Arizona Standards
Arizona Grades 9–10 ELA Standards
All 41 Arizona English language arts standards for grades 9–10, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Arizona Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
41 standards
Reading Standards for Literature
9 standards9-10.RL.1
Support a reading of a novel, play or poem with strong, thorough quotations, covering both what it states outright and what you infer from it.
9-10.RL.2
Find a theme in a novel or play, trace in detail how it first emerges and how particular scenes shape and sharpen it, and summarize the work objectively.
9-10.RL.3
Follow a complex character with conflicting motives, like Macbeth, through the text and explain how their changes and clashes with others drive the plot or theme.
9-10.RL.4
Work out the figurative and connotative meanings of words in a literary text and analyze how word choices add up to shape its meaning and tone.
9-10.RL.5
Analyze how an author's choices about structure, the order of events and the handling of time, like flashbacks, build mystery, tension or surprise.
9-10.RL.6
Analyze how different points of view and cultural experiences come through in literature, drawing on a wide range of stories, poems and plays.
9-10.RL.7
Compare how a subject or key scene is shown in two art forms, like a poem and a painting, and what each one highlights or leaves out.
9-10.RL.9
Analyze how an author borrows from and reshapes earlier source material in one work, like a novel that retells a Greek myth.
9-10.RL.10
Read and understand ninth-grade, then tenth-grade, stories, drama and poetry skillfully and independently by the end of each year.
Reading Standards for Informational Text
10 standards9-10.RI.1
Support a reading of a novel, play or poem with strong, thorough quotations, covering both what it states outright and what you infer from it.
9-10.RI.2
Find an essay or speech's central idea, trace how it emerges and how specific facts and examples sharpen it, and summarize the text objectively.
9-10.RI.3
Analyze how an author builds an argument or a chain of ideas or events, looking at the order of points, how each is brought in and grown, and how they link.
9-10.RI.4
Pin down figurative, connotative and technical meanings in nonfiction and analyze how word choices build up to shape meaning and tone, like in a court ruling.
9-10.RI.5
Show in detail how particular sentences, paragraphs or a whole chapter build and sharpen a nonfiction author's ideas or claims.
9-10.RI.6
Pin down an author's purpose or stance and analyze the rhetoric that pushes it, like repetition, appeals to emotion or a pointed question.
9-10.RI.7
Compare accounts of the same subject in different media, like a biography and a documentary about the same person, and say which details each one stresses.
9-10.RI.8
Map out a text's argument and claims, judge whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence relevant and sufficient, and flag false statements and logical fallacies.
9-10.RI.9
Analyze landmark primary documents with historical and literary weight, like a famous speech or charter, and how they handle related themes and ideas.
9-10.RI.10
Read and understand ninth-grade, then tenth-grade, informational texts and nonfiction skillfully and independently by the end of each year.
Writing Standards
10 standards9-10.W.1
Argue a substantive topic or text in writing with a precise claim, a counterclaim weighed for its strengths and limits, linked sections, a formal tone and a close.
9-10.W.2
Explain a complex topic in writing, sorting ideas to show connections, adding headings or figures where they help, using precise terms, and closing on why it matters.
9-10.W.3
Write a story that opens on a problem, sets up a narrator and point of view, weaves dialogue, pacing and more than one plot line, and closes with a reflection.
9-10.W.4
Match how a piece of writing is developed, organized and styled to its task, its purpose and the people who will read it.
9-10.W.5
Plan, revise, edit and rewrite, or try a new approach, to improve their writing, focusing on what matters most for its purpose and readers.
9-10.W.6
Write, publish and keep updating a piece online, alone or with a group, using links and flexible displays like an embedded chart or an expandable section.
9-10.W.7
Run short and longer research projects on a question you pose or are given, narrowing or widening it as needed and weaving several sources into one account.
9-10.W.8
Use advanced searches to find authoritative print and online sources, judge how useful each is to your question, and weave them in selectively with MLA or APA citations.
9-10.W.9
Use evidence from stories and informational texts in writing, like details that show a character in depth or the reasons an author gives for a point.
9-10.W.10
Write regularly for many tasks, purposes and audiences, from a research paper drafted and revised over weeks to a response finished in a single sitting or a day or two.
Speaking and Listening Standards
6 standards9-10.SL.1
Lead discussions on grades 9 to 10 texts, arriving with evidence, setting rules with peers, tying questions to larger ideas and revising your view when warranted.
9-10.SL.2
Combine information from several sources in different media, like videos, data and interviews, judging how trustworthy and accurate each one is.
9-10.SL.3
Judge a speaker's viewpoint, logic, evidence and persuasive techniques, and spot faulty reasoning or evidence that is exaggerated or twisted.
9-10.SL.4
Present findings and evidence clearly, briefly and logically in a style fit for the audience and task, with good eye contact, enough volume and clear speech.
9-10.SL.5
Use digital media like slides, audio or interactive graphics on purpose in presentations to make findings and evidence clearer and more engaging.
9-10.SL.6
Adapt how they speak to different situations and tasks, using polished formal English when it is expected, like in a mock trial or a job interview.
Language Standards
6 standards9-10.L.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
9-10.L.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
9-10.L.3
Notice how language works differently in a lab report, a poem and a speech, and write and edit to a style manual such as the MLA Handbook when the task calls for one.
9-10.L.4
Work out an unfamiliar word in grades 9 to 10 reading from context, from word families like analyze and analytical, or from a specialized dictionary, then verify it.
9-10.L.5
Explain a nonliteral phrase like take steps, name someone who is friendly to link a word to real life, and rank knew, believed and suspected by how sure they are.
9-10.L.6
Build and use the academic and subject-specific vocabulary needed for college and career reading and writing, looking up on your own any word that matters to an idea.
The official Arizona documents
- Arizona English Language Arts Standards: 9-10th Grade · adopted December 2016 · since 2018-19
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Arizona's standards, not the official wording, which Arizona Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.