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Florida Standards

Florida 8th Grade ELA B.E.S.T. Standards

All 24 Florida English language arts standards for 8th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is one click away under each one.

24 standards

Reading

12 standards
Reading Prose and Poetry
ELA.8.R.1.1
Analyze how characters' growth, the setting and the plot affect one another in a story, like a war-torn town that changes a character and the events that follow.
Official wording
Analyze the interaction between character development, setting, and plot in a literary text.
ELA.8.R.1.2
Analyze two or more messages in a story and how the author builds each one from start to finish.
Official wording
Analyze two or more themes and their development throughout a literary text.
ELA.8.R.1.3
Analyze how an author gives different characters their own distinct ways of seeing the world, like a hopeful sister and a bitter brother.
Official wording
Analyze how an author develops and individualizes the perspectives of different characters.
ELA.8.R.1.4
Analyze how a poem's structure, sounds, images and figures of speech work, like its line breaks, rhyme, alliteration and vivid sensory details.
Official wording
Analyze structure, sound, imagery, and figurative language in poetry.
Reading Informational Text
ELA.8.R.2.1
Analyze how a section or feature of a nonfiction text, like a subheading or a graph, serves the author's purpose or shapes its meaning.
Official wording
Analyze how individual text sections and/or features convey a purpose and/or meaning in texts.
ELA.8.R.2.2
Analyze two or more main ideas in a nonfiction text and how the author builds each one throughout.
Official wording
Analyze two or more central ideas and their development throughout a text.
ELA.8.R.2.3
Explain how an author sets and reaches a purpose with appeals to logic, credibility or emotion, or with figures of speech like understatement.
Official wording
Explain how an author establishes and achieves purpose(s) through rhetorical appeals and/or figurative language.
ELA.8.R.2.4
Follow an argument, examining its reasoning and how well it works, then suggest ways the author could make the argument stronger.
Official wording
Track the development of an argument, analyzing the types of reasoning used and their effectiveness and identifying ways in which the argument could be improved.
Reading Across Genres
ELA.8.R.3.1
Analyze how figures of speech shape a text's meaning and explain symbols, like a caged bird that stands for lost freedom.
Official wording
Analyze how figurative language contributes to meaning and explain examples of symbolism in text(s).
ELA.8.R.3.2
Restate an eighth grade passage in fresh wording of your own, like putting a historical speech into plain modern language.
Official wording
Paraphrase content from grade-level texts.
ELA.8.R.3.3
Compare and contrast how texts use or discuss familiar character types, like the hero, the trickster or the caregiver.
Official wording
Compare and contrast the use or discussion of archetypes in texts.
ELA.8.R.3.4
Explain how an author uses rhetorical devices, like irony, a rhetorical question or antithesis, to strengthen an appeal to the reader.
Official wording
Explain how an author uses rhetorical devices to support or advance an appeal.

Communication

9 standards
Communicating Through Writing
ELA.8.C.1.2
Write true or invented stories using storytelling techniques, a range of transitions and a point of view that stays clear throughout.
Official wording
Write personal or fictional narratives using narrative techniques, varied transitions, and a clearly established point of view.
ELA.8.C.1.3
Argue a position in writing, backing at least one claim and answering at least one opposing claim with sound reasoning, credible sources and clear organization.
Official wording
Write to argue a position, supporting at least one claim and rebutting at least one counterclaim with logical reasoning, credible evidence from sources, elaboration, and using a logical organizational structure.
ELA.8.C.1.4
Write informational pieces that explain and analyze facts from several sources, with relevant details, a clear order and transitions chosen with purpose.
Official wording
Write expository texts to explain and analyze information from multiple sources, using relevant supporting details, logical organization, and varied purposeful transitions.
ELA.8.C.1.5
Improve a draft by planning, editing and weighing feedback from adults and peers, then revising so it reads clearly and holds together.
Official wording
Improve writing by planning, editing, considering feedback from adults and peers, and revising for clarity and cohesiveness.
Communicating Orally
ELA.8.C.2.1
Give an oral presentation in a clear order, backing its central idea with evidence from credible sources.
Official wording
Present information orally, in a logical sequence, supporting the central idea with credible evidence.
Following Conventions
ELA.8.C.3.1
Write with correct eighth grade grammar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling, like choosing active or passive voice and joining sentences with semicolons.
Official wording
Follow the rules of standard English grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling appropriate to grade level.
Researching
ELA.8.C.4.1
Answer a research question using several sources that can be trusted, and list follow-up questions the findings raise for later study.
Official wording
Conduct research to answer a question, drawing on multiple reliable and valid sources and generating additional questions for further research.
Creating and Collaborating
ELA.8.C.5.1
Use different kinds of media in a talk or written piece to show why a topic or idea matters, like a video clip or a chart.
Official wording
Integrate diverse digital media to emphasize the relevance of a topic or idea in oral or written tasks.
ELA.8.C.5.2
Work with classmates through a range of digital tools to produce writing, like co-editing a shared online document.
Official wording
Use a variety of digital tools to collaborate with others to produce writing

Vocabulary

3 standards
Finding Meaning
ELA.8.V.1.1
Choose academic words from across subjects, like contrast, interpret and relevant, deliberately in your own speech and writing.
Official wording
Integrate academic vocabulary appropriate to grade level in speaking and writing.
ELA.8.V.1.2
Unlock unfamiliar words with Greek and Latin roots and affixes, like chron meaning time in chronological and synchronize.
Official wording
Apply knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and affixes to determine meanings of words and phrases in grade-level content.
ELA.8.V.1.3
Figure out what words say and suggest using nearby sentences, figures of speech, related words, references or what you already know, like slender versus scrawny.
Official wording
Apply knowledge of context clues, figurative language, word relationships, reference materials, and/or background knowledge to determine the connotative and denotative meaning of words and phrases, appropriate to grade level.

The official Florida documents

Florida's B.E.S.T. Standards for English Language Arts, Florida Department of Education.

The plain-English lines are EMStudio's own explanations, shown beside the official wording. They are not part of the standards.