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Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8Science & Technical

RST.6-8.4: Symbols and Key Terms in Science Texts

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the Frayer ModelAll 29 Grades 6–8 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6-8 texts and topics.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 6-8, Reading: Science & Technical Subjects · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RST.6-8.4 Means in Plain English

Students in grades 6 to 8 work out what symbols, units and science terms mean in the text in front of them. On a weather map, a line with triangles is a cold front, an L means low pressure, and mb stands for millibars.

Fifth graders (RI.5.4) worked out general academic and subject words in a text. This strand, which starts in grade 6, adds symbols and everyday words with a special science meaning, like front or pressure. In ninth and tenth grade (RST.9-10.4) the terms and symbols get more technical.

RST.6-8.4 I Can Statements

  • I can use a key to decode symbols in a science text.
  • I can tell a word’s science meaning from its everyday meaning.
  • I can explain what a unit or abbreviation tells me.

RST.6-8.4 Worked Example

The map key defines every symbol, and the weak answer reads the L as an ordinary letter instead of checking it.

Read the Story
How to read a surface weather map. A blue line edged with triangles is a cold front, the leading edge of a colder air mass. The triangles point the way the front is moving, and storms often form along it as it pushes warm air up.A red line edged with half circles is a warm front. Warm air slides up over cooler air ahead of it, so expect a long stretch of steady rain or drizzle.Thin curved lines are isobars, which connect places with the same air pressure, measured in millibars (mb). Normal pressure at sea level is about 1013 mb.A blue H marks a center of high pressure, which usually brings clear, calm weather. A red L marks a center of low pressure, where air rises and clouds and storms form. The closer together the isobars, the stronger the wind.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: On tonight’s map, a blue line edged with triangles pointing east sits just west of town, and the isobars around a 996 mb L are packed close together. Using the key, what does the map say about tomorrow’s weather in town?
Not Yet“A cold front is coming, so it will be colder. The L means the temperature will be low.”It decodes the front only half way and reads the L as plain English instead of the map’s symbol for low pressure. It never uses the direction of the triangles, the 996 or the packed isobars.
Meets the Standard“The blue line with triangles is a cold front, and the triangles point east, toward town, so the front will pass through, with storms possible along it. The L is a low-pressure center at 996 mb, well below the normal 1013, which means rising air, clouds and storms. The isobars are packed close, so it will be windy. Tomorrow should be windy and stormy as the front passes, then colder, because the front is the leading edge of a colder air mass.”It translates every symbol and term with the key’s meaning, compares the pressure reading with normal, and combines them into one forecast.
Question Stems to Use
What does this symbol stand for on this map, according to the key?What does this word mean in a science text, not in everyday talk?What unit is this number in, and what is normal for it?Which way is the symbol pointing, and why does that matter?How do two symbols together change what the map says?

Common Mistakes with RST.6-8.4

Reading a symbol as an everyday letter

“The L means it will be low.”

Try this: Have students find each symbol in the key before saying anything about it, and say its full name aloud.

Using the everyday meaning of a science word

Taking a front to mean the front of something, or pressure to mean stress

Try this: Keep a two-column list of words like front, pressure and mass, writing the everyday meaning beside the meaning in this text.

Reading a number with no unit or comparison

“996 is a big number, so the pressure is high.”

Try this: Ask “Compared with what?” for every number, and have students write the normal value from the text beside it.

Where RST.6-8.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.4Determine the meaning of general academic and subject-area words in a grade 5 text.
AlongsideL.8.6Learn and use academic and subject words accurately, collecting the ones a reading depends on.RH.6-8.4Work out the meaning of history and civics terms, like tariff or suffrage, in a history reading.
Comes NextRST.9-10.4Determine the meaning of symbols and key terms in grades 9 and 10 science and technical texts.

Practice RST.6-8.4

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolEnter the map terms your class is learning, like isobar, millibar and warm front, and print word, definition and sentence practice for them.Science termsGrades 6-8Your word list
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Quick Check

  1. What does a red line edged with half circles stand for?
  2. What is an isobar, and what unit goes with it?
  3. What does it mean when isobars are close together?

RST.6-8.4: Other Names

RST.6-8.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.4

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.