8th GRADE ELA: IDENTITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
UNIT 1: The Impact of Prejudice on Morals and Justice
ANCHOR TEXT: To Kill a Mockingbird
Essential Questions:
 Does American law guarantee justice for all?
 How does personal experience contribute to prejudice?
 How do our preconceptions influence our sense of justice?
 Can a hero have both good and bad qualities?
 What are the roles of parents and society in the moral education of children?
Guiding Questions:
 How can examining an author’s life inform and expand our understanding of a
novel?
 How does studying setting and historical context help us understand the
motivations of characters?
 How does the type of narrator determine the point of view from which the story
is told?
 How does class inequality create conflict in society?
 How is a protagonists journey enriched by characters with different motivations
and beliefs?
 What techniques are used by an author to create a character?
 Why is it important to support ideas with textual evidence?
 How do writers use figurative language to help readers visualize and experience
events and emotions in a story?
 In what ways can Socratic Seminar discussion contribute to our understanding
of a text?
 How can identifying and understanding symbols reveal new interpretations of a
novel? How does an author’s use of symbolism add power and meaning to a
story?
 What events or influences cause characters to change their beliefs?
 How does family influence our morals and beliefs?
 How does the author’s development of plot create suspense and add depth to
characters?
 How does experience change our view of the world?
 How are characters’ beliefs and/or choices impacted by dynamics of power?
 How do we determine what evidence to cite to support ideas?
 How can we develop ideas for our own writing by examining a model text?
 What is the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism?
 How can we organize our ideas before writing an essay?
 How can we use language to add power and meaning to our writing?
 Why is it important to monitor and reflect on progress as readers and writers?
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Enduring Understandings:
 People have both good and bad qualities
 Issues of race are still relevant today
 Parents and society play important roles in the moral education of children
 Class inequality creates conflict in society
 Experience as well as assumptions contribute to prejudice
 Conflict is presented through the juxtaposition of social justice and law.
NYS Common Core Standards for English Language Arts Assessed:
Reading Standards for Literature (Grade 8)
Standard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10
Reading Standards for Information (Grade 8)
Standard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10
Writing Standards (Grade 8)
Standard 1a-e, 2a-f, 3a-d, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9a-b, 10
Speaking and Listening Standards (Grade 8)
Standard 1a-d, 2, 3, 4, 6
Language Standards (Grade 8)
Standard 1b-d, 2a-c, 3a, 4a-d, 5a-c, 6
Teacher Designed Standards Assessed:
1. Students will reflect upon their work as literary critics by:
a) identifying strengths.
b) identifying struggles.
c) setting goals to improve their work.
d) revising their work to make it better
e) asking questions to improve their understanding.
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ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE
Authentic Performance Task(s):
Alignment to NYS Common Core
Standards:
1. Listen to and take detailed notes on the
life and accomplishments of Harper Lee.
Use your notes to answer questions and
write a short essay about social
influences that had an impact on
Harper Lee.
2. Mr. Raymond gives the appearance of
being an alcoholic in order for the white
community to accept his spending time
with the black community. Is he brave
or foolish for this behavior? Use specific
and relevant textual evidence to support
your ideas.
3. Using specific details from the text,
choose an event and explain how this
event reveals the development of Jem
and Scout as dynamic characters. Two
examples have been provided for you.
4. Analyze the poem, “The Barrier” by
Claude McKay using the novel and a
historical document on Alabama Jim
Crow laws related to miscegenation.
Based on evidence from the novel,
predict how the residents of Maycomb
would react to the speaker’s
relationship with the woman. Use the
novel and the document to argue
whether the legal consequences or the
social consequences are more severe.
5. Read the historical document: “Judge
Horton Orders a New Trial in the Case of
Haywood Patterson June 22, 1933,” paying
particular attention to the discrediting of
Victoria Price’s testimony. Create a TChart. In the left column, record key
arguments in the trial of Haywood
1.
Patterson. In the write column, record key
arguments in Tom Robinson’s trial.
Highlight the similarities between the two
cases.
6. Write a short essay in which you explain
how the events and themes contribute to
the significance of the title. Be sure to
include specific evidence from the text.
1. 11c: Recognize and illustrate social,
historical, and cultural features in
the presentation of literary texts.
2. RI2: Determine a central idea of a
text and analyze its development
over the course of the text, including
its relationship to supporting ideas.
3. RL3: Analyze how particular lines of
dialogue or incidents in a story or
drama reveal aspects of a character.
RI5: Analyze in detail the structure
of a specific paragraph in a text,
including the role of particular
sentences in developing and refining
a key concept.
4. SL3: Delineate a speaker’s argument
and specific claims, evaluating the
soundness of the reasoning and
relevance and sufficiency of the
evidence.
W11A: Make well-supported textual
and thematic connections across
genres.
RI3: Analyze how a text makes
connections among and distinctions
between individuals, ideas and
events.
RL11: Make well-supported
personal, cultural, textual, and
thematic connections across genres
5. RL1: Cite the textual evidence that
most strongly supports an analysis
of what the text says explicit as well
as inferences drawn from the text.
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Pre/Post Reading:
1. Students will respond to the essential questions at the start of the unit and at the
end of the unit. (pre/post)
Formative Assessments: (See Appendix)
1. Daily reader response journal entries
2. Class discussions
3. Quizzes and tests
4. Class work
5. Homework
Summative Assessment:
1. Citing specific evidence from the novel as well as 3 outside sources (i.e., historical
nonfiction), write an essay in which you discuss how social issues presented in
the novel contributed to the divide among the residents of Maycomb, as well as
the impact of this divide on Atticus, Jem, and Scout.
Common Core State Standards:
RL.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.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
TEACHING AND LEARNING PLAN
Teaching and Learning Activities:
1. Use essential questions a hook introducing themes in the novel.
2. Begin with an Anticipation Guide
3. Create a KWL with students about racism in America’s past.
4. Use unit teaching points and guiding questions to close read.
5. Have students view and critique the film version of the text, paying particular
attention to how the film stays faithful to or departs from the text.
6. Introduce grammar as a means of strengthening and elevating the power and
effectiveness of written pieces.
7. Have students engage in Socratic Seminar discussion of the text, for which they
engage in close reading of a particular passage and prepare questions to generate
critical analysis and debate.
8. Read informational text to analyze particular passages in the novel.
9. Use essential questions as a post-assessment, using details and examples from the
text to examine whether new information has changed students’ initial opinions.
10. Read and interpret poetry.
11. Have students peer edit and revise written summative assessment.
Resources Needed:
Anchor Text: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Poems: “The Barrier” by Claude McKay, “If a Clown” by Stephen Dunn
Jim Crow Laws in Alabama
Internet sources for information on The Scottsboro Trials
Film: To Kill a Mockingbird
Resource for related scholarly essays: http://www.ssrn.com/
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UNIT 2: The Impact of Prejudice on Morals and Justice
Essential Question: How does prejudice impact morality and justice?
WEEKLY CALENDAR (November 7 – January 27)
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1
1) EQ: Does American
1. Individual
 Historical context
law guarantee
response to
of Jim Crow South
justice for all?
essential
 Biography of
2) How can examining
questions.
Harper Lee
an author’s life
2. Anticipation Guide
inform and expand
3. Performance
our understanding
Task 1: Listening
of a novel?
/Note-taking
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RI 3, 5, 8; W 4, 9b, 10; SL 1d 3; L 2a, b, c, 4a, 6
Week
2
Guiding Questions
3) How does class
inequality create
conflict in society?
Topics/Lessons

