This grade 8 curriculum modules are designed to address CCSS ELA outcomes during a 45-minute English Language Arts block. The overarching focus for all modules is on building students’ literacy skills as they develop knowledge about the world. Taken as a whole, these modules are designed to give teachers concrete strategies to address the “instructional shifts” required by the CCSS.

Structure of a Module

Each module provides eight weeks of instruction, broken into three shorter units. Each module includes seven assessments:

– Six unit-level assessments that almost always are on-demand: students’ independent work on a reading, writing, speaking, or listening task.

– One final performance task that is a more supported project, often involving research.

About Downloadable Resources

Grade 8 ELA Curriculum Map: The grade 8 curriculum modules are designed to address CCSS ELA outcomes during a 45-minute English Language Arts block.

Grades 6-8 English Language Arts Curriculum Map: All modules pair literature with rich informational text (including primary source documents and literary nonfiction) on the topic. Informational text and supplemental literature in each module will meet the expected range of quantitative complexity. All modules embed routines related to written argument; argumentation is a particular focus of Module 4. All modules intentionally integrate resources from Odell Education.

Texts from Expeditionary Learning: The texts listed in this document cover Module 1, Module 2A, Module 2B, Module 3A, Module 3B, and Module 4 of the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts curriculum from Expeditionary Learning.

Appendix 1: Protocols and Resources

Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: The new Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners Resource Guides for ELA and Mathematics provide guidance to educators on how to take the curriculum materials on EngageNY and provide additional scaffolds for ELL students according to their level of English language proficiency.

The Grades 3-8 ELA Curriculum Modules, A Look at Assessment Design: This document outlines Expeditionary Learning’s step-by-step process for designing effective assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

Writing in the Modules: While this document focuses on writing, all strands of the ELA standards (reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language) are all tightly interwoven in the modules.

Overview of Research in the NYS Grades 3-8 ELA Modules: The purpose of this document is to highlight how research supports the three ELA shifts that the Common Core requires and meets the standards in Expeditionary Learning Grades 3–8 ELA curriculum.

Helping Students Read Closely: The purpose of this document is to give teachers additional guidance to understand the design of close reading lessons in Expeditionary Learning’s Grades 3-8 ELA curriculum, and also to think about how to modify module lessons or design close reading lessons of their own.

Interventions for Adolescent Readers: This resource package is designed to help school leaders, instructional coaches, general education teachers, special education, and intervention teachers think and plan together about strategic ways to best use additional support time beyond the typical ELA block.

Lesson 7 - Building background knowledge (continued)