South Dakota ELA 8.RL.7

ELA8th GradeReading Literature

The Standard

Analyze how a filmed or live production of a story, drama, or poem stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students compare a scene on the page with the same scene on screen or stage. They identify what stays the same, what changes, and how an actor’s or director’s choice affects the scene.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can name a retained detail and a changed detail, such as Marley’s chains or the actor’s tone. They can explain the effect of the change using a line from the text and a specific moment in the performance.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call a film unfaithful because an actor looks different from how they imagined. They may list changes without explaining their effect, or mistake the film’s music for a detail in the text.
How to Assess It: Show a one-minute clip of Marley’s visit after students read the matching passage. Ask them to name one retained detail and one change, then judge the change using a line and a film detail.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs a printed excerpt of Marley’s warning; have them act it twice with different tones and point to lines supporting each choice.
After watching Marley’s visit, ask students to write whether the actor’s voice fits a quoted line and how it affects the scene.
Have teams sort cards labeled chains, warning, lighting, and voice into kept, changed, or added, then defend each choice with evidence.
Write a two-sentence review for someone choosing an A Christmas Carol film, using Marley’s scene to explain one director’s choice against the book.

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