Help your students master both sets of reading standards with this breakdown of the Reading Literature and Informational Reading standards for middle school ELA.
Sometimes, it feels like ELA teachers get the short end of the stick when it comes to standards.
Not only are there a lot of ELA standards, but they are also super vague at times, making them hard to assess and hard to plan for. We have to plan, review, and assess nine Reading Literature Standards, nine Informational Reading Standards, nine Writing Standards, five Language Standards, and five Speaking and Listening Standards.
Many of them also have to be assessed through longer writing assignments…which is not usually very much fun, especially when you have 130+ students.
Luckily, most of the standards work well together. For example, we can practice writing about our analysis of informational reading material or speak about the books we’re reading as part of our literature units.
Thank goodness we are able to practice these many standards together.
Mastering these ELA standards is difficult, though, as many ELA teachers have a preference for one or two of these standards groups over the others. For example, some teachers really like nonfiction and informational literature, while others love reading and analyzing novels.
Today, in an effort to make planning easier, we are going to discuss the major differences between the Reading Literature Standards and the Reading Information Standards in middle school ELA.
RL Standards vs. RI Standards
We’ve written a dedicated blog post for each of the RL and RI standards. If there is a specific standard you’d like to look into and learn about in more detail, click on the appropriate link below.
Reading Literature Posts
Reading Informational Standard Posts
At their most basic level, the RL standards deal with fictional writing, and the RI standards focus on nonfiction or informational writing. Each covers a variety of different types of literature that fall into those categories.
For example, the RL standards can be practiced using poetry, short stories, dramas, novels, etc. Likewise, RI standards can be practiced using newspaper articles, journal articles, nonfiction books, reference texts, etc.
Let’s go through each standard set and discuss its similarities and differences. For this exercise, we’ll focus on the 7th-grade standards, as these fall right in the middle of the middle school experience.
Standard 1
- RL.1 – Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- RI.1 – Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
As you can see, these standards are exactly the same. This means that we just need to make sure students practice citing textual evidence from both literature and informational texts, and we should be good!
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 2
- RL.2 – Determine a theme and/or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
- RI.2 – Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text
The main difference between these standards is that we don’t use the word theme in relation to informational texts. Knowing this difference could build a great speaking and listening practice opportunity around why this might be. Why would “theme” not be used with informational texts? It is a key part of the reading literature standards.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 3
- RL.3 – Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how settings shape the characters or plot).
- RI.3 – Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events or how individuals influence ideas or events).
This is where the standards start to differ quite a bit. In the Reading Literature standards, standard 3 is focused on the elements of a story. This is when we start busting out the story element lists and discussing how dramas are created and performed.
On the other hand, the Informational Reading Standard focuses on how informational texts might use the interactions between people, events, and ideas to influence readers. Obviously, these are very different, and each one needs to be taught exclusively. In our RI. 3 unit resource and our RL.3 unit resource, we have handouts, activities, and assessments for each of these incredibly different standards.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 4
- RL.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama
- RI.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
Now, the 4th standard includes a little bit of the same and some very key differences.
For example, both standards focus on determining the meaning of words and phrases, but the informational standard specifically mentions technical meanings, so you’ll definitely need to pull out some examples of technical meanings while studying informational texts.
Additionally, the reading literature standard also has a heavy focus on poetry or verse writing, mentioning rhyme and sound repetition. This will be a lesson that you’ll focus on while studying literature, but you won’t need to focus on when reading informational texts.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 5
- RL.5 – Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
- RI.5 – Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
Standard 5 is all about structure, but obviously, the structure is going to change based on the type of reading you’re doing. If you’re reading a passage from a reference book, you’ll see more headings and subheadings, but if you’re reading from a blog post, you’ll see other types of structure.
The reading literature standard here specifically focuses on poetry in 7th grade, so there is a big difference in how you’ll teach each of these standards.
Again, we have units built out for EVERY ELA middle school standard, so you’ll want to click on the images below to learn more about these units and how our resources can help you teach them in a way that will help your students master them!
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 6
- RL.6 – Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
- RI. 6 – Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes their position from that of others.
Standard 6 is all about the authors’ choices in both informational texts and when reading literature, but we use different terms to discuss these.
In the Reading Literature standard, students are asked to look more deeply into the point of view of the characters; however, the Informational Reading standard is all about determining the author’s purpose and how they use their purpose to present the information/position.
Again, these are very different, so you’ll want to read the blog posts below to learn more about how we’ve broken these units down.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 7
- RL.7 – Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film)
- RI. 7 – Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).
Although the words used in this standard are very different from RL to RI, they are actually asking for the same thing. They ask students to view the same piece or topic in multiple ways to see how the different versions of the story or the events compare and contrast.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Standard 8
- RL.8 – Reading Standard is not applicable to literature
- RI. 8 – Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
Standard 8 is not applicable to literature, so in this situation, the Informational Reading standard stands on its own!
Read the full blog posts about this standard by clicking on the images below!
Standard 9
- RL.9 – Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history
- RI. 9 – Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing the different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
Standard 9 is another place where the RL and RI standards differ greatly, and each needs to be addressed as their own units.
Both standards discuss how authors can frame a topic to meet the needs of their writing, but they do it in very different ways depending on whether they are writing a piece of fiction or an informational piece.
Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!
Reading Standard Resource Bundles
As you consider how you’ll teach the Reading Literature and Informational Reading Standards this year and do it in a way that your students will master both sets of reading standards, you may find yourself needing some help.
If you want to take the guesswork out of teaching reading this year, check out our full 6th, 7th and 8th grade reading literature and information bundles in our Tpt Store! Each is fully built out and includes EVERY standard listed for that category!
Happy Planning!
Why Learning Targets (Curriculum)
How to teach RL.1 in Middle School 
How to Teach W.8 in Middle School ELA