Exploring how different authors approach the same subject is the central focus of RI.9 in middle school. When instructors decide how to teach RI.9 in middle school, they will want to find resources that challenge students and ask them to think deeply about different writings on the same topic.
Have you ever thoroughly explored a topic you were interested in? Maybe it was a particular show you liked, an NFL team you followed, or a historical event you were infatuated with. No matter what the subject, you likely found a variety of different authors and commentators approaching the same team, topic, or even exact moment through a variety of different lenses. Each uses specific evidence to support their very pointed opinion.
This is the basis of the 9th standard in the Common Core’s Informational Reading category.
RI.9 instructs teachers to help students understand how two or more authors writing about the same topic can change or shape their presentations by picking and choosing specific details or evidence to focus on.
This standard begins to get exciting in middle school as it asks students to think and consider the choices of the authors and commentators they are reading or listening to.
I like exploring how to teach RI.9 in middle school because the student discussions, opinions, and personal connotations become a significant hurdle we must overcome as we attempt to remain neutral and evidence-based while working with this standard.
As we start discussing how to teach RI.9 in middle school, let’s start with the learning targets!
Learning Targets
By focusing on learning targets, we can model our lessons to hit particular goals and skills. In this post, we discuss how we break down each standard and make a plan for learning, practicing, and reviewing the standards throughout the year using the checklists below.
In the blog post, you can read all about how I use these checklists to guide my instruction and help me organize all the activities and projects we’ll do throughout the year as we learn, practice, and review each skill in the middle school ELA standards.
One of the key parts of planning for the many standards we have to cover in middle school ELA is to break down each standard into manageable learning targets. Learning targets allow us to focus our attention on the specific nuances of each standard and the different pieces of understanding students need to have to master the standards.
Here are the learning targets on which we developed our resources for RI.9.
Teaching RI.6.9 (6th Grade)
6th Grade Standard: Compare and contrast one author’s presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir and a biography of the same person).
6th Grade Learning Targets
- I can identify events common in two or more texts.
- I can identify the author’s presentation of similar events.
- I can explain how similar events are depicted by different authors by comparing and contrasting the methods used by the authors.
Teaching RI.7.9 (7th Grade)
7th Grade Standard: Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts
7th Grade Learning Targets
- I can compare how two or more authors present the same information differently
- I can analyze their different emphases of evidence and interpretations of fact.
Teaching RI.8.9 (8th Grade)
8th Grade Standard: Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.
8th Grade Learning Targets
- I can judge a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic.
- I can identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.
Growing through Middle School
The differences between the 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade RI.9 standards are not vast. The standards ask students to reflect and dig into two or more texts on the same topic or event. The standards ask students to pull out the evidence, evaluate it, and focus on the goals of each interpretation.
One significant difference between the 7th and 8th-grade standards, however, is that the 8th-grade standard wants students to find conflicting examples. However, the 7th-grade standard does not clarify whether the articles or pieces of writing must be conflicting or not.
Knowing the standards are very similar means that many of the activities that work for 7th grade will also work for 8th grade and vice versa.
Resources for teaching RI.9
When picking resources to help teach RI.9, you’ll want to make sure the resource teaches, practices, and reviews the standard at the appropriate level for the students you’re working with. Since all three standards ask students to look into two articles or pieces of writing on the same topic, you’ll want to make sure that any resources, paired passages, or pieces of content you use are appropriate for the student’s grade level and have at least two pieces that cover a single topic.
Our RI.9 resources include activities that focus on each learning target. They also have passages and texts specifically designed for their individual levels as well as project ideas, handouts, answer keys, and posters if needed.
Click on the links below to take a closer look at these RI. 9-specific resources!
Activities and Projects for Practicing and Assessing RI.9 in Middle School
Here are a couple of sample activities from our RI.9 resources you can use in your own classroom!
- Our Chronicles Activity: In pairs, students write their own interpretations of a single event and then compare/contrast their interpretations with their partner’s. This is such a fun activity for all students but is included in the 6th-grade resource.
- Same Topic, Different Articles: Explore two articles on the same topic. Answer the same set of questions about both articles. Questions will cover the type of information provided by each article, the angle the article took, the tone of the article, and which article the student prefers. We have a handout for this activity in the 8th-grade resource!
- Shaping Interpretation Chart: Track the research provided by different articles on the same subject. Identify each as a pro or con (in relation to the topic), and explain how that piece of research develops the point of view of the author. We have a handout for this activity in the 8th-grade resource.
- Good or Bad Human Scale: Determine one side of the room as the ‘Good’ side and one side of the room as the ‘Bad’ side. Read a fact out loud and ask students to decide whether the fact is a good thing or a bad thing. They will then move to the side of the room that aligns with their feelings. Ask students to explain the reasons for their choices. A list of facts to use for this activity is available in both the 7th and 8th-grade resources we have created for this standard.
Ensuring your students understand and master the standards feels like a huge challenge, and we understand that. That is why we create standards-focused resources that provide teachers with activities, lessons, and assessments that explicitly teach each of the middle school ELA standards.
Hopefully, the learning targets, resource suggestions, and activity ideas have inspired you as you explore how to teach RI.9 in middle school!