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Common Core ELA8th GradeReading: Literature

RL.8.7: How Far a Film Strays from the Text

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 41 8th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.8.7 Means in Plain English

Eighth graders watch a film or stage version of a story and judge how closely it follows the text, then decide whether the director’s and actors’ changes earn their place. An added shot can serve the book better than a faithful copy would.

In 7th grade (RL.7.7) students compared a text with its film or audio version and the techniques unique to each medium. Eighth grade asks for a verdict on faithfulness. In grades 9 and 10 (RL.9-10.7) students compare one subject across two art forms, like a poem and a painting.

RL.8.7 I Can Statements

  • I can find where a film follows the text and where it doesn’t.
  • I can explain why a director might change a scene.
  • I can judge whether an actor’s choices fit the character in the text.

RL.8.7 Worked Example

A paragraph from a novel and three shots from its film. The film keeps the feeling and changes almost everything else.

Read the Story
The novel: Wren read her father’s letter twice on the bus. She did not cry. She folded it into her math book and decided he had never been worth crying over, which she knew was a lie even as she thought it.The film, shot 1: Wren on the bus, the letter in her lap. No voice-over. The camera holds on her face for twelve silent seconds.The film, shot 2: A moment the book doesn’t have. Wren tears the letter in half and lets it go out the bus window, then presses her palm flat against the glass as the pieces blow away.The film, shot 3: The actor never cries, but her jaw works the whole time, as if she’s chewing the words she won’t say.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How faithful is the film to this part of the novel? Evaluate one choice by the director and one by the actor.
Not Yet“The film is different because she rips up the letter instead of keeping it. The book is better because it has more detail.”It spots one departure, then judges by taste. It never says what the change does to the scene or whether the film keeps the novel’s meaning.
Meets the Standard“The film keeps the core: Wren doesn’t cry. With ‘No voice-over,’ it can’t give us the novel’s line that her decision ‘was a lie even as she thought it,’ so the actor carries it, her jaw working ‘as if she’s chewing the words she won’t say.’ The director’s added moment departs further. She ‘tears the letter in half,’ which looks like rejecting her father, then ‘presses her palm flat against the glass’ as the pieces go. That shows the lie the book names. It costs one detail, though: in the book she keeps the letter.”It separates what the film keeps from what it changes, evaluates a director’s choice and an actor’s choice against the novel’s meaning, and admits what the adaptation loses.
Question Stems to Use
What does the film keep exactly as the text has it?What did the director add, cut or change, and why?How does the actor show what the narrator tells us in words?Does the change keep the text’s meaning or shift it?What does the film lose that the text could do?Was the director’s choice the right one? Defend your answer.

Common Mistakes with RL.8.7

“The book was better”

“The movie changed too much, so the book is better.”

Try this: Require every judgment to name one specific change and say whether it keeps or alters the text’s meaning before any verdict.

Treating every change as a mistake

“The film is wrong because she never tears the letter in the book.”

Try this: Ask what the director had to replace, like a narrator’s thoughts, and judge the change by how well it does that job.

Forgetting the actors

An analysis of camera and plot changes that never mentions a performance

Try this: Pause on one close-up and have students describe what the actor’s face or voice shows that the text puts into words.

Where RL.8.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.7.7Compare a written story with its filmed, staged or audio version and the techniques unique to each.
AlongsideRI.8.7Weigh the pros and cons of print, video and multimedia for presenting a topic.SL.8.2Analyze the purpose behind information presented in video and other media.
Comes NextRL.9-10.7Analyze one subject or key scene in two artistic mediums, including what each emphasizes or leaves out.

Practice RL.8.7

Quick Check

  1. What does Wren do with the letter in the novel?
  2. What does the film add that the novel doesn’t have?
  3. Why can’t the film show Wren’s thought that her decision is a lie?

RL.8.7: Other Names

RL.8.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.7

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.