New York State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 8

NY.1. Reading: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

1.1. Locate and use school and public library resources independently to acquire information

1.2. Apply thinking skills, such as define, classify, and infer, to interpret data, facts, and ideas from informational texts

1.3. Read and follow written multistep directions or procedures to accomplish a task or complete an assignment

1.4. Preview informational texts to assess content and organization and select texts useful for the task

1.5. Use indexes to locate information and glossaries to define terms

1.6. Use knowledge of structure, content, and vocabulary to understand informational text

1.7. Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information

1.8. Identify missing, conflicting, or unclear information

1.9. Formulate questions to be answered by reading informational text

1.10. Compare and contrast information from a variety of different sources

1.11. Condense, combine, or categorize new information from one or more sources

1.12. Draw conclusions and make inferences on the basis of explicit and implied information

1.13. Make, confirm, or revise predictions

NY.2. Reading: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

2.1. Read silently and aloud from a variety of genres, authors, and themes

2.2. Interpret characters, plot, setting, theme, and dialogue, using evidence from the text

2.3. Identify the author's point of view, such as first-person narrator and omniscient narrator

2.4. Determine how the use and meaning of literary devices, such as symbolism, metaphor and simile, illustration, personification, flashback, and foreshadowing, convey the author's message or intent

2.5. Recognize how the author's use of language creates images or feelings

2.6. Identify poetic elements, such as repetition, rhythm, and rhyming patterns, in order to interpret poetry

2.7. Compare motives of characters, causes of events, and importance of setting in literature to people, events, and places in own lives

2.8. Identify social and cultural contexts and other characteristics of the time period in order to enhance understanding and appreciation of text

2.9. Compare a film, video, or stage version of a literary work with the written version

NY.3. Reading: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

3.1. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify conflicting information

3.2. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, consider the background and qualifications of the writer

3.3. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, question the writer's assumptions, beliefs, intentions, and biases

3.4. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, evaluate examples, details, or reasons used to support ideas

3.5. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify fallacies of logic that lead to unsupported conclusions

3.6. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, discriminate between apparent messages and hidden agendas

3.7. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify propaganda and evaluate its effectiveness

3.8. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify techniques the author uses to persuade (e.g., emotional and ethical appeals)

3.9. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify differing points of view in texts and presentations

3.10. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify cultural and ethnic values and their impact on content

3.11. Evaluate the validity and accuracy of information, ideas, themes, opinions, and experiences in texts: for example, identify multiple levels of meaning

3.12. Judge a text by using evaluative criteria from a variety of perspectives, such as literary, political, and personal

3.13. Suspend judgment until all information has been presented

NY.4. Reading: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

4.1. Share reading experiences with peers or adults; for example, read together silently or aloud with a partner or in small groups

4.2. Consider the age, gender, social position, and traditions of the writer

4.3. Recognize the types of language (e.g., informal vocabulary, culture-specific terminology, jargon, colloquialisms, and email conventions) that are appropriate to social communication

2.10. Write interpretive and responsive essays of approximately three pages to draw conclusions and provide reasons for the conclusions

2.11. Write interpretive and responsive essays of approximately three pages to compare and contrast characters, setting, mood, and voice in more than one literary text or performance

2.12. Maintain a writing portfolio that includes literary, interpretive, and responsive writing

4.4. Write personal reactions to experiences, events, and observations, using a form of social communication

4.5. Identify and model the social communication techniques of published writers

4.6. Maintain a portfolio that includes writing for social communication

4.7. Use the conventions of email