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Standard 3 : Vocabulary Acquisition and UseArchived
Cluster Standards

This cluster includes the following benchmarks.

Visit the specific benchmark webpage to find related instructional resources.

  • LAFS.8.L.3.4 : Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
    1. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
    2. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).
    3. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
    4. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
  • LAFS.8.L.3.5 : Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
    1. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context.
    2. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words.
    3. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).
  • LAFS.8.L.3.6 : Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Cluster Information
Number:
LAFS.8.L.3
Title:
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Type:
Cluster
Subject:
English Language Arts - Archived
Grade:
8
Strand
Language Standards
Cluster Access Points

This cluster includes the following Access Points.

  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.4a : Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph or text; a word’s position in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a grade-appropriate word or phrase.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.4b : Verify the prediction of the meaning of a new word or phrase.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.4c : Find the pronunciation of a word.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.4d : Find the synonym for a word.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.4e : Find the precise meaning of a word.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5a : Use literacy devices (e.g., similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, imagery) in narrative writing.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5b : Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5c : Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5d : Identify irony within a text or media.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5e : Identify a pun within a text or media.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.5f : Interpret figures of speech (e.g., allusions, verbal irony, puns) in context.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.6a : Use grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases accurately within writing.
  • LAFS.8.L.3.AP.6b : Use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases accurately.
Cluster Resources

Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.

Original Student Tutorials
  • Words Take Root: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about Greek and Latin roots (anti, capit, bene, bon, and mal) and 12 modern words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice using these words and hopefully add them to your vocabulary!

  • Rooting Out Words: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about ancient Latin roots — Ante, Post, Scrib, and Script — and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.

  • Getting at the Roots of Language: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about three roots from ancient Latin and Greek — Per, Seque, and Mis — and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.

  • Word Scholar: Using Context Clues: Identify and apply context clues, including synonyms, antonyms, and inferences, to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in passages about the life of Frederick Douglass with this interactive tutorial. 

  • The Root of the Matter: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about five roots from ancient Latin and Greek—frag, fract, cret, syn, and sym—and practice using twelve modern words connected with these roots to build your vocabulary in this interactive tutorial.

  • Know Your Roots: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about 3 Latin roots (Am, Ab, and Ad) and 12 new words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll make some interesting language connections and hopefully add some new words to your vocabulary!  

  • Vocabulary Unleashed: Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.

  • Vocabulary Mastery: Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words, identify their parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms, and use them in context with this interactive tutorial.

  • Vocabulary in Action: Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial!  You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.  

  • Vocabulary Power: Learn 12 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial!  You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.  

  • Alien Invasion! Or Not?: Learn about puns--a type of figurative language--in Philip K. Dick's science fiction short story "The Eyes Have It." In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify puns, interpret their various meanings, and explain how the author’s use of puns adds humor to the story.

  • VSI: Vocabulary Scene Investigation: Learn how to determine the meaning of "mystery words" using several different strategies in this interactive crime-themed tutorial. You'll learn how to recognize a word's job or function in a sentence to help determine its meaning. You'll also practice identifying key words and word parts to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

  • Bridging Figurative Language: Learn how figurative language contributes to the meaning of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine excerpts from President Obama's 50th Anniversary Speech of the March on Selma. You'll specifically analyze his use of imagery and metaphors and how they add to the meaning of his speech.

  • Putting Down Roots: Learning New Vocabulary: Learn about 3 Greek and Latin roots (spect, path, and omni) and 12 modern words that feature those roots. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice using these words and hopefully add them to your vocabulary!  

Lesson Plans
  • Picturing Shakespeare’s Sonnets: In this lesson, students select and read a Shakespearean Sonnet. They will de-code the sonnet to further understand the meaning of the sonnet and be able to express the meaning through aural and visual presentations.

  • One for All? Or Not. Letter XII: Distresses of a Frontier Man: This lesson is based on Letter XII: Distresses of a Frontier Man by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. This "letter" is one of a collection of essays in an epistolary format from the collection, Letters from an American Farmer (1782). In this lesson, students will read and analyze the two central ideas in the text. Students will fill out a graphic organizer on the central ideas and participate in a class debate.

  • Be Careful What You Wish For: "The Monkey's Paw": Students will read the short story "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs, answer text-dependent questions, and examine a theme of the story, "Be careful what you wish for." In the summative assessment students will write their own narrative that shares the same theme.

