CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.5
The Standard
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6—12
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students plan and revise history, science, or technical writing for a clear purpose and audience. They strengthen important ideas, organization, evidence, and wording. They edit errors or try a new approach when smaller changes are not enough.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students produce a clear draft that fits its purpose and audience. They use feedback to improve focus, evidence, organization, and wording. They can explain why their revisions make the piece more effective.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat revision as fixing spelling and punctuation only. They may keep every detail, even when it distracts from the main purpose. Some change wording without considering the intended reader.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short, unfocused lab conclusion or historical explanation. Ask them to revise it for a named audience, then list two changes and explain each choice.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut a printed explanation into sentence strips, then have pairs reorder, remove, and add sentences for a stated audience.
Ask students to explain which detail matters most to a city council, a scientist, or a ninth-grade reader, and why.
Run a revision relay where teams improve one draft in rounds for focus, evidence, organization, and conventions.
Have students turn a lab report or historical analysis into a one-page briefing for families or local officials.
Learning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Writing: History, Science & Technical Subjects progression map.
What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
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Related Standards
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