Missouri Standards
Missouri Grades 9–10 ELA Standards
All 34 Missouri English language arts standards for grades 9–10, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
34 standards
Reading Literary Text
12 standards9-10.RL.1.A
Build conclusions and inferences about literature on thorough, relevant quoted evidence that covers both what the text states and what it implies.
9-10.RL.1.B
Determine what words and phrases mean in literature, including figurative and connotative shades, using context, word parts, or a dictionary.
9-10.RL.1.C
Interpret visual elements in a literary work, like the art in a graphic novel adaptation, and draw conclusions from them when present.
9-10.RL.1.D
Identify two or more themes in a work, trace how each develops, connect them to life experience, and write a brief objective summary.
9-10.RL.2.A
Analyze how an author's choices about structure, event order, or handling of time, like flashbacks or pacing, affect the reader.
9-10.RL.2.B
Analyze how a story's point of view shows up in its characters, setting, and plot, like a narrator whose bias colors each scene.
9-10.RL.2.C
Analyze how specific word choices and sentence patterns build up over a text to shape its meaning and tone.
9-10.RL.2.D
Analyze how complex characters change across a text, moving the plot forward and developing the theme.
9-10.RL.3.A
Analyze several performances of the same story, play, or poem and evaluate how each version interprets the original text.
9-10.RL.3.B
Explain how and why an author refers to or reshapes source material, like a modern novel retelling a Greek myth.
9-10.RL.3.C
Analyze how several literary texts reflect the history or culture of their times and places.
9-10.RL.3.D
Read ninth and tenth grade stories, plays, and poems on your own and understand them fully and accurately.
Reading Informational Text
12 standards9-10.RI.1.A
Build conclusions and inferences about nonfiction on thorough, relevant quoted evidence, for what the text says outright and what it implies.
9-10.RI.1.B
Determine word meanings in nonfiction, including figurative, connotative, and subject-specific terms like due process, using context, word parts, or references.
9-10.RI.1.C
Interpret visuals in nonfiction, including ones from other media like data charts or video, and draw conclusions from them when present.
9-10.RI.1.D
Explain two or more central ideas in a text, trace how they develop, explain why they matter, and write a brief objective summary.
9-10.RI.2.A
Analyze how an author's choices about structure or the order of information, like saving key data for the end, affect the reader.
9-10.RI.2.B
Analyze how an author uses rhetoric, like appeals to emotion, logic, or credibility, to advance a point of view or purpose.
9-10.RI.2.C
Analyze how word choices and sentence patterns add up across a nonfiction text to shape its meaning and tone.
9-10.RI.2.D
Evaluate an argument by judging whether its reasoning is valid and its evidence relevant and sufficient, and identify false statements and fallacies.
9-10.RI.3.A
Analyze how similar ideas or topics are shown in different media formats, like a news article, podcast, and documentary.
9-10.RI.3.B
Evaluate how well two or more texts develop similar ideas or topics, like two essays on climate policy.
9-10.RI.3.C
Analyze how several nonfiction texts reflect the history or culture of the times and places they come from.
9-10.RI.3.D
Read ninth and tenth grade informational texts, like speeches and research articles, on your own and understand them fully.
Writing
4 standards9-10.W.1.A.a
Research a question or problem, including your own, adjusting its scope as needed, using several credible print and digital sources cited in a standard format.
9-10.W.1.A.b
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.2.A
Plan and draft clear writing for its task and audience, choosing and blending narrative, explanatory, and argument techniques learned earlier as needed.
9-10.W.3.A
Revise for organization, focus, and audience, sharpen word choice and syntax, vary transitions, fix grammar, and publish or update writing with technology.
Speaking and Listening
6 standards9-10.SL.1.A
Work with classmates to set rules for respectful discussion and decisions, plus clear goals, deadlines, and individual roles as needed.
9-10.SL.1.B
Evaluate a speaker's argument and evidence, link the talk to bigger ideas with questions, draw others in, and clarify or challenge conclusions.
9-10.SL.1.C
Respond thoughtfully to different viewpoints, summarize where people agree and disagree, settle contradictions when possible, and name what more research is needed.
9-10.SL.2.A
Present at a good volume and pace with clear, accurate pronunciation, staying on point, suiting language to the audience, and avoiding fillers like um.
9-10.SL.2.B
Keep steady eye contact with the whole audience, use effective gestures to engage listeners, and avoid distracting body language or habits.
9-10.SL.2.C
Plan and give concise, logical presentations suited to the audience, using multimedia strategically to clarify findings, reasoning, and evidence and add interest.
The official Missouri documents
- Missouri Learning Standards: 6-12 English Language Arts Grade-Level Expectations · adopted April 2016 · since 2016-17
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Missouri's standards, not the official wording, which Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.