Grade 8 English Language Arts
15 units matched to the Prince Edward Island Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- 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.
Units
Unit 1
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 4 · predicting, inferring and summarizing while reading
Unit 2
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 4; GCO 10 · prefixes, suffixes, roots and context clues
Unit 3
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 4; GCO 6 · theme, tone, word choice and evidence from a text
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 7 · limited, omniscient and unreliable narrators
Unit 5
Literary Devices
Naming devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, foreshadowing and symbolism in short excerpts, and identifying a narrator's point of view.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 7 · irony, symbolism, point of view and other literary devices
Unit 6
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 7 · verbal, situational and dramatic irony, satire and allusion
Unit 7
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 4; GCO 7 · text forms, text patterns and visual design
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 5; GCO 7 · staying safe online and spotting misinformation
Unit 9
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 5 · asking questions, checking sources and gathering evidence
Unit 10
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 3; GCO 7 · noticing stereotypes and using fair, inclusive language
Unit 11
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 1; GCO 3 · sharing ideas, listening and giving kind feedback in a group
Unit 12
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 8; GCO 9 · choosing a text form, organizing ideas and finding your voice
Unit 13
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 9; GCO 10 · voice, revising, proofreading and giving credit to sources
Unit 14
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.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 10 · spelling rules, word families and exact vocabulary
Unit 15
Grammar & Style
Active and passive voice, run-ons, parallel structure, commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons and common usage choices.
Curriculum outcome: GCO 10 · clauses, active and passive voice, and punctuation
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