First Quarter Learning Targets

Eighth Grade Reading Classes

Reading Objectives

Essential Question: How do national and international current events impact individual lives?

Emphasis: Reading informational text, summarizing, expressing oneself creatively

Reading Skills Emphasized:

Reading Skills Emphasized:

·         Use text features to determine meaning

·         Locate information using available text features

·         Formulate appropriate questions during reading

·         Select information using keywords and headings

·         Identify instances of bias and stereotyping in print and nonprint contexts

·         Determine an author's purpose for writing

·         Analyze literary elements that shape meaning within context (e. g. symbolism, foreshadowing, flashbacks, irony, mood, and tone

·         Recognize the author's point of view

·         Recognize and identify words within context that reveal particular time periods and culture

·         Determine the influence of culture and ethnicity on themes and issues of texts

·         Distinguish among different genres

·         Relate selection to prior experience, historical knowledge, current events, and cultural background

·         Explore ways to interact with text

·         Identify statements as fact or opinion

·         Read for a variety of purposes (literary experience, information)

·         Determine appropriate reference sources in various formats

·         Use current technology as a research communication tool

·         Compare a variety of reference sources

·         Evaluate sources for reliability and validity

·         Develop and use notes

• Determine the author's purpose for writing
• Identify how the author reveals character
• Determine how a story changes if the point of view is changed
• Distinguish among different genres
• Relate the significance of selections to students' life experiences
• Relate selections to prior experience, historical knowledge, current events, and cultural background
• Recognize that word choices help to create mood
• Distinguish among varying types of conflict
• Summarize, paraphrase, and evaluate passages
• Distinguish among different genres
• Speak and listen effectively in the public arena

Students’ Third Nine Weeks Grade will be based on evidence they can do the following:

Emphasis: Reading historical literature and informational text; writing an informative report

Reading Skills Emphasized:

• Use text features to determine meaning
• Locate information using available text features
• Formulate appropriate questions during reading
• Select information using keywords and headings
• Identify instances of bias and stereotyping in print and nonprint contexts
• Determine an author's purpose for writing
• Analyze literary elements that shape meaning within context (e. g. symbolism, foreshadowing, flashbacks, irony, mood, and tone
• Recognize the author's point of view
• Recognize and identify words within context that reveal particular time periods and culture
• Determine the influence of culture and ethnicity on themes and issues of texts
• Distinguish among different genres
• Relate selection to prior experience, historical knowledge, current events, and cultural background
• Explore ways to interact with text
• Identify statements as fact or opinion
• Read for a variety of purposes (literary experience, information)
• Determine appropriate reference sources in various formats
• Use current technology as a research communication tool
• Compare a variety of reference sources
• Evaluate sources for reliability and validity
• Develop and use notes

Writing Skills Emphasized:

• Identify purpose for writing (to inform)
• Identify targeted audience
• Select appropriate thesis statement
• Support thesis with elaboration, using supporting details, supporting examples
• Support key ideas clearly
• Write engaging introductory paragraph and strong concluding paragraph
• Identify sentences irrelevant to paragraph's theme or flow
• Revise and edit writing
• Integrate all steps of the writing process
• Identify levels of reliability among resources
• Use appropriate organizational strategies, including outlining and other graphic organizers
• Research topics and organize gathered information into presentable documents
• Analyze and assembly gathered information into a research paper or document
• Continue to use examples and details collected from available and reliable resources
• Give credit to both quoted and paraphrased materials in research
• Utilize resources available in the media center
• Evaluate website sources for reliability

Elements of Language Emphasized:

• Recognize usage errors
• Select appropriate use of underlining/italicizing with titles, etc.
• Identify correct use of commas
• Quotation marks and commas
• Select most appropriate method to correct a run-on sentence
• Proofread for accuracy of spelling
• Correct sentence fragments

Students’ second nine weeks grade will be based on evidence they can do the following:

Please note that the teaching of reading is “circular” and that the 1^st nine weeks targets will be repeated as needed throughout the school year.  The following is a list of the 2^nd nine weeks learning targets.

• Create readable documents
• Develop and use notes
• Read for a variety of purposes, including reading for personal pleasure
• Keep a reading log
• Make connections to literature, including self-text, text-text, and world-text
• Use synonyms and antonyms correctly
• Use context clues to determine meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words
• Use text features, such as Table of Contents and Indices
• Locate information in graphs, timelines, charts, maps, and appendices
• Formulate questions, or ask questions about what they are reading before, during, and after reading
• Recognize a reasonable prediction of future events in a reading passage
• Determine logical inferences from selected passages
• Select information using keywords, headings,  and subheadings
• Identify reading selections as technical, narrative, persuasive, or descriptive
• Determine cause and effect relationships in events
• Identify an appropriate title for a passage
• Recognize and use grade appropriate vocabulary
• Use an appropriate word to complete an analogy
• Choose the correct meaning/usage of a multi-meaning word by replacing the word with a word similar in meaning
• Recognize the effect of stressed and unstressed syllables to aid in identifying meaning in multiple meaning words
• Recognize literacy elements that shape meaning within context, such as flashback, symbol, irony, foreshadowing, mood and tone
• Identify on a plot organizer the points at which various plot elements occur
• Identify how an author reveals character:  physical characteristics, dialogue, what others say about the character, and what the character says
• Distinguish among different genres:  poetry, drama, letters, ads, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies, and essays
• Recognize words within context that reveal particular cultures and time periods
• Determine the influence of culture and ethnicity on themes and issues

Performance Based Assessment:  Write a compare and contrast essay using one of the characters you have read about to yourself, OR write a character analysis of one of the characters about whom you have read.  Use selected passages from the text to support your points.

Students’ first nine weeks grade will be based on evidence they can do the following:

• Use text features, such as Table of Contents and Indices
• Locate information in graphs, charts, maps, and appendices
• Formulate questions, or ask questions about what they are reading
• Recognize a reasonable prediction of future events in a reading passage
• Determine logical inferences from selected passages
• Select information using keywords and headings
• Identify reading selections as technical, narrative, persuasive, or descriptive
• Determine cause and effect relationships in events
• Identify an appropriate title for a passage
• Recognize and use grade appropriate vocabulary
• Use an appropriate word to complete an analogy
• Choose the correct meaning/usage of a multi-meaning word by replacing the word with a word similar in meaning
• Recognize the effect of stressed and unstressed syllables to aid in identifying meaning in multiple meaning words
• Recognize literacy elements that shape meaning within context, such as flashback, symbol, irony, foreshadowing, mood and tone
• Identify on a plot organizer the points at which various plot elements occur
• Identify how an author reveals character:  physical characteristics, dialogue, what others say about the character, and what the character says
• Distinguish among different genres:  poetry, drama, letters, ads, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies, and essays
• Recognize words within context that reveal particular cultures and time periods
• Determine the influence of culture and ethnicity on themes and issues
• Comprehend meanings of content-based words, such as context clue, alliteration, and summary