Linden Community Schools

 

 

STRAND: MEANING AND COMMUNICATION

 

Content Standard:      All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 1:  Use reading for multiple purposes, such as enjoyment, clarifying information and learning complex procedures                                                                                                                                           

Grade: Eighth (8) Grade

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

R.CM.08.04

• Apply significant knowledge from what has been read in grade level appropriate science and social studies texts.

Answer related questions from text

Teacher assessment

R.AT.08.01

• Be enthusiastic about reading and do substantial reading on their own.

School wide supported SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) Program  along with individually assigned novel reports

Teacher led class discussion and book reports

S.DS.08.01

• Engage in interactive, extended discourse to socially construct meaning (e.g., book clubs, literature circles, partnerships or other conversation protocols).

Class novel and reading selections

Teacher led class discussion

R.NT.08.01

• Investigate through classic and contemporary literature recognized for quality and literary merit various examples of distortion and stereotypes such as those associated with gender, race, culture, age, class, religion, and other individual differences.

Text and teacher identified reading selections

Teacher led class discussion

R.NT.08.02

• Analyze elements and style of narrative genres (e.g., historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction).

Read The Outsiders

Assess through class discussion and comprehension  based questions

R.NT.08.03

• Analyze the role of rising and falling actions, minor characters in relation to conflict, and credibility of the narrator.

Read The Outsiders

Schematic mapping denoting rise and falling action and character relation through conflict

R.NT.08.04

• Analyze how authors use symbolism, imagery, and consistency to develop credible narrators, rising and falling actions and minor characters.

Poetry selection, including Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost

Teacher assessment

R.IT.08.01

• Analyze elements and style of informational genre (e.g., comparative essays, newspaper writing, technical writing, persuasive essays).

Teacher suggested reading selections

Teacher assessment, student driven informational writing samples

R.IT.08.02

• Analyze organizational patterns (e.g., theory, evidence, sequence).

 Do an author study and focus on the organizational  patterns that a professional author uses; examples Jack London, Nikki Giovanni.

Teacher and text assessment

R.IT.08.03

• Explain how authors use text features to enhance the understanding of central, key, and supporting ideas (e.g., illustrations, author’s pages, prefaces, marginal notes).

Selections from text; example: Meet the Author Mark Twain  with reading selections Mark Twain’s Comedy Knight

Teacher and text assessment

 

                                                                     

STRAND: MEANING AND COMMUNICATION

 

Content Standard 1:   All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 2.   Read with developing fluency a variety of texts, such as short stories, novels, poetry, plays, textbooks, manuals and periodicals.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

R.WS.08.02

• Use structural, syntactic, and semantic analysis to recognize unfamiliar words in context (e.g., idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer, history of the English language, common word origins, syllabication).

Spelling and vocabulary study with words from text, including science, social studies, and math vocabulary

Teacher Assessmen

R.WS.08.03

• Recognize frequently encountered words automatically.

Identify words in general class work, reading selections, and assignments as they naturally appear.

Teacher based identification

R.WS.08.06

• Read fluently eighth grade level texts (increasingly demanding texts read with fluency as the year proceeds).

Students will read out loud as whole class or within literature circles taking turns and assisting each other.

Check for fluency through teacher observations.

 

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 1:   All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 3. Employ multiple strategies to construct meaning, such as generating questions, studying vocabulary, analyzing mood and tone, recognizing how authors use information, generalizing ideas, matching form to content and developing reference skills.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

R.WS.08.05

• Apply strategies to construct meaning and identify unknown words.

Use context clues to identify selected vocabulary terms.

Teacher assessment

R.MT.08.01

• Independently self-monitor comprehension when reading or listening to text by automatically using and discussing the strategies used by mature readers to increase comprehension and engage in interpretative discussions (e.g., predicting, constructing mental images representing ideas in text questioning, rereading or listening again if uncertain about meaning, inferring, summarizing).

Students  participate in literature circles to discuss reading selections throughout a novel

Teacher observation

R.MT.08.02

• Plan, monitor, regulate, and evaluate skills, strategies, and processes for their own reading comprehension by applying appropriate metacognitive skills.

Use graphic organizers to evaluate the uses of the appropriate strategies

Teacher assessment

R.WS.08.04

• Know the meaning of frequently encountered words in written and oral contexts (research to support specific words).

Complete text o teacher driven vocabulary assignment supporting identified terms in a reading selection or novel.

Teacher assessment

R.WS.08.07

• Use strategies (e.g., prior knowledge, text features, structures) and authentic content related resources to determine the meaning of words and phrases in context (e.g., historical terms, content area vocabulary, literary terms).

Read historical fiction novels or selections supporting social studies curriculum where language and content will cross multiple disciplines.

Teacher identified criteria

R.CM.08.01

• Connect personal knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world to themes and perspectives in the text.

Complete journal entries based on teacher selected topics.

Teacher assessment

R.CM.08.02

• Read, retell, and summarize grade level appropriate narrative and informational texts.

After completing a reading selection students will give a oral presentation.

Criteria based assessment

R.CM.08.03

• State global themes, universal truths, and principles within and across texts to create a deeper understanding.

Read together and discuss the novel or play The Diary of Anne Frank

Teacher and text assessment

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 1:  All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 4.  Employ multiple strategies to recognize words as they construct meaning, including the use of context clues, word roots and affixes and syntax.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

R.WS.08.01

• Use word structure, sentence structure, and prediction to aid in decoding and understanding the meanings of words encountered in context.

