CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.6
The Standard
Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, identifying important issues that remain unresolved.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects 6—12
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why an author includes a particular explanation, set of steps, or account of an investigation. They use details from the text to identify limitations, open questions, and problems that are not yet settled.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how a section serves the author’s larger aim and cite wording, evidence, or organization that supports the explanation. The student can separate settled findings from limits, gaps, and questions the text leaves open.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name the topic instead of the author’s reason for including a section. They may treat a stated limitation as proof that a study is invalid, or invent unanswered questions unsupported by the text.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Choose one paragraph from today’s technical text. State why the author included it, cite one detail, and name one issue left unresolved.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups a printed lab report and three colors of sticky notes to mark the writer’s goal, supporting choices, and unresolved questions.
Ask students to write: Why did the author include this procedure, and what problem does the text leave open?
Play Purpose Detective with short technical passages, awarding a point for each purpose claim supported by a specific sentence.
Compare a news summary with the original study abstract, then list which limits or unanswered questions the summary omits.
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Printable RST.11-12.6 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.6, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Science & Technical Subjects progression map.
Before This Standard
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.6
Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.6
Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
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