South Dakota ELA 6.RL.4.a

ELA6th GradeReading Literature

The Standard

6.RL.4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used as intended by the author of a text.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases, including figurative and connotative language.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students use clues in a story or poem to work out what words and phrases mean. They explain when a phrase is not literal and what a word suggests beyond its basic meaning.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain that “the hallway was a zoo” means it was noisy and chaotic, not full of animals. They can explain how “slunk” makes a character seem secretive rather than simply saying the character walked.
Common Misconceptions: Students may read a comparison literally or guess a word’s meaning without checking the surrounding lines. They may treat words like “confident” and “arrogant” as interchangeable, missing the different impressions they give.
How to Assess It: Give students this line: “The hallway was a zoo, and Mara slunk past the lockers.” Ask what “zoo” means here and what “slunk” suggests about Mara.

Lesson moves

Give pairs cards labeled “strolled,” “walked,” and “stomped”; have them place the cards on a calm-to-angry line and explain their choices.
Read “The moon was a silver coin”; ask students what the comparison adds beyond “the moon was bright.”
Play a matching game with phrase cards such as “a storm of questions” and “a flood of tears” and cards showing their meanings.
Put “A bold hero returns” and “A reckless hero returns” on mock movie posters; ask which film sounds riskier and why.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 6.RL.4.a, 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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