Course outline:
Topics:
• A wide range of topics: Entertainment, mass media, work, education, changes, cities, people and relationships, environment, arts and politics, globalisation etc.
• Describing people and the feelings we feel for them and how they make us feel
• Explaining problems and giving advice
• Giving orders and instructions
• Reported speech
• Passing messages
• Expressing wishes for us and for others. Ex: Deseo que mis padres sean felices
• Expressing future wishes. Ex: Espero que no haya mas guerras en el future
• Apologising

Grammar:
• Different clause types
• Present subjunctive
• Conditional tense
• Pronouns and prepositions
• Imperative

Expectations:
1. Listening to Understand
By the end of Grade 8, students will:
Identify a range of purposes for listening in a variety of situations, formal and informal, and set goals related to specific listening tasks.
Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a range of situations, including work in groups.
Identify a variety of listening comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after listening in order to understand and clarify the meaning of oral texts.
Demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in oral texts by summarizing important ideas and citing a variety of supporting details.
Make inferences about oral texts using stated and implied ideas in the texts as evidence.

2. Speaking to Communicate

By the end of Grade 8 students will:
Identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after listening and speaking and what steps they can take to improve their oral communication skills.
Use appropriate words and phrases from the full range of their vocabulary, including inclusive and non-discriminatory language, and stylistic devices suited to the purpose.
Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small- and large- group discussions.
Identify some vocal effects, including tone, pace, pitch, volume, and a variety of sound effects, and use them appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences to help communicate their meaning.
3. Reading
By the end of Grade 8 students will:
Explain, in conversations with peers and/or the teacher or in a reader's notebook, how their skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing, and representing help them make sense of what they read.
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose.
Automatically read and understand most words in common use.
4. Writing:
By the end of Grade 8, students will:
Identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units that could be used to develop several linked paragraphs, using a variety of strategies and organizational patterns.
Write longer and more complex texts using a variety of forms.
Use some vivid and/or figurative language and innovative expressions to add interest.
Vary sentence types and structures, with a focus on using conjunctions to connect ideas, and pronouns to make links within and between sentences.
Identify elements of their writing that need improvement, using feedback from the teacher and peers, with a focus on specific features.


Final Reporting
Assessment is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources, such as assignments, day-to-day observations, conversations or conferences, demonstrations, projects, and performances. As part of assessment, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback that guides their efforts towards improvement. The final grade reflects the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration is given to more recent evidence of achievement. There is no final assessment, such as an exam, in this course.