This teacher is well out of his depth. Language Arts, previously known as English class, is not the place for current events discussions. In the 8th grade, with an acknowledged performance deficit, books need to be open to the lesson of the day that will lead to performance improvement on the next round of standardized testing. If this class can’t diagram a sentence, identify parts of speech, punctuate perfectly, and spell reliably enough to proofread, then this “teacher” is committing educational malpractice. I’d also bet his lesson plan for the day did not cover what he actually did and now his principal is complicit in the malpractice for allowing this free-form approach to continue.
I’m not really sure if the new ‘Common Core Curriculum’ teaches diagramming sentences, etc. I mean, why would any of the younger generations need that? /s