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Oklahoma Standards

Oklahoma 8th Grade ELA Standards

All 54 Oklahoma English language arts standards for 8th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is one click away under each one.

54 standards

Listening and Speaking: Listening

2 standards
Students will develop and apply effective communication skills through active listening.
8.1.L.1
Listen in discussions while following agreed norms, noticing spoken and unspoken cues, and responding with social awareness, like in a debate.
Official wording
Students will actively listen using agreed-upon discussion rules, recognizing verbal and nonverbal cues while maintaining social awareness and responding accordingly.
8.1.L.2
Read a speaker's words and body language and ask questions to clarify both their purpose and point of view, like after a persuasive speech.
Official wording
Students will actively listen and interpret a speaker’s verbal and nonverbal messages and ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective.

Listening and Speaking: Speaking

3 standards
Students will develop and apply effective communication skills to share ideas through speaking.
8.1.S.1
Share group work fairly, compromise when needed to reach the group's goal, and recognize each person's role, like dividing tasks for a presentation.
Official wording
Students will work effectively and respectfully in diverse groups by showing willingness to make necessary compromises to accomplish a goal, sharing responsibility for collaborative work, and recognizing individual contributions
8.1.S.2
Join discussions of texts and writing with partners, groups and the whole class, voicing ideas clearly and building on others, like a Socratic seminar.
Official wording
Students will engage in collaborative discussions about what they are reading and writing, expressing their own ideas clearly while building on the ideas of others in pairs, diverse groups, and whole-class settings.
8.1.S.3
Give formal or informal talks alone or in groups that support a main idea with evidence from texts and visuals, fitting purpose and content to the audience.
Official wording
Students will give formal and informal presentations in a group or individually, providing textual and visual evidence to support a main idea while determining the purpose, content, and form to suit the audience.

Reading and Writing Process: Reading

3 standards
Students will read and comprehend inclusive, diverse, and increasingly complex literary and informational texts.
8.2.R.1
Summarize print or multimedia texts on similar topics and show how they connect, like two articles about one scientific discovery.
Official wording
Students will summarize alphabetic and/or multimodal texts about similar topics to demonstrate comprehension within and between texts.
8.2.R.2
Analyze details in stories, poems and nonfiction to name the traits of each genre, like the line breaks and imagery of poetry.
Official wording
Students will analyze details in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction texts to identify characteristics of genres.
8.2.R.3
Restate a passage of any length in fresh wording to show understanding, like a section of a speech or a historical document.
Official wording
Students will paraphrase a passage in their own words to demonstrate comprehension.

Reading and Writing Process: Writing

5 standards
Students will engage in a recursive process that may include prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
8.2.W.1
Plan writing by generating ideas and organizing them, coming back to planning at any stage, like a graphic organizer for an essay.
Official wording
Students will routinely and recursively prewrite (e.g., develop ideas and plan).
8.2.W.2
Develop and organize ideas into a first draft and return to reshape it as needed, like drafting body paragraphs from an outline.
Official wording
Students will routinely and recursively organize and develop ideas to compose a first draft.
8.2.W.3
Revise drafts several times for purpose, audience, organization, coherence and style, like varying sentences and sharpening word choice.
Official wording
Students will routinely and recursively revise drafts for intended purpose, audience, organization, coherence, and style (e.g., word choice and sentence variety).
8.2.W.4
Edit drafts for correct grammar, usage and mechanics as often as needed, using resources like a handbook, an online dictionary or teacher feedback.
Official wording
Students will routinely and recursively edit for correct grammar, usage, and mechanics, using various resources.
8.2.W.5
Publish final pieces for genuine audiences, like a school newspaper, a podcast or a regional essay contest.
Official wording
Students will routinely and recursively publish final drafts for an authentic audience (e.g., publishing digitally, performing, entering contests).

