Below are the Mastery Learning Targets, or priorities for all students to be successful when they advance to 8th Grade English. Mastery (M) of these skills means the student has met the grade-level standard and is independently performing on grade level. Mastery takes time to develop and may take the full school year.

• Uses evidence from the text to prove essential ideas.

• Determines the universal lesson/theme of the text and discusses how specific details support that lesson.

• Analyzes how particular elements of a story or drama influence one another. 

• Determines how one character/narrator perceives their world differently than other characters. 

• Reads both fiction and nonfiction text inspired by the same historical context and draws similarities and differences.

• Cites evidence from a text to support essential ideas.

• Determines the overall message of the text and discusses how multiple details in the text develop this message. 

• Analyzes an author's word choice to determine the meaning of the word and the feeling it generates.

• Identifies and discusses how the author organizes a text in order to contribute to the meaning of the text.

• Determines author's perspective on a topic and analyzes the details that support the author's thoughts and opinions.

• Determines whether or not the reasons/claims in an argumentative text are reasonable and fully supported.

• Writes an informative essay in which the introduction establishes a clear claim (thesis) and supporting points, and then uses topic sentences to effectively develop those points. 

• Writes an informative essay that develops key supporting points with relevant evidence (facts, quotes, and concrete details from cited sources).

• Writes an informative essay that includes the use of appropriate transitions both between paragraphs and within paragraph development.

• Writes a variety of sentences, including the four main sentence structures correctly to communicate ideas clearly.

• Uses clues found within a text to determine  the meaning of a word or phrase. 

• Determines meaning of words using Greek and Latin word parts.