CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5
The Standard
Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6—12
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students break a complex primary source into meaningful parts. They explain how selected sentences, paragraphs, and sections work together to develop the author’s purpose or argument.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify sections that introduce claims, provide evidence, address objections, or call readers to act. They explain how specific sentences and paragraphs build the source’s overall purpose and argument.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may summarize each paragraph without explaining its role. They may treat every section as equally important or confuse text structure with chronology alone.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short primary source with one paragraph highlighted. Ask: “What job does this paragraph do, and how would removing it change the whole text?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut a short speech into sections, then have pairs arrange the pieces and label the job each section performs.
Ask students to write: “Which paragraph is the turning point in this source, and what changes after it?”
Play Structure Match by pairing quoted passages with role cards such as context, claim, evidence, counterclaim, and conclusion.
Compare the structure of a historical petition with a current public petition, noting how each builds support and ends with a request.
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Printable RH.11-12.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: History/Social Studies progression map.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5
Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relat...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
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