Critical Reading and Writing: Reading

8 standards
Students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate increasingly complex literary and informational texts that include a wide range of historical, cultural, ethnic, and global perspectives from a variety of genres.
8.3.R.1
Study texts on one topic from different eras, cultures or parts of the world and analyze the methods each author uses to reach their purpose.
Official wording
Students will analyze works written on the same topic from a variety of historical, cultural, ethnic, and global perspectives and analyze the methods the authors use to achieve their purposes.
8.3.R.2
Evaluate different viewpoints, like historical, cultural or global ones, and describe how they shape stories and informational texts.
Official wording
Students will evaluate perspectives (e.g., historical, cultural, ethnic, and global) and describe how they affect various literary and informational texts.
8.3.R.3
Use setting, plot, protagonist and antagonist, characterization, conflict and point of view, including unreliable narrators, to support readings of a story.
Official wording
Students will analyze literary elements to support interpretations of a literary text:•setting•plot•characters (i.e., protagonist, antagonist)•characterization•conflict (i.e., internal, external)•point of view (i.e., third person limited and omniscient, second person, and unreliable narrator)
8.3.R.4
Use figurative language, sound devices, and verbal and situational irony to back interpretations of a text, like a fire station burning down.
Official wording
Students will analyze literary devices to support interpretations of a text:•figurative language (i.e., simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, idiom)•sound devices (i.e., onomatopoeia, alliteration)•verbal and situational irony
8.3.R.5
Identify elements and devices that shape a text's theme, mood and tone, like word choice that makes a narrator sound bitter.
Official wording
Students will identify literary elements and devices that impact a text’s theme, mood, and tone.
8.3.R.6
Weigh the evidence in a text to decide whether a claim is well supported or not, like a health claim backed by one small study.
Official wording
Students will evaluate textual evidence to determine whether a claim is substantiated or unsubstantiated.
8.3.R.7
Explain how organizing a text by comparison, cause and effect, problem and solution, description or sequence helps the author's purpose, like a timeline.
Official wording
Students will analyze how informational text structures support the author’s purpose:•compare/contrast•cause/effect•problem/solution•description•sequential
8.3.R.8
Compare or contrast two or more texts and back inferences about them with evidence from each, like two poems on the same theme.
Official wording
Students will compare or contrast two or more texts, providing textual evidence to support their inferences.

Critical Reading and Writing: Writing

3 standards
Students will thoughtfully and intentionally write, addressing a range of modes, purposes, and audiences.
8.3.W.1
Write real or imagined narratives with complex characters, plots using flashback or foreshadowing, a narrator, dialogue, sensory details and craft from mentor texts.
Official wording
Students will compose narratives reflecting real or imagined experiences that:•include plots involving complex characters resolving conflicts•unfold in chronological or surprising sequence (e.g., flashback and foreshadowing)•include a narrator, precise language, sensory details, and dialogue to enhance the narrative•use sentence variety to create clarity•emulate literary elements and/or literary devices from mentor texts
8.3.W.2
Write formal, well-organized informative essays or reports that explain a topic objectively with facts, data or graphics and techniques from model texts.
Official wording
Students will compose informative essays or reports that:•objectively introduce and develop topics•incorporate evidence (e.g., specific facts, details, charts and graphs, data)•maintain an organized structure•use sentence variety and word choice to create clarity•establish and maintain a formal style•emulate literary devices from mentor texts
8.3.W.3
Write formal argument essays that state a precise claim, address counterclaims, and arrange credible evidence in a logical order.
Official wording
Students will compose argumentative essays that:•introduce precise claims•acknowledge counterclaims•organize claims, counterclaims, and evidence in a logical sequence•provide relevant evidence to develop arguments, using credible sources•use sentence variety and word choice to create clarity•establish and maintain a formal style

