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Common Core ELA5th GradeReading: Literature

RL.5.10: Read Grade-Level Literature Independently

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.10 · Cluster: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.

All 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.5.10 Means in Plain English

By year’s end fifth graders read stories, plays and poems at the top of the grades 4 to 5 range on their own and understand them. They follow a play through its stage directions, hold a long chapter in their heads, and catch what a character means without saying.

In 4th grade (RL.4.10) students read in the same band with support at its high end. Fifth grade removes that support: independently and proficiently. In 6th grade (RL.6.10) the band moves up to grades 6 to 8, with scaffolding again at its top.

RL.5.10 I Can Statements

  • I can read a grade 5 story, play or poem on my own.
  • I can use stage directions to understand what happens in a play.
  • I can figure out what a character means but does not say.

RL.5.10 Worked Example

A short scene from a play, read cold. Only a reader who took in the stage directions as carefully as the lines can answer the question.

Read the Story
(A cramped kitchen. AUNT ROSA stirs a pot at the stove. LEO, eleven, bursts in waving an envelope.)LEO: It came! The letter from the art school came!AUNT ROSA (without turning around): Put it on the table. Dinner first.LEO: You don’t even want to know? (He drops the envelope beside her open purse. Inside it is a second envelope from the same school, already torn open.)AUNT ROSA (quietly, to the pot): I already know.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does Aunt Rosa know that Leo doesn’t, and how can you tell?
Not Yet“Aunt Rosa doesn’t care about Leo’s letter, because she says dinner first.”It takes one line at face value and skips the stage directions, which in a play carry as much meaning as the dialogue.
Meets the Standard“Aunt Rosa has already read a letter from the art school. Her purse holds ‘a second envelope from the same school, already torn open,’ and she says ‘I already know.’ She isn’t ignoring Leo. She keeps her back to him, maybe so he can’t read her face before he reads the news himself.”It puts a stage direction and a line of dialogue together to explain what is really happening, which is what reading a play alone demands.
Question Stems to Use
Who is on stage, and where are they?What do the stage directions tell you that the lines don’t?What does the character mean but not say out loud?Which part did you reread, and what helped?What do you predict happens next, and why?

Common Mistakes with RL.5.10

Skipping the stage directions

Reads only the spoken lines and never notices the torn-open envelope

Try this: Have students read stage directions aloud in a different voice on the first read, so they register as story, not decoration.

Never reading hard texts alone

Every challenging text is read aloud by the teacher before students touch it

Try this: Schedule regular cold reads of a challenging text before any discussion, then teach from what students actually understood on their own.

Taking smooth reading as understanding

Reads the scene aloud perfectly, then can’t say why Aunt Rosa won’t turn around

Try this: Follow each independent read with one question that needs two details put together, not one answered by a single line.

Where RL.5.10 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.4.10Read grades 4 to 5 literature proficiently, with scaffolding at the high end of the range.
AlongsideRI.5.10The same reading range for history, science and technical texts.RF.5.4Read with enough accuracy and fluency to understand what is read.
Comes NextRL.6.10Read grades 6 to 8 literature proficiently, with scaffolding at the high end of the range.

Practice RL.5.10

Quick Check

  1. Where does the scene take place?
  2. What is inside Aunt Rosa’s purse?
  3. Why does Aunt Rosa say “Dinner first” instead of asking about Leo’s letter?

RL.5.10: Other Names

RL.5.10CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.10

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.