Instructional Units for the Teaching of Composition in the Eighth Grade

Abstract

Teachers enhance their students’ learning when they relate classroom activities to students’ interests and lives. In this paper, the author presents a series of instructional units to teach composition to eighth graders in a rural New York public school. Units focus on student engagement and cover the following diverse topics: “Families and Friends”, “Patriotism for Our Country”, “The Civil War”, “Observing Animal Life”, and “The Westward Movement”. Each unit includes a suggested reading list, as well as accompanying lessons that focus on various aspects of context, syntax/construction/grammar, narration, and editing techniques.