Grade 8 | English Language Arts

Objective: Cite textual evidence to support analysis

Action steps

1. Select and apply appropriate before reading strategies to a text e.g., previewing the text, setting a purpose for reading, making predictions about the text, and drawing connections between prior knowledge or experience and the text.

2. Select and apply during reading strategies to monitor comprehension e.g., rereading, paraphrasing, summarizing, connecting related ideas within a text, verifying or modifying predictions, visualizing, and connecting text ideas with prior knowledge or experience.

3. Demonstrate comprehension of a text with after reading strategies by summarizing text, drawing inferences, drawing conclusions, verifying or adjusting predictions, making new predictions, and making connections between the text and oneself.

4. Analyze internal and/or external conflicts that motivate characters to grow.

5. Explain the relationship between a biography, autobiography, or memoir and its historical and/or social context.

6. Analyze words and phrases that create tone.

7. Respond effectively to critical and analytical text-dependent questions

8. Analyze relationships between and among characters, settings, and events.

9. Analyze the author’s purposeful use of language.

10. Analyze internal and/or external conflicts that motivate characters and those that advance the plot.

11. Analyze the events of the plot in various genres: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

12. Analyze details that provide information about the setting, the mood created by the setting, and ways in which the setting affects characters.

13. Determine details that create the setting and/or mood in the text or a portion of the text.

14. Make connections among the characters, the setting, and the mood in the text or a portion of the text.

15. Select multiple examples of evidence that confirms the important ideas and messages of a literary text.

16. Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, orcategories).

17. Identify multiple pieces of evidence to suggest logically what might be true about characters, setting, plot, etc.

18. Locate evidence to support how Shakespeare’s use of dramatic elements (aside, soliloquy, monologue, concealment, comic relief) moves the plot forward and provides insight into characters.

19. Make connections among the acts in Shakespeare’s five-act structure.

20. Identify the characteristics of the Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet.

21. Make connections between the events in the each act and the Prologue’s opening sonnet.

22. Distinguish between characteristics of ballad and sonnet.

23. Identify and explain how rhyming techniques such iambic pentameter, rhymed couplets, slant and internal rhyme contribute to meaning.

Objective: Determine a theme or central idea of a text

Action steps

1. Determine the interaction among characters, setting, and plot through a text.

2. Examine the interaction of characters, setting, and plot to express a theme.

3. Paraphrase in order to state or compose an unbiased summary that includes events from the beginning, middle, and end of a text.

4. Analyze main ideas and universal themes, including experiences, emotions, issues, ideas, and lesson learned from the text.

5. Identify and explain personal connections to the text such as connections between personal experiences and the theme or main ideas.

6. Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

7. Employ effective note-taking strategies when identifying main ideas and supporting details in order to produce an objective summary of the text or portions of the text.

8. Examine significant details of character and plot development, repeated words, ideas, and/or symbols through a text.

Objective: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision

Action steps

1. Examine what a character in a story or drama thinks, says, or does.

2. Connect how a character’s speech, thoughts, or action cause movement within the plot or drama.

3. Show how a character’s speech or thoughts reflect the traits a character displays.

Objective: Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text

Action steps

1. Analyze how the actions of the character(s) affect the plot.

2. Use context to determine the meaning of words.

3. Examine the author’s purpose in using sound elements of words

4. Interpret analogies and literary allusions as a way to construct meaning in a literary text.

5. Analyze specific words and phrases that contribute to meaning.

6. Analyze words and phrases that create tone.

7. Demonstrate how figurative language contributes to meaning.

8. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

9. Recognize how the author uses poetic devices to evoke response.

10. Analyze how sensory language contributes to meaning.

11. Analyze how repetition and exaggeration contribute to meaning.

12. Analyze the events of the plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.

Objective: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style

Action steps

1. Demonstrate an understanding of literary structure.

2. Explain how the structures of multiple texts such as are alike and different.

3. Examine the purpose of the structure and how the structure of a text has an influence on the way a text is written.

Objective: Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader create such effects as suspense or humor

Action steps

1. Demonstrate knowledge of mood.

2. Compare and/or contrast one’s own views to those of a character or characters.

3. Explain how shared or opposing points of view between a reader and character can generate a specific mood.

4. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.

