Mississippi Standards
Mississippi English III ELA Standards
All 41 Mississippi English language arts standards for English III, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Mississippi Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
41 standards
Reading Literature
9 standardsRL.11.1
Quote the strongest lines from a novel, play or poem to back a reading of it, including a point it only implies, and say where the text leaves a question open.
RL.11.2
Identify the themes of a literary text, analyze how details interact across it to create a layered whole, and write an accurate summary based on that analysis.
RL.11.3
Analyze how an author's choices about setting, the order of events, and how characters are introduced and developed shape a story or play.
RL.11.4
Work out what words mean in a Shakespeare play or a modern poem, including double meanings and strikingly fresh phrasing, and say how they color the tone.
RL.11.5
Explain how choosing where a story begins or ends, or giving it a comic or tragic ending, shapes its overall structure, its meaning and its beauty.
RL.11.6
Analyze a passage where grasping the point of view means telling what is said apart from what is meant, like in satire, sarcasm, irony or understatement.
RL.11.7
Compare several versions of a play, like a live staging and a film of Hamlet or an American drama, and judge how faithfully each one reads the script.
RL.11.9
Know the foundational American literature of the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s, and show how two works from the same era handle a shared theme.
RL.11.10
By the end of eleventh grade, read and understand stories, plays and poems in the grades 11 and 12 range, with support on the hardest ones.
Reading Informational Text
10 standardsRI.11.1
Quote the strongest lines from a novel, play or poem to back a reading of it, including a point it only implies, and say where the text leaves a question open.
RI.11.2
Identify several central ideas in a nonfiction text, analyze how they interact and build on each other into a complex argument, and summarize it accurately.
RI.11.3
Explain how the people, ideas and events in a complex nonfiction account interact and develop from its opening to its close.
RI.11.4
Work out figurative, loaded and technical meanings in nonfiction, and track how a writer sharpens a key term, as Madison does with faction in Federalist No. 10.
RI.11.5
Judge whether the way an essay or argument is organized makes its points clear, convincing and engaging, and say what works and what does not.
RI.11.6
Find the purpose behind a powerful speech or essay and explain how its style and content give it force, persuasion or beauty.
RI.11.7
Pull together several sources on a question, including charts, data, images and text, weigh each one, and use them to answer it or solve a problem.
RI.11.8
Lay out and judge the reasoning in seminal American texts, like how a Supreme Court opinion or dissent applies the Constitution or how The Federalist argues its case.
RI.11.9
Analyze the themes, purposes and persuasive techniques of founding U.S. documents from the 1600s to 1800s, like the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.
RI.11.10
By the end of eleventh grade, read and understand literary nonfiction in the grades 11 and 12 range, with support on the most demanding texts.
Writing
10 standardsW.11.1
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.
W.11.2
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.
W.11.3
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.
W.11.4
Match how a piece of writing is developed, organized and styled to its task, its purpose and the people who will read it.
W.11.5
Refine drafts through planning, revision, editing, rewriting or starting fresh, putting the focus on what matters most for the intended readers and purpose.
W.11.6
Publish writing online and keep updating it as feedback, new arguments or new information come in, on your own or with a group.
W.11.7
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.
W.11.8
Use advanced searches to gather from trusted sources, weigh each one's strengths, and blend facts in smoothly, citing properly without plagiarism or leaning on one source.
W.11.9
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.
W.11.10
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
6 standardsSL.11.1
Lead and join discussions on grades 11 and 12 issues prepared with research, keep talk civil, probe reasoning, hear all positions, and pull together claims from every side.
SL.11.2
Combine information from visual, numerical and spoken sources to make decisions and solve problems, judging each source's credibility and noting where data disagree.
SL.11.3
Judge a speaker's stance, premises, evidence and rhetoric, from how the ideas link up to word choice, emphasis and tone.
SL.11.4
Present findings with a clear and distinct perspective, address opposing views, and fit the organization, substance and style to formal and informal occasions alike.
SL.11.5
Choose digital media for a presentation strategically, like a chart for data or a short audio clip, where each one makes the reasoning clearer or adds interest.
SL.11.6
Adjust speech to many situations and tasks, using skilled formal English when needed, like in a college interview or a formal presentation.
Language
6 standardsL.11.1
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.
L.11.2
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.
L.11.3
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.
L.11.4
Clarify unknown and multiple-meaning words in eleventh grade reading using context, word-change patterns like perceive and perception, print or digital references, and checking meanings.
L.11.5
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.
L.11.6
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 Mississippi documents
- 2025 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for English Language Arts · adopted 2025 · required since 2025-26
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Mississippi's standards, not the official wording, which Mississippi Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.