Spur Language Arts 8

In this full-year eighth-grade course, students develop a mastery of reading, writing, and language arts skills. Engaging literary and informational reading selections inspire students to read critically, analyze texts, and cite evidence. Students explore units on Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild and the contemporary novel The Land by Mildred Taylor. They also read essential parts of other fictional texts, including Monster, “Raymond’s Run,” and “The Lottery.” Students are exposed to a thoughtful look at the Anne Frank diary and play, and they venture into author’s purpose, text structure, and argumentative claims in informational texts such as The Great Fire, the narrative of Frederick Douglass, and a speech by Randy Pausch. Students sharpen their vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills through explicit modeling and ample practice. Students also take part in routine, responsive writing based on texts they have read. In more extensive, process-based writing lessons, students write topical essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats