8th Grade ELA (Arizona ELA Standards)

Reading Standards for Literature

• 8.RL.1 Cite the text evidence that most strongly supports analysis of explicit meaning and inferences.
• 8.RL.2 Find a theme or central idea, analyze its development and links to characters, setting and plot, and write an objective summary.
• 8.RL.3 Analyze how specific lines of dialogue or incidents push the plot forward, reveal character or lead to a decision.
• 8.RL.4 Work out figurative and connotative meanings and analyze how word choice, including analogies or allusions, affects meaning and tone.
• 8.RL.5 Compare how two or more texts are structured and how each structure shapes meaning and style.
• 8.RL.6 Analyze how differences between what characters and the audience or reader know create effects such as suspense or humor.
• 8.RL.7 Judge how closely a film or live production of a story or play follows its text or script, and where it changes it.
• 8.RL.9 Analyze how modern fiction reuses themes, event patterns or character types from myths, traditional tales or religious texts.
• 8.RL.10 By year's end, read the hardest grade 6–8 level literature well on their own.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

• 8.RI.1 Cite the text evidence that most strongly supports analysis of explicit meaning and inferences in an informational text.
• 8.RI.2 Find a central idea, analyze its development and its relation to supporting ideas, and write an objective summary.
• 8.RI.3 Analyze how a text makes connections and distinctions between individuals, ideas or events.
• 8.RI.4 Work out figurative, connotative and technical meanings and analyze word choice, including analogies or allusions.
• 8.RI.5 Analyze closely how one paragraph is built, including how specific sentences develop a key idea.
• 8.RI.6 Work out the author's viewpoint or purpose and analyze how the author handles opposing evidence or views.
• 8.RI.7 Evaluate the pros and cons of using different media (print, digital, video, multimedia) for a topic or idea.
• 8.RI.8 Trace and evaluate an argument, judging the reasoning and evidence and spotting irrelevant evidence.
• 8.RI.9 Analyze cases where two or more texts give conflicting information on the same topic and find where they disagree on facts or interpretation.
• 8.RI.10 By year's end, read the hardest grade 6–8 level nonfiction well on their own.

Writing Standards

• 8.W.1 Write arguments that back claims with clear reasons and fitting evidence.
  • a. Introduce claims, set them apart from opposing claims and organize reasons and evidence logically.
  • b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence from accurate, credible sources.
  • c. Use linking words and clauses to tie claims, counterclaims, reasons and evidence together.
  • d. Set up and keep a formal style.
  • e. End with a conclusion that follows from and supports the argument.
• 8.W.2 Write informative texts that explore a topic by choosing, organizing and analyzing information.
  • a. Introduce a topic, preview what follows, organize ideas into broader categories and add formatting, graphics or media when useful.
  • b. Build up the topic with carefully chosen facts, definitions, specific details, quotations or examples.
  • c. Use varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify relationships among ideas.
  • d. Use precise language and subject vocabulary.
  • e. Set up and keep a formal style.
  • f. End with a conclusion that follows from and supports the information.
• 8.W.3 Write narratives of real or imagined experiences with effective technique, relevant details and clear sequence.
  • a. Engage the reader with a context, point of view and narrator or characters, and order events naturally and logically.
  • b. Build events and characters with dialogue, pacing, description and reflection.
  • c. Use varied transitions to show sequence, shifts in time or setting and links between experiences.
  • d. Capture the action with exact words, relevant details and sensory language.
  • e. Close with an ending that grows out of the events and reflects on them.
• 8.W.4 Produce clear, coherent writing whose development, organization and style suit the task, purpose and audience.
• 8.W.5 With help from classmates and adults, improve writing by planning, revising, editing or rewriting, keeping purpose and audience in mind.
• 8.W.6 Use technology and the internet to create and share writing, show links between ideas efficiently and collaborate.
• 8.W.7 Do short research projects to answer a question, using several sources and generating further focused questions.
• 8.W.8 Gather relevant information from several print and digital sources with effective searches, judge credibility, quote or paraphrase without plagiarism and cite.
• 8.W.9 Use evidence from literature or informational texts to back up analysis, reflection and research.
  • a. Apply grade 8 reading standards to literature in writing.
  • b. Use the grade 8 informational reading skills when writing about nonfiction.
• 8.W.10 Write often, in long projects and short sittings, for many subject-specific tasks, purposes and readers.

Speaking and Listening Standards

• 8.SL.1 Take part well in many kinds of discussions with different partners about grade 8 topics and texts.
  • a. Come prepared and refer to evidence to probe and reflect on ideas.
  • b. Follow rules for collegial discussion, track progress toward goals and deadlines and define roles.
  • c. Ask questions that connect several speakers' ideas and respond with relevant evidence and observations.
  • d. Acknowledge new information and qualify or justify one's views in light of the evidence.
• 8.SL.2 Analyze why information is presented in different media and formats and judge the motives behind it.
• 8.SL.3 Outline a speaker's argument, judging the reasoning and evidence and spotting irrelevant evidence.
• 8.SL.4 Present claims and findings in a focused, coherent way with relevant evidence and sound reasoning, using eye contact, volume and clear pronunciation.
• 8.SL.5 Include multimedia and visual displays to clarify information, strengthen claims and add interest.
• 8.SL.6 Adapt speech to different contexts and tasks, using formal English when suitable.

Language Standards

• 8.L.1 Use correct standard English grammar when speaking and writing.
  • a. Explain what gerunds, participles and infinitives do in general and in particular sentences.
  • b. Make and use active and passive verb forms.
  • c. Make and use verbs in each mood: indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional and subjunctive.
  • d. Recognize and fix inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood.
• 8.L.2 Show command of capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.
  • a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to show a pause or break.
  • b. Use an ellipsis to show an omission.
  • c. Spell correctly.
• 8.L.3 Apply what is known about language and its rules in writing, speaking, reading and listening.
  • a. Use active and passive voice and conditional and subjunctive mood for effect (e.g. to stress the actor or express uncertainty).
• 8.L.4 Work out unknown and multiple-meaning words using a range of strategies.
  • a. Use familiar Greek and Latin word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes) as meaning clues.
  • b. Use context (sentence or paragraph meaning, a word's position or function) as a clue to meaning.
  • c. Use print and digital references to find pronunciation, precise meaning or part of speech.
  • d. Check a first guess at a word's meaning.
• 8.L.5 Understand figurative language, how words relate and fine shades of meaning.
  • a. Explain figures of speech such as verbal irony and puns in context.
  • b. Use relationships between words to understand each better.
  • c. Distinguish the feelings carried by near-synonyms (e.g. bullheaded, firm, resolute).
• 8.L.6 Learn and use grade-level general academic and subject-specific words, gathering vocabulary knowledge when needed.