Grade 8
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Language
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Reading: Informational
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Reading: Literature
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Speaking & Listening
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Writing
Arizona ELA Standard: 8.RI.3
Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
What’s In My Brain: Primary Sources
Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?
Chaos Makes Sense (Later)
In the moment, a chaotic event makes no sense. But later, that same event can feel like it was part of a larger story.
Who has more power: the Queen Bee or the Hive?
Who really runs the hive: the queen, or the thousands of bees around her?
Indirect Power – Lighthouse vs Magnetism
Students explore the idea of indirect power – which can be both visible (a lighthouse) or invisible (magnetism).
Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet
Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.
A System Similar to a Cell
Which parts of a cell serve a similar job to the parts of a cruise ship, human body, computer, or other system?
What Happens In Your Brain When You’re Worried or Afraid
Allison Edwards explains how blood flow in your brain affects your decision-making
Pig Pen Cipher (Codes Part 2)
Let’s encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!
Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Introducing Universal Theme of Change
Everything changes. But how does it change? Students brainstorm dozens of examples and boil them down to one big idea.
Introducing Universal Theme of Power
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Power? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Think Like A Historian
Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!
Analyze Paragraphs: Baseball
Three paragraphs about baseball. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Analyze Paragraphs: Cucumbers
Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Analyze Paragraphs: Empire State Building
Three paragraphs about the Empire State Building. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Analyze Paragraphs: Tomatoes
Three paragraphs about tomatoes. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Analyze Paragraphs: Wolverines
Three paragraphs about wolverines. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
Thinking With Art: Head Down
One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.
Think Like A Philosopher
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
Change Leads to More Change
Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”
Problems Lead to New Rules, Which Lead to New Problems
Problems create rules. Rules create new problems. Can you trace the cycle in history, stories, and your own life?
Systems Are Made up of Other Systems
A clock is a system. So is a rainforest. So is your school. Once you see systems inside systems, you can’t unsee it.
Simple or Compound Sentences – What’s In My Brain?
Can your students spot simple sentences vs compound sentences?
What’s In My Brain – The Park vs The Museum
We’re looking at the past progressive tense and the simple past tense.
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
How have you changed over time? Students introduce themselves through the lens of change — and learn a Depth and Complexity tool in the process.
Building Creative Analogies
We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.
Synonym Graphs
So, which is happiest: happy, joyful, or ecstatic? Which is most temporary?
Academic Love Letters
What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!
Depth and Complexity: 📈 Trends
Has something been changing recently? What might be causing that? What are the effects?
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!
Depth and Complexity: 🚦 Rules
Is there a consequence for not doing something? You may have found a rule!
Depth and Complexity: 📚 Across Disciplines
No topic is an island! With the 📚 Across Disciplines prompt, students note connections within and across multiple fields.
Depth and Complexity: ⏳ Change Over Time
Want to get students thinking about how a topic has changed or might change in the future? The ⏳ Change Over Time thinking tool is just what you need!
Depth and Complexity: Patterns
Can your students spot anything that repeats? Or that has stopped repeating?
Historic Social Media
How would people from history have interacted online? Students will develop a conversation online between people involved in the same event from history.
An App For A Historical Figure
What kind of an app could have helped Abe Lincoln accomplish his goals?
Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)
For students! In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.
Think Like An Economist
How would an economist read Goldilocks? How would they see a rainforest? How would they study the American Revolution?
Add Layers To Direct Instruction
For TeachersTake direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.