Eighth Grade - ELA
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Abigail Adams
Lesson 7
Education
Students circle participles and draw arrows to the nouns they modify, explicitly identifying the relationship between the participle and the noun. Students underline infinitives and indicate their function by drawing an arrow to the verb, adjective, or adverb they modify, using those word-to-word relationships to determine grammatical role. Students complete a paragraph analysis that asks them to determine the role of each sentence and the connections between sentences, practicing recognition of relationships among sentence elements.
Unit 2: Animal Farm
Lesson 3
The Rebellion
Students are asked to identify pronouns and draw arrows to their antecedents (e.g., "underline each pronoun and draw an arrow to its antecedent"), and they complete exercises replacing repeated nouns with appropriate personal pronouns. Explanations note that every personal pronoun must have a clear antecedent and give examples showing how knowing the antecedent clarifies the pronoun's meaning. The activity pages require students to mark relative clauses and interrogative pronouns, linking those pronouns to the nouns they modify or query.
Lesson 5
The Battle of the Cowshed
Students analyze pronoun–antecedent relationships in Activity 2, where they identify unclear antecedents and revise sentences (e.g., correcting "Anyone who says they..." and "As Snowball rushed forward, Mr. Jones raised his gun and shot at them"). The lesson groups indefinite pronouns by form (‑body, ‑one, ‑thing) and explains the prefix in‑ means "not," giving students a morphological relationship to understand word meaning. The Student Activity Pages require students to identify the problematic pronoun, explain why it is problematic, and produce corrected wording, including a challenge question asking students to locate and analyze the antecedent of "this."
Lesson 6
Comrade Napoleon
Students practice choosing correct pronouns in sentences and labeling their case (subjective, objective, possessive) on the "Pronoun Case" activity page. The text explicitly tells students to replace "whom" with "him" to test case ("they referred to him..."), which is a direct instruction to use the relationship between particular words to understand each word's function. The lesson provides a pronoun chart showing person/number/case relationships and asks students to circle the correct pronoun and identify its case.
Lesson 9
The Battle of the Windmill
The lesson's Skills section explicitly tells students to "Apply the parts of speech to clarify language usage" and to "Use pronouns correctly, including clear antecedents and case," which directs students to work with relationships between pronouns and their antecedents. The Activities and parent notes repeatedly ask students to focus on parts of speech and correct pronoun use, indicating students will practice identifying and applying those grammatical relationships.
Unit 3: Einstein Adds a New Dimension
Lesson 1
Expository Writing
Students complete an index activity (Part II) that asks them to choose which words to look up to find information about "weak nuclear forces," evaluate search effectiveness, and infer which terms worked best. The provided answer key explicitly tells students that looking up the noun (e.g., "forces") works better than looking up adjectives, which teaches a relationship between words and topics. The index "See also" examples (e.g., "Red dwarfs → See also stars"; "Pythagorean Theorem → See also geometry; mathematics") require students to use category/subtype relationships to locate and understand related terms. The lesson also points out that sidebars can include definitions of unfamiliar terms and a glossary may appear in back matter, giving students places to find word meanings.
Lesson 2
Descriptive Writing
Students are asked to underline words or phrases they find most effective in a descriptive paragraph and explain what makes them effective, which requires attention to word choice and how words convey meaning. The activity page encourages students to use a thesaurus to find new words for descriptive phrases, prompting comparison of synonyms. The lesson explains use of similes (comparing unfamiliar to familiar) and choosing strong verbs and adjectives, which draws students' attention to relationships between words to enhance description.
Lesson 3
The Curies' Discoveries
The Student Activity Page directs students to write for each vocabulary word: "What is it?" (definition), "What is it like?" (synonym or simile), and "What is an example?" which requires students to generate a related word or simile to clarify meaning. The Parent Plan explicitly notes that the child should provide a synonym or simile and may use a dictionary or thesaurus to write definitions in his own words. Multiple targeted words (e.g., incongruity, cogitate, cathode ray, radioactivity, crystal, and a choice among ethereal/elusive/incredulous) are listed for students to define, relate, and use in sentences.
