RL.6.10: Read Literature in the Grades 6 to 8 Band
Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.10 · Cluster: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.
The Official Wording
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RL.6.10 Means in Plain English
Over 6th grade, students move into literature written for grades 6 to 8: longer novels, plays with subplots, poems that never state their point. By year’s end they read these with understanding, and the hardest, like a novel in an older style with long sentences, can come with help.
In 5th grade (RL.5.10) students read the top of the grades 4 to 5 range on their own. Sixth grade opens a harder band, so help returns at its top. In 7th grade (RL.7.10) the expectation is the same, and by 8th grade students read the band’s top alone.
RL.6.10 I Can Statements
- I can read a story, play or poem written for grades 6 to 8.
- I can break a long sentence into parts to find who did what.
- I can notice when I’m lost and use a strategy to recover.
RL.6.10 Worked Example
The opening of a sea novel written in an older style and read cold, where the facts that matter sit inside long sentences and an unstated sum.
It was upon the third evening of our passage, when the wind had fallen off to nothing and the sails hung from the yards like washing on a Sunday, that the captain, a man not given to speech, summoned me to his cabin.He did not look up from his charts. “You were seen,” said he, “at the water cask, after the bell.”I confess my first thought was to deny it, and my second was that denial would be of no use, for the cook, who had seen me, was standing at my elbow.“There is water enough for nine days,” the captain went on, “and we are twelve from port.”
Common Mistakes with RL.6.10
Getting lost in the long sentence
“The captain is talking about washing on a Sunday.”
Try this: Teach students to find the subject and main verb first, then cover the side clauses and read the sentence without them.
Scaffolding that never comes off
The same vocabulary list and read-aloud for every text, all year
Try this: Plan to remove one support each quarter, starting with the read-aloud, so students carry more of the band on their own.
Missing what is left unsaid
Repeats “nine days” and “twelve from port” without saying the water will run out
Try this: Ask students what the character wants the listener to figure out, and require the answer in their own words.
Where RL.6.10 Fits
Practice RL.6.10
Quick Check
- Why are the sails hanging loose?
- What did the narrator do wrong, and who saw him?
- Why does the captain mention nine days and twelve?