Common Core Standards
Grade 8
Reading RI.8.1
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Word for word, this standard is a twin of its Reading: Literature counterpart (wow, those Common Core people were pretty lazy, weren't they, just copy-pasting stuff?), so go on over there to check out what we have to say about this one. Just don't forget that we're talking about non-story stuff as opposed to, well, story stuff.
Example 1
Here's an example lesson to use when students are learning about the American Revolution.
Have students use http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/index.html to research commonly-held beliefs and the truth about Paul Revere's role in the Revolution. In groups, have students develop the following information: a brief biography, common myths, truths, pictures of Revere or his ride, an analysis explaining why he is typically seen in a more heroic light, and an annotated bibliography explaining why the site is valid.
Note: This lesson also fulfills CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.5, and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.6.
Aligned Resources
- Social Studies Online: Digital Literacy Connections to Civics and History: To Speak or Not to Speak… Freely
- Teaching A Little Princess: Follow the Leader
- Teaching Maniac Magee: City Divided
- Teaching Maniac Magee: Exploring Homelessness
- Teaching Moon Over Manifest: Sliding Through History
- Teaching Murder on the Orient Express: Deadly Motives
- Teaching Dragonwings: Disasters
- Teaching The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963: Let's Do the Time Warp
- Teaching Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Integration In Our Nation
- Teaching The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Murder Mystery
- Teaching Out of the Dust: Art Imitates Life
- Teaching The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Modern-Day Toms and Hucks
- Teaching The View from Saturday: Create Your Own Knowledge Bowl
- Teaching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Famous Islands
- Teaching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Only in Dreams
- Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird: A Dream Deferred
- Teaching When You Reach Me: Mysteries of Science
- Teaching Where the Red Fern Grows: An Instance of Persistence
- Teaching Dragonwings: The Real Windrider
- Teaching Flowers for Algernon: The Great Debate
- Teaching Hatchet: Biology 101
- Teaching A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Nickeled & Dimed
- Teaching A Wrinkle in Time: Right Brain Versus Left Brain
- Internet Safety and Ethics: The Golden Rule Goes Online: Preventing and Stopping Cyberbullying
- Internet Safety and Ethics: Oh No, You Didn't!: Internet Dangers and Strategies for Staying Safe
- Teaching Animal Farm: Corruption Makes the World Go Round
- ELA Online: Digital Literacy Connections to English Language Arts: Twilight Activity: The Cullen Cars
- Teaching Freak the Mighty: Becoming Freak
- Teaching Of Mice and Men: Close Reading Steinbeck: Letters vs. Novel
- Teaching The View from Saturday: Getting To Know a Turtle (Almost)
- Teaching Watership Down: Friends (or Carrots) First
- Using and Citing Online Sources: Chicken or the Egg: Primary and Secondary Sources
- Teaching American Born Chinese: Individual Identity