over the course of a text.
9–10 Literature
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.
11–12 Literature
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
9–10 Informational 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.
11–12 Informational 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.
9–10 History/Social Studies
Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
11–12 History/Social Studies
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
9–10 Science/Technical Subjects
Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
11–12 Science/Technical Subjects
Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks; analyze the specific results based on explanations in the text.
Source: Copyright © 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Common Core Reading Standard 3: What the Student Does
9–10 Literature
Gist: Examine how characters interact with others and affect the plot or theme, looking, for example, at motivation and how it adds to the complexity of characters. Also, readers should examine how characters evolve, noting how different, often conflicting motives, advance the plot and contribute to the theme.
Which characters are most important (and complex)?
What do the main characters want and why do they want it? What do these desires tell us about them?
How do the characters evolve over the course of the story?
What effect does a character’s actions or changes have on other key characters?
11–12 Literature
Gist: Identify the author’s key decisions about about setting, characterization, and plot, focusing on how these choices affect the development and meaning of these elements throughout the story or play. Note also the interplay between the different elements (e.g., between the action and the setting).
Which of the author’s decisions most affect the elements of the story and how they develop or connect to each other over time?
Of these decisions, which most affect the story’s meaning?
How do the author’s decisions about setting, plot design, or character development affect the story’s meaning or impact?
How are events in the story arranged—and to what end?
9–10 Informational Text
Gist: Read to grasp the connections between actions and events as the text unfolds, focusing on how these elements are arranged and what the author says about them. Pay special attention to how, when, and why the author introduces and develops these ideas and events.
What ideas or events does the author introduce at the beginning of the text?
What new information, evidence, or details does the author provide?
How do these additions affect the text?
What evidence from the text supports and illustrates your claims about the meaning and importance of ideas, people, and events—and the evolving relationship between them?
11–12 Informational Text
Gist: Look for sets of ideas or sequences of events that interact with each other throughout the text. Note how various elements—specific individuals, ideas, or events—interact and enhance their own meaning or importance within the larger text.
What is the subject, content, or focus of this text—people, events, ideas, processes, or experiences?
How are these elements connected—categories, stages, or other?
How do these connections affect meaning over the course of the text?
How do these elements or connections evolve and interact and contribute to the meaning of the text?
9–10 History/Social Studies
Gist: Identify those events which matter most in a text, then break down the relationship between these elements, focusing on how each event—a war, discovery, movement, signing of key legislation, declaration, or proclamation—relates to those which precede or follow it.
Which events are most important in this text?
How does a given event or moment relate to those which come before or follow that moment?
How and why did the author choose to arrange events as they did: cause–effect, problem–solution, chronological, or other?
11–12 History/Social Studies
Gist:
