CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.4

ELA6th GradeCraft and Structure

The Standard

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

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 use context to work out what words and phrases mean, including implied and figurative meanings. They explain how an author’s exact word choice shapes meaning and tone.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students use nearby details to explain a word or phrase in context. They can compare two possible word choices and describe how each shapes the reader’s impression or the passage’s tone.
Common Misconceptions: Students may choose a familiar dictionary meaning even when it does not fit the passage. They may identify a word as figurative but fail to explain its effect on tone.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: In “The moon glared through the window,” what does “glared” suggest, and how would replacing it with “shone” change the tone?

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs word cards such as skinny, slender, and scrawny, then have them sort each by positive, neutral, or negative feeling.
Ask students to explain how replacing “crept” with “walked” changes a character’s action and the mood of a scene.
Play Tone Detective by showing short passages and awarding points for identifying the word that creates each passage’s tone.
Compare headlines about the same event, then discuss how words such as protested, gathered, or swarmed shape readers’ reactions.

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