Is your child an Eager Emily Dickinson who loves to write and feels comfortable with any writing task? Or maybe your child’s a Reluctant Robert Frost, whose “road not taken” is anything that requires putting pen to paper.
Either way, you’ve come to the right place to figure out what high-quality, 8th-grade homeschool writing curriculum meets their needs, and yours.
Overview: Writing Curricula for Homeschooled 8th-Grade Learners
Naturally, 8th-grade writing should prepare kids for the demands of high school. To do this at home, the ideal writing curriculum will focus on three major areas.
- Expository writing: This is writing that explains a topic clearly. It’s not only important for high school English but for every other subject as well. Kids will be expected to explain the causes of the Civil War in history and the process of photosynthesis in biology.
- Persuasive writing: Kids need to move beyond writing about their opinions to making formal claims supported by critical reasoning and compelling evidence.
- Research: They also need to be able to evaluate the credibility of online resources, learn to paraphrase without plagiarism, and cite their sources using appropriate bibliographic entries (usually MLA or APA) and use in-text documentation.
Writing at home vs. in a school setting
Writing may be the subject area that looks the most different in the traditional school classroom and at home.
You’ll see these differences in three major areas.
Volume
In school, a typical 8th-grade teacher will have multiple classes, each with 25+ kids in them. Therefore, it’s difficult to provide detailed feedback on multiple pieces for every student. Teachers might assign several pieces but provide specific comments on one or two in a semester.
They’ll also use peer review in the classroom so kids get feedback, even if not from them. At home, though, the volume is often lower, but the feedback can be more frequent and detailed. A child can revise a single piece three or four times until both the child and parent are happy with the final product. This kind of immersive work with the writing process can facilitate the long-term retention of skills.
Pacing
Like all traditional school classes, the content moves swiftly from one topic to the next, and the teacher needs to move on, whether all the students have mastered the learning targets. So, a child could be asked to write a persuasive essay before mastering expository writing. But learning at home facilitates a mastery approach. If your child struggles with MLA style in-text documentation on a research paper, you can spend as much time as you need on it before moving on.
Topics
In school, topics for writing assignments generally connect to the literature being studied. For example, kids reading To Kill a Mockingbird might be asked to write an essay about how the theme of justice is developed. But at home, the topics can be integrated with any subject area and can be influenced by your child’s interests.
For instance, if your child is fascinated by learning about the Industrial Revolution in history, you could have them write a persuasive essay about the invention they feel has had the greatest positive impact on society. This flexibility in topics can lead to greater engagement in the writing process.
Topics Covered in 8th Grade Writing Curricula for Homeschool Learners
In elementary school, kids learned how to build strong paragraphs, which include topic sentences, supporting details, and closing sentences. In middle school, the focus moves to writing multi-paragraph pieces for a variety of audiences and purposes. A high-quality 8th-grade writing curriculum for home instruction will cover three major areas.
Types of writing
Although kids at this age have written narratives for years, 8th graders will include further work with dialogue, pacing, character development, and sensory details, often through memoir and short stories.
From there, expository writing is a major focus. Kids learn to convey complex ideas clearly by writing process essays, business letters, and compare/contrast pieces. Expository assignments often weave in literary analysis. For instance, a child might be asked to write an expository essay on the use of irony in a novel or play. After mastering expository writing, the 8th-grade curriculum moves to persuasive writing, where kids learn to make logical claims and back them up with evidence. They work on being able to acknowledge and refute claims that counter their own.
Research skills
The 8th grade writing curriculum usually culminates in the completion of a formal research paper. During this unit, kids learn to distinguish between reliable sources and biased information. They organize large amounts of information into an outline that distinguishes between major claims, sub-points, and evidence.
They also learn to create a Works Cited page that includes bibliographic entries for each source in MLA (or APA) style and apply the related in-text documentation. Also, they practice how to quote directly, summarize, and paraphrase research in their own words in ways that avoid plagiarism.
Mechanics
The types of writing assignments mentioned above allow a child to develop high-level skills. They master the use of the writing process, which includes recursive stages: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
A major emphasis is on revising, where young writers make decisions about how to improve the piece’s organization and clarity while leaving spelling and grammar corrections for the editing stage after the content of the piece is primarily set. Additionally, 8th graders work using more advanced sentence structures and varying sentence patterns for smoothness, as well as correcting common grammar and punctuation errors.
