BCSD English Language Arts

8th Grade Assessment Item Bank

Because of the density of indicators in the 2015 SC ELA College and Career Ready Standards, it is rare to find a test item
that assesses an entire indicator.  When using the item bank, teachers and PLCs should be careful to select multiple items
to be sure that student performance on all parts of an indicator is measured.

Assessment Items Reading Passages

Inquiry-Based Literacy Standards

IB.1.1 IB.2.1 IB.3.1 IB.3.2 IB.3.3 IB.3.4 IB.4.1

Reading-Literary Text

RL.5.1 RL.6.1 RL.7.1 RL.7.2 RL.8.1 RL.9.1 RL.9.2 RL.10.1 RL.11.1 RL.12.1 RL.12.2

Reading-Informational Text

RI.5.1 RI.6.1 RI.7.1 RI.8.1 RI.8.2 RI.9.1 RI.9.2 RI.10.1 RI.11.1 RI.11.2

Writing

W.1.1 W.2.1 W.3.1 W.4.1 W.5.2

Assessment Items

1
8-RL.5.1 Cite the evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

8-RL.6.1 Determine one or more themes and analyze the development and
relationships to character, setting, and plot over the course of a text;
provide an objective summary.
8-RL.6.1 With which of the following statements would the speaker Those Winter
Q1 of “Those Winter Sundays” most likely agree? Sundays
a. Parents bear no responsibility for their children. NR
Back to b. Children always recognize what parents do for them.
Page 1 c. When children recognize later what parents have
done for them, children may have regrets.
d. Adults often have poor relationships with their parents.

8-RL.6.1 The speaker’s purpose in “Those Winter Sundays” is most likely to____. Those Winter
Q2 a. apologize to his father for childish pranks. Sundays
b. describe the unhappiness he felt as a child. NR
Back to c. acknowledge that he took his father for granted.
Page 1 d. recall the cruelty of his father to other family members.

8-RL.6.1 In “The Secret Heart,” the father stands over his son because ____ The Secret
Q1 a. he wants to talk to the boy about shared memories. Heart
b. the boy has cried out in his sleep. NR
Back to c. the boy has been ill and the father is worried.
Page 1 d. he loves his son and wants to see that he is sleeping peacefully.

8-RL.6.1 Of the following themes or central ideas, which one is NOT present in either The Secret
Q2 “Those Winter Sundays” or “The Secret Heart”? Heart
a. Maturity often brings insight. NR
Back to b. Love sometimes sacrifices for others.
Page 1 c. Harsh weather brings out the best in people. Those Winter
d. True love can best be shown in practical ways. Sundays
NR

8-RL.6.1 Which of the following best reflects the theme of “The Poet’s Occasional The Poet’s
Q1 Alternative”? Occasional
a. A human being’s confrontation with nature Alternative
Back to b. The struggle for equality NR
Page 1 c. The pain of love
d. The conflict between current happiness and future satisfaction

8-RL.6.1 Which line from “The Poet’s Occasional Alternative” does NOT contribute to The Poet’s
Q2 the development of the theme throughout the text? Occasional
a. … I made a pie instead it took/ about the same amount of time…. Alternative
Back to b. … the pie was a final/draft a poem would have had some/distance to NR
Page 1 go….
c. … the pie already had a talking/tumbling audience among small/trucks …
on the kitchen floor….
d. … I do not want to wait a week a year a generation for the right
consumer to come along
2

8-RL.6.1 How does the setting of “The Poet’s Occasional Alternative” affect the The Poet’s
Q3 theme? Occasional
 Reading Passages
Text Type: Poem
8-RI.6.1 Lexile: NR
Q1 Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Q2
Sundays too my father got up early
8-RL.12.1 and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
Q3 then with cracked hands that ached
Q4 from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 5

Back to
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
page 1
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, 10

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

8-RL.6.1 Text Type: Poem

Q1 Lexile: NR
Q2 The Secret Heart by Robert P. Tristram Coffin

8-RL.12.1 Across the years he could recall

Q3 His father one way best of all.
Q4
In the stillest hour of night
The boy awakened to a light
Back to Half in dreams, he saw his sire 5
page 1 With his great hands full of fire.

The man had struck a match to see

If his son slept peacefully.

He held his palms each side the spark

His love had kindled in the dark. 10

His two hands were curved apart

In the semblance of a heart.

He wore, it seemed to his small son,

A bare heart on his hidden one,

A heart that gave out such a glow 15

No son awake could bear to know.

It showed a look upon a face

3
 Too tender for the day to trace.

One instant, it lit all about,

And then the secret heart went out. 20

But it shone long enough for one

To know that hands held up the sun.

8-RI.11.2 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1230
Q2 Distracted Driving: Stay focused when on the road
by Teddi Dineley Johnson

8-IB-4.1 It’s 8 a.m., and you jump in your car to drive to school. You have every intention of driving
Q2 safely, but within minutes of merging onto the highway you’ve already checked your makeup
Q3 in the mirror, fiddled with your car’s radio, made two calls on your cellphone, and sent a text
message to your sister. You might not realize it, but you’re a distracted driver.

Back to Each time you take your focus off the road, even if just for a split second, you’re putting your
page 1 life and the lives of others in danger. An emerging and deadly epidemic on the nation’s roads,
distracted driving-related crashes caused at least 5,500 deaths and nearly 450,000 injuries in
2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation….

“Driving a car is a very complex task,” says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the
Governors Highway Safety Association, which estimates that distractions are associated with
15 percent to 25 percent of crashes at all levels. “It requires your complete attention. All it
takes is a glance away for more than two seconds and you can get into serious trouble.”
Distracted driving is any activity that takes your attention away from the road…. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention describes three main types of distractions while driving.
Visual distractions cause you to take your eyes off the road, manual distractions cause you to
take your hands off the wheel and cognitive distractions, such as listening to a talk radio show,
cause you to take your mind off what you are doing. Driving is a great privilege, but with that
privilege also comes responsibility.

8-RI.11.2 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1210
Q2 Distractions and Teens

8-IB.4.1 Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Teens are especially vulnerable to
Q2 distractions while driving and are more likely than other age groups to be involved in a fatal
Q3 crash where distraction is reported. While driver distractions come in many forms, texting
while driving is especially dangerous.
Back to
page 1 “Teenagers get into the most crashes the first six months after they have gotten their licenses,
so it’s important that they focus on driving and not get distracted by electronic devices,”
Harsha says.
Teen drivers are far more likely to send and receive text messages while driving than adults.
Also, a teen’s crash risk goes up when there are teen passengers in the car. Parents need to
take a strong stand with their teens, Harsha says. Prohibit teens from using electronic devices
while driving and restrict them from carrying teenage passengers.
4
 “It seems so common sense not to text while driving, but people are so connected to their
electronic devices that they kind of forget themselves,” Harsha says.

The research found that text messaging causes drivers to take their eyes off the road for 4.6
seconds over a six-second interval. That means at 55 miles per hour, a texting driver would
travel the length of a football field without looking at the road.

Adapted from http://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org

8-RI.11.2 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: NR
Banning Texting While Driving is not the Answer
8-IB.4.1 At least one group of researchers is making a case against laws banning texting while driving.
Q2 Researchers at the Swedish National Road and Transport Institute found that driver education
is more effective than a ban, partly because people would disobey a law and partly because
Back to hands-free devices meant to replace texting as a safer alternative do not actually lower crash
page 1 figures.
http://www.suescheffblog.com/scholarly-facts-about-texting-pros-and-cons/

8-RL.6.1 Text Type: Poem

Q1 Lexile: NR
Q2 The Poet’s Occasional Alternative by Grace Paley
Q3
Q4 I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead it took
about the same amount of time
Back to of course the pie was a final
page 1 draft a poem would have had some
distance to go days and weeks and
much crumpled paper

the pie already had a talking

tumbling audience among small
trucks and a fire engine on
the kitchen floor

everybody will like this pie

it will have apples and cranberries
dried apricots in it many friends
will say why in the world did you
make only one
this does not happen with poems

because of unreportable
sadnesses I decided to
settle this morning for a
responsive eatership I do not
want to wait a week a year a
generation for the right
5
 consumer to come along

Text Type: Poem

8-RL.12.1 Lexile: NR
Q1 “A Good Poem” by Tom Zart
Q2
Q3 A good poem paints a picture
For both your heart and brain.
Back to It doesn't need a second chance
page 1 To make its meaning plain.

A good poem is like the flower

The lily or the rose.
God plants it in a poet's brain
And there its beauty grows.

A good poem like a cardinal

Is pregnant with song
You can't help but hear its message
As it sings what's right or wrong.

