Year 8 Curriculum Handbook

Year 8 English Overview
Year 8 English focusses on building upon the key assessment objectives and skills found within
the new GCSE specification. You will explore the key skills in a range of contexts. It is essential
that you understand a range of different writing styles, genres and texts from different periods
in time and can select appropriate techniques to solve practical problems. Lessons will include
tasks based around actual GCSE questions so that preparation for your GCSE examination begins
in Year 8. Extension work will be provided to stretch your knowledge into higher skills which will
also be covered in future years.
Reading Response: PEEL Paragraphs. When responding to any written texts, students are
expected to use the PEEL paragraph structure. As they progress through the stages of Mastery
they may find that they use this as the foundation of their paragraphs, but stick to the stages
less rigidly.
Point
Evidence
Explore
Link
This is the opening sentence of your paragraph, which must indicate what the paragraph is about. It should
directly respond to your task title or question.
This is a quotation taken from the text that is being studied, it should support or prove what has been said
in the point. You should try to embed your quotation into a sentence.
This is where you must explain in as much detail as possible what your evidence shows. Students should try
to answer the questions below in full sentences to develop their exploration:
1. What does your quotation suggest or imply?
2. How does your quotation suggest or imply these things?
3. What effects are created by specific words, techniques or phrases in the quotation?
4. How is the reader or audience affected by the ideas in this quotation?
5. Why has the writer created these effects or ideas in the quotation?
This should conclude what your quotation shows overall in relation to your point. It must re-address the
task title or question.
Punctuation and How to Use It:
Full stop - . – used to end a sentence.
They knew how to use a full stop in their writing.
Comma - , – used to separate items in a list or subordinate clauses.
Although the class still weren’t sure about semi-colons, they knew how to use
commas in their work.
Speech marks – “ ” – used to identify speech (new line for new speech).
“Remember you must write four paragraphs.” repeated the teacher.
Apostrophe – ‘ – used to show abbreviations or to show possession.
They’d all borrowed one of Miss Crew’s pens.
Exclamation mark - ! – used to show shock or surprise.
The whole class scored an unbelievable 80/80 in the assessment!
Question mark - ? – used to show something is a question.
Why had it taken them so long to realise their teacher was trying to help?
Brackets – ( ) – used to show additional information about something.
Rebecca (a hardworking student) worked hard to improve her writing skills.
Dashes - - used in the same way as brackets.
Alex – a polite young man – tried his best to revise for his assessment.
Colon - : - used to introduce a list or explanation.
The girls had all of their equipment: a pen, a pencil, a ruler, a calculator, a reading
book and a planner.
Semi-colon - ; - used in the same way as ‘and’ to connect to related sentences.
Ryan really wanted to do well in his assessment; he revised whenever he had
chance.