In this task, you will prepare for the group discussion by reading the poems “The Road Not Taken” and “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” As you read the poems, which are provided below, you will apply the techniques of close reading and annotation that are listed here. Close Reading and Annotating Texts

Reflect on each poem (including taking notes) for 10 minutes. Keep in mind the idea of changing perspectives as the central topic for the discussion.
Take notes in the margins of each poem.
Write down your reactions to the meaning of the text.
Make connections between the two poems.
Make comments on individual lines and words that are particularly effective in making the meaning clear or adding to your understanding of this theme: How can you change your perspective?
Consider both the style elements and the meaning of the text.
Note specific methods each author uses to get the point across.
To help you prepare for the discussion, write open-ended sentences/questions that reflect curiosity and have no “right answer.” Use the stems provided in the table below to help generate sentences and questions to bring to the discussion.
Remember to include evidence from the poems so that you can refer to it when you share your thoughts and questions during the discussion.
The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

by Emily Dickinson

Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

:
Stems to Stimulate ThinkingComplete Stem with Your Thoughts/Evidence from Poems
What puzzles me is
I would like to talk with people about
I was confused about
This poem is similar to
The big idea in both poems seems to be
I have questions about
What does it mean when the author says
Do you think
Do you agree that
I think poem best represents the theme for our discussion because

The Grade 8 Core ELA Units take students through literary and nonfiction texts that explore

how individuals are affected by their choices, their relationships, and the world around them.

In Unit 1, Everyone Loves a Mystery, students will try to determine what attracts us to stories

of suspense. Unit 2, Past and Present, asks the Essential Question: What makes you, you?

Unit 3, No Risk, No Reward, asks students to consider why we take chances, while Unit 4,

Hear Me Out, asks students to consider the unit’s driving question—How do you choose the

right words?—by providing a range of texts that allow students to consider how a person’s

words can affect an audience. Next, Unit 5’s Trying Times asks students to think about who

they are in a crisis. Finally, students finish up the year with an examination of science fiction

and fantasy texts as they think about the question “What do other worlds teach us about our

own?” in Unit 6, Beyond Reality.

INTRODUCTION | GRADE 8

3 ELA Grade Level Overview | GRADE 8

Text Complexity

ELA Grade Level Overview

Grade 8

4 ELA Grade Level Overview | GRADE 8

UNIT 1: EVERYONE LOVES A MYSTERY

Unit Title: Everyone Loves a Mystery

Essential Question: What attracts us to the mysterious?

Genre Focus: Fiction

Overview

Hairs rising on the back of your neck? Lips curling up into a wince? Palms a little sweaty? These are tell-tale signs

that you are in the grips of suspense.

But what attracts us to mystery and suspense? We may have wondered what keeps us from closing the book or

changing the channel when confronted with something scary, or compels us to experience in stories the very things

we spend our lives trying to avoid. Why do we do it?

Those are the questions your students will explore in this Grade 8 unit.

Edgar Allan Poe. Shirley Jackson. Neil Gaiman. Masters of suspense stories are at work in this unit, with its focus on

fiction. And there’s more: Alfred Hitchcock, the “master of suspense” at the movies, shares tricks of the trade in a

personal essay, and students also have the chance to read about real-life suspense in an account by famed reporter

Nellie Bly. After reading classic thrillers and surprising mysteries within and across genres, your students will try

their own hands at crafting fiction, applying what they have learned about suspense to their own narrative writing

projects. Students will begin this unit as readers, brought to the edge of their seats by hair-raising tales, and they

will finish as writers, leading you and their peers through hair-raising stories of their own.

Text Complexity

In Grade 8 Unit 1 students continue their development as critical thinkers at an appropriate grade level. Though this

unit focuses on the genre of fiction, it features both poetry and informational texts. With a Lexile range of 590-1090,

most texts in this unit are between 940L and 1010L, an accessible starting point for eighth graders. Additionally, the

vocabulary, sentence structures, text features, content, and relationships among ideas make these texts accessible

to eighth graders, enabling them to grow as readers by interacting with such appropriately challenging texts.

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