Indiana State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 8

IN.1. Reading: Word Recognition, Fluency, and Vocabulary Development: Students use their knowledge of word parts and word relationships, as well as context (the meaning of the text around a word), to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words.

8.1.1. Vocabulary and Concept Development: Analyze idioms and comparisons - such as analogies, metaphors, and similes - to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases.

8.1.2. Vocabulary and Concept Development: Understand the influence of historical events on English word meaning and vocabulary expansion.

8.1.3. Vocabulary and Concept Development: Verify the meaning of a word in its context, even when its meaning is not directly stated, through the use of definition, restatement, example, comparison, or contrast.

IN.2. Reading: Comprehension and Analysis of Nonfiction and Informational Text: Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material.

8.2.1. Structural Features of Informational and Technical Materials: Compare and contrast the features and elements of consumer materials to gain meaning from documents.

8.2.2. Structural Features of Informational and Technical Materials: Analyze text that uses proposition (statement of argument) and support patterns.

8.2.7. Structural Features of Informational and Technical Materials: Analyze the structure, format, and purpose of informational materials (such as textbooks, newspapers, instructional or technical manuals, and public documents).

8.2.3. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Nonfiction and Informational Text: Find similarities and differences between texts in the treatment, amount of coverage, or organization of ideas.

8.2.4. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Nonfiction and Informational Text: Compare the original text to a summary to determine whether the summary accurately describes the main ideas, includes important details, and conveys the underlying meaning.

8.2.5. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Nonfiction and Informational Text: Use information from a variety of consumer and public documents to explain a situation or decision and to solve a problem.

8.2.8. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Nonfiction and Informational Text: Understand and explain the use of simple equipment by following directions in a technical manual.

8.2.9. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Nonfiction and Informational Text: Make reasonable statements and draw conclusions about a text, supporting them with accurate examples.

8.2.6. Expository (Informational) Critique: Evaluate the logic (inductive or deductive argument), internal consistency, and structural patterns of text.

IN.3. Reading: Comprehension and Analysis of Literary Text: Students read and respond to grade-level-appropriate historically or culturally significant works of literature.

8.3.1. Structural Features of Literature: Determine and articulate the relationship between the purposes and characteristics of different forms of poetry (including ballads, lyrics, couplets, epics, elegies, odes, and sonnets).

8.3.2. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Evaluate the structural elements of the plot, such as subplots, parallel episodes, and climax; the plot's development; and the way in which conflicts are (or are not) addressed and resolved.

8.3.3. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Compare and contrast the motivations and reactions of literary characters from different historical eras confronting either similar situations and conflicts or similar hypothetical situations.

8.3.4. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Analyze the importance of the setting to the mood, tone, or meaning of the text.

8.3.5. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Identify and analyze recurring themes (such as good versus evil) that appear frequently across traditional and contemporary works.

8.3.6. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Identify significant literary devices, such as metaphor, symbolism, dialect or quotations, and irony, which define a writer's style and use those elements to interpret the work.

8.3.8. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Contrast points of view - such as first person, third person, third person limited and third person omniscient, and subjective and objective - in narrative text and explain how they affect the overall theme of the work.

8.3.9. Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Literary Text: Analyze the relevance of setting (places, times, customs) to mood, tone, and meaning of text.

8.3.7. Literary Criticism: Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its author.

IN.4. Writing: Processes and Features: Students discuss, list, and graphically organize writing ideas. They write clear, coherent, and focused essays.

8.4.1. Organization and Focus: Discuss ideas for writing, keep a list or notebook of ideas, and use graphic organizers to plan writing.

8.4.2. Organization and Focus: Create compositions that have a clear message, a coherent thesis (a statement of position on the topic), and end with a clear and well-supported conclusion.

8.4.3. Organization and Focus: Support theses or conclusions with analogies (comparisons), paraphrases, quotations, opinions from experts, and similar devices.

8.4.10. Organization and Focus: Create an organizational structure that balances all aspects of the composition and uses effective transitions between sentences to unify important ideas.

8.4.4. Research Process and Technology: Plan and conduct multiple-step information searches using computer networks.

8.4.5. Research Process and Technology: Achieve an effective balance between researched information and original ideas.

8.4.6. Research Process and Technology: Use a computer to create documents by using word-processing skills and publishing programs; develop simple databases and spreadsheets to manage information and prepare reports.

8.4.7. Evaluation and Revision: Review, evaluate, and revise writing for meaning and clarity.

8.4.11. Evaluation and Revision: Identify topics; ask and evaluate questions; and develop ideas leading to inquiry, investigation, and research.

8.4.8. Evaluation and Revision: Edit and proofread one's own writing, as well as that of others, using an editing checklist or set of rules, with specific examples of corrections of frequent errors.

8.4.9. Evaluation and Revision: Revise writing for word choice; appropriate organization; consistent point of view; and transitions among paragraphs, passages, and ideas.

IN.5. Writing: Applications (Different Types of Writing and Their Characteristics): At Grade 8 continue to write narrative, expository (informational), persuasive, and descriptive essays (research reports of 700 to 1,000 words or more). Students are introduced to writing technical documents.

8.5.1. Writing Processes and Features: Write biographies, autobiographies, and short stories that: tell about an incident, event, or situation, using well-chosen details; reveal the significance of, or the writer's attitude about, the subject; use narrative and descriptive strategies, including relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, and comparison or contrast of characters.

