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Georgia Standards

Georgia 8th Grade ELA Standards

All 112 Georgia English language arts standards for 8th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Georgia Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

112 standards

Engagement & Intention for Comprehension & Composition

26 standards
Reader & Writer Identity
8.P.EICC.1.a
Set personal and school goals for reading and writing, check progress on them, talk them over, and adjust them as needed.
8.P.EICC.1.b
Share in talk or writing which kinds of reading and writing appeal most, naming favorite topics, genres, and techniques, like mystery novels or persuasive essays.
8.P.EICC.1.c
Choose texts to read and pieces to write that match personal interests and connect to the topics studied in eighth grade.
8.P.EICC.1.d
Build a personal toolkit of reading and writing strategies and reach for the right one when making sense of or creating a text.
8.P.EICC.1.e
Take part in a reading and writing community by setting group rules, discussing books, sharing drafts, listening to classmates, and trading feedback.
8.P.EICC.1.f
Become a self-directed reader and writer who can choose, plan, and work through reading and writing tasks independently.
Engagement & Intention
8.P.EICC.2.a
Read and write stories, true or invented, to share experiences, like a personal narrative or a short fictional tale.
8.P.EICC.2.b
Use reading and writing to gain knowledge, build skills, make well-informed choices, and pass along ideas and information.
8.P.EICC.2.c
Learn and explain ideas and processes through reading and writing, like describing how a vaccine trains the immune system.
8.P.EICC.2.d
Read and write texts that analyze and judge other texts and ideas, like a review of a novel or a response to an editorial.
8.P.EICC.2.e
Read and write texts that work through a problem or try to sway a decision, like a proposal to change a school policy.
Comprehension Strategies
8.P.EICC.3.a
Set a purpose and goals before reading, keep checking understanding along the way, and change approach when meaning breaks down.
8.P.EICC.3.b
Preview a text by skimming and scanning, noting the headings, sections, and structures likely to be most helpful.
8.P.EICC.3.c
Link background knowledge to a text, comparing the two, sorting out contradictions or gaps, and adding what is learned to what is known.
8.P.EICC.3.d
Summarize passages and picture them in the mind while reading to keep track of what a text means.
8.P.EICC.3.e
Predict what will happen or what information will come next while reading, and keep track of those predictions.
8.P.EICC.3.f
Make inferences about a text's surface and deeper meanings, follow them while reading, and back them up with evidence.
8.P.EICC.3.g
Work out the meaning of unfamiliar words and ideas using context clues, academic vocabulary, and word parts like prefixes and roots.
Writing Processes
8.P.EICC.4.a
Decide the purpose and goals for a piece of writing and who its intended readers are before starting.
8.P.EICC.4.b
Plan how a piece of writing will be organized, choosing the mode, genre, and structure that best fit its purpose and readers.
8.P.EICC.4.c
Brainstorm content for writing by tapping what is already known, pulling information from texts, and talking ideas over with others.
8.P.EICC.4.d
Fit ideas and information into the writing plan, giving the most relevant and powerful points the most attention.
8.P.EICC.4.e
Write a first draft that pulls ideas together, with word choices, sentences, and craft techniques picked to suit the purpose and reader.
8.P.EICC.4.f
Judge how well a draft works, through self-review or feedback, by checking whether it meets the writing's purpose and goals.
8.P.EICC.4.g
Revise a draft using self-assessment or feedback, reworking its organization, ideas, word choice, and craft to make it more effective.
8.P.EICC.4.h
Edit a draft so its grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation follow standard written conventions.

Situating Texts

6 standards
Context
8.P.ST.1.a
Use background knowledge, research, and conversation to pick out the parts of a text's context that matter most, like its time period or setting.
8.P.ST.1.b
Think about how a text's context, like when and where it was written, shapes what the author is trying to do and what readers need.
8.P.ST.1.c
Explore how context influences the choices an author makes and how readers react, both when reading texts and when writing them.
Author, Audience, & Purpose
8.P.ST.2.a
Use what is known about the author, audience, and context to figure out or set a text's purpose and judge how well the text achieves it.
8.P.ST.2.b
Recognize an author's point of view while reading, and take a clear, original stance when writing, based on author, audience, and context.
8.P.ST.2.c
Think like an author about context and audience to choose which ideas to stress, which layout reads best, and which words and techniques hit hardest.

