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8th-Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is strongly aligned to the standards.

Overview

Eighth-grade students read “To an Athlete Dying Young,” a poem by A.E. Housman. The text is grade-appropriate and worthwhile, and introduces students to complex literary elements, such as the use of imagery and metaphor. The questions are purposefully sequenced to build students’ understanding, beginning with basic comprehension (e.g., “Who is the speaker addressing? What do we know about this person?”) and moving ultimately to deeper meaning (“What theme does the poem develop about fame and glory?”). Students are expected to support their responses with evidence from the text.

About the Text

Title and Author

“To an Athlete Dying Young”  by A.E. Housman

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

As a “non-prose” (NP) text, the poem does not have a Lexile Level.

Based on Lexile, which grades is this text intended for?

N/A

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

Yes

Is this text fiction or non-fiction?

N/A (poetry)

Is this text authentic or was it written for educational purposes?

Authentic

Does the text provide sufficient detail to build knowledge of a worthwhile topic and/or is it worth reading closely and re-reading?

Yes

Related Standards

We looked at how well the assignment aligned to the following standards:

RL.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

Task directions require students to cite textual evidence, including specific language from the poem, to support their responses to each question.

RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The final question asks students to describe the theme, as well as to analyze how the poet develops it throughout the text. The sequence of questions progressively builds to this cumulative understanding of theme/central idea in the poem.

RL.8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

Several questions (question 4, for example) direct students to analyze the impact of specific word choice on meaning and tone. Questions (question 6, for example) also help students unpack the author’s use of figurative language.

RL.8.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

L.8.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

Students have opportunity to demonstrate their command of 8th grade-level language conventions in their responses (though this is implicit rather than explicit in task directions).

L.8.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

Students have opportunity to demonstrate their command of 8th grade-level language conventions in their responses (though this is implicit rather than explicit in task directions).

Why is this assignment strongly aligned?

This assignment is strong because it has a strong text and strong questions:

The assignment allows students to engage with a worthwhile, complex poem. The text exhibits exceptional literary craft, using imagery, metaphor, and irony to develop a theme about the fleeting nature of fame and glory.

The questions require students to read carefully and focus on key details. Students are required to examine and explain specific stanzas, word choice, and literary devices.

The questions allow students to articulate their ideas about the text in writing. Students are required to support those ideas with specific, relevant details from the poem.

Students practice formal, academic writing. In their written responses, students are expected to demonstrate command of language conventions.

Additional ELA Resources

Common Core ELA Standards
Read the standards and find out what they require of students.
Instructional Shifts in Literacy
Understand the key instructional shifts the ELA standards call for.
Student Work Review Tool – ELA
Use this tool to understand if an assignment is worthwhile for students.