Gr. 8 Unit: Overcoming Societal Challenges

Controlling Idea or Central Topic: Overcoming Societal Challenges

Rationale: Individuals have been facing and overcoming societal challenges since the beginning of time. In this unit, students will analyze and examine how confronting, enduring, and overcoming challenges helps one to find strength within.

Purpose: Through the exploration of both literature and literary nonfiction, students will provide relevant evidence to evaluate and explain the implications of gaining strength from challenges on both the individual and society.

Structure: This eight-week unit integrates standards from all four strands, Reading, Writing, Language, and Speaking/lListening. Students will have the opportunity to work with long and short pieces of literature and literary non-fiction, as well as to write exposition and argument. Literature Circles will be utilized for independent reading to foster collaboration and discussions, and as a precursor to performance tasks. A research project linked to the student's independent reading is included. Research results are presented in the form of a multi-media presentation. In the unit summative assessment, students synthesize evidence from three or more texts (digital and non-digital) that they have examined throughout the unit and write an argument about the way individuals address societal challenges beyond their control.