Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
Version Description
This course defines what students should understand and be able to do by the end of the grade level. Knowledge acquisition should be the primary purpose of any reading approach. The systematic building of a wide range of knowledge across domains is a prerequisite to higher literacy. At this grade level, students are building their facility with rhetoric, the craft of using language in writing and speaking, using classic literature, essays, and speeches as mentor texts.
General Notes
English Language Arts is not a discrete set of skills, but a rich discipline with meaningful, significant content, the knowledge of which helps all students actively and fully participate in our society.
Standards should not stand alone as a separate focus for instruction, but should be combined purposefully.
The texts students read should be meaningful and thought-provoking, preparing them to be informed, civic-minded members of their community.
Curricular content for all subjects must integrate critical-thinking, problem-solving, and workforce-literacy skills; communication, reading, and writing skills; mathematics skills; collaboration skills; contextual and applied-learning skills; technology-literacy skills; information and media-literacy skills; and civic-engagement skills.
Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Advanced courses require a greater demand on students through increased academic rigor. Academic rigor is obtained through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted. Students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning. Honors level rigor will be achieved by increasing text complexity through text selection, focus on high-level qualitative measures, and complexity of task. Instruction will be structured to give students a deeper understanding of conceptual themes and organization within and across disciplines. Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work.
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Language Arts. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL's need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: http://www.cpalms.org/uploads/docs/standards/eld/la.pdf.
Version Requirements
Approximately one-third of the titles from the 8th Grade Sample Book List should be used in instruction.
General Information
- Honors
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Learn to identify aspects of setting and character as you analyze several excerpts from “The Yellow Wallpaper," a chilling short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. You'll also determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting better reveal her emotional and mental state.
This interactive tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. By the end of Part Two, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting. Click below to launch Part Two.
The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part Two
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine several excerpts from the chilling short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. In Part Two of this tutorial series, you'll determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting reveal its impact on her emotional and mental state. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch "The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part One."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice changing sentences from passive to active voice in this interactive tutorial about mythical creatures.
This is Part Two in a two-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first! Click HERE to launch "It's No Myth -- Part One: Distinguishing Between Passive and Active Voice.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to distinguish between passive and active voice with this interactive tutorial about mythical creatures.
This is Part One of a two-part series. Click HERE to launch "It's No Myth -- Part Two: Changing Sentences from Passive to Active Voice."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write a great "CER" paragraph that includes a claim, evidence, and reasoning with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Tutorials
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice correcting two common types of run-on sentences: comma splices and fused sentences. For each practice item, you must identify the best way to correct either a comma splice or a fused sentence. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There’s also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice identifying two common types of run-on sentences: comma splices and fused sentences. For each practice item, you must identify whether a run-on sentence is a comma splice or a fused sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There’s also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in recognizing parallel structure. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This tutorial from Cornell University includes the what, why, how, and when of documenting sources in a research paper. You will learn what plagiarism is, when and how to document sources, the difference between primary and secondary sources, and definitions of the following words: documentation, citation, and reference. Afterward, you will have a chance to identify correct and incorrect examples of proper documentation.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in maintaining parallel structure. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in maintaining parallel structure. You will get feedback after every typed response. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in recognizing parallel structure. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in maintaining parallel structure. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in maintaining parallel structure. You will get feedback after every typed response. The site also includes an explanation of the rules of parallel structure that you can refer to as you complete this exercise.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial