The 64 competencies set for Grade 8 English, and every one has lessons behind it.
Literary Themes, Values, and Motifs
4 competencies
Analyze literary texts as expressions of individual or communal values within structural context.
Analyze the maxims, universal truths, and philosophies presented in the literary text as a means of valuing other people and their various circumstances in life.
Analyze patterns and motifs.
Analyze organic unity.
Character and Conflict
6 competencies
Analyze character vs. character.
Analyze character vs. society.
Analyze character vs. nature/environment.
Analyze character vs. self.
Analyze character.
Analyze characterization.
Plot, Point of View, and Narration
3 competencies
Analyze plot: linear and flashback.
Analyze plot: parallel.
Analyze point of view and narrative techniques.
Literary Style, Poetry, and Figurative Language
5 competencies
Analyze style.
Analyze rhyme and meter.
Analyze figures of speech and sound devices.
Analyze diction.
Analyze tone and mood.
Literary Context
4 competencies
Analyze biographical context.
Analyze historical context.
Analyze sociocultural context.
Analyze linguistic context: speaker/narrator and time; speaker/narrator and place; speaker/narrator and situation.
Writing Original Literary Texts
4 competencies
Identify one’s meaning and purpose in selecting the type of literary text for composition.
Publish an original literary text that reflects culture: poem/prose.
Compose literary texts using appropriate structure.
Revise literary texts for coherence and cohesion.
Persuasive and Opinion Texts
4 competencies
Examine text structures for clarity of meaning and purpose: persuasive text.
Draw inferences and conclusions to formulate sound judgment: author’s purpose and meaning; target audience.
Examine text structures for clarity of meaning and purpose: opinion editorials.
Examine linguistic features as tools to achieve organizational efficiency in informational texts: diction and style, transition devices, sentence structure and function.
Claims, Evidence, and Persuasive Techniques
6 competencies
Evaluate claims explicitly or implicitly made in a text: claim of fact, claim of value, claim of policy.
Analyze supporting evidence to validate assertions and counterclaims: factual knowledge.
Distinguish facts from claims/opinions: self-evidence, anecdotal evidence, argument from authority, empirical evidence.
Analyze persuasive techniques to support an argument: ethos, pathos, logos.
Analyze propaganda techniques used in informational texts for political correctness: bandwagon vs. glittering generalities; transfer propaganda techniques vs. half truths.
Analyze textual evidence to support an argument/general statement: quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing.
Reading and Evaluating Informational Texts
3 competencies
Extract significant information.
Analyze the real-world issues/occurrences presented in informational texts.
Determine the veracity of the information presented: credibility of the author, accuracy of information, relevance, timeliness, objectivity, coverage.
Informational Writing and Multimodal Presentations
10 competencies
Identify the text type appropriate for one’s topic, purpose, and target audience.
Organize significant information using various technique.
Determine one’s thesis as the central idea of the paper.
Synthesize significant information.
Compose the informational text based on the chosen text type.
Apply multimodal elements appropriate to the chosen text delivery/ies.
Revise the text for coherence.
Revise the text for cohesion: diction, syntax, and style.
Edit the text for textual consistency.
Publish a multimodal informational text for one’s purpose and target audience: persuasive text.
Journalistic and Visual Informational Texts
6 competencies
Examine text structures for clarity of meaning and purpose: sports articles as news, features, and editorials.
Examine text structures for clarity of meaning and purpose: science and technology articles as news, features, and editorials.
Examine how visual elements are used as tools to achieve the intended meaning of informational texts.
Assess the quality of journalistic articles based on standard development principles: simplicity and brevity, precision, objectivity and factuality, fairness and balance, ethics.
Analyze how non-linear texts represent and/or summarize the contents of informational texts: photographs, cartoons/sketches.
Publish a multimodal informational text for one’s purpose and target audience: sports and Science and Technology articles.
Formal and Informal Correspondence
9 competencies
Analyze distinguishing features of informal and formal correspondences to infer sender’s meaning and purpose across modalities: letter of inquiry.
Analyze milieus influencing the structure and rhetoric of informal and formal correspondences across modalities: parts and formats, organizational patterns, politeness strategies.
Examine the sender’s voice for clarity of purpose and meaning: diction, style, tone and register, point of view, sentence structure.
Examine how ethics is established in transmitting informal and formal correspondences across modalities.
Identify one’s purpose and meaning in writing letters.
Compose a letter of inquiry.
Revise for coherence and cohesion.
Edit for consistency of diction, style, tone and register, point of view, and grammar.
Send correspondences to communicate with and respond to senders within the bounds of ethics.
