RL.5.1: Quote Accurately from a Text
Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.1 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.
The Official Wording
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RL.5.1 Means in Plain English
Fifth graders prove what they say about a story with the author’s exact words, in quotation marks and copied word for word. That holds for what the story states and for what it only hints: if a character seems upset, they quote the line that shows it.
In 4th grade (RL.4.1) students could point to details in their own words. Fifth grade asks for the quotation itself, accurate down to the comma. In 6th grade (RL.6.1) they cite evidence to support an analysis and choose the strongest lines, not the first ones they find.
RL.5.1 I Can Statements
- I can quote a story’s exact words to support my answer.
- I can quote the lines that hint at something the story never says.
- I can explain how the words I quoted prove my point.
RL.5.1 Worked Example
An inference question and two answers. The difference is whether the proof is in the author’s words or the student’s.
Grandpa set the fishing poles by the door at five in the morning, the way he had every Saturday for forty years.“Not today,” he said, and his voice cracked on the second word. He folded the map of Pine Lake into smaller and smaller squares until it would not fold anymore.Ruby looked at the moving boxes stacked in the hall. Every one was labeled “Sunny Acres.”She picked up both poles. “The lake will still be there at ten,” she said.
Common Mistakes with RL.5.1
Quoting from memory
“His voice was cracking when he talked.”
Try this: Have students put a finger under the line, copy it word for word, then reread the page against what they wrote.
A quotation dropped in with no explanation
“His voice cracked on the second word.” and nothing after it
Try this: Require one sentence after every quotation that starts with “This shows” and ties the words back to the question asked.
Quoting only what the story states
Quotes “Not today” easily, then answers the feeling question with “I just think he’s sad.”
Try this: Ask for the inference first, then send students hunting for the line that made them think it, even when no line says it outright.
Where RL.5.1 Fits
Practice RL.5.1
Quick Check
- What has Grandpa done every Saturday for forty years?
- What does Ruby see that tells her Grandpa is moving?
- Quote one line that shows Grandpa is upset, even though the story never says so.