8th Grade English: Reading and Writing

My son loves to read. On his fun scale, it’s second only to Mind Craft. So, it makes sense to let him ease into each day with 30 minutes of reading. Right now, he’s reading the 6^th Harry Potter. We’ll use the later novels for the first literary analysis unit. Last year, he did a good job with character development in the first Harry Potter book. This time we’ll probably tackle themes, but not until November.

To help him with his writing fluency, the first month will be all free writing. He’ll have to write 10 lines a day the first week and 15 lines a day the second week. The subject is totally up to him, though. The last two weeks, he’ll be given a style of writing, but the topic is still up to him.

The second month, we’ll try some short stories from the Holt Elements of Literature, 3rd Course. What’s great about that workbook is that each story has questions scattered through the reading, followed by a graphic organizer. The book includes classics from Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury.

I’m really looking forward to sharing classic science fiction short stories with him!