Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.8.6
The Standard
Determine an author’s perspective and purpose in a text, and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
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 figure out what the writer thinks about a topic and what the writer wants readers to think or do. They find where the writer brings up a different view or conflicting fact and explain how the writer handles it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can name the writer's view and purpose, then cite words that show each. They can identify an objection or conflicting fact, explain the writer's reply, and say whether it answers the concern.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name the topic, such as school start times, instead of the writer's view on it. They may treat a mention of the other side as a reply, or assume a reply answers the concern without checking.
How to Assess It
- Put this on the board: 'Our school should start later so teens can sleep more. Some parents worry about early child care, but the school could open an early drop-off room.' Ask students to state the writer's view and purpose, underline the parents' concern, and explain the writer's reply.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have pairs use three sticky note colors to tag a school lunch editorial's position, opposing view, and reply, then write its purpose.
Read a school start-times editorial aloud, then ask: 'Which objection does the writer raise, and does the reply actually answer it?'
Give groups sentence strips from a later-start-times editorial and race to sort them into position, opposing view, and reply.
Bring a school board letter about phone rules; students mark its goal, a parent concern it mentions, and the writer's reply.
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Printable RI.8.6 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.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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