Creating lesson plans can be a time-consuming and stressful effort for teachers and other educators. Luckily, there are many teachers who have already created lesson plans and curricula and equally as many sources to access this material on the Internet, for free. These resources have been utilized and reviewed by teachers in real classrooms and span a variety of subject areas and grade levels, including 8th grade language arts.

Columbia Education Center
This website has a variety of lesson plans created by teachers from the Columbia Education Center, including language arts curriculum designed specifically for intermediate students, grades six through eight. The lesson plans are viewable online for free as text files and are listed by title. The lesson plans include a title, the author, the grade level, helpful instructions, an overview of the lesson, the purpose and objectives, necessary materials or resources, and the specific activities and procedures of the lesson.

Thinkfinity
This foundation has a search function that allows teachers to look for lesson plans tailored specifically to their needs. Curriculum can be sorted not only by grade level (six through eight) and subject (reading and language arts) but also by resource type (audio, interactive, lesson plans, primary sources, videos and worksheets). After searching for 8th grade language arts curricula, a listing of over 300 lesson plans appears. Each entry lists the title of the lesson plan, its grade level, resource type, a brief description of the lesson and a link to the URL where the content is located, all of which are free websites. Users also can use the "Share" link to share the content via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and other web sites. You can also click the "Show Details" button to read a longer description.

Microsoft Education
Microsoft’s Education website has a multitude of teacher-created resources and lesson plans that incorporate the use of technology skills. Users can browse by subject or search using specific parameters such as a title or description, grade level, subject and product type (Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc.). Select "middle school" from the grade level drop-down menu and "language arts" from the subject drop-down menu to see 8th grade language arts lesson plans listed by title, with a brief description of each. Once you select a lesson, it will open up a page with the entire lesson plan, including the school level, subject, amount of class time the lesson will take, required software and any necessary materials. Each lesson plan also includes goals and objectives as well as the lesson procedure, which includes an introduction, the main activity and a conclusion.

CREATE for Mississippi
This website has a variety of curriculum resources that incorporate technology into education. Users can search by lesson plan category, grade level and curriculum framework. Select "8th grade" and "language arts" from the drop-down menus to see free 8th grade language arts lesson plans. Each lesson plan contains a title, subject area, duration of the activity, brief description, objectives and materials needed. Prerequisite skills or background that students need to complete the activity also are listed. The teacher’s procedure is listed, as well as student activities, accommodations for students with special needs, extension activities, integration ideas for other subjects, assessments, relevant URLs and a link to Word and PDF versions of any handouts.