CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.10
The Standard
By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11—CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11—CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read challenging essays, speeches, memoirs, and other literary nonfiction and make accurate meaning from them. They track central ideas, claims, structure, tone, and key evidence, using support only when needed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain a difficult passage accurately, connect details across the text, and support an interpretation with precise evidence. By grade 12, the student can do this with unfamiliar, advanced texts and little or no teacher help.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse basic recall with full comprehension. They may skip dense sentences, overlook shifts in tone or argument, or make claims without checking evidence. Some expect teacher explanations before attempting difficult passages.
How to Assess It
- Give students an unfamiliar 500-word literary nonfiction excerpt. Ask them to state the central idea, explain how one paragraph develops it, and cite two supporting details.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed dense paragraph to cut into sentence strips, reorder, and annotate for connections among ideas.
After reading an essay, ask students to write: Where does the author complicate the main idea, and what language signals that shift?
Run an evidence match game where teams pair interpretation cards with quotations, then defend or reject each match.
Compare a long-form news analysis with its social media summary, then list meanings and qualifications the summary loses.
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Printable RI.11-12.10 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.10, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Informational Text progression map.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6—8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end ...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end ...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.10
By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11—CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaff...
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