Lesson 5
Envisioning Fission
Students are instructed to choose specific search terms (TIP #1) with the example that searching "fusion" is too general and that adding words like "nuclear fusion" or "Sun" yields better results. The lesson explicitly tells students to "Use synonyms, words that have similar meanings. If 'nuclear energy' doesn't give you the results you want, try 'nuclear power.'" The Skills section and Activity 2 require students to apply these search-term strategies as they complete the Internet Research activity pages.
Lesson 6
Cause and Effect Writing
The lesson includes a "Cause/Effect Writing Transition" chart that groups transitional phrases into columns (phrases indicating cause, condition/consequence, and listing causes/effects) and names specific words like "because," "therefore," "if...then," and "consequently." The instruction explicitly tells students to use transition words to link one thought to another and provides practice prompts and a parent checklist to look for use of transition words in student writing.
Lesson 7
Relativity
Students are asked to look up domain-specific vocabulary terms, write definitions in their own words, and provide examples or drawings (Activity 1). Students must use at least three domain-specific terms, define unfamiliar terms for a target audience, and integrate text and graphics when creating a technical poster (Activity 2). The parent plan and answer key reinforce correct scientific definitions and encourage paraphrasing rather than copying.
Lesson 8
Comparison and Contrast Writing
Students are given a labeled list of comparison and contrast transition words (e.g., likewise, similarly; however, in contrast) and are instructed to use transition words to link thoughts and clarify relationships among ideas. The student planning and organization pages ask students to produce topic sentences and to look for the use of transition words and phrases in their writing. The parent plan also reminds reviewers to check for the use of transition words and phrases when confirming the student's work.
Lesson 9
Avoiding Plagiarism
Students are asked to choose the best paraphrase of the term "luminosity" from three options and are given an explanation that contrasts "luminosity" with how bright a star appears to us, highlighting a nuanced difference between related words/phrases. The paraphrasing guidance tells students to read a passage, cover it, and rewrite it in their own words, and notes that technical terminology can be left unchanged while sentence structure should be rewritten. Students also write summaries of chapters and create their own paraphrases of captions, which requires them to restate ideas using different wording.
Lesson 11
Citing Sources
Students are asked directly in Question #2 to define a 'bit' and say what the word 'bit' is short for, and in Question #4 to define a 'qubit' and say what 'qubit' is short for. Question #3 asks students how using the Boolean operators AND or OR affects search results, requiring them to use the relationship between those particular words (AND/OR) to predict changes in meaning and results. The lesson provides model answers that show how the short-form relationship (bit → binary digit; qubit → quantum bit) and logical relationships (AND/OR) clarify word meanings.
Unit 4: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Lesson 1
Introduction to Mark Twain and the Novel
Students complete Activity 3 which asks them to read 10 vocabulary words in context (Chapters 1-21) and select the best definition based on sentence context. The activity gives multiple-choice options (e.g., ornery: stubborn) and directs students to use a dictionary if needed. The Parent Plan skills list also includes "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text," linking vocabulary work to word meaning instruction.
Lesson 3
What is Narrative Writing I
Students are explicitly asked to consider word choice; the lesson explains that the words "clever" and "smart" both indicate intellectual ability but have different nuances (one relating to practical problem-solving, the other to academic talent). The text directs students to analyze Twain's word choice and connotation (discussion of the "n word") and notes that word choice impacts reader feelings. Students are prompted to analyze quotes from the text and record what each quote shows about a character, which requires inferring meaning from particular words and phrases.
Lesson 4
What is Narrative Writing II
Students create lists of feeling/emotion words and fill a chart labeled Event / Feeling Words / Dialogue and Descriptions to link words to context. Students circle the feeling word that best describes example characters (e.g., Gina: angry/vengeful/scared; mother: charming/greedy/fun; Simon: bossy/jolly/considerate). Students choose adjectives to describe events and characters and are asked to identify two examples of showing (through dialogue) rather than telling to convey personality.
