CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.9
The Standard
Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
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 a work of fiction alongside a factual account about the same people, setting, or period. They track what matches, what changes, and what is invented, then explain why those choices matter.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students cite details from both texts to show where the accounts match and differ. They explain how a writer’s changes shape character, conflict, setting, mood, or theme.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat every detail in fiction as false and every detail in a historical account as fully objective. They may list differences without explaining why the novelist changed or invented them.
How to Assess It
- Give students paired 200-word excerpts. Ask: “Identify one altered historical detail, cite evidence from both texts, and explain what the change adds to the story.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed excerpts to color-code shared facts, changed details, and invented details, then label each change’s effect.
Ask students to write: “Why might the novelist change this historical detail, and how does that choice affect the reader?”
Play Evidence Match by having teams pair detail cards from each text and classify them as matched, altered, omitted, or invented.
Compare a scene from a historical novel or film with a museum article, then discuss which changes make the story more dramatic.
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Printable RL.7.9 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.9, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Literature progression map.
Before This Standard
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What This Unlocks
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.9
Compare and contrast one author's presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6
Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their resp...
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