Types of 8th Grade Homeschool Writing Curricula
The best writing curriculum for your 8th grader will be the one that aligns with your priorities and their gifts and growth areas. There are several types available today.
Classical
This approach to writing instruction centers on the “Great Books,” especially those from ancient Greece and Rome. Kids analyze those works and practice rewriting these classic myths, fables, and historical accounts. They master this form of “imitation” before making their own original arguments. Families who want an academically rigorous curriculum with a focus on history often choose a classical approach.
Creative
On the opposite end of the spectrum is a more lifestyle-based approach that prioritizes the child’s unique voice and seeks to encourage the joy of writing. This curriculum focuses on helping the child develop a positive relationship with language.
It’s a common choice for kids who are burned out by the rigidity of traditional school writing assignments. Of course, the parent must navigate the fine line between including the essential skills and topics we’ve covered here and providing their child with the freedom to explore creatively.
Mastery-based
This curriculum is focused on ensuring that the child masters one skill before moving on to others. For instance, if a child struggles to write a strong thesis statement for an expository essay, they don’t move on to other types of writing until the thesis clicks for them. This approach can be useful for kids who have gaps in their previous writing instruction or who struggle with the typical volume of 8th grade homework.
Video-based
This curriculum uses “open and go” programs where pre-recorded videos of professional teachers present the instruction, and the child completes the related assignments in a workbook or online portal. This approach can be useful for independent learners who may not feel confident in their writing skills or for parents who don’t have the time for a lot of one-on-one instruction.
Elements to Consider Before Choosing an 8th Grade Homeschool Writing Curriculum
Not sure which 8th grade writing curriculum to choose for your homeschooler? That’s understandable. There are lots of options available today. But you can easily narrow your options by examining these features before making a final decision.
Legal requirements
Of course, where you live has an impact on the curriculum you need. Some states have stringent requirements, including a letter of intent, an individualized home instruction plan (IHIP), and quarterly progress reports. They also usually require either a standardized test or a portfolio review to assess high school readiness.
Other states require just attendance records and a listing of the topics taught, and may allow alternatives to the testing or portfolio requirements. And some states have no requirements at all except for a one-time notice of the intent to homeschool. To determine the lay of the land where you live, consult Outschool’s helpful resource on homeschool laws in each state.
Readiness
It’s important to ensure that your child is truly ready for 8th grade level writing before diving in. Ask yourself, “Can my child consistently write a clear, five-paragraph essay?” If so, then your child is most likely ready to dive in.
But if your child struggles to build a strong paragraph or with basic sentence structure, then you’ll want to do some skill-building work before starting 8th grade content. If your child has some gaps to fill in, then a mastery-based curriculum will be more effective than a classical one. Also, consider how independent your child can be when writing. If they need more “face time,” then a video-based program may be helpful if your time is limited (Reigeluth 425-453).
Cost
Homeschool writing curricula vary widely when it comes to the price tag. Be sure to consider if any materials can be reused if you have other children, because some products require an annual fee even if the same products are used again.
Naturally, all-in-one bundles will include everything you need, like video lessons, teacher manuals, writing prompts, and ancillary materials, but that kind of comprehensive approach comes at a premium. Some parents choose to pick and choose materials to save money, but this does require more preparation time. If you don’t have time to prepare in-depth lessons, then an “open and go” package may be worth the expense.
Flexibility
Consider how open a curriculum is when it comes to the topics your child will write about. Some are highly structured, and a persuasive essay must be written to make an argument about an author’s use of foreshadowing or allegory in a novel. If your child is much more into science, then you may prefer a curriculum that’s flexible when it comes to topics and leaves room for the persuasive essay to be about whether the benefits of GMOs outweigh their potential long-term ecological risks. Another area of flexibility to consider is your schedule. Some curricula specify writing for five days each week, but others allow that to be compressed into three.
Assessment
Writing is subjective, which can make it hard to grade. Give some thought to how you want to assess your child’s growth. Some digital programs provide immediate feedback on mechanical aspects of a piece of writing, but an authentic evaluation of a writer’s voice will probably need human judgment.
Look for curricula that include clear grading rubrics, which are scoring guides that outline exactly what is expected. It breaks the piece into its elements, like organization, evidence, smoothness, grammar, etc., and describes what “excellent,” “good,” “adequate,” and “poor” look like for each. Rubrics are the closest you can get to objectifying a subjective process (397-424).
