Grade 8
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TEKS ELA Standard: 8.5.G
evaluate details read to determine key ideas
Main Idea and Details
Young students can use this big idea organizer to identify the main idea and support it with details.
Who has more power: the Queen Bee or the Hive?
Who really runs the hive: the queen, or the thousands of bees around her?
Identifying A Story’s Theme
Teach your young students to identify the moral or the theme of a story.
Hero or Not A Hero?
Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.
Earth Day Worksheets
Worksheets for Earth Day! Featuring reading, writing, and math… with a pinch of Depth and Complexity.
The Great Sphinx – Mixed Up Paragraph
Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about The Great Sphinx back into the correct order?
Natural Disasters Tournament
Earthquake vs. hurricane. Tsunami vs. wildfire. Students set the criteria, argue their case, and crown a champion. Warning: it gets heated.
Van Gogh Self-Portrait Tournament
Who will win the tournament of Van Gogh self-portraits!?
What Happens In Your Brain When You’re Worried or Afraid
Allison Edwards explains how blood flow in your brain affects your decision-making
Cooking In Space
Watch astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti cook a meal in zero gravity on the International Space Station.
Robot Writing: Volcano
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots about the same beautiful painting of a volcano. Who wrote it best?
Robot Writing: Acropolis
One painting of ruins. Three robots. Three pieces of writing. Who wrote it best?
Robot Writing: The Bridge
One painting of a bridge. Three robots. Who wrote it best?
Robot Writing: Orchestra
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
Zig Zag Cipher (Codes Part 3)
Let’s try a cipher that doesn’t substitute new letters or shapes. We just mix things up.
Shift Cipher (Codes Part 1)
Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!
Chess Variant: Monster Chess
What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?
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.
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?
Thinking With Art: Head Down
One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.
Inferring With Art: A Man
What’s going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What’s his job? And where’s his other boot?
Inferring With Art: A Couple
What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!
Inferring With Art: Two Women
What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!
Think Like A Philosopher
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
Investigating Christmas Trees
Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?
Paradox: Crocodile Dilemma
A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?
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.
Improving Presentations 1: Watching The Greats
Get better at giving presentations by studying the greats!
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!
Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea
Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.
Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details
Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.
Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)
Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.
Twelfth Night Summary
An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”
Hamlet Summary
It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!
Writing Summaries in Haiku
Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.
Add Layers To Direct Instruction
For TeachersTake direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.