A good poem helps us remember

What the joys of life are for
It makes us want to love someone
Till death comes knocking at our door.

8-RI.11.2 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1010
Q2 From “Credit cards can be a Financial Slippery Slope”
by Brenda Rindge
8-W.1.1
Q3 Elvira Jones (not her real name) always believed she would catch up one day. While raising her
Q4 two children as a single parent, the private-duty nurse sometimes turned to credit when she
needed to bridge the gap between paychecks.
Back to
page 1 “I always thought that I would be able to pay them off when the kids were grown and on their
own,” she said. “I was wrong.”

She’s still using those cards — three of them — on a fairly regular basis to make ends meet,
she said. She estimates that she has about $10,000 in credit card debt – a debt made worse by
the high interest rates she didn’t notice when signing up.

“I make payments, and then run them back up,” she said. “I’m just trying to stay one step
ahead of the debt collectors.”

The average credit card holder has 3.5 cards and owes almost $5,000, credit reporting agency
TransUnion said. The Federal Reserve says the average debt for households with credit card
debt is $16,000.

Smith knows she teeters on a precarious perch. “If I got really sick or had some other
6
 emergency, I don’t know what I would do,” she said. “I don’t know where I would turn.” As
one of the 25 percent of Americans with more credit card debt than emergency savings, she
said she lives just a step away from true disaster.

Charleston Post and Courier

8-RI.11.2 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: NR
MasterCard Getty Oil Credit Card Infographic
(Visual 1)
8-IB.4.1
Q2 Ads and Offers (Visual 2)
Q3
Q4

8-W.1.1
Q5

Back to
page 1

8-RI.5.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1070
Q2 “Hubert Morris”

Back to Hubert Morris, a thirteen-year-old male, was raised in the housing projects in the inner city of
page 1 North Minneapolis. His mother, a single parent of three siblings and also a welfare recipient,
did her best to instill in her children moral values and self-discipline.

Hubert, his sister Pam, and brother Charles all attended church regularly because of Ms.
Morris's religious background. They were obedient children. Had it not been for their worn-
out garments, one wouldn't have guessed the Morris family resided in a low-income
environment which was infested with dysfunctional activities such as drugs and gang
affiliation.

Hubert Enters Gang Life

Although Hubert's school attendance was excellent and his aptitude was exceptionally
progressive, he could not escape the reality of poverty. In fact, he was confronted with it
every day. The way the more fortunate kids teased him about his last year's clothing was
beginning to irk him beyond his tolerance.
What young Hubert was experiencing was peer pressure. Peer pressure is one of the most
influential predicaments a youth might encounter. Regardless of how unique his or her
attributes are, once this element has taken its toll it could be detrimental to their education

7
 and future. It can represent acceptance as well as rejection.

In Hubert's case, his family financial situation was his biggest burden. Because his lack of
material assets was so embarrassing, it drove him to cutting school. One thing led to another.
It wasn't long before Hubert was committing crimes to provide for himself what his mother's
income could not afford. He was committing offenses like shoplifting from department stores
and stealing audio equipment out of vehicles.

His absence from school had begun to affect his grades, which added to his initial problems.
Not only did he become a victim to peer pressure, but he'd flunked the eighth grade as well.
The most important lesson Hubert failed to understand was that running away from a
problem isn't the solution.

An Addiction to Pleasing People

Because Hubert was young and naive, he had no way of knowing that he'd subjected himself
to being a people pleaser; an addiction that is as addictive and controlling as any mood-
altering chemical or alcohol. To maintain his new reputation, Hubert became a cinch for his
so-called friends to manipulate. That's just how devastating peer pressure can be if one does
not stay focused on principles. It had Hubert going against his mother's good standards.

Now at age sixteen Hubert's life was condemned before he was able to make a life for himself,
all because of his urgent desire to be equal from a material perspective. Little did he know
about authentic values, for material is only temporary; here today, gone tomorrow.

As Hubert lay in his double bunk cell awaiting his sentencing date, he said to his cellmate,
"Had I known what I know now, I wouldn't have ever joined 'The Posse.' After all I've done to
prove my loyalty to them, not one of the members who remain at large came to my aid."
From Greer, Dale. Gangs. Ed. William Dudley and Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven
Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Devastation of Peer Pressure." Prison Mirror
May 1998. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.

8-RI.11.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1080
Q2 “The Battle of Gettysburg”

A turning point in the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was waged from July 1
Back to through July 3, 1863. The battle took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During those three
page 1 days, there were close to 10,000 fatalities and 30,000 wounded on the Union and confederate
sides combined. The South and General Robert E. Lee suffered a demoralizing defeat that
would haunt them well beyond the surrender at Appomattox.

The battle began west of Gettysburg on July 1, when the Union cavalry locked horns with
Confederate soldiers. Intense fighting ensued on both sides of the Chambersburg Pike.
Although the South succeeded in pushing the Union troops back to Seminary Ridge, at the end
of the day, the Union was in control of the high ground.

Most of day two of the battle focused around Devil’s Den. The South held Devil’s Den for
a large part of the day, only to lose it to the Union by nightfall. Outnumbered, out of
ammunition, and faced with imminent attack, the 20 th Maine regiment charged down the hill
8
 with bayonets fixed. This move was so unexpected that the Confederate soldiers fled in panic.
This battle is often recognized as the decisive factor in the Union victory at Gettysburg.

Day three became notorious for one battle, Longstreet’s Assault, also known as Pickett’s
Charge. General Lee decided to concentrate all of his might on the center of the Union line.
Heavy artillery did considerable damage to the Union line, but reinforcements were brought
in. As Confederate forces advanced three-quarters of a mile toward the Union army, they
suffered severe casualties. Of the 15,000 Confederate soldiers sent into the fray, General
George Pickett’s division was the largest. His division lost a majority of its men, and so his
name is most often associated with this bloody final battle at Gettysburg. The next day, Lee
withdrew his troops and headed back to Virginia.

8-W4.1b Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 860
From a Train to a Plane: Air Force One
8-W.2.1
Q2 (1) We’ve all seen Air Force One most likely on the news in a movie or on a television
show. (2) There are a few scenarios: A criminal mastermind has slipped onto Air Force One!
Back to There’s an emergency in a foreign U.S. Embassy!
page 1 Call the President on Air Force One! While all of his aides are sleeping, the President is hard at
work, on Air Force One! (3) We take Air Force One, the President’s personal jet, for granted,
as if it has always been there. (4) And yet the reality is somewhat different. (5) Air Force One
has many secret service agents on board. (6) The decision to transport the president in the air
rather than on land was made for reasons other than its luxury and convenience. (7)
Numerous deliberations and decisions, revealing a colorful history, were made before Air
Force One arrived in its current form.

8-RI.5.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1310
Q2 Rebel with a Cause: Rebellion in Adolescence
Q3 by Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D.
Q5
It's the poster characteristic of the teenager years: adolescent rebellion. And it's one that
8-W.4.1B causes many conflicts with parents.
Q4 Two common types of rebellion are against socially fitting in (rebellion of non-conformity) and
against adult authority (rebellion of non-compliance.) In both types, rebellion attracts adult
8-RI.11.1 attention by offending it. The young person proudly asserts individuality from what parents
Q6 like or independence of what parents want and in each case succeeds in provoking their
disapproval. This is why rebellion, which is simply behavior that deliberately opposes the
Back to ruling norms or powers that be, has been given a good name by adolescents and a bad one by
page 1 adults.

The reason why parents usually dislike adolescent rebellion is not only that it creates more
resistance to their job of providing structure, guidance, and supervision, but because rebellion
can lead to serious kinds of harm. Rebellion can cause young people to rebel against their own
self-interests -- rejecting childhood interests, activities, and relationships that often support
self-esteem. It can cause them to engage in self-defeating and self-destructive behavior -
refusing to do school work or even physically hurting themselves. It can cause them to
experiment with high-risk excitement - accepting dares that as children they would have
9
 refused. It can cause them to reject safe rules and restraints - letting impulse overrule
judgment to dangerous effect. And it can cause them to injure valued relationships - pushing
against those they care about and pushing them away.

So adolescent rebellion is not simply a matter of parental aggravation, it is also a matter of

concern. Although the young person thinks rebellion is an act of independence, it actually
never is. It is really an act of dependency. Rebellion causes the young person to depend self-
definition and personal conduct on doing the opposite of what other people want.