Lesson 5
Expository Writing
The lesson explicitly points out the morphological relationship that "expository" contains the word "expose" and tells students this is a way to remember that expository writing "exposes" or gives information. Students are instructed to take notes recording each type of writing and its definition, which asks them to link the label (word) with its meaning. The blindfold activity asks students to identify whether passages are expository, narrative, or persuasive, which requires recognizing the purpose-related meanings of those type labels.
Lesson 6
The Power of Persuasion
Students are instructed to use similes, metaphors, or analogies as persuasive techniques and see an example ("Smith is a rock that won't falter"). The Powers of Persuasion activity asks students to create similes, metaphors, or analogies for their chosen topic and to write sentences that use comparisons. The "Dogs Are Better Pets Than Cats" activity models comparative language and provides sentence-level practice in making word-to-word comparisons.
Lesson 7
Persuasive Writing
The lesson tells students they can "look at the sentences and other words around the new word and take a guess at what it means," explicitly prompting use of surrounding words as clues. The Student Activity Page notes vocabulary words are "defined based on how they are used in the story," linking word meaning to contextual usage. Students are asked to write sentences using each vocabulary word, which practices applying word meanings in context.
Lesson 10
Figures of Speech
Students read definitions and examples that treat puns as words with multiple meanings (e.g., "buck teeth") and practice identifying puns in Fred's letter. Students are asked to create an oxymoron by providing a word to pair with a given word, which requires them to combine opposite meanings. Students identify similes using "like" or "as" and label expressions from Huckleberry Finn by type, showing attention to comparisons and nonliteral relationships between words.
Lesson 11
Mark Twain's Influence
The Student Activity Page lists "antonyms" in the "Figurative Language Techniques" box, which prompts students to notice word relationships. Activity 2 asks students to compare and contrast the dialects in slave narratives and the novel, requiring students to observe how words differ across contexts. Activity 3 asks students to identify and label specific devices (idiom, oxymoron, hyperbole, pun, irony), which makes students attend to word usage and meaning in context.
Unit 5: Elijah of Buxton
Lesson 1
Introduction to the Novel
The lesson provides a vocabulary list in which many entries include synonymous words (e.g., commence: begin, start; daft: silly, foolish, crazy; flimflam: to deceive or trick). Students are instructed to "Study the meanings of each of the vocabulary words." Students then create illustrations for each word on index cards and have a partner guess the word from the illustration, practicing recognition of word meanings.
Lesson 2
The Preacher
Students re-read a Frederick Douglass passage and circle vivid adjectives that contribute to its power, identifying words like "miserable," "savage," and "horrible." Students underline the verb used most often in the Douglass passage ("whip/whipped") and are asked to consider why the author repeats it. In the "Showing Emotion" activity, students choose at least two verbs that show actions caused by an emotion and are instructed to repeat powerful verbs in their short paragraph.
Lesson 4
Tone and Mood
Students are given categorized lists of sample tone and mood words (positive/negative) and are asked to identify which words create tone and mood for specific events in Elijah of Buxton. Students complete a chart naming the tone Elijah uses in particular events and provide example sentences or words that set that tone. Students experiment with tone by writing sentences for the same scenario using two different tones, practicing how different word choices change attitude and feeling.
Lesson 5
Colorful Language
Students identify and label figures of speech (simile, metaphor, idiom, personification, pun, hyperbole) using examples from Elijah of Buxton (e.g., "wide as a barn," "nose like a bird's beak," "My blood ran cold"). Students analyze precise word choice and verbs in passages (e.g., slapped, grabbed, mashed, peering) and explain how those words create meaning. Students apply figurative relationships when creating a visual display or composing a carnival advertisement that must include each figure of speech.
