Colorado State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 8

CO.1. Oral Expression and Listening

1.1. Communication skills and interviewing techniques are required to gather information and to develop and deliver oral presentations. Students can:

1.1.a. Identify a central idea and prepare and ask relevant interview questions for researching and developing ideas further

1.1.b. Evaluate the effectiveness of the techniques used and information gained from the interview

1.1.c. Give a planned oral presentation to a specific audience for an intended purpose

1.1.d. Demonstrate appropriate verbal and nonverbal delivery techniques (clear enunciation, gesture, volume, pace, use of visuals, and language) for intended effect

1.1.e. Analyze audience engagement and audience response to presentations of self and others

1.2. A variety of response strategies clarifies meaning or messages. Students can:

1.2.a. Use appropriate nonverbal cues to indicate level of understanding and agreement

1.2.b. Paraphrase speaker's meaning

1.2.c. Ask questions to clarify inferences

CO.2. Reading for All Purposes

2.1. Quality comprehension and interpretation of literary texts demand self-monitoring and self-assessment. Students can:

2.1.a. Explain how exposition, conflict, rising and falling action, climax, and resolution function within the narrative advance the plot

2.1.b. Explain and compare the different roles and functions that characters play in a narrative (such as antagonist, protagonist, hero)

2.1.c. Interpret mood, tone, and literary devices (such as symbolism, flashback, foreshadowing, hyperbole), and provide supporting evidence from text

2.1.d. Identify use of third person, omniscient, and third person limited points of view; explain how each narrative point of view provides different insights in plots, characters and themes

2.1.e. Use graphic organizers and note-taking formats while reading to map relationships among implied or explicit ideas or viewpoints

2.1.f. Develop and share interpretations of literary works of personal interest

2.1.g. Identify personal attitudes and beliefs about events, ideas, and themes in text, and explain how these shape their comprehension of text

2.2. Quality comprehension and interpretation of literary texts demand monitoring and self-assessment. Students can:

2.2.a. Identify key words that signal a variety of organizational patterns (such as chronology, compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause/effect); explain how various organizational patterns structure information differently; use organizational patterns to guide interpretation of text

2.2.b. Evaluate viewpoints, values, and attitudes (such as detecting bias, word connotations, and incomplete data)

2.2.c. Make inferences and draw conclusions about relevance and accuracy of information

2.2.d. Interpret and explain informational texts of personal interest

2.2.e. Identify how specific details and larger portions of the text contribute to the meaning of the text

2.2.f. Find the gist of an article or factual text

2.3. Syntax, grammar, and word choice influence the understanding of literary, persuasive, and informational texts. Students can:

2.3.a. Use knowledge of parts of speech, grammar, sentence structure, and context clues to construct meaning

2.3.b. Select and employ strategies to persist when encountering unknown or ambiguous words or difficult passages

2.3.c. Explain how authors use language to influence audience perceptions of events, people, and ideas

2.3.d. Explain how word choice and sentence structure are used to achieve specific effects (such as tone, voice, and mood)

CO.3. Writing and Composition

3.1. Stylistic devices and descriptive details in literary and narrative texts are organized for a variety of audiences and purposes and evaluated for quality. Students can:

3.1.a. Produce literary and narrative texts using stylistic devices and descriptive details

3.1.b. Organize ideas consistent with text structure (chronology, rising action, problem/resolution)

3.1.c. Establish and maintain a controlling idea appropriate to audience and purpose

3.1.d. Integrate the use of organizing techniques that break up sequential presentation of chronology in a story (use of foreshadowing; starting in the middle of the action, then filling in background information using flashbacks)

3.1.e. Write using poetic techniques (alliteration, onomatopoeia); figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole); and graphic elements (capital letters, line length, word position) for intended effect

3.1.f. Express voice and tone and influence readers' perceptions by varying vocabulary, sentence structure, and descriptive details

3.1.g. Use mentor text/authors to help craft appropriate technique

3.2. Ideas and supporting details in informational and persuasive texts are organized for a variety of audiences and purposes and evaluated for quality. Students can:

3.2.a. Develop texts that offer a comparison, show cause and effect, or support a point

3.2.b. Write and justify a personal interpretation of literary or informational text that includes a thesis, supporting details from the literature, and a conclusion

