Grade 8

Advance Preparation

• Display and reference when directed:


• “Combat and the Soldier’s Experience in World War One”, para. 1


• the word incessant


• the word motivate

Materials

• Dictionaries (one per student or shared as available; alternatively use a digital dictionary such as www.wordsmyth.net)

Introduce the Vocabulary Learning Objective

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVE: SWBAT use Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.


2. Explain that good readers use Greek or Latin affixes (word beginnings and endings) or roots (main word part) to determine the meaning of words.


3. Display and read aloud the first paragraph from “Combat and the Soldier’s Experience in World War One.” Use it to share and model the steps for using Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to a word’s meaning:
   
   
   
   • Identify unknown words. Say: As I read the text, I circle unknown words and phrases. Model circling endured in the first paragraph.
   
   
   • Use word parts (affixes and roots) to determine the meaning of unknown words. Ask: What word parts help me understand the word endured? Say: I examine familiar word parts in the unfamiliar words and phrases for clues to meaning. I know the word part en from the word encircle, which means “circle in,” and enclose, which means “close in.” I think en means “in or inside.” I know the word part dur from words like durable or duration. I think it means “long or hard.”
   
   
   • Combine the word parts to define the unknown words. Say: Based on the word parts, I think the word endure means “to go in or through something long or hard.”
   
   
   • Confirm your definition with a print or online dictionary. Model using a print or online dictionary to confirm the definition. Say: I can confirm my guess in a dictionary. According to this dictionary, endure means “survive under or function in spite of something difficult,” which is close to what I determined from the word parts.
   
   
   
   


4. Have students write the definition of endure in their writing journals or another word list. 

Check Vocabulary Skills

1. TURN AND TALK: Refer to the displayed word incessant. Ask students to use their knowledge of the word parts in, cess, and ant to define the word incessant (never ceasing; continual). If necessary, students can use online or print dictionaries to define the word parts.


2. Have students write the definition of incessant in their writing journals or another word list. 

Reteach

• If students cannot define incessant using word parts, prompt with questions:




• What does the word part in mean in words like incredible, invisible, and independent? (not)


• What does the word part cess mean in words like cease and cessation? (stop)


• What part of speech does the word part ant signify in words like abundant, arrogant, and brilliant? (adjective)


• Now, put all the word parts together: What does the word incessant mean? (not stopping) 

Vocabulary Exit Ticket

• Refer to the displayed word motivate. Have students write one to two sentences to explain the meaning of the word based on its Greek or Latin affixes and roots.
  

  Sample Student Response:

  
  

  The word motivate means “to give someone a reason for moving” because the word part motiv means “reason for moving” and the word part ate makes the word a verb.

  
  

Reteach

• If students cannot define motivate using word parts, ask:




• What does the word part motiv mean in words like motive and locomotive? (reason for moving; moving)


• What part of speech does the word part ate signify in words like abbreviate, accelerate, and advocate? (verb)


• Now, put all the word parts together: What does the word motivate mean? (to give someone a reason for moving)

Advance Preparation

• Display and reference when directed:


• the word quaking


• All Quiet on the Western Front (pp. 180, 182)


• the word writhe

Materials

1. Dictionaries (one per student or shared as available; alternatively use a digital dictionary such as wordsmyth.net)


2. All Quiet on the Western Front (p. 180, one per student) 

Introduce the Vocabulary Learning Objective

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVE: SWBAT verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word by checking the inferred meaning in a dictionary.


2. Explain that good readers verify or check their preliminary determinations (or first guesses) of a word’s meaning by using a dictionary.


3. Refer to the displayed word quaking and p. 180 of All Quiet on the Western Front. Use the displayed materials to share and model the steps for verifying the inferred meaning of an unfamiliar word in the dictionary.
   
   
   
   • Use word parts and background knowledge to infer the word’s meaning. Ask: What are word parts? (prefixes, suffixes, or roots—parts of the beginning, middle, and end of the word) Say: I can use the word part quake in the word earthquake to infer meaning for quake. I know that an earthquake is a shaking of the earth, so quaking probably means “shaking.”
   
