Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.2.6
The Standard
Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain or describe, and how that purpose shapes the content of the text.
Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Craft and Structure
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students work out what question an informational text answers, what it explains, or what it describes. They notice which details the author includes to do that job.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a short article, a student names its specific purpose, not just its topic. They point to a detail and explain how it helps the author answer, explain, or describe.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may say every nonfiction text is written 'to teach' without saying what it teaches. They may name the topic, such as frogs, instead of the purpose, such as explaining how frogs survive winter. They may choose an interesting detail that does not support the purpose.
How to Assess It
- Read: 'A turtle hides its head and legs inside its shell when danger comes; the hard shell keeps it safe from predators.' Ask: 'What is the author explaining, and which detail helps explain it?'
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a paragraph about beaver dams and sticky notes; have them mark details that explain how dams slow water and cross out unrelated facts.
Read one paragraph describing a bee's body and another explaining pollination; ask students to write why the authors chose different details.
Put 'answer,' 'explain,' and 'describe' on cards; read three short fact paragraphs and have teams choose a card and defend one detail.
Show a school lunch menu and a cafeteria allergy notice; ask what each helps readers learn and why they include different details.
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Printable RI.2.6 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- RI.7.6
Determine an author's perspective and purpose in a text, and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
- RI.6.6
Determine an author's perspective and purpose in a text, and explain how it is conveyed in a text.
- RI.7.5
Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the different sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
- RI.3.6
Distinguish their own perspective from that of the author of a text, and describe how various perspectives shape the content and style of a text.
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