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.W.2.a
Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
What’s In My Brain: Grass vs Mold
Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?
Order to Chaos: Dominoes or Dam?
Sometimes outside forces turn order into chaos. But sometimes chaos comes from within.
Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other
Chaos can contain order. Order can contain chaos! Is chaos ever truly random?
Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative
Sometimes we want order, but sometimes we need chaos!
Introducing Order and Chaos
Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.
Power Big Idea Worksheets
Your students will investigate statements like: Power leads to change, Power comes in many forms, Power can be used or abused.
Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet
Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.
Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season
Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!
Categorize and Re-Categorize Countries
Put these countries into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same places reveal new patterns and give new insights?
Famous Structures
The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.
What’s In My Brain!? Gold vs Wood
Some of these examples are conductors and some are insulators!
What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds
Let’s look at living vs non-living things.
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.
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
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.
Plant Adaptation Tournament
Who will win in a tournament of eight plants with Interesting adaptations!?
Parabolic Curve Art
Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.
Tournament of Ancient Inventions
Which of these inventions of the ancient world is most influential? Least useful today? Most taken-for-granted?
Create A Civilization: Design A Flag
What makes for a good flag? What makes a bad flag?
Tournament of Presidents
So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?
Ultimate (or Inception) Tic Tac Toe
What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
Concept Attainment: Art
Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?
A Lunar Survival Mission
A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?
Cram
Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!
Impostor Syndrome
How high-performing students can often feel like they aren’t really that great.
Generalization: Change Leads to More Change
Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”
Order Can Be Natural or Constructed
When is order natural and when is it designed by people?
Generalization: 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?
Generalization: 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.
Invisible Power Can Have Visible Effects
Can you think of times when power is unseen, but we can clearly see its effects?
How Renewable Is That Resource?
Which resource is more renewable? And which is easier to find?
Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences
Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.
What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah
Can students spot similes vs metaphors?
Simple or Compound Sentences – What’s In My Brain?
Can your students spot simple sentences vs compound sentences?
Investigating Christmas Trees
Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?
Welcome, Students!
A video to welcome students to Byrdseed.TV.
Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!
Chomp
Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
The Thinking Hats
So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.
Developing Extension Questions: Zooming In
Every topic has details that get glossed over in a sentence. Zoom in on one and you’ve got an entire unit hiding inside a paragraph.
Improving Presentations 3: The Storyboard and Slides
It’s time to turn that outline into a storyboard and then some actual slides.
Improving Presentations 2: Planning The Outline
After watching some great presenters, let’s outline your presentation!
Create A Civilization: From Hunter Gatherers to Farmers
What happens when your civilization suddenly has a surplus of food? Think of the possibilities!
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!
Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea
Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.
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!
Elements of The Fantasy Genre
Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.
How to Play Go
Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!
Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)
When a student’s brain is full of worries, everything feels urgent. Brain Plate helps them sort what’s real from what’s noise — and actually do something about it.
Creating A Classroom Motto
Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!
Teaching Criticism
Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.
Writing Clear Directions
Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?
Intellectual Intensity
Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?
Engineering: Build A Bridge
Using real bridges as their starting point, students will construct bridges out of straws and paperclips.
Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea
We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.