$5 - $10 8th Grade Other (ELA) Activities (by date, oldest first)

• My students had so much fun doing this, they didn't want it to end! Four Disney villains are being brought to court with charges and your students will either prosecute or defend them in "court":

• Ursula - The Little Mermaid: Fraud & Exploitation

• Scar - The Lion King: Manslaughter & Environmental Crimes

• Gaston - Beauty & The Beast: Attempted Murder & Inciting a Riot

• Lady Tremaine - Cinderella: Emotional Abuse/Neglect & Exploitation

Assign your students to be prosecutors and defenders with their own custom files. Each team has their own responsibilities and will need to craft their argument well to win the judge & jury.

-Reinforce learning of claim, support, point of view and more!

- Students need to support their claims with facts from the movie. Perfect for an argumentative unit!

*Lesson has been adapted with extensive sentence stems and examples. Teacher made examples are also included. This is a scaled activity that all students can do without too much teacher intervention.

Check out these other resources!

• ELA Test Prep, Study Guide & Activities Bundle (new)
• All Things English For Middle & High School Students (best seller)
• Revising & Editing Workbook
• Revising & Editing for Group Lessons
• Bell Ringers for the Semester
• Everything Writing

This Sentence Auction Game is the perfect classroom activity to engage students while reinforcing essential grammar skills. In this interactive grammar game, students use fake money to bid on sentences. Some sentences are perfectly correct, while others contain common errors like missing commas, misplaced apostrophes, spelling mistakes, comma splices, subject-verb agreement errors, capitalization errors, and commonly confused words.

Students must identify and correct the mistakes to maximize the value of their sentences. The game ends with a winner declared based on the total value of the sentences they’ve collected.

This sentence editing game is an excellent tool for grammar practice, sentence correction, and peer learning. Ideal for middle school and high school classrooms, it’s a fun way to improve your students' writing and editing skills!

This power point covers the elements of tragedy found in all Shakespeare's tragedies. It goes over important elements such as iambic pentameter, irony, poetry vs prose, character foil, symbolism and more. It gives some brief background on Shakespeare as well as his influences. This is an excellent way to introduce any Shakespearean Tragedy in your class. If you are teaching a specific play feel free to check out my bundles to save even more. ************************ Want to earn credits for future TeachShare purchases? Write us a review. Your feedback is important and appreciated.

This is a good interactive power point on sentence structure, namely simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. It comes complete with explanations, activities to have the students name the structure, and ends with students making their own sentences.

***** Check out my other Writing Resources*****

Writing Thesis Statements

Counterclaim and Rebuttal

Writing Graphic Organizers

Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook

Argumentative Essay

Essay prompt and articles :Narcissism

Essay prompt and articles: Hurricanes

Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

These sentence diagramming bell ringers will last three full months. This resource contains twelve Google Slide presentations- one for each week. There is also an assessment for the end of week seven, the end of week twelve, and the end of week sixteen to test student knowledge. The daily activities should last 5-10 minutes. EVERYTHING IS EDITABLE.

THIS RESOURCE COVERS:

- Prepositions

- Adjectival Prepositional Phrases

- Adverbial Prepositional Phrases

- Coordinating Conjunctions

- Compound Sentences

- Compound Subjects and Predicates

- Compound Adjectives and Adverbs

- Compound Prepositional Phrases

- Linking Verbs

- Predicate Adjectives

- Predicate Nominatives

- Transitive Verbs

- Direct Objects

- Indirect Objects

Answers are included for all diagrams.

Sentence diagramming is so helpful when teaching students parts of speech and sentence structure. The repetitiveness of diagramming for a bell ringer is extremely beneficial for students. I tried grammar workbooks for years, but my students hardly retained anything. Daily sentence diagramming made them remember their parts of speech, and was an amazing foundation for my students to have when we started forming different types of sentences. They picked up on fixing run-ons quickly as well because of their diagramming foundation.

