CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.3

ELAGrades 9–10Key Ideas and Details

The Standard

Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6—12

What This Standard Means

Students need to track events in a history or social studies text and explain how they connect. They should separate sequence from causation. “It happened first” is not enough. They need to point to wording, evidence, and context that shows one event led to another.

Mastery looks like a student building an accurate event chain and labeling each link as cause, effect, or just before and after. Students often get stuck by assuming every earlier event caused the next one. They also miss signal words, skip background details, or rely on outside knowledge instead of the text.

Ways to Teach It

  • Give pairs a short primary source and event cards, then have them arrange the cards and mark each link cause, effect, or sequence only.
  • Ask students to write: Which earlier event most directly shaped the later outcome, and what sentence proves that connection?
  • Use a three-question exit ticket: What happened first, what happened later, and did the first event cause the second?
  • Have students analyze a news timeline and decide which events caused later actions and which were only reported in order.

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What This Unlocks

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

Related Standards

Standard text verified against corestandards.org on July 10, 2026.

Page updated July 10, 2026.

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