South Dakota ELA 9-10.RI.5
The Standard
Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular text structures (e.g. sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text).
South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students track a claim as an author adds reasons, evidence, exceptions, or a counterargument. They explain how a sentence, paragraph, or section changes the claim, not just what it says.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can point to a paragraph that introduces an exception and show how a later paragraph narrows the original claim. They can explain why the author placed those paragraphs in that order.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may summarize each paragraph without explaining what it does to the claim. They may treat a narrower claim as a contradiction rather than a response to new information.
How to Assess It
- Put this on an exit ticket: “All teens need later school starts. Some teens work afternoons. Schools should offer later starts as an option.” Ask which sentence revises the first claim and how the middle sentence leads to that revision.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Cut up a four-paragraph article on school start times; have pairs reorder it and mark where evidence, a counterclaim, and a revised claim appear.
Ask students to write how changing “all students” to “some students” affects a claim after the author presents an exception.
Give pairs claim, evidence, counterclaim, and revised-claim cards; have them race to sequence the cards and explain one placement.
Bring a school board notice about a schedule change; students mark the problem, proposed fix, and any limit on the proposal.
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Related Standards
- 7.RI.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the specific sentences and paragraphs, as well as larger components (e.g. section, chapte...
- 9-10.RH.2.a
Analyze how ideas develop over the course of the text.
- 8.RI.5
Analyze the structural elements of a text, including the role of specific sentences, paragraphs, and text features in developing and refining a key concept.
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