Unit Materials for 8th Grade English

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You can request a current spreadsheet with all unit texts needed to teach Fishtank ELA for the 2025-26 school year by emailing [email protected].

Fishtank Learning partners with two text vendors who offer convenient ordering options for a school or district adoption: The Reading Warehouse and Mackin. You can request an introduction to the appropriate representative by emailing [email protected].

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Facing Prejudice: All American Boys

Core Texts

Book: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely — HL770L

Supporting Texts

Article: “The History and Present-Day Power of White Privilege” by Cory Collins, adapted by Fishtank Staff
Book: Flying Lessons & Other Stories by Ellen Oh (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2017)
Transcript: “How to Raise a Black Son in America (Transcript)” by Clint Smith (TED Talk)
Video: “A Conversation about Growing Up Black” by The New York Times (YouTube)
Video: “How to Raise a Black Son in America” by Clint Smith (TED Talk)
Website: Right to Peaceful Assembly: United States (Library of Congress)
Website: The Constitution of the United States
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Encountering Evil: Night

Core Texts

Book: Night by Elie Wiesel (Hill and Wang, 2006) — 590L
Play: The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (Snowballpublishing)

Supporting Texts

Book: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Bantam Dell, 1994)
Speech: “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel (American Rhetoric)
Video: “The Path to Nazi Genocide” by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Abusing Power: Animal Farm and Wicked History

Core Texts

Book: Joseph Stalin (A Wicked History) by Sean McCollum (Franklin Watts, 2010) — 970L
Book: Animal Farm by George Orwell (Signet Classics, 1996) — 1170L

Supporting Texts

Article: “Communism” by National Geographic Education
Article: “What Is Capitalism?” by Sarwat Jahan and Ahmed Saber Mahmud (Through end of "Pillars of Capitalism") (IMF)
Excerpt: The Stalin Era by Anna Louise Strong
Article: “Propaganda is Everywhere”
Article: “Types of Propaganda”
Article: “11 Red Flags of Gaslighting in a Relationship” by Stephanie A. Sarkis (Psychology Today)
Movie: Animal Farm
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Surviving Repression: Persepolis

Core Texts

Book: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 1st edition, 2004)

Supporting Texts

Article: “The Stolen Revolution: Iranian Women of 1979” (CBC Radio)
Video: “Majede Najar: Why I wear a hijab” by TEDTalentSearch (YouTube)
Article: “Why do Muslim women wear a hijab?” by Caitlin Killian (The Conversation)
Article: “Under cover of darkness: Why World Hijab Day is an insult to girls like me” by Soutiam Goodarzi (The Spectator)
Video: “Rick Steves' Iran” by Rick Steves' Europe (YouTube)
Article: “Iran Travel Journal” by Rick Steves
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Facing Calamity: Climate Change Facts and Fictions

Core Texts

Article: “Understanding Climate Change (G8, U5)”
Speech: “Transcript: Greta Thunberg's Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit” by NPR Staff (NPR)
Article: “Climate change sets people on the move” by Sarah Zielinski (Science News Explores)
Short Story: “Field Notes” by Natasha Seymour
Article: “The Marshall Islands Are Disappearing” by Coral Davenport (New York Times) — 1400-1500L
Poem: “Dear Matafele Peinem” by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Article: “Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016” by Jonathan Watts (The Guardian)
Article: “Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world's plastic pollution” by Sofia Quaglia (The Guardian)
Article: “As Rising Heat Bakes U.S. Cities, The Poor Often Feel It Most” by Meg Anderson and Sean McMinn (NPR)
Article: “It's Not Climate Change—It's Everything Change” by Margaret Atwood (Medium)
Article: “Indigenous knowledge is crucial in the fight against climate change—here's why” by United National Development Programme
Article: “Indigenous climate efforts vital to fight against environmental destruction” by Kiara Alfonseca (ABC News)
Short Story: “Half-Eaten Cities” by Vajra Chandrasekera
Article: “What the new report on climate change expects from you” by Eliza Mackintosh (CNN) — 1400-1500L
Article: “Focusing on how individuals can stop climate change is very convenient for corporations” by Morten Fibieger Byskov (Fast Company) — 1200-1300L
Article: “Gen Z on How to Save the World: Young Climate Activists Speak Out” (The Guardian)
Excerpt: Book excerpt: Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" by CBS News
Short Story: “World After Water” by Abby Geni

Supporting Texts

Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Unit Materials for 8th Grade English

Need to purchase texts for this course?

Facing Prejudice: All American Boys

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Encountering Evil: Night

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Abusing Power: Animal Farm and Wicked History

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Surviving Repression: Persepolis

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Facing Calamity: Climate Change Facts and Fictions

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

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