Lesson 6
Symbolism
Students are instructed to use a thesaurus to choose precise descriptive words in both the Precise Language section and the two student activity options (Option 1 and Option 2). The Parent Plan Skills list explicitly directs students to consult general and specialized reference materials, including thesauruses, to determine or clarify precise meanings or parts of speech. Students practice replacing general words with more specific alternatives (e.g., rewriting song lyrics or choosing precise descriptors for household items), which requires them to select related words.
Lesson 7
The Importance of Education
Students read sentences containing target vocabulary, infer each word's meaning from context, and write their own definitions before comparing them to provided definitions. The Student Activity Page asks students to categorize the vocabulary list (suggesting categories such as parts of speech, everyday objects, experiences/actions, or man-made items), prompting them to group words by relationship. Students are also instructed to discuss word meanings with a parent and to use the words in other situations, encouraging them to compare and relate words during conversation.
Lesson 8
Transitions and Characters
Students are given multiple "Transitions List" pages that group transitional words by relationship type (Time/Sequence, Comparison and Agreement, Contrast and Opposition, Clarification, Emphasize, Conclude). Students must read passages and identify or circle transition words that indicate sequence, contrast, or emphasis, and they complete sentences by inserting an appropriate transition from the lists. An answer key and exercises require students to choose transition words based on the relationship between clauses (e.g., selecting a contrast word like "however" vs. a time word like "next").
Lesson 9
Transitions and Humor
The lesson explicitly teaches different categories of transition words (time/sequence, comparison/agreement, contrast/opposition, clarification, emphasis, conclusion) and provides examples of each. Students are given the Transitions Part 2 activity in which they must choose a transition of a specified type (e.g., Comparison and Agreement, Contrast and Opposition) and write a follow-up sentence using that transition. The activity requires students to recognize which transitions belong to which functional groups and to apply them in context.
Lesson 10
Allusions and Authors
Students read explicit definitions and examples of allusions (e.g., Pinocchio, Scrooge, Trojan Horse, Romeo, Achilles' heel) and Biblical allusions (e.g., Good Samaritan, Garden of Eden, Jonah, Noah). Students are asked to analyze specific allusions in Elijah of Buxton by writing 2–3 sentences explaining an allusion's origin and connection to the book and to link scenes (e.g., "stones into fish") to Mark 6:33-44 and other biblical passages. Student activity pages ask students to explain the meaning of references such as the Liberty Bell and Jericho and to justify how those references illuminate characters or events.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: The House of the Scorpion
Lesson 2
Revising and Editing
The lesson's Activity 2 Option 2 asks students to write analogies for each vocabulary word by choosing a synonym, antonym, or another related word and then creating a parallel word pair (for example: gladly is to happily AS disconsolately is to sadly). Students are directed to use a dictionary or thesaurus for ideas and to discuss their analogies with a parent, which requires them to identify and explain the relationship between words. The parent notes reinforce selecting synonyms/antonyms or other relationships and having the student explain the relationships she chose.
Lesson 7
One-Act Play
The Parent Plan includes a discussion prompt that states "Maria's mother's name is Esperanza, which means 'hope' in Spanish," asking students to consider why the author chose that name and Esperanza's role in society. The lesson defines the term "cliffhanger" as "a dramatic moment that leaves the reader wondering" which gives students a direct word-to-definition connection. The Questions to Discuss prompt asks students to connect the name meaning to the character's role, requiring students to relate the Spanish word to its English equivalent to interpret character significance.
Lesson 8
Family Crest
The lesson requires students to create an index card for each vocabulary word, find each word in the dictionary, and record its part of speech. The Skills section explicitly lists consulting thesauruses among reference materials students may use and directs students to verify meanings by checking context or a dictionary. The Parent Plan provides model definitions and asks students to use the sentences from the book to determine which definition and part of speech to record.
Lesson 10
Opium and Aztlán
Students are asked to identify antecedents for pronouns in Part II (questions D and E) and to name the noun that demonstrative pronouns like "These" and "this" refer to (Part II C). Students are asked to determine whether "themselves" is reflexive or intensive and to explain the reasoning (removal test), which requires using the relationship between the pronoun and the rest of the sentence. The answer key explicitly labels pronoun types and gives antecedents, showing students practice using word-to-word relationships (pronoun↔antecedent; demonstrative↔noun) to interpret meaning.
