5.9.E.ii
The Standard
explaining how the author has used facts for or against an argument
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify an author’s claim and locate facts connected to it. They explain whether each fact supports or challenges the claim and how it affects the argument.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an argumentative passage, students can state the author’s claim and cite relevant facts. They can explain how each fact strengthens or weakens the argument.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may label opinions or examples as facts. They may assume every fact supports the author’s claim, or summarize a fact without explaining its connection to the claim.
How to Assess It
- Give students a four-sentence argument with one supporting fact and one challenging fact. Ask them to label each fact and explain its effect on the claim.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups claim and fact cards, then have them sort each fact under supports, challenges, or unrelated.
Read a school uniform argument and ask, “Which fact most strengthens the claim, and why?”
Play Evidence Match by having pairs race to connect fact cards to the claims they support or challenge.
Compare two student lunch proposals and identify which facts would help the principal decide between them.
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