CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.9a
The Standard
Apply grade 8 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new").
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students write about how a modern literary work uses ideas, plot patterns, or character types from an older story. They support the comparison with evidence and explain how the newer author reshapes the source.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify a clear link between an older source and a modern work. They use evidence from both texts to explain what was borrowed, how it changed, and what effect the change creates.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may summarize both works without explaining the connection between them. They may identify a shared theme or character type but omit evidence or ignore how the newer work changes it.
How to Assess It
- Give students paired excerpts and this exit prompt: “Using one detail from each text, explain what the newer story borrows and how it changes the source.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Print excerpts from a myth and retelling, then have pairs cut, match, and label connected themes, events, or character types.
Ask students to write: “Why might an author change this character, event, or theme for a modern audience?”
Play Evidence Match, where teams pair source-text details with retelling details and earn points by explaining each transformation.
Compare a current movie trailer with its source myth, then list one borrowed element and one modern change.
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Printable W.8.9a Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.9a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Where This Standard Sits
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.9a
Apply grade 5 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or a drama, drawing on specifi...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.9a
Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres [e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fa...
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