Lesson 12
El Día de los Muertos
Students are asked to study vocabulary terms from Lessons 2 and 8 in preparation for the unit test, indicating some attention to word meaning. Question prompt notes that "The name Consuela means solace, comfort, or hope in English" and asks students to explain how that name fits the character, which requires students to link a word (a name) with its meaning and apply that relationship to interpret character traits.
Lesson 13
Unit Test and Essay Reflections
Students are asked to define four vocabulary words from a provided list (disconsolately, furtively, harangued, rite, etc.) in their own words, which requires working with word meanings. Students must explain differences among ethos, kairos, and pathos, asking them to distinguish related rhetorical terms. Students also identify and give examples of specific logical fallacy terms in a table and in short-answer items, requiring them to discriminate among related vocabulary for fallacies.
Unit 2: Watership Down
Lesson 1
Preparing to Read
Students complete a Vocabulary Cube that includes a "Synonym" face and a "Part of Speech" face for each target word. Students play a dice-style game where, if the cube shows a definition, synonym, or part of speech, they must identify which vocabulary word matches that information. Directions also ask students to identify all words that share the same part of speech, explicitly linking words by grammatical relationship.
Lesson 3
An Epic Journey
Students are asked to "identify common words or word parts from other languages that are used in written English" in the Skills section, and Activity 1 directs students to use the Lapine Glossary together with a list of English words borrowed from other languages. Students must write several sentences or a short poem using at least 10 words that are either invented Lapine words or English words borrowed from other languages, which requires them to recognize and use words with known origins and forms.
Lesson 4
Comparing Rabbits
Students complete a "Latin Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes" activity in which they break words into roots, prefixes, and suffixes and write definitions based on those components and sentence context. The materials point out cognates (lapin ← lepus) and give etymological explanations (e.g., plausible from plaudere) that students are asked to discuss. Parent notes explicitly instruct students to determine meanings using Latin roots, prefixes, suffixes and context and to discuss how the definitions reflect those roots.
Lesson 6
Dramatic Irony
Students are directed to use the meanings of Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes along with sentence context to hypothesize definitions for words (the "Latin Roots and Affixes" worksheet). The activity groups multiple English words under single roots (e.g., dolore: indolent, condolence, dolefully; ducere: inducement, educate, induct; unda: undulate, redundant, inundate), prompting students to compare related words. The Skills section explicitly states students should "Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word," and the parent notes instruct discussing how the meaning of the root is found in each English word.
Lesson 7
Rabbit Societies
Students are asked to identify words with multiple meanings from passages and write a definition from context for each italicized word. They then look the word up in a dictionary and record at least two different meanings, starring the one that matches the passage. The parent/skills notes also direct students to consult reference materials (dictionaries, thesauruses) to clarify precise meanings and parts of speech.
Lesson 9
Characters
Students complete Activity 1 "Denotations and Connotations," where they read passages with italicized paired words (e.g., run/bolt, strange/marvelous, punt/raft, wild/savage) and are asked to compare the connotations and denotations of each pair. The student activity page prompts students to describe the different meanings and associations of each word and write their responses next to the italicized words. Parent notes reiterate that students write their sense of the connotations for each word pair, showing explicit practice in using word relationships to clarify meaning.
Lesson 10
Setting
The Parent Plan 'Skills' section explicitly instructs students to "use common word origins to determine the historical influences on English word meanings," which directly relates to using relationships among words to understand meanings. This statement is the only explicit reference in the lesson text linking student work to word relationships or etymology.
Lesson 12
Dramatic Enactment
Students play the "Root Charade" game in which they choose a Latin root card, act it out, and the guesser must identify the root and can earn an extra point by naming an English word that uses that root. The lesson provides a list of seven Latin roots with their meanings (e.g., dolere—to suffer; ducere—to lead) and a parent-note list of English words that include those roots (e.g., indolence, educate, inundate). The Parent Plan explicitly states use of common Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to word meaning.
