CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9
The Standard
Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
What This Standard Means
Students need to read major U.S. documents as arguments, not just history. They should identify the document’s purpose, explain its main themes, and notice rhetorical moves such as repetition, parallel structure, appeals to shared values, charged word choice, and logical claims.
Mastery looks like comparing how two documents handle power, rights, freedom, justice, or national unity, using short quoted evidence. Students often get stuck on older syntax, long sentences, assumed background knowledge, and treating famous lines as slogans instead of choices made for an audience.
Ways to Teach It
- Hands-on: Give pairs a printed excerpt from the Declaration and have them color-code claims, grievances, appeals, and repeated words.
- Prompt: How does Lincoln use shared guilt in the Second Inaugural to change the purpose of a victory speech?
- Quick assessment: Ask students to annotate one paragraph and write a two-sentence claim about purpose and one rhetorical feature.
- Real-world connection: Compare the Preamble’s goals to a school mission statement, then discuss how both use broad ideals to guide action.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9
Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from th...
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- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.9b
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