CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9

ELAGrades 9–10Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

The Standard

Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

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 compare a literary work with an earlier source it uses. They identify what the later author keeps, changes, or leaves out, then explain how those choices shape meaning.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can trace a specific theme, character, image, or plot event across both works. They support a clear claim about how and why the later author reshaped it.
Common Misconceptions: Students may treat shared characters or plot events as proof that two works are identical. They may list changes without explaining how those changes affect theme, tone, character, or meaning.
How to Assess It: Give students paired source and adaptation excerpts. Ask them to name one retained element, one change, and explain the change’s effect using evidence from both texts.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Sort event cards from “Pyramus and Thisbe” and Romeo and Juliet into kept, changed, and omitted groups, then label each change’s effect.
Write one paragraph answering: Why might an author change a familiar character, conflict, or ending for a new audience?
Teams match source passages with transformed passages, earning a point only when they explain one meaningful change.
Compare a familiar fairy tale with a film adaptation trailer, then identify how the new setting or audience changes its message.

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