Meaning Making
Meaning making is central in each of the strands of the CA
CCSS for ELA/Literacy in grades nine through twelve. Reading
standards for literature and informational text in English
language arts, as well as reading standards for literacy in
history/social studies, science, and technical subjects, require
students to analyze and evaluate ideas and authors’ purposes
from a range of types of texts and media formats that are
increasingly complex. Writing standards require students to
convey meaningful content as they use evidence from texts
they have read to present an argument, explain, and persuade.
Speaking and listening standards require students to participate
in collaborative discussions in which they pose and respond
to questions and challenge ideas and conclusions. Language
standards require students to both clarify and interpret nuances
of the meaning of words they read. As students engage with specific subject area disciplines, they are
expected to learn from what they read as texts become increasingly complex and academic. In other
words, as in all prior grades, deriving meaning from reading texts and hearing utterances and using
writing and speaking to derive and communicate meaning is central; meaning making overarches all
strands of the standards.
Meaning making is also emphasized in the CA ELD Standards, particularly in the standards for
the interpretive mode in Part I: “Interacting in Meaningful Ways,” which focuses on listening actively,
reading closely and viewing critically, evaluating how well writers and speakers use language, and
analyzing how writers and speakers use vocabulary and other elements of language for specific
purposes. The standards in Part II: “Learning About How English Works” are also critical for building
awareness and understanding of structures of the English language that ELs need in order to make
meaning of complex academic texts.
In grades six through eight, students learned about arguments and claims in texts for the first
time. By the end of grade eight, students learned to identify textual evidence that most strongly
supports an analysis (RL/RI.8.1; RH/RST.6–8.1), and they learned to determine a central theme
or idea and analyze it over the course of the text, identifying
relationships and connections among ideas, individuals, and
incidents (RL/RI.8.2–3). They analyzed how text structure
contributes to meaning, style, and development of ideas
(RL/RI.8.5), and they determined an author’s point of view or
purpose (RI.8.6). Students traced and evaluated specific arguments
and claims (RI.8.8) and distinguished among facts, reasoned
judgments, and speculation in a text (RH/RST.6–8.8). Students
also analyzed two or more texts with conflicting information
(RI.8.9) and analyzed relationships between primary and secondary sources (RH.6–8.9). In writing,
students learned to write arguments to support claims (W.8.1) in addition to writing explanations and
narratives. In speaking and listening, students evaluated speakers’ purposes and motives (SL.8.2) and
presented claims and findings orally (SL.8.4).
New to grades nine through twelve in the Reading strand, increasingly sophisticated levels of
analysis and interpretation are now evident in meaning making. Students are expected to grapple
with a multiplicity of sources, authors, motivations, representations, perspectives, themes and ideas,
and they analyze rhetorical features and synthesize multiple sources of information. The following list
alternates between standards for English language arts (ELA) and literacy in history/social studies,
In grades six through
eight, students learned
about arguments and
claims in texts for the
first time.672 | Chapter 7 Grades 9 to 12