CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4

ELAGrades 9–10Craft and Structure

The Standard

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies.

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 figure out what history and social studies terms mean by using the sentence, paragraph, and topic around them. They should handle words tied to government, class, culture, money, labor, trade, power, and conflict, not just memorize definitions.

Mastery looks like a student explaining the meaning of a term in their own words and pointing to context clues that support it. Students often get stuck when a word has a common meaning and a history meaning, like party, depression, radical, or capital.

Ways to Teach It

  • Give students a short primary source and have them highlight one political, social, and economic term, then annotate context clues beside each one.
  • Ask students to explain how the word revolution changes meaning in a science textbook, a history article, and a political speech.
  • Use an exit ticket with three underlined terms from today’s reading, asking for meaning, clue used, and confidence rating.
  • Bring in a news headline about inflation, migration, or voting rights and have students define key terms using surrounding words.

Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4

Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.

Chat About This StandardGenerate a Lesson Plan

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.

Send Feedback