- Kindergarten – Grade 5
- Grades 6–12 ELA
- Grades 6–12 Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects
Reading: Literature
Introduction
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Kindergarten
Key Ideas and Details
- K.RL.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
- K.RL.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
- K.RL.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Craft and Structure
- K.RL.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
- K.RL.5 Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).
- K.RL.6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- K.RL.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
- K.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- K.RL.9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- K.RL.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Grade 1
Key Ideas and Details
- 1.RL.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
- 1.RL.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
Craft and Structure
- 1.RL.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
- 1.RL.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.
- 1.RL.6 Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- 1.RL.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
- 1.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- 1.RL.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- 1.RL.10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.
Grade 2
Key Ideas and Details
- 2.RL.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
- 2.RL.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
- 2.RL.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
Craft and Structure
- 2.RL.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
- 2.RL.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
- 2.RL.6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- 2.RL.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
- 2.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- 2.RL.9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- 2.RL.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Grade 3
Key Ideas and Details
- 3.RL.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
- 3.RL.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
- 3.RL.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Craft and Structure
- 3.RL.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
- 3.RL.5 Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.
- 3.RL.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- 3.RL.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).
- 3.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- 3.RL.9 Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).
Range of Reading and Complexity of Text
- 3.RL.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Grade 4
Key Ideas and Details
- 4.RL.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
- 4.RL.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
- 4.RL.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
Craft and Structure
- 4.RL.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).
- 4.RL.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
- 4.RL.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- 4.RL.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
- 4.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- 4.RL.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
Range of Reading and Complexity of Text
- 4.RL.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4–5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Grade 5
Key Ideas and Details
- 5.RL.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
- 5.RL.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
- 5.RL.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
Craft and Structure
- 5.RL.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
- 5.RL.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
- 5.RL.6 Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- 5.RL.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
- 5.RL.8 (Not applicable to literature)
- 5.RL.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Range of Reading and Complexity of Text
- 5.RL.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
