Rhode Island Grade 6 English

Find an Author’s Purpose

Explain how an author conveys a point of view or purpose in an original Grade 6 reading activity. Read the passage, try the task, and use the explanation to check the evidence behind your response.

Curriculum reference: Rhode Island Core Standards for English Language Arts/Literacy, 2021, from the Rhode Island English language arts standards page.

Rhode Island Grade 6 references for this activity

Rhode Island’s Council on Elementary and Secondary Education endorsed the Rhode Island Core Standards for English language arts/literacy and mathematics on March 9, 2021. This activity links a selected reading reference in RIDE’s 2021 English document. The complete curriculum also includes writing, language, speaking, and listening; check the school’s texts and learning sequence.

These selected reference labels identify an activity focus, with the correct grade 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.

A letter about the makers’ bench

This original classroom example is separate from official assessment questions.

Dear classroom committee,

Please keep one bench available for unfinished models. When a model must be taken apart each afternoon, the next session begins with rebuilding rather than improving it. A labeled bench would let students save their work while keeping the other tables available. This proposal would need clear storage rules and a weekly review. I am asking for a small trial, not permanent storage for every project.

Signed, a student model builder

Try the activity

Identify the letter’s purpose and explain how its wording conveys that purpose. How do the limits in the last two sentences shape the proposal?

Follow the reasoning

The author wants the committee to try reserving a bench for unfinished models. “Please keep” makes a request, and the explanation about rebuilding supplies a reason for it. The author presents the bench as a way to preserve models while leaving other tables available. The storage rules, weekly review, and “small trial” qualify the proposal: the author anticipates practical concerns and asks for a limited experiment. Those choices convey a viewpoint favorable to the bench without claiming unlimited storage is desirable. The signature identifies the writer’s role in this fictional setting, but the purpose is established through the request, supporting explanation, and boundaries. A response should explain what the words do, not only label the text “persuasive.”

Notice what needs more practice

The letter does not prove that the committee agrees, that the classroom has enough space, or that a trial succeeds. The author’s purpose and the eventual result are separate questions.

Use the next session to build independence

1. Identify the action requested.
2. Connect the explanation and qualifying language to that request.
3. Distinguish the author’s purpose from an outcome not reported.

Read a teacher-approved letter or article. Identify its purpose and explain how a request, reason, comparison, or qualification conveys it.

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

Rhode Island Grade 6 English: useful planning questions

Is identifying the topic enough to explain purpose?

No. Topic names what the text concerns. Purpose explains what the author aims to do with that topic and how the text conveys that aim.

Which standards does the school use?

Rhode Island’s Council on Elementary and Secondary Education endorsed the Rhode Island Core Standards for English language arts/literacy and mathematics on March 9, 2021. This activity links a selected reading reference in RIDE’s 2021 English document. The complete curriculum also includes writing, language, speaking, and listening; check the school’s texts and learning sequence. The school’s sequence also includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language work beyond this example.