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Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8History & Social Studies

RH.6-8.1: Cite Evidence from Historical Sources

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 29 Grades 6–8 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 6-8, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.6-8.1 Means in Plain English

In history class, students back every claim about a source with the exact words that prove it. Reading a diary kept during Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic, they quote the lines showing how fear changed neighbors, not a vague “the diary says people were scared.”

Fifth grade (RI.5.1) taught students to quote a text word for word when explaining it. Grades 6 to 8 aim that skill at diaries, letters, speeches and textbook accounts. In ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.1) students also weigh each source’s date and origin.

RH.6-8.1 I Can Statements

  • I can quote the exact words that prove my point about a source.
  • I can tell evidence that proves a claim from evidence on the topic.
  • I can use a line that complicates my claim to sharpen it.

RH.6-8.1 Worked Example

Both answers reach a fair point about an invented diary set in the real epidemic, but only one quotes the lines that prove it, including the line that complicates it.

Read the Story
From an invented diary, Philadelphia, September 14, 1793: Father has shut the shop. Half our street has packed its carts and gone to the country, and they say the President himself has left the city.Neighbors who meet on the footway now cross to the other side, and no one shakes hands. Mother makes us hold a handkerchief soaked in vinegar to our noses whenever we go out.The bells no longer toll for the dead. There are so many funerals that the sound was frightening the sick, and it has been stopped.When the Hollis family fell ill, not one of their own kin would go inside. Two nurses from the Free African Society came every day and sat with them until the fever broke.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does the diary show about how the fever changed the way people treated one another? Support your answer with specific lines.
Not Yet“People were scared of getting sick, so they treated each other badly. The diary says a lot of people left the city.”The claim is fair, but its only evidence is a paraphrase about people leaving, which shows flight, not how neighbors treated each other. It also misses the nurses, who complicate “treated each other badly.”
Meets the Standard“Fear pushed most people apart. Neighbors ‘now cross to the other side, and no one shakes hands,’ and when the Hollis family fell ill, ‘not one of their own kin would go inside.’ But not everyone stayed away: ‘Two nurses from the Free African Society came every day and sat with them until the fever broke.’ So the diary shows fear breaking even family bonds, while a few people chose to take the risk anyway.”Each quote is exact and tied to the point it proves, and the answer uses the line that complicates its claim to make the claim more precise.
Question Stems to Use
Which exact words show this? Quote them.Does this line prove your point, or is it only about the same topic?Who wrote this, and when? What could this writer see for herself?Is there a line that complicates your answer?What does this quote prove, in your own words?

Common Mistakes with RH.6-8.1

Paraphrasing instead of citing

“The diary says people were scared.”

Try this: Require the exact words in quotation marks for each claim, followed by a sentence explaining what those words prove.

Citing a line about the topic, not the point

“Half our street has packed its carts,” offered as proof that neighbors stopped helping each other

Try this: Have students test each quote by asking whether it proves the claim or only mentions the same subject, and replace the weak ones.

Skipping the evidence that cuts the other way

“Everyone abandoned the sick.”

Try this: Have students hunt for one line that complicates their claim, then revise the claim so it fits all of the evidence.

Where RH.6-8.1 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.1Quote a text accurately to explain what it says and what a reader can infer from it.
AlongsideRI.8.1Cite the evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of an informational text.WHST.6-8.9Draw evidence from primary and secondary sources to support written analysis.
Comes NextRH.9-10.1Cite evidence while paying attention to each source’s date and origin.

Practice RH.6-8.1

Quick Check

  1. Which line shows that fear changed how neighbors treated each other?
  2. Which line complicates the claim that everyone abandoned the sick?
  3. Why is the line about half the street leaving weaker evidence for how people treated one another?

RH.6-8.1: Other Names

RH.6-8.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1

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.