English Language Arts

Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice.

Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood.

Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break.

Spell correctly.

Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact).

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.

Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

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

Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words.

Acquire and use accurately grade‐appropriate general academic and domain‐specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

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

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.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

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.

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.

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.

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one‐on‐one, in groups, and teacher‐led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision‐making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.

Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented.

Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

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

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

Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.

Establish and maintain a formal style.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well‐structured event sequences.

Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

Produce clear and coherent functional writing (e.g., formal letters, experiments, notes/messages, labels, timelines, graphs/tables, procedures, invitations, envelopes, maps, captions, diagrams) in which the development and organization are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.