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Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Reading: Literature

RL.11-12.7: Evaluate Interpretations of a Play

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 41 Grades 11–12 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

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

What RL.11-12.7 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors compare several versions of a play, story or poem, like a live staging and a film, and judge how each one reads the source. One actor whispers a parting line and another shouts it, and only the script can say which reading it supports.

In grades 9 and 10 (RL.9-10.7) students compared one subject across two mediums, like a poem and a painting. Grades 11 and 12 compare versions of a single text, including plays by Shakespeare and an American dramatist. This is the last band of the line: college and career readiness.

RL.11-12.7 I Can Statements

  • I can describe how two productions interpret the same scene.
  • I can separate a director’s choices from what the script requires.
  • I can judge which interpretation is more faithful to the text.

RL.11-12.7 Worked Example

Two lines from the end of a play, then two productions that stage them in opposite ways.

Read the Story
The script, final scene: CONSTANCE sits at the kitchen table, mending a coat. WENDELL stands at the door with a packed suitcase. She does not look up.CONSTANCE: Go, then. The door was never bolted.Production A: The actor playing Constance whispers the line into the coat, needle still moving. Wendell waits, then leaves. The lights hold on her hands, which have stopped.Production B: The director has Constance stand, face him and shout the line, then hurl the coat at the door as it closes. The audience laughs at the fury.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Each production interprets Constance’s line differently. Evaluate how each version reads the script, and which is more faithful to it.
Not Yet“Production B is better because it is more dramatic and the audience reacts. Production A is boring.”It judges the productions by entertainment value and never returns to the script to ask what the line and the stage direction allow.
Meets the Standard“The script allows two readings of ‘The door was never bolted’: a release, since he was always free, or an accusation, since he could have left any time, so go. Production A plays release that hides grief. It keeps ‘She does not look up,’ has her whisper ‘into the coat,’ and lets ‘her hands, which have stopped’ show what the line conceals. Production B plays accusation, but only by breaking the script: Constance must ‘stand, face him and shout.’ That gains energy, and ‘The audience laughs at the fury,’ which turns a parting into a comic blowup the script never sets up. A is more faithful because it keeps both meanings alive. B chooses one and overrides a stage direction to get it.”It identifies what the source text allows, describes how each production interprets it, and judges fidelity by the stage direction one version keeps and the other overrides.
Question Stems to Use
What does the script itself require, and what does it leave open?Which choices belong to the director, and which to the actor?Does this production keep or override a stage direction?What does each version gain, and what does it lose?If you staged this scene, which reading would you choose, and why?

Common Mistakes with RL.11-12.7

Reviewing instead of interpreting

“Production B was more exciting to watch.”

Try this: Require every judgment to cite the script: a line, a stage direction or a silence that the production keeps or changes.

Treating the performance as the text

Students quote an actor’s delivery as if the playwright wrote it

Try this: Have students read the scene on the page first and list what it leaves open before they watch any version of it.

Faithful means unchanged

“Production A is better because it changes nothing.”

Try this: Teach that every staging interprets, and ask whether each change opens the script’s meaning or closes it down.

Where RL.11-12.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.9-10.7Compare how one subject or key scene is treated in two different artistic mediums.
AlongsideRL.11-12.4Analyze word choices, in Shakespeare and others, that carry more than one meaning.SL.11-12.2Integrate sources in diverse media, judging the credibility of each.
Comes NextW.11-12.9Write an evaluation of two productions with evidence from the script.SL.11-12.1Discuss competing interpretations and defend one with evidence.

Practice RL.11-12.7

Quick Check

  1. What stage direction does the script give Constance?
  2. Which production overrides that stage direction?
  3. What two meanings can “The door was never bolted” carry?

RL.11-12.7: Other Names

RL.11-12.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7

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.