Characterization
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Students will
journal about first
impressions of
characters
2. Create a diagram of
social class using
textual evidence.
Key Vocabulary
segregation, justice,
contentious, tentative,
taciturn
Key Vocabulary
Setting, culture, social
class, inequality,
prejudice
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2; RI 3, 5, 8; W4, 9b, 10; SL1d; L2a, b, c, 4a, 6
5
Week
3
Guiding Questions
4) How does the type of
narrator determine
the point of view
from which the story
is told?
5) How do we talk
about poetry?
Topics/Lessons


Point of View
Public speaking;
speaking for
dramatic effect
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Write and present
a chapter of the
novel in first
person from Boo
Radley’s
perspective.
2. Read and analyze
“If a Clown” and
discuss point of
view as presented
in the poem.
Key Vocabulary
Omniscient narrator,
limited narrator, point of
view, perspective
Projection, inflection
Speaker, subject
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 6; W 3a, b, c, d, 4, 9a, 10; SL 4, 6; L 3a, 4a, c, 5a, b, c, 6
Week
4
Guiding Questions
6) How is a
protagonists journey
enriched by
characters with
different motivations
and beliefs?
7) What techniques are
used by an author to
create a character?
Topics/Lessons


Determining
character traits
Types of
characters
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Character Traits
graphic organizer,
record trait and
cite supporting
evidence for
multiple
characters.
2. Write a short
essay arguing who
or what the
antagonist is,
using specific and
relevant evidence.
Key Vocabulary
Protagonist, antagonist,
flaw, idealism,
major/minor character,
foil, malevolent,
assuage, impotent,
impudent, piety,
predilection
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 4, 6, 9; RI 3, W 1a, b, c, d, 4, 9a, 10; SL 1a, b, c, d; L 4a, b, c, 5a, b, c, d 6
6
Week
5
Guiding Questions
8) What is an effective
discussion
question?
9) What conflicts are
developing within
and between
characters?
Topics/Lessons


