Finding Your Path
Who are you becoming? This quarter we listen to teenagers tell their own stories, read poets who remember being young, and weigh real arguments about phones, brains, and growing up, then make an argument of our own.
- Essential Question IHow do the challenges you face today help to shape your future?
- Essential Question IIWhat’s the best thing about being a teenager?
By the end of this quarter, you will be able to…
These goals come from our curriculum guide. Every lesson in this quarter moves you toward at least one of them.
Your path through the quarter.
Each lesson is one 45-minute class period. Find each text in your literature textbook on the pages shown. Tap a lesson number to open that lesson. Numbers with dashed borders are coming soon.
from Bronx Masquerade
Nikki Grimes
“The Debt We Owe to the Adolescent Brain”
Susie Brooks
“Hanging Fire”
Audre Lorde
“My Favorite Chaperone”
Jean Davies Okimoto
Midterm Checkpoint
Assessment Practice (p. 384) and a Dramatic Reading: with a partner, rehearse and perform a poem using volume, phrasing, expression, and gesture to show its meaning. Everyone completes this checkpoint.
“Summer of His Fourteenth Year”
Gloria Amescua
from It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
danah boyd (pp. 392-403), paired with “Heads Up, Humans” by Claudia Alarcon (pp. 53-63)
“Outsmart Your Phone”
Catherine Steiner-Adair (pp. 404-419), paired with “The Brave Little Toaster” by Cory Doctorow (pp. 7-15)
Where the quarter is headed.
Read this now. Every lesson before it gives you a piece of what you will need.
Speak Up for Teens
Using ideas, information, and examples from multiple texts in this unit, write an argumentative essay for your school’s blog on a topic related to teenagers. Choose a specific issue that affects teenagers today, such as social media use, school start times, or the importance of extracurricular activities. Clearly state your position on the issue, support your argument with evidence from the texts, and address at least one counterargument.
- Claim: clearly state your position on one specific issue.
- Evidence: support your argument with ideas and examples from more than one text in this unit.
- Counterargument: acknowledge at least one opposing view and respond to it with evidence.
- Audience: write for your school’s blog, so your tone should fit real readers your age.
You will write this essay in the first week of Quarter 03 (Lessons 3.01-3.05), using your Companion notes from this quarter. Quarter 02 closes with the Unit Test on HMH Ed.
Choose your own read.
Alongside our class texts, pick one Reader’s Choice title to read on your own this quarter. Summaries are in your textbook on pp. 420-421.
- TeenagersPat Mora
- IdentityJulio Noboa Polanco
- Hard on the GasJanet S. Wong
- MarigoldsEugenia Collier
- My Summer of Scooping Ice CreamShonda Rhimes
- InterfloraElizabeth Barrett Browning
- Open Mike: IfDiondra Jordan
- The OutsidersS. E. Hinton
- HushJacqueline Woodson
- Pick one of the texts and annotate the Notice and Note signposts you find.
- Use the Notice and Note Writing Frames to write about why the signposts matter.
- Compare your findings with classmates who read the same text.
Novels aligned to this unitThe Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) · Hush (Jacqueline Woodson)
Go further.
Optional enrichment from our curriculum guide. Your teacher may assign one, or you may choose one to go deeper.
Write a Personal Narrative
Write about an experience that helped you find your path on your journey toward adulthood. Jot down or sketch your ideas first, then write.
Envision Your Future Self
Create a series of self-portraits: who you are today, and who you might be in 10, 20, and 50 years. What are your goals? How might today’s challenges shape you? What colors, symbols, or surprising details will show it?
Standards this quarter.
South Carolina College and Career Ready ELA Standards (2023), Grade 8, as listed in the Quarter 2 curriculum guide.
View all 20 standards
- SC.ELA.AOR.8
- Analyze word relationships and nuances in word meanings within literary and informational texts.
- SC.ELA.AOR.9
- Build and apply a range of academic vocabulary, as well as grade-level appropriate morphology to apply to reading, writing, and speaking.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.1.1
- Analyze how key elements contribute to the meaning of the text as a whole.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.3.1
- Analyze how points of view and/or perspectives create effects to include suspense and dramatic irony.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.4.1
- Analyze an author’s perspective or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that perspective or purpose.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.5.2
- Analyze how the structure of individual text sections and/or text features convey an author’s purpose in an informational text.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.5.3
- Trace the development of an author’s argument while analyzing the types of reasoning and/or rhetorical appeals used in an informational text.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.6.1
- Summarize and/or paraphrase content from grade-level text to enhance comprehension.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.7.1.a
- Use context (the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function) to determine the meaning of words and phrases.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.7.1.b
- Use background or prior knowledge to determine or clarify the meanings of words.
- SC.ELA.8.AOR.7.1.c
- Consult reference materials to determine or clarify the precise meanings, pronunciations, parts of speech, etymology, or standard usage of words.
- SC.ELA.8.R.1.1.b
- Use a variety of print and multimedia sources to refine the scope of inquiry as relevant to the topic and purpose.
- SC.ELA.8.C.1.1.a
- Introduce a claim(s) and support it with logical reasoning and relevant evidence using accurate and credible sources.
- SC.ELA.8.C.1.1.b
- Acknowledge and refute a counterclaim with relevant evidence; create an organizational structure that establishes relationships between reasons and evidence.
- SC.ELA.8.C.1.1.e
- Provide a concluding statement or section that supports the argument presented.
- SC.ELA.8.C.2.1
- Write informative texts to examine a topic and analyze information from multiple sources.
- SC.ELA.8.C.3.1.a
- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
- SC.ELA.8.C.4.1.c
- Use different types of verbals in sentences (gerunds, participles, infinitives).
- SC.ELA.8.C.4.1.d
- Distinguish between and use active and passive voice and types of grammatical mood (indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative).
- SC.ELA.8.C.8.1
- Initiate and participate in structured discussions and collaborations about grade-appropriate topics and texts.
Overarching expectations practiced all year: read and write for many purposes, learn through multimedia, make inferences, collaborate and listen, cite evidence, and create quality work in an accepted format.