CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5
The Standard
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
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 identify how an informational text is organized and trace how its sections build an explanation or argument. They judge whether that organization makes the ideas clear, convincing, and engaging.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can explain why an author placed a claim, example, counterargument, or explanation in a particular spot. They can judge its effect and suggest a better arrangement when needed.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name a pattern, such as cause and effect, without explaining how it shapes the text. They may confuse agreeing with the author with judging whether the organization is clear, convincing, or engaging.
How to Assess It
- Give students a three-paragraph editorial. Ask them to identify one structural choice and explain whether it strengthens or weakens the argument, using one specific detail.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Print a six-paragraph editorial, cut apart the paragraphs, and have pairs reorder them, then defend how their sequence improves clarity and force.
Ask students to write: Which structural choice most helps or hurts the author's case, and what evidence proves your judgment?
Run a structure match game where teams pair paragraph cards with roles such as claim, evidence, counterclaim, rebuttal, and conclusion.
Compare two online product reviews of the same item and decide which organization makes the recommendation clearer and more convincing.
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Printable RI.11-12.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.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: Informational Text progression map.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis
- 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.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a...
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