5.10
Knowledge and Skills Statement (Standard Cluster)
The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading
Cluster contents
Student Expectations in This Statement
5.10 is a knowledge and skills statement. These are the student expectations under it.
- 5.10.A
explain the author's purpose and message within a text
- 5.10.B
analyze how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose
- 5.10.C
analyze the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes
- 5.10.D
describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices achieves specific purposes
- 5.10.E
identify and understand the use of literary devices, including first- or third-person point of view
- 5.10.F
examine how the author's use of language contributes to voice
- 5.10.G
explain the purpose of hyperbole, stereotyping, and anecdote.
Teacher's field guide
What This Cluster Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain what an author wants readers to think, feel, or do and state the text’s message. They analyze how structure, graphics, viewpoint, voice, and language choices shape meaning. They use selected techniques in their own writing.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can identify a craft choice, point to evidence, and explain its effect on purpose or message. The student can compare choices across texts and use a deliberate structure, viewpoint, or language choice when writing.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often confuse the topic, purpose, and message. They may name a device without explaining its effect, treat graphics as decoration, or assume the narrator is the author. They may also read hyperbole literally or accept stereotypes as facts.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short text with a heading, image, and figurative phrase. Ask, “What are the author’s purpose and message, and how does one craft choice support them?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a cut-up article with headings and image captions; students rebuild it, then explain how the arrangement supports the author’s purpose.
Read two accounts of one event, then ask, “How do viewpoint and word choice change what readers think or feel?”
Play craft-and-effect matching with cards showing similes, anecdotes, hyperbole, sound devices, structures, and possible effects on readers.
Examine a public service poster, then redesign one graphic or phrase to make its purpose clearer for a chosen audience.
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