How to Plan an 8th Grade Homeschool Writing Curriculum
On board for 8th grade writing at home, but not sure exactly how to put it all in motion for your learner? No need to worry. We’ve got you covered. By following these simple steps, you’ll have them on their way to successful new adventures with the written word sooner than you think.
Step 1: Ground the learning goals in the “big three.”
Make sure everything your child does as part of 8th grade writing in some way connects to one of these three central focus areas:
- The Writing Process: Kids need to take the emphasis off the final product and internalize an understanding of writing as a recursive process of continual improvement. At this age, they need to become skilled at various forms of pre-writing before ever starting a first draft, and they need to understand the difference between revising (making changes in content and organization) and editing (correcting mechanical errors).
- The Formal Essay: Although narrative writing helps develop important skills, the main goal is to move beyond the standard five-paragraph essay to more complex expository and persuasive pieces.
- The Research Paper: Researching, note-taking, citing sources, and paraphrasing without plagiarism are all skills that will be needed in high school (Graham and Perin 19).
Step 2: Map out your scope and sequence
Divide the year into four quarters and focus on a different type of writing in each one. During the first quarter, focus on narrative skills with memoirs and/or short stories. This allows kids to build confidence by letting them write about what they know.
In the second, move to expository writing by assigning a process (“how to”) essay and a literary analysis piece. In the third, take a deep dive into persuasive writing, and focus on making logical claims, supporting them with evidence, identifying logical fallacies, and refuting counter-claims.
Then, spend the last quarter on a research project by combining all the skills from earlier in the year into a 3-5 page research paper on a topic of your child’s choosing.
Step 3: Select an instructional approach
Decide whether you will be your child’s primary writing teacher or if you will use other tools to take the lead. In the coach model, you choose the writing prompts, assist when needed, and grade the assignments using a rubric. In the video model, the pre-recorded educator does the instruction, and you act as an editor. In the “integrated model,” you weave writing into your child’s history or science curriculum instead of treating writing as a separate subject on its own.
Step 4: Establish a weekly routine
Decide whether you want your child to work on writing five days a week or just three days for longer periods of time.
Consider this sequence for five days or condense it for three:
- Monday: Introduce a writing assignment and let your child do various forms of pre-writing to get their ideas together.
- Tuesday: Give your child time to use their prewriting to guide them in writing a first draft. Their goal should just be to get their ideas down and not worry about “correctness” until later.
- Wednesday: Do a mini-lesson on a specific skill, like supporting a point with evidence, choosing active over passive voice, or avoiding choppy writing. Ask your child to look at their first draft through the lens of that new learning.
- Thursday: Have your child revise the draft for organization, clarity, smoothness, detail, and voice, and then turn that into a second draft.
- Friday: Ask your child to edit the second draft to correct mechanical errors and then create a final draft (Graham and Perin 16).
Popular Homeschool Writing Curricula for 8th Graders
Just as different types of writing appeal to different readers and writers, there are different types of homeschool writing curricula that appeal to the different needs of parents and kids. Check out these common types.
Outschool’s online curricula and classes
Outschool is a parent favorite because of its wide variety of offerings. You can choose from complete, year-long writing courses, shorter deep-dive classes on specific writing skills, one-on-one tutoring and private lessons, and even writing-based clubs and enrichment activities.
They offer both live classes with professional educators and self-paced, on-demand courses. You can take a look at some of their offerings here.
“Open-and-go” bundles
Busy parents who want to ensure they have everything they need might want to choose this all-in-one option. It includes a student workbook, a detailed instructor’s manual, scripted lessons, and a pre-planned calendar for pacing. The parent just moves to the next page in the manual and does whatever is outlined there. This can be useful for parents without much time for lesson planning, but like any all-in-one product, it can be quite costly.
Video portals
This is an online dashboard with pre-recorded video lessons and either PDF worksheets or a printed workbook. Often, the program grades the child’s submissions and provides immediate feedback, so the parent may only be needed for occasional assistance and help with editing.
Literature-based packages
This is a curated set of novels or historical documents accompanied by an instructor’s manual, which includes writing prompts connected to the books. This approach may feel less like “school” and more like participating in a book club with writing requirements.
Modular components
With this approach, the parent acts as a curator of various resources, usually from different companies. A parent might choose a grammar workbook from one source, a guide on “how to write a research paper” from another, and a collection of writing prompts from a third. This kind of curriculum offers a lot of flexibility but requires the most preparation (Dick 256-261).
