8th grade English Language Arts
16 units matched to the New York State Learning Standards. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Focus areas
- Reading: theme, textual evidence, irony and kinds of narrators
- Writing: judging sources and evidence, revising and proofreading
- Speaking and listening: the motives behind media messages
- Language: roots, connotation and precise vocabulary
Units
Unit 1
Close Reading
Reading original short passages and answering questions about theme, tone, word choice, inference and the author's purpose, using evidence from the text.
Learning standard: 8R1; 8R2 · theme, tone and textual evidence
Unit 2
Literary Devices
Naming devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, foreshadowing and symbolism in short excerpts, and identifying a narrator's point of view.
Learning standard: 8R4; 8R6 · irony, symbolism and point of view
Unit 3
Word Study
Using prefixes, suffixes and Greek and Latin roots to work out unfamiliar words, reading context clues, and noticing how word choice changes feeling.
Learning standard: 8L4; 8L5 · roots, affixes and connotation
Unit 4
Irony, Satire & Allusion
Telling verbal, situational and dramatic irony apart, spotting how satire uses exaggeration to criticize, and explaining what an allusion to a well-known story adds to a text.
Learning standard: 8R4; 8R6 · irony, satire and allusion
Unit 5
Whose Story Is It?
Recognizing third-person limited and omniscient narrators, spotting clues that a narrator is unreliable, and thinking about how a story would change from another character's point of view.
Learning standard: 8R6 · limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators
Unit 6
Forms, Patterns & Visuals
Comparing text forms such as editorials, news articles, poems and graphic novels, spotting text patterns like problem-solution and compare-contrast, and judging how features, images and design add to meaning.
Learning standard: 8R5; 8R7 · text forms, patterns and visual features
Unit 7
Reading Detective
Making and checking predictions, choosing a strategy when reading gets tricky, drawing local and global inferences from clues, and summarizing the main ideas of complex texts.
Learning standard: 8R1; 8R2 · inferring and summarizing
Unit 8
Digital Citizens
Staying safe and respectful online, protecting privacy, spotting misinformation and disinformation, understanding how feeds are curated, and thinking about audience and purpose in digital and media texts.
Learning standard: 8W6; 8W7 · judging online information and staying safe online
Unit 9
Write It Better
Choosing the right form and tone for an audience, using reliable sources and giving credit, building voice, acknowledging other perspectives, and revising, editing and proofreading drafts.
Learning standard: 8L1; 8L2; 8L3 · revising and proofreading
Unit 10
Precise Words & Spelling
Children use word families, prefixes, suffixes and spelling rules, choose precise words for a subject, and use word-processing tools to format a document.
Learning standard: 8L2; 8L6 · precise vocabulary and spelling rules
Unit 11
Media Influence
Children explain the purposes of media messages and the techniques behind them (appeals to emotion, logic and credibility, editing, subtext, sponsorship) and how feeds and echo chambers affect people's reactions.
Learning standard: 8SL2; 8R7 · the motives behind media messages and the techniques they use
Unit 12
Weigh the Evidence
Children judge evidence and sources for accuracy, logic and fairness, spot fallacies and weak statistics, check content made by technology and combine sources with proper citations.
Learning standard: 8W7; 8R8 · judging sources and whether evidence is relevant, sufficient and logical
Unit 13
Talking & Working Together
Exploring and sharing thoughts and experiences, listening to other points of view, using inclusive language, working fairly in a group and giving feedback that is specific and kind.
Learning standard: 8SL1 · listening actively, sharing ideas and giving helpful feedback in groups
Unit 14
Plan, Form & Voice
Children choose a text form for a purpose and audience, group ideas with patterns such as cause and effect, and match tone and voice to what they are writing.
Learning standard: 8W2 · choosing a text form and organizing pattern for the audience, purpose and tone
Unit 15
Dialogue, Events and Judging Texts
Your child analyzes how lines of dialogue and key events move the action, reveal character or force decisions, how ideas are introduced and developed in informational texts, and chooses fair criteria to judge texts and connect them across eras and cultures.
Learning standard: 8R3; 8R9 · how dialogue and events propel action and reveal character, how ideas develop, and judging and connecting texts with criteria
Unit 16
Arguments, Stories and Evidence
Your child chooses arguable claims, credible evidence, counterclaims and conclusions; narrative techniques such as time shifts, relevant details and reflective endings; creative responses that explain their changes from the original; and evidence for analysis and research.
Learning standard: 8W1; 8W3; 8W4; 8W5 · arguments with claims, counterclaims and evidence, narrative technique, creative responses and drawing evidence from texts
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