*This resource is part of a bundle that includes weeks 1-4!*

These sentence diagramming bell ringers will last four full months. This bundle contains sixteen Google Slide presentations- one for each week. There is also an assessment for the end of week 21, the end of week 24, the end of week 26, the end of week 29, and the end of week 32 to test student knowledge. The daily activities should last 5-10 minutes. EVERYTHING IS EDITABLE.

THIS RESOURCE COVERS:

- An overview of weeks 1-16

- Diagramming Interrogative and Imperative Sentences

- Diagramming interjections and nouns of direct address

- Passive Verbs

- Using Passive vs. Active Voice in Writing

- What is a clause?

- Independent vs. Dependent Clauses

- Adverb Clauses

- Adjective Clauses

- Noun Clauses

- Subject and Object Pronouns

- Who vs. Whom

- Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex sentences

- Gerunds

- Participles

- Infinitives

- Complex Parts of Diagramming

- REVIEW!

Answers are included for all diagrams and tests.

Sentence diagramming is so helpful when teaching students parts of speech and sentence structure. The repetitiveness of diagramming for a bell ringer is extremely beneficial for students. I tried grammar workbooks for years, but my students hardly retained anything. Daily sentence diagramming made them remember their parts of speech, and was an amazing foundation for my students to have when we started forming different types of sentences. This technique provided my students a strong enough foundation to truly understand gerunds, participles, and infinitives!

These sentence diagramming bell ringers will last 32 weeks, which should be close to a complete year. This bundle contains 32 Google Slide presentations- one for each week. There are assessments for the end of week 4, week 7, week 12, week 16, week 21, week 24, week 27, week 29, and week 32. The daily activities should last 5-10 minutes. EVERYTHING IS EDITABLE.

THIS BUNDLE COVERS:

- Subject

- Predicate / Verb

- Helping Verbs

- Articles

- Adjectives

- Adverbs

- Prepositions

- Adjectival Prepositional Phrases

- Adverbial Prepositional Phrases

- Coordinating Conjunctions

- Compound Sentences

- Compound Subjects and Predicates

- Compound Adjectives and Adverbs

- Compound Prepositional Phrases

- Linking Verbs

- Predicate Adjectives

- Predicate Nominatives

- Transitive Verbs

- Direct Objects

- Indirect Objects

- An overview of weeks 1-16

- Diagramming Interrogative and Imperative Sentences

- Diagramming interjections and nouns of direct address

- Passive Verbs

- Using Passive vs. Active Voice in Writing

- What is a clause?

- Independent vs. Dependent Clauses

- Adverb Clauses

- Adjective Clauses

- Noun Clauses

- Subject and Object Pronouns

- Who vs. Whom

- Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex sentences

- Gerunds

- Participles

- Infinitives

- Complex Parts of Diagramming

- REVIEW!

Answers are included for all diagrams.

Sentence diagramming is so helpful when teaching students parts of speech and sentence structure. The repetitiveness of diagramming for a bell ringer is extremely beneficial for students. I tried grammar workbooks for years, but my students hardly retained anything. Daily sentence diagramming made them remember their parts of speech, and was an amazing foundation for my students to have when we started forming different types of sentences. They picked up on fixing run-ons quickly as well because of their diagramming foundation. My students even had a strong foundation for learning verbals!

These sentence diagramming bell ringers will last four full months. This bundle contains sixteen Google Slide presentations- one for each week. There is also an assessment for the end of week four, the end of week seven, the end of week twelve, and the end of week 16 to test student knowledge. The daily activities should last 5-10 minutes. EVERYTHING IS EDITABLE.

THIS BUNDLE COVERS:

- Subject

- Predicate / Verb

- Helping Verbs

- Articles

- Adjectives

- Adverbs

- Prepositions

- Adjectival Prepositional Phrases

- Adverbial Prepositional Phrases

- Coordinating Conjunctions

- Compound Sentences

- Compound Subjects and Predicates

- Compound Adjectives and Adverbs

- Compound Prepositional Phrases

- Linking Verbs

- Predicate Adjectives

- Predicate Nominatives

- Transitive Verbs

- Direct Objects

- Indirect Objects

Answers are included for all diagrams.

