26C. 6561.8, Raczynski, 360 Writing, Expository Techniques, Eighth Grade

The 2025-26 school year brings new standards in ELA! If you are familiar with 360Writing, you will see some changes, given these new standards, though, fundamentally, the scope and sequence remains the same. 

The new standards call for students, routinely, to interpret and construct texts. A text is really anything that provides information, and it can take many forms, also known as modes: stories, nonfiction articles, video clips, pictures, audio clips, maps, and many others. We help students interpret these texts for meaning, and then we help them construct their own. One way to do that is to write!

Speaking of which, a key change to the new standards is an emphasis on using different techniques to construct texts. For example, in this unit, we focus on constructing expository pieces, where our job is to inform or explain. To do so, we mainly use facts and definitions. However, we could also add some feeling on the topic we are informing the reader about, particularly in the conclusion of the expository piece. This feeling is more of an opinion technique, though it can also work well as a means of wrapping things up!

Some of the topics in this year’s frameworks are the same as those from past years, though there are some new topics as well. As always, you can use 360Writing flexibly, and we provide many suggestions throughout about how you might do so.