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Common Core ELA8th GradeReading: Informational

RI.8.5: How Each Sentence Builds a Paragraph

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

All 41 8th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.8.5 Means in Plain English

Eighth graders zoom in on one paragraph and explain the job of each sentence: which one raises a puzzle, which one names the key concept, which one narrows it. In a paragraph on judicial review, one sentence defines the power and the next sets its limits.

Seventh grade (RI.7.5) looked at how major sections contribute to a whole text. Eighth grade goes smaller and closer, sentence by sentence. In ninth and tenth grade (RI.9-10.5) students trace how sentences, paragraphs and whole sections develop and refine an author’s ideas or claims.

RI.8.5 I Can Statements

  • I can name the job each sentence does in a paragraph.
  • I can find the sentence that introduces a key concept.
  • I can explain how a later sentence refines or limits that concept.

RI.8.5 Worked Example

Every sentence in the second paragraph has a different job, and the weak answer reads the paragraph as a list of facts.

Read the Story
The Constitution divides the national government into three branches so that each can check the others. Congress writes the laws, the president carries them out, and the courts decide cases.One of the courts’ most important powers appears nowhere in the Constitution. In Marbury v. Madison in 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall reasoned that the Constitution is the supreme law, so when an ordinary law conflicts with it, judges must follow the Constitution. That power to set aside a law that breaks the Constitution came to be called judicial review. Marshall claimed it only for cases that came before the Court, not as a license to review any law it disliked. The Court did not strike down another act of Congress for 54 years.Since then, judicial review has grown into one of the strongest checks the courts hold over the other two branches.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Look at the second paragraph. What job does each sentence do in developing and refining the idea of judicial review?
Not Yet“The paragraph is about judicial review. It says Marshall decided Marbury v. Madison in 1803 and the Court didn’t strike down another law for 54 years.”It summarizes the paragraph instead of analyzing it. Nothing says why the paragraph opens with a puzzle or how the fourth sentence narrows the concept.
Meets the Standard“The first sentence sets up a puzzle: a major power is missing from the Constitution. The second answers it with Marshall’s reasoning, building the concept before it has a name. The third names and defines it, judicial review. The fourth refines it by limiting the power to real cases, and the fifth backs that limit with a fact: the Court waited 54 years to use it on Congress again.”Every sentence gets a role, the roles connect, and the answer shows the concept being built, named and then sharpened.
Question Stems to Use
What is the key concept of this paragraph? Which sentence names it?Why does the paragraph open with this sentence instead of the definition?Which sentence narrows, limits or qualifies the concept?What would be lost if this sentence were cut?How does the last sentence change what you understand about the concept?

Common Mistakes with RI.8.5

Summarizing instead of analyzing

A retelling of the paragraph’s facts in order, with no sentence given a role

Try this: Give students a bank of role verbs, such as introduces, defines, limits and illustrates, and require one per sentence.

Assuming the first sentence states the concept

“The main point is that the power isn’t in the Constitution.”

Try this: Have students find where the key concept is first named, then explain what the sentences before and after it do.

Missing the sentence that refines

Treating “Marshall claimed it only for cases that came before the Court” as just another fact

Try this: Ask whether each sentence adds to the concept or narrows it, and mark the narrowing sentences with a symbol before discussing them.

Where RI.8.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.7.5Analyze how the major sections of a text contribute to the whole and to the development of its ideas.
AlongsideRL.8.5Compare how the structures of two texts shape their meaning and style.W.8.2Develop a topic with well-chosen facts, definitions and examples, the same building done in writing.
Comes NextRI.9-10.5Analyze how sentences, paragraphs and larger sections develop and refine an author’s ideas or claims.

Practice RI.8.5

Quick Check

  1. Which sentence in the second paragraph names the key concept?
  2. What job does the first sentence of the second paragraph do?
  3. How does the fourth sentence refine the concept?

RI.8.5: Other Names

RI.8.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.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.