8th Grade ELA (Colorado Academic Standards)

Standard 1: Oral Expression and Listening

• RWC.8.1.1 Take part in productive group discussions and examine the information shared. (being checked)
  • 1. Join a range of discussions with varied partners, build on others' ideas and state your views clearly.
  • 1.a. Come prepared from reading or research and cite evidence to probe ideas.
  • 1.b. Follow discussion norms, track progress toward goals and deadlines and assign roles when needed.
  • 1.c. Ask questions that link several speakers' points and reply with relevant support.
  • 1.d. Acknowledge new information and qualify or defend your views with evidence when fitting.
  • 2. Analyze why information is presented in different media and formats and judge the motives behind it.
  • 3. Identify a speaker's argument and claims, judge reasoning and evidence and spot irrelevant material.
• RWC.8.1.2 Build well-organized talks with details and claims suited to purpose and audience. (being checked)
  • 1. Give focused, coherent talks with evidence, eye contact, good volume and clear pronunciation.
  • 2. Add multimedia and visuals to clarify information, strengthen claims and engage listeners.
  • 3. Adapt speech to contexts and tasks, using formal English when suitable.

Standard 2: Reading for All Purposes

• RWC.8.2.1 Examine literary features and writers' choices to understand literary works better. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Cite the strongest evidence for what the text says and what can be inferred.
  • 1.b. Find a theme, trace how it develops through characters and plot and summarize neutrally.
  • 1.c. Explain how key dialogue or incidents move the plot, reveal character or prompt a decision.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Interpret word and phrase meanings, including figurative and connotative ones, and how word choice shapes tone.
  • 2.b. Compare the structures of two or more texts and how each shapes meaning and style.
  • 2.c. Analyze how gaps between characters' and readers' views, such as dramatic irony, create suspense or humor.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Judge how faithfully a film or staging follows a story or script, weighing directors' and actors' choices.
  • 3.b. Examine how modern fiction reworks themes, event patterns or character types from myths, tales or scripture.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. By year's end, read stories, dramas and poems at the top of the grades 6–8 band independently.
• RWC.8.2.2 Examine writers' choices to understand informational texts. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Cite the best evidence for what a text says and what can be inferred.
  • 1.b. Find a central idea, trace how it develops with supporting ideas and give a neutral summary.
  • 1.c. Show how a text links or separates people, ideas or events through comparison, analogy or grouping.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Interpret word and phrase meanings, including figurative, connotative and technical ones, and their effect on tone.
  • 2.b. Analyze how a paragraph's structure, sentence by sentence, develops and refines a key idea.
  • 2.c. Find an author's view or purpose and how the writer handles conflicting evidence or views.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Weigh the pros and cons of print, digital, video or multimedia formats for a topic.
  • 3.b. Judge whether an argument's logic holds and its evidence is relevant and enough; flag irrelevant evidence.
  • 3.c. Examine two texts that disagree on facts or interpretation and pinpoint where they differ.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. By year's end, read literary nonfiction at the top of the grades 6–8 band independently.
• RWC.8.2.3 Use word parts, grammar and context to work out unfamiliar words in harder texts. (being checked)
  • 1. Work out unfamiliar and multiple-meaning words in grade 8 texts using flexible strategies.
  • 1.a. Use the wider sentence or paragraph and a word's role in the sentence as clues.
  • 1.b. Use common Greek or Latin word parts as clues to meaning.
  • 1.c. Use print or digital dictionaries, glossaries or thesauruses for pronunciation, meaning or part of speech.
  • 1.d. Confirm a guessed meaning against context or a dictionary.
  • 2. Understand figurative language, word relationships and shades of meaning.
  • 2.a. Interpret figures of speech such as verbal irony or puns in context.
  • 2.b. Use how particular words relate to understand each one better.
  • 2.c. Tell apart the connotations of words with similar meanings.
  • 3. Learn and accurately use grade-level academic and subject words, checking vocabulary when meaning matters.

