Eighth Grade Language Arts

The eighth grade language arts program includes reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar.  Although activities for each of the language arts components may at times be practiced individually, most often the various aspects of the program are practiced concurrently.  For example, the students may give a written response to a selection in literature, which is then graded for content and grammar.  In other words, the students will be expected to use the skills that they have attained in English over the years.   

The reading program is based on an anthology, Enjoying Literature, which includes many types of literary works and authors who demonstrate a variety of writing styles and purposes.   Students are expected to read selections and complete various activities, such as learning vocabulary, responding to essay questions, analyzing characters, determining purpose, or comparing works.  Students are given a list of novels from which to choose for independent reading, and to coincide with their study of the Civil War in their NC history class, the students read the novel Across Five Aprils, which is set in that time period.

Eighth graders are given many opportunities to write.  The year begins with an alphabet autobiography for which the students write a series of essays; each based on an event in his or her life beginning with a letter of the alphabet.  When completed, the twenty-six essays are bound into a decorated booklet.  The students also take part in an essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  A study of poetry includes having the students attempt several types of poetry writing, some of which are entered in the Burlington Writers Club student contest.  A major writing project in eighth grade is in research.  The students research a topic of their choosing and write a five-page report after which they prepare a project board and make an oral presentation to the middle school students.

Besides the special writing, there are many assignments requiring eighth graders to write five-paragraph compositions, training them for writing answers to essay questions for the rest of their school careers.  The bulk of their grade in writing is based on content; however, attention is given to grammar in their writing attempts.

Vocabulary is introduced and practiced in the literature, social studies, and science curricula as well as in Sadlier-Oxford’s Vocabulary Workshop: Level C.  Words in this textbook are similar to those in SATs and ACTs given to high school students.   

Grammar studies include simple, compound and complex sentences, parts of speech, capitalization, and punctuation.  Selected portions of the textbook Language Arts Today are used in addition to teacher-created materials.

Assessment is based on quizzes or tests in reading, grammar, vocabulary, and writing.  These tests may be teacher-produced, standardized, or from the book publishers.  In addition to tests or quizzes, grades may be assigned to daily assignments when there has been sufficient instruction and practice of a skill.

• Knight Writer

Another activity that all the eighth grade share is writing the Knight Writer which is Blessed Sacrament's newspaper. The students rotate through the various jobs: editors, advertising department, sports, features, cartoons, advice column, puzzles, and news from the classrooms. The paper is published every other month. The students learn interviewing techniques, computer skills, proofreading, editing, note taking, accuracy in quotations and facts, bias writing, developing articles of interest, and providing the audience with news that includes them and events in which they are interested.