CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.4

ELA8th GradeCraft and Structure

The Standard

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students use context and word parts to interpret unfamiliar, figurative, connotative, and technical language in informational texts. They explain how particular words, analogies, and allusions shape meaning and tone.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can explain a word’s meaning in context and cite clues that support their interpretation. They can show how changing a word, analogy, or allusion would alter the tone or message.
Common Misconceptions: Students often choose the first dictionary definition without checking the surrounding sentence. They may name a tone but fail to connect it to specific words. They may recognize an allusion or analogy without explaining its effect.
How to Assess It: Give students a short editorial paragraph. Ask them to define one bolded phrase from context and explain how it shapes the paragraph’s tone.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs a printed article and highlighters to mark technical terms, loaded words, figurative phrases, and context clues in different colors.
Ask students to replace one strong word in a paragraph, then write how the new choice changes meaning and tone.
Play Context Clue Challenge, where teams infer highlighted meanings, name their evidence, and earn points for explaining each word’s effect.
Compare two headlines about the same event and discuss how verbs and labels reveal each source’s tone and viewpoint.

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