To what degree a young person needs to rebel varies widely. In his fascinating book, Born to
Rebel (1997), Frank Sulloway posits that later born children tend to rebel more than first born.
Some of his reasoning is because they identify less with parents, do not want to be clones of
the older child or children who went before, and give themselves more latitude to grow in
nontraditional ways. So, parents may find later born children to be more rebellious.
REBELLION IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE (9-13)
Serious rebellion typically begins at the outset of adolescence, and when it does many parents
think this opposition is against them. They are usually mistaken. Rebellion is not against them;
it is only acted out against them.
Rebellion at this age is primarily a process through which the young person rejects the old
child identity that he or she now wants to shed to clear the way for more grown up
redefinition ahead. Rebellion at this early adolescent age proclaims: "I refuse to be defined
and treated as a child anymore!" Now he knows how he doesn't want to be, but he has yet to
discover and establish how he does want to be.
Excerpted from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-
adolescence/200912/rebel-cause-rebellion-in-adolescence

8-RI.11.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1480
Q2 From “Should College Athletes Get Paid?”

8-IB.1.1 College and basketball programs rake in billions of dollars each year through marketing,
Q3 broadcast contracts, ticket sales and merchandising. The March Madness basketball
tournament alone generates more than $1 billion each year in advertising revenues, far more
8-IB.3.3 than the Super Bowl.
Q4
Schools and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) both benefit tremendously
Back to from the windfall, as do coaches, many of whom are paid more than a million dollars each
page 1 year.

But the athletes themselves? They don’t get a penny.

Officially considered “amateurs” by the NCAA, college athletes are contractually forbidden
from receiving any kind of monetary compensation. That means they can not only receive
wages, but are also prohibited from accepting sponsorship deals or any other kind of publicity-
related payouts. In fact, there have been multiple high-profile instances of well-known players
punished for minor infractions of these rules, as in the case of the University of Georgia’s star
running back Todd Gurley, who was suspended from play last year after accepting cash for
autographed memorabilia.

The NCAA remains adamant that student athletes not receive any direct financial
10
 compensation for their participation. The group insists that the generous scholarships most
top student athletes receive, covering their tuition and most living expenses at some of the
best schools in the nation, is ample reward, as is the invaluable media exposure. Furthermore,
the NCAA argues, the profits from football and basketball are used to fund less lucrative
sports like volleyball or golf.

But as profits from college sports continue to surge each year, diminishing the gap between
elite college athletics and the pros, a growing number of student advocates argue that college
athletes, many of whom practice upwards of 60 hours a week and often accumulate debt
even with their scholarships, deserve a share of the profits. It’s their talent, after all, that
brings in the billions. Advocates argue that the NCAA is exploiting college athletes by profiting
from their skill and celebrity status and not giving them even a small slice of the pie. And, they
argue, there is little protection for college athletes who get injured “on the job” and risk losing
their scholarships, which are mostly allotted only on a yearly basis.

8-RL.8.1 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 800
Q2 A Time for Jazz
From ReadWorks.org
8-RL.7.2
Q3 Lina had been at it for an entire hour. Her fingers were poised on the shiny white keys of her
piano. Old and crinkled sheet music sat in front of her, the black notes blankly staring at her.
8-RL.6.1 She stared at them for so long, her vision started to blur. Lina had been working on this piece
Q4 for the past week, trying to master the tricky rhythm and memorize the movements required
by her long fingers. She loved the piano; she always had, ever since she started playing at the
8-W.2.1j age of six. But something was beginning to bother her. She was growing tired of the pieces her
Q5 teacher assigned her week after week. They were all classical music pieces, and even though
Lina loved them, she was itching to try something new.  

Back to She decided to take a break. She got up from the piano bench and stretched her stiff limbs.
page 1 She walked into the kitchen, grabbed some celery and peanut butter out of the fridge, and
turned on the radio. The room was suddenly filled with the sound of blaring trumpets, beating
drums, a singing saxophone, and trilling piano keys. She assumed her dad had been listening
to this station earlier in the day—he had always been a big fan of jazz music. Lina had never
really joined in on her father’s passion for that type of music, but something about this
particular song made her listen more carefully.

Lina’s trance was broken by the sound of the back door opening.  

“Helloooo!” her dad called out. 

“Hey dad, what’s the name of this song?” she asked him, eagerly.  

He stopped in his tracks and listened for a few seconds.  

“I think this one is called ‘Things Ain’t What They Used to Be’ by Duke Ellington and his big
band,” he said. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Lina nodded her head in agreement. “I wish I could play the piano like that,” she told him.  

11
“Why not?” he asked. “All your classical piano training will help a lot if you want to learn jazz
piano.”  

“All right, I’ll ask Mr. Wilson next week at class if we can start doing some jazz lessons!” she
said excitedly.  

Lina continued to listen to the jazz radio station for the rest of the evening. While she and her
dad prepared dinner, they were serenaded by the sounds of crooning saxophones and beating
cymbals. The two didn’t talk; they just swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the music
while chopping vegetables and waiting for pasta to boil.  

Just as they were setting the dinner table, Lina’s mom rushed through the door.  

“Sorry I’m late!” she said. “I had to stay longer at work than I had planned.”

“You’re just in time for dinner!” Lina replied and pulled out a chair for her mom to sit down.  
As she plopped down onto her seat, she caught the melody of the tune that was playing on
the radio. “Ohhhh, I love this song. My father used to play this on our piano when I was little,”
she said with a smile.  

Lina asked if her mom listened to jazz while growing up. 

“Oh, all the time!” she exclaimed. “My dad was a huge fan. He was a pianist himself. He
learned how to play from his father—my grandfather—who was around when swing music
was just becoming popular,” she explained.  

“When was that?” Lina asked.  

“Well, swing music—a type of jazz style with a strong beat that really makes you want to
dance— was played for a long time by the African‐American community before it really
became popular. My grandfather and his father were playing swing long before it was heard
on the radio. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, many Americans were out of jobs
and money. So of course they needed something to cheer them up. When people heard swing
music, they forgot about their problems. The music was just so uplifting. So big bands, like the
one led by Duke Ellington, started to play at famous ballrooms and theaters all across the
United States and even Europe,” her mom explained.  

“And so that’s when your grandpa was around?” Lina asked. She was so excited to learn that
she had a connection to this music.  

“Yes, he loved to go dancing. He even saw Duke Ellington and his band play once! His favorite
song was ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing,’” her mother replied.  

Mr. Wilson had played that song for Lina at one of her weekly classes. He had told her that it
was a revolutionary piece of music and is still listened to by jazz audiences today all around
the world. Lina loved the way music could be passed down through generations. She wished
she could have seen Duke Ellington’s band play live.  

“Well, it sounds like you’re interested in jazz history all of a sudden. What’s making you ask all
these questions?” Lina’s mom asked.  
12
 Lina explained that she wanted to learn something new. She had learned enough classical
music and wanted to move on to something else.  

“Then start improvising!” Lina’s mom told her. “Jazz is all about improvising. So many solos
you hear on these records are just musicians playing what their heart feels.”  

Lina thought about improvising. She could hardly imagine just sitting down at the piano and
playing anything that came to her mind, just piecing together notes in a way that would
captivate her listeners. She remained silent for a while, concentrating hard on what she could
possibly play off the top of her head.

Her mom noticed Lina’s brow furrow. “The only way you’re going to learn how to improvise is
if you try,” she told her daughter. She walked over to the piano and pulled out the bench. She
patted it and looked over to the dinner table at Lina.   Her beckoning smile acted like the
muses of Greek mythology, inspiring Lina with a passion for the arts.

“Let’s start now!” she said with excitement in her eyes.

8-RL.8.1 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 540
Q2 Music Inside of Us
Q3 by Kyria Abrahams

8-W.2.1j When I was four years old, I wanted nothing more in life than to play the piano. My best
Q4 friend Bethany had a piano, but she didn't play it very often. I could barely contain my
jealousy. I felt something tingle inside me when I played it. The piano was important. It was
8-IB.3.4 meant to be. Bethany hardly played it at all. She would rather play hide‐and‐seek. It didn't
Q5 seem fair.
Q6
One day my mother came to pick me up from Bethany's house.
Back to
page 1 “Watch this!” I told her. Then I ran to play a song I had learned that morning. It was a Russian
ballad called “Song of the Volga Boatmen.” It was a very easy arrangement of notes, and I
learned it quickly. The lyrics went like this:
Yo‐oh.
Yo heave ho.
One more time.
Once again.
I sang the song while I played it.

“Check it out, Mom!” I was so proud of what I'd learned. “I can play this song all by myself!”  

“That's nice,” she said. “But we can't afford a piano.”  

