- English Language Arts and Reading
- Grade 8
- Composition
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion; and
A student expectation is directly related to the knowledge and skills statement, is more specific about how students demonstrate their learning, and always begins with a verb. Student expectations are further broken down into their component parts, often referred to as “breakouts.”
Vertical alignment shows student expectations in the same subject area at different grade levels that are related to or build upon one another.
develop drafts in oral, pictorial, or written form by:
organizing with structure; and
develop drafts into a focused piece of writing by:
organizing with structure; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction and a conclusion; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, and a conclusion; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, and a conclusion; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion; and
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion; and
Breakouts are the component parts that make up a student expectation. A breakout shows a distinct concept a student should know or a distinct skill that a student should be able to demonstrate.
Students develop and sustain oral and written language skills to communicate their ideas effectively using appropriate language conventions. Students consider audience and purpose while applying appropriate genre characteristics and craft and determining the appropriate mode of delivery.
listen actively to interpret a message by summarizing, asking questions, and making comments;
follow and give complex oral instructions to perform specific tasks, answer questions, or solve problems;
advocate a position using anecdotes, analogies, and/or illustrations employing eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, a variety of natural gestures, and conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and
participate collaboratively in discussions, plan agendas with clear goals and deadlines, set time limits for speakers, take notes, and vote on key issues.
determine the meaning and usage of grade-level academic English words derived from Greek and Latin roots such as ast, qui, path, mand/mend, and duc.
describe personal connections to a variety of sources, including self-selected texts;
write responses that demonstrate understanding of texts, including comparing sources within and across genres;
use text evidence to support an appropriate response;
paraphrase and summarize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order;
interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating;
respond using newly acquired vocabulary as appropriate;
discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings of text;
respond orally or in writing with appropriate register, vocabulary, tone, and voice;
reflect on and adjust responses as new evidence is presented; and
demonstrate knowledge of literary genres such as realistic fiction, adventure stories, historical fiction, mysteries, humor, fantasy, science fiction, and short stories;
analyze the effect of graphical elements such as punctuation and line length in poems across a variety of poetic forms such as epic, lyric, and humorous poetry;
analyze how playwrights develop dramatic action through the use of acts and scenes;
the controlling idea or thesis with supporting evidence;
features such as footnotes, endnotes, and citations; and
multiple organizational patterns within a text to develop the thesis;
identifying the claim and analyzing the argument;
identifying and explaining the counter argument; and
identifying the intended audience or reader; and
analyze characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.
explain the author's purpose and message within a text;
analyze how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose;
analyze the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;
describe how the author's use of figurative language such as extended metaphor achieves specific purposes;
identify and analyze the use of literary devices, including multiple points of view and irony;
analyze how the author's use of language contributes to the mood, voice, and tone; and
explain the purpose of rhetorical devices such as analogy and juxtaposition and of logical fallacies such as bandwagon appeals and circular reasoning.
plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for a particular topic, purpose, and audience using a range of strategies such as discussion, background reading, and personal interests;
organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion; and
developing an engaging idea reflecting depth of thought with specific facts, details, and examples;
revise drafts for clarity, development, organization, style, word choice, and sentence variety;
complete complex sentences with subject-verb agreement and avoidance of splices, run-ons, and fragments;
consistent, appropriate use of verb tenses and active and passive voice;
prepositions and prepositional phrases and their influence on subject-verb agreement;
pronoun-antecedent agreement;
correct capitalization;
punctuation, including commas in nonrestrictive phrases and clauses, semicolons, colons, and parentheses; and
correct spelling, including commonly confused terms such as its/it's, affect/effect, there/their/they're, and to/two/too; and
publish written work for appropriate audiences.
compose literary texts such as personal narratives, fiction, and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
compose informational texts, including multi-paragraph essays that convey information about a topic, using a clear controlling idea or thesis statement and genre characteristics and craft;
compose multi-paragraph argumentative texts using genre characteristics and craft; and
compose correspondence that reflects an opinion, registers a complaint, or requests information in a business or friendly structure.
generate student-selected and teacher-guided questions for formal and informal inquiry;
develop and revise a plan;
identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources;
differentiate between primary and secondary sources;
synthesize information from a variety of sources;
differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism when using source materials;
display academic citations and use source materials ethically; and
use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results.