8th Grade Gandhi Essay Contest
Web Lesson Ideas Connected with each Common Core Standard for the Gandhi Essay
Resources for Teachers
Text Types and Purposes
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.1
Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Page Title: 8th grade argumentative writing: Crafting an argumentative essay
Site: http://learnzillion.com/lessonsets/297-8th-grade-argumentative-writing-crafting-anargumentative-essay
Note: This site has slides that walk you through the entire process of writing an argument
with explanations spoken by the teacher. It’s a good model of how you might present the
process to your students, substituting the content of Gandhi.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Page Title: Writing Personal Narrative
Site: http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit485/lesson2.html
Note: This page is a guided lesson with a focus question and objectives that moves
students toward understanding what personal narrative is and an opportunity to practice.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types
are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
Page Title: Internet for Classrooms: Graphic Organizers
Site:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help/writing_graphic_organizer_langu
age_arts_eighth_8th_grade.htm
Note: This page provides a list of all possible graphic organizers that you could possibly
imagine. #6 Essay Map offers a thinking guide for students to use an online template
typing in their own ideas about Gandhi, which they can print and use as a great
organization tool.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.5
With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as
needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how
well purpose and audience have been addressed.
Page Title: NCTE’s readwritethink. Implementing the Writing Process
Site: http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategyguides/implementing-writing-process-30386.html
Note: This site provides basic information about the writing process, but there are a few
links to printable resources that you may find helpful, such as an Editing Checklist.
Research to Build Present Knowledge
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.7
Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question),
drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow
for multiple avenues of exploration.
Page Title: Basic Steps in the Research Process
Site: http://www.crlsresearchguide.org
Note: A great site that provides a brief explanation to each stage of the research process
with clicks to lead you to detailed information “Tip Sheets” for each stage and many
“How-to” sheets. You may use only the ones you need for the Gandhi essay.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.8
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms
effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the
data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format
for citation.
Page Title: NCTE’s readwritethink. Keywords: Learning to Focus Internet Research
Site: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/keywordslearning-focus-internet-1122.html?tab=4#tabs
Note: Provides guidance on helping students learn to navigate Internet sites effectively
for finding key words and gathering information. There are printable handouts.
Beginning a Piece of Writing
From Nancie Atwell (http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/tips):
An introduction to any piece of writing serves one function: hooking the reader to make him or
her want to continue. But getting a piece of writing started with a good hook is often one of the
hardest parts for writers. Knowing a few techniques that published authors use is as easy as
picking up your favorite books and looking into how authors craft introductions. Once you have
seen several techniques, write several opening sentences, using a different technique for each
until you find one that fits your piece.
Here are some common hooks used by authors:
Start by describing the setting
Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The
Gambia, West Africa, a manchild was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte. Alex Haley, Roots
Start by describing the character
Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very
much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing,
in fact he disliked it, but he had learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of
inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton. Ernest Hemingway,
The Sun Also Rises
Begin with a shocking or interesting fact
They shoot the white girl first. Toni Morrison, Paradise
Start with a question
Where now? Who now? When now? Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable
Start with an action in progress
The small boys came early to the hanging. Ken Follet, The Pillars of the Earth
Start with dialogue
"Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. Louisa
May Alcott, Little Women
Start with the problem
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be
in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Start with a quote from another source
"The ole ark's a-moverin', a-moverin', a-moverin', the ole ark's a-moverin' along." That ancient
spiritual could have been the theme song of the United States in 1957. We were a-moverin' to,
fro, up, down and often in concentric circles. Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman
Start with a combination of techniques