New Hampshire Grade 6 English

Grade 6: explain purpose using a text’s choices

“To inform” and “to persuade” are useful starting labels, but a reader must explain how a text carries out its purpose. This original pair of short texts separates a topic from a purpose. Students consider what each writer selects, how the reader is addressed, and what response the text seeks. Follow this initial analysis with a suitable longer classroom nonfiction text.

Curriculum reference: 2010 Common Core ELA/literacy standards, original publisher’s document, from the New Hampshire school-approval rules (Ed 306.29).

New Hampshire Grade 6 references for this activity

New Hampshire’s current school-approval rules, Ed 306.29, allow local boards to use the adopted 2010 Common Core English standards or approved alternative academic standards. Confirm the school’s choice and competencies first. The selected Common Core references here were checked in the original publisher’s 2010 document, using the correct grade column. These references identify this activity’s focus and are not a complete local curriculum checklist.

These selected reference labels identify an activity focus, with the grade column and PDF page linked separately. Read the complete standards selected by the school and its learning sequence, including reading, writing, language, speaking, and listening. This short original example does not fulfill the entire curriculum or establish a student’s grade-level proficiency.

Same event, different work for the reader

This original classroom example is separate from official assessment questions.

Text A — The school’s project evening begins at six. Displays will be arranged in the hall, and students will explain their work beside them. The library will also be open during the event.

Text B — Come to project evening and ask students how their ideas changed. A finished display shows only part of the learning; a conversation can reveal the revisions behind it. Take a few minutes to hear those explanations.

Try the activity

Determine the main purpose of each text and explain how its wording conveys it. Identify a shared topic, then show why naming the topic alone does not answer the purpose question.

Follow the reasoning

Both texts concern project evening. Text A chiefly supplies practical event information: a starting time, locations, and arrangements. Text B encourages a particular kind of participation: coming to the event and asking about students’ changing ideas. Its direct invitations and explanation of what a conversation can reveal support that purpose. It includes information, but that information serves the appeal to participate thoughtfully. A reader should connect each purpose to its evidence rather than assuming that any text about a school event must do the same job.

Notice what needs more practice

Purpose and topic are not interchangeable. “Project evening” identifies what the texts concern, not what the writers want to accomplish. Avoid claiming that Text B contains no information simply because it encourages action. A text can use explanation within a persuasive purpose. These passages do not identify real writers or document an actual school event; the analysis concerns the wording supplied here.

Use the next session to build independence

1. Underline practical details in Text A and direct invitations in Text B. Explain the role each selected detail plays.
2. Write a purpose statement followed by a sentence explaining how the wording supports it. Check for evidence rather than a broad genre label.
3. Read a longer classroom nonfiction text and trace how its purpose is sustained across several sections. Note a detail that complicates the first impression.

For further practice, compare an event notice with a longer argument about participation in a real classroom reading assignment. Keep attribution clear and avoid inventing the author’s private motives. Discuss what the text asks or enables a reader to do, using specific features to support the explanation.

For more general reading and writing resources, visit the Grade 6 English Online Center.

New Hampshire Grade 6 English: useful planning questions

Can a persuasive text also provide information?

Yes. Text B explains why conversation can reveal revisions, and uses that explanation to encourage participation. Determine the main purpose from the text’s choices and requested response, rather than assuming purposes are mutually exclusive.

Which standards does the school use?

New Hampshire’s current school-approval rules, Ed 306.29, allow local boards to use the adopted 2010 Common Core English standards or approved alternative academic standards. Confirm the school’s choice and competencies first. The selected Common Core references here were checked in the original publisher’s 2010 document, using the correct grade column. These references identify this activity’s focus and are not a complete local curriculum checklist. The school’s sequence also includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language work beyond this example.