South Dakota ELA K.RI.6

ELAKindergartenReading Informational Text

The Standard

Identify the author's purpose for writing a text with prompting and support.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: With teacher support, children say why someone wrote an informational book or short text. They use a picture or detail from the text to explain their answer.
What Mastery Looks Like: After hearing a nonfiction page read aloud, a child says, 'The author wants to teach us how frogs grow.' The child points to a picture of tadpoles as a clue.
Common Misconceptions: Children may name the topic, like 'frogs,' instead of saying why the author wrote about it. They may say the author wrote it 'to make me happy' because they liked the book.
How to Assess It: Read aloud: 'A caterpillar eats leaves. Then it makes a chrysalis. A butterfly comes out.' Ask, 'Why did the author write this? Which part helped you decide?'

Lesson moves

Hand pairs a nonfiction frog book and sticky notes; have them mark one fact and tell why the author included it.
Read a page about frogs and ask, 'Why did the author write this page? Which picture or words give you a clue?'
Play purpose match: sort cards reading 'Frogs hatch from eggs' and 'First, put soil in a pot' under 'teach facts' or 'give steps.'
Read a school notice saying, 'Bring a coat. It will be cold tomorrow,' and ask why someone wrote it.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to K.RI.6, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Keep exploring

Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.