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RI.LCS.8.1

Description: Interpret and analyze the author’s use of words, phrases, text features, conventions, and structures, and how their relationships shape meaning and tone in print and multimedia texts. Determine how the author uses words and phrases to shape and clarify meaning.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 5A, 8B

Exemplars

5A: Examining Text Structure

5A: Examining Text Structure

Description: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: D-29

D-29

Grade level: 4
Word count: 1520 words
Author: R. Bender
Synopsis: When a city catches fire, it takes more than buckets of water to douse the flame.
Excerpt: At that time London was surrounded by a 15-foot wall that had been built centuries earlier. The wall had been built to protect the city from invading armies.

Question: What is the relationship between the two sentences in this excerpt?
  1. The second sentence offers supporting information for a statement in the first sentence.
  2. The two sentences set up a comparison.
  3. The first sentence states the opposite of what is stated in the second sentence.
  4. The two sentences are not related in any way.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Explain an author's use of description in a selection, and how the description shaped the way you viewed and understood the person, object, or event described.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

Description: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: HiD-20

HiD-20

Grade level: 4
Word count: 1576 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: Mattie Stepanek lived a lifetime in just 14 years.
Excerpt: Jeni wrote how Mattie knew, and accepted, the fact that he would have a very short life. But he also knew his memory would live on through his writings and his works. "I want people to remember me some day," he wrote, "and say, 'Oh yes! Mattie! He was a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played.'"

Question: A philosopher is someone who offers thoughts on very deep and important matters. Mattie wanted to be remembered as a "philosopher who played." Based on what you have read, what is the most likely meaning of this phrase?
  1. a person who has serious views of the world but still remembers to enjoy life
  2. a person who does no work and thinks only about how to make other people laugh
  3. a person who plans his or her life around money
  4. a person who measures success by how popular he or she is

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: What makes people or characters do the things they do? Use details from a selection you have read, as well as your reasoning skills, to support your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions