Grade 8 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 8 english language arts in the Nova Scotia Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Cultural expressions. Learners will reflect on how the cultures of communities, inclusive of the Mi’kmaq, Acadians, African Nova Scotians, and the Gaels, are expressed through a range of communication forms.
- Responses. Learners will plan oral, written, and visual personal and critical responses, in relation to audience and purpose.
- Creating. Learners will create oral, written, and visual communication forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Speaking and writing strategies. Learners will implement speaking and writing strategies for effective communication in relation to audience and purpose.
- Comprehending. Learners will comprehend a range of communication forms using listening strategies, reading strategies, and viewing strategies.
- Accuracy and bias. Learners will analyse the accuracy, reliability, validity and bias in a range of written, audio, visual, and digital communication forms.
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
Voices & Cultural Expressions
Practises how cultures influence each other, how language and culture are connected, how point of view and audience shape a text, and how to interpret cultural expressions respectfully, with Mi’kmaw, Acadian and Gaelic examples. Ties to the Nova Scotia Grade 8 English language arts outcome on cultural expressions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Argument & Media
Telling fact from opinion, spotting persuasive appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and weak reasoning, and judging how reliable a source or media message is.
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.
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.
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
- Minimal
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Satisfactory
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Good
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Very good to excellent
- 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 Nova Scotia report card guide.
Common questions
How can I help my Grade 8 child with english language arts?
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.
What does my child learn in Grade 8 english language arts in Nova Scotia?
The Nova Scotia Curriculum Grade 8 english language arts units include voices & cultural expressions, word study, reading detective, forms, patterns & visuals, close reading, whose story is it?.
Free printable Grade 8 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.