Georgia 8.T.RA.2.a
The Standard
Locate evidence in print, digital, and multimodal sources to support a central idea or question, consulting Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines to determine the specific information needed to document particular modes and genres. (I)
Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards · Texts (T) · Research & Analysis
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students search print, online, audio, video, and image based sources for details that answer a research question or support a main claim. They check an MLA guide to identify which publication details must be saved for each source format.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students select specific facts, quotations, examples, or media details that directly support a central idea or research question. They use an MLA guide to record the correct author, title, container, date, publisher, URL, page, or timestamp when applicable.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may choose information that mentions the topic but does not answer the research question. They may assume a URL is enough for every digital source or record the same details for books, videos, podcasts, and webpages. Some also confuse strong evidence with the first search result they find.
How to Assess It
- Give students a research question and one webpage, one book excerpt, and one video. Ask them to select the strongest evidence and list the MLA details needed for that source type.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Set up stations with a book, webpage, podcast, and video, then have students tag useful evidence and complete an MLA source card.
Ask students to explain which of three evidence choices best answers a research question and why the other choices are weaker.
Play Source Match, where teams pair source samples with cards naming the MLA details required for each format.
Have students investigate a school issue, gather evidence from a news article and interview clip, and record the citation details for both.
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Printable 8.T.RA.2.a Worksheet
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