Sentence diagramming is so helpful when teaching students parts of speech and sentence structure. The repetitiveness of diagramming for a bell ringer is extremely beneficial for students. I tried grammar workbooks for years, but my students hardly retained anything. Daily sentence diagramming made them remember their parts of speech, and was an amazing foundation for my students to have when we started forming different types of sentences. They picked up on fixing run-ons quickly as well because of their diagramming foundation.

This 23-page resource with 20 primary sources plus three DBQ prompts gives students a chance to delve deeper into the challenges, obstacles and opportunities on the home front during World War II. The first two pages include Lesson Planning strategies, an Overview, notes on Primary Sources,and a list of Primary Sources.

Here’s a chance for students to read documents that shed light on how the war gave certain groups of people, like women and African-Americans, greater opportunities than they'd ever had before. At the same time, some people suffered greatly, such as the Japanese-Americans due to their internment in camps. All Americans needed to make sacrifices, however, in most areas. The primary sources show the extent to which war affected life in a variety of ways.

Assign just one, a few or all of the sources depending on time constraints and student interest.

Primary sources include interviews, photos, posters, newspaper articles, reports and other documents. Each page of primary sources includes questions at the end in order for students to analyze perspectives, consider key ideas and identify bias.

Included is a one-page sheet that explains what primary sources are and how to analyze them using specific questions through a process called HAPPY. There is also a page at the end for students to apply the HAPPY process to one source.

Three DBQ prompts are included at the end with instructions on how to create a response to the prompt. An Answer Key to all the questions and the DBQ prompts are available at the end of the packet.

This is excellent practice for all high school students, particularly Honors and AP students, but all students will find these resources engaging.

This is also available as a digital resource through Easel so students may complete it online.

Please check out my other Primary Source Analysis and DBQ Teaching Resources:

Women in Colonial America: DBQ's and Primary Sources

Women in Revolutionary America: DBQ's and Primary Sources

Women and the Early Women's Rights Movement: DBQ's and Primary Sources Women during the Industrial Revolution: DBQ's and Primary Sources Women's Suffrage: DBQ's and Primary Sources

Interested in more about World War II? Check out my Giant Bundle of World War II Teaching Resources:

World War II Teaching Bundle - BIG!

If you like World War II historical fiction (with some clean romance), my book, Hearts at War, highlights the secret and unsung contributions of the Nisei soldier in the Pacific theater who served as translators and interrogators. Young Adult/Adult/Interracial Romance. Available on Amazon.

Thank you and I appreciate any TeachShare or Amazon reviews!

- Christa Nonnemaker

If you like World War II historical fiction, I have written a novel called Hearts at War featuring a Nisei soldier who served in the Military Intelligence Service as a translator and a woman who served in the Women Army Corps, both of whom were assigned to the Pacific theater. In writing this book, I wanted to bring an unknown aspect of history to light. Available on Amazon or Kindle. Interracial Romance/Young Adult/Adult Fiction. I appreciate any reviews!

Thank you!

Christa Nonnemaker

Looking for a versatile and engaging resource to kickstart your classroom each day? This comprehensive set of 50 check-in slides is perfect for any subject area, advisory periods, or as conversation starters, bell ringers, or SEL activities. These slides are designed to foster reflection, build community, and create meaningful conversations in your classroom, all while being easy to use and adaptable to your needs.

Product Features:

• 50 Unique Check-In Slides: With a wide variety of themes including emojis, weather, animals, colors, songs, and more, these slides ensure that your students start the day reflecting on their emotions, sharing their thoughts, and connecting with their peers.
• Flexible Use: Whether you're teaching math, language arts, science, or social studies, these slides can be seamlessly integrated into any lesson. They are also perfect for advisory periods, morning meetings, or as part of your SEL (Social Emotional Learning) curriculum.
• Year-Round Utility: With 50 unique slides, this resource can be used for 10 weeks straight without repeats, making it a staple in your daily routine. Whether you need a quick bell ringer, a conversation starter, or a community-building activity, this resource has you covered.
• Build Community: Encourage students to share and listen to each other's responses, fostering a positive and supportive classroom environment. These activities help students develop self-awareness, empathy, and communication skills.
• Engage All Learners: The diverse range of check-ins ensures that there’s something for every student, whether they relate more to visuals, emotions, or metaphors. This inclusivity helps every student feel seen and heard.

