Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Reading: Informational

RI.11-12.1: Strong Evidence and Open Questions

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

The Official Wording

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.11-12.1 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors back an analysis with the strongest evidence, for what a text states and what it implies, and then say where the text itself runs out. An account of the lost Roanoke colony suggests the settlers left by choice but never says where they went.

Ninth and tenth grade (RI.9-10.1) asked for strong and thorough evidence. Grades 11-12 keep that bar and add one move: naming what the evidence cannot settle. This is the last band of the line, the college and career readiness level a history seminar or a legal brief expects.

RI.11-12.1 I Can Statements

I can support every part of my analysis with strong evidence.
I can tell what a text proves from what it only suggests.
I can name the questions a text leaves open, and why.

RI.11-12.1 Worked Example

Both answers use the same evidence, but one claims more than the record can prove and the other marks exactly where it runs out.

Read the Story

In 1587, more than a hundred English men, women and children settled on Roanoke Island, off what is now North Carolina. Their governor, John White, sailed home for supplies that same year, and a war with Spain kept him away for three years.Before he left, White and the settlers agreed on a signal. If they moved, they would carve the name of their destination where he would find it, and if they left in distress, they would carve a cross above the name.When White returned in August 1590, the houses had been taken down and the site enclosed by a tall wooden fence. On one of its posts someone had carved CROATOAN, the name of an island to the south where a friendly people lived. There was no cross.Storms and a damaged ship forced White’s crew to turn back before reaching that island, and he never saw the colonists again.Archaeologists have since found English objects from the period on the island and on the mainland, but none has been tied to the colonists for certain.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: What does the passage strongly support about how the colonists left, and where does it leave matters uncertain? Cite the evidence for each.

Not Yet“The colonists moved to the island and lived with the friendly people there. The text says someone ‘had carved CROATOAN’ on a post, which proves where they went.”It treats a carved word as proof of an outcome. The carving shows where the colonists said they were going, not that they arrived or survived, and the answer skips the line about archaeology that leaves the question open.

Meets the Standard“The passage strongly supports that the colonists left in an orderly way and by choice: the houses ‘had been taken down,’ they carved a destination as agreed, and ‘There was no cross,’ the signal they had promised for distress. It also supports an inference that at least some of them meant to go south to that island. What it leaves uncertain is whether they got there, stayed together or survived. White never reached the island, and of the English objects found since, ‘none has been tied to the colonists for certain.’”It separates what the evidence supports strongly (an orderly, voluntary move), what it implies (a plan to go south) and what it cannot settle (their fate), and it rests the first claim on the strongest detail, the missing cross.

Question Stems to Use

What does the text state outright, and what are you inferring from it?Which detail, if it were missing, would weaken your claim the most?Does this evidence show what happened, or only what someone intended?Where does the text stop giving evidence? What question is left open there?What would a reader need to find to settle that open question?

Common Mistakes with RI.11-12.1

Treating a clue as a verdict

“The carving proves the colonists lived on that island.”

Try this: Ask students to sort each claim into proven, implied or open, and to defend every placement with one quoted phrase from the text.

Calling everything uncertain

“Nobody knows anything about what happened to them.”

Try this: Require one claim the evidence settles before any claim it leaves open, so uncertainty is located precisely instead of spread over everything.

Overlooking evidence of absence

An answer that quotes the carving but never mentions that no cross was found

Try this: Point students to what the text says is missing, like the agreed cross, and ask what that absence tells a careful reader.

Where RI.11-12.1 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.9-10.1Cite strong and thorough evidence for what a text says outright and what it implies.

AlongsideRH.11-12.3Weigh explanations for a historical event against the evidence, noting where the text leaves matters uncertain.RL.11-12.1The same evidence-and-uncertainty move with novels, plays and poems.

Comes NextW.11-12.1Write arguments that supply the most relevant evidence and point out the limits of each claim.

Practice RI.11-12.1

Quick Check

What was the agreed signal for leaving in distress, and was it found?
A cross carved above the name of their destination. White found no cross.
What does the passage strongly suggest about how the colonists left?
That they left in an orderly way and by choice: the houses had been taken down, a destination was carved as agreed, and there was no distress cross.
What does the passage leave uncertain, and why?
Whether the colonists reached the island to the south or survived. White never got there, and no object found since has been tied to the colonists for certain.

RI.11-12.1: Other Names

RI.11-12.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1