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Common Core ELA6th GradeReading: Informational

RI.6.4: Work Out Figurative, Connotative and Technical Meanings

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the Frayer ModelAll 41 6th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.6.4 Means in Plain English

Sixth graders work out what words mean in the sentence in front of them, not in the dictionary’s first entry. In a passage on lightning, conductor is a science term, not a train job, and a lightning rod offering “a safer road” is a metaphor that needs explaining.

Fifth graders (RI.5.4) worked out academic and subject words. Sixth grade adds figurative language and connotation, the feeling a word carries, like stubborn next to determined. Seventh grade (RI.7.4) asks students to explain how one chosen word shifts a text’s meaning and tone.

RI.6.4 I Can Statements

  • I can use context to work out a technical term in nonfiction.
  • I can explain what a figurative phrase means in plain words.
  • I can tell the feeling a word carries from its dictionary meaning.

RI.6.4 Worked Example

Two words in this passage mean something different from their everyday use, and the weak answer reaches for the everyday meaning both times.

Read the Story
Inside a thundercloud, bits of ice and soft hail crash into one another as strong winds toss them up and down. The collisions knock loose tiny electric charges, and the bottom of the cloud fills with negative charge.Positive charge gathers in the ground below. Air is a poor conductor, so for a while it holds the two charges apart like a wall.When the charge grows too strong, the wall gives way. A channel of electricity zigzags toward the ground, and the air around it heats to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly five times hotter than the surface of the sun.A lightning rod does not attract lightning. It offers the strike a safer road: a metal rod on the roof, a thick copper cable down the wall and a rod buried deep in the soil. Without one, the current may find its own path through a chimney, a wooden beam or the wiring.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does conductor mean in this passage, and what does the author mean by saying a lightning rod offers the strike “a safer road”?
Not Yet“A conductor is a person who is in charge of a train or leads an orchestra. A safer road means the lightning rod makes a road for the lightning to travel on.”The first part brings in an everyday meaning that makes no sense in “Air is a poor conductor.” The second repeats the phrase instead of explaining it, so the metaphor stays a mystery.
Meets the Standard“Here a conductor is a material that lets electric charge flow through it. Air is a ‘poor conductor,’ which is why it can hold the charges apart ‘like a wall’ until they grow too strong. ‘A safer road’ is a metaphor: the rod, the cable and the buried rod give the current a path to the ground outside the house, so it does not ‘find its own path’ through a chimney, a beam or the wiring.”It defines the technical term from the clues around it and turns the metaphor into plain words, using the passage’s own lines as proof for both.
Question Stems to Use
What does this word mean in this sentence, not in general?Which nearby words helped you figure that out?What two things does this metaphor compare? How are they alike?Is this a science term, a figure of speech or an everyday word?What feeling does this word carry? Would a plainer word change it?

Common Mistakes with RI.6.4

Using the everyday meaning

“A conductor leads a band.”

Try this: Have students test their definition by putting it into the sentence. If “Air is a poor band leader” sounds wrong, the meaning is wrong.

Reading a metaphor literally

“The lightning travels on a road next to the house.”

Try this: Ask what two things the metaphor compares and what they share, then have students rewrite the line without the figurative word.

Ignoring the feeling a word carries

Reading “the wall gives way” as plain “stops,” and missing the sense of something breaking under pressure

Try this: Pair the author’s word with a plainer synonym, ask what the plainer word loses and let students decide why the author chose the original.

Where RI.6.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.4Work out academic and subject words in a text on a grade 5 topic.
AlongsideL.6.4Use context, Greek and Latin roots and reference works to pin down unfamiliar words.L.6.5Interpret figures of speech and tell apart words with close meanings.RST.6-8.4Determine key terms and symbols in a science or technical text.
Comes NextRI.7.4Explain how one chosen word shapes a text’s meaning and tone.

Practice RI.6.4

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolType in the technical terms from your current science unit and print practice that asks for a meaning, a sentence and the word in a new context.Your word listDefinitionsSentences
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Quick Check

  1. What does conductor mean in the lightning passage?
  2. What does the metaphor “a safer road” mean?
  3. Which phrase compares the air to something solid that can break?

RI.6.4: Other Names

RI.6.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.4

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.