The aim of year 8 English is to further develop the expressive and creative capacities developed in Year 7, with the goal of heightening their ability to develop personal, imaginative and critical responses to text. The emphasis on personal response is seen as the first step in evolving an independent critical response, as students explore the central myths of their culture and the wider world, the way stories are produced to position readers and the way textual elements may be transformed for different audiences and purposes. This contributes to their long term study of English in familiarizing students with concepts and skills which will be further developed in Senior English courses.
Student will engage with and explore drama activities, creative writing, world myths and legends and a film study of the highly popular film "Enchanted." Following on from their study of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in Year 7, students will be further immersed in the writings of Shakespeare in experiencing the iconic, culturally significant and universally appreciated play "Romeo and Juliet." Students will be asked to respond in many different ways including written, spoken and visual forms, and in some tasks they will be required to use ICT to complete their work.