CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5
The Standard
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis
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 notice how a history or social studies text is built, not just what it says. They should track choices like cause and effect, compare and contrast, chronology, problem and solution, headings, topic sentences, and shifts in focus. Then they explain how that structure helps the author stress an idea or build an argument.
Mastery looks like students naming the structure, pointing to specific parts of the text, and explaining the effect on the reader. Students often get stuck by summarizing content only, naming a structure too broadly, or missing how paragraph order supports the author’s point.
Ways to Teach It
- Give students a short textbook section, cut into paragraphs, and have them reorder it, then defend the author’s original sequence.
- Ask students to write: Which paragraph does the most work in proving the author’s point, and how do you know?
- Use an exit ticket: name the text structure, cite one clue, and explain why that structure fits the author’s purpose.
- Compare a news explainer and a textbook passage on the same event, then note how each structure shapes what feels most important.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5
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What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
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.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.