English Language and Literature

English Language and Literature

The grades 6–8 English courses are designed to:

• inspire critical and creative thinkers, communicators, and lifelong readers
• enhance a student’s receptive communication skills (listening, reading, viewing) by learning to engage with a variety of language and literary text types
• enhance a student’s productive communication skills (writing, speaking, presenting) by learning to present their ideas effectively in a variety of written and spoken modes
• promote greater international mindedness by engaging with texts from a variety of cultural and historical contexts

Grade 6
Students inquire into characteristics of a hero and the connections between heroic traits across cultures and time. Through reading a range of stories about heroes from different countries and cultures, as well as real-life stories of heroes, students develop their understanding of plot and character. Students engage in a language study of the children’s book genre, emphasizing how image and language construct meaning for a specific audience by creating their own picture book. The students consider how poetry can express a variety of relationships and experiences in our own lives as they read and create poetry.

Grade 7
Students develop skills in effective communication and self-expression through personal narrative writing. They explore characterization and different perspectives in a wide variety of text types. These skills are used to forge a base that allows students to communicate their own personal views and beliefs through a wide variety of written pieces that suit their audience. With exposure to a variety of writing styles, students learn how to use different literary features to write with imagery.

Grade 8
Students develop their personal creative voice by investigating the first person narrator, and how that approach allows readers to explore different perspectives and develop empathy and awareness. They analyze the use of rhetoric and emotive language in multiple text types including poetry, speeches, and advertisements about such topics as sustainability and globalization. Students develop critical and creative thinking skills through the examination of characterization and conflict within novels.