Frequently Asked Questions: 8th Grade Homeschool Writing Curricula
By this point, you might be as eager and ready to jump right into 8th grade writing instruction at home. Or you might be a little reluctant and unsure if you have everything you need for your child’s success. Either way, you’ll be in good shape because we have answers to common questions from parents who’ve been in your exact shoes.
Do homeschoolers need a separate writing curriculum in 8th grade?
In a word, no. But they do need an intentional plan. At this grade level in school, kids aren’t just learning to write; they are using writing to learn about all the other subjects they study, too. Because of this, many parents choose an integrated approach in which the writing assignments are connected to the science, history, and fine arts topics they are studying at the time (Britton et al. 39-40).
This may be a great approach if your child is naturally a strong writer. But if your child struggles with any of the “big three” components we discussed here, a separate writing curriculum can be useful for addressing skill gaps and building confidence (Nagin 32).
How are writing assignments graded in homeschool?
The type of grading strategy you use depends on what skills you are looking to assess. Here are three common types, and they differ in the kind of information they provide and how much work the parent needs to do.
- Holistic rubric: Using this tool, the parent evaluates the piece as a whole: its organization, thesis, clarity, support, and mechanical correctness. The rubric gives a description of the different levels from “outstanding” to “very poor,” incorporating all of those components. One overall grade (like “A” or “D”) or description (like “proficient” or “developing”) is provided.
- Analytic rubric: This type of rubric assigns specific points to each of the different categories. Then the total of those points indicates where they are on a scale from “developing” to “mastering.”
- Checklist: This tool requires a “yes/no” or “present/absent” evaluation for each part of the assignment. It provides feedback on whether the piece has the required thesis statement, transitions, evidence, and in-text documentation asked for in the assignment, but gives little information on their quality (Brookhart 5-7).
How does 8th grade writing prepare students for high school English?
In high school, kids will be asked to level up their writing in length, complexity of structure, and depth of thought. Therefore, 8th grade writing helps prepare your child to make that leap in a few key areas.
- Organization: High school kids need to be able to write lengthy papers on complex topics. To prepare for this, 8th graders need to master the five-paragraph essay structure. The goal isn’t just to fill out a template but to improve their writing within this format.
- Argument: In high school, students will be asked to rebut opposing viewpoints and identify bias. During the 8th grade year, they should prepare by writing essays that make a claim that they support with two to three reasons and anticipate counter-claims.
- Research: Research papers are a staple of high school writing and call on students to synthesize multiple perspectives and cite sources appropriately. Eighth graders can prepare by writing short research papers with three credible sources and learning about MLA or APA bibliographic entries and in-text documentation.
The Write Stuff for Your 8th Grader
Whether you have an eager or a reluctant writer on your hands, there’s a curriculum approach to 8th grade homeschool writing that’s designed for their success and your satisfaction. By applying the guidance provided here and trusting your own instincts, your child will be ready not just to conquer high school, but also to write the next chapters of life in their own unique style.
Sources
Britton, James, et al. The Development of Writing Abilities (11–18). Macmillan Education, 1975.
Brookhart, Susan M. How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading. ASCD, 2013.
Dick, Walter, et al. The Systematic Design of Instruction. 8th ed., Pearson, 2014.
Duffy, Cathy. “Composition & Grammar Curricula Reviews for Homeschooling.” Cathy Duffy Homeschool Curriculum Reviews, 2024, cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/composition-and-grammar/composition-and-grammar.
Graham, Steve, and Dolores Perin. Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools. Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2007.
National Council of Teachers of English. “Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing.” NCTE Position Statements, 28 Feb. 2016, https://ncte.org/statement/teaching-writing/.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. “English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 8.” Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2024, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/8/.
National Writing Project, and Carl Nagin. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Our Schools. Jossey-Bass, 2006.
O’Donnell, Patrick. “How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education.” Brookings Institution, 21 Jan. 2026, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-home-schooling-will-change-public-education/.
Reigeluth, Charles M., editor. Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory. Vol. 2, Routledge, 1999.
Southern Regional Education Board. Ready for High School Literacy: College and Career Readiness Standards. SREB, 2024, https://sreb.org/sites/main/files/ready_for_high_school_literacy_course_standards.pdf.
.svg)
.svg)
