Book excerpt: These innovative course books are based on the Australian Curriculum and develop an integrated approach to English. They also offer a special Learning Resource section to further build a wide range of competencies in English. INSIGHT ENGLISH SKILLS 8 presents a stimulating range of text types as the starting point for developing language, literacy and literary knowledge and skills. Units offer a themed approach - e.g. humour, bystanders and racism. Each unit retains the three sections: INTERACTIVE INTERPRETATION - text extracts introduce engaging and relevant issues and ideas; WORKING WITH TEXTS AND LANGUAGE - creative activities analyse text/s, literary techniques and language use; RESEARCH AND CREATING TEXTS - several ideas per unit offer diverse options over the 20 units. LEARNING RESOURCES - in Year 8 we introduce more advanced approaches for group work, developing interactive skills and building language and literacy skills.