3.2.c. Select and use appropriate rhetorical techniques (such as asking questions, using humor, etc.) for a variety of purposes

3.2.d. Use specific details and references to text or relevant citations to support focus or judgment

3.2.e. Use planning strategies to select and narrow topic

3.2.f. Elaborate to give detail, add depth, and continue the flow of an idea

3.2.g. Explain and imitate emotional and logical appeals used by writers who are trying to persuade an audience

3.3. Editing writing for grammar, usage, mechanics, and clarity is an essential trait of a well-written document. Students can:

3.3.a. Use punctuation correctly (commas to separate phrases and clauses in a series; commas with nonrestrictive phrases and clauses; and commas to offset appositives)

3.3.b. Format and punctuate dialogue correctly

3.3.c. Identify main and subordinate clauses and use that knowledge to write varied, strong, correct, complete sentences

3.3.d. Use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs correctly in sentences

3.3.e. Combine sentences with subordinate conjunctions

3.3.f. Use subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases and clauses

CO.4. Research and Reasoning

4.1. Individual research projects begin with information obtained from a variety of sources, and is organized, documented, and presented using logical procedures. Students can:

4.1.a. Differentiate between primary and secondary source materials

4.1.b. Differentiate between paraphrasing and using direct quotes in a report

4.1.c. Organize and present research appropriately for audience and purpose

4.1.d. Document information and quotations; use a consistent format for footnotes or endnotes; and use standard bibliographic format to document sources

4.1.e. Write reports based on research that include quotations, footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography or works cited page

4.1.f. Present findings

4.2. Common fallacies and errors occur in reasoning. Students can:

4.2.a. Analyze the purpose, question at issue, information, points of view, implications and consequences, inferences, assumptions, and concepts inherent in thinking

4.2.b. Determine strengths and weaknesses of their thinking and thinking of others by using criteria including relevance, clarity, accuracy, fairness, significance, depth, breadth, logic, and precision

4.2.c. Identify common reasoning fallacies in print and nonprinted sources

4.2.d. Differentiate between valid and faulty generalizations

4.3. Quality reasoning relies on supporting evidence in media. Students can:

4.3.a. Take a position on an issue and support it using quality reasoning

4.3.b. Analyze own or others' appeal for purpose, question at issue, information, points of view, implications and consequences, assumptions, and concepts

4.3.c. Evaluate own or others' appeal for relevance, clarity, accuracy, fairness, significance, depth, breadth, logic, and precision

4.3.d. Use appropriate media to demonstrate reasoning and explain decisions in the creative process

CO.5. Prepared Graduate Competencies in Reading, Writing, and Communicating: The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

5.1. Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others, and contribute ideas to further the group's attainment of an objective

5.2. Deliver organized and effective oral presentations for diverse audiences and varied purposes

5.3. Use language appropriate for purpose and audience

5.4. Demonstrate skill in inferential and evaluative listening

5.5. Interpret how the structure of written English contributes to the pronunciation and meaning of complex vocabulary

5.6. Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational, literary, and persuasive texts

5.7. Evaluate how an author uses words to create mental imagery, suggest mood, and set tone

5.8. Read a wide range of literature (American and world literature) to understand important universal themes and the human experience

5.9. Seek feedback, self-assess, and reflect on personal learning while engaging with increasingly more difficult texts

5.10. Engage in a wide range of nonfiction and real-life reading experiences to solve problems, judge the quality of ideas, or complete daily tasks

5.11. Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail

5.12. Effectively use content-specific language, style, tone, and text structure to compose or adapt writing for different audiences and purposes

5.13. Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language

5.14. Implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work

5.15. Master the techniques of effective informational, literary, and persuasive writing

5.16. Discriminate and justify a position using traditional lines of rhetorical argument and reasoning

5.17. Articulate the position of self and others using experiential and material logic

5.18. Gather information from a variety of sources; analyze and evaluate the quality and relevance of the source; and use it to answer complex questions

5.19. Use primary, secondary, and tertiary written sources to generate and answer research questions

5.20. Evaluate explicit and implicit viewpoints, values, attitudes, and assumptions concealed in speech, writing, and illustration

5.21. Demonstrate the use of a range of strategies, research techniques, and persistence when engaging with difficult texts or examining complex problems or issues

5.22. Exercise ethical conduct when writing, researching, and documenting sources