Objective: Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors

Action steps

1. Demonstrate knowledge of elements of fiction.

2. Demonstrate knowledge of elements of drama.

3. Determine areas of difference and provide supporting details.

4. Demonstrate knowledge of elements of poetry.

5. Employ effective note-taking strategies when viewing or listening to text.

6. Assess the positive and negative effects of being true to the original text or changing characters, setting, or plot action from the original text.

7. Explain the effects produced through audio, filmed, or staged versions of a literary text.

8. Use details presented in diverse media and formats.

Objective: Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works

Action steps

1. Examine characters, plots, and themes to determine the connections between and evolution of these elements from the traditional to the modern texts.

2. Compare the literary elements of a modern fiction text to a traditional fiction text.

Objective: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text

Action steps

1. Analyze words and phrases that create tone.

2. Respond effectively to critical and analytical text-dependent questions

3. Draw conclusions or make generalizations about the text.

4. Select and apply appropriate before reading strategies to a text e.g., previewing the text, setting a purpose for reading, making predictions about the text, and drawing connections between prior knowledge or experience and the text.

5. Select and apply during reading strategies to monitor comprehension e.g., rereading, paraphrasing, summarizing, connecting related ideas within a text, verifying or modifying predictions, visualizing, and connecting text ideas with prior knowledge or experience.

6. Demonstrate comprehension of a text with after reading strategies by summarizing the text, drawing conclusions, verifying or adjusting predictions, making new predictions, or making connections between the text and oneself.

7. Among multiple pieces of evidence determine, select, and state the piece of evidence that confirms the meaning of an informational text.

8. Among multiple pieces of evidence identify the piece of evidence that suggests logically what might be true about an author’s purpose, opinion, important ideas, etc.

9. Analyze the author’s purposeful use of language.

Objective: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text

Action steps

1. Synthesize main ideas to determine a central idea.

2. Analyze main ideas and universal themes, including experiences, emotions, issues, ideas in a text, or lesson learned from the text.

3. Determine the relevancy of the theme to society.

4. Determine how transitional words and phrases are used to convey sequential detail.

5. Demonstrate understanding of elements of objectivity when conveying meaning.

6. Employ effective note-taking strategies when identifying main ideas and supporting details in order to produce an objective summary of the text or portions of the text.

Objective: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events

Action steps

1. Determine the likenesses or differences in the relationships between or among individuals, ideas, or events within an informational text.

2. Identify how the differences or likenesses between or among individuals, ideas, or events are revealed.

3. Draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the methods used to present the likenesses or differences between or among individuals, ideas, or events.

Objective: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings

Action steps

1. Use evidence from an informational text to determine the effect of analogy and allusion to other texts on meaning of the text.

2. Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

3. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).

4. Determine the meaning of figures of speech in context.

5. Determine the suggested meaning of connotations of words that address the same technical meaning.

6. Examine word choice, relationships between words, and references to other texts as an aid to comprehension and a clue to tone.

7. Use context to determine the meaning of words.

8. Analyze specific words and phrases that contribute to meaning.

9. Demonstrate how figurative language contributes to meaning.

10. Recognize how the author uses poetic devices to evoke response.

Objective: Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept

Action steps

1. Determine the development of an identified paragraph i.e., main idea and supporting details, cause and effect, examples, description.

2. Determine the author’s purpose for the identified paragraph.

3. Determine the relationship among certain sentences within the paragraph.

4. Draw conclusions about how the relationship among the sentences adds to the growth of an idea within the paragraph.

5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the structure in presenting the information.

6. Use evidence from an informational text to support analysis of paragraph structure.

Objective: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints

Action steps

1. Identify the author’s purpose (format, text features, key ideas) and point of view (word choice, punctuation, emphasis on ideas).

