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Middle School Curriculum> English 8
TITLE
English 8
TEXTBOOKS
Elements of Writing, Second Course, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1993
Adventures for Readers, Book Two, Heritage Edition ,Holt, Rinehart, Winston,
1996
Various novels of student choice are also used. Some class novels that may be
taught include:
Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare
No Promises in the Wind, Irene Hunt
Loch, Paul Zindel (CIRCLE P)
The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton (CIRCLE P)
DESCRIPTION
English 8 is a required course for all eighth grade students as a part of the
core curriculum block. The class meets three days each week for sixty-eight
minutes each session. It is designed to further develop the language arts skills
included in the English 7 curriculum. It includes grammar, composition, and
literature instruction. Skill development is accomplished through the reading of
literature, writing, and vocabulary development.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
READING
1. Students will locate and analyze the elements of plot, character, theme, and
setting in short stories and novels. (8.1.4)
2. Students will identify the characteristics of a variety of literature
including fiction,
non-fiction, poetry and drama.(8.1.3)(8.1.5)
3. Students will interpret the meaning of literary works and demonstrate this
knowledge through activities connected with the novels and short stories read.
(8.1.7)
4. Students will read historical fiction and transfer knowledge between English
and American History. (8.1.7)
5. Students will make personal choices and read books during Reader's Workshop.
They will locate, access, and evaluate the books using resources available. The
student will identify the basic facts and essential ideas in what they have
read. (8.1.1)(8.1.2)
WRITING
1. Students will demonstrate a workable knowledge of the eight parts of speech
through grammar exercises and writing (8.2.1).
2. Students will develop a workable knowledge of the use of subjects and verbs
in sentence structure. (8.2.1).
3. Students will write a variety of sentence types including simple, compound
and complex sentences. (8.2.1).
4. Students will use capitalization and punctuation in sentences. (8.2.1).
5. Students will demonstrate a variety of forms of writing through Writer's
Workshop. These forms will include, but not be limited to, poetry, descriptions,
journals, reader's response, letters and reports. (8.2.4).
6. Students will write multi-paragraph papers which include an introduction, two
or more body paragraphs with supporting details and a conclusion. (8.2.2).
7. Students will edit all work for errors in spelling and punctuation and revise
it to make it correct. (8.2.3)
MULTICULTURE ACTIVITIES
1. Students will appreciate and value diverse points of view expressed by
writers of other cultures.
2. Students develop an awareness of different cultural backgrounds, experiences,
traditions, emotions, and ideas of others through literature. This is done
specifically through a study of the African-American culture as it relates to
the Civil War era and the Jewish culture as it relates to the Holocaust.
WRITING ACTIVITIES
1. Students will write reading response journals in which they react and respond
to what they read in class. These include summarizing what they have read and
responding to the material in writing as it applies to the elements of
literature being studied in class.
2. Students will write at least one final draft paper per quarter. This paper
will include all of the steps of the writing process. The process will include
pre-writing, writing, editing, and revising.
3. Students will produce final draft writing samples of the following kinds of
writing: literature evaluation, creative writing of a short story, comparison
and contrast, and cause and effective writing.
4. Students will continue to keep a writing portfolio in the classroom. They
will add to the portfolio started in the seventh grade and pass it on to the
high school English department to update throughout their high school years.
