South Dakota ELA 9-10.RI.6.b

ELAGrades 9–10Reading Informational Text

The Standard

Evaluate a text for bias and/or fallacies.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students look for loaded wording, missing viewpoints, and claims that go further than the evidence allows. They use lines from the text to explain how those choices could sway a reader.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can point to a slanted phrase and explain its effect. They can spot a broad claim based on one example and say what evidence would help test it.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call any opinion biased, even when the writer supports it and considers other views. They may also treat one vivid story as proof that something happens to everyone.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: “Anyone who cares about students opposes the earlier start time. Two students missed the bus, so the change hurts every student.” Ask students to circle slanted wording, identify the faulty leap, and name evidence needed to check the claim.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a printed letter about a school phone ban; have them highlight loaded words in yellow and unsupported claims in blue.
Read two short letters about school phone bans and ask, “Whose experience is missing, and how might that change your judgment?”
Make claim cards about school lunches; teams sort them into supported claim, sweeping generalization, or false choice, then defend one placement.
Show a grocery ad calling its cereal “the healthiest”; students list the evidence it gives and what it leaves out.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 9-10.RI.6.b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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