I cried a little, or maybe I even cried a lot. Then we went home. There was nothing I could do.
There would be no piano on that day. It wasn't that my mother didn't want to give me a
piano. She just couldn't. In fact, we wouldn't have the money to buy a piano for almost 10
more years.  

13
When I turned six, my mother bought me a recorder. The recorder is like a plastic clarinet. I
learned to play “Three Blind Mice” and “Hot Cross Buns” but not “Song of the Volga
Boatmen.” The problem was I didn't love the recorder. It was just something to play. The
piano was special. When I played the recorder, I didn't feel anything special inside. I hated
practicing. I was bored.   I asked my mother if we could have a piano.  

“We still can't afford one,” she said. “One day, I promise.”

In the sixth grade, my mother traded in the recorder for a real clarinet. I liked the clarinet
more, but it still wasn't a piano. My brother asked if he could have a guitar. Instead, my
mother bought him a flute. He didn't like the flute at all.

“It was on sale,” she told him. “It's a nice flute! You should play the flute.”

I never once saw my brother practice the flute. He left the flute lying around the house like he
was trying to lose it. My mother would find it in the living room shoved under the couch.  

“I just don't understand you!” my mother would exclaim. “A perfectly good flute!”

“But I wanted a guitar,” he would say.

I taught myself a little bit of the flute as well as the clarinet. I thought it would make my
mother feel better about spending money. But in my heart, I still longed for a piano.

Everyone said I had a very nice sound on the clarinet; that it was “smooth,” and I never
squeaked or squawked my high notes. I liked being good at something, and I loved playing
music, but I wasn't happy. It wasn't the music that was inside of me.  

One day, when I was in seventh grade, my mother clipped an ad out of the newspaper. This
was back in the 1980s, before computers, so if people wanted to sell something, they had to
put an ad in an actual newspaper.

We drove to a stranger's home in Providence, Rhode Island, where I grew up. The woman had
a beautiful, dark wood piano from Russia. It's called an upright piano because it was tall. It had
a slick, modern design. It was so shiny it looked like it was wet.  

“We'll take it,” my mother said. “It has a nice sound.”

After that, I played the piano every single day. I played it before school. I played it after school.
I even played if I stayed home sick. On the weekends, I played all day long until my parents
had to ask me to stop.  

When I left for school in the morning, I would leave sheet music open on the piano. Sheet
music is like a book with notes and lyrics in it. It tells you how a song goes. So I would plan it
out ahead of time, before I left.

When I got home from school, I wouldn't even take my backpack off. I'd walk straight to the
piano and sit down and start playing the sheet music I had left open that morning.   I had
finally found the music inside of me.  

14
 We all have music inside of us, even if it's just what we listen to. Surely, you have a favorite
band or a favorite song. You want to sing along with it, or dance to it. You move to the beat of
that favorite song.   Or, maybe, like my brother, you want to pick up a guitar and actually play
that song. It's been 20 years since my brother asked for a guitar. Now he owns four of them.  

Do you struggle with music? Have you been given an instrument to play, but you just can't
play it? Maybe like my brother, you were given a flute when you really wanted a guitar.   If
you find that you are struggling with your instrument, remember the story of my clarinet. I
wasn't happy with the clarinet, because it wasn't the right instrument for me. Remember my
brother and how much he hated the flute? He loves the guitar and plays every day. He also
sings.

Maybe you think you're just no good or that you don't have any musical talent. Don't get
discouraged. It's not true! We all have music inside of us. Now it's up to you to find the right
way to set that music free.

8-RL.8.1 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 980
Q3 “Fitting In”

8-RL.6.1 Hubert walked toward the Paul Bunyan-sized apartment building in the housing projects
Q2 where he lived in inner city Minneapolis. Groups of men held their usual places on the
sidewalks, selling drugs and flashing gang signs. As he trudged past, doing his best not to
8-RL.7.2 meet their eyes, Hubert thought about his mother, three brothers, and two sisters who lived
Q4 inside. His mom was doing her best to raise her children to be good people with moral values
Q5 and self-discipline, but Hubert was struggling at school and in his neighborhood.
Closing the apartment door, he heard his mom’s voice from the kitchen, “Don’t forget
Back to tomorrow is Sunday and church starts at 9:00 am.” Hubert hung his head because he knew
page 1 kids from his class would be there and they always made fun of his second hand clothes and
worn out shoes.
Hubert turned the corner into the kitchen, grabbed a carrot stick from the cutting board and
began to chew. “Aww mom, do I have to go?” he whined between bites. His mother, her
work clothes covered by a worn apron, nodded her head. “Of course son. We never miss
church on Sunday.” Hubert walked down the hall and closed the door to his room quietly.
On Monday, Julio, a kid in his math class, showed off new Air Jordan sneakers to his friends.
When Hubert walked in, the group of boys laughed and pointed at his scuffed up, worn out
shoes. “Where did you get those sneakers, from the trash bin on the corner?” Julio teased.
Embarrassed, Hubert quickly left class and sneaked out of the building before class started.
Julio and his friends teasing him every day was beginning to irk him beyond the level of
tolerance.
Hubert ran into an older boy, Sylvester, after leaving school. “You cutting school
today?” asked Sylvester.
“Yea, I am tired of Julio thinking he is so cool because he has nicer things than I do,” Hubert
replied. “My mom has two jobs, but she can barely afford to pay our rent and buy clothes for
my younger sister and brothers.”
Sylvester hesitated, then told Hubert that he knew where he could get “acquire” some new
shoes. They walked to the store downtown and strolled around nonchalantly looking at the
shoes.
“I am going to ask the lady if she has a pair of shoes in a size 11,” Sylvester said.
15
 “When she is distracted, slide those shoes into your backpack and walk out.”
Hubert’s heart beat quickly. He tried to get Sylvester’s attention, but it was too late.
He was already talking to the saleswoman. Hubert didn’t want Sylvester to tease him about
being scared, so he quickly stuffed the shoes into his backpack and walked out of the door. He
couldn’t believe what he had done. His mother’s loving face flashed into his imagination as he
ran around the corner, took out the shoes, tore off the tags, and slid them on. What would
she think if she could see him now? Hubert shook his head stubbornly. With these shoes,
Julio couldn’t make fun of him. Sylvester walked around the corner, grinning, and high fived
Hubert. The two quickly walked back to their neighborhood and went up to his apartment.
They spent the rest of the day watching movies and hanging out with Sylvester’s friends. For
the first time in a long time, Hubert felt like he fit in. He knew Sylvester friends were part of a
gang, but he also knew they had nice cars and clothes. Many of them had grown up in
families just like his, but now they were able to buy what they wanted. Juan, one of the older
boys, told Hubert he would give him $100.00 if he delivered a package downtown for him. His
life felt like a “Cinderella story” all of a sudden! He knew that if he worked for them, he would
be able to buy nice things and help his mom pay the rent. “I’ll just have to convince my mom
that I have a part time job,” he thought to himself.
At that moment, Hubert heard a knock at the apartment door followed by the click of his
mother’s shoes walking toward the door. He heard the hum of voices, one of them male, and
his mother’s high-pitched question, “What seems to be the problem, officer?” There was
another moment of low voices, and then “Hubert?”
The boy’s heart sank. He slunk toward the apartment door, looking at the floor. Each step
was torture and he dreaded the conversation to come – dreaded the admission of guilt and
the disappointment on his mother’s face that his admission would doubtless create.

8-RL.6.1 Text Type: Poem

Q1 Lexile: 810
Q2 “Teenagers”
by Pat Mora
8-RL.8.1
Q3 One day they disappear
into their rooms.
8-RL.7.2 Doors and lips shut
Q4 and we become strangers
Back to in our own home.
page 1
I pace the hall, hear whispers,
a code I knew but can't remember,
mouthed by mouths I taught to speak.

Years later the door opens.

I see faces I once held,
open as sunflowers in my hands. I see
familiar skin now stretched on long bodies
that move past me
glowing almost like pearls.

8-RL.9.2 Text Type: Drama

Q1 Lexile: 1110
Q2
16
Q3 Excerpted from Anne Frank & Me by Cherie Bennett

8-RL.12.2 1 After Nicole, a typical suburban American teenager, bumps her head in an accident, she
Q4 wakes up in another time and place—Paris in 1942. Nicole’s new family is Jewish. Soon after
Q5 the Nazis arrest the family, they are put on a train to Auschwitz, a concentration camp where
Q6 Jews and other people to whom the Nazis objected were forced to do hard labor and, often,
killed. This is where Nicole meets Anne Frank, the real writer of The Diary of a Young Girl.

AT RISE: During the following monologue, Nazis shove more people into the cattle car.

