English Language Arts · 8th Grade

Active learning ideas

Show, Don't Tell: Narrative Techniques

Students learn ‘show, don’t tell’ best by doing, not by listening. Active practice lets them feel the difference between a flat summary and a vivid moment, turning abstract advice into concrete craft. These activities give every learner a chance to experiment with language in low-stakes, high-feedback settings.

• Common Core State Standards
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3.d

• 20–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• RAFT Writing
• 30 min · Pairs

Scene Rewrite: Telling to Showing

Provide students with short paragraphs that 'tell' emotions or traits (e.g., 'She was very nervous'). Students work in pairs to rewrite these passages, using actions, dialogue, and sensory details to 'show' the same information. They then share their rewrites and discuss the impact.

Differentiate between 'showing' and 'telling' in a narrative, providing examples.

Facilitation Tip

During the Conversion Workshop, ask students to read their revised ‘show’ sentences aloud to hear the difference in rhythm and impact.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 02

• RAFT Writing
• 20 min · Small Groups

Character Emotion Charades

Students are given an emotion (e.g., frustration, excitement, disappointment) and must act it out without speaking. The rest of the class writes down specific actions or sensory details that 'show' the emotion. This exercise helps students brainstorm concrete ways to convey feelings.

Construct a scene that 'shows' a character's anger without explicitly stating they are angry.

Facilitation Tip

For the Think-Pair-Share, assign roles: one student argues for ‘show,’ the other for ‘tell’ so both perspectives get equal attention.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 03

• RAFT Writing
• 45 min · Small Groups

Sensory Detail Scavenger Hunt

In small groups, students visit different locations in the school (e.g., library, cafeteria, gym) and record specific sensory details (sights, sounds, smells, textures) they observe. They then use these details to write a short descriptive paragraph 'showing' the atmosphere of one location.

Critique how an author's choice to 'tell' rather than 'show' impacts reader engagement.

Facilitation Tip

In the Writing Workshop, set a 10-minute timer for drafting to keep emotional scenes focused and prevent overwriting.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this principle through contrast. Start with a moment students all recognize, show one version that tells and one that shows, then ask which made them feel something. Avoid lectures on theory; instead, build guided discovery through short, repeated practice. Research in adolescent writing shows that micro-revisions—changing one sentence or phrase at a time—build stronger internalization than large overhauls.

By the end of these activities, students will confidently choose between summarizing and dramatizing based on the story’s needs. They will identify telling language, revise it to show, and explain why the new version works better for the reader.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Conversion Workshop, students may believe 'show, don’t tell' means every sentence must be dramatized.

  Use the workshop’s ‘before and after’ columns to highlight that some telling is necessary for pacing. Point to transitions or backstory summaries and ask students to justify why those moments work better told.

• During the Think-Pair-Share, students may think adding more adjectives equals showing.

  Bring the discussion back to specificity. Ask partners to circle vague words like ‘scary’ and suggest concrete actions—hands shaking while unlocking the door at midnight—instead of longer descriptions.

• During the Writing Workshop, students may assume showing only works for emotions.

  Have students annotate their drafts using color codes: green for emotion, yellow for character traits, blue for setting. Challenge them to find one example of showing outside of emotional moments and revise another.

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Methods used in this brief

• RAFT Writing