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Common Core ELA6th GradeReading: Literature

RL.6.4: Word Meaning, Connotation and Tone

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the Word MapAll 41 6th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone

Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.6.4 Means in Plain English

Sixth graders work out what a word means in its spot, including figurative uses and the feeling it carries. “Cramped” and “cozy” can describe the same small room. Students then pick one word and explain how it sets the tone, the writer’s attitude toward the subject.

In 5th grade (RL.5.4) students worked out word meanings, including similes and metaphors. Sixth grade adds connotation and asks what one word choice does to the tone. In 7th grade (RL.7.4) students analyze how rhyme and repeated sounds, like alliteration, shape a stanza or a scene.

RL.6.4 I Can Statements

  • I can work out what a word or phrase means in context.
  • I can explain the feeling a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning.
  • I can explain how one word choice changes the tone.

RL.6.4 Worked Example

A poem about a new apartment, each stanza on one line with a slash between its two lines, where one word in the last stanza does most of the work.

Read the Story
Our new apartment is three rooms stacked like boxes / on the fourth floor of a building that sighs when the bus goes by.The kitchen fits one person and a half. / The radiator clanks all night, an old man clearing his throat.But the window by my bed hoards the sunset, / keeps it gold on the wall long after the street goes gray.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does “hoards” mean in the last stanza, and how does that word choice affect the tone?
Not Yet“Hoards means the window keeps the sunset. It is a descriptive word that makes the poem better.”It gives a rough meaning and stops. It never touches what “hoards” suggests beyond “keeps,” and “makes the poem better” says nothing about tone.
Meets the Standard“To hoard is to gather something and guard it, the way a dragon guards gold. The window doesn’t just let in the sunset, it ‘hoards’ it and keeps it ‘gold on the wall long after the street goes gray,’ so the light becomes the speaker’s private treasure. After two stanzas of rooms ‘stacked like boxes’ and a radiator like ‘an old man clearing his throat,’ that one word turns the tone from tired complaint to quiet delight.”It gives the meaning in context, names the feeling the word carries, and shows the tone shift by setting the word against the stanzas before it.
Question Stems to Use
What does this word mean here, in this line?What feeling does the word carry beyond its dictionary meaning?What plainer word could the writer have used, and what would be lost?How would you describe the tone before this word, and after it?Is this phrase literal or figurative? How do you know?

Common Mistakes with RL.6.4

Dictionary meaning only

“Hoard means to collect and save a lot of something.”

Try this: Ask what the word suggests here that a plainer synonym like “keeps” would not, and name that feeling in the answer.

A tone word with no source

“The tone is happy.”

Try this: Require every tone word to come with the quoted word or phrase that creates it, and one sentence on how.

Reading figurative lines literally

“The building is sad when the bus goes by.”

Try this: Have students ask what real thing the figure stands for, then say what the comparison makes them feel about it.

Where RL.6.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.5.4Work out word meanings in a story or poem, including metaphors and similes.
AlongsideL.6.5Interpret figures of speech and tell apart words with similar meanings but different feelings.L.6.4Work out unfamiliar words from context clues, roots or a dictionary.
Comes NextRL.7.4Analyze how rhyme and repeated sounds shape a stanza, a scene or a section.

Practice RL.6.4

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolEnter the loaded words from a poem or chapter, like hoard, cramped and sigh, for definition and sentence practice.ConnotationPoetryGrade 6
Make a Worksheet

Quick Check

  1. What does the speaker compare the radiator to?
  2. Which phrase gives the building a human action?
  3. How does the tone change in the last stanza?

RL.6.4: Other Names

RL.6.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.4

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.