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Informational Text Prompts

8th Grade

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.11

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.11.B

compose informational texts, including multi-paragraph essays that convey information about a topic, using a clear controlling idea or thesis statement and genre characteristics and craft;

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.17

Students write expository and procedural or work-related texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.17.A

write a multi-paragraph essay to convey information about a topic that:
  1. presents effective introductions and concluding paragraphs;
  2. contains a clearly stated purpose or controlling idea;
  3. is logically organized with appropriate facts and details and includes no extraneous information or inconsistencies;
  4. accurately synthesizes ideas from several sources; and
  5. uses a variety of sentence structures, rhetorical devices, and transitions to link paragraphs;

Alabama Course of Study Standards: 8

Produce clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writing in which the development, organization, style, and tone are relevant to task, purpose, and audience, using an appropriate command of language.
  1. Write narratives that establish a clear purpose, use narrative techniques, and sequence events coherently.
    Examples: narratives - memoir, short story, personal narrative; techniques - dialogue, pacing, description, reflection; sequencing - chronological, reverse chronological, flashback
  2. Write informative or explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas or processes effectively, by developing the topic with relevant information or data from credible sources and using appropriate transitions and precise vocabulary.
  3. Write an argument to defend a position by introducing and supporting a claim, distinguishing the claim from opposing claims, presenting counterclaims and reasons, and citing accurate, relevant textual evidence from credible sources.

Arkansas Academic Standards: W.8.10

Write routinely over extended time frames, time for
  • research
  • reflection
  • revision
and shorter time frames (e.g., a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Arizona - K-12 Academic Standards: 8.W.10

Common Core State Standards: Literacy.W.8.10

Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE): ELAGSE8W10

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Tennessee Academic Standards: 8.W.RW.10

Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.A

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information clearly.

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.B

Identify and introduce the topic clearly, including a preview of what is to follow
  • E08.E.1.1.1 - Introduce text(s) for the intended audience, state an opinion and/or topic, establish a situation, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.C

Develop and analyze the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples; include graphics and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
  • E08.E.1.1.2 - Develop the analysis using relevant evidence from text(s) to support claims, opinions, ideas, and inferences and demonstrating an understanding of the text(s).

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.D

Organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts;provide a concluding statement or section; include formatting when useful to aiding comprehension.
  • E08.E.1.1.1 - Introduce text(s) for the intended audience, state an opinion and/or topic, establish a situation, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

  • E08.E.1.1.3 - Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.

  • E08.E.1.1.6 - Provide a concluding section that follows from and supports the analysis presented.

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.E

Write with an awareness of the stylistic aspects of composition.

Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

Use sentences of varying lengths and complexities.

Create tone and voice through precise language.

Establish and maintain a formal style.
  • E08.D.2.1.1 - Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action, expressing uncertainty, or describing a state contrary to fact).

  • E08.D.2.1.2 - Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.*

  • E08.D.2.1.3 - Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.*

  • E08.D.2.1.4 - Maintain consistency in style and tone.*

  • E08.D.2.1.5 - Choose punctuation for effect.*

  • E08.D.2.1.6 - Choose words and phrases for effect.*

  • E08.E.1.1.4 - Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic and/or convey the experience and events.

  • E08.E.1.1.5 - Establish and maintain a formal style.

Pennsylvania Core Standards: CC.1.4.8.F

Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard English grammar,usage, capitalization, punctuation,and spelling.
  • E08.D.1.1.1 - Explain the function of verbals (i.e., gerunds, participles, and infinitives) in general and their function in particular sentences.

  • E08.D.1.1.2 - Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice.

  • E08.D.1.1.3 - Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood.

  • E08.D.1.1.4 - Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood.*

  • E08.D.1.1.5 - Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.*

  • E08.D.1.1.6 - Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person.*

  • E08.D.1.1.7 - Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents).*

  • E08.D.1.1.8 - Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.*

  • E08.D.1.1.9 - Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-on sentences.*

  • E08.D.1.1.10 - Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their, they’re).*

  • E08.D.1.1.11 - Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.*

  • E08.D.1.2.1 - Use punctuation (i.e., comma, ellipsis, and dash) to indicate a pause or break.

  • E08.D.1.2.2 -Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.

  • E08.D.1.2.3 - Spell correctly.

  • E08.D.1.2.4 - Use punctuation (i.e., commas, parentheses, and dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements.*

  • E08.D.1.2.5 - Use punctuation to separate items in a series.*

Florida - Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking: ELA.8.C.1.4

Write expository texts to explain and analyze information from multiple sources, using relevant supporting details, logical organization, and varied purposeful transitions.

Florida - Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking: ELA.8.V.1.1

Integrate academic vocabulary appropriate to grade level in speaking and writing.

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