What inspires the will to survive in an extreme enviornments?
In these texts, readers examine how teens set themselves apart to get into colleges, and consider what will be necessary for success in higher education evolves to meet the future.
Performance Task: Analyze which college applicant (Mendoza or Gregory) would be the best candidate to take open online courses. Discuss what traits of this applicant make him or her well suited for the online enviornment Pappano describes in her article.
What does a difficult situation reveal about character?
Book excerpts share the stories of individuals who grew up on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated the strength of character needed to change the world.
Performance Task: Many events of the Little Rock Nine tested the strength of people to be brave, do the right thing, heal, and forgive. Write a historical fiction narrative about one such event. Describe the event using narrative technique, such as dialogue, description, and reflection.
How does art influence your everyday life?
Letters and a short story show the power of art as a means for connecting with other people creatively.
Performance Task: Does a person need knowledge and empathy to create great art? Consider the arguments and evidence in at least one selection as you develop your claim. (Argumentative Essay)
Unit 3: Do the Right Thing
Unit 3:
Power of Art
8th Grade Curriculum
What inspires the will to survive in an extreme enviornments?
In these texts, readers discover how authors develop characters with the strength to survive extreme enviornments.
Performance Task: Write an objective summary of life in the extreme enviornments portrayed in one of the texts. Analyze how the central idea of survival is conveyed through supporting ideas and developed over the course of the text. (Literary Analysis)
