Grade 8 ELA Alabama standards Standards

Vocabulary Literacy 6-8

Research Literacy 6-8

Language Literacy 6-8

Digital Literacy 6-8

Critical Literacy 6-8

Recurring Standards 6-8

Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

Use context clues to determine meanings of unfamiliar spoken or written words.

Use digital and electronic tools appropriately, safely, and ethically when researching and writing, both individually and collaboratively.

Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

Assess the formality of occasions in order to speak or write using appropriate language and tone.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Analyze how informational and graphic text elements, including allusions, point of view, purpose, comparisons, categories, and figurative, connotative, and technical word meanings, develop central and supporting ideas.

Engage in coherent and collaborative discussions about prose and poetry by evaluating the use of literary devices and elements.

Make complex inferences from the structure and content of a text, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, and substantiated and unsubstantiated claims and evidence, to draw logical conclusions about the author's perspective.

Analyze how authors use key literary elements, including setting, plot, theme, characters, internal and external conflict, dialogue, and point of view, to contribute to the meaning and purpose of a text, using text evidence as support.

Analyze the use of literary devices, including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, imagery, tone, symbolism, irony, mood, and allusion, to support interpretations of literary texts, using textual evidence to support the analysis.

Compare and contrast the perspectives in a variety of fiction, nonfiction, informational, digital, and multimodal texts produced from diverse historical, cultural, and global viewpoints.

Evaluate the development of central and supporting ideas in recorded or live presentations by examining the speaker's rhetorical strategies and choices regarding point of view, purpose, comparisons, analogies, categories, allusions, and figurative, connotative, and technical word meanings.

Critique the speaker's use of hyperbole, tone, symbolism, imagery, mood, irony, and onomatopoeia in a live or recorded presentation.

Produce clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writing in which the development, organization, style, and tone are relevant to task, purpose, and audience, using an appropriate command of language.

Write narratives that establish a clear purpose, use narrative techniques, and sequence events coherently.

Write informative or explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas or processes effectively, by developing the topic with relevant information or data from credible sources and using appropriate transitions and precise vocabulary.

Write an argument to defend a position by introducing and supporting a claim, distinguishing the claim from opposing claims, presenting counterclaims and reasons, and citing accurate, relevant textual evidence from credible sources.

Participate in collaborative discussions about arguments by evaluating claims, findings, reasoning, relevance, and evidence from multiple sources.

Analyze digital texts to determine subject, occasion, audience, purpose, tone, and credibility.

Interpret and evaluate language through active listening to determine subject, occasion, audience, purpose, tone, and credibility of digital sources.

Create and edit digital products that are appropriate in subject, occasion, audience, point of view, purpose, and tone.

Utilize digital tools and/or products to enhance meaning.

Deliver ideas in an appropriate digital format with specific attention to subject, occasion, audience, purpose, and tone.

Examine the use of conventions of standard English grammar and usage in writing.

Identify gerunds, participles, infinitives, and clauses.

Analyze the effects of active and passive voice and shifts in verb tense.

Explain how using simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex statements and questions signals differing relationships among ideas in a text.

Examine the use of conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in a variety of texts.

Correct improper usage of commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, colons, semicolons, hyphens, and dashes through peer editing.

Analyze a speaker's formality of language in order to comprehend, interpret, and respond appropriately.

Evaluate a speaker's rhetorical and organizational choices in order to determine point of view, purpose, and effectiveness.

Produce writing that shows a command of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Construct verbals (gerunds, participles, and infinitives) in pieces of writing, including isolated sentences, paragraphs, and essays.

Compose writing using verbs in active and passive voice to establish mood.

Revise their own writing for correct mechanics with a focus on commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, colons, and semicolons.

Construct simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas.

Form and use verbs in context in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive moods.

Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.

Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.

Apply ethical guidelines while finding and recording information from a variety of primary, secondary, and digital sources.

Determine the relevance, reliability, and validity of information from nonfiction and fictional printed and/or digital texts.

Assess the relevance and credibility of orally-presented information to answer a question, solve a problem, or defend a position.

Produce research writings independently over extended periods of time which encompass research, reflection, and revision and over shorter time frames.

Quote, paraphrase, summarize, and present findings, following a recognized citation style and avoiding plagiarism to demonstrate responsible and ethical research practices.

Synthesize and present information during the research process to answer follow-up questions and participate in both informal and formal discussions about research findings with grade-appropriate command of language.

Analyze word meanings through the use of word parts, context clues, connotation and denotation, and print or digital reference tools.

Read, analyze, and evaluate texts from science, social studies, and other academic disciplines to determine how those disciplines treat domain-specific vocabulary and content organization.

Analyze and connect word meanings through active listening in various contexts for purposeful, effective communication .

Integrate effective vocabulary into writing to create specific effects and communicate purposefully.

Utilize appropriate vocabulary in various classroom, digital, and real-world situations to facilitate effective communication .

Vocabulary Literacy

Research Literacy

Language Literacy

Digital Literacy

Critical Literacy

Determine subject, occasion, and purpose of digital sources.

Identify the correct verb tense that completes a sentence.

Identify adjectives within a sentence.

Identify a sentence using correct capitalization and punctuation found in a text.

Identify the point of view and author’s purpose (i.e., to instruct, to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to describe) in an informational text.

Make inferences from the content and the structure (i.e., cause and effect, sequencing) of an informational text.

Use apostrophes to show the omission of letters (i.e., contractions) (i.e., it’s, let’s, aren’t, didn’t, what’s).

Use quotation marks to indicate dialogue or a direct quote of a person.

Identify which source would provide relevant and reliable information about a topic.

Summarize information from research sources.

Use knowledge of prefixes (i.e., re-, un-, pre-, dis-, mis-) and suffixes (i.e., -er/-or [person who], -ful [full of], -less [without], -able [able to]) to identify the meaning of a word.

Identify academic and unit/lessonspecific words/terms (vocabulary).

Identify how setting, plot, characters, theme, and conflict contribute to the meaning of prose (story) and poetry.

Identify words or phrases that are examples of literary devices (i.e., simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, imagery) used in literary texts.

Identify a simple perspective of the author in a text.

Identify the point of view or purpose (i.e., to instruct, to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to describe) of a presentation.

Compose narratives by introducing a narrator or characters, organizing events in sequence, and providing an ending related to the event sequence.

Compose informative or explanatory texts by stating a topic, providing facts or details, and providing an appropriate conclusion related to the topic.

Compose argumentative texts by stating a topic, providing reasons that support the argument, and providing an appropriate conclusion related to the topic.

Participate in discussions with adults and peers using information from multiple sources.