2008-2009 English – 8^th Grade

8^th Grade English involves a lot of writing in many different genres. We will cover the 4 main types of writing: Persuasive, Expository, Narrative, and Descriptive. We will cover poetry, debates, story-telling, paragraph perfection, write on a wide range of topics, and much more. We will also have grammar checks throughout the quarter. Most of the pre-writing, writing, proofing, will be done in school. Most final typing will be done at home. Please keep in mind that we now have a state of the art computer lab that is at your disposal. We will have access to the lab at least one period a week. Papers are due on the date assigned. Only excused absences from a parent will be accepted for late papers. The semester exams will be papers or projects. The following is a glimpse of this year’s English for 8^th Grade.

1^st Quarter

*Paragraph and Essay work (organization to final work)

*Peer editing

*Writing Skills

*Persuasive writing – step by step from brainstorming to final work

*Debate

*Commercial Presentations

*Persuasive Speaking

*Controversial Issues

*Persuasive prompts

2^nd Quarter

*Expository writing

*Newspaper reporting

*Expose’

*Multi-Genre Project – linked with Social Studies

*Expository introductions and conclusions

*Compare and Contrast

*Expository prompts

*Spelling Bee

3^rd Quarter

*Narrative writing

*Poetry

*Narrative Prompts

*Story Telling

*Non-Verbal stories

*Diocesan Writing Exam

4^th Quarter

*Descriptive writing Non-Verbal Descriptive

*Descriptive prompts *Semester Exam Project

*Description with the senses