8th Grade Honors English Content Overview
Westchester Secondary Charter School
Ms. Jane Mayer
8th Grade English is a class designed to give students an overview of several social
movements and historical events across the world that have influenced modern society. Our
focus is generally on the young people at the center of these movements. At the end of the year,
students should have a foundational command of the English language (vocabulary, writing,
speaking through reading, reflection and response) as well as be able to reflect on their own
values and place in society along with a vision for who they would like to be as they move into
high school.
UNIT 1: SOCIAL JUSTICE: CLAUDETTE COLVIN, ANNE FRANK AND ME:
REVIEW SUMMER READING (2 weeks) ANNE FRANK NARRATIVE (WRITING
PORTFOLIO) (6 weeks), ARGUMENT WRITING (across the curriculum)
Essential questions: Who are Anne Frank and Claudette Colvin and how do their choices affect
our lives today? How does narrative writing preserve our common and personal histories? How
does writing help me connect to my own ideas and help me process my thinking?
Texts: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,
Holocaust poetry (in file), Auschwitz article on pregnancy, MLK “I Have a Dream” speech, (find
a letter from a Nazi point of view), short story from Kinderlager
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UNIT 2: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF STORYTELLING:
SHORT STORIES (4 weeks), RESPONSE TO LITERATURE PARAGRAPHS (2
weeks), MOCK TRIAL with NON-FICTION TEXTS (2 WEEKS)
Essential Questions: What are the elements of a story and how do authors use them to convey
the theme of the story? How do characterization, conflict and plot dovetail to express this theme?
How can understand the structure of storytelling to both critique it as well as mimic it? How can
we use language to provide evidence for an against a thesis/assertion?
Texts: short stories from our 8th grade English textbook as well as the Realms of Gold Reader,
plus one novel of the student’s choosing
8th Grade Honors English Content Overview
Westchester Secondary Charter School
Ms. Jane Mayer
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UNIT 3—THE POETRY AND PROSE OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY:
SOLD and POETIC LANGUAGE (6 WEEKS), PROSE AND JOURNALISM (3 weeks)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: Where in our world today do we continue to see injustice and how
does it affect the common human experience? How does poetry attempt to explain our world?
How does prose (specifically news articles) define the problem similarly or differently? How do
we use research and writing to positively influence our communities?
Texts: Sold, Reflections on the Gift of a Watermelon Pickle, Song Lyrics, various poems, news
articles on modern-day slavery, short video from Michael Palin’s New Europe (10 minute clip
on pantomiming street trafficking)
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UNIT 4: DECONSTRUCTING AND CONSTRUCTING PERSUASION
ANIMAL FARM (4 weeks), An ALLEGORICAL FABLE (2 weeks) and ADVERTISING
PROJECT (3 weeks)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: How do advertising, the status quo and politics continue to
influence our views of the world? What techniques do these establishments use to persuade us?
What is the allegory in Animal Farm? How would we go about creating a persuasive allegory of
something that was important to us?
TEXTS: Animal Farm, commercials and advertisements, Dr. Seuss books (The Lorax)
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