Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.11-12.8
The Standard
Evaluate the argument, specific claims and evidence in a text, assessing the validity, reasoning, relevance and sufficiency; analyze false statements and fallacious reasoning.
Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify a writer’s claims, reasons, and evidence. They check whether the facts are accurate and whether the evidence fits and is enough to support each claim. They spot errors in reasoning, such as treating a link between events as proof of cause.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can mark claims and evidence in an editorial. They check a factual statement against a reliable source and explain whether the evidence supports the claim. They can name missing evidence and explain a reasoning error.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often treat a quoted statistic as proof without checking its source or what it measures. They may call an opinion false because they disagree with it. They may also treat one example as enough to support a broad claim.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: “Our school should ban phones because 8 of 10 students I asked said phones distract them, and scores rose at one school after its phone ban.” Name the claim, one weakness in the evidence, and one fact you would check before agreeing.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Hand pairs a printed editorial and two highlighters; mark claims in yellow, evidence in blue, then circle an unsupported leap.
Post a claim that later school start times raised grades; ask, “What else could explain the rise, and what data would help?”
Give teams claim and evidence cards; have them match strong pairs and reject a misleading card with a written reason.
Show a phone plan ad and its posted terms; have students check whether “unlimited data” matches the throttling policy.
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Related Standards
- RI.9-10.8
Evaluate the argument, specific claims and evidence in a text, assessing the validity, reasoning, relevancy and sufficiency of the evidence; identify false stat...
- RI.6.8
Identify and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from unsupported claims.
- RI.8.8
Identify and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recogniz...
- RI.7.8
Identify and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to suppor...
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