A step-by-step guide for how to teach RL.1 in middle school ELA.
Today, we are talking about explicit and implicit evidence!!
As students get into middle school, they start to see the difficulty of the reading standards increase quite a bit. Once students are in middle school, they are asked to spend a lot more time on Bloom’s higher levels of taxonomy, including both inference and synthesizing information, and this all starts with the first standard for reading literature.
In RL.1, students are specifically looking at citing textual evidence and inference at different levels as they work their way through the middle grades.
We have created resources to explicitly teach each standard, and whether you are teaching 6th, 7th, or 8th grade, we have a resource you can work through with your students to help them master their learning and understanding of each standard.
As we start talking about how to teach RL.1 in middle school, let’s start with the learning targets!
When starting to plan for a standard, start with the learning targets. To get the learning targets, break down the standard into 3-5 parts.
Here are the learning targets on which we developed our resources for RL.1.
6th Grade Standard: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
6th Grade Learning Targets
7th Grade Standard: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
7th Grade Learning Targets
8th Grade Standard: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
8th Grade Learning Targets
As students move through middle school, this standard asks them to move from simply identifying evidence that could support their analysis of the text to asking them to find several examples and then finally to consider and choose the STRONGEST supports for their analysis.
As we develop projects and practice, we can acknowledge the differences at each level. If a student is only finding one piece of evidence to support their finding in 6th grade that aligns with and meets the expectation of the standard, but if they are only able to identify a single piece of evidence as a 7th or 8th grader, they need more work.
Explicit information is information that is clearly stated in the text and leaves no room for confusion or questions.
Implicit information is information that is NOT clearly stated in the text. It is implied and understood, although it is not directly expressed.
The words explicit and implicit are used in the standards. Although some teachers may try to skirt around using that language in the classroom, it is really better to teach students what implicit and explicit mean and then explain what they mean in the context of the standard.
In each of our resources for this standard, we have included a poster explaining the difference between explicit and implicit information and a lesson you can use to teach and practice finding explicit information.
When picking resources to help teach RL.1 in middle school, you’ll want to make sure the resource teaches, practices, and reviews the standard at the appropriate level for the students you’re teaching.
Each of our resources for this standard…
…teaches the standard from introduction to assessment in a way that allows the teacher to know that their students are getting the information at their grade level.
The resources include posters and resources students can refer to throughout the unit as well as activities and projects that specifically align with their grade level and learning targets.
Ensuring your students understand and master the standards doesn’t have to be difficult. However, if you don’t break down the standard, figure out and explicitly design your lessons to meet the learning targets, then it’s possible to leave out important parts of the standard (for example, teaching explicit vs. implicit information).
