ELA I Can statements 9-10

The "I Can" statements here are not required for each benchmark. Rather, teachers should select those statements that will facilitate scaffolding and differentiation within their lessons.

Reading Literature

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

• I can define textual evidence ("word for word" support). (K)
• I can define inference and explain how a reader uses textual evidence to reach a logical conclusion ("based on what I've read, it's most likely true that…"). (R)
• I can read closely and find answers explicitly in the text ("right there" answers) and answers that require an inference. (S)
• I can analyze an author's words and determine multiple pieces of textual evidence that strongly and thoroughly support both explicit and inferential questions. (R)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

• I can define theme. (K)
• I can analyze plot to determine a theme. (R)
• I can determine how specific details in the text reveal and continually refine a theme. (R)
• I can define a summary. (K)
• I can compose an objective summary stating the key points of the text without adding my own opinions or feelings. (P)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

• I can identify and explain the role of complex characters in a text. (R)
• I can analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text. (R)
• I can analyze how characters develop through their interactions with others. (R)
• I can analyze how complex characters advance the plot of a text and/or contribute to the development of the theme. (R)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

• I can define and identify various forms of figurative language. (K)
• I can distinguish between literal language and figurative language. (K)
• I can recognize the difference between denotative meanings and connotative meanings. (K)
• I can analyze why authors choose specific words to evoke a particular meaning or tone. (R)
• I can analyze how specific word choices build upon one another to create a cumulative impact on the overall meaning and tone of a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise

• I can identify different literary text structures (e.g., narrative, poem, drama). (K)
• I can analyze a text and determine why an author chose to present his or her text using a particular structure. (R)
• I can analyze a text and determine why an author organized events in a particular order. (R)
• I can analyze a text and determine how an author manipulates time. (R)
• I can analyze how an author's choice of text structure creates such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. (R)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.6
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

• I can explain how the point of view or cultural experience found in various works of world literature differs from works of literature written in the United States. (R)
• I can analyze multiple texts of world literature to gain insight into the point of view of other societies and cultures. (R)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.7
Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).

• I can identify a subject or a key scene that is portrayed in two different artistic mediums (e.g., poetry, painting, drama). (K)
• I can determine what is emphasized or absent in each artistic medium. (R)
• I can analyze the impact of a particular subject or key scene from another artistic medium. (R)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9
Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

• I can identify source material from one author found in the work of another. (K)
• I can analyze how authors interpret and transform themes, events, topics, etc. from source material. (R)
• I can critique various works that have drawn on or transformed the same source material and explain the varied interpretations of different authors. (S)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
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.

• I can recognize when the text I am reading is too easy or too difficult for me. (K)
• I can determine reading strategies that will help me comprehend difficult texts.