RI.1.A: Evidence Detective
Textual evidence consists of specific facts, details, or direct quotes taken from a reading passage to support an author's claim or back up a reader's ____________.
What is an inference (or conclusion)?
Clues hidden in surrounding sentences or paragraphs that help a reader figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word are called ____________.
What are context clues?
An effective summary must always be objective, meaning it leaves out all personal ____________.
What are opinions, feelings, judgments, or biases?
"Despite starting with rocky, worn-out ground in Mansfield, Missouri, pioneer author Laura Ingalls Wilder used smart crop choices and timber harvesting to transform her land into a thriving, self-sustaining farm."
Based on this text, what logical conclusion can be drawn about Laura's strategy for overcoming agricultural challenges?
What is using strategic planning, hard labor, and problem-solving rather than giving up?
"Building the Gateway Arch presented daunting physical challenges, as workers laboured high above the Mississippi River without modern safety harnesses."
Based on the surrounding text, name a synonym for the word daunting.
What is intimidating, terrifying, overwhelming, or difficult?
A student summary that lists every shoe size, salary amount, minor dates, and random trivia is incorrect because it focuses on what instead of the big picture?
What are minor supporting details (or fluff)?
"Because the Gateway Arch legs were built simultaneously from ground level up, an error of even 1/64th of an inch at the base would prevent the steel sections from meeting properly at the top."
Based on this quote, what architectural quality was needed in constructing the Arch?
What is extreme mathematical precision?
"Critics raved that when prima ballerina Maria Tallchief danced Firebird, she 'preened, shimmered, and glorified in speed and airy freedom.'"
The author uses descriptive verbs like "shimmered" and "glorified" to establish this overall tone toward Tallchief's skill.
What is an admiring, celebratory, awe-struck, or respectful tone?
"George Washington Carver was easily the coolest scientist ever, and it was awesome how he saved Southern farming using peanut crop rotation."
Identify the specific flaw in this draft that causes it to fail standard RI.1.D.
What is using opinionated/subjective words ("coolest", "awesome") instead of maintaining an objective tone?
"Refusing employers who urged her to adopt the fake Russian stage name 'Tolchieva,' Maria Tallchief kept her birth surname to preserve her Native American identity throughout her global ballet career."
This statement provides evidence that Tallchief prioritized cultural pride over what?
What is fitting into traditional ballet expectations (or appealing to commercial norms)?
"Laura Ingalls Wilder’s simple yellow-tablet manuscripts grew into a global phenomenon, drawing thousands of fan-pilgrims to her Ozark farm annually."
The author uses the compound word "fan-pilgrims" instead of "tourists" to convey what about the visitors?
What is that the visitors feel a deep, meaningful, almost spiritual devotion to her work?
"Eero Saarinen won a contest in 1947. Workers built an arch out of 900 tons of steel. The centerpiece was 8 feet long, and firefighters sprayed cold water on it."
Explain why this 3-sentence draft fails as an effective summary of the Gateway Arch text under standard RI.1.D.
What is it collects isolated facts/minor details without explaining the text's central idea or significance?
"George Washington Carver encouraged Southern farmers to cultivate nitrogen-fixing crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes to revitalize soil depleted by decades of continuous cotton farming."
What inference can be drawn regarding the long-term environmental effect of single-crop farming prior to Carver's research?
What is that repeated single-crop farming (cotton) severely degraded soil health and threatened agricultural sustainability?
"Firefighters sprayed icy water to mitigate thermal expansion, shrinking the sun-heated steel legs just enough to slide the Arch's final centerpiece into place."
Based on structural context, define the word mitigate as used in this sentence.
What is to reduce, lessen, or relieve the severity of something?
State the three mandatory components required to achieve full mastery on a Missouri Standard RI.1.D summary assessment.
What are 1) Identifying central ideas, 2) Concise, and 3) Maintaining a neutral/objective tone?