ELA teachers expect 8th graders to be able to perform a variety of more advanced tasks related to reading, writing, grammar, and speaking. Among other things, your 8th grader should be able to: 

  • Read full-length texts, including complex novels and nonfiction texts. 
  • Efficiently find main ideas, summarize a text, synthesize information from more than one source, and compare and contrast more than one text. 
  • Be able to identify and discuss tone, mood, point of view, symbolism, figurative language, and other narrative elements. 
  • Maintain consistent subject-verb agreement and use complex punctuation correctly, including quotation marks, commas, ellipses, and dashes. 
  • Use both context and Greek and Latin roots to identify unfamiliar words.
  • Research, draft, write, edit, and provide sources for a variety of writing projects, including narratives, essays, presentations and reports, poems, cover letters, emails. and more. 
  • Show proficiency in typing and using online collaborative software, including the Microsoft and Google suite of tools.