CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9
The Standard
Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read two or more texts connected by a topic or theme. They compare the ideas, evidence, viewpoints, and author choices. They combine information across the texts to reach a fuller understanding.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students explain where texts agree, differ, or add new information. They support comparisons with details from each text and explain how perspective, evidence, structure, or word choice shapes each approach.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse a broad topic, such as friendship, with a theme, such as loyal friends make sacrifices. They may summarize each text separately instead of comparing them. Some use evidence from only one text or focus on small details that do not show each author’s approach.
How to Assess It
- Give students two short passages about the same issue. Ask them to name one similarity, one difference, and one conclusion supported by evidence from both passages.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed excerpts and evidence strips to sort into agreement, difference, and new insight columns, then label each author’s approach.
Read two versions of one folktale, then write which version develops the lesson more clearly and cite one detail from each.
Play a card match game where teams connect claims and evidence to the correct text, then explain each match aloud.
Compare a local news report with an official announcement about the same event, marking shared facts, different emphasis, and omitted details.
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Printable CCRA.R.9 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.5
Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or m...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.9
Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.5
Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.9
Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
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