Georgia Milestones Grade 8 ELA cheat sheet

Georgia Milestones Grade 8 ELA - Reading, Writing, and Language

• Literary analysis: a theme is a message about life or human nature that a text conveys; it must be stated as a full idea ("loyalty can survive hardship"), not a one-word topic such as "loyalty."

• Central idea vs. supporting details: the central idea is the single most important point of an informational text; details support, illustrate, or explain it and never replace it.

• Citing evidence: a strong response names the specific paragraph or line and quotes or closely paraphrases it, then explains how that evidence supports the claim - quotation alone is not analysis.

• Point of view: first person uses I/we; third-person limited stays inside one character's thoughts; third-person omniscient knows all characters' thoughts; omniscient narration can create dramatic irony.

• Figurative language: simile uses like/as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human traits to nonhuman things; hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration; idiom's meaning cannot be derived from its words.

• Connotation vs. denotation: denotation is a word's dictionary meaning; connotation is its emotional association ("cheap" vs. "inexpensive"), and word choice shapes tone.

• Text structure: chronological, cause-effect, compare-contrast, problem-solution, and description each signal different transition words ("because," "however," "as a result," "first").

• Author's purpose is to inform, persuade, entertain, or explain; an argument's strength depends on relevant, sufficient evidence and on addressing counterclaims.

• Grammar and language: active voice makes the doer the subject; passive voice makes the receiver the subject; verbals are verb forms acting as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs (gerund, participle, infinitive).