Grade 8 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 8 english language arts in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Speaking and Listening. Students will be expected to speak and listen to explore, extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Speaking and Listening. Students will be expected to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Speaking and Listening. Students will be expected to interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
- Reading and Viewing. Students will be expected to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Reading and Viewing. Students will be expected to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Reading and Viewing. Students will be expected to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Reading and Viewing. Students will be expected to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to use writing and other forms of representation to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imaginations.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a wide variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Read what they are interested in: graphic novels, sports pages, series. Then talk about it.
- Ask for the main idea and one piece of evidence from the text.
- Have them write real messages: a thank-you note, a short review, a note to a relative.
- Read their writing aloud to them; they often spot their own mistakes by ear.
What each unit covers
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.
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.
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.
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.
Literary Devices
Naming devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, foreshadowing and symbolism in short excerpts, and identifying a narrator's point of view.
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.
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.
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.
Research & Inquiry
Children practise asking open questions, using what they already know, judging whether sources are reliable or biased, and noting evidence from more than one source.
Fair & Inclusive Language
Children learn how word choice can include or leave people out, notice stereotypes and one-sided views in texts, and explain their reaction using evidence.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Grammar & Style
Active and passive voice, run-ons, parallel structure, commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons and common usage choices.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the PEI report card guide.
Common questions
Read what they are interested in: graphic novels, sports pages, series. Then talk about it. Ask for the main idea and one piece of evidence from the text. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Prince Edward Island Curriculum Grade 8 english language arts units include reading detective, word study, close reading, whose story is it?, literary devices, irony, satire & allusion.
Free printable Grade 8 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.