CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.10
The Standard
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9—10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9—10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
What This Standard Means
Students need to read challenging nonfiction, such as essays, speeches, memoir excerpts, articles, and historical documents, and make sense of both the main ideas and the writer’s choices. They should track claims, evidence, structure, tone, and word meaning without losing the overall point.
Mastery looks like a student reading a complex text independently, annotating with purpose, summarizing accurately, and explaining how the author builds meaning. Students often get stuck on dense sentences, older vocabulary, unfamiliar references, and texts where the main idea is implied rather than stated.
Ways to Teach It
- Give students a short speech excerpt, colored pens, and ask them to mark claims, evidence, confusing sentences, and tone shifts.
- Ask students to write: Which sentence carries the author’s main point, and what clues helped you decide?
- Use a one-page exit ticket with three tasks: summarize the text, define one hard phrase, and name the author’s purpose.
- Connect the skill to reading an opinion column, job policy, or college website page where readers must sort facts, claims, and purpose.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.10
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What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6—8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end ...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end ...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9—10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffold...