High School English/Language Arts Standards
Reading Standards for Informational Text 9-12
The anchor standards and high school grade-specific standards work in tandem to define expectations---the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity.
Grades 9-10 students:
Key Ideas and Details
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; restate and summarize main ideas or events, in correct sequence when necessary, after reading a text.
Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
Craft and Structure
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in various genres, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).
Analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different media (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text (e.g., bias and propaganda techniques, emotional effect of specific word choices and sentence structures, well-supported logical arguments), assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
Analyze seminal U.S. and world documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington's Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech, King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"), including how they address related themes and concepts.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction, within a complexity band appropriate to grade 9 (from upper grade 8 to grade 10), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction, within a complexity band appropriate to grade 10 (from upper grade 9 to grade 11), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Grades 11-12 students:
Key Ideas and Details
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; restate and summarize main ideas or events, in correct sequence when necessary, after reading a text.
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
Craft and Structure
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in various genres, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text.
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
Discern an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or aesthetic impact of the text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses).
Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. and world documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction, within a complexity band appropriate to grade 11 (from upper grade 10 to grade 12), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11--12 text complexity band independently and proficiently.