   
   • Use context to infer a meaning for the unknown word. Say: What is context? (words around the unknown word that help us define it) We can also use context to infer or confirm the meaning of an unknown word. Refer to the fourth paragraph on p. 180, and say: I read the word quaking in the context of p. 180 and see that Mrs. Kemmerich is “quaking and sobbing,” so my inference of “shaking” seems right. She is crying so hard that the is shaking.
   
   
   • Use an online or print dictionary to confirm your definition. Say: Once you have a preliminary determination of the word meaning, look up the word in a dictionary to make sure your definition is correct and complete. In the dictionary, the word quaking means “shaking as from fear, coldness, or the like,” so I’m glad I used a dictionary, because now my preliminary inferred definition is complete.
   
   
   
   


4. Have students write the definition of quaking in their writing journals or another word list.

Check Vocabulary Skills

1. TURN AND TALK: Refer to the displayed word writhe and p. 182, para. 4.


2. Ask students to infer the meaning of the word based on background knowledge of the expression writhing in pain (to twist) and the context of the word on p. 182. Then, have students use online or print dictionaries to verify or confirm their definition.


3. Have students add the definition to their writing journal or another word list (to twist and turn the body as in pain, discomfort, struggle, or embarrassment; squirm).

Reteach

• If students cannot infer the definition of writhe, help them unpack the expression “writhe in pain.” Then, ask: How do people move when they are in pain?

Vocabulary Exit Ticket

• Refer students to the word instantaneously in para. 5 on p. 180. Have students write one to two sentences to explain the inferred and dictionary meaning of the word instantaneously. Then, have them add the definition to their writing journals or another word list. (happening or done immediately or at the same instant).
  

  Sample Student Responses:

  
  

  I infer from word parts that the word instantaneously means “done in an instant.” The context also supports my inference since a person shot in the heart would die in an instant. I found the dictionary definition to confirm my inference.

Reteach

• If students cannot infer the definition of instantaneously, ask them to recognize word parts: What word do you recognize in the word instantaneously? What does the suffix (ending) –ly tell you? Also point out that a person who is shot in the heart would logically die in an instant, or right away.

Materials

• Harlem Hellfighters (p. 1, displayed; pp. 1–3, 22, one per student)

Introduce the Vocabulary Learning Objective

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVE: SWBAT interpret verbal irony in a text.


2. Explain that good readers interpret or figure out the meaning and impact of verbal irony or sarcasm in a text.


3. Refer to and read aloud the displayed page from The Harlem Hellfighters. Share and model the steps for interpreting verbal irony in a text:
   
   
   
   • Identify verbal irony. Say: Often you can identify verbal irony because a word is repeated several times with several different meanings or the dictionary meaning of the word doesn’t make sense in the context of the text. On p. 1, I see that the author uses great in two different ways.
   
   
   • Use context and/or a dictionary to identify multiple meanings of the word(s), including ironic or sarcastic meanings. Say: I know that great means “very good” and it also means “big.”
   
   
   • Use word meanings to unpack the ironic or sarcastic meaning of the word(s). Ask: Which meaning of great is used in the first and the second frames on the page? (“big” in the first frame; “very good” in the second frame). Say: The author uses the two different meanings of the word great to create verbal irony. The narrator knows that WWI is called the Great War because it was so big, but he is using the other meaning of great to sarcastically say that WWI wasn’t very good. 
   
   

Check Vocabulary Skills

• Ask students to find the word evolved in two places on p. 22 and explain the verbal irony. (The author says that the story most white people and a few black people told themselves and others was that the Negro brain had not evolved, or progressed, enough to handle leadership roles. When the author goes on to say, “I guess maybe some of those Negro brains weren’t “evolved” enough to believe it, he is using evolved ironically. He means that that you would have to be stupid to believe that story, or lie.)

Reteach

• Point out that in the second sentence, the author uses the word evolved sarcastically to mean the opposite. Also point out that evolved, unlike great, does not have two different meanings.

Vocabulary Exit Ticket

• Have students review pp. 1–3 of The Harlem Hellfighters, and then write two to three sentences to explain the phrase the war to end all wars (p. 1) as an instance of verbal irony in The Harlem Hellfighters.
  