Vocabulary: Reading

4 standards
Students will expand their grade-level vocabularies through reading, word study, and class discussion.
8.4.R.1
Analyze word relationships in synonyms, antonyms and analogies, like generous is to stingy as brave is to cowardly.
Official wording
Students will analyze the relationships among synonyms, antonyms, and analogies.
8.4.R.2
Determine word meanings from context clues, connotation and denotation, and sort out multiple-meaning words, like a firm handshake versus a law firm.
Official wording
Students will use context clues, connotation, and denotation to determine or clarify the meaning of words or distinguish among multiple-meaning words.
8.4.R.3
Define complex words through their prefixes, suffixes, Greek roots and stems, like chron meaning time in chronological.
Official wording
Students will use word parts (e.g., affixes, Greek roots, stems) to define and determine the meaning of increasingly complex words.
8.4.R.4
Check a word's meanings, syllable division, pronunciation, synonyms, antonyms and part of speech in a dictionary, glossary or thesaurus.
Official wording
Students will use a dictionary, glossary, or thesaurus to determine or clarify the meanings, syllabication, pronunciation, synonyms, antonyms, and parts of speech of words.

Vocabulary: Writing

2 standards
Students will apply knowledge of vocabulary to speak and write effectively.
8.4.W.1
Use precise grade-level vocabulary to state ideas clearly in writing, like contradict instead of say the opposite.
Official wording
Students will use precise, grade-level vocabulary in writing to clearly communicate ideas.
8.4.W.2
Select words deliberately to create an effect that suits the writing's purpose, like formal terms in a letter to the city council.
Official wording
Students will select language in writing to create a specific effect according to purpose.

Language: Reading

2 standards
Students will expand and apply knowledge of grammar, usage, mechanics, and style to comprehend, analyze, and/or evaluate a variety of texts.
8.5.R.1
Spot active and passive voice and misplaced or dangling modifiers in sentences, like the ball was thrown by Ana versus Ana threw the ball.
Official wording
Students will recognize active and passive voice and misplaced and dangling modifiers in sentences.
8.5.R.2
Explain how word types affect meaning, like gerunds, participles and infinitives, coordinate adjectives, vague pronouns, singular they and all three conjunction types.
Official wording
Students will recognize and explain the impact on meaning of parts of speech in sentences:•nouns•verbals (i.e., gerunds, participles, infinitives)•cumulative and coordinate adjectives•vague pronouns•singular they/them/their•coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions•adverbs•interjections

Language: Writing

11 standards
Students will expand and apply knowledge of grammar, usage, mechanics, and style to speak and write effectively, demonstrating standard usage when appropriate.
8.5.W.1
Vary sentences from simple to compound-complex in writing for clarity and interest, like opening with a dependent clause.
Official wording
Students will compose simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to add clarity and variety in their writing.
8.5.W.2
Make writing clearer and more varied with well-chosen words, including verbals, conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions, like opening with a participial phrase.
Official wording
Students will create clarity and/or add variety to their writing with nouns, verbs, verbals, adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, pronouns, and conjunctions.
8.5.W.3
Find and fix misplaced and dangling modifiers, vague pronouns, and the use of you in formal writing.
Official wording
Students will recognize and correct the following: misplaced and dangling modifiers, vague pronouns, and second person point of view in formal writing.
8.5.W.4
Apply capitalization rules in writing, like for proper adjectives, historical events and course names such as Algebra I.
Official wording
Students will write using correct capitalization mechanics.
8.5.W.5
Finish each sentence with the end punctuation its meaning calls for, like a question mark after a direct question.
Official wording
Students will write using correct end mark mechanics.
8.5.W.6
Use apostrophes correctly for possession and contractions, including plural possessives like the teams' coaches.
Official wording
Students will write using correct apostrophe mechanics.
8.5.W.7
Separate coordinate adjectives with a comma, like a long, tiring hike.
Official wording
Students will use commas to separate coordinate adjectives (e.g., a fascinating, enjoyable movie).
8.5.W.8
Introduce a quotation from a source with a colon after a full sentence, like a line from a historical speech in an essay.
Official wording
Students will use a colon to introduce a quotation from a source.
8.5.W.9
Punctuate quotations correctly, like putting commas and periods inside the closing quotation mark in dialogue.
Official wording
Students will write using correct quotation marks mechanics.
8.5.W.10
Italicize or underline titles of works, a narrator's unspoken thoughts and words from another language, like the phrase carpe diem.
Official wording
Students will use underlining or italics to indicate titles of works, thoughts in narratives, and words in a foreign language.
8.5.W.11
Join clauses in compound and compound-complex sentences with a semicolon, like linking two related ideas without and or but.
Official wording
Students will use a semicolon to punctuate compound and compound-complex sentences.

