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Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8Science & Technical

RST.6-8.9: Compare a Science Text with an Experiment or Video

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.9 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 29 Grades 6–8 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.

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

What RST.6-8.9 Means in Plain English

Students in grades 6 to 8 compare what a science text teaches with what they learn by doing a lab, running a simulation or watching a video. A textbook explains why bean shoots bend toward light; a maze in a box shows how far they will go.

Fifth graders (RI.5.9) combined several texts on one topic to write or speak about it. This strand, which begins in grade 6, sets a text against firsthand sources like labs and videos. In ninth and tenth grade (RST.9-10.9) students note when their own results support or contradict a text.

RST.6-8.9 I Can Statements

  • I can name what an experiment showed that the text did not.
  • I can explain what a text explains that a lab cannot show.
  • I can tell where a text and a video agree and differ.

RST.6-8.9 Worked Example

Three sources on one topic, each with something the others lack, and the weak answer stops at what they have in common.

Read the Story
Text, from the class textbook: Plant shoots grow toward light, a response called phototropism. When light strikes one side of a stem, a growth hormone, auxin, collects on the shaded side. Cells there stretch longer than cells on the lit side, so the stem bends toward the light.Experiment, from our class lab: Each group planted bean seeds in a cardboard box with a hole cut in one end and two cardboard shelves inside, making a maze. After 12 days, the seedlings had wound around both shelves and poked out through the hole.Seedlings in an open, evenly lit box grew straight up. One seedling in a closed box with no hole grew tall, thin and pale yellow.Video: a time-lapse clip squeezes three days into 20 seconds. A sunflower seedling’s stem leans steadily toward a lamp, and when the lamp is moved to the other side, the stem turns back within hours.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What did the experiment and the video show that the textbook did not, and what did the textbook explain that neither of them could?
Not Yet“All three show that plants grow toward light. The video was the coolest part.”It finds what the sources share but never contrasts them, so it misses what each one alone adds, and naming a favorite is not a comparison.
Meets the Standard“Only the textbook explains why: auxin collects on the shaded side and the cells there stretch longer. You cannot see a hormone in a box or a video. The maze showed how strong the response is, since the seedlings wound around two shelves to reach the hole, and the closed box showed something the text never mentions: without any light the seedling grew tall, thin and pale. The video added speed, a stem swinging back toward a moved lamp within hours, which neither the text nor a 12-day lab could show.”It credits each source with what only it could provide, uses details from all three, and notes where the experiment went beyond the text instead of just agreeing with it.
Question Stems to Use
What did the experiment show that the text did not mention?What does the text explain that you cannot see in the lab or the video?Where do the sources agree, and where does one go further?Did anything in the experiment surprise you, given what the text says?Which source would you trust for the cause, and which for what it looks like?

Common Mistakes with RST.6-8.9

Stopping at what the sources share

“They all show plants grow toward light.”

Try this: Require a sentence that starts “Only the text…” and one that starts “Only the experiment…” in every comparison students write.

Treating the lab as a demo of the text

Ignoring the pale seedling in the closed box because the textbook never mentioned it

Try this: Ask after every lab, “What happened that the reading did not tell us?” and post the answers beside the textbook page.

Judging sources by how fun they are

“The video was the best part.”

Try this: Have students name what each source can and cannot show, such as causes, speed or appearance, before saying which helped most.

Where RST.6-8.9 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.9Combine information from several texts on one topic to write or speak about it knowledgeably.
AlongsideRI.8.7Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of print, video and multimedia for presenting a topic.WHST.6-8.7Answer a science question through short research that draws on several sources, including your own.
Comes NextRST.9-10.9Compare findings in a text with other sources, including students’ own experiments, noting support or contradiction.

Practice RST.6-8.9

Quick Check

  1. According to the textbook, why does a stem bend toward light?
  2. What happened to the seedling in the closed box with no hole?
  3. What did the time-lapse video show that the lab could not?

RST.6-8.9: Other Names

RST.6-8.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.9

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.