Virginia SOL 6.RI.2.B
The Standard
Explain how an author’s word choice, organizational pattern, and language structure convey the author’s purpose.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Craft and Style
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students determine why an author wrote an informational text. They explain how specific words, the order of ideas, and sentence patterns help communicate that purpose.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly identify whether an author aims to inform, explain, persuade, or entertain. They cite specific words, text patterns, and sentence choices, then explain how each one supports that purpose.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name the topic instead of the author’s purpose. They may identify a strong word, text pattern, or sentence type without explaining how it serves that purpose. They may also confuse the order of ideas with the events described.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short paragraph with a clear purpose. Ask them to name the purpose and explain how one word choice, one text pattern, and one sentence pattern help convey it.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a cut-up article to reorder, then have them label how headings, transitions, and sequence support the writer’s goal.
Ask students to write: Which three words best reveal the author’s purpose, and what effect does each create?
Play Purpose Match with short passages and cards naming techniques, such as repetition, comparison, cause and effect, and loaded language.
Compare a school announcement and an advertisement for the same event, then identify how each text’s structure and wording serve its purpose.
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Printable 6.RI.2.B Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 9.RL.2.B
Explain how an author’s specific word choices, syntax, tone, and voice shape the meaning of the text.
- 7.RI.2.B
Analyze how an author’s word choice, organizational pattern, and language structure impact the author’s purpose and support the reader’s comprehension.
- 11.RI.2.A
Examine how textual elements and organizational patterns contribute to meaning and the author’s purpose.
- 6.RL.2.B
Explain elements of author’s style as purposeful choices (e.g., imagery, figurative language, and word choice) to develop tone.
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