Georgia 11.P.ST.2.a
The Standard
Develop and apply knowledge of author, audience, and context to discern and establish the purpose of texts being interpreted or constructed and to evaluate the extent to which those texts achieve those purposes. (I/C)
Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards · Practices (P) · Situating Texts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students determine who created a text, who it targets, what situation shaped it, and what it aims to accomplish. They evaluate whether the writer’s choices achieve that aim. They also use audience, context, and purpose to guide their own writing and speaking.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify the likely author, intended audience, context, and purpose using specific evidence. They explain whether tone, details, structure, and format work for that situation, then make purposeful choices in their own texts.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat purpose as a single label, such as inform or persuade, without explaining how the text serves that purpose. They may ignore context, assume the intended audience is everyone, or judge effectiveness based only on whether they agree with the message.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Give students a school announcement and ask, “Who is the audience, what is the purpose, and which two choices help or hinder that purpose?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups the same event details and audience cards, then have them create a flyer, email, or speech matched to their assigned audience.
Ask students to explain how a text would change if its audience shifted from parents to classmates, citing three specific revisions.
Play Purpose Match by having teams pair short texts with author, audience, context, and purpose cards, then defend each match.
Compare a product review, advertisement, and recall notice for one item, then identify how each writer’s situation shapes the message.
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