CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9
The Standard
Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read two works from one genre and identify a topic or theme they share. They explain how each author develops that idea through characters, conflicts, settings, events, or endings.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify a meaningful similarity and difference between two works. They support the comparison with accurate details about characters, conflicts, events, or resolutions from both texts.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name surface details, such as different settings, without comparing how the stories treat a shared idea. They may also confuse a topic, like courage, with a theme, like courage grows through difficult choices.
How to Assess It
- Give students two familiar mystery excerpts and ask: “What idea do both texts explore, and how does each author develop it differently? Cite one detail from each.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place event and character cards from two adventure stories into a Venn diagram, then label how each story treats the shared idea.
Discuss or write: “Both stories address loyalty, but what does each story suggest about being loyal?”
Play Comparison Relay, where teams match evidence cards to each story and explain whether each detail shows a similarity or difference.
Compare two same-genre book blurbs from a library catalog, then predict how each book might approach the same topic differently.
Free download
Printable RL.5.9 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9, 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: Literature 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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