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Kentucky Standards

Kentucky Grades 9–10 ELA Standards

All 31 Kentucky English language arts standards for grades 9–10, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Kentucky Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

31 standards

Reading Standards for Literature

9 standards
RL.9-10.1
Support an analysis of a story, poem or play with strong, thorough evidence, both for what it states directly and for what can be inferred from it.
RL.9-10.2
Identify a theme or central idea in a literary work and analyze in depth how it first appears and is shaped and sharpened by specific details as the text goes on.
RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complicated characters grow across a text, deal with other characters, and move the plot forward or build its themes.
RL.9-10.4
Work out figurative and connotative meanings in literature and analyze how word choices add up across a text to shape meaning and tone, like dark images building dread.
RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices about structure, the order of details and time, like flashbacks or pacing, create effects such as emotional impact or character growth.
RL.9-10.6
Analyze how a writer's perspective or cultural background shows in works of world literature from different times and places, like a novel from colonial Nigeria.
RL.9-10.7
Analyze how a subject or key scene is portrayed in different mediums, like a painting and a poem, and judge what each version stresses or leaves out.
RL.9-10.9
Analyze two or more texts from different eras to judge how each author's approach to a shared theme or topic shapes its effect.
RL.9-10.10
Regularly read complex 9th and 10th grade novels, plays and poems on their own, using background knowledge and varied strategies to understand and analyze them.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

10 standards
RI.9-10.1
Back up an analysis of nonfiction, like a speech or an editorial, with strong, thorough evidence for both what it states and what it implies.
RI.9-10.2
Identify central ideas in a nonfiction text and analyze in depth how they take shape and are sharpened by specific details from start to finish.
RI.9-10.3
Analyze how an author lays out an analysis or a chain of ideas or events, including the order of points, how each is introduced and built, and the links drawn between them.
RI.9-10.4
Work out figurative, connotative and technical meanings in nonfiction and analyze how word choices together shape meaning and tone, like legal terms giving a speech authority.
RI.9-10.5
Analyze closely how particular sentences, paragraphs or larger sections of a text develop and sharpen an author's ideas or claims.
RI.9-10.6
Figure out a writer's viewpoint, perspective and purpose, and analyze how rhetoric, like appeals to emotion or authority, moves that view or purpose forward.
RI.9-10.7
Analyze accounts of one subject told in different print and non-print formats, like a news article and a documentary, and identify which details each one stresses.
RI.9-10.8
Evaluate a text's argument, claims and evidence, judging if the reasoning is valid and the evidence relevant and sufficient, and spot false statements and faulty logic.
RI.9-10.9
Analyze key historical and literary documents, like the Declaration of Independence, including how they take up related themes and ideas.
RI.9-10.10
Regularly read complex 9th and 10th grade nonfiction like essays and speeches on their own, applying background knowledge and flexible strategies to understand and analyze it.

Composition

7 standards
C.9-10.1
Write arguments about substantial topics or texts with precise claims, fairly weighed counterclaims, valid reasoning and strong evidence, revising for purpose and audience.
C.9-10.2
Explain complex ideas in formal, objective informative writing, organizing them to show key connections and backing them with well-chosen facts, definitions and examples.
C.9-10.3
Weave narrative into essays and arguments for a purpose, like a story that introduces an idea or backs a claim, using reflection, vivid details and well-ordered events.
C.9-10.4
Use digital tools to create, publish and update solo or group work, linking to other information and showing it in flexible ways, and cite sources in several formats.
C.9-10.5
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.
Common Core W.9-10.7
C.9-10.6
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.
Common Core W.9-10.8
C.9-10.7
Write routinely, from extended research papers to on-demand essays, for a wide range of tasks, purposes and audiences.

Language

5 standards
L.9-10.1
In speech and writing, use parallel structure, like to read, to write and to think, and choose phrases and clauses that fit the task, build structure and add variety.
L.9-10.2
When writing, use a semicolon, with or without a word like however, to join closely related clauses, use a colon to introduce a list or quote, and fix spelling errors.
L.9-10.3
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.
Common Core L.9-10.3
L.9-10.4
Work out unknown words using context, word-form patterns like analyze and analysis, and specialized references, and build academic vocabulary on their own for college and careers.
L.9-10.5
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.
Common Core L.3.5

The official Kentucky documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Kentucky's standards, not the official wording, which Kentucky Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.