8.6.D

ELA8th GradeThe student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.

The Standard

paraphrase and summarize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students restate source ideas in their own words without changing the message. They shorten longer texts to the central idea and key details while preserving the original order.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can restate a specific passage fully in their own words. They can also shorten a full text to its central idea and key details without changing the message or sequence.
Common Misconceptions: Students may replace only a few words with synonyms and call it a paraphrase. They may include every detail, add opinions, or rearrange events so the original meaning changes.
How to Assess It: Give students a six-sentence paragraph. Ask them to paraphrase sentence three, then summarize the full paragraph in two sentences while keeping ideas in order.

Lesson moves

Give groups sentence strips from a short article, then have them select key ideas and arrange them into a clear summary.
Ask students to explain in writing how a paraphrase differs from a summary, using one example of each from the same paragraph.
Play a card sort where students match source passages with accurate paraphrases and summaries, then reject choices that distort meaning.
Have students summarize a school announcement and paraphrase one key rule for a classmate who was absent.

Keep exploring

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