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Language Arts Grade 8

 

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Grade Appropriate General Resources

 

Reading Rockets Author Video Interviews

This site includes a series of author interviews--just snippets that can be used in introducing a new books, etc., a plethora of articles on helping children become good readers--based on research. This is an excellent site for new ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

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Resources Applicable to District Standards

 

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Reading 8.1

Reading 8.2

Listening Speaking, & Viewing 8.1

Writing 8.1

Writing 8.2

Writing 8.3

 

 

Reading Standard 8.1

Reading Habits

Frequency / Variety of Reading & Literature

§    Reads 25 books or book equivalents a year and regularly participates in discussions

§    Reads four books or book equivalents by the same author, topic or genre

§    Reads a minimum of three different literary forms and five different authors

§    Reads independently and fluently daily using a range of comprehension strategies

 

 

 

 

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Reading Standard 8.2

Getting the Meaning

General Comprehension Strategies

§    Makes predictions, well developed connections, draw conclusions and inferences based on text, schema, related topics or information

§    Infers, draw conclusions, makes predictions and hypothesizes from implicit information

§    Explains qualities of different genre (i.e. warranties, contracts, product information, etc.)

§    Identifies social context of text, author’s purpose and evaluates writer’s strategies and craft

§    Determines importance in text and synthesizes information acquired through schema, text, and related topics

Comprehension of Narrative

§    Articulates relationship among purpose and characteristics of poetry and prose

§    Examines dialogues, monologues, and soliloquies for character traits

§    Identifies structural elements and events that advance the plot

§    Understands internal conflict

§    Identifies tone and mood in a passage based on setting, literary characters, and writer’s style

§    Identifies and compares universal themes and ideas

§    Analyzes a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes and beliefs of its author

§    Finds differences, similarities, consistencies and logic between texts and summarizes both

§    Finds and analyzes evidence in text to support own conclusion and arguments; includes accurate and supporting citations

Comprehension of Expository

§    Understands and explains the use of complex mechanical devices by following technical directions to solve problems

§    Locates information from a thesaurus, library catalog, atlas, index, and dictionary

§    Finds and analyzes evidence to support own conclusion including supporting citations

§    Elaborates on and extends a main idea with new information or a different perspective and shows how ideas in a text would change under different circumstances

§    Analyzes text with proposition-support model

§    Analyzes arguments and positions and produces evidence offered in support of them

Vocabulary Development

§    Learns new words daily from reading

§    Identifies idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes in prose and poetry

§    Usse strategies, knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes, and contexts to figure out the meaning of new content words

§    Identifies synonyms and words with multiple meanings, clarifies meaning through definitions, examples, restatements, or contrasts

 

 

 

 

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Listening, Speaking & Viewing Standard 8.1

 

§    Delivers narrative presentations with a purpose, audience, notes and from memory that show individuality

§    Selects a focus and organizational structure, establishes a point of view, and supports opinions with detailed evidence

§    Participates in one-on-one conferences with teacher: responds, clarifies, and paraphrases

§    Participates in group meetings: takes turns, solicits comments, responds and generates questions, supports opinions, group decision making

§    Responds to TV, radio, film (i.e. awareness of media, role of media, judge media)

 

 

 

 

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Writing Standard 8.1

Writing Habits and Processes

Frequency and Variety of Writing

§    Writes daily, generating own topics  and routinely refines writing to clarify message or thought

§    Writes purposefully, reflects the intended audience efficiently and with a controlling impression and well-supported conclusion

§    Rearranges words, sentences, paragraphs; adds, deletes and clarifies; sharpens focus

§    Reconsiders organizational structure using a specific structure to achieve balance with effective transitions, parallel structure, and similar writing techniques

§    Identifies topic and supporting sentences as well as extraneous materials

§    Supports a thesis and conclusion supporting judgments with textual references, other works, other authors, or to personal knowledge

§    Identifies topics; asks and evaluates questions, develops ideas leading to inquiry, investigation and research

 

 

 

 

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Writing Standard 8.2

Writing Purposes

and Resulting Genres

Narrative:  Biography

§    Creates engaging, multi-paragraph piece with a focus on a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well‑chosen details

§    Employs narrative and descriptive strategies in relaying a clear incident

Expository:  Response to Literature/Expository

§    Creates an engaging, multi-paragraph essay with focus on interpretation from close reading, understanding and insight

§    Supports judgment with references to other texts and authors and reveals the significance of, or writer's attitude about the subject

Expository:  Persuasive Essay

§    Creates engaging multi-paragraph essay with focus on purpose, topic and relevant questions

§    Writes clear position and supports with detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning, differentiating between evidence and opinion

§    Anticipates and addresses reader’s concerns and counter‑arguments

Expository:  Technical Documents

§    Creates a document that explains a complex operation identifying the sequence of activities needed to create the product, service, or system

§    Uses formatting techniques (e.g., head­ing, differing fonts) to aid comprehension

Expository:  Research Reports

§    Creates engaging multi-paragraph report with focus on purpose, topic and relevant questions from  planned multi-step information researches of primary and secondary sources, charts, maps, graphs

§    Defines a thesis and uses a variety of sources of information with an effective balance between researched information and original ideas, uses technology for research and composition

§    Records important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations by paraphrasing

Biography Maker

These online lessons explain what a biography should be and walk writers through questioning, learning, synthesis, and story-telling. The site includes embedded links to relevant Internet resources and tips for effective writing

 

 

 

 

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Writing Standard 8.3

Language Use and Conventions

Style and Syntax

§    Demonstrates understanding and control of the rules of written and oral work, structure and features of language appropriate to purpose, audience and context

Sentence Structure, Grammar, Punctuation and Capitalization

§    Uses simple, compound and complex sentence structures and edits for awkward construction, fragments, run-ons, misplaced modifiers and redundancy in writing

§    Identifies correct subject verb agreement, present perfect tense, pronoun agreement, double negative and adverbs

§    Uses apostrophes, colons with lists, commas with appositives, commas in introductions, quotation marks, and semicolons correctly

Spelling

§    Identifies misspellings of words in the context of sentences

Penmanship

§    Writes legibly with correct margins and spacing

 

 

 

 

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Updated January 9, 2007