CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.9

ELA7th GradeIntegration of Knowledge and Ideas

The Standard

Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.

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 compare accounts of the same topic and track what each author highlights, explains, or leaves out. They connect those choices to each author’s viewpoint and overall message.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can identify which facts, examples, or sources each author highlights. They can explain how those choices support different viewpoints or lead readers toward different conclusions.
Common Misconceptions: Students may summarize each text separately without comparing the authors’ choices. They may treat all differences as factual disagreements or assume that one account must be wrong. They often overlook omitted details, source choices, and the amount of attention given to particular evidence.
How to Assess It: Give students two short excerpts about the same event. Ask them to name one shared fact, one difference in evidence, and how that difference shapes each account.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs two printed articles and colored highlighters to mark shared facts, unique evidence, and each author’s explanation.
Ask: Which author makes the stronger case, and how did the chosen evidence and explanation shape your judgment?
Play Evidence Match: teams match evidence cards to each author, then justify which details receive the most attention.
Compare two news reports about the same local event, noting headline choices, quoted sources, and explanations of what happened.

Free download