The following is a guide for choosing targeted objectives and assessing the students’ learning.  These grade level expectations, 3-8, are not to be taught in isolation. This guide identifies featured skills that will be assessed at the end of the appropriate quarter. Each assessment is cumulative, so all the expectations need to continue to spiral throughout the year with a new group of identified skills featured. Some GLEs targeted in previous grades may also be assessed. The March CMT will test all skills expected to be mastered. These skills come from the reading comprehension GLEs. 

The * indicates a featured skill for the quarter. 

The x indicates continued instruction and possible assessment.

P indicates a prior grade’s GLE

Grade Level Expectations — Grade 8

Students:

Fall

Winter

CMT

Spring

Generalize about universal themes, human nature, cultural and historical perspectives from reading multiple texts.

*

x

x

Explain how a story’s plots and subplots do/do not contribute to the conflict and resolution.

*

x

x

Interpret how situations, actions and other characters influence a character’s personality and development.

*

x

x

Extend the meaning of a text by expressing an insight implied but not stated (e.g., author’s perspective, the nature of conflict) or use text-based information to solve a problem not explicitly identified in the text (e.g., use information in an article about fitness to design an exercise routine).

*

x

x

Develop literal and inferential questions about texts using explicit and implicit evidence from the texts.

*

x

Compare and contrast text written in a variety of genres and explain why certain genres are best suited to convey a specific message or invoke a particular response from the reader.

*

x

Analyze the characteristics and structural elements/essential attributes in a variety of poetic forms (e.g., epic, sonnet, ballad, haiku, free verse).

*

x

Critique an author’s reasoning and use of evidence in an argument or defense of a claim.

*

x

Compare, contrast, and critique two author’s beliefs and assumptions about a single topic or issue and decide which author presents the stronger argument.

*

x

Critique the way in which an author uses a variety of language structures to create an intended effect (e.g., words or phrases from another language, dialect, simile, and metaphor).

*

Explain how certain actions cause certain effects (e.g., the holocaust changed international politics today or how the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II affected traditional Japanese family structure).

*

Identify motivations and reactions of literary characters from different cultures or historical periods when confronting similar personal conflicts, and hypothesize how those characters would handle a similar modern conflict.

*

Analyze and critique the intended effects of propaganda techniques the author uses to influence readers’ perspectives.

*

Evaluate recurring themes in literature that reflect worldwide social and/or economic change (e.g., social change, such as characters that change their attitudes after learning about different cultures).

*