Author’s Craft

12 standards
Reading like a Writer
8.P.AC.1.a
Spot, use, and analyze literary, expository, and rhetorical elements, like a narrator or a call to action, explaining how each affects readers and the purpose.
8.P.AC.1.b
Spot, use, and analyze striking or effective word choices, explaining how specific words shape the reader's response and serve the purpose.
8.P.AC.1.c
Explain and judge how an author's sentence structure and syntax affect readers and help the text do its job, like short sentences that build tension.
8.P.AC.1.d
Describe, analyze, and judge how a text's format, structure, and features, like headings or a problem-solution pattern, shape readers' experience and purpose.
Writing like a Reader
8.P.AC.2.a
Weave literary, expository, and rhetorical elements into original writing to reach a chosen audience and accomplish a set purpose.
8.P.AC.2.b
Choose and shape words and phrases on purpose to steer what readers think, feel, ask, or decide.
8.P.AC.2.c
Choose sentence structures and syntax deliberately in writing to suit readers, sway them, and accomplish a specific purpose.
8.P.AC.2.d
Organize writing with chosen formats, structures, patterns, and features, like subheadings or time order, so it is easy to follow and serves its purpose.
Text Design
8.P.AC.3.a
Read and create texts in different modes and genres, learning how their features shape meaning, tone, style, purpose, and audience.
8.P.AC.3.b
Use knowledge of modes and genres to decide what kinds of ideas and information belong in a text, like data in a report versus feelings in a poem.
8.P.AC.3.c
Use knowledge of modes and genres to decide how ideas and information should be arranged, like a news story leading with the most important facts.
8.P.AC.3.d
Read and create multimodal texts that blend genres, features, and craft techniques, like a slideshow with images and narration, to reach an audience.

Collaboration & Presentation

9 standards
Collaboration
8.P.CP.1.a
Come to group discussions and meetings ready to participate, having done the reading or preparation needed.
8.P.CP.1.b
Work with a group to set norms, goals, and procedures and keep a shared project moving forward productively.
8.P.CP.1.c
Add to discussions and group projects by sharing ideas, listening to what others suggest, and giving feedback.
8.P.CP.1.d
Team up with others to discuss topics, look into questions, solve problems, and read and create texts.
Presentation
8.P.CP.2.a
Speak clearly when presenting ideas, information, and texts to an audience.
8.P.CP.2.b
Combine the modes and genres that best fit a presentation's purpose and audience, like adding a video clip to a speech.
8.P.CP.2.c
Adjust tone, speaking speed, and body language to fit a presentation's purpose and audience.
8.P.CP.2.d
Interact with listeners during a presentation by asking them questions and answering theirs.
8.P.CP.2.e
Recite all or part of important poems and speeches suited to eighth grade, like the Gettysburg Address, to build background knowledge.

Grammar Conventions

15 standards
Grammar, Usage, & Mechanics
8.L.GC.1.50
Master using ellipses correctly, like marking words left out of a quotation or a trailing pause.
8.L.GC.1.51
Master using hyphens with prefixes and suffixes and in compound words, like self-aware or well-known.
8.L.GC.1.52
Master using semicolons to build compound and compound-complex sentences, with or without a transition word like however.
8.L.GC.1.53
Master using parts of speech, phrases, and clauses in their sentence roles, like a noun as a subject or a phrase as a modifier.
8.L.GC.1.54
Keep practicing correct capital letters, quotation marks, commas, end marks, and parenthetical citations when quoting evidence from a text.
8.L.GC.1.56
Master using colons to introduce a list, an example, or an explanation.
8.L.GC.1.57
Keep practicing verbals and verbal phrases, like gerunds, participles, and infinitives, choosing each by the job it does in the sentence.
8.L.GC.1.58
Start using verb tenses and aspects to show mood, like the subjunctive for wishes or situations that are contrary to fact.
8.L.GC.1.59
Begin using a colon to introduce a quotation, like after a complete sentence that sets up the quoted words.
8.L.GC.1.60
Begin using dashes correctly, like setting off an interruption or adding emphasis to a final idea.
8.L.GC.1.61
Start using a style guide, like MLA, to settle tricky questions about grammar, usage, or punctuation.
Syntax
8.L.GC.2.a
Use knowledge of how sentences are built to understand and analyze eighth-grade texts, like untangling a long sentence with several clauses.
8.L.GC.2.b
Vary sentence types, from simple to compound-complex, to tighten and join ideas while keeping verb tense steady throughout.
8.L.GC.2.c
Tell active voice apart from passive voice and revise writing so it consistently uses active voice.
8.L.GC.2.d
Add modifying phrases and clauses to develop ideas, and fix misplaced or dangling modifiers so the meaning is clear and engaging.

Vocabulary

10 standards
General, Academic, & Specialized Vocabulary
8.L.V.1.a
Learn a wide range of everyday, academic, and subject-specific words through print, digital, and multimedia texts at the eighth-grade level.
8.L.V.1.b
Use everyday, academic, and subject-specific vocabulary to communicate clearly and precisely in different settings, like a lab report or a class debate.
Word Analysis
8.L.V.2.a
Break words into parts, like Greek and Latin roots, base words, prefixes, suffixes, and word histories, to work out or confirm their meaning in texts.
8.L.V.2.b
Use knowledge of parts of speech to figure out what words and phrases mean in eighth-grade texts, like noticing a word is used as a verb.
8.L.V.2.c
Build words from Greek and Latin roots, base words, and affixes and use them correctly in context, like forming telescope from tele and scope.
8.L.V.2.d
Use knowledge of parts of speech to choose exact words and phrases when writing, like picking a precise noun over a vague one.
Meaning & Purpose
8.L.V.3.b
Use relationships between words, like synonyms, antonyms, analogies, and context clues, to figure out unknown or multiple-meaning words and phrases.
8.L.V.3.c
Tell apart the shades of feeling in words with similar dictionary meanings, like thrifty versus stingy.
8.L.V.3.d
Use print and digital references, like dictionaries, online searches, and word processor tools, to check what unfamiliar or multiple-meaning words mean.
8.L.V.3.e
Use print or digital resources to pin down the fine differences between closely related words, then choose the best word when speaking and writing.