Ideas to Use:

• Morning Routines: Start each day with a quick and easy check-in to gauge your students' mood and mindset.
• SEL Activities: Incorporate these slides into your social-emotional learning curriculum to help students develop key emotional intelligence skills.
• Bell Ringers: Use these slides as an engaging way to transition into your daily lessons, helping students shift their focus and prepare mentally.
• Advisory Periods: Foster deeper connections and discussions during advisory time with thought-provoking questions and activities.
• Conversation Starters: Encourage students to share and discuss their thoughts, building communication skills and classroom community.

Why This Resource?

Creating a classroom environment where students feel connected, understood, and engaged is key to successful learning. These check-in slides are designed to help you achieve that goal effortlessly. By incorporating these daily check-ins into your routine, you’re not just starting the day on the right foot—you’re building a classroom culture where every student feels valued.

Get ready to make mornings the best part of the day with these engaging, reflective, and fun check-in slides. Perfect for year-round use and suitable for students of all ages!

Immerse your students in the thrilling world of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell with this comprehensive, end-of-year ELA unit, perfect for middle school humanities teachers! This meticulously designed resource offers a full week of engaging, scaffolded lessons, culminating in a dynamic Socratic seminar and creative choice board activities.

What's Included:

• Fully Detailed Lesson Plans: Each day is carefully planned with clear objectives, standards alignment, and step-by-step instructions. Scaffolds and differentiation strategies ensure all students can participate and succeed.
• Engaging Activities: Students will read and analyze the text, watch a captivating film adaptation, and participate in thought-provoking discussions. Every lesson is designed to captivate students' imaginations and deepen their understanding of the material.
• Socratic Seminar: Facilitate a rich, student-led discussion with our structured Socratic seminar guidelines. Students will engage in meaningful dialogue, using evidence from the text and film to support their points.
• Choice Board Projects: Empower students to demonstrate their learning creatively with a variety of project options, including writing an alternate ending, crafting a comic strip, designing a literary brochure, and more. Each option includes graphic organizers and rubrics to guide student work.
• Comprehensive Question Sets: Thoughtful questions accompany each lesson, encouraging critical thinking and textual analysis. An answer key is provided to support teacher facilitation.
• Paper-Based Resource: Designed for easy implementation, this unit is fully printable and ready to use in any classroom setting.

Unit Breakdown:

• Day 1: Whole-class reading of "The Most Dangerous Game." Discussion on suspense and setting.
• Day 2: Watching a short film adaptation and gathering evidence using the claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) format. Preparation for the Socratic seminar.
• Day 3: Socratic seminar day. Students explore and discuss the text, aiming to speak 2-3 times, using textual evidence to support their points.
• Days 4 & 5: Choice board activities. Students choose from a range of creative projects to showcase their understanding of the story.

Benefits:

• Engaging End-of-Year Content: Keep students motivated and excited about learning with a thrilling, suspenseful story that will capture their interest.
• Scaffolding and Extension Ideas: Each lesson includes scaffolds to support all learners and extension ideas to challenge advanced students.
• Comprehensive and Ready-to-Use: Save time with detailed lesson plans, organized materials, and everything you need to deliver a successful unit.

Perfect for middle school humanities teachers looking to end the year with a bang, this unit will leave students discussing, debating, and reflecting on "The Most Dangerous Game" long after the lessons are over. Bring your classroom to life with this engaging, paper-based resource!

Included in this 12 week unit: Ultimate Middle School Short Story Bundle: 12 Week Engaging Suspense ELA Units (TeachShare.com)

Dive into the suspenseful world of "Sorry, Wrong Number" by Lucille Fletcher with this comprehensive, end-of-year ELA unit, perfect for middle school humanities teachers! This meticulously designed resource offers a full week of engaging, scaffolded lessons, culminating in a dynamic Socratic seminar and creative choice board activities.

