Virginia SOL 8.RI
SOL Standard (Knowledge and Skills Cluster)
The student will use textual evidence to demonstrate comprehension and build knowledge from grade-level complex informational texts read.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English
Cluster contents
Knowledge and Skills in This Standard
8.RI is a Standards of Learning standard. These are the knowledge and skills expectations under it.
- 8.RI.1
Key Ideas and Confirming Details
- 8.RI.1.A
Create a main idea statement and provide an accurate summary, clarifying the relationships among the key details and ideas or events.
- 8.RI.1.B
Analyze how the author unfolds a perspective or series of ideas or events in historical, scientific, or technical texts, including the order in which the points...
- 8.RI.1.C
Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning and evidence are relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
- 8.RI.2
Craft and Style
- 8.RI.2.A
Evaluate an author’s use of text features (e.g., boldface and italics; type set in color; underlining; indentation; sidebars; illustrations, graphics, and photo...
- 8.RI.2.B
Analyze how an author’s word choice, organizational pattern, language structure, viewpoints, and qualifications impact meaning and credibility of a text.
- 8.RI.2.C
Analyze how an author establishes and conveys a perspective or purpose in a text and acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
- 8.RI.3
Integration of Concepts
- 8.RI.3.A
Analyze ideas within and between selections including how specific sentences, paragraphs, sections, and text features contribute to the development and refineme...
- 8.RI.3.B
Compare and contrast how two or more authors present conflicting information on the same topic by assessing where the texts disagree in reasoning and evidence.
Teacher's field guide
What This Cluster Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify a central idea, explain how details and text features develop it, and write an objective summary. They examine organization, word choice, perspective, claims, reasoning, and evidence. They also compare sources to locate disagreements and decide which account is better supported.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can write an accurate, objective summary and support an interpretation with well-chosen quotations or paraphrases. The student can explain how organization, language, and text features shape meaning. The student can compare competing accounts and judge the relevance and strength of their evidence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may list facts instead of stating one central idea, or add opinions to a summary. They may treat any related evidence as sufficient proof. They also overlook how headings, source qualifications, word choice, and omitted viewpoints shape credibility.
How to Assess It
- Give students two short articles that disagree on one issue. Ask them to state each central idea, cite the strongest evidence, and explain which article presents the better-supported claim.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut an article into sections, then have groups rebuild its order and justify each placement using transitions, headings, and idea development.
Ask students to identify one sentence that reveals the author’s purpose and explain how the author handles an opposing viewpoint.
Give teams claim and evidence cards to sort into relevant, irrelevant, sufficient, and insufficient piles, then defend one choice.
Compare two reports about school phone bans, then chart where their claims, evidence, sources, and reasoning agree or conflict.
Free download
Printable 8.RI Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 8.RI, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetKeep exploring
Related Standards
Turn this cluster into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete cluster are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.