Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.8.3

ELA8th GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Analyze how an author uses comparisons, analogies or categories to make connections among and distinctions between ideas over the course of a text.

Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Key Ideas and Details

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students track how a writer compares ideas, uses an analogy, or puts ideas into groups. They explain what those choices show about the ideas, and how that picture changes from the start to the end of the text.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can point to an early comparison and a later one, then explain what each adds. They can use details from both places to show why the writer connects or separates the ideas.
Common Misconceptions: Students may list similarities and differences without explaining why the writer chose them. They may take an analogy literally or assume everything in one group is the same. They may miss how a later comparison changes an earlier one.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Give students these lines: “Both paper maps and phone maps show routes. A paper map is a snapshot; a phone map updates with traffic. Both guide drivers, but only a phone map warns of delays.” Ask how the comparison changes from the first line to the last.

Lesson moves

Print a three-paragraph article comparing buses and trains; pairs highlight shared traits and differences, then number where each appears.
Write “The internet is a highway for information” on the board; ask students what the analogy explains and what it misses.
Give teams sentence strips from an article on food waste; they race to sort the writer’s claims under scraps, expired food, and untouched food.
Print a phone plan comparison chart; students circle features grouped as basic or premium and write which differences those labels hide.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to RI.8.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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