South Dakota ELA 6.RI.3

ELA6th GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Analyze how key individuals, events, or ideas are introduced, illustrated, and elaborated on in a text.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students track how a writer builds a person, event, or idea across an article. They find where it first appears, which examples show it clearly, and what later details add.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can point to a first mention, a later example, and a detail that adds new information. They explain what each part helps the reader understand, using words from the text.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think an idea needs a picture to be illustrated, when a written example can do that work. They may count every repeated mention as a new detail, even when it adds nothing.
How to Assess It: Give students a short article about a school garden. Ask them to mark its first mention, an example of its use, and a later detail, then write what that detail adds.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a printed article about a school garden and three highlighters to mark its first mention, an example, and added details.
After reading the article, ask pairs, 'Which later detail tells you more than the first mention did?'
Cut sentences from the article into strips and have teams sort them as first mention, example, or added detail.
Read a local news story about a new playground and trace how the writer introduces it, shows its use, and adds details.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 6.RI.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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