2. Determine the difference between an author’s position and any opposing positions.

3. Examine the organization of the text to determine the transitions among ideas that signal and address opposing viewpoints.

4. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships between claims, counterclaims, and reasons.

5. Analyze how the author develops his point of view

6. Analyze evidence used to support the author’s point of view.

7. Evaluate the author’s credibility.

8. Determine how the author uses counterarguments to elevate/validate his/her assertion.

Objective: Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea

Action steps

1. Employ effective note-taking strategies when viewing or listening to text.

2. Demonstrate knowledge of various media capabilities when listening to or viewing dramatization of a literary text.

3. Draw conclusions about the positive and negative aspects of a text, audio, or visual version of the same text.

4. Determine how sound and sight affect the perception of words.

5. Assess the value of one medium versus another for presentation of a specific topic.

Objective: Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation

Action steps

1. Analyze text for how the author develops main ideas and supporting details.

2. Explain how the focus on different information alters a reader’s understanding of a topic.

3. Explain how conclusions drawn about information alters a reader’s understanding of a topic.

4. Use knowledge of point of view and bias.

5. Compare and contrast opposing information about the same topic from multiple texts.

6. Determine the credibility of each text.

7. Examine opposing portions of each text for bias.

8. Draw conclusions about the purpose of opposing facts or interpretation of the facts.

Objective: Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically

Action steps

1. Adapt the prewriting stage of the writing process to an argument, including developing alternate claims.

2. Gather information to support claims.

3. Compare and contrast one’s own claim or claims to all other claims.

4. Compose a draft of an introduction that presents a claim or claims and addresses any alternate claim or claims.

Objective: Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text

Action steps

1. Show knowledge of a topic or text by selecting appropriate evidence to support a claim or claims.

2. Use an established procedure to determine the accuracy of sources.

3. Compose a draft of the body with attention to effective organization of support for a claim or claims.

4. Use clear reasons and relevant evidence from the text to support claims.

5. Use clear reasons and relevant evidence when using outside resources to develop and support claim/s.

6. Evaluate the credibility of outside resources when using outside resources.

7. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.

Objective: Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence

Action steps

1. Combine ideas with the appropriate word or words that promote unity among claims and the confirmation of reasons.

2. Use transitions purposefully to support unity.

3. Apply academic vocabulary to express relationships precisely.

Objective: Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented

Action steps

1. Compose a draft of a conclusion that integrates key components of the argument and provides reinforcement for the argument.

2. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.

Objective: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation

Action steps

1. Follow an inquiry process.

2. Define a problem, formulate questions, and refine a problem and/or question.

3. Locate and evaluate resources.

4. Find data and/or information within a variety of print or digital sources

5. Use a variety of formats to prepare the findings/conclusions for sharing.

6. Share findings and/or conclusions through a variety of print and multimedia venues.

Objective: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, and assess the credibility and accuracy of each source

Action steps

1. Locate and evaluate resources.

2. Develop search terms vocabulary and searching strategies.

3. Take purposeful notes by direct quoting, paraphrasing, or drawing conclusions.

4. Evaluate and analyze the quality, accuracy, and sufficiency of notes.

5. Use appropriate bibliographic information.

6. Document sources using Modern Language Association format.

Objective: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 8topics, texts, and issues

Action steps

1. Probe and reflect on ideas, topics, or issues within the text, drawing explicitly from evidence in the text.

2. Demonstrate rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.

3. Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

4. Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.

Objective: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking

Action steps

1. Explain the function of verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) in general and their function in particular sentences.

2. Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice.

3. Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood.

4. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood.

Objective: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 8 reading and content

Action steps

1. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

2. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g. audience, auditory, audible).

3. Consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

4. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase by checking the meaning in context or in a dictionary.

Objective: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings

Action steps

1. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context.

2. Use the relationship between particular words such as cause/effect, part/whole, to better understand each of the words.

3. Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar denotations.

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