3 NICOLE. (pre-recorded). Right now we are in Westerbork, in Holland. Earlier today they
Back to opened the door and shoved
page 1 more people into our car. They speak Dutch. I can’t understand them at all. I try to keep
track of the dates as best I can. I think it is the 3 rd of September, 1944. Surely the war will be
over soon.

(Train sounds. NICOLE makes her way to the bucket in the corner, which is used as a toilet. A
girl sits in front of the bucket, asleep, her back to us.)

5 NICOLE. (tapping the girl on the shoulder). I’m sorry to disturb you but I need to use the—

(The girl turns around. It is ANNE FRANK, thin, huge eyes. Their eyes meet. Some memory is
instantly triggered in NICOLE. She knows this girl, knows things about her. But how?)

7 ANNE. Spreekn U Nederlander? (Spreck-en Ooo Ned-er-lander?) (NICOLE just stares.) So

you speak French, then? Is this better?

NICOLE. I . . . I need to use the—

9 ANNE. It’s all right. I’ll hold my coat for you to give you some privacy. (NICOLE goes to the
bucket, ANNE holds her coat to shield her.)

NICOLE. Thank you.

11 ANNE. Just please do the same for me when the time comes. Have you been in here a
long time? (NICOLE finishes, fixes her dress.)

NICOLE. Seventeen days, starting just outside Paris.

13 ANNE. It smells like it.

NICOLE. Does it? I can’t even tell anymore.

15 ANNE. It’s all right. It’s not important.

NICOLE. Look, I know this sounds crazy, but. . .I know you.

17 ANNE. Have you been to Amsterdam?

NICOLE. No, never.

17
19 ANNE. Well, I’ve never been to Paris. Although I will go some day, I can assure you of that.

NICOLE. I do know you. Your name is . . . Anne Frank.

21 ANNE. (shocked). That’s right! Who are you?

NICOLE. Nicole Bernhardt. I know so much about you . . . you were in hiding for a long time,
in a place you called . . . the Secret Annex—

23 ANNE. How could you know that?

NICOLE. (her memory is flooded). You were with your parents, and your older sister . . .
Margot! And . . . some other people . . .

25 ANNE. Mr. Pfeffer and the Van Pels, they’re all back there asleep—

NICOLE. Van Daans!

27 ANNE. (shocked). I only called them that in my diary. How could you know that?

NICOLE. And Peter! Your boyfriend’s name was Peter!

29 ANNE. How could you know that?

NICOLE. You thought your parents would disapprove that you were kissing him—

30 ANNE. How is this possible?

NICOLE. You kept a diary. I read it.

31 ANNE. But . . . I left my diary in the Annex when the Gestapo came. You couldn’t have
read it.

NICOLE. But I did.

33 ANNE. How?

NICOLE. I don’t know.

35 ANNE. (skeptical). This is a very, very strange conversation.

NICOLE. I feel like it was . . .I know this sounds crazy . . . but it feels like it was in the future.

37 ANNE. This is a joke, right? Peter put you up to this.

NICOLE. No—

39 ANNE. Daddy, then, to take my mind off—

18
 NICOLE. No.

41 ANNE. (cynical). Maybe you’re a mind reader! (She closes her eyes.) What number am I
thinking of right now?

NICOLE. I have no idea. Do you believe in time travel?

43 ANNE. I’m to believe that you’re from the future? Really, I’m much more intelligent than I
look.

NICOLE. I don’t know how I know all this. I just do.

44 ANNE. Maybe you’re an angel.

NICOLE. That would certainly be news to me.

Text Type: Informational

8-RI.10.1 Lexile: 710
Q1 Adapted from a Speech by Wendell Wilkie
Q2
Q3 In the following speech at Stern Park Gardens, IL, July 12, 1942, former U.S. presidential candidate
Wendell Wilkie eulogizes (or praises highly, usually after death) a city and a people destroyed by Nazi
8-RI.11.2 tyranny. In this speech, Wilkie refers to the story of the town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech
Q4 Republic), where the entire village was destroyed by Nazis as punishment because a Nazi official
(Reinhard Heydrich) was ambushed and murdered on a road outside of town.
Q5
Q6
[…]They came in the night, men in boots and brown shirts, and they took from their homes
8-RI.7.1 the (confused) miners and farmers, the tailor and the priest, the boy of seventeen and the
Q7 old man of seventy, more than two hundred in all, and they shot them, because they could
Q8 think of no other way to avenge the death of Heydrich.  Fifty-six women they took also and
killed, and proudly listed their names.  The rest of the women they drove into what they
8-W.1.1 called concentration camps; and these women the world will never see again.  They herded
Q9 the pale, terror-stricken children into trucks and carried them off to correction schools
Q10 where they would be taught that they must honor the murderers of their fathers and the
brutalizers of their mothers.  The ninety homes, they burned to the ground, the church of St.
Margaret they stamped into the earth.  And the name of the little town of Lidice, through
which ran the street called after a President of the United States, they rubbed out, they
Back to thought, from history.
page 1 Why did they do this deed, more terrible than anything that has happened since the Dark
Ages, a deed not of passion, but of cold, premeditated 1, systematic murder and rapine2?
Why? They did it because they are afraid.  They are afraid because the free spirit in men has
refused to be conquered.  Theirs is a system of force and terror and Lidice is the terrible
symbol of that system.
But it is not the only one.  Of the five hundred thousand men, women and children who
have been shot in Europe by the Nazis, at least twenty-five thousand have perished in mass
massacres. Poland, Norway, Belgium, Yugoslavia, all have their Lidices.  But this one-a
symbol of all we have sworn to remember, if only because the Nazis themselves demand

19
 that we forget it.  Once more, they have misjudged the human spirit.
Because a hangman was killed, Lidice lives.  Because a hangman was killed, Wilson Street
must once again be part of a little Bohemian town.  Because the lanterns of Lidice have been
blacked out, a flame has been lit which can never be extinguished.  Each of the wounds of
those two hundred men and fifty-six women is a mouth that cries out that other free men
and free women must not suffer a like fate.  Everywhere, but particularly in our own
country, the wave of stubborn, stern resolve rises.  Lidice lives.  She lives again, thirty-five
hundred miles from Wilson Street and St. Margaret Church, in this little village in Illinois.
I look about me here, and I can see in the distance the black smoke of steel factories,
swarming with American workers of all bloods and races.  No contrast could be greater than
the peaceful Lidice the Nazis thought they had destroyed, and this Illinois country, alive with
factories in which the arms of victory are being forged.  But I tell you that the two are
related.  For while such deeds as Lidice are done in another country, we cannot rest until we
are sure that they will never be done in our own.
Let us here highly resolve that the memory of this little village of Bohemia, now resurrected
by the people of a little village in Illinois, will fire us, now and until the battle is over, with the
iron resolution that the madness of tyrants must perish from the earth, so that the earth
may return to the people to whom it belongs, and be their village, their home, forever.

1
– premeditated – thought out carefully before taking action
2
– rapine – the violent seizure of someone’s property

Source: http://www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/wendell_wilkie-eulogy.html

8-RL.12.2 Text Type: Drama

Q1 Lexile: 840
Q2 From Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
Q3 The following selection is an excerpt from a play set in New York City in the 1940s.
Q4

It’s around six-thirty and the late-September sun is sinking fast. KATE JEROME, about forty
8-RL.9.2 years old, is setting the table. Her sister, BLANCHE MORTON, thirty-eight, is working at the
Q5 sewing machine. LAURIE MORTON, aged thirteen, is lying on the sofa reading a book.
Q6
Q7 Outside on the grass stands EUGENE JEROME, almost but not quite fifteen. He is wearing
knickers, a shirt and tie, a faded and torn sweater, Keds sneakers, and a blue baseball cap. He
has a beaten and worn baseball glove on his left hand, and in his right hand he holds a softball
Back to that is so old and battered that it is ready to fall apart.
page 1
On an imaginary pitcher’s mound, facing left, he looks back over his shoulder to an imaginary
runner on second, then back over to the “batter.” Then he winds up and pitches, hitting an
offstage wall.

[4] EUGENE. One out, a man on second, bottom of the seventh, two balls, no strikes… Ruffling
checking the runner on second, gets the sign from Dickey, Ruffing stretches, Ruffing pitches –
(He throws the ball) Caught the inside corner, steerike one! Atta baby! No hitter up there. (He
retrieves the ball) One out, a man on second, bottom of the seventh, two balls, one strike…
Ruffing checks the runner on second, gets the sign from Dickey, Ruffing stretches, Ruffing
20
pitches – (He throws the ball) Low and outside, ball three. Come on, Red! Make him a hitter!
No batter up there. In there all the time, Red.

