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Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8History & Social Studies

RH.6-8.5: How a History Text Is Organized

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

All 29 Grades 6–8 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).

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

What RH.6-8.5 Means in Plain English

Students say how a history text is organized: as a sequence of events in time order, as a comparison of two sides, or as a chain of causes and effects. An account of how horses reached the Great Plains uses dates but is built on causes.

Fifth grade (RI.5.5) compared the structures of two or more texts, such as chronology and problem and solution. Grades 6 to 8 apply that lens to history texts and ask what each structure lets the author show. Ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.5) analyze how structure emphasizes key points.

RH.6-8.5 I Can Statements

  • I can tell whether a history text is sequential, comparative or causal.
  • I can point to the signal words that show a text’s structure.
  • I can explain what a text’s structure helps the author show.

RH.6-8.5 Worked Example

The text is full of dates, which is exactly what fools the weak answer into calling it sequential.

Read the Story
From a history article written for this page: Spanish colonists brought horses to New Mexico in the 1590s and tried to keep the animals out of Native hands.In 1680, the Pueblo people rose up and drove the Spanish out of New Mexico. Because the colonists fled in a hurry, they left many of their horses behind.The Pueblo traded those horses to neighboring nations, who traded them farther north and east, so by the middle of the 1700s horses had reached peoples across the Great Plains.On horseback, a hunter could keep pace with a running bison herd. As a result, families could follow the herds across the grasslands, and a horse could drag a far heavier load of tipi poles and hides than a dog.That new power drew nations such as the Cheyenne, once village farmers, onto the open Plains as mounted bison hunters, and it helped the Comanche become one of the strongest powers on the southern Plains.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How does this text present its information: in time order, by comparing, or by cause and effect? Which words show it?
Not Yet“It is sequential, because it goes in time order: first the 1590s, then 1680, then the 1700s.”The dates are real, but they are not what holds the text together. Almost every sentence explains why the next thing happened, and the answer never mentions the cause-and-effect words that show it.
Meets the Standard“The text is causal. It uses dates, but each event is presented as the cause of the next: the colonists left horses behind ‘because’ they fled, trade spread them north ‘so’ Plains peoples had them, and ‘as a result’ families could follow the herds. Even the last sentence starts with ‘that new power drew.’ The whole text is a chain explaining how a revolt in 1680 changed life hundreds of miles away.”It names the structure, quotes the signal words, explains why the dates are not the organizing principle, and says what the structure lets the author explain.
Question Stems to Use
Does each sentence happen after the one before, or because of it?Which signal words do you see: then, because, so, unlike, as a result?If you covered the dates, would the text still hang together?Draw the text as boxes and arrows. What does each arrow mean?Why might the author have chosen this structure for this topic?

Common Mistakes with RH.6-8.5

Calling any text with dates sequential

“It’s sequential because it has years.”

Try this: Have students read the text with the dates covered and decide whether it is held together by time or by cause.

Naming the structure without proof

“It is cause and effect.” and nothing else

Try this: Require two or three signal words quoted from the text, each with the cause and the effect it connects.

Stopping at the label

Correctly calls the text causal but never says why the author built it that way

Try this: Ask what the structure lets the author show, such as how one revolt changed life hundreds of miles away.

Where RH.6-8.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.5Compare how two or more texts are organized, such as by chronology or cause and effect.
AlongsideRI.8.5Analyze how the sentences of one key paragraph build and refine an idea.WHST.6-8.2Organize an explanation of a historical event by cause and effect or comparison.
Comes NextRH.9-10.5Analyze how a history text’s structure stresses key points or builds an explanation.

Practice RH.6-8.5

Quick Check

  1. What structure does the text use?
  2. Name two signal words or phrases that show the structure.
  3. Why is sequential not the best answer, even though the dates are in order?

RH.6-8.5: Other Names

RH.6-8.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5

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.