Kentucky Reading and Writing RI.9-10.6
The Standard
Determine an author’s point of view, perspective and purpose in a text, and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
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 identify what an author believes, the perspective shaping that view, and what the author wants readers to think or do. They explain how word choice, examples, or appeals help the author make that case.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an opinion piece, students can name the author’s position, perspective, and purpose. They quote a phrase and explain how it persuades readers, rather than just calling it emotional.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name the topic instead of the author’s position or assume the purpose is always to inform. They may mistake a person quoted in the text for the author. Some can spot persuasive language but cannot explain its effect.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short editorial by a student asking for later school start times. Ask them to name the writer’s view and goal, then quote one phrase and explain how it helps persuade readers.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed editorial; have them highlight claims in blue and persuasive word choices in yellow, then annotate what each yellow phrase does.
Have students write two opening sentences about a phone ban, one as a principal and one as a student, then compare their wording.
Give groups four lines from an editorial and four effect cards; have them match each line to its intended effect.
Show a phone plan ad and its pricing fine print; students underline wording that pushes a purchase and explain whose interests it serves.
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Printable RI.9-10.6 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- RI.11-12.6
Determine an author's point of view, perspective and purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribu...
- 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.8.6
Determine an author's perspective and purpose in a text, and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
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