8th grade English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Oregon State Standards. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Focus areas
- Reading: analysing how authors build meaning
- Writing: writing that weighs evidence and counter-claims
- Speaking and listening: sharing ideas and building on what others say
- Language: grammar, vocabulary and conventions
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: ELA.8.RL.1; ELA.8.RL.2 · 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: ELA.8.RL.4; ELA.8.RL.6 · irony, symbolism and point of view
Unit 3
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: ELA.8.RL.4; ELA.8.RL.6 · irony, satire and allusion
Unit 4
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: ELA.8.RL.6 · limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators
Unit 5
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: ELA.8.RI.1; ELA.8.RI.2 · inferring and summarizing
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: ELA.8.RI.5; ELA.8.RI.7 · text forms, patterns and visual features
Unit 7
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: ELA.8.L.4; ELA.8.L.5 · roots, affixes and connotation
Unit 8
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: ELA.8.L.2; ELA.8.L.6 · precise vocabulary and spelling rules
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: ELA.8.W.5 · revising and proofreading
Unit 10
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: ELA.8.W.6; ELA.8.W.8 · judging online information and staying safe online
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: ELA.8.SL.2; ELA.8.RI.7 · 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: ELA.8.W.8; ELA.8.RI.8 · judging sources and whether evidence is relevant, sufficient and logical
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