Evan-Moor Educational Publishers Skill Sharpeners Reading Book, Grade 2

Give your eighth-graders the focused language arts practice they need to keep their language skills sharp.

36 weeks of practice cover standards-based skills such as:

Vocabulary/Word Study
- affixes
- analogies
- base/root words
- figurative language
- homophones
- idioms
- spelling

Punctuation
- end of sentence
- apostrophes: contractions and possessives
- commas: series, dates, addresses, direct address/interjections, compound sentences, after an introductory phrase/clause, and with nonrestrictive appositives
- punctuation and capitalization: dialogue and friendly business letters
- quotation marks: songs, poems, and short stories
- unnecessary commas
- run-on sentences
- semicolons, dashes, and parentheses

Capitalization
- beginning of a sentence
- books, songs, and poems
- proper nouns

Grammar and Usage
- active/passive voice
- conjunctions
- correct article, adjective, adverb
- comparative/superlative
- predicate adjectives and nouns
- easily confused words
- sentences: parts, types, structure, fragments, and combining
- verbs: parts, tense, usage, and spelling
- nouns: possessive, singular/plural, and concrete/abstract
- pronouns: subject/object, possessive, and antecedents
- prepositional phrases/prepositions/objects of a preposition
- double negatives

Other Skills
- dictionary guide words
- syllabication
- outlines