[5] BLANCHE. (Stops sewing) Kate, please. My head is splitting.

KATE. I told that boy a hundred and nine times. (She yells out) Eugene! Stop banging the wall!

[7]EUGENE. (Calls out) In a minute, Ma! This is the World Series! (Back to his game) One out, a
man on second, bottom of the seventh, three balls, one strike…Ruffing stretches, Ruffing
pitches – (He throws the ball) Oh no! High and outside, JoJo Moore walks! First and second
and Mel Ott lopes up to the plate…

BLANCHE. (Stops again) Can’t he do that someplace else?

KATE. I’ll break his arm, that’s where he’ll do it. (She calls out) Eugene, I’m not going to tell
you again. Do you hear me?

[10] EUGENE. It’s the last batter, Mom. Me! It’s a crucial moment in World Series history.

KATE. Your Aunt Blanche has a splitting headache.

BLANCHE. I don’t want him to stop playing. It’s just the banging.

LAURIE. (Looks up for her book) He always does it when I’m studying. I have a big test in
history tomorrow.

EUGENE. One pitch, Ma? I think I can get him to pop up. I have my stuff today.

KATE. Your father will give you plenty of stuff when he comes home! You hear?

EUGENE. All right! All right!

[17] KATE. I want you inside now! Put out the water glasses.

BLANCHE. I can do that.

KATE. Why? Is his arm broken? (She yells out again) And I don’t want any back talk you hear?
(She goes back to the kitchen)

EUGENE. (Slams the ball into his glove angrily. Then he cups his hand, making a megaphone
out of it, and announces to the grandstands) “Attention, ladeeees and gentleman! Today’s
game will be delayed because of my Aunt Blanche’s headache…”

KATE. Blanche, that’s enough sewing today. That’s all I need is for you to go blind.

BLANCHE. I just have this one edge to finish…Laurie, darling, help your Aunt Kate with the
dishes.

LAURIE. Two more pages, all right, Ma? I have to finish the Macedonian Wars.

21
 KATE. Always studying, that one. She’s gonna have some head on her shoulders. (She calls out
from the kitchen) Eugene!!

EUGENE. I’m coming.

KATE. And wash your hands.

[27]EUGENE. They’re clean. I’m wearing a glove. (He throws the ball into his gloved again…
then he looks out front and addresses the audience) I hate my name! Eugene Morris
Jerome...It is the second worst name ever given to a male child. The first worst is Haskell
Fleischmann…How am I ever going to play for the Yankees with a name like Eugene Morris
Jerome? You have to be a Joe…or a Tony…or Frankie…If only I was born Italian…All the best
Yankees are Italian…My mother makes spaghetti with ketchup, what chance do I have? (He
slams the ball into his glove again)

LAURIE. I’m almost through, Ma.

BLANCHE. All right, darling. Don’t get up too quickly.

KATE. (To Laurie) You have better color today, sweetheart. Did you get a little sun this
morning?

LAURIE. I walked down to the beach.

BLANCHE. Very slowly, I hope?

LAURIE. Yes, Ma.

BLANCHE. That’s good

[35]EUGENE (Turns to the audience again) She gets all this special treatment because the
doctor says she has kind of a flutter in her heart...I got hit with a baseball right in the back of
the skull, I saw two of everything for a week and I still had to carry a block of ice home every
afternoon…Girls are treated like queens.

8-RI.10.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1000
Q2 Equal Rights for Women
Q3 by Shirley Chisholm

8-RI.11.2 Adapted Address to The United States House of Representatives. Washington. DC: May 21,
Q4 1969
Q5
Q6 Mr. Speaker, when a young woman graduates from college and starts looking for a job, she
is likely to have a frustrating and even demeaning experience ahead of her. If she walks into
8-W.1.1 an office for an interview, the first question she will be asked is, “Do you type?”
Q7 There is a calculated system of prejudice that lies unspoken behind that question. Why is it
acceptable for women to be secretaries, librarians, and teachers, but totally unacceptable for
them to be managers, administrators, doctors, lawyers, and Members of Congress?
Back to The unspoken assumption is that women are different. They do not have executive ability,
22
page 1 orderly minds, stability, leadership skills, and they are too emotional.
It has been observed before, that society for a long time, discriminated against another
minority, the blacks, on the same basis – that they were different and inferior. The happy little
homemaker and the contended “old darkey” on the plantation were both produced by
prejudice.
As a black person, I am no stranger to race prejudice. But the truth is that in the political
world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am
black.
Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it.
But it is doomed because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice
again women is still acceptable. There is very little understanding yet of immorality involved in
double pay scales and the classification of most of the better jobs as “for men only.”
More than half of the population of the United States is female. But women occupy only 2
percent of the managerial positions. They have not even reached the level of tokenism yet. No
women sit on the AFL-CIO council or the Supreme Court. There have been only two women
who have held Cabinet rank, and at the present time there are none. Only two women now
hold ambassadorial rank in the diplomatic corps. In Congress, we are down to one Senator
and 10 Representatives.
Considering that there are about 3 ½ million more women in the United States than men,
this situation is outrageous.
It is true that part of the problem has been that women have not been aggressive in
demanding their rights. This was true of the black population for many years. They submitted
to oppression and even cooperated with it. Women have done the same thing. But now there
is an awareness of this situation particularly among the younger segment of the population.
As in the field of equal rights for blacks, Spanish-Americans, the Indians, and other groups,
laws will not change such deep-seated problems overnight. But they can be used to provide
protection for those who are most abused, and to begin the process of evolutionary change
by compelling the insensitive majority to reexamine its unconscious attitudes.
It is for this reason that I wish to introduce today a proposal that has been before every
Congress for the last 40 years and that sooner or later must become part of the basic law of
the land -- the equal rights amendment.
Let me note and try to refute two of the commonest arguments that are offered against this
amendment. One is that women are already protected under the law and do not need
legislation. Existing laws are not adequate to secure equal rights for women. Sufficient proof
of this is the concentration of women in lower paying, menial, unrewarding jobs and their
incredible scarcity in the upper level jobs. If women are already equal, why is it such an event
whenever one happens to be elected to Congress?
It is obvious that discrimination exists. Women do not have the opportunities that men do.
And women that do not conform to the system, who try to break with the accepted patterns,
are stigmatized as ''odd'' and "unfeminine." The fact is that a woman who aspires to be
chairman of the board, or a Member of the House, does so for exactly the same reasons as
any man. Basically, these are that she thinks she can do the job and she wants to try.
A second argument often heard against the equal rights amendment is that it would
eliminate legislation that many States and the Federal Government have enacted giving
special protection to women and that it would throw the marriage and divorce laws into
chaos.
As for the marriage laws, they are due for a sweeping reform, and an excellent beginning
would be to wipe the existing ones off the books. Regarding special protection for working
women, I cannot understand why it should be needed. Women need no protection that men
do not need. What we need are laws to protect working people, to guarantee them fair pay,
23
 safe working conditions, protection against sickness and layoffs, and provision for dignified,
comfortable retirement. Men and women need these things equally. That one sex needs
protection more than the other is a male supremacist myth as ridiculous and unworthy of
respect as the white supremacist myths that society is trying to cure itself of at this time.

8-RI.7.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: NR
Q2 Women in Leadership Roles Infographic

8-W.1.1
Q3

Back to
page 1

8-RL.12.1 Text Type: Poem

Q1 Lexile: 950
“The Same Cold”
by Stephen Dunn

24
Back to In Minnesota the serious cold arrived
page 1 like no cold I'd previously experienced,
an in-your-face honesty to it, a clarity
that always took me by surprise.
On blizzard nights with wires down
or in the dead-battery dawn
the cold made good neighbors of us all,
made us moral because we might need
something moral in return, no hitchhiker
left on the road, not even some frozen
strange-looking stranger turned away
from our door. After a spell of it,
I remember, zero would feel warm—
people out for walks, jackets open,
ice fishermen in the glory
of their shacks moved to Nordic song.

The cold took over our lives,

lived in every conversation, as compelling
as local dirt or local sport.
If bitten by it, stranded somewhere,
a person would want
to lie right down in it and sleep.
Come February, some of us needed
to scream, hurt ourselves, divorce.
Once, on Route 23, thirty below,
my Maverick seized up, and a man
with a blanket and a candy bar, a man
for all weather, stopped and drove me home.
It was no big thing to him, the savior.
Just two men, he said, in the same cold.
"The Same Cold" by Stephen Dunn, from Different Hours. © W.W. Norton, 2000. Reprinted with permission
8-RL.12.1 Text Type: Poem
Q1 Lexile: 990
Q2 “The Titanic” by June Robertson Beisch from Fatherless Woman

Back to So this is how it feels, the deck tilting,

page 1 the world slipping away as one
sitting at a desk writes a check.

