Header
What's in Common Core for English 1A?
Reading Standards for Literature
Key Ideas and Details:
  1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says.
  2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text.
  3. Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text.
 Craft and Structure:
  1. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text.
  2. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text.
  3. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States.
 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
  1. Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums.
  2. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work.
 Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
  1. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Reading Standards for Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details:
  1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text.
  3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events.
 Craft and Structure:
  1. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text.
  2. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text.
  3. 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:
  1. Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums
  2. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text.
  3. Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance.
 Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
  1. By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently.
Writing Standards
Text Types and Purposes:
  1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
    1. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims.
    2. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly.
    3. Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify relationships.
    4. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone.
    5. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented./li>
  2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately.
    1. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions.
    2. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, etc.
    3. Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text.
    4. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary.
    5. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone.
    6. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.
  3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques.
    1. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation.
    2. Use narrative techniques to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
    3. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another.
    4. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language.
    5. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
  1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
  2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
  3. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products.
 Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
  1. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem.
  2. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources.
  3. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
    1. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work.
    2. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literary nonfiction.
 Range of Writing:
  1. Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening Standards
Comprehension and Collaboration:
  1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics.
    1. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study.
    2. Work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decision-making.
    3. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas.
    4. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views.
  2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats.
  3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
  1. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically.
  2. Make strategic use of digital media.
  3. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
 Language Standards
Conventions of Standard English:
  1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
    1. Use parallel structure.
    2. Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses.
  2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
    1. Use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses.
    2. Use a colon to introduce a list or quotation.
    3. Spell correctly.
Knowledge of Language:
  1. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts.
    1. Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual.
 Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:
  1. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content.
    1. Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
    2. Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech.
    3. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital.
    4. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase.
  2. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
    1. Interpret figures of speech in context and analyze their role in the text.
    2. Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.
    3. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level.
Note: This is a general list; for a complete list of Common Core Standards click on Reading, Writing, or Speaking, Listening, and Language.