Context

7 standards
Purpose & Audience
8.T.C.1.a
Analyze how a single text can serve several purposes at once and how each purpose aims at a particular audience.
8.T.C.1.b
Use the features of a text's mode, like charts in a science article or captions in a video, to understand and analyze texts across subjects.
8.T.C.1.c
Create multimodal texts or presentations that serve more than one purpose for a specific audience, using clear features from each mode, like images and narration.
Authors & Speakers
8.T.C.2.a
Compare different perspectives on one topic across several texts, analyzing how each text builds its viewpoint to shape what readers believe.
8.T.C.2.b
Identify an author's bias and judge how it affects whether the text can be trusted.
8.T.C.2.c
Analyze how background and context, like geography, era, or historical events, shaped the way a text was written.
8.T.C.2.d
Research answers to questions on school subjects and personal interests using a variety of trustworthy sources.

Structure & Style

7 standards
Organization
8.T.SS.1.a
Analyze how authors adjust a text's structure or features to get across meaning, respond to readers, or meet a purpose.
8.T.SS.1.b
Design texts using a range of structures and features, like headings, sidebars, or a compare-contrast pattern, to inform and add style for the purpose and audience.
8.T.SS.1.c
Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to connect ideas and help the whole text hold together.
8.T.SS.1.d
Write multi-paragraph texts with an introduction that sets the focus, well-organized support like facts, reasons, and details, and a conclusion that feels final.
Craft
8.T.SS.2.a
Analyze how authors deliberately use figurative language, connotation, and literary devices to reach a purpose with a particular audience.
8.T.SS.2.b
Use figurative language, literary devices, or word connotations on purpose in writing to create effects that suit the purpose and audience.
8.T.SS.2.c
Write in a formal or informal style depending on the purpose, audience, and subject, like formal for a lab report and casual for a blog post.

Techniques

12 standards
Narrative Techniques
8.T.T.1.a
Analyze how authors use narrative techniques throughout a story to develop its plot, characters, and setting.
8.T.T.1.b
Analyze how plot structure, conflict, and devices like flashback or foreshadowing combine to create effects such as suspense, tension, or humor.
8.T.T.1.c
Analyze how authors develop and reveal a story's themes through its characters, events, and plot structure.
8.T.T.1.d
Analyze how a modern work of literature borrows themes, patterns of events, or character types from earlier times, like a novel retelling a Greek myth.
8.T.T.1.e
Use narrative techniques like dialogue, pacing, and description to strengthen writing, engage readers, and meet a specific purpose.
Expository Techniques
8.T.T.2.a
Analyze how informational writers build content from main ideas, facts, numbers, key details, and text features, and how they bring it to a close.
8.T.T.2.b
Analyze and judge how two authors writing on the same topic shape key information differently, by stressing different evidence or reading facts differently.
8.T.T.2.d
Use several informational techniques, like main ideas, facts, statistics, key details, text features, and a strong ending, to strengthen writing and engage readers.
Argumentative Techniques
8.T.T.3.a
Analyze how an argument is built, from the author's claim and relevant, logical evidence to a counterclaim, a rebuttal, and a conclusion that follows.
8.T.T.3.c
Write arguments that state a claim, back it with relevant and logical evidence, answer a counterclaim with a rebuttal, and end with a fitting conclusion.
Poetic Techniques
8.T.T.4.a
Analyze how poets build poems using stanzas, rhyme scheme, imagery, figurative language, and cacophony, the use of harsh, clashing sounds.
8.T.T.4.b
Write poetry that engages readers using stanzas, rhyme, imagery, figurative language, and sound devices like alliteration.

Research & Analysis

6 standards
Research & Inquiry
8.T.RA.1.a
Write questions to steer research, linking related topics and building questions that dig into complex ideas.
8.T.RA.1.b
Research by finding, collecting, organizing, and combining information from trustworthy print, digital, and interview sources about texts and topics.
8.T.RA.1.c
Use knowledge built from research to analyze texts, backing up, questioning, or extending their ideas and information.
Curating Sources & Evidence
8.T.RA.2.a
Find evidence in print, digital, and multimedia sources to support a central idea or question, checking MLA guidelines for what each source type needs cited.
8.T.RA.2.b
Evaluate print, digital, and multimedia sources for accuracy, credibility, and relevance, deciding whether the information fits the topic and audience.
8.T.RA.2.c
Quote and cite sources following MLA style, giving credit for others' ideas and listing every source correctly on a works cited page.

Periods & Movements

2 standards
Periods & Movements
8.T.PM.1.a
Read myths and stories, fictional or historical, alongside modern works that adapt them, and compare how they are alike and different.
8.T.PM.1.b
Compare how different writers from the same time period treat a shared theme.

The official Georgia documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Georgia's standards, not the official wording, which Georgia Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.