Lesson 13
A Fantasy Story
Students are asked to make flash cards that pair Latin roots, prefixes, or suffixes with their meanings and to use these cards to study. The Study Guide explicitly tells students to know the meanings of each Latin root and to use roots, affixes, prefixes, and suffixes for determining meanings. Activity pages include matching boxes of affixes with meanings and a Latin Roots test section that requires students to explain how English words are connected to their Latin roots (e.g., undulate ← unda = wave).
Unit 3: The Book Thief
Lesson 1
The Author and Narrator
The Skills section explicitly tells students to "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text...; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts," which names analogies as a focus. The Wrapping Up notes that "In Lesson 2 you'll study the book's vocabulary," indicating upcoming attention to word meaning. Activity 4 asks students to select colors and write three sentences using those colors to explain feelings, which has students connect specific word choices (color words) to meaning and tone.
Lesson 4
The Value of Books
Students are asked to look for vivid adjectives and figurative language and to consider what makes those word choices effective, which requires comparing descriptive words and phrases. Students are explicitly prompted to use a thesaurus to find stronger synonyms for adjectives and to see which words or phrases work well together when revising their descriptive writing. The Five Senses Writing activity directs students to examine and refine word choice at multiple stages (holding, unwrapping, tasting), encouraging attention to nuanced differences in descriptive vocabulary.
Lesson 5
The Accordion Player
Students read an explicit explanation distinguishing denotation and connotation and are given the example trio "stroll, trudge, and stomp" to show how related words with the same denotation produce different images and feelings. The "Be Specific" activities ask students to replace underlined, vague wording with stronger, more descriptive choices and encourage use of a dictionary or thesaurus to find alternative words. Examples and modeled revisions (e.g., changing "Walter Kugler was on the ground, and his hair had dirt in it" to "his stringy, matted hair was caked with mud") show students how choosing different, related words changes meaning and tone.
Lesson 6
The Standover Man
Students are asked in Question #4 to explain why Max draws himself as a bird, and the provided answer directs them to use Liesel's line "His hair is like feathers," linking the relationship between the words "hair" and "feathers" to interpret the drawing. The Parent Plan discussion prompts ask students to consider how the meaning of "standover man" changes from the beginning to the end, which requires students to compare and reinterpret the word/phrase in different contexts and relationships to characters.
Lesson 8
The Thief Strikes Again
The Parent Plan lists that students will "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts." Activity 2 asks students to create similes and metaphors (e.g., describing a leaf, regret, singing) and provides model figurative examples from the text ("the guilt...the seed was already bursting into a dark-leafed flower"). The Activities and Ideas to Think About prompt students to consider how figurative language and word choice create tone and engage readers.
Lesson 9
Close Calls
Activity 1 directs students to find and record examples of personification, simile, metaphor, and onomatopoeia and provides definitions and sample comparisons. The Student Activity Page requires students to locate at least four similes and at least two metaphors, which asks students to identify relationships between words or ideas. The Parent Plan Skills section states students should determine meanings of words and phrases, including figurative and connotative meanings, and analyze the impact of specific word choices (including analogies or allusions).
Lesson 11
The Word Shaker
Students are asked to find and explain examples of adverbs, adjectives, and strong verbs (Activity 2), including evaluating why a specific verb like "kneaded" is effective and comparing choices such as "dragged" or "stomped" versus "walked." Students interpret Max's allegory in "The Word Shaker," answering questions about what Hitler is "planting" and what scenes represent, which requires connecting words and images to larger ideas. The lesson's skills list also directs students to "analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts," indicating attention to how words relate to meaning and tone.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students are asked to define figurative devices (personification, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, allegory, symbolism) and provide book examples in the "Teaching Figuratively" task, which requires attending to how words function in those devices. The "Oxymoron" box defines a figure of speech that depends on the relationship between contradictory terms and gives a book example. In "Figuratively Writing" students transform literal sentences into figurative ones, choosing words and devices (e.g., simile, metaphor) to change meaning and tone.
