8.L.4.b

Description: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple‐meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 4A, 4A

Exemplars

4A: Interpreting Word Meaning

4A: Interpreting Word Meaning

Description: Interpreting Word Meaning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: H-19

H-19

Grade level: 8
Word count: 1703 words
Author: Claire O'Connell
Synopsis: People from many cultures adorn their bodies for different reasons.
Excerpt: Tattooing and body piercing spread among the upper classes in Europe in the 19th century, most widely in Great Britain. There was a rumor that even Queen Victoria had a small tattoo. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II, discovered that his mother had a tattoo of a snake around her wrist. She covered her tattoo with a diamond bracelet when she was in "polite" company.

Question: In this excerpt, what does the author mean by the phrase "polite company"?
  1. the well-bred class
  2. the knighted class
  3. the religious class
  4. the merchant class

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe three or more words that you learned recently by reading Non-fiction texts about a certain topic. Explain why knowing these words has helped you better understand the topic.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

4A: Interpreting Word Meaning

4A: Interpreting Word Meaning

Description: Interpreting Word Meaning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: H-66

H-66

Grade level: 8
Word count: 1770 words
Author: Mark Twain
Synopsis: Things can get out of hand when luck beats out skill.
Excerpt: There sat the man, in actual flesh, whom I had heard of so many times since that day, thirty years before, when his name shot suddenly to the peak from a Crimean battlefield, to remain forever celebrated.

It was food and drink to me to look, and look, and look at that idol; scanning, searching, noting the quietness, the reserve, the noble gravity of his features; the simple honesty that expressed itself all over him; the sweet unconsciousness of his greatness -- unconsciousness of the hundreds of admiring eyes fastened upon him, unconsciousness of the deep, loving, sincere worship welling out of the breasts of those people and flowing toward him.

Question: In this excerpt, what does the banquet guest mean when he says, "It was food and drink to me to look, and look, and look at that idol"?
  1. The guest felt inspired just by looking at Scoresby.
  2. The guest was too busy eating to talk to Scoresby.
  3. The guest could tell Scoresby was a fool by the way he looked.
  4. The guest was so scared of Scoresby that he could not eat.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Explain how a character's actions or attitude can change the meaning of a word or phrase.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions