English Language Arts Standards » Anchor Standards » College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading

The K–5 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

Key Ideas and Details

• 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-1

• 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-2

• 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-3

Craft and Structure

• 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-4

• 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-5

• 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-6

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

• 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.¹

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-7

• 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-8

• 9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-9

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

• 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-r-ccr-10

Note on range and content of student reading

To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from among a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts. Through extensive reading of stories, dramas, poems, and myths from diverse cultures and different time periods, students gain literary and cultural knowledge as well as familiarity with various text structures and elements. By reading texts in history/social studies, science, and other disciplines, students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better readers in all content areas. Students can only gain this foundation when the curriculum is intentionally and coherently structured to develop rich content knowledge within and across grades. Students also acquire the habits of reading independently and closely, which are essential to their future success.