Identify terms while reading The Outsiders

Teacher and text assessment, vocabulary assignments and tests

R.WS.08.02

• Use structural, syntactic, and semantic analysis to recognize unfamiliar words in context (e.g., idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer, history of the English language, common word origins, syllabication).

Identify terms while reading The Outsiders using text definitions and context clues.

Teacher and text assessment, vocabulary assignments and tests

R.WS.08.05

• Apply strategies to construct meaning and identify unknown words.

Construct defining sentences from identified terms.

Teacher assessment

 

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 1:   All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 5:   Respond to a variety of oral, visual, written and electronic texts by making connections to their personal lives and the lives of others.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

R.CM.08.01

L.RP.08.05

• Connect personal knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world to themes and perspectives in the text.

• Respond to multiple texts when listened to or viewed by speaking, illustrating, and/or writing in order to anticipate and answer questions, to determine personal and universal themes, and to offer opinions or solutions.

Complete journal entries based on teacher selected topics.

Students will predict outcomes on a reading selection based on clues present and precognition.

Teacher Assessment

S.DS.08.02

S.DS.08.04

L.RP.08.06

• Discuss multiple text types in order to explore problems and pose solutions, take a stand on an issue and support it, and identify personally with a universal theme.

• Plan (e.g., outline including introduction, points to be made, a summary, effective conclusion) and deliver an informational presentation that incorporates precise, interesting, vivid language in the active voice, is organized logically to convey the message, includes persuasive non-verbal techniques (e.g., voice modulation, expression, tone, appropriate pace), makes use of rhetorical strategies (e.g., supportive narratives, key information, vivid descriptions) to support the purpose of the presentation and to positively impact the intended audience.

• Evaluate the credibility of a speaker by determining whether the speaker may have hidden agendas or be otherwise biased.

Complete a Persuasive essay

 

Complete a multi paragraph persuasive essay to present to peers as an oral presentation.

 

Having been given an agenda, students will evaluate the presentations for credibility and biased material.

Criteria based assessment

 

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 2:  All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions.

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 1:  Write fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as personal narratives, persuasive essays, lab reports and poetry.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

W.GN.08.01

• Write a cohesive, narrative piece that includes appropriate conventions to the genre (e.g., historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction) and employ literary and plot devices (e.g., narrator credibility, rising and falling actions, and/or conflict, transitional language, and imagery).

Write a cohesive, narrative piece that includes appropriate conventions to the genre

Assessment using a rubric

W.GN.08.02

• Write an historical expository piece (e.g., journal, biography, simulated memoir) that includes appropriate organization, illustrations, marginal notes, and/or annotations.

Write an historical expository piece based on reading selections from the text or teacher selections

Assessment using a rubric

W.GN.08.03

• Formulate research questions that demonstrate critical evaluation of multiple resources and perspectives and arguments/counterarguments that culminate in a presented, final project.

Demonstrate ability to complete thesis statement, work cited  note cards and outline from student gathered research.

Teacher assessment

W.AT.08.01

• Be enthusiastic about writing.

Students will complete journal entries based on topics they choose to be shared with peers.

No assessment, the purpose is to have students enjoy writing without the stress of criticism.

L.RP.08.05

• Respond to multiple texts when listened to or viewed by speaking, illustrating, and/or writing in order to anticipate and answer questions, to determine personal and universal themes, and to offer opinions or solutions.

Compare and contrast elements of stories in the classroom anthology.  May use graphic organizers to prewrite and brainstorm

Assessment using a rubric

                                                                     

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 2:  All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 2:    Recognize and use author’s techniques that convey meaning and build empathy with readers when composing their own texts. Examples include appeals to reason and emotion, use of figurative language and grammatical conventions which assist audience comprehension.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

W.PR.08.01

• Set a purpose, consider audience, and replicate authors’ styles and patterns when writing narrative or informational text.

Complete informational or narrative writing samples directed to a specific audience after reading identified authors’ selections.

Following criteria based assessment

W.PS.08.01

• Exhibit individual style to enhance the written message (e.g., in narrative text: personification, humor, element of surprise; in informational text: emotional appeal, strong opinion, credible support).

Given a selection of ideas or topics, students will write a message to share.

No assessment, the purpose is to have students develop a writing style without the stress of criticism

W.PR.08.04

• Analyze oral interpretations of literature (e.g., language choice, delivery) and the effect of the interpretations on the listener.

Listen to presentations of poetry and stories of oral tradition from literature text, i.e.   John Henry, Choices by Nikki Giovanni.

Teacher and text based assessment

 

STRAND: Meaning and Communication

 

Content Standard 2:  All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions.

 

Middle School (6-8) Benchmark 3:   Plan and draft texts, and revise and edit their own writing, and help others revise and edit their texts in such areas as content, perspective and effect.

 

Grade: Eighth (08) Grade

 

Benchmark

Performance Description

Recommended Activities

Recommends Assessments

W.PR.08.02

• Apply a variety of pre-writing strategies for narrative text (e.g., story maps designed to depict rising and falling actions, roles of minor characters, credibility of narrator) and informational text (e.g., compare/contrast, cause and effect, sequential text patterns).

Sample a variety of schematic mapping and organizational strategies for students to learn.  Students may then select a strategy that is comfortable for them to use for prewriting activities.