CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3
The Standard
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
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 two or more people, events, ideas, or concepts in an informational text. They explain how those parts connect or affect one another using specific text details.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students accurately name a relationship, such as cause and effect, sequence, comparison, or influence. They explain that relationship using specific details from the text.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may summarize each person, event, or idea separately without explaining the connection. They may confuse sequence with cause, make vague claims, or use background knowledge instead of text evidence.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short informational passage and ask: “How are the two main events connected? Support your answer with two details from the text.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed event cards from an article, then have them arrange, connect, and label each relationship with yarn.
Ask, “How did one person, event, or idea affect another?” Students answer in three sentences using two text details.
Play a relationship sort using passage cards labeled cause and effect, sequence, comparison, and problem and solution.
Read a school recycling report, then explain how student actions affect waste totals using evidence from the report.
Free download
Printable RI.5.3 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Informational Text progression map.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.3
Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3
Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas o...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that p...
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.