Eighth Grade Standard for Speaking

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies

Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience. They evaluate the content of oral communication.

1.1 Analyze oral interpretations of literature, including language choice and delivery, and the effect of the interpretations on the listener.

1.2 Paraphrase a speaker’s purpose and point of view and ask relevant questions concerning the
speaker’s content, delivery, and purpose.

1.3 Organize information to achieve particular purposes by matching the message, vocabulary, voice modulation, expression, and tone to the audience and purpose.

1.4 Prepare a speech outline based upon a chosen pattern of organization, which generally includes an introduction; transitions, previews, and summaries; a logically developed body; and an effective conclusion.

1.5 Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate and colorful modifiers, and the active rather than the passive voice in ways that enliven oral presentations.

1.6 Use appropriate grammar, word choice, enunciation, and pace during formal presentations.

1.7 Use audience feedback (e.g., verbal and nonverbal cues):

a. Reconsider and modify the organizational structure or plan.

b. Rearrange words and sentences to clarify the meaning.

1.8 Evaluate the credibility of a speaker (e.g., hidden agendas, slanted or biased material).

1.9 Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which visual image makers (e.g., graphic artists, illustrators, news photographers) communicate information and affect impressions and opinions.

2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)

Students deliver well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, exposition, persuasion, description). Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0. Using the speaking strategies of grade eight outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students:

2.1 Deliver narrative presentations (e.g., biographical, autobiographical):

a. Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.

b. Reveal the significance of, and the subject’s attitude about, the incident, event, or situation.

c. Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters).

2.2 Deliver oral responses to literature:

a. Interpret a reading and provide insight.

b. Connect the students’ own responses to the writer’s techniques and to specific textual references.

c. Draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience.

d. Support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or personal knowledge.

2.3 Deliver research presentations:

a. Define a thesis.

b. Record important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize all relevant perspectives on the topic, as appropriate.

c. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources and distinguish the nature and value of each.

d. Organize and record information on charts, maps, and graphs.

2.4 Deliver persuasive presentations:

a. Include a well-defined thesis (i.e., one that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment).

b. Differentiate fact from opinion and support arguments with detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning.

c. Anticipate and answer listener concerns and counterarguments effectively through the inclusion and arrangement of details, reasons, examples, and other elements.

d. Maintain a reasonable tone.

2.5 Recite poems (of four to six stanzas), sections of speeches, or dramatic soliloquies, using voice modulation, tone, and gestures expressively to enhance the meaning.