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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

A How-To Essay

Jenna’s teacher has asked the class to write a composition explaining how to do something. Jenna decides to write about how to make seeds grow in a garden.

1 All of these could help Jennabefore she begins writing heressay except–

A reading books about gardening

B making a web of theinformation she wants to

use

C narrowing her topic

D starting her rough draft

2 Which of these best describes the reason for writing this essay?

F to explain

G to tell a story

H to entertain

J to persuade

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use

Question Correct Answer VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation

1 D 8.7ab – Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas.

2 F 8.7aa – Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas.

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.

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

After narrowing her topic to growing tomato seeds, Jenna created this cluster diagram. Use it to answer questions 3 and 4.

3 Which detail does not belong on Jenna’s diagram?

A Prepare the soil.

B Cucumbers need lots of sun too.

C Plant and water seed in a sunny spot.

D Prune plants and harvest ripe red tomatoes.

4 The audience for this essay would most likely be –

F elementary school children

G homeowners

H vegetable growers

J grocery store managers

Cucumbers need lots of sun too.

Prepare the soil.

Cage or stake plants to prevent them from falling.

Prune plants and harvest ripe red tomatoes.

Plant and water the seeds In a sunny spot.

Growing tomato seeds

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use

Question Correct Answer VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation

3 B 8.7bb – Organize details to elaborate the central idea.

4 H 8.7ac – Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas.

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 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.

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Read the first part of Jenna’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below.

(1)I love growing tomatoes. (2)Working in the dirt and watching a plant grow from a seed to a beautiful fruit-producing vine gives me a feeling of accomplishment. (3)A few simple steps must be followed in order to have success growing your own tomatoes. (4)Tomatoes are different than cucumbers and melons. (5)If you want beautiful tomatoes, you need rich soil and a lot of sun. (6)You also need a little patience.

5 Which sentence does not belong in this portion of Jenna’s essay?

A sentence 1

B sentence 2

C sentence 3

D sentence 4

6 How are sentences 5 and 6 best combined without changing their meaning?

F If you want beautiful tomatoes, you

need rich soil, a lot sun, and a little patience.

G If you want beautiful tomatoes, you

need rich soil and sun and a lot of patience.

H If you want beautiful tomatoes, you

need rich sun and soil and a little patience.

J If you want beautiful tomatoes, you need rich soil, a lot of sun,

and little patience.

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Question Correct Answer VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation

5 D 8.7cd – Select specific vocabulary and information.

6 F 8.7dd – Revise writing for word choice, sentence variety, and transitions among paragraphs.

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.

Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Read the next part of Jenna’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below.

(7)Before planting tomato seeds make sure you have nutrient rich soil. (8)You can purchase good potting soil at a garden center. (9)Next, find a nice sunny spot to plant the seeds. (10)Tomatoes will not grow well if it does not get sun for most of the day. (11)After you have your soil and you find a sunny spot, you are ready to plant your seeds.

7 How is sentence 7 best written?

A Before planting, tomato seeds make sure you have nutrient rich soil.

B Before planting tomato, seeds, make sure you have nutrient rich soil.

C Before planting tomato seeds, make sure you have nutrient rich soil.

D as it is

8 In sentence 10, how is it does not correctly written?

F they do not

G they do

H it doesn’t

J as it is

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Question Correct Answer VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation

7 C 8.8ba – Use and punctuate correctly varied sentence structures to include conjunctions and transition words.

8 F 8.8ad – Use a variety of graphic organizers, including sentence diagrams, to analyze and improve sentence formation and paragraph structure.

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

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Read the next part of Jenna’s rough draft. Use it to answer the questions below.

(12)Plant your seeds approximately twenty-four inches apart. (13)This will prevent over crowding of your plants. (14)As they grow, you will either need to cage, stake, or support your tomato plants. (15)This prevents the plants from lying on the ground and rotting. (16)Make sure to prune stalks from your plants that are not producing fruit. (17)This will allow the fruit that is on the plant to grow even more bigger.

(18)After you harvest your beautiful ripe tomatoes the only thing left to do is eat one. (19)Slice it, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and enjoy the delicious flavor.

9 In sentence 14, how is cage, stake, or support best written?

A cage or stake or support

B cage, stake or support

C cage, or stake or support

D as it is

10 In sentence 17, how is more bigger correctly written?

F most bigger

G biggest

H bigger

J as it is

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Grade 8Grade 8 Week 4Week 4Daily SOL Writing PracticeDaily SOL Writing Practice

Question Correct Answer VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation

9 B 8.8bj – Use and punctuate correctly varied sentence structures to include conjunctions and transition words.

10 H 8.8eh– 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 6 Grade 7 Grade 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