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South Carolina Standards

South Carolina 8th Grade ELA Standards

All 33 South Carolina English language arts standards for 8th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in South Carolina Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

33 standards

Overarching Expectations

6 standards
ELA.8.OE.1
Keep up long periods of reading and writing for coursework and personal growth, like a multi-week research paper or a novel series.
ELA.8.OE.2
Deepen and share knowledge by working with articles, interviews, charts, websites, and interactive media, then presenting what was learned.
ELA.8.OE.3
Infer unstated meanings to understand a text more fully, like reading a character's silence as a sign of guilt.
ELA.8.OE.4
Work as a team member who listens actively, like asking follow-up questions while planning a group debate.
ELA.8.OE.5
Defend conclusions with well-chosen cited evidence, like quoting a primary source to support a claim in a history essay.
ELA.8.OE.6
Complete polished work that follows an accepted style, like a research paper with proper citations and formatting.

Applications of Reading

14 standards
ELA.8.AOR.1.1
Analyze how story elements like setting, character, and conflict work together to create a text's overall meaning.
ELA.8.AOR.1.2
Analyze how figurative language shapes mood, tone, and meaning, and explain how an author uses symbols, like a caged bird standing for lost freedom.
ELA.8.AOR.2.1
Show how key details build two or more themes within one story and across several, like ambition in a novel and a related short story.
ELA.8.AOR.2.2
Show how supporting details develop two or more main ideas within and across nonfiction texts, like two articles on renewable energy.
ELA.8.AOR.3.1
Analyze how differences in what characters and readers know create suspense or dramatic irony, like a reader seeing danger a hero cannot.
ELA.8.AOR.4.1
Analyze an author's viewpoint or purpose and how rhetorical choices, like emotional stories or striking statistics, advance it.
ELA.8.AOR.5.1
Explain how the way an author arranges a text, including time shifts like flashback and foreshadowing, builds mystery or suspense.
ELA.8.AOR.5.2
Analyze how an author's purpose in nonfiction comes through in the structure of specific sections and in features, like a timeline or a pull quote.
ELA.8.AOR.5.3
Follow an argument in nonfiction from start to finish, analyzing its kinds of reasoning and persuasive appeals, like an appeal to fear in an editorial.
ELA.8.AOR.6.1
Summarize or paraphrase grade-level texts to check and deepen understanding, like restating a scientist's argument in plain terms.
ELA.8.AOR.7.1
Work out new and multiple-meaning words through context, prior knowledge, and references that give meaning, pronunciation, word origin, and proper usage.
ELA.8.AOR.8.1
Interpret figurative, connotative, and technical language, like an oxymoron such as deafening silence, how words relate, and how stubborn and determined differ.
ELA.8.AOR.9.1
Apply affixes and Greek and Latin roots to unlock or refine word meanings in grade-level content, like the root ject in projectile.
ELA.8.AOR.10.1
Evaluate a text shown in different media, like a play scene read on paper and seen on stage, and analyze how each version affects its audience.

Research

5 standards
ELA.8.R.1.1
Plan and complete short and longer research by posing and answering questions, drawing on varied print and digital sources to focus the inquiry.
ELA.8.R.1.2
Screen every source for trustworthiness and fit with the topic and purpose, keeping only the ones that pass both tests.
ELA.8.R.1.3
Analyze research findings to decide which ones truly bear on the topic, like judging whether a survey answers the research question.
ELA.8.R.1.4
Organize findings logically around the research purpose, like grouping evidence under each reason in an argument.
ELA.8.R.1.5
Credit sources correctly in research to avoid plagiarism, like a formatted bibliography and marking any borrowed words as a quote.

Written and Oral Communications

8 standards
ELA.8.C.1.1
Write an argument that backs claims with logic and credible evidence, rebuts a counterclaim, links ideas with transitions, keeps a fitting tone, and concludes.
ELA.8.C.2.1
Write informative essays analyzing several sources, with a clear structure like cause and effect, relevant details, varied transitions, a suitable tone, and a conclusion.
ELA.8.C.3.1
Write real or imagined narratives with a clear situation and viewpoint, logical sequence, pacing and dialogue, figurative language, and an ending tied to its purpose.
ELA.8.C.4.1
Make deliberate grammar choices, like dashes and ellipses, gerunds and infinitives, active or passive voice, verb mood, and parallel structure, then edit final drafts.
ELA.8.C.5.1
Plan, edit, and use feedback from teachers and peers to revise writing so it is clear and its ideas hold together.
ELA.8.C.7.1
Present claims and findings in a focused way for different audiences, backing a clear viewpoint with valid evidence and using speaking skills, visuals, and digital tools.
ELA.8.C.8.1
Start and join structured discussions, asking relevant questions, adjusting views with new information, and qualifying or defending opinions with evidence.
ELA.8.C.9.1
Evaluate a speaker's argument, reasoning, and evidence in any format, and analyze how the talk handles objections, uses media and style, and serves its purpose.

The official South Carolina documents

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