6.9.B
ELA6th Grade
The Standard
analyze how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify how a text is organized, such as cause and effect, problem and solution, or comparison. They explain how that organization helps the author achieve a specific purpose.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly identify the main structure and the author’s purpose. They explain how that organization helps inform, persuade, explain, or entertain, using details from the text.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name a structure without explaining its effect. They may also confuse the topic with the author’s purpose or assume every text follows only one structure.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short article organized as problem and solution. Ask: “How does this structure help the author achieve the purpose? Cite one detail.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a cut-up cause-and-effect article to reorder, then have them explain why that sequence supports the author’s purpose.
Ask students to write: “Why might an author choose compare-and-contrast instead of description to explain these two ideas?”
Play Structure Match by having teams pair short passages with structure cards and justify how each structure supports the author’s purpose.
Compare a product review and an instruction manual, then discuss how each text’s organization fits what its author wants readers to do.
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