8th grade text evidence worksheets

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Eighth grade text evidence asks for the sentence that most strongly supports a claim, in the standard's own words. More than one option may relate to the claim, but only one proves it directly. Some questions run the skill backward: here is a line, what does it show?

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RI.8.1.

Each click picks one of the 15 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

The Trip No Butterfly Finishes

Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies leave Canada and the northern United States and fly south, some of them more than four thousand kilometers, to a handful of mountain forests in central Mexico. None of them has ever made the trip before. None of their…

  1. Which sentence most strongly supports the claim that migrating monarchs cannot have learned the route from their own experience? None of them has ever made the trip before. · Yet they arrive at the same few mountainsides, sometimes in the same stands of fir trees, year after year. · A summer monarch lives only about two to six weeks. · It is the super generation that makes the trip south.

    Answer: None of them has ever made the trip before.

  2. Which sentence most strongly supports the claim that the clock in a monarch's antennae is necessary for finding the way? Those butterflies lost their way and flew in the wrong directions, while monarchs with clear-painted antennae flew correctly. · Monarchs use the sun as a compass. · In one experiment, researchers coated the antennae of some monarchs with black paint so that the clock could not sense light. · Other studies suggest monarchs can also sense Earth's magnetic field, which may help on cloudy days.

Each print picks one of the 15 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 15 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.

What's on an 8th grade sheet

8th grade sheets draw from 15 passages, 386 to 459 words long. 6th to 8th grade print from the same 15 passages. What changes is the standard (RI.8.1 here) and the teaching notes below.

Some of the titles: The Other Side, Eighteen Months at a Gallop, Second Chair, Einstein in Your Pocket, Measuring the World With a Shadow, The Long Nights of Autumn.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Rank the options. Have your student order all four sentences from strongest to weakest support and say what each one actually proves. The top one should work on its own. That ranking is the grade-8 standard in practice.

Watch for: Kids pick the sentence that mentions the same TOPIC as the claim. Evidence must support the claim, not merely be nearby. The wrong options are true lines from the same passage for exactly this reason. The best evidence is often not the most exciting sentence. A quiet line that shows the fact directly beats a dramatic line that only hints.

Common questions about 8th grade text evidence

What does 'most strongly supports' mean?
It is the grade-8 standard's phrase. More than one line can relate to a claim, and the strongest one proves it with the least guessing. The sheet asks your child to choose that line over any line that merely fits.
How does this connect to writing essays?
Essays are built on quotes. A student who can tell strong evidence from a line that only mentions the topic writes body paragraphs that prove their point, and that is what eighth grade and high school English teachers grade.

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Aligned to Common Core RI.8.1. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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