CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.5

ELAGrades 9–10Craft and Structure

The Standard

Analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text

What This Standard Means

Students need to track how an argument or explanation is built, not just name the main idea. They should notice which sentences introduce a claim, add evidence, qualify a point, shift direction, or sharpen meaning. They also need to explain how a paragraph or section changes the reader’s understanding of the author’s point.

Mastery looks like pointing to exact parts of the text and saying what job each part does. Students often get stuck summarizing content instead of analyzing structure. They may say, “This paragraph gives facts,” but not explain how those facts strengthen, narrow, or complicate the claim.

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs a printed editorial and colored pencils to mark claim, evidence, counterpoint, and refinement sentences in different colors.
Ask students to write: Which paragraph most changes the author’s argument, and how does it change it?
Use an exit ticket asking students to name one sentence that refines a claim and explain its job in ten words.
Show a product review or school policy memo and ask how one section makes the main claim more precise.