South Dakota ELA 9-10.RI.8.a

ELAGrades 9–10Reading Informational Text

The Standard

9-10.RI.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text.

Assess whether the reasoning is valid, and the evidence is relevant and sufficient.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students find an author's claim and the reasons and evidence used to support it. They check whether the reasons make sense, the evidence fits the claim, and there is enough of it.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain why a fact supports a claim or fails to support it. They can spot when an author uses one example to make a claim about everyone and say what more evidence is needed.
Common Misconceptions: Students may treat a true fact as proof, even when it does not relate to the claim. They may accept one personal story as enough evidence or mistake a confident tone for sound reasoning.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: "School should start at 10 a.m. because three students feel tired at 8 a.m." Have students mark the claim, judge whether the evidence is relevant and sufficient, and name one gap in the reasoning.

Lesson moves

Give pairs claim, reason, and evidence strips about later school start times; have them sort the strips into strong support, weak support, and unrelated.
Read a short editorial on phone bans, then ask: Which reason does not follow from the evidence, and what would make it stronger?
Play Evidence Match: teams pair four claims with fact cards, then flag claims supported by only one example.
Post a mock online review that says, "Buy this backpack. Mine lasted a year," and ask what else a buyer needs to know.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 9-10.RI.8.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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