to write and speak in a variety of ways and for different audiences and purposes. Students engage in close reading of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, Aristotleí˘ä‰ĺ䋢s Three Appeals, Robert Kennedyí˘ä‰ĺ䋢s On the Assassination of Martin Luther King, and George Wallaceí˘ä‰ĺ䋢s The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax, Barbara Jordaní˘ä‰ĺ䋢s All Together Now. The five lesson culminate with student's constructing their own persuasive texts.

 This inquiry unit leads students through the different perspectives behind a decision to have a dam removed. This unit looks at similar Washington state dam removal decisions as well as the complex issue of having the Election dam removed near Puyallup, WA. Students will be introduced to the stories and traditional ways of knowing about salmon that the Puyallup Tribe has built their culture upon. Then they will explore the science behind hydroelectricity and build models to discover how carbon neutral energy is gathered through hydro dams. This inquiry unit ends with students researching different perspectives surrounding the current (2021) decision to remove the Electron dam including: the Tribe’s Fishery department, the ecosystem, the city council, the fishermen and the hydro-electrical company who currently owns the dam. With their research, students will do a socratic seminar to mimic the court case lawsuit that is ongoing against the Electron Dam. 

During this problem-based learning unit, students will explore dystopian societies of past and in short stories in order to identify dystopian elements in today’s society.  In turn, students will have a choice between multiple product outputs in which they will apply what they have learned to modern day life and provide ideas of how to improve our society by combating these dystopian elements.*Students will need some prior knowledge of Nazi Germany, Civil Rights America in 1930’s, Present Day China, and Sierra Leone in order to make connections to why these societies have dystopian elements.

This lesson focuses on a close reading of "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Advanced learners (who are skilled with theme) will also be reading "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury.

The growing number of electronics that are becoming obsolete is staggering. The responsible disposal of these materials remains to be a highly debated topic and is one that does not have an easy answer. In this problem-based learning module, students will research this growing issue and provide them opportunities to determine what actions to take. Students will then take their findings and use their research data as evidence to support their position. Groups will create a finished product in the form of a speech, radio broadcast, presentation or persuasive essay to help solve this problem.

Geospatial data analysis is a growing field in science with practical applications in government and industry.   This problem-based learning module guides learners through exploring the relationship between the amount of trash found relative to the location of waste receptacles in their community. Recording the location of identified items of trash/recyclables and placing them on a map allows students to identify if there is a correlation between the amount of trash and the distance away from waste receptacles.  While this module uses trash, almost any item can be tracked and plotted for analysis.  Some other ideas were: locations of Pokemon in Pokemon Go, animal migration, safety devices, various plant species, texting and driving are just a few examples.  

In this problem-based learning module, students will raise awareness about the amount of excess food wasted each day in America’s schools highlights the consumptive mindset that our county has.  Each day in third world countries, as well as our own, children go without the proper nutrition needed to focus on other activities. This module will raise student awareness about the amount of food taken from the service line and then placed in waste receptacles.  Students will gather and analyze data regarding wasted food in an attempt to design a solution to reduce food waste. Sation rotation will allow to conduct research into the global problems associated with the lack of food and malnutrition. Mathematical skills will be required to calculate rates and percentages of consumption which will be used for analysis.  

Students will be exploring the idea of ecosystems and wildfires. They will become familiar with what an ecosystem is and how to keep them healthy. Students will also see the positive and negative effects of wildfires on ecosystems. Also how wildfires influence the local government and federal government when it comes to land management.