Grade 08 ELA - EC: E08.D.2.1.3
Grade 08 ELA - EC: E08.D.2.1.3
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Grade Levels
8th Grade
Course, Subject
English Language Arts
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Identify a variety of different sentence patterns.
- State reasons writers vary sentence patterns.
- Identify a writer’s purpose for varying sentence patterns in a text.
- Explain the effects of a writer’s decision to vary sentence patterns.
- Construct original sentences using a variety of sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.
- Evaluate a writer’s use of varying sentence patterns to achieve a particular effect.
Answer Key/Rubric
- Student identifies a variety of different sentence patterns. Examples of different sentence patterns include:
- Declarative: Gives information, or gives information. “My sister is in the second grade.”
- Interrogative: Asks a question. “Did you eat lunch?”
- Exclamatory: Expresses a strong emotion. “I just won the lottery!”
- Imperative: Gives an order or command. “Eat your vegetables.”
- Simple: A sentence that includes one independent clause. “I went to the supermarket.”
- Compound: A sentence that includes two or more independent clauses. “I went to the supermarket, but the pineapples were sold out.”
- Complex: A sentence that includes an independent clause and a dependent clause. “Since the supermarket did not have any pineapples, I will not be able to bake a pineapple cake.”
- Compound-Complex: A sentence that includes at least two independent clauses and a dependent clause. “Since the supermarket did not have any pineapples, I will not be able to bake a pineapple cake, but I will bake an apple pie instead.”
- Student states reasons writers vary sentence patterns. Writers vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest and style.
- Student identifies a writer’s purpose for varying sentence patterns in a text. The student correctly identifies a writer’s intended purpose for using different sentence patterns.
- Student explains the effects of a writer’s decision to vary sentence patterns. For example:
- Simple sentences clearly state a single idea
- Compound sentences unite ideas into a single thought
- Complex sentences include dependent clauses to provide additional information
- Compound-complex sentences unite two or more ideas and provide additional information
- Student constructs original sentences using a variety of sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style. The sentences constructed a variety of sentence patterns. The student’s intended reason for using a variety of sentence patterns is clearly evident.
- Student evaluates a writer’s use of varying sentence patterns to achieve a particular effect. For example, the student correctly evaluates a writer’s use of varying sentence patterns to determine whether or not the intended effect on the meaning, reader interest, and style is effectively achieved.
