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

The grades 6–12 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-6-12e-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-6-12e-r-ccr-2

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

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-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-6-12e-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-6-12e-r-ccr-5

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

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-r-ccr-6

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

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

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-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-6-12e-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-6-12e-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-6-12e-r-ccr-10

Note on range and content of student reading

To become college and career ready, students must grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students’ own thinking and writing. Along with high-quality contemporary works, these texts should be chosen from among seminal U.S. documents, the classics of American literature, and the timeless dramas of Shakespeare. Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary nonfiction of steadily increasing sophistication, students gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge, references, and images; the ability to evaluate intricate arguments; and the capacity to surmount the challenges posed by complex texts.