Language Arts

Grade 8 / Week 5

Standards Covered this Week

LAFS.8.RL.1.2: 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.

LAFS.8. RL.2.6: Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created

through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

Name

Teacher

A Note to Parents

For the next five weeks, your student will be working through a unit entitled “Alien Encounters.” The unit will focus on analyzing how different points of view create dramatic irony, and the texts will explore what we can learn about ourselves as humans through imagined encounters with aliens. Here are some optional online resources to support or extend your student’s thinking:

Access an online version of the text, “The Star Beast,” with audio read-aloud, translation tools, and annotation tools. The best way to access the link is to go through your CommonLit tile on ClassLink.

https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/fyc-star-beast

Video: “Why We Imagine Aliens the Way We Do” https://youtu.be/nvq94pW4l6o - As you watch, consider these questions:

o Why do you think people are so curious about what alien life looks like?

o What do you think this curiosity with the way aliens look reveals about humans?

Video: “’War of the Worlds’ Radio Scare Turns 50 in 1988” https://abcnews.go.com/US/80-years-orson-welles-war-worlds-radio-broadcast/story?id=58826359 and

o How do you think people would react to alien life in 2020? Why?

Video: “How Did Our Fascination with Aliens Start?” https://youtu.be/2xM0R2GLQNM o Why do you think people are drawn to movies, TV shows, and books that include

extraterrestrial life?

Video: “The Golden Record is an Alien’s Guide to Earth” https://mashable.com/video/golden-record-nasa/

o What does the desire to communicate with life outside of Earth reveal about humans?

Day 1: Introduction to the Unit Alien Encounters

In this unit, the stories we’re reading are about characters who encounter something new and strange —alien life. By interacting with something so different, =will these characters learn to see the strangeness in themselves?

Skills Focus: Point of View Also in this unit, we’re studying how to analyze the point of view of different characters, as well as the point of view of the reader. We will learn how to analyze a text to find multiple points of view.

Skills Focus: Dramatic Irony

Someone’s walking down a

dirt road and there’s a

monster behind them.

The audience knows that

there is a monster behind

the character, but he

doesn’t.

Tense & scary. It makes me

feel that feeling of being

watched, which is so

creepy.

It shows that at least

one character knows

something that the other

does not.

Now, it’s showing the

ridiculousness of what

the one character (Olaf)

doesn’t know. It’s silly

to imagine “tan” snow.

Day 2, Activity 1: Quick Write What is your point of view of aliens? Do you think they exist? Why or why not?

Day 2 & 3: Active Reading The Star Beast

Nicholas Stuart Gray Background: Nicholas Stuart Gray (1922-1981) was a British actor, playwright, and author of science fiction and fantasy. As you read, answer the questions beside the text.

Point of View & Dramatic Irony

As a reminder, point of view is the way a character sees a person or situation. This may be different from your point of view as a reader. At times, you as the reader might know something that characters do not know. This is dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is often used to create a specific mood, such as humor or suspense.

Section 1 Questions

Paragraphs 1-2 Write: Where did the creature come from?

Paragraphs 4-7 Find Evidence: Is the creature more like a human or more like a beast? Underline two details that support your opinion.

Section 2 Questions

POINT OF VIEW: Paragraphs 10-14 Write: How do the farmer and his wife view the creature?

Section 3 Questions

POINT OF VIEW: Paragraphs 18-28 Write: What is the professors’ point of view towards the creature? POINT OF VIEW: Paragraphs 29-34 Find Evidence: Underline the best piece of evidence to challenge the humans’ view of the creature.

Section 4 Questions

Section 4 Questions

POINT OF VIEW: Paragraphs 35-49

A. Find Evidence: Underline two details that reveal how the creature is changing.

B. Write: What effect does the creature’s transformation have on the reader? Why?

Section 4 Questions

Section 4 Questions

Paragraphs 56-66 Write: In this section, what idea about the humans does the author emphasize? POINT OF VIEW: Paragraph 70 Write: How does the reader’s view of the creature differ from the father’s view of the creature?

Section 4 Questions

Paragraphs 72-74 Find Evidence: Underline three pieces of evidence that show how the creature has changed.

Paragraph 84

A. Write: Analyze the final paragraph. What does it reveal about the creature?

B. Write: How does the author critique humans in this story? What does he want us to learn about ourselves?

Day 4, Activity 1: Quick Write What are your reactions to the story? In this quick write, just discussion your opinions. How did the way the story end make you feel? How would you have wished for the story to end? Do you think the humans’ reactions to the star beast were believable? Why or Why not? What should people have done differently?

Day 4, Activity 2: Text-Dependent Questions

Day 5, Activity 1: Preparing to Write You are about to write an extended response to the following questions:

What does the reader know about the star beast that the human characters do not know?

What is the author trying to make the reader feel through the use of dramatic irony? The following questions are intended to help you brainstorm what to write about. If you are confident in y our ability to skillfully write a response without assistance, feel free to skip the questions below.

1. To answer the first question, go back to paragraphs 12-14 and 24-28. Think of the farmer and his wife and the professors. How are their opinions of the beast different from what you know?

2. How do you feel toward the star beast during those moments? Or how does the star beast feel in those moments? (With good literature, there are always multiple answers to this question. As long as you can back up one of those feelings with good reasoning and text, your answer is correct!)

3. Again, return to paragraphs 12-14 and 24-28. There’s probably a couple quotes in or around these paragraphs that you could use to support your answer. Write 2 separate paragraph numbers below that you will use as evidence for your claim/answer. *The 2 different quotes should come from different events/scenes in the story to ensure a well-developed response.

Day 5, Activity 2: Write Write a well-developed paragraph that responds to the following questions. Ensure that your response includes a claim, at least two pieces of evidence, and logical reasoning to show how your evidence supports your claim.

What does the reader know about the star beast that the human characters do not know?

What is the author trying to make the reader feel through the use of dramatic irony?

Need some help? Here are some tips to guide you: Sample Claim Sentence: Nicholas Stuart Gray uses a difference in how the characters view the creature and how

the readers view the creature to create a mood.

Sentence 2: quick summary that leads up to your quote

Sentence 3: quote Sentences 4 & 5: Explain how the reader’s view of the creature is different than what is described in the quote.

Then explain how this affects the mood.

Sentence 6 & 7: quick summary of plot event leading up to next quote AND describing the reader’s view of the scene

Sentence 8: a quote that shows character reacting in an opposite way than how the readers view the scene Sentence 9: explain how this affects the mood (use different mood/feeling words throughout)

Sentence 10: Summing up the entire mood as it is created by dramatic irony and (Bonus!) telling us the lesson the author is trying to teach us in this story

Number of sentences and organization of the paragraph can be different than the above suggestions.