Conflict
Writing an effective
discussion
question
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Create a T-Chart
Internal / External
and record
conflict, juxtaposition
examples of
internal and
external conflict in
the novel.
2. Dialogue Journal
entry: posing and
answering a textbased discussion
question
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 3, 4, 6; RI 5, W 7, 9a, 10; SL 1c; L 2a, b, c, 6
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative, summative,
interim)
6
11) In what ways can
1. Pose and discuss text-based
 Close reading
Socratic Seminar
questions in a Socratic Seminar
 Socratic Seminar
discussion contribute
about characters’ choices and
behaviors and
to our understanding
likeability.
language
of a text?
 Generating
effective discussion
questions
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 4; RI 5; W 3a, b, c, d, 9a; SL 1a, b, c, d; L 1b, c, d, 2a, b, c, 3a
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
Key
Vocabulary
Socratic
method,
inquiry
Key Vocabulary
7
7

How can we use
technology to conduct
intellectual
conversations with our
peers online?

1. Research the natural
features of mockingbirds
and write a short essay
explaining how they relate
to the story.
2. Complete a webquest on
the Scottsboro trials
3. Respond to discussion
board questions about the
novel and about the
Scottsboro trials
Conducting
research
Discussion
Board etiquette
and
expectations
Symbolism
Blog
Discussion Board
Posting
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 4; RI 1, 3, 4; W 2a, b, c, d, e, f, 7, 8; L 4a, b, c, d
Week
8
Guiding Questions
15) What events or
influences cause
characters to
change their beliefs?
Topics/Lessons



Character
Development
Issues of race
in today’s
society
Cause and
effect
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Performance Task 2:
Using textual evidence,
write a short essay
arguing whether Mr.
Raymond is more brave or
foolish.
2. Performance Task 3:
Choose an event and
explain how this event
reveals the development
of Jem and Scout as
dynamic characters.
Key Vocabulary
static/dynamic
round/flat
evolution
role-reversal
elements of a trial:
prosecution
defense
testimony
witness
deliberation
verdict
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2, 3, 4; RI 5, 8; W 1a, b, c, d, e, 4; L 2a, b, c, 3a
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
Key Vocabulary
8
9
18) EQ: What are the
roles of parents and
society in the moral
education of children?


