Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.9-10.8
The Standard
Evaluate the argument, specific claims and evidence in a text, assessing the validity, reasoning, relevancy and sufficiency of the evidence; identify 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 find a writer’s main point, smaller claims, and the details offered as proof. They check facts, decide whether the details fit and provide enough support, and spot faulty logic.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can mark a claim and its support in an editorial, then explain which details back it up. They can check a fact against another source and explain why one example cannot prove a claim about everyone.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat a confident tone or a statistic as proof without checking its source. They may mistake one example for a pattern or assume one event caused another because it happened first.
How to Assess It
- Give students this post: “Three students got higher grades after buying planners, so planners raise grades for everyone.” Ask them to underline the conclusion, explain the weak link, and name one comparison that would help test it.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed editorial on school start times. Have them highlight claims in blue and supporting details in yellow.
Ask: “Does one student’s better grade after a later start prove later starts improve grades?” Students write two sentences explaining their answer.
Play Evidence Sort: groups match claim cards to evidence cards, then set aside a card that attacks the speaker instead.
Show an ad saying “9 out of 10 prefer it.” Students write two questions about who was surveyed.
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Printable RI.9-10.8 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 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.11-12.8
Evaluate the argument, specific claims and evidence in a text, assessing the validity, reasoning, relevance and sufficiency; analyze false statements and fallac...
- 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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