Unit 4: To Kill a Mockingbird
Lesson 3
The Mystery of Boo
Students are given an explicit definition of "hearsay" and are asked to classify information about Boo Radley as either "Hearsay and Gossip" or "Personal Experience and Reliable Sources." The Student Activity Page directs students to list five items under each column and to compare and contrast the columns, which requires them to consider the relationship between the paired terms (e.g., hearsay vs. personal experience; gossip vs. reliable sources). The parent guide also models specific examples placed into each category, reinforcing the vocabulary relationship.
Lesson 4
Snow and Fire
Students are asked to include at least one quotation from Chapters 8–9 and explain its meaning and importance, which requires them to interpret words in context. In the discussion prompts students are asked to consider Atticus's comment that the word is "common," and to recognize that it is a derogatory word with historical associations — prompting students to relate the label "common" to the offensive term. The Character Line-Up and quote-focused activities require students to record and explain wording or descriptions from the text.
Lesson 7
A Moral Dilemma
Students are given a vocabulary list with explicit definitions and example sentences for each word (e.g., volition: will; indicted: formally accused), and they complete a student activity page where they write their own sentences using the words. The parent plan asks adults to review students' sentences to ensure correct usage, reinforcing direct word-meaning instruction.
Lesson 8
Identity
Students diagram sentences that show which words modify which other words (e.g., placing adverbs like "carefully" under the verb "considered," and placing "very" under the adjective "amiable" to show it modifies the adjective). The activity directions and example diagrams require students to identify subjects, verbs, direct and indirect objects and to connect modifiers to the words they modify (e.g., indirect object placement under the verb for "Aunt Alexandra" in "Calpurnia was serving Aunt Alexandra coffee"). The Student Activity Page asks students to diagram five sentences, requiring them to mark relationships such as adjectives modifying nouns and adverbs modifying verbs or adjectives.
Lesson 9
Order in the Court
Students complete a fill-in-the-blank activity ('The Trial') that requires them to select courtroom terms (defendant, prosecution, witness, jury, cross-examine) based on surrounding sentence context, so they use word-role relationships to choose meanings. Students follow diagramming tips that tell them to test unclear words to see if they describe a noun or tell when/where/how after a verb, using relationships between words to determine part of speech and function. The Parent Plan also states students will 'determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text' and analyze specific word choices, which frames activities that ask students to consider words in context.
Lesson 12
Wise Words
Students are asked to choose five quotes and "rewrite each, or explain it in your own words," which requires them to restate phrases and clarify meaning. An example explanation of the mockingbird quote demonstrates paraphrasing of specific worded ideas. Additional tasks (diary entry and Venn diagram) require students to articulate and compare characters' perceptions and feelings, prompting them to select words that express nuance in viewpoint.
Unit 5: Great American Poets
Lesson 1
Poetry Basics
Students compare two parallel passages (the Frost example) and analyze how specific word choices and a simile create different images and effects. Students are directed to circle unfamiliar words, look them up, and record their definitions in margins or a Definitions section. Students identify sound relationships (alliteration, assonance, rhyme) and list words that share those sounds in the Poetry Vocabulary activity.
Lesson 2
Early American Poetry
Students are asked to look up synonyms for key words and compare them: the lesson models this with Frost's "acquainted" (listing alternate synonyms and discussing which convey a warmer or more detached tone). The Student Activity Page directs students to list at least five synonyms for "noiseless," choose the best-fitting and less-fitting options, and justify their reasoning. Another activity has students evaluate alternatives like "unbroken" versus "unbroke" and consider how word choice affects rhythm and meaning.
