Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. A Special Event Camille’s teacher has asked the class to write an essay about a special event they recently attended. Camille decided to write about the Fourth of July Festival. 1Which would best help Camille organize her ideas for this essay? Astarting her rough draft Bmaking notes about fun things to do at the festival Casking her friends what they did for the Fourth of July Dgathering information about fireworks 2To convey the excitement Camille felt when she went to the festival, which tone is best for her essay? Fserious Genthusiastic Hobjective Jsarcastic

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use QuestionCorrect AnswerVA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation 1B8.7ab – Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 2G8.7cc – Select specific vocabulary and information. Notes to Teacher: The writing subtest of the Grade 8 English test will have a series of brief scenarios, each of which defines a writing task for a specified audience. Items following the statement of the writing task will address planning or prewriting activities relevant to the specified task and will be coded to the Planning, Composing, and Revising reporting category. A rough draft of a response to the specified writing task will follow the planning/prewriting test items. The rough draft will be divided into sections. The first section will have errors which require revision such as the inclusion of a sentence that does not belong or two sentences that need to be combined. Items following the first section of the rough draft will require the student to correct these errors by choosing the correct revision from the answer choices provided. These items will also be coded to the Planning, Composing, and Revising reporting category. The second section of the rough draft will contain embedded errors in usage or mechanics. Items following this section will refer to underlined words or groups of words in the second section of the rough draft and will require students to choose the answer which represents correct usage or mechanics. These items will be coded to the Editing reporting category. In some cases, the underlined words will contain no error and the correct answer will be "as it is." Following the expanded blueprint is a list of usage and mechanics skills which are addressed in the Editing reporting category.

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Read the first part of Camille’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below. (1)Every July, our town throws a huge Fourth of July celebration. (2)I’ve been going to it for many years. (3)The Civic League organizes a fair with free rides. (4)They also provide free hotdogs, and snow cones. (5)After a day of fun at the fair, everyone gathers for a free concert on the community soccer field. (6)There are some fireworks later. 3How are sentences 3 and 4 best combined? AThe Civic League organizes free rides at the fair and also hotdogs and snow cones. BSnow cones, hotdogs, and free rides at the fair are organized by the Civic League. CThe Civic League organizes a fair and provides free rides, hot dogs and snow cones. DHotdogs and snow cones are provided at the fair organized by the Civic League and free rides are too. 4How could sentence 6 be written with specific details? FThere are some amazing fireworks showcased after the sun sets. GThere are a lot of fireworks shown later at night. HThere are many numerous fireworks later on in the evening. JThere are so many numerous fireworks after the sun sets at night.

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use QuestionCorrect AnswerVA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation 3C8.7dd – Revise writing for word choice, sentence variety, and transitions among paragraphs. 4F8.7cc– Select specific vocabulary and information. Notes to Teacher: During the revising stage of the writing process students will revise for focus, organization, and elaboration. To assist students in developing these skills direct instruction must take place on including important details, deleting unnecessary information and varying sentences. The Standards of Learning writing assessments will ask students to use their revising skills to identify ways to improve a passage that is provided. To be successful on this section of the test, students must be able to suggest the best way to combine provided sentences, choose a more descriptive way to write provided sentences and locate unneeded information.

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Read the next part of Camille’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below. (7)My friends and I go to the festival every July. (8)A small parade is scheduled before the festival. (9)People drive their antique cars, kids ride bikes, and equestrians ride they horses. (10)Everyone in the parade tosses candy to the spectators. (11)We all scrambled to grab as much candy as we can fit into our pockets. 5In sentence 9, how should they be written? Athose Bthere Ctheir Das it is 6In sentence 11, how is scrambled best written? Fdid scramble Gwere scrambling Hscramble Jas it is

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. QuestionCorrect AnswerVA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation 5C8.8ad – Use a variety of graphic organizers, including sentence diagrams, to analyze and improve sentence formation and paragraph structure. 6H8.8df – Maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs. Notes to Teacher: During the editing stage of the writing process students will edit for correct, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling and sentence construction. Students should be provided with many opportunities to edit and correct punctuation in their writing and the writing of their classmates. The Standards of Learning writing assessments will ask students to edit a given passage for punctuation, correct case and number, verb tense, and comparative and superlative degrees. Students will be expected to understand the use of conjunctions and transitional words. Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Read the next part of Camille’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below. (12)After the parade, we all head to the fair. (13)The first place me and my friends go is the rock wall. (14)It is such a challenge, but we love it. (15)After the rock wall, we make it over to the giant slide. (16)This inflated slide is two-stories tall and bounces you down to the ground. (17) Whenever we’re hungry, we stop and get either a free snow cone, or a free hotdog. (18)The fair is awesome. 7In sentence 13, how is me and my friends correctly written? Amy friends and I Bmy friends and me Cthey and I Das it is 8In sentence 17, how is either a free snow cone, or a free hotdog best written? Feither a free snow cone and a free hotdog Geither a free hotdog, or a free snow cone Heither a free snow cone or a free hotdog Jas it is

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. QuestionCorrect AnswerVA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation 7A8.8ce – Choose the correct case and number for pronouns in prepositional phrases with compound objects. 8H8.8bj – Use and punctuate correctly varied sentence structures to include conjunctions and transition words. Notes to Teacher: During the editing stage of the writing process students will edit for correct grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling and sentence construction. Students should be provided with many opportunities to edit and correct punctuation in their writing and the writing of their classmates. The Standards of Learning writing assessments will ask students to edit a given passage for punctuation, correct case and number, verb tense, and comparative and superlative degrees. Students will be expected to understand the use of conjunctions and transitional words. Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. Read the next part of Camille’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below. (19)After a full day of fun activities, my friends and I meet our families for a picnic and a free concert. (20)Everyone tosses a football or played Frisbee while beautiful music is playing. (21)The most spectacular part of the Fourth of July Festival is the impressive fireworks display. (22)People stare in amazement while watching a rainbow of sparks fall from the sky. 9In sentence 20, how is played best written? Adid play Bplays Cwas playing Das it is 10In sentence 21, how is most spectacular, best written? Fmore spectacular Geven more spectacular Hspectacularest Jas it is

Grade 8Week 7 Daily SOL Writing Practice provided by Simply Achieve, Inc. QuestionCorrect AnswerVA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation 9B8.8df – Maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs. 10J8.8eg – Use comparative and superlative degrees in adverbs and adjectives. Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use Notes to Teacher: During the editing stage of the writing process students will edit for use of language, capitalization, punctuation and spelling. Students can earn 14 multiple choice points and 8 possible score from the direct-writing component by accurately editing. On the Grade 8 Standards of Learning writing assessments students will edit for the use of: Grade 6Grade 7Grade 8 subject-verb agreement with intervening, phrases and clauses pronoun-antecedent agreement to include indefinite pronouns maintain consistent tense inflections across paragraphs choose adverbs to describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs use correct spelling for frequently used words choose pronouns to agree with antecedents subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases and clauses edit for verb tense consistency use and punctuate correctly varied sentence structures to include conjunctions and transition words. choose the correct case and number for pronouns in prepositional phrases with compound objects. maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs use comparative and superlative degrees in adverbs and adjectives