Talk to me about 8th grade language arts

[happypamama]

What did/does it look like in your house? Not just your reading list, but what else your student did/is doing. Trying to plan for DD for next year. This is what I'm thinking so far.

 

We will continue using WWS2 and whichever volume or two of The Creative Writer we are in by then. (I think we will be finishing volume 1 and doing most of 2, and then I may make 3 and 4 into a half credit elective for high school.). So, writing for that, and writing some essays for history, possibly outlining for science (although maybe not; she likes science, and I'm afraid outlines will kill her enjoyment of it).

 

At least one Shakespeare play, read, discussed, and probably written about.

 

Reading list selected from a combination of DD's history lists and things I think she should read. I need to find some discussion guides and writing suggestions for those things. Need to see how much analysis WWS2 incorporates (I love what WWS1 has for analysis so far!), but probably some essays for literary analysis. I've never required a book report, other than what history has required, so maybe I need to find something like that.

 

Poetry dreading and discussion, maybe some short writings, from Art of Poetry (will probably do part this year, part next).

 

Logic reading and discussion from The Thinking Toolbox and maybe Art of Argument.

 

Continue practicing typing skills through typing program and typing essays.

 

Spelling? Undecided. Maybe Spelling Power. She's an okay speller.

 

Grammar? I don't know. She does Latin and another language and seems to have a good grasp on grammar already. I'm undecided about whether she needs more formal grammar or not. I have a diagramming book, I believe, and we can do it this year or next.

 

Maybe we are weak on "consumer English?" Like, she hasn't written that many letters. Any resources for that sort of thing, without the boring "underline the dependent clause" stuff?

 

Might start some SAT and ACT prep too.

 

Hmm, what else should hit my radar? Kid is a decent writer, good reader, not super fast or voracious; she grumbles at having to write and to think, but the quality of her output is good. (She'd really rather spend her entire day learning anything she can about music, and doing Latin.)

[Momling]

My daughter's a seventh grader, but we'll continue with what we've been doing for the past few years since it works for us.

 

We work on literature throughout the year that is aligned with what she's studying in history (this year, US history to late 1800s, next year more modern us history. ) This year and next year, we're using a high school american lit book for short stories, poems and essays along with several novels (Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, Little Women for this year). I weave the literature throughout the year. Along with literature, we have a special focus on writing in the fall: writing mechanics, sentence construction, paragraph and essay writing. Then in the spring we've been working on literature terms and literary analysis. Of course, it's all spread throughout the year too, it's just that I like to have a particular emphasis to work on and it makes sense to me.

 

If I didn't want to design everything myself and try to match it with history, I think I'd use something like Galore park English 9 or Lightning Lit 8 one semester and a writing program the second semester.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited June 11 by SilverMoon

[RootAnn]

Poetry dreading and discussion, maybe some short writings, from Art of Poetry (will probably do part this year, part next).

 

Had to laugh at the typo. We're pretty light on LA this year for dd#1. She's done with formal grammar (workbooks). She does poetry memorization, IEW's Elegant Essay, and reads/discusses books for history (some classic lit, some historical fiction). We're hitting LA hard for dd#2 & dd#3 & I have to pick my battles. DD#1 hates to write but loves to read & memorize poetry. She's working her way through The Pen Commandments. She'd rather read, do math, or study yet another language than do any writing.

 

Next year, I'm outsourcing writing because I'm hoping she will do better for an outside teacher, so she'll take the Intro to Rhetoric class through WTM Academy, hopefully. 

[happypamama]

Had to laugh at the typo.

Ha! I didn't even catch that. I think I'll leave it. It's more indicative of DD's feeling toward poetry anyway.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. We might add a LOTR study too. I'm reading all these ideas with great interest!

[Chrysalis Academy]

In my effort to stop planning ahead too much, I don't even have a book list for 8th grade! That's something new.  For grammar and style practice, i expect we'll work on Paragraphs for Middle School and she will read Eats Shoots and Leaves if we don't get to it this year.  I have MCT's Level 4 grammar book, Magic Lense, and we might do it at the beginning of the year.  Ditto with Word Within the Word 1.  For writing instruction, we'll finish working through Writing With a Thesis and start They Say/I Say if we get to it.  Continued writing across the curriculum.  For lit we'll be continuing Movies as Literature and a short story study for lit terms and analysis  I have no idea what novels and plays we'll read yet.  It's kind of liberating!

[Penguin]

This is what we are doing:

 

We started the year with some progymnastama exercises and I would like to do some more yet this year.

 

Reading the Lord of the Rings.  I have the Progeny Press Guides and we use a little bit of them. I am not sure what we will read when we finish the triology, but I would like to get in a Shakespeare in this year.

 

Working through Windows to the World.

 

Rod and Staff 8 (grammar lessons only)

 

We do speling bees or dictation once in a while b/c he likes this.

 

We have done no formal vocabulary program this year, but we are starting Science Roots this week.  I am hoping that this will help him with biology next year.

 

I always reserve April for poetry to coincide with National Poetry Month.  I am planning to use selections from Journeys Through Bookland,  Jabberwocky Poetry Studies for Junior High, and the poetry writing section of the Creative Writer.  We might read Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.