Reading Literary Text 1 (RL 1):
Anchor Standard: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from
it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Grade 7: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
Grade 8: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL 1: Make Inferences Based on the Text
The teacher may choose to have students complete this organizer in full, or the teacher may provide the excerpts
from the text and ask students to make valid inferences based on these teacher-selected excerpts.
RL 1: Cite Textual Evidence to Support Conclusions
The teacher may choose to have students complete this organizer in full, or the teacher may complete a portion
and asks students to complete the rest. For example, the teacher may fill in the conclusions and then ask
students to provide the evidence from the text. Or, the teacher may provide the excerpts from the text and ask
students to draw valid conclusions from those excerpts.
RL 1: Support Your Conclusions
The teacher may choose to have students complete this organizer in full, or the teacher may complete a portion
and ask students to complete the rest. For example, the teacher may want students to find evidence for
particular conclusions. In this case, the teacher will fill in the boxes under Conclusion 1 and 2, and the student
will complete the other boxes with quotes from and/or direct references to the text. Another option is the
teacher provides Conclusion 1 and the student provides Conclusion 2 and evidence to support both conclusions.
RL 1: Inference, Evidence, and Analysis
Students will make inferences and draw conclusions as they read through a text and use a graphic organizer to
link their analysis of what the text says to evidence from the text itself. Students use this visual in order to
generate critical thinking and promote the use of evidence.
RL 1: Identify Elements of the Story
The teacher will use this organizer when asking kids to find evidence stated explicitly in a text. For example,
“Provide an excerpt from the text that describes the story’s setting.” Or, “Provide an excerpt from the story that
states the main conflict.” The teacher will adjust these questions according to the story being studied. The
teacher may choose to ask specific questions in the left column or to simply list the literary elements that are
explicitly stated in the text.
RL 1: Analyze Characterization
The teacher may choose to have students complete this organizer in full, or she may want to assign a particular
character and/or trait. In a novel study, the teacher could ask students to track one or more characters
throughout the novel using several copies of this organizer.
RL 1:
Make Inferences Based on the Text
DIRECTIONS: In the left column, write 5 important excerpts from the text. In the right column, write a valid
inference based on the excerpt.
Chapter or Story Title: ______Hatchet Chapter 6 _____________________
Excerpt from the Text
The Reader’s Inference
1. p. 57
“If his mother hadn’t begun to see him
and forced the divorce, Brian wouldn’t
Brian is extremely angry at his mom and
he blames her for his current situation.
be here now.”
2. p. 58
“Simple. Keep it simple. I am Brian
Robeson. I have been in a plane crash. I
Brian talks to himself to keep his sanity. He
is losing it because he is so hungry.
am going to find some food.”
3. p. 57
“He could not believe it was that easy.
It was as if the birds had taken him
right to the berries.”
4.
5.
Brian realizes that to find the berries he
just has to watch where the birds are
because they are eating the berries too.
RL 1:
Make Inferences Based on the Text
DIRECTIONS: In the left column, write 5 important excerpts from the text. In the right column, write a valid
inference based on the excerpt.
Chapter or Story Title: ___________________________________________
Excerpt from the Text
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Reader’s Inference
RL 1:
Cite Textual Evidence to Support Conclusions
DIRECTIONS: In the left column, the teacher or the reader will write 3 conclusions drawn from the text. In
the right column, the reader will quote an excerpt from the text to support each conclusion.
Chapter or Story Title: ____________________________________________________________
Conclusion from the Text
1.
2.
3.
Textual Evidence Supporting the Conclusion
Support Your Conclusions
RL 1
Textual Evidence
Conclusion 1
Conclusion 2
Support Your Conclusions
RL 1
Textual Evidence
Of Mice and Men
CH. 1
“… he walked heavily, dragging his
feet a little, way a bear drags his
paws. His arms did not swing at his
sides, but hung loosely.”
Conclusion 1
“His huge companion dropped his blankets
The author often compares Lenny
to an animal. This helps the reader
understand that Lenny acts out of
instinct like an animal; he is closer
to the natural world than the human
one.
and flung himself down and drank from the
surface of the green pool; drank with long
gulps, snorting into the water like a horse.”
“Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water
and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in
little splashes; rings widened across the pool
o the other side and came back again.”
Conclusion 2
Inference, Evidence, and Analysis
RL 1
Title and /or Chapter ___________________________________________________________
Inferences
Evidence
Analysis
What conclusions can I draw?
How can I prove it with
evidence from the text?
How does it relate to theme,
character, conflict, or meaning?
Identify Elements of a Story
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the text according to what it says explicitly by finding details about each of the
following: (The teacher should choose the elements for column 1 that apply to the story being studied.) In the
left column, write a short description of the literary element in your own words. In the right column, record an
excerpt of the text where this is explicitly stated.
