CCRA.R.6: How Point of View and Purpose Shape a Text

Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-60 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Two sentences about the same Saturday car wash: (1) 'The car wash raised $412 for the eighth-grade trip, with 26 volunteers washing 103 cars at $4 each.' (2) 'We were soaked, sunburned and laughing by noon, and somehow we washed over a hundred cars.' Who might have written each one, and what was each writer trying to do? Underline one word or number that gave it away."

   Take answers. Sentence 1 sounds like a treasurer's report or a school newsletter: its purpose is to inform, so it gives exact numbers. Sentence 2 sounds like a participant writing to a friend: its point of view is from inside the event, so it gives feelings and a rough count. Both are true. The difference comes from who is writing and why, which is exactly what CCRA.R.6 asks students to assess.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms for the whole period.

   • Point of view: in literature, the position from which a story is told (a first-person narrator says "I"; a third-person narrator stands outside the story). For any author, it also means the author's attitude or position on the topic.
   • Purpose: the reason a text was written: to inform, persuade, instruct, entertain, record or express.
   • Content: what a text includes, leaves out and emphasizes.
   • Style: how a text is written: word choice, sentence length, formality, tone and how it speaks to the reader.
   • Irony: a gap between what is said and what is meant, or between what a character believes and what the reader can see.

   The question to ask. Not only "What is the purpose?" but "What did the purpose make the author put in, leave out and sound like?" Diagram 1 shows this chain.

   How the anchor grows. The table lists every grade-level standard that carries CCRA.R.6 in grades 6-12, with a short paraphrase of what each band adds.

   Progression of CCRA.R.6 in grades 6-12

   Grade-level standard	Band and text type	What this band adds
   RL.6.6	Grade 6, literature	How an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker
   RL.7.6	Grade 7, literature	How an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators
   RL.8.6	Grade 8, literature	How gaps between what characters know and what the reader knows (for example dramatic irony) create suspense or humor
   RL.9-10.6	Grades 9-10, literature	A point of view or cultural experience in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on wide reading of world literature
   RL.11-12.6	Grades 11-12, literature	Point of view that depends on telling what a text says from what it means (satire, sarcasm, irony, understatement)
   RI.6.6	Grade 6, informational	Determining an author's point of view or purpose and explaining how the text conveys it
   RI.7.6	Grade 7, informational	Adds how the author sets his or her position apart from the positions of others
   RI.8.6	Grade 8, informational	Adds how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints
   RI.9-10.6	Grades 9-10, informational	Adds how the author uses rhetoric to advance the point of view or purpose
   RI.11-12.6	Grades 11-12, informational	Texts with especially effective rhetoric: how style and content give the text power, persuasiveness or beauty
   RH.6-8.6	Grades 6-8, history/social studies	Identifying what reveals an author's point of view or purpose, such as loaded language or the inclusion or avoidance of particular facts
   RH.9-10.6	Grades 9-10, history/social studies	Comparing two or more authors' points of view on the same topic, including which details each includes and emphasizes
   RH.11-12.6	Grades 11-12, history/social studies	Evaluating authors' differing points of view on the same event or issue by assessing their claims, reasoning and evidence
   RST.6-8.6	Grades 6-8, science and technical	The author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure or discussing an experiment
   RST.9-10.6	Grades 9-10, science and technical	The same, plus defining the question the author seeks to address
   RST.11-12.6	Grades 11-12, science and technical	The same, plus identifying important issues that remain unresolved

   Model text. The Moonstone (1868), by the English novelist Wilkie Collins, is an early detective novel about a diamond stolen from a country house. Collins tells it through several narrators, each writing only what he or she saw. After a short prologue taken from an old family paper, the first narrator is Gabriel Betteredge, the family's elderly house-steward (the head servant). He has just been asked by the family's nephew, Mr. Franklin Blake, to write the first part of the story. His chapter opens with a sentence he found in his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe: "Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it." The passage below is the end of that chapter. Because the novel is English, it also suits the grades 9-10 focus on literature from outside the United States.

   1In those terms I was informed of what my personal concern was with the matter of the Diamond. If you are curious to know what course I took under the circumstances, I beg to inform you that I did what you would probably have done in my place. I modestly declared myself to be quite unequal to the task imposed upon me—and I privately felt, all the time, that I was quite clever enough to perform it, if I only gave my own abilities a fair chance. Mr. Franklin, I imagine, must have seen my private sentiments in my face. He declined to believe in my modesty; and he insisted on giving my abilities a fair chance.

   2Two hours have passed since Mr. Franklin left me. As soon as his back was turned, I went to my writing-desk to start the story. There I have sat helpless (in spite of my abilities) ever since; seeing what Robinson Crusoe saw, as quoted above—namely, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. Please to remember, I opened the book by accident, at that bit, only the day before I rashly undertook the business now in hand; and, allow me to ask—if that isn’t prophecy, what is?

   3I am not superstitious; I have read a heap of books in my time; I am a scholar in my own way. Though turned seventy, I possess an active memory, and legs to correspond. You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that such a book as Robinson Crusoe never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice—Robinson Crusoe. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—Robinson Crusoe. I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoes with hard work in my service. On my lady’s last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price four shillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.

   4Still, this don’t look much like starting the story of the Diamond—does it? I seem to be wandering off in search of Lord knows what, Lord knows where. We will take a new sheet of paper, if you please, and begin over again, with my best respects to you.

