South Dakota ELA 9-10.W.1.d

ELAGrades 9–10Writing

The Standard

9-10.W.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Establish and maintain a formal style and clear voice while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students write arguments in a formal tone without slang or inflated wording. They make their own point clear and use the words and evidence practices that fit the subject.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can keep a steady, clear voice from claim to conclusion. In a literary analysis, they introduce a quotation and explain how it supports their claim.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think formal writing means using long words or hiding their own point of view. They may slip into slang or add a quotation without explaining it.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Rewrite “The author makes the villain super creepy with weird words” as a sentence for a literary analysis. Keep the point and name word choice as the technique.

Lesson moves

Give pairs three sentence strips from a literary argument, including one with slang; have them revise that strip and arrange the paragraph.
Ask students to compare “This poem is super sad” with “The repeated images of loss create a mournful tone” and explain which fits literary analysis.
Run a tone sort: students place eight sentence cards under formal or informal, then rewrite two informal cards as literary claims.
Give students a school board letter draft that says “this rule is dumb”; have them rewrite the sentence for a public comment.

Free download