The Titanic went down titanically

like a goddess glittering,
Pinioned to an iceberg, she sank

almost thankfully while tiny mortals

leapt into the sea
and the band played Nearer My God to Thee.

But what happened to the signals of distress?

25
 Nobody believed it was all really happening.
I still can’t believe that it happened to me.

As a child, I stared horrified at the photograph

and the vision of that scene in the moonlit sea.
We will be one of the survivors, we think,
then something looms up like catastrophe.

All life, it seems, is the morning after

and love is the most beautiful of absolute disasters.

8-RL.12.1 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 890
Q2 Adapted from "The Sinking Ship" by Jack Parker,
Q3 Yarram Secondary College, Australia
Q4
“Land Ahoy!” shouted one pirate.

“Where?” I asked quickly.

Back to “Starboard side!” the first pirate responded, “in the distance!”
page 1
I pointed my telescope in that direction and, sure enough, LAND! We had been sailing for
days, not knowing where we were going or if we were going to survive. We had lost two men,
and I had lost my crew’s respect. They had attempted a mutiny just two days ago, but my best
mates stuck up for me and put them into line.

“We are saved! We are saved!” shouted one to another.

The crew was filled with rejoicing, all were on their feet singing and dancing. I hadn’t seen
them like this since we had sunk the Spanish Treasure Fleet and looted all of their gold. After
that, we had eaten like kings for weeks. Today we were not to be so lucky. Joy was cut short
with a thunderous CRACK as the hull hit the sharp jagged reef that no one had spotted while
we were distracted. The reef had waited for its chance to jump out at us, to catch us off guard.
We were all thrown off our feet as the ship ground to a sudden halt. A few men working close
to the edge of the boat fell over board and were cut on the coral below.

Having completely destroyed the ship, we were going nowhere fast when we realized we had
cleared the coral and were now in very deep water. We were sinking!

“We’re done for!” whispered my navigator to me. “There’s no way we can get to land now.
We might as well jump into the bed of coral.” “Captain,” he continued, “you can’t work
miracles.”

“NO,” I screamed at him, “as long as I am captain, I will NOT let us die.” I aimed, swung, and
hit him in the jaw. He fell to the ground, with a dull THUD as he hit the deck.

“What on earth can we do,” I thought. We were sinking fast and I had to make my decision
now. I looked around the sea for something to help me. Then I spotted a sandbar. If we could
land on that we might have half a chance.

26
 “Turn to port!” I shouted. The ship slowly turned but was not as responsive as usual. Too
slowly it creaked towards the sandbar. Either my reaction had been too late or the boat was
too damaged to make it. Either way, we were going down. We slowly took on more and more
water. A few men tried to save themselves by jumping overboard, but most accepted doom.
As the ship disappeared under the water, my last thoughts were about of all those I had
robbed and abandoned, about pirates who had trusted me, and about my family. I realized
that I deserved this horrible death.

8-RI.10.1 Text Type: Informational

Q1 Lexile: 1050
Q2 “Reality TV stars make more than government officials ”
Debra Auerbach, CareerBuilder Writer
8-RI.11.2
Q3
Q4 Our nation's leaders carry a heavy weight on their shoulders. They are under intense pressure
Q5 and scrutiny, charged with making decisions that affect each and every American.
Q6
Then there are reality TV stars. Sure, they help Americans in their own special way -- giving
8-W.1.1 viewers a mindless and entertaining escape from life's daily stresses. But there's no way these
Q7 stars get paid more money to broadcast their lives on national TV than top government
officials do to run our country, right? Wrong. While government leaders do earn high salaries,
Back to their paychecks don't compare to the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars that
page 1 reality TV stars pocket per episode or season.

To see just how big the salary discrepancies are between these two groups, here's a list
comparing the earnings of top government leaders and reality TV stars. Of course, any one of
the earners on this list may make, or have, more money from additional sources such as
previous businesses, other current ventures or inheritances, but this list focuses solely on the
salaries made via their government job or their current reality TV show.

Read on, and get ready to be shocked:

President of the United States: President Barack Obama makes $400,000 a year*, which
includes a $50,000 expense allowance. The first U.S. president, George Washington, earned a
$25,000 annual salary - a large sum for that time in history.

Reality TV star who earns more: Snooki, JWoww, Mike "The Situation" and the entire cast of
"Jersey Shore" reportedly make $100,000 per episode. With an average of 13 episodes per
season, they're raking in more than $1 million to generally make fools of themselves.

Vice president of the United States: In 2012, Vice President Joe Biden earned a salary of
$230,700.

Reality TV star who earns more: According to the website Celebrity Net Worth,
"Bachelor"/"Bachelorette" host Chris Harrison makes $60,000 per episode. There were 12
episodes in the most recent "Bachelorette" season, so that equals a cool $720,000.

Speaker of the House: Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, earns an annual salary of $223,500 as the
current speaker of the House.
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 Reality TV star who earns more: It's hard for anyone -- government official or other reality TV
star -- to keep up with Kim Kardashian. Kardashian makes $40,000 per episode for her reality
TV show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." There are 18 episodes in the 2012 season.
Remember: This doesn't include the money she earns from various endorsement deals,
product lines and appearances.
*Unless otherwise specified, all U.S. government officials' salaries are from
http://usgovinfo.about.com. Debra Auerbach is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com
and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career
management, hiring trends and workplace issues.

8-RL.12.1 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 920
Q2 Adapted Excerpt from “The Snowball Fight”

"Thank God for a porch roof, we would have never gotten the door opened,” said Misty.
Back to
page 1 "You are right about that," agreed Lily.

They lived on a dead end street, with only six other homes around them. Everyone in the
neighborhood was acquaintances, however, and never socialized. Lily, of course, knew
everyone from the diner and spoke with all of the neighbors, from time to time. Most of them
tipped her good, when they did eat at the diner.

Kevin had begun to build a fort, while Misty started rolling up snow to make a snowman. Lily
had climbed her way on top of the four foot of snow and was making snow angels. By the time
Kevin was finished building his fort, Misty was almost done with her snowman. She was
putting on the finishing touches, when Kevin belted her from behind with a huge snowball.

"Oh, it's on," Misty shouted to Kevin.

Kevin replied, "Bring it on!"

So Misty slipped behind her huge snowman, (it was so big that it gave plenty of coverage), and
began making snowballs. Lily had been watching and decided to slip over to help Misty. They
began to bombard Kevin with the snowballs that Misty had already made.

Before they knew it, the neighbors were all coming out from their warm houses to join in.
They all split up, the girls against the boys. After about thirty minutes, everyone was worn
out, cold, wet, and laughing so hard that they could barely stand up. They all started to make
their way back to their homes.
"Thank God for a porch roof, we would have never gotten the door opened", said Misty.

"You are right about that," agreed Lily.

They lived on a dead end street, with only six other homes around them. Everyone in the
neighborhood was acquaintances, however, and never socialized. Lily, of course, knew
everyone from the diner and spoke with all of the neighbors, from time to time. Most of them
tipped her good, when they did eat at the diner.

28
 Kevin had begun to build a fort, while Misty started rolling up snow to make a snowman. Lily
had climbed her way on top of the four foot of snow and was making snow angels. By the time
Kevin was finished building his fort, Misty was almost done with her snowman. She was
putting on the finishing touches, when Kevin belted her from behind with a huge snowball.

"Oh, it's on," Misty shouted to Kevin.

Kevin replied, "Bring it on!"

So Misty slipped behind her huge snowman, (it was so big that it gave plenty of coverage), and
began making snowballs. Lily had been watching and decided to slip over to help Misty. They
began to bombard Kevin with the snowballs that Misty had already made.

Before they knew it, the neighbors were all coming out from their warm houses to join in.
They all split up, the girls against the boys. After about thirty minutes, everyone was worn
out, cold, wet, and laughing so hard that they could barely stand up. They all started to make
their way back to their homes.
8-RI.10.1 Text Type: Informational
Q1 Lexile: 1020
Q3
Q4 “Press Box: Should professional athletes be paid millions of dollars?”
by Jeffrey Adamski
8-RI.11.2
Q2 In the world of sports, in today’s age, money plays an important role. A player who makes the
Q5 most money is looked at as the best player for that team or, ultimately, in the entire league.
Q6 While this may be true in most cases, does an athlete who excels at his personal sport deserve
Q7 to make the amount of money that he does? Professional athletes make millions of dollars
per year. In sports such as basketball, baseball, football and soccer, multi-year contracts are
negotiated worth a total of more than 100 million dollars. Now, it may be true that these
Back to players bring in a ton of money for each individual franchise, but what if they were paid half of
page 1 the amount they already get? That extra money could be donated towards high schools and
colleges around the country, where these athletes came from. The money could go to charity
and other people who are struggling to get by day to day. While all this extra cash seems nice
to professional athletes, the majority of them would be just as well off with some of their pay
cut. This would not only help others who aren’t as fortunate, but would also limit athletes
from sometimes wasting their money on gambling, jewelry or cars.

