8.RS.1 – The texts that students use to meet the reading demands of the curriculum at this level will often include:

• 8.RS.1.a – Elements that require interpretation, such as complex plots, sophisticated themes,and abstract ideas

• 8.RS.1.b – Complex layers of meaning, and/or information that is irrelevant to the identified purpose for reading (that is, competing information), requiring students to infer meanings or make judgments

• 8.RS.1.c – Non-continuous text structures and mixed text types

• 8.RS.1.d – Sentences that vary in length, including long, complex sentences that contain a lot of information

• 8.RS.1.e – Adverbial clauses or connectives that require students to make links across the whole text

• 8.RS.1.f – Academic and content-specific vocabulary

• 8.RS.1.g – Words and phrases with multiple meanings that require students to know and use effective word-solving strategies to retain their focus on meaning

• 8.RS.1.h – Metaphor, analogy, and connotative language that is open to interpretation

• 8.RS.1.i – Illustrations, photographs, text boxes, diagrams, maps, charts, and graphs, containing main ideas that relate to the text’s content.

8.WS.1 – These texts will include, when appropriate:

• 8.WS.1.a – Content that is concise and relevant to the curriculum task and that often includes detail and/or comment supporting or elaborating on the main points

• 8.WS.1.b – Paragraphs within which the ideas are clearly related and links within and between paragraphs

• 8.WS.1.c – Grammatically correct sentences

• 8.WS.1.d – Words and phrases that are appropriate to the topic, register, and purpose, including expressive, academic, and subject-specific vocabulary.