English Language Arts -Standard B- Performance Standards Grade 8

By the end of grade eight, students will:

B.8.1 Create or produce writing to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

• Write a coherent and complete expository piece, with sufficient detail to fulfill its purpose, sufficient evidence to support its assertions, language appropriate for its intended audience, and organization achieved through clear coordination and subordination of ideas
• Write a persuasive piece (such as a letter to a specific person or a script promoting a particular product) that includes a clear position, a discernible tone, and a coherent argument with reliable evidence
• Write a narrative based on experience that uses descriptive language and detail effectively, presents a sequence of events, and reveals a theme
• Write clear and pertinent responses to verbal or visual material that communicate, explain, and interpret the reading or viewing experience to a specific audience
• Write creative fiction that includes major and minor characters, a coherent plot, effective imagery, descriptive language, and concrete detail
• Write in a variety of situations (during an exam, in a computer lab) and adapt strategies, such as revision, technology, and the use of reference materials, to the situation
• Use a variety of writing technologies including pen and paper as well as computers
• Write for a variety of readers, including peers, teachers, and other adults, adapting content, style, and structure to audience and situation

B.8.2 Plan, revise, edit, and publish clear and effective writing.

• Produce multiple drafts, including finished pieces, that demonstrate the capacity to generate, focus, and organize ideas and to revise the language, organization, content, and tone of successive drafts in order to fulfill a specific purpose for communicating with a specific audience
• Identify questions and strategies for improving drafts in writing conferences with a teacher
• Given a writing assignment to be completed in a limited amount of time, produce a well developed, well organized, and effective response in correct English and an appropriate voice

B.8.3 Understand the function of various forms, structures, and punctuation marks of standard American English and use them appropriately in communications.

• Understand the function of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence and use them effectively, including coordinate and subordinate conjunctions, relative pronouns, and comparative adjectives
• Use correct tenses to indicate the relative order of events
• Understand and employ principles of agreement, including subject-verb, pronoun-noun, and preposition-pronoun
• Punctuate compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences correctly
• Employ the conventions of capitalization
• Spell frequently used words correctly and use effective strategies for spelling unfamiliar words

Content Standard B

For questions about this information, contact Emilie Amundson (608) 266-3551

Last updated on 10/1/2009 10:54:40 AM