In 2013, Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James made $56.54 million dollars. He was the
MVP of the NBA and led his team to their second straight league championship. Most of us
won’t make $5 million in our entire lifetime. So do you think LeBron James would be okay
making around 30 million dollars a year? I think anybody in this world would be perfectly fine
making that much money a year, or even in a lifetime. The amount of money that
professional athletes make is outrageous. Yes, they are very talented people and deserve to
make a lot of money, but tens of millions of dollars per year is pretty excessive.
8-RL.11.1 Text Type: Fiction
Q1 Lexile: 950
Q2
“Why Dogs Chase Cats: A Virginia Folktale”
8-RL.10.1 Adapted from a Retelling by S. E. Schlosser
Q3
29
Q4
Once long ago, Dog and Cat were the best of friends. They were so happy together that
visitors often found dog sitting with a silly grin on his face and his tongue hanging out as he
8-RL.6.1
panted. Things went on like this for years until Dog noticed that every night when he came
Q5
home from work, Cat said she was too sick to make him dinner. Dog was sympathetic for a
Q6
while, but he soon got mighty tired of having to fix dinner for them both after a hard day's
work. After all, Cat just stayed home all day long, lolling around on a cushion. Some days
Back to
when he got home she didn’t even both to open her eyes all the way. She just rolled over and
page 1
stuck a lazy paw over the side of the bed. Dog tried to nudge her with his wet nose, but even
that didn’t force her to move. She just turned her back to him.
One day, Dog told Cat he was going to work, but instead he hid in the cupboard and watched
to see if Cat really was sick. As soon as Cat thought Dog had left, she started playing games
with Kitten. They laughed and ran about joyfully, leaping high in the air and batting things
around on the stone floor. They even told jokes and laughed about Dog being too dumb to
understand them.
“What did the dog say when he sat on sandpaper,” Cat asked kitten. Hearing no reply, she
said, “Rough, rough.”
Angered that cat had been lying to him all this time about being ill, Dog leaped out of the
cupboard. Both Cat and the kitten stared at him in silence.
“What’s the matter,” he asked, “cat got your tongue?”
Cat arched her back and laid back her ears. Then, sure that she could fool him just one more
time, she pasted a pitiable expression on her face, stuck a marble in her cheek, and told Dog
she had a toothache. Dog became so frustrated with her that he began to chase her around
and around the house.
Dogs have been chasing Cats ever since.

8-RL.7.2 Text Type: Fiction

Q1 Lexile: 840
Q2 Adapted and excerpted from “How to Trick Your Sister” W.M. Akers
(From www.readworks.org)
The plan was perfect. Rick had been working on it all week, sitting in the back of class, deep in
8-RL.11.1
thought. To the teacher, it looked like he was taking notes. In fact, he was… but not on
Q3
Algebra, To Kill a Mockingbird, or the Spanish-American War. Rick was a schemer and he was
planning how to ruin his sister’s birthday party.
8-RL.10.1
Q4 Rick didn’t have anything against Emily. She was a nice enough sister who helped him do the
Q5 dishes, kept out of his room, and let him nap on car trips. But Rick loved playing tricks and,
when it came to tomfoolery, there was no better target than Emily.
Back to
page 1 She liked her life to be orderly. When taking notes in school, she used nine different colored
pens in an organizational scheme so complex that it would take FBI scientists weeks to decode
it. Rick was not like that at all. He liked his bedroom floor to be covered in dirty clothes and
crumpled-up paper, He liked his music loud and his fireworks louder. Most of all, he liked
surprises.
There was the time he made his sister think all her dolls had moved away. There was the time

30
he’d hidden Dad’s car keys and made him two hours late for work. And there was his last
great accomplishment: disconnecting the oven to make Mom think that Thanksgiving dinner
would never be finished. That last trick would have been hard for most kids, but Rick was
smart with his hands. He could repair washing machines, dishwashers, and garage door
openers. He could also, much to his family’s chagrin, disconnect them when it suited him.
The trick at Emily’s party was going to be his greatest triumph. All he needed was a remote
control, a few bits of radio equipment, and two dozen small fireworks.
The night before her party, Emily’s excitement kept her awake, playing the party over in her
mind. With her mother’s help, Emily had planned everything down to the last detail. She had
filled a binder with the games they would play, foods they would eat, and outfits she might
wear. All the girls from her class were coming, although few would actually call her a friend.
She was often too shy to even raise her hand in class. Perhaps at her party she would emerge
from her cocoon like a very organized butterfly. Perhaps at school the next week she would
have friends who would tell her how awesome the two dozen cupcakes had been, frosted in
every color of the rainbow. She had even asked that Rick’s friend Andy come over during the
party to keep him in the basement playing video games. With careful planning, Emily didn’t
think it possible for Rick to ruin things. But she hadn’t counted on a remote control with a
radio signal strong enough to reach across the room through the basement door.
Mother had escorted Rick and Andy to the basement that already boasted a platter of
sandwiches and cookies and a cooler full of soft drinks.
“You two just stay here until all of the girls have gone home,” his mom had said.
“I promise I won’t come through that door until it’s over,” Rick responded, leaving his mother
to wonder why he was smiling.
Rick was proud of his handiwork. He had placed the base of an old remote-control dump
truck under the tablecloth beneath the cupcake platter on the dining room table. In their
house, the tradition was to sing “Happy Birthday” while their mother lit the candles, one of
which was on each of nine cupcakes. After the song was finished, little girls reached for
cupcakes frosted in their favorite hues.
Emily was having a wonderful time. Even Rachel, the most popular girl in class, had said, “This
is the best party any of my friends have ever thrown.” Emily was thrilled to have the ‘cool’ girl
call her a friend. She turned to her mother, smiling. From the corner of her eye Emily saw the
tablecloth tilt. As if in slow motion she turned toward the cupcake display and saw to her
amazement cupcakes flying through the air crashing into every flat surface, including the party
dresses of her guests. There was pink icing on the table, green icing on the carpet, and
rainbow icing all over Emily’s green dress. A glance at the table showed the base of the dump
truck now standing on its end.
“Richard!” mother said through clenched teeth. “Come up here this instant.”
Rick, who had been standing on the top step on the other side of the basement door, strolled
into the living room with his eyes on the carpet.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” mother continued.
Instantly, Rick began to pout. “I was sad because I felt left out of the fun,” he whined, “and,
besides, I have a toothache.”

31
8-RI.8.1 Text Type: Informational
Q1 Lexile: 930
Q2 Adapted from “The Primary Difference between the Wise and the Foolish”
Q3 by Michael Hyatt
Q4
A few weeks ago, a friend called to discuss a challenge he was facing. I asked him a few
questions, trying to understand what he might do to solve the problem. It quickly became
Back to
obvious that he didn’t want to change. In fact, the entire conversation was about why he
page 1
couldn’t change, why he didn’t need to change, and why he wasn’t responsible for what was
going wrong. Ten minutes into the conversation, I realized I was dealing with a fool. There
was no point in wasting my breath, because more talk would not change anything.
In Chapter 7 of his book, Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud discusses the difference between
wise people and fools. That difference is not about:
 position (Plenty of leaders are fools, while I have met an equal number of wise
executive assistance, gardeners, and even one shoe shine man.),
 intelligence (I know fools with advanced degrees and wise people who never
graduated from high school.), or
 talent (I know fools are publically successful and wise people with average talent
and modest income.).
The distinction, then, is in how one receives instruction and correction. When dealing with a
problem, a wise person:
 listens without being defensive,
 accepts responsibility without blame, and
 changes without delay.
If you are dealing with a wise person, talking is helpful. They soak up feedback and use it to
adjust for the better. If you are dealing with a fool, however, talking is a waste of time.
Whatever problem he/she is trying to solve will be attributed to someone or something
beyond his/her control.
By the way, that doesn’t mean that you should write off fools or that they are incapable of
changing. Instead, you have to change the strategies you use to ones that will help them grow
in understanding their own roles in creating problems in the first place.

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