South Dakota ELA 11-12.RL.9
The Standard
Analyze a variety of foundational works of American, British or World literature, two or more texts from the same period. Evaluate how an author draws on, alludes to, or transforms source material to provide a deeper and more thorough interpretation of the text.
South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read two works from the same period and look for details a writer borrowed from an earlier work. They explain what changed and how that change affects the meaning.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can point to passages in both period works and a relevant source. They explain how a borrowed detail serves a new purpose, rather than just listing similarities.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call any shared theme an allusion without finding a clear link. They may spot a borrowed plot detail but miss how a change in tone gives it a different meaning.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: In Ovid’s story, the lovers whisper through a crack in a wall. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an actor plays the wall. What changed, and how does it change the scene’s tone?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs plot cards from Pyramus and Thisbe, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to sort by shared and changed details.
Ask: Why are the lovers’ deaths funny in A Midsummer Night’s Dream but devastating in Romeo and Juliet?
Play source-or-change with six short excerpts from the myth and both plays; students match borrowed details and explain their effects.
Show the trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet; ask which detail from Shakespeare’s play the film keeps and which it changes.
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Printable 11-12.RL.9 Worksheet
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