Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
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clear Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019 // Grade Level: Eighth Grade // Standard Category: 1. Oral Expression and Listening
clear Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019 // Grade Level: Eighth Grade // Standard Category: 2. Reading for All Purposes
Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019
Eighth Grade, Standard 1. Oral Expression and Listening
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully; pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others; and contribute ideas to further the group’s attainment of an objective.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Engage in effective collaborative discussions and analyze information presented.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. (CCSS: SL.8.1)
- Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. (CCSS: SL.8.1a)
- Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. (CCSS: SL.8.1b)
- Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. (CCSS: SL.8.1c)
- Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented. (CCSS: SL.8.1d)
- Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (for example: visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (for example: social, commercial, political) behind its presentation. (CCSS: SL.8.2)
- Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced. (CCSS: SL.8.3)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Look for and value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills, Adaptability/Flexibility)
- Follow a process identified by others to help generate ideas, negotiate roles and responsibilities, and respect consensus in decision making. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration/Teamwork)
Essential Questions:
- What does good listening look like?
- How do individuals contribute to the success of a team?
- Do all teams need leaders?
- How is asking questions a useful strategy in learning?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Expand on others' observations and claims with relevant evidence, insights and ideas.
- Identify and question assumptions and inferences.
- Determine the presence or absence of logical relationships.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Deliver effective oral presentations for varied audiences and varied purposes.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Design organized presentations incorporating key details and claims while tailored for purpose and audience.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. (CCSS: SL.8.4)
- Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. (CCSS: SL.8.5)
- Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (CCSS: SL.8.6)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Establish goals for communication and plan out steps accordingly. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Communication)
- Demonstrate task management attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: work positively and ethically, manage time and projects effectively, multi-task, and clearly communicate with others. (Professional Skills, Task/Time Management)
- Demonstrate confidence in sharing ideas/feelings. (Professional Skills, Self-Advocacy)
Essential Questions:
- How do delivery techniques change in relation to audience purpose or content?
- How does language help or hurt the message being communicated?
- How do presenters determine what information is relevant when preparing a report or presentation?
- How do speakers know if an audience is actively engaged in a presentation?
- What are the structural elements of a speech and what strategies can be used to enhance each part?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Take a position on an issue and support it using quality reasoning.
- Recognize rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos).
- Identify and correct common fallacies in reasoning.
Reading, Writing and Communicating - 2019
Eighth Grade, Standard 2. Reading for All Purposes
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Read a wide range of literary texts to build knowledge and to better understand the human experience.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Analyze and evaluate literary elements and an author’s choices to understand literary text.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Use Key Ideas and Details to:
- Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS: RL.8.1)
- Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS: RL.8.2)
- Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. (CCSS: RL.8.3)
- Use Craft and Structure to:
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. (CCSS: RL.8.4)
- Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. (CCSS: RL.8.5)
- Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (for example: created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor. (CCSS: RL.8.6)
- Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
- Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors. (CCSS: RL.8.7)
- Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new. (CCSS: RL.8.9)
- Use Range of Reading and Complexity of Text to:
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. (CCSS: RL.8.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, Initiative/Self-Direction)
- Look for and value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills, Adaptability/Flexibility)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
Essential Questions:
- How do authors develop theme?
- How do authors convey mood?
- How do different authors approach story elements?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Apply a concept in a new context (for example, write an alternative ending to a story).
- Interpret themes and apply them to life.
- Justify or critique interpretations of text.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 4. Read a wide range of informational texts to build knowledge and to better understand the human experience.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Analyze and evaluate an author’s choices to understand informational text.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Use Key Ideas and Details to:
- Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS: RI.8.1)
- Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS: RI.8.2)
- Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (for example: through comparisons, analogies, or categories). (CCSS: RI.8.3)
- Use Craft and Structure to:
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. (CCSS: RI.8.4)
- Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. (CCSS: RI.8.5)
- Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. (CCSS: RI.8.6)
- Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
- Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (for example: print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea. (CCSS: RI.8.7)
- Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced. (CCSS: RI.8.8)
- Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation. (CCSS: RI.8.9)
- Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. (CCSS: RI.8.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges that are appropriate to their contexts using multiple disciplinary perspectives (such as cultural, historical, and scientific). (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Global/Cultural Awareness)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
Essential Questions:
- How do we evaluate an author's credibility?
- How do visuals convey information?
- How can bias influence a reader?
- What elements make a text more attractive to some readers than others?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Analyze the points of view, implications and consequences, inferences, assumptions, and concepts inherent in thinking.
- Differentiate between valid and faulty generalizations.
- Identify common reasoning fallacies in print and non-print sources.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 5. Understand how language functions in different contexts, command a variety of word-learning strategies to assist comprehension, and make effective choices for meaning or style when writing and speaking.
Grade Level Expectation:
3. Apply knowledge of word structure, grammar, and context to determine the meaning of new words and phrases in increasingly complex texts.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (CCSS: L.8.4)
- Use context (for example: the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. (CCSS: L.8.4a)
- Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (for example: precede, recede, secede). (CCSS: L.8.4b)
- Consult general and specialized reference materials (for example: dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. (CCSS: L.8.4c)
- Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (for example: by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary). (CCSS: L.8.4d)
- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. (CCSS: L.8.5)
- Interpret figures of speech (for example: verbal irony, puns) in context. (CCSS: L.8.5a)
- Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. (CCSS: L.8.5b)
- Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (for example: bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). (CCSS: L.8.5c)
- Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. (CCSS: L.8.6)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, Initiative/Self-Direction)
- Follow a process identified by others to help generate ideas, negotiate roles and responsibilities, and respect consensus in decision making. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration/Teamwork)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
Essential Questions:
- How does the history of language affect our understanding of a text?
- How does slang, dialect, or colloquial language affect a listener?
- How do we learn new words?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Apply knowledge of affixes and roots to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.
- Discern layers of meaning, both denotative (literal) and connotative (implied).
- Discern shades of meaning; arrange similar terms along a continuum of meaning.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us