  • Remembering D-Day: This is a lesson based on President Obama’s remarks on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy. His speech focuses on the anniversary of D-Day and the effect it had on soldiers and civilians who experienced the attack. This lesson provides an opportunity for vocabulary acquisition and an analysis of the meaning of President Obama’s speech.

  • Pygmalion: A Mythological Inspiration: Students will read Thomas Bulfinch's Pygmalion to answer text-dependent questions, work with vocabulary from the text, and compare the characterization of the two renditions of the myth. Students will also read an abridged excerpt from Act II of George Bernard Shaw's award-winning play, Pygmalion. Students will compare and contrast key characters and their traits from both texts. As a culminating activity, students will create their own narrative version of the Pygmalion myth.

  • Close Reading of Echo and Narcissus: In this lesson, students will conduct three close readings of the highly entertaining myth "Echo and Narcissus" as retold by Thomas Bulfinch. Through these readings, students will answer text-dependent questions about the myth, work to determine the meanings of selected vocabulary and sort them into different categories, analyze character motivation, and determine the settings used in the story. For the end of lesson assessment, students will determine a theme for the myth and write about that theme in an extended response paragraph.

  • Reading of a Greek Myth: Apollo and Daphne: Students will read the myth "Apollo and Daphne" as told by Thomas Bulfinch and analyze lines in the story that propel the action, reveal details about a character, or provoke a decision. Students will work in groups to paraphrase text to create a short dramatization of an assigned section of the myth.

  • Close Reading Exemplar: Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution: The goal of this one to two day exemplar from Student Achievement Partner web resources is to give students the opportunity to observe the dynamic nature of the Constitution through the practice of close reading and writing habits. By reading and re-reading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will explore the questions Monk raises and perhaps even pursue additional avenues of inquiry. When combined with writing about the passage, not only will students form a deeper appreciation of Monk’s argument and the value of struggling with complex text, but of the Preamble of the Constitution itself.

  • Prereading Strategy:Using Vocabulary, Language, Prediction (VLP) Approach: Students can use this Vocabulary - Language - Prediction (VLP) approach to understand new vocabulary prior to reading any text. The VLP approach helps in structural analysis, parts of speech, semantics, and the rhyming of words. Although the example used here is for nonfiction, the strategy could be used for all types of texts.

  • What is Normal? Exploring Connotations and Denotations: The goal of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore the connotations and denotations of the word "normal" and its various meanings. Through the use of "Us and Them," a personal essay by David Sedaris, students will explore the various beliefs and points of view of "normal" based on the picture painted by Sedaris. Students will need to consider the emotional context of words and how diction reveals an author's tone and message, as well as how the use of irony can impact the tone of a piece. Students will also read and analyze a Time article, "An In-Depth View of America by the Numbers," by Nancy Gibbs. For the summative assessment, students will write an explanatory essay (several prompts are provided) about normality using evidence from the texts studied in the lesson for support.

  • Florida: Feast of Figurative Language:

    In this lesson (lesson two of a two-lesson unit), students will use Bishop's poem as a model to write their own Florida poem brimming with figurative language and vivid vocabulary. They will also select digital media to reflect the content of their original poems.

  • To the Heart of Human Expression: Form and Theme in Poetry (Part 2): This is part two in a two-part series using Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 71." In this lesson, students will to identify and explain theme in poetry and write a short response.

  • The Paths We Take: A Poetic Comparison: Students will study two poems in this lesson: Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and Dale Wimbrow's "The Guy in the Glass." Students will identify and explain the use of metaphor in each poem, and they will also examine the imagery and personification used in each one. Students will also determine a theme of each poem and explain the similarities and differences in their related themes.

  • To the Heart of Human Expression: Tools of the Poet's Trade (Part 1): This is part one in a two-part series using Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 71." In this lesson, students will examine poetic and sound devices, and write a short response analysis of how these devices are at work in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 71."

  • Poetry and Meaning: "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" : In this lesson, students will study the poem "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" by Vachel Lindsay. Students will identify the examples of imagery within the poem and determine how the use of imagery contributes to the poem's meaning. Students will also practice making connections between the poem and its background information (President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War) as well as its historical context (World War I). During the lesson, students will also practice determining the meaning of unfamiliar words in the poem.

Teaching Idea
  • ABC Vocabulary Books: This series of lessons guides students through the process of creating their own ABC book. This lesson can be used with any unit of study. This would be a great cross-curriculum activity.

Video/Audio/Animation
  • What is Verbal Irony?: In this animated video from TEDed, students will learn how to detect verbal irony and sarcasm. They will also examine subtle differences between verbal irony and sarcasm by closely examining situation and attitude.