CCSS New Writing Skills for Grade 8

Continuing my thinking about the CCSS Writing Standards and descriptors for my 8th grade writing program...

I read the section about the writing standards in Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Lehman's Pathways to the Common Core to get a better idea of what the standards say and their implications for implementation. One thing they suggested doing was looking horizontally across the descriptors to find out what new skills are required at each grade level. Since much of the wording is the same from grade to grade, it took a close look to find the new skills embedded in each descriptor. Once I did that, I found out the following new skills in the 8th grade writing descriptors (see bolded italics):

Argument Writing:

• Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

Informative/explanatory Writing:

• organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories
• develop the topic with relavant, well-chosen facts (etc.)
• use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion

Narrative Writing:

• Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection to develop experiences (etc.)
• Use a variety of transition words...to convey sequence...and show the relationships among experiences and events.

Use of technology:

• Use technology... to publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently

Most of these new skills make sense to me. For example, I already teach lessons about varied transitions, using "well-chosen" facts, and using transitions that signal the reader that the counterclaim is coming up. I understand how and why to teach reflection as part of narrative writing.

However, there are a few that are a bit unclear. What does "acknowledge and distinguish the claim from alternate or opposing claims" mean? Does that mean the claim and counterclaim are discussed in the introduction? Perhaps it means the kind of thesis that is worded: Some may think that ___ is ____; however, it really is _____ because of ____, ____, and ____.

Also, the technology skill is rather opaque. How can students publish writing using technology so that they "present the relationship between information and ideas efficiently"? What is the relationship between information and ideas? Isn't that what the topic sentences of the essay do? If so, why is this part of publishing with the technology standard?

Unfortunately, the CCSS exemplars are not very helpful. I am counting on Teacher's College to gather exemplars to help demonstrate some of these new skills. They already have performance assessments and anchor papers on a skills continuum for narrative, information, and opinion/argument writing, which are (going to be?) available for purchase through Heinemann. I hope these materials can help me and my colleagues see what the subtle differences are between grade 6, 7, and 8 writing pieces.