Title:
Hatchet
Literary Elements
Setting
Hatchet is set in an isolated
Evidence from the Text
Quote: (pg. ______)
“There were tall pines, the kind with no limbs until
area of the forests of northern very close to the top, with a gentle breeze sighing in
Canada.
them, but not too much low brush. Two hundred
yards up there seemed to be a belt of thick, lower
brush starting…that formed a wall he could not see
Conflict
The conflict is man against
nature. Brian has to survive
alone in the wilderness after
through.”
Quote: (pg. ______)
“He was deep in the woods and didn’t have any matches,
couldn’t make a fire. There were large things in the woods.
There were wolves, he thought, and bears – other things.
his plane crashes.
In the dark he would be in the open here, just sitting at the
Resolution
Brian finds a transmitter on
Quote: (pg. ______)
“’You’re him, aren’t you? You’re that kid? They quit
the wrecked plane and
looking, a month, no, almost two months ago. You’re
accidentally turns it on. A
him, aren’t you? You’re that kid…’”
bottom of a tree.”
pilot picks up the signal and
he is rescued.
Theme
A person can survive extreme
circumstances if he is
determined and refuses to
give up no matter how
hopeless the situation seems.
Quote: (pg. ______)
“‘You are your most valuable asset. Don’t forget that.
You are the best thing you have.’ “
Identify Elements of a Story
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the text according to what it says explicitly by finding details about each of the
following: (The teacher should choose the elements for column 1 that apply to the story being studied.) In the
left column, write a short description of the literary element in your own words. In the right column, record an
excerpt of the text where this is explicitly stated.
Title:
Literary Elements
Evidence from the Text
Setting
Quote: (pg. ______)
Protagonist
Quote: (pg. ______)
Antagonist
Quote: (pg. ______)
Conflict
Quote: (pg. ______)
Resolution
Quote: (pg. ______)
Theme
Quote: (pg. ______)
Analyze Characterization
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: Readers use clues from the text to understand characters and their personality traits. Identify
an important trait of a character in the story. Then, in the left column, record excerpts from the text that
illustrate that trait. In the right column, write your explanation of how the text illustrates the character trait.
Title:
Character:
Character Trait:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Analyze Characterization
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: Readers use clues from the text to understand characters and their personality traits. Identify
an important trait of a character in the story. Then, in the left column, record excerpts from the text that
illustrate that trait. In the right column, write your explanation of how the text illustrates the character trait.
Title:
Hatchet
Character:
Brian Robeson
Character Trait: Intelligent
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
“What had he read or seen that told him about
Brian uses what he learned from watching a TV
food in the wilderness? Hadn't there been
show. His thinking leads him to the berries that
something? A show, yes, a show on television
about air force pilots and some kind of course
make his first meal in the wilderness.
they took. A survival course.”
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
“Patience, he thought. So much of this was
Brian has really grown up. He is smart enough
patience - waiting, and thinking and doing
to know that he has to be patient and use his
things right. So much of all this, so much of all
living was patience and thinking.”
brain to survive.
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
“It (the turtle) had come up from the water for
In order to understand the creatures around him,
a reason, a good reason, and he must try to
Brian realizes, he needs to learn to think in a whole
understand the reason, he must change to fully
new way. It's not just a case of missing knowledge,
understand the reason himself or he would not
but of developing a totally different way of looking at
make it.”
the world around him.
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Quote: (pg. ______)
Explanation:
Cite Textual Evidence to Support Inferences
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: In the left column, record 10 important excerpts from the text. In the right column, write your
understanding of the excerpt – your inference.
Title and /or Chapter ___________________________________________________________
Excerpt, “Golden Line”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Explanation or Inference
Cite Textual Evidence to Support Inferences
RL 1
DIRECTIONS: In the left column, record 10 important excerpts from the text. In the right column, write your
understanding of the excerpt – your inference.
Title and /or Chapter _____Of Mice and Men, Chapter 1____________________
Excerpt, “Golden Line”
1. “That ranch we’re goin’ to is right down there about a
quarter mile. We’re gonna go in an’ see the boss. Now,
look—I’ll give him the work tickets, but you ain’t gonna say
a word. You jus’ stand there and don’t say nothing.
2.
“O.K.,” said George. “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad
things like you done in Weed, neither.”
3. “God, you’re a lot of trouble,” said George. “I could get
along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I
could live so easy and maybe have a girl.”
4. George still stared morosely at the fire. “When I think
of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I
never get no peace.”
5. “If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a
cave. I can go away any time.”
“No—look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you to
stay with me.”
6. Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em." He paused.
"Tell you what I'll do, Lennie. First chance I get I'll give you
a pup. Maybe you wouldn't kill it.”
7. "With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got
somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.”
8. Lennie broke in. “But not us! An’ why? Because
. . . . because I got you to look after me, and you got me to
look after you, and that’s why.”
9. “O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and
we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a
cow and some pigs and—”
10. Well, look. Lennie—if you jus’ happen to get in trouble
like you always done before, I want you to come right here
an’ hide in the brush.”
“Hide in the brush,” said Lennie slowly.
Explanation or Inference