Florida B.E.S.T. ELA.12.R.2.2
The Standard
Evaluate how an author develops the central idea(s), identifying how the author could make the support more effective.
Florida B.E.S.T. Standards for English Language Arts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the main idea and track how the author builds it through claims, examples, facts, and explanations. They judge the quality of that support and suggest specific ways to improve it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can trace a main idea across claims, examples, facts, and explanations. They can identify weak, irrelevant, or missing support and propose a specific improvement, such as data, context, or expert evidence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may summarize the article instead of judging how well its support works. They may treat personal agreement, repeated claims, or extra details as proof that an idea is well supported.
How to Assess It
- Give students a one-page editorial. Ask them to state its main idea, identify its weakest support, and write one specific revision that would strengthen it.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut an article into claim and evidence strips, then have groups sort, rank, and replace the weakest supporting detail.
Ask students to write: Which piece of support is least convincing, and what exact evidence would make it stronger?
Run an evidence auction where teams spend points on details they believe best support a stated central idea, then defend each purchase.
Compare two online product reviews and identify which uses stronger evidence, then write one improvement for the weaker review.
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Related Standards
- ELA.6.R.2.2
Analyze the central idea(s), implied or explicit, and its development throughout a text.
- ELA.3.R.2.2
Identify the central idea and explain how relevant details support that idea in a text.
- ELA.9.R.2.2
Evaluate the support an author uses to develop the central idea(s) throughout a text.
- ELA.12.R.2.1
Evaluate the structure(s) and features in texts, identifying how the author could make the text(s) more effective.
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