  Sample Student Responses:

  
  
  
  
  • The narrator says that some people called the war “the war to end all wars” because it was so terrible that no one would ever want to fight a war again after it, which he calls a “nice story,” but he says that “the truth’s got an ugly way of killin’ nice stories.” The narrator is using the phrase the war to end all wars sarcastically because he doesn’t believe that the war will actually end all wars.
  
  

Reteach

• If students cannot explain this instance of verbal irony, recall the examples already discussed: great on p. 1 or evolved on p. 22. Review that in both of these examples, the narrator uses sarcasm to say something he does not really mean. Ask them how the narrator might be using the phrase the war to end all wars sarcastically.

Advance Preparation

• Display and reference when directed: All Quiet on the Western Front, p. 102, first complete paragraph.

Materials

• All Quiet on the Western Front, pp. 109–110 (one per student)

Introduce the Vocabulary Learning Objective

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVE: SWBAT use the relationship between particular words to better understand the words in All Quiet on the Western Front.


2. Explain that good readers use relationships between words, such as synonyms, antonyms, and analogies, to identify the meaning of unknown words. Ask: What is an analogy? (a comparison between two ideas) What are some kinds of analogies and examples of them?
   

   Sample Student Responses:

   
   
   
   
   • Category: Horse is to animal as green bean is to vegetable.; A horse is a kind of animal just as a green bean is a kind of vegetable.
   
   
   • Part / Whole: Finger is part of a hand as a wheel is part of a bicycle.
   
   
   • Synonym: Car is to automobile as two is to pair.
   
   
   • Antonym: Day is to night as forward is to backward.
   
   
   
   


3. Reference and read aloud the displayed paragraph (All Quiet on the Western Front, p. 102). Use the paragraph to share and model the steps for using the relationship between words to better understand their meaning.
   
   
   
   • Identify an unknown word. Say: Circle words you don’t know. I’ll circle the word repulsive.
   
   
   • Identify related words. Say: To determine the meaning of an unknown word, you can identify related words, such as antonyms, synonyms, or the other words used in analogies. To identify related words, you reread to notice how the unknown word is used in the sentence and if any other words are similarly used.
   
   
   • Reread the text. Say: Let’s reread p. 102. The author uses the word repulsive to describe the rats, and then describes them with other words such as: corpse, shocking, evil, and nauseating. Because these words are all used to describe the rats, they are related. They may be similar in meaning.
   
   
   • Use related words to determine the meaning of the unknown word. Say: Once you have found related words, use them to help you determine the meaning of the unknown word.
   
   
   • Say: The other words used to describe the rats, such as corpse, evil, and nauseating all have negative connotations. They also have something to do with shocking or making someone sick. Therefore, I use these synonyms to define repulsive as “shocking and making one sick.”
   
   
   
   


4. Direct students to write the definition in their writing journals or another word list.

Check Vocabulary Skills

• Refer students to the last paragraph on p. 109 and the first paragraph on p. 110. Circulate to monitor their capacity to use relationships between words to define claustrophobia.

Reteach

1. If students struggle to identify related words, read this line and identify claustrophobia: “It is a case of claustrophobia, he feels as though he is suffocating here and wants to get out at any price.”


2. Then model analyzing each word to see if it is related. Say: I can eliminate all the little words as they are not directly related to claustrophobia, which leaves feels, suffocating, and get out at any price. Each of these words is related to claustrophobia as a synonym. So, I can use their meanings to define claustrophobia as “a feeling of suffocation and needing to get out of a space.”

Vocabulary Exit Ticket

• Refer students to the first full paragraph on p. 110. Have them use relationships between words to define barrage.
  

  Sample Student Response:

  
  

  The word bombardment is related to the word barrage as a synonym, so I know that a barrage is a “bombardment or a bombing.”

  
  

Reteach

• If students struggle to identify the relationship between an unknown and known word, guide them to replace the unknown word with the known word and then use context to determine the relationship between the words. Students may have to change the form of the related word to use it in place of the unknown word. Ask: Does the related word (or some form of it) make sense in the context? Or does the context show that the related word is the opposite of the unknown word?