Research: Reading

3 standards
Students will gather, comprehend, evaluate, and synthesize researched information to acquire and refine knowledge.
8.6.R.1
Use research questions of one's own to locate and understand claims and evidence on a topic, like whether a four-day school week helps.
Official wording
Students will find and comprehend information (e.g., claims, evidence) about a topic, using their own viable research questions.
8.6.R.2
Collect, record and sort information from many primary and secondary sources, respecting copyright and giving credit, like noting each source's details.
Official wording
Students will find, record, and organize information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, following ethical and legal guidelines.
8.6.R.3
Evaluate gathered information for relevance, reliability and validity, like checking an author's expertise and how current the data is.
Official wording
Students will determine the relevance, reliability, and validity of the information gathered.

Research: Writing

4 standards
Students will synthesize information ethically through speaking and writing.
8.6.W.1
Form a workable research question and keep refining it as the research goes, like narrowing climate change to effects on local farms.
Official wording
Students will formulate and refine a viable research question.
8.6.W.2
Write a clear, concise thesis that takes a position that can be defended with evidence.
Official wording
Students will develop a clear, concise, defensible thesis statement.
8.6.W.3
Quote, paraphrase and summarize research findings with citations in one consistent style, like MLA or APA, to avoid plagiarism.
Official wording
Students will quote, paraphrase, and summarize findings following a consistent citation style (e.g., MLA, APA) to avoid plagiarism.
8.6.W.4
Complete research papers or projects independently, from quick two- or three-day tasks to longer week-long investigations.
Official wording
Students will create research papers and/or projects independently for shorter timeframes (e.g., two or three days) and over extended periods of time (e.g., one week).

Multimodal Literacies: Reading

1 standard
Students will comprehend and evaluate multimodal content.
8.7.R
Identify why creators use rhetorical techniques in print, audio, images, layout and gesture, viewed from different perspectives, like music in a political ad.
Official wording
Students will determine the intended purposes of techniques used for rhetorical effects in a variety of alphabetic, aural, visual, spatial, and/or gestural content from various perspectives.

Multimodal Literacies: Writing

1 standard
Students will create multimodal content to communicate effectively.
8.7.W
Create engaging multimodal work combining text, audio, visuals, movement or layout that targets an audience and achieves a goal, like a public service video.
Official wording
Students will create engaging multimodal content (i.e., alphabetic, aural, visual, gestural and/or spatial) that intentionally addresses an audience and accomplishes a purpose.

Independent Reading and Writing: Reading

1 standard
Students will read self-selected texts independently, choosing genres to suit and expand their personal preferences and purposes.
8.8.R
Read self-selected texts on one's own for different lengths of time, choosing genres to enjoy or to stretch, like a graphic novel or a memoir.
Official wording
Students will read self-selected texts independently and for various lengths of time, choosing genres to suit and expand their personal preferences and purposes.

Independent Reading and Writing: Writing

1 standard
Students will write independently, intentionally selecting modes, purposes, and audiences.
8.8.W
Write independently in print, cursive or on a keyboard for varied lengths, picking and mixing genres for the reader and purpose, like a blog post or poems.
Official wording
Students will write independently using print, cursive, and/or typing for various lengths of time, choosing and combining modes and genres to suit their audience and purpose.

The official Oklahoma documents

Oklahoma Academic Standards for English Language Arts, Oklahoma State Department of Education.

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