What's Included:

• Fully Detailed Lesson Plans: Each day is carefully planned with clear objectives, standards alignment, and step-by-step instructions. Scaffolds and differentiation strategies ensure all students can participate and succeed.
• Engaging Activities: Students will read and analyze the text, listen to the captivating radio play, and participate in thought-provoking discussions. Every lesson is designed to captivate students' imaginations and deepen their understanding of the material.
• Socratic Seminar: Facilitate a rich, student-led discussion with our structured Socratic seminar guidelines. Students will engage in meaningful dialogue, using evidence from the text to support their points.
• Choice Board Projects: Empower students to demonstrate their learning creatively with a variety of project options, including writing an alternate ending, crafting a comic strip, designing a literary brochure, and more. Each option includes graphic organizers and rubrics to guide student work.
• Comprehensive Question Sets: Thoughtful questions accompany each lesson, encouraging critical thinking and textual analysis. An answer key is provided to support teacher facilitation.
• Paper-Based Resource: Designed for easy implementation, this unit is fully printable and ready to use in any classroom setting.

Unit Breakdown:

• Day 1: Whole-class reading of "Sorry, Wrong Number" followed by listening to the radio play. Discussion on suspense and foreshadowing.
• Day 2: Collecting evidence and constructing responses using the claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) format. Preparation for the Socratic seminar.
• Day 3: Socratic seminar day. Students explore and discuss the text, aiming to speak 2-3 times, using textual evidence to support their points.
• Days 4 & 5: Choice board activities. Students choose from a range of creative projects to showcase their understanding of the story.

Benefits:

• Engaging End-of-Year Content: Keep students motivated and excited about learning with a thrilling, suspenseful story that will capture their interest.
• Scaffolding and Extension Ideas: Each lesson includes scaffolds to support all learners and extension ideas to challenge advanced students.
• Comprehensive and Ready-to-Use: Save time with detailed lesson plans, organized materials, and everything you need to deliver a successful unit.

Perfect for middle school humanities teachers looking to end the year with a bang, this unit will leave students discussing, debating, and reflecting on "Sorry, Wrong Number" long after the lessons are over. Bring your classroom to life with this engaging, paper-based resource!

Included in this 12 week unit: Ultimate Middle School Short Story Bundle: 12 Week Engaging Suspense ELA Units (TeachShare.com)

Unlock the mysteries and suspense of "The Hitchhiker" by Lucille Fletcher with this comprehensive, end-of-year ELA unit, perfect for middle school humanities teachers! This meticulously designed resource offers a full week of engaging, scaffolded lessons, culminating in a dynamic Socratic seminar and creative choice board activities.

What's Included:

• Fully Detailed Lesson Plans: Each day is carefully planned with clear objectives, standards alignment, and step-by-step instructions. Scaffolds and differentiation strategies ensure all students can participate and succeed.
• Engaging Activities: Students will read and analyze the text, listen to the captivating radio play, and participate in thought-provoking discussions. Every lesson is designed to captivate students' imaginations and deepen their understanding of the material.
• Socratic Seminar: Facilitate a rich, student-led discussion with our structured Socratic seminar guidelines. Students will engage in meaningful dialogue, using evidence from the text to support their points.
• Choice Board Projects: Empower students to demonstrate their learning creatively with a variety of project options, including writing an alternate ending, crafting a comic strip, designing a literary brochure, and more. Each option includes graphic organizers and rubrics to guide student work.
• Comprehensive Question Sets: Thoughtful questions accompany each lesson, encouraging critical thinking and textual analysis. An answer key is provided to support teacher facilitation.
• Paper-Based Resource: Designed for easy implementation, this unit is fully printable and ready to use in any classroom setting.

Unit Breakdown:

• Day 1: Whole-class reading of "The Hitchhiker" followed by listening to the radio play. Discussion on suspense and foreshadowing.
• Day 2: Collecting evidence and constructing responses using the claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) format. Preparation for the Socratic seminar.
• Day 3: Socratic seminar day. Students explore and discuss the text, aiming to speak 2-3 times, using textual evidence to support their points.
• Days 4 & 5: Choice board activities. Students choose from a range of creative projects to showcase their understanding of the story.

