Grade 8 · English

Grade 8 English

Grade 8 English gets children ready for high school: analysing literature, writing arguments, and reading the news and media critically. Here is what it covers, where kids usually get stuck, and one way to help.

What your child learns this year

Every curriculum words it differently, but most grade 8 classes cover the same ground:

  • Literary analysis. Theme, symbols, figurative language and the writer's choices, backed with quotations.
  • Argument. Writing a clear claim with evidence, and judging other people's arguments.
  • Media literacy. Bias, loaded language, and who benefits from a message.
  • Research. Comparing sources, judging which are reliable, and citing them.
  • Writing style. Essays with clear paragraphs, smooth transitions and varied sentences.

Where kids usually get stuck

  1. 1Deciding a text is fair because its facts are true. True facts can still be told with words chosen to push you one way.
  2. 2Trusting one source. A single article, even a good one, gives one view. Checking a second source catches mistakes and slant.
  3. 3Paragraphs with no main point. A paragraph that lists facts without a topic sentence leaves the reader to guess why it is there.

One of Pip's tricks

Loaded-word swap

Use it when reading a news story, report or review that sounds fair, and checking whether it leans to one side.

  1. Find the words that carry strong feelings: caved, heroic, disaster, greedy, slammed.
  2. Swap each one for a neutral word that keeps the same fact: caved becomes agreed, slammed becomes criticized.
  3. If the fact stays but the feeling drops, the word was loaded. Ask which side it pushes you toward.
  4. Check who gets quoted too: hearing from only one side is another sign of bias.

Watch it work. “After weeks of whining from local teens, the town council voted to build a skate park.” The feeling word is “whining”. Swap it for “requests” and the fact stays the same: the teens asked for weeks. “Whining” makes them sound childish, so it shows the writer's bias against them.

Why it works: two writers can report the same facts in different words, and words loaded with feeling steer your opinion without adding any information. Swapping in neutral words shows the slant.

Try three

Tap a choice to see if it is right, with the reason.

  1. 1.“The mayor's reckless plan” versus “the mayor's plan”. Which word is loaded?

  2. 2.A review calls the food “greasy slop”. Which is a fairer version?

  3. 3.Which sentence sounds fair rather than loaded?

How Sparkpip fits in

Pip, Sparkpip's tutor, works through texts and questions like these with your child one small step at a time, using tricks like the one above.

Start freeSee how it works

Your curriculum

Sparkpip is built on the grade 8 English curriculum for your province or state. The official pages:

Also: Grade 7 English · Grade 9 English · Grade 8 math · Grade 8 science