ELA 8: American Voices—Semester A

From Shmoop to Shining Sea.

  • Credit Recovery Enabled
  • Course Length: 18 weeks
  • Course Type: Basic
  • Category:
    • English
    • Literature
    • Middle School

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Eighth grade: it's a transitional time. Think about it: there's the transition from…

  • tween to tween.
  • middle schooler to high schooler.
  • learning from a teacher to learning from a…computer?

Shmoop's online eighth-grade English course, American Voices, will dive deep into fictional and informational texts, with a focus on uniquely American lit. We'll use all that internet out there to research, create, and analyze like you never have before. And it's all aligned to the Common Core.

The eighteen weeks of Semester A contains three units, each focused around a different informational, literature, and language standard. The units culminate in a final project and unit test, with many benchmark and mirror assessments along the way.

The best part? The variety of activities, varied to appeal to all types of learners, each have suggestions for differentiation and extension, so you can tailor the course to your special Shmooper.

Semester A will cover:

  • Main idea, types of writing, context clues, and dictionary use
  • Inferences, analytical writing, and editing
  • Non-fiction, structured paragraphs, and text citation

Ready for that magical transition? Shmoop knows we are.

Check out Semester B here.


Unit Breakdown

1 ELA 8: American Voices—Semester A - As American As…

Introduce yourself to Shmoop ELA 8 and urban lit through reading classic fiction like The Outsiders, A Long Way From Chicago, and The House on Mango Street, and the literary nonfiction The Great Fire. Along the way, we'll also review and reinforce main idea, the many different types of writing, and work out language skills through context clues, dictionary use, and when to use each. It's what city folk do.

2 ELA 8: American Voices—Semester A - Country Livin’: Points of View from America’s Rural Experiences

This mega-unit examines the traditions of the American identity across the rural landscape. Plus, we'll really get to the bottom of inferences, analytical writing, and the editing process. Shmoopers will read selections from Travels With Charley, Out of the Dust, nonfiction about the American plains, classic poetry, and the complete Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and A Year Down Yonder.

3 ELA 8: American Voices—Semester A - Ye Olde USA

This short but thorough unit has students write a research paper through the lens of the historical novel Chains and nonfiction A Young People's History of the United States. We'll also review skills essential to the research paper—a.k.a. structured paragraph writing, finding legit sources, annotated bibliographies, and citation, citation, citation.


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.04: Hughes, Sandburg, and Whitman Walk into a Bar…

Close your eyes and picture what comes to mind when you hear the word "America." Did you see…

  • red, white, and blue?
  • the guy from the Ball Park hot dogs commercial?
  • Shmoop holding a sparkler in one hand and a bald eagle in the other?

Uh…right. Like we were saying, urban America means something different to everyone, particularly when it comes to visualization. What do you think of when you imagine the cities of the good ol' USA?

In this lesson, you'll show us.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.04: Pre-Reading Activity

In today's activity, you'll create a virtual collage of images that represent what you have learned about American identity and urban landscapes. Before we send you off into the wild yonder of the interwebs, lets do some brainstorming about these two topics.

What words come to mind when you think of "American identity"? What about "urban landscapes"? For each topic, brainstorm a list of 5–10 words. This will help when it's time to search for images for your collage. Create a list for each topic on your Pre-Reading Sheet, then use your lists as a reference point later when you're working on your collage.

Here are a few examples of what Shmoop might write on our brainstorm:

  • American identity: hardworking, individualistic
  • Urban landscapes: crowded, hopeful

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.04: Grab Your Virtual Scissors, Shmoopers. It's Collage Time.

For this activity, you'll sum up what you have learned about urban landscapes and the American identity in our first three lessons by creating a virtual collage. No need to spread out on your floor with dried-up glue and magazine clippings; this collage will be done with a little help from the Internet.

Thanks, Internet!

Here are the specifics:

  • Your collage must represent urban landscapes and American identity.
  • Your collage must have at least twenty pictures—ten for each topic.
  • Your collage must contain five poems about towns or cities that we haven't covered in this course yet. Include the text of the poems in any area not covered by pix.
  • Picture and poem sources must be cited using the URL on a separate page. We'll get into how to make a proper bibliography in later units; for now, use a site like EasyBib to format for you.
  • It can be done in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, or Paint, or a collaging site like Pinterest.

Some ideas for getting started:

  • Pop on over to Google Images and search for "American cities" or "Chicago 1920s," or look up "pictures of cities collages" for some inspiration. We also recommend libraries like NYPL's image collections.
  • Use what you've read to your advantage. Search for pictures of Hughes, Sandburg, or Whitman right on Shmoop's site, or go to Poetry Foundation to explore by theme.

Upload your finished collage (or collage screenshot) and your works cited page below.