Benefits:

• Engaging End-of-Year Content: Keep students motivated and excited about learning with a thrilling, suspenseful story that will capture their interest.
• Scaffolding and Extension Ideas: Each lesson includes scaffolds to support all learners and extension ideas to challenge advanced students.
• Comprehensive and Ready-to-Use: Save time with detailed lesson plans, organized materials, and everything you need to deliver a successful unit.

Perfect for middle school humanities teachers looking to end the year with a bang, this unit will leave students discussing, debating, and reflecting on "The Hitchhiker" long after the lessons are over. Bring your classroom to life with this engaging, paper-based resource!

Included in this 12 week unit: Ultimate Middle School Short Story Bundle: 12 Week Engaging Suspense ELA Units (TeachShare.com)

Not sure what to do after state testing? Dive into the futuristic world of Ray Bradbury with our week-long dystopian unit plan centered around his intriguing short story, "The Pedestrian." This meticulously crafted resource is specifically designed for middle school humanities teachers looking to inspire and engage their students in deep, meaningful discussions about technology, society, and individuality.

Product Features:

• Complete Text & Accompanying Slides: Includes a full copy of "The Pedestrian" and visually engaging slides that complement the reading, ensuring students understand the setting, plot, and key themes.
• Socratic Seminar Guide: Detailed procedures and prepared questions for a Socratic seminar that encourage students to delve deeper into the text. Our guide helps students articulate their thoughts using claims, evidence, and reasoning, fostering critical thinking and debate.
• Evidence Writing Worksheets: Teach your students how to effectively back their arguments with textual evidence. These worksheets guide students through the process of making claims and supporting them with precise details from the story and film.
• Diverse Essay Prompts: Includes argumentative, informational, and correspondence essay questions that cater to different writing levels and interests, helping students explore various aspects of the narrative.
• Creative Activities: Engage your students’ creative sides with a comic strip activity and an alternate ending writing task. These exercises not only enhance understanding of narrative techniques but also allow personal expression and creativity.
• Film vs. Text Venn Diagram: A comparative activity where students analyze the differences and similarities between the short story and its film adaptation, enhancing their analytical skills.
• Choice Board Extension Activities: Offers a variety of project-based learning tasks that allow students to explore the themes of the story in diverse and engaging ways.

Perfect For:

• End-of-Year Lessons: Wrap up the year with a comprehensive, thought-provoking unit that engages students in critical thinking.
• Substitute Teacher Plans: Easy-to-follow lessons that ensure valuable and structured learning continues in your absence.
• Mini Dystopian Units: Ideal for a focused thematic study on dystopian literature, prompting discussions on societal impacts of technology and personal freedom.

Adjustability:

• Suitable for grades 6-8 and can be easily adapted for different levels of understanding or class sizes, making it a versatile tool for any middle school classroom.

Perfect Pairing: "All Summer in a Day" Comprehensive Week-Long Lesson Plan, Seminar, Choice Board (TeachShare.com)

Empower your students to think critically about their own world through the lens of dystopian literature. This "The Pedestrian" unit plan is not just a lesson—it's an exploration into critical thinking, creative expression, and scholarly discussion. Equip your classroom with this all-encompassing resource today and watch your students thrive!

Included in this 12 week unit: Ultimate Middle School Short Story Bundle: 12 Week Engaging Suspense ELA Units (TeachShare.com)

This unit will guide students through reading and analyzing "The Outsiders." Students will explore themes of class conflict, friendship, and identity while developing their comprehension and critical thinking skills. The unit will include formative assessments, discussions, and creative assignments.

• Pre Reading Activity
• Compare and Contrast (characters & self)
• Character Map
• Anatomy of a Greaser/Soc
• Choice Boards x2
• Jigsaw
• Stations
• Journal/Writing Prompts
• Slides Project
• Debate
• Essay Revision