Language Lessons for a Living Education Level 8 Course Description

Ignite a love for communication with Master Books’ award-winning homeschool curriculum: Language Lessons for a Living Education. Level 8 is an engaging, full-color course helping students to learn and practice foundational communication skills through essays, summaries, and oral presentations. Successful communication is achieved as students learn new grammar and punctuation rules throughout the writing process. Studying etiquette, verbal and non-verbal communication, and worldview sets this course above the rest. Lessons are designed to be personal, challenge students to think deeply about their communication skills, and encourage them to stretch and grow in communicating with God and others.

Students will focus on the essentials of written communication as they master and apply their skills to grammar, spelling, reading comprehension, and vocabulary expansion. Independent reading and writing proficiency are developed by consistently writing clear, effective paragraphs within dynamic essays. In practicing these skills, students will start incorporating more creative challenges, such as figures of speech and descriptive writing.

Students will also practice spelling and vocabulary words in the context of engaging book excerpts, poems, Scripture, picture observation, and more. With a large Teacher Aids section included, students are equipped to meet any writing challenge.

Writing assignments include the following:

• descriptive paragraph

• comparison and contrast paragraph

• expository paragraph

• persuasive paragraph

• nonfiction character sketch

• fiction character sketch

• critical book review

• essay

The scope and sequence, daily schedule, and other teacher aids truly make this an open-and-go course.  Additional writing activities in the back of the book allow the teacher to customize this course to meet the precise needs of the student and include:

• Assessments

• Recommended book list

• Enjoyable games for proficiency

• Spelling word lists and practice ideas

• Additional writing opportunities

• Grammar study sheets

A helpful and detailed daily schedule:

• Exercise 1 of each lesson begins with a special feature, vocabulary and spelling words, and Scripture memory.

• Exercise 2 is devoted to grammar and punctuation, including application.

• Exercise 3 is all about communication. Students develop their skills in written, verbal and nonverbal, and technological communication.

• Exercise 4 is the worldview day. Students will study the structure of the Bible and learn how to summarize what they have read.

• Exercise 5 is a review of what students have learned in the lesson. The review may be used as a quiz or test.

Required Course Materials: 

This course has an integrated reading component that uses:

•  God’s Story

God’s Story is used throughout the course. While an alternative Bible storybook may be used, and/or passages read directly from Scripture, God’s Story is the recommended companion book. This required book is available from Master Books.  

The Independent Reading list in the back of the book is an excellent way to assign books from the family library for additional practice and to foster a love of reading. A list of suggested Master Books titles can also be found at the back of the course.

Is my student ready to start Language Lessons for a Living Education Level 8?

Written for 7th-grade level students, this language arts curriculum gives an overview of important grammar and punctuation rules. Students interact with those rules by recognizing them in sample sentences and applying them in their own creative writing. Lessons are designed to be personal, challenge students to think deeply about their communication skills, and encourage them to stretch and grow in communicating with God and others. Level 7 is equivalent to a seventh-grade level and moves the student toward mastery of reading, grammar, and the mechanics of communication and writing.

Independent reading and writing proficiency are developed by consistently writing clear, effective sentences within dynamic paragraphs. In practicing these skills, students will start incorporating more creative challenges, such as figures of speech and essays.

Begin at this level if the student:

•  Has completed Language Lessons for a Living Education Level 7 or another equivalent course

• Reads well independently

• Can write an essay on a given topic

• Can write a detailed book report

• Properly uses common grammar and punctuation

• Can use self-study methods to practice spelling and vocabulary

If the student is not ready to begin this level, we recommend starting with Language Lessons for a Living Education Level 7.