CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.6

ELA6th GradeCraft and Structure

The Standard

Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students determine who is telling a story and what that narrator or speaker thinks, feels, knows, or believes. They explain how details and word choices reveal and develop that perspective.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students identify the narrator or speaker and describe that person’s attitude, knowledge, or bias. They use specific words, thoughts, descriptions, or events to explain how the perspective develops.
Common Misconceptions: Students may label the narration as first or third person, then stop without explaining how the perspective is built. They may confuse the narrator’s beliefs with the author’s beliefs or cite details without explaining their effect.
How to Assess It: Give students a short passage and ask: Who tells the story, and how do two specific details reveal that narrator’s attitude?

Lesson moves

Have pairs color-code a passage for the narrator’s thoughts, descriptions, dialogue, and missing information, then write one conclusion about the narrator.
Ask students to write: Which detail most clearly reveals the narrator’s attitude, and how would the passage change without it?
Play Point of View Detective by giving teams clue cards from a passage and awarding points for supported claims about the narrator.
Compare two eyewitness posts about the same event, then identify how each person’s word choices reveal a different perspective.

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