Lesson 3
Figurative Language
Students compare similes and metaphors in Part I (questions about "Hope is the thing with feathers" and "There is no frigate like a book"), identifying what two things are being compared and how the comparisons differ. The Skills section and Parent Plan explicitly state students will "Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases," indicating some focus on using relationships between words to determine meaning. The student directions also prompt students to look up unfamiliar words (e.g., "frigate") to understand the comparisons.
Lesson 4
Poetic Forms
Students are asked to make lists of words that rhyme with a chosen topic and to use an online rhyming dictionary (RhymeZone) while drafting limericks. The limerick activity also tells students to use a thesaurus and to revise word choices to enhance diction. The activities involve generating word lists, exploring wordplay, and comparing rhyme and rhythm in poems.
Lesson 5
Edgar Allan Poe
Students are instructed to test for coordinate adjectives by seeing if they can insert "and" between adjectives and if the adjectives can switch order (e.g., "sad, mysterious" vs. "dark chamber"). The activity asks students to add commas between coordinate adjectives on sentences from Poe's poems and to explain their reasoning for Sentence #1, explicitly requiring them to use the relationship between the adjectives to decide punctuation.
Lesson 6
Meaning in Poetry
The lesson explicitly shows students how to compare synonyms using a thesaurus: it uses the example of "excited" and contrasts synonyms ("agitated," "frantic," "hysterical" vs. "enthusiastic," "thrilled") to highlight differing connotations. Students are directed to look up unfamiliar words and to note denotation versus connotation when interpreting poetry. The Parent Plan and Skills list also identify analyzing idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes as classroom skills, supporting instruction about word relationships and figurative language.
Lesson 7
Poetry Analysis
Students are asked to analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer literal and figurative meanings (Skills section). Students complete a Poem Analysis page that prompts them to identify figurative language (simile, metaphor, irony, personification) and give examples, requiring them to consider relationships among words and phrases. Students use vocabulary card activities (matching terms to definitions or creating example/definition cards) that ask them to relate terms and examples/definitions to one another. A discussion prompt asks students to consider how understanding an allusion (a relationship between texts/words) helps them better understand a poem.
Lesson 8
Robert Frost
Students are asked to write a nature poem that must include at least one simile or metaphor, requiring them to link one thing to another to convey meaning. Students analyze hyphenated and compound words (e.g., "two-pointed," "apple-picking," "snow-crust," "snow-white") and explain how joining words changes or clarifies meaning. Students examine dashes and hyphens in poems and explain how those punctuation choices affect interpretation and emphasis of word groups.
Lesson 9
Memorizing Poetry
Students are asked to look up unfamiliar words (e.g., "Euclid") and to look up meanings that affect interpretation (the question about "Gubbinal" asks students to apply the possible link to the slang "gubbin"). Activity 2 asks students to collect suffixes like "ed" or "ing" to add to other words, which invites attention to morphological relationships. Students are also prompted to consider word choice and imagery when selecting poems to memorize, which links words to their effects.
Lesson 10
Poems about Poetry
The Parent Plan skills list explicitly asks students to "Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases," which requires attending to relationships among words and phrases. Activity 1 directs students to look up key words they don't understand and to underline and reflect on particular phrases and images in poems, prompting students to use surrounding language to interpret meaning. The student activity questions ask learners to explain what specific lines or phrases mean and to choose a phrase or image they find effective and justify that choice, which involves connecting words and their contexts.
Lesson 11
Editing Your Work
Students are asked to look up the meaning of "deferred" and then reread "Dream Deferred" (Question #2), which requires them to determine a word's meaning from context. The Skills list states that students will "determine the meaning of words and phrases ... including figurative and connotative meanings" and "analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts." The prompt "Why is word choice key to creating effective poems?" and the editing activity ask students to revise figurative language and specific word choices in their own poems.
Final Project
Poetry Journal
The Skills section explicitly lists that students will "Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases" and "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts." The unit test and multiple-choice items ask students to identify figurative language, distinguish denotation and connotation (Part IV question 14), and answer questions about analogies of poetic forms and devices, showing students are asked to think about word meanings and figurative relationships.