8.5.2. Writing Processes and Features: Write responses to literature that: demonstrate careful reading and insight into interpretations; connect response to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references; make supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience; support statements with evidence from the text.

8.5.4. Writing Processes and Features: Write persuasive compositions that: include a well-defined thesis that makes a clear and knowledgeable appeal; present detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning to support effective arguments and emotional appeals; provide details, reasons, and examples, arranging them effectively by anticipating and answering reader concerns and counterarguments.

8.5.5. Writing Processes and Features: Write technical documents that: identify the sequence of activities needed to design a system, operate a tool, or explain the bylaws of an organization's constitution or guidelines; include all the factors and variables that need to be considered; use formatting techniques, including headings and changing the fonts (typeface) to aid comprehension.

8.5.6. Writing Processes and Features: Write using precise word choices to make writing interesting and exact.

8.5.7. Writing Processes and Features: Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person, adjusting tone and style as necessary.

8.5.3. Research Application: Write or deliver a research report that has been developed using a systematic research process (defines the topic, gathers information, determines credibility, reports findings) and that: uses information from a variety of sources (books, technology, multimedia) and documents sources independently by using a consistent format for citations; demonstrates that information that has been gathered has been summarized and that the topic has been refined through this process; demonstrates that sources have been evaluated for accuracy, bias, and credibility; organizes information by categorizing and sequencing, and demonstrates the distinction between one's own ideas from the ideas of others, and includes a bibliography (Works Cited).

IN.6. Writing: English Language Conventions: Students write using Standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level.

8.6.1. Sentence Structure: Use correct and varied sentence types (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex) and sentence openings to present a lively and effective personal style.

8.6.2. Sentence Structure: Identify and use parallelism (use consistent elements of grammar when compiling a list) in all writing to present items in a series and items juxtaposed for emphasis.

8.6.3. Sentence Structure: Use subordination, coordination, noun phrases that function as adjectives (These gestures - acts of friendship - were noticed but not appreciated.), and other devices to indicate clearly the relationship between ideas.

8.6.4. Grammar: Edit written manuscripts to ensure that correct grammar is used.

8.6.8. Grammar: Identify and use infinitives (the word 'to' followed by the base form of a verb, such as 'to understand' or 'to learn') and participles (made by adding -ing, -d, -ed, -n, -en, or -t to the base form of the verb, such as dreaming, chosen, built, and grown).

8.6.5. Punctuation: Use correct punctuation.

8.6.6. Capitalization: Use correct capitalization.

8.6.7. Spelling: Use correct spelling conventions.

IN.7. Listening and Speaking: Skills, Strategies, and Applications: Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience.

8.7.1. Comprehension: Paraphrase (restate) a speaker's purpose and point of view and ask questions concerning the speaker's content, delivery, and attitude toward the subject.

8.7.2. Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication: Match the message, vocabulary, voice modulation (changes in tone), expression, and tone to the audience and purpose.

8.7.3. Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication: Outline the organization of a speech, including an introduction; transitions, previews, and summaries; a logically developed body; and an effective conclusion.

8.7.4. Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication: Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate and colorful modifiers (describing words, such as adverbs and adjectives), and the active (I recommend that you write drafts.) rather than the passive voice (The writing of drafts is recommended.) in ways that enliven oral presentations.

8.7.5. Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication: Use appropriate grammar, word choice, enunciation (clear speech), and pace (timing) during formal presentations.

8.7.6. Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication: Use audience feedback, including both verbal and nonverbal cues, to reconsider and modify the organizational structure and/or to rearrange words and sentences for clarification of meaning.

8.7.7. Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications: Analyze oral interpretations of literature, including language choice and delivery, and the effect of the interpretations on the listener.

8.7.8. Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications: Evaluate the credibility of a speaker, including whether the speaker has hidden agendas or presents slanted or biased material.

8.7.9. Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications: Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which visual image makers (such as graphic artists, illustrators, and news photographers) communicate information and affect impressions and opinions.

8.7.10. Speaking Applications: Deliver narrative presentations, such as biographical or autobiographical information that: relate a clear incident, event, or situation, using well-chosen details; reveal the significance of the incident, event, or situation; use narrative and descriptive strategies to support the presentation, including relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, and comparison or contrast of characters.

8.7.15. Speaking Applications: Deliver descriptive presentations that: establish a clear point of view on the subject of the presentation; establish the presenter's relationship with the subject of the presentation (whether the presentation is made as an uninvolved observer or by someone who is personally involved); contain effective, factual descriptions of appearance, concrete images, shifting perspectives, and sensory details.

8.7.11. Speaking Applications: Deliver oral responses to literature that: interpret a reading and provide insight; connect personal responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references; make supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience; support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or personal knowledge.

8.7.12. Speaking Applications: Deliver research presentations that: define a thesis (a position on the topic); research important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize important perspectives on the topic; use a variety of research sources and distinguish the nature and value of each; present information on charts, maps, and graphs.

8.7.13. Speaking Applications: Deliver persuasive presentations that: include a well-defined thesis (position on the topic); differentiate fact from opinion and support arguments with detailed evidence, examples, reasoning, and persuasive language; anticipate and effectively answer listener concerns and counterarguments through the inclusion and arrangement of details, reasons, examples, and other elements; maintain a reasonable tone.

8.7.14. Speaking Applications: Recite poems (of four to six stanzas), sections of speeches, or dramatic soliloquies (sections of plays in which characters speak out loud to themselves) using voice modulation, tone, and gestures expressively to enhance the meaning.