CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.5
The Standard
Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
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 the job of a selected part of an informational text, such as introducing a claim, giving evidence, or explaining a cause. They explain how it connects to nearby parts and moves the author’s explanation forward.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can name the role of a marked passage and support the answer with details from before and after it. The student can explain what would become unclear, unsupported, or incomplete if the passage were removed.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often summarize a passage instead of explaining its job. They may label a section as an introduction or conclusion without showing how it supports, connects, or develops ideas.
How to Assess It
- Give students a four-paragraph article with paragraph 3 boxed. Ask, “What job does paragraph 3 do, and how does it help develop the article’s main idea?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut a short article into paragraphs; pairs arrange the strips, label each paragraph’s job, and explain why the order works.
Ask students to write, “If paragraph 4 disappeared, what idea would become weaker or confusing, and why?”
Play Structure Detective: teams draw a paragraph number, identify its job, and earn a point by citing a connecting phrase.
Compare sections of a school handbook page, then discuss how headings, examples, and rules help readers act correctly.
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Printable RI.6.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.5, 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.
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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.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.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting,...
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