Standard 3: Writing and Composition

• RWC.8.3.1 Write well-organized arguments that separate claims from counterclaims and link claims, reasons and evidence. (being checked)
  • 1. Write arguments in which each claim is backed by sound reasons and fitting evidence.
  • 1.a. Introduce claims, set them apart from opposing views and order reasons and evidence logically.
  • 1.b. Back claims with logical reasoning and credible, accurate sources that show understanding.
  • 1.c. Use cohesive wording to tie claims, counterclaims, reasons and evidence together.
  • 1.d. Keep a formal style.
  • 1.e. End with a conclusion that reinforces the argument.
• RWC.8.3.2 Write thorough, logically organized explanatory texts with exact wording, subject vocabulary and formal tone. (being checked)
  • 1. Explain a topic by choosing, organizing and analyzing relevant content.
  • 1.a. Preview the topic clearly, group ideas into broader categories and add headings or graphics when helpful.
  • 1.b. Develop the topic with well-chosen facts, definitions, details, quotations or examples.
  • 1.c. Use varied transitions to link ideas and show how concepts relate.
  • 1.d. Use precise words and subject vocabulary to explain the topic.
  • 1.e. Keep a formal style.
  • 1.f. End with a statement that reinforces the information.
• RWC.8.3.3 Write engaging real or imagined stories using dialogue, pacing, sensory detail and logical order. (being checked)
  • 1. Write real or imagined narratives with effective technique, fitting details and well-ordered events.
  • 1.a. Set the scene and point of view, introduce the narrator or characters and order events naturally.
  • 1.b. Use dialogue, pacing, description and reflection to develop events and characters.
  • 1.c. Use transitions to show sequence, shifts in time or place and how events relate.
  • 1.d. Use exact words, vivid details and sensory language to capture action and experience.
  • 1.e. End with a conclusion that reflects on the events told.
  • 1.f. Use devices such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor and graphic choices to show voice.
• RWC.8.3.4 Produce polished final drafts with correct grammar and mechanics, styled for the task and reader. (being checked)
  • 1. Use standard grammar and usage in writing and speech.
  • 1.a. Explain what verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) do in sentences.
  • 1.b. Form and use verbs in active and passive voice.
  • 1.c. Form and use all five verb moods, from indicative and imperative to conditional and subjunctive.
  • 1.d. Spot and fix unwanted shifts in verb voice or mood.
  • 2. Use standard capitalization, punctuation and spelling in writing.
  • 2.a. Use commas, ellipses and dashes to show a pause or break.
  • 2.b. Use an ellipsis to show omitted words.
  • 2.c. Spell common words correctly and check dictionaries, spell check or trusted people for rarer words.
  • 3. Use knowledge of language when writing, speaking, reading and listening.
  • 3.a. Use active or passive voice and conditional or subjunctive mood for emphasis or contrary-to-fact statements.
  • 4. Write clear, coherent pieces whose development, organization and style fit the purpose and readers.
  • 5. With some support, plan, revise, edit, rewrite or try new approaches to strengthen writing.
  • 6. Use technology and the internet to publish, present ideas efficiently and collaborate.
  • 7. Write regularly over long and short periods for many subject tasks, purposes and audiences.

Standard 4: Research Inquiry and Design

• RWC.8.4.1 Ask important questions, find and judge sources, combine useful information and share findings clearly. (being checked)
  • 1. Do short research on a question, including your own, using several sources and raising follow-up questions.
  • 2. Gather information from many print and digital sources, check credibility, quote or paraphrase properly and cite in a standard format.
  • 3. Use evidence from stories and nonfiction to support analysis, reflection and research.
  • 3.a. Use grade 8 reading skills on literature, e.g. how modern fiction reworks myths, folktales or scripture. (being checked)
  • 3.b. Apply grade 8 reading standards to nonfiction: judge reasoning and evidence and spot irrelevant evidence.