Daily SOL Writing Practice
                  Daily SOL Writing Practice
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
   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          G        8.7bc – Organize details to elaborate the central idea.
   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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                     Daily SOL Writing Practice
                     Daily SOL Writing Practice
                         Grade 8                             Week 5
                         Grade 8                             Week 5
      Read the first part of Abby’s rough draft.  Use it to answer the questions below.
      (1)We have all heard the old saying, “Dress for Success.” (2)What does it really mean? 
       (3)My dad always tells me to dress for where I’m going in life, not for where I am.  (4)I 
      think that is a pretty good way to explain dressing for success.  
      (5)Unfortunately, our first impressions of people are very powerful. (6)I prefer to wear 
      casual clothes most of the time. (7)Clothing and the way we dress make an impression 
      on those around us.  (8)If we want to be respected or viewed as professional, then we 
      must dress in a way that is considered professional.
      3   How can sentences 1 and 2 best be       4  Which sentence should be removed 
          combined?                                  from this portion of the essay?
          A We have all heard the old saying,        F     sentence 3
          “Dress for success,” but what  does it 
          really mean?                               G     sentence 4
          B What does “Dress for success”            H     sentence 5
          really  mean; we’ve all heard it? 
                                                     J     sentence 6
          C Since we’ve all heard the old 
          saying,  “Dress for success,” what 
          does this saying really mean?
          D The old saying, “Dress for success” 
             has been heard by all of us many 
          times, but what does it really mean  to 
          us?
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                  Daily SOL Writing Practice
                  Daily SOL Writing Practice
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
   Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use
    Question Correct Answer     VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation
       3           A        8.7dd – Revise writing for word choice, sentence variety, 
                            and transitions among paragraphs. 
       4           J        8.cc – 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. 
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                         Daily SOL Writing Practice
                          Daily SOL Writing Practice
                              Grade 8                                     Week 5
                              Grade 8                                     Week 5
        Read the next part of Abby's rough draft.  Use it to answer the questions below.
        (9)I also believe that dressing for success means dressing appropriately for each 
        occasion.  (10)When going to an interview for a job a the bank, one does not dress in 
        jeans and a sweatshirt. (11)Instead, when dressing for an interview, one should dress 
        the way they would dress for work.  (12)At a bank, tellers wear suits and dresses.  
        (13)At a construction site, workers wear jeans and work boots.  (14)At a hip-hop 
        clothing store. (15)Sales clerks dress in the type of clothing that they sell.  
        (16)Dressing appropriately at the workplace leads to success and comfort at work.
       5   In sentence 11, how is they best                 6   Which of the following is not a 
           written?                                             complete sentence?
           A those                                              F sentence 13
        
           B he or she                                          G sentence 14
           C them                                               H sentence 15
         
           D as it is                                           J   sentence 16
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                  Daily SOL Writing Practice
                  Daily SOL Writing Practice
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
                      Grade 8                        Week 5
    Answer Sheet – For Teacher Use
     Question Correct Answer     VA SOL Essential Understanding Correlation
        5           B        8.8ac – Use a variety of graphic organizers, including 
                             sentence diagrams, to analyze and improve sentence 
                             formation and paragraph structure.
        6           G        8.8aa – 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.
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