Scottsboro
Trials
Poetry analysis
1. Performance Task 4:
Analyze “The Barrier”
by Claude McKay
using the novel and a
Jim Crow document
2. Performance Task 5:
Read Haywood
Patterson historical
document and
compare key
arguments of the trial
to Tom Robinson’s
poetic devices: rhyme,
structure, point of
view
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2, 4, 5, 10; RI 1, 3, 9, 10; W 4, 8, 9b; L 2a, b, c, 3a
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative, summative,
interim)
10
21) How are characters’
1. Create a T-Chart. In the left
 Theme
beliefs and/or choices
column, list the characters
 Revisit rules and
impacted by dynamics
from most powerful to least
procedure for
of power?
powerful. In the right column,
Socratic Seminar
22) How do we
explain your choices using
 Choosing textual
determine what
details from the novel.
evidence
evidence to cite to
Discuss in Socratic Seminar.
support ideas?
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2; RI 1, 2; W 2a, b, c, d, e, f, 4; SL 1a, b, c, d, L 5a, b, c, 6
Key
Vocabulary
Theme
9
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
1. Essay outline with
selected evidence
22) How can we develop
 Creating an Outline
ideas for our own writing
 Writing a thesis
by examining a model
statement
text?
2. Drafted
 Developing a strong
23) What is the difference
introductions and body
introduction
between paraphrasing
paragraphs of
 Writing topic sentences
and plagiarism?
 Explaining evidence with Character Analysis
24) How can we organize
Essay
transitions and analysis
our ideas before writing
an essay?
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2, 3, 4; W 2a, b, c, d, e, f, 4, 5, 6, 10; SL 1a; L 1b, c, d, 2a, b, c, 3a, 6
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
(diagnostic, formative,
summative, interim)
12
25) How can we use
1. Final draft of
 Revision Word
language to add power
Character Analysis
choice
and meaning to our
Essay
 Grammar /
writing?
Spelling
26) Why is it important
2. Reflection on
 Peer editing /
to monitor and reflect on
writing process,
editing symbols
progress as readers and
personal growth
 Publishing
writers?
 Word processing
 Reflection
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Key Vocabulary
Original thought,
thesis, catchy
opening,
transitions
Plagiarism,
academic integrity
Key
Vocabulary
Revision,
editing,
agreement,
homonyms
Standards Grade 8
Assessed: RL 1, 2, 3, 4; W 2a, b, c, d, e, f, 4, 5, 6, 10; SL 1a; L 1b, c, d, 2a, b, c, 3a, 6
Appendix
I.
Daily Journal Entries
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(Example)
Directions: Interpret the following quote using the 4 Step Process.* Remember to relate the quote to
chapter 10 of To Kill a Mockingbird in Step 4. “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.” –
Thomas Merton
II.
Classwork
Citing evidence as support
1. On page 99, Jem characterizes himself and Atticus as gentlemen. Choose a quote from pages 97-99
that supports this characterization.
Response to questions based on reading
1. In what ways are the characters of Calpurnia and Tom Robinson representative of the black
community in Maycomb?
2. Using specific examples from the text, explain what Atticus means when he says he’s “in favor of
Southern womanhood as much as anybody, but not for preserving polite fiction at the expense of
human life” on page 147.
Notes based on reading and writing process
Group Work
1. As a group, organize characters, symbols, personality traits, and other significant words (prewritten
on post-its) from the novel into categories on chart paper. Present categories to the class, explaining
your reasoning for associating words and characters.
III.
Homework
Example: Naming the Chapter
After reading Chapter 7 of To Kill a Mockingbird, what title would you give it? Write a short essay explaining
your choice. Be sure to include specific details and transition phrases.
*The
1.
2.
3.
4.
Four Step Process for Quote Interpretation:
(author) once said, “copy the quote”
In other words (say what you think the quote means)
I (agree/disagree) with this quote because…
This quote relates to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee in that…
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If a Clown
by Stephen Dunn
If a clown came out of the woods,
a standard-looking clown with oversized
polka-dot clothes, floppy shoes,
a red, bulbous nose, and you saw him
on the edge of your property,
there’d be nothing funny about that,
would there? A bear might be preferable,
especially if black and berry-driven.
And if this clown began waving his hands
with those big white gloves
that clowns wear, and you realized
he wanted your attention, had something
apparently urgent to tell you,
would you pivot and run from him,
or stay put, as my friend did, who seemed
to understand here was a clown
who didn’t know where he was,
a clown without a context?
What could be sadder, my friend thought,
than a clown in need of a context?
If then the clown said to you
that he was on his way to a kid’s
birthday party, his car had broken down,
and he needed a ride, would you give
him one? Or would the connection
between the comic and the appalling,
as it pertained to clowns, be suddenly so clear
that you’d be paralyzed by it?
And if you were the clown, and my friend
hesitated, as he did, would you make
a sad face, and with an enormous finger
wipe away an imaginary tear? How far
would you trust your art? I can tell you
it worked. Most of the guests had gone
when my friend and the clown drove up,
and the family was angry. But the clown
twisted a balloon into the shape of a bird
and gave it to the kid, who smiled,
let it rise to the ceiling. If you were the kid,
the birthday boy, what from then on
would be your relationship with disappointment?
With joy? Whom would you blame or extoll?
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Jim Crow Laws: Alabama
Close
Enacted 27 Jim Crow segregation laws between 1865 and 1965: including six each against miscegenation and
desegregated schools. A 1915 health care segregation law prevented white nurses from caring for black male patients.
Unlike other former Confederacy states, no laws were enacted during the Reconstruction period barring segregation.
Miscegenation violations carried the harshest penalties. Violators could be sentenced to the penitentiary for two to seven
years of hard labor. After the Brown decision, six segregation laws were passed, including a Birmingham city ordinance
requiring segregated public accommodations and recreational areas.
1865: Miscegenation [Constitution]
Stated that it was the duty of the general assembly to periodically enact laws prohibiting intermarriage between whites
and blacks, or with persons of mixed blood, and to establish penalties.
1865: Miscegenation [Constitution]
Stated that it was the duty of the general assembly to periodically enact laws prohibiting intermarriage between whites
and blacks, or with persons of mixed blood, and to establish penalties.
1867: Miscegenation [State Code]
Set penalties for intermarriage and cohabitation between blacks and whites. Penalties: Confinement in the penitentiary
at hard labor between two and seven years. Those who issued the license or performed such a ceremony could be fined
from $100 to $1,000, or imprisoned for six months, or both.
1928: Miscegenation [State Code]
Miscegenation declared a felony.
1940: Miscegenation [State Code]
Prohibited intermarriage and cohabitation between whites and blacks or the descendant of any Negro. Penalty:
Imprisonment in the penitentiary for two to seven years. Ministers and justices of the peace faced fines between $100
and $1,000 and could be imprisoned in the county jail for up to six months.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/insidesouth.cgi?state=alabama
THE BARRIER
by: Claude McKay (1890-1948)
MUST not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
I must not watch you as you go
Your sun-illumined way;
I hear but I must never heed
The fascinating note,
Which, fluting like a river reed,
Comes from your trembling throat;
I must not see upon your face
Love's softly glowing spark;
For there's the barrier of race,
You're fair and I am dark.
"The Barrier" is reprinted from Harlem Shadows. Claude McKay. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1922.
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