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Common Core LiteracyGrades 11–12History & Social Studies

RH.11-12.10: Reading Complex History on Your Own

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.10 · Cluster: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.

Get the Cornell NotesAll 29 Grades 11–12 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.11-12.10 Means in Plain English

Seniors finish high school able to read college-level history on their own, without a teacher walking them through it. A dense paragraph questioning whether the Peace of Westphalia created modern sovereign states is typical: long sentences, nested qualifications and an argument with other scholars.

Ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.10) set the bar at the grades 9 to 10 level by the end of tenth grade. Grades 11-12 raise it to texts written for college readers. This is the last band of the line, the reading level that college and career readiness names.

RH.11-12.10 I Can Statements

  • I can follow a long sentence to find its main claim.
  • I can tell an author’s claim from the view the author rejects.
  • I can read college-level history on my own and explain it.

RH.11-12.10 Worked Example

The paragraph is written for this page in the style of an academic history; the weak reading grabs the first claim it meets, which is the one the author rejects.

Read the Story
That the treaties signed at Münster and Osnabrück in 1648 founded a world of sovereign, equal states is a claim repeated so often in textbooks of international relations that it has acquired the authority of fact, and it is precisely this authority that the documents themselves fail to support.Far from abolishing the Holy Roman Empire, the settlement preserved it, together with the imperial courts and the obligations that bound its princes to the emperor; the much-cited right of those princes to make alliances with foreign powers was granted only on condition that no alliance be directed against the emperor or the Empire.Nor did the treaties treat their signatories as equals in any modern sense, since France and Sweden, as guarantors of the peace, acquired a standing to intervene in the Empire’s affairs that a later age would regard as the very negation of sovereignty.What the treaties did accomplish, an end to thirty years of war and a workable settlement of religious disputes among the princes, was considerable; it was not, however, the invention of the modern state system, a notion that owes more to nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers in search of an origin than to the diplomats of 1648.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: According to the author, why is it misleading to say the Peace of Westphalia created the modern system of sovereign states, and what does the author grant the treaties?
Not Yet“The passage says the treaties of 1648 founded a world of sovereign, equal states and gave the princes the right to make alliances with foreign powers.”It lifts the opening clause, which states the view the author is about to reject, and drops the condition attached to the alliance right. The reader stopped at the first claim instead of following the sentence to its main verb.
Meets the Standard“The author argues that calling Westphalia the birth of sovereign states is a later myth the documents do not support. Three points carry it: the settlement kept the Holy Roman Empire and its courts in place; the princes could make foreign alliances only if none was ‘directed against the emperor or the Empire’; and France and Sweden, as guarantors, gained a right to intervene in the Empire’s affairs, the opposite of equal sovereignty. The author does grant that ending thirty years of war and settling religious disputes was ‘considerable,’ but traces the sovereignty story to writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”It finds the author’s claim inside the long opening sentence, keeps every qualification the weak reading dropped, and separates what the author denies from what the author concedes.
Question Stems to Use
What is the main verb of this long sentence, and what is its subject?Is the author stating this view or describing one to reject?Which words signal a turn, like far from, nor, only on condition or however?What does the author concede before making the main point?Can you restate each sentence in fifteen words or fewer?

Common Mistakes with RH.11-12.10

Taking the first clause as the claim

“The author says Westphalia created sovereign states.”

Try this: Have students find the main verb of each long sentence and rewrite the sentence starting from that verb’s subject.

Dropping the qualifications

“The princes could make any alliances they wanted.”

Try this: Circle condition words such as only, unless and provided, and require every paraphrase to keep the condition attached to its claim.

Giving up at the vocabulary

A student who stalls at signatories and negation and decides the paragraph is too hard

Try this: Teach students to mark unfamiliar words, keep reading to the sentence’s end, and return once the sentence’s logic is clear.

Where RH.11-12.10 Fits

Comes BeforeRH.9-10.10Read history and social studies texts in the grades 9-10 band on one’s own by the end of grade 10.
AlongsideRI.11-12.10Read literary nonfiction at the grades 11 to college level independently.RST.11-12.10Read science and technical texts at the grades 11 to college level independently.
Comes NextWHST.11-12.9Draw evidence from complex historical texts to support analysis, reflection and research.WHST.11-12.10Write routinely in history, from quick responses to extended research, for a range of purposes.

Practice RH.11-12.10

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolBuild a worksheet for the paragraph’s hardest words, like signatories, guarantors and sovereignty, before students read it on their own.SignatoriesGuarantorsSovereignty
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Quick Check

  1. What view does the opening sentence describe, and does the author accept it?
  2. What condition limited the princes’ right to make foreign alliances?
  3. What does the author grant that the treaties accomplished?

RH.11-12.10: Other Names

RH.11-12.10CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.10

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.