   • Point of view shapes content

     In paragraph 1, what does Betteredge tell us about how he answered Mr. Franklin, and what does he add that no outside observer could know?

     Result: He reports what he said aloud, that he "modestly declared myself to be quite unequal to the task," and then what he really thought: "I privately felt, all the time, that I was quite clever enough to perform it." Only a first-person narrator can give both. The content of the paragraph is shaped by his point of view: we get his private opinion of himself, and it is a high one.

   • Point of view shapes style

     How does Betteredge speak to his reader in paragraph 1? Find a sentence that shows it.

     Result: He talks to the reader as if across a table: "If you are curious to know what course I took under the circumstances, I beg to inform you that I did what you would probably have done in my place." The style is chatty, polite and a little formal, the voice of a servant used to addressing his employers. A neutral narrator would simply report what happened.

   • The reader sees more than the narrator (grades 8 and up)

     Paragraph 2 ends by calling the Robinson Crusoe passage "prophecy." Paragraph 3 opens "I am not superstitious." What does the reader notice that Betteredge does not?

     Result: Treating a passage from a novel as a prophecy is a superstitious habit, so the reader catches a contradiction that Betteredge, who insists "I am a scholar in my own way," does not. The gap between what the narrator believes about himself and what the reader sees creates the humor. That is the effect RL.8.6 describes.

   Diagram 2 sets what Betteredge says about himself beside what readers notice. Point out that Collins never tells us Betteredge is vain or superstitious; the narrator's own words show it.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Same event, two purposes. The two short texts below were written for this lesson; the town of Ashford, its bridge and its people are invented. The first is a city press release (an announcement sent to newspapers). The second is from the newsletter of the town's historical society, a club that collects and preserves local history. Read both, then work through the steps with the class.

   1ASHFORD, June 9 - The Mill Creek footbridge on Water Street reopened to walkers and cyclists on Saturday, June 7, after a four-month replacement project that finished two weeks ahead of schedule and under its $1.2 million budget.

   2The new steel-and-concrete bridge is 3.6 meters wide, enough room for bicycles and strollers to pass side by side, and it meets current accessibility standards with a gentle ramp at each end. Lighting along the deck makes the crossing safer after dark.

   3"This bridge connects two neighborhoods, the public library and the high school," said Public Works Director Ana Ruiz. "Residents can now cross it safely for the next seventy-five years."

   4The previous bridge, built in 1911, was closed last year after an inspection found corrosion in its supports. A bronze plaque from the original bridge has been mounted at the east entrance.

   5For more information about city projects, contact the Department of Public Works at City Hall.

   1For more than a century, the iron footbridge over Mill Creek carried Ashford across the water. Mill workers crossed it at dawn on their way to the textile mill. Children dropped sticks from its rail and ran to the other side to see whose stick came out first. Couples carved their initials into its wooden deck, and each time the deck was replaced, a new generation carved theirs.

   2This spring the old bridge came down. Its lattice railings, shaped by hand at the Barlow Iron Works on Front Street, were cut apart and sold for scrap. Only the bronze plaque survived. It now hangs on the new bridge, where most people walk past it without a glance.

   3No one disputes that the old bridge had to close. The inspectors found real rust in the supports, and nobody wants a child on a bridge that might fail. But the Society asked the city twice, in writing, to save one section of railing for the town museum. We never received an answer.

   4The new bridge is wide, bright and safe. It is also exactly like a thousand other bridges. Walk across it this summer, and when you reach the east end, stop and read the plaque. It is all that is left of the bridge your great-grandparents knew.

   1. Who, for whom, why. Ask: "Who wrote each text, for which readers, and for what purpose?" Teacher note: the city writes for the public and the press, to announce the reopening and to present the project as a success. The society writes for its members and neighbors, to record the old bridge's history and to say what the town lost.
   2. Shared facts. Ask: "Find two facts that appear in both texts." Teacher note: both say the old bridge was closed because of rust in its supports (press release paragraph 4, "corrosion in its supports"; newsletter paragraph 3, "real rust in the supports"), and both say the new bridge is wide and safe. Shared facts show that the two authors agree on what happened and differ on what matters.
   3. What only the city includes. Ask: "What does the press release include that the newsletter leaves out?" Teacher note: the cost and the budget, the schedule, the width in meters and the accessibility ramps. Each of these supports the city's purpose: showing money well spent.
   4. Opening sentences. Ask: "Compare the first sentence of each text. What does each choose to put first, and how does it sound?" Teacher note: the press release opens with a dateline, a date and three facts about time and money; the newsletter opens with "For more than a century" and says the bridge "carried Ashford across the water," giving the bridge an almost human role. Each opening tells readers what kind of text they are in.
   5. Assess, do not just name (grades 9-12). Ask: "Is either text false?" Let pairs answer before you discuss: neither contains a false statement. The purposes shape the selection and the voice, not the facts, and that is why readers need both kinds of reading.
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Rewrite with a new purpose. Students choose paragraph 2 or paragraph 4 of the press release and rewrite it as the historical society might, or choose paragraph 2 of the newsletter and rewrite it as the city might. They may not add facts that neither text supports. Under the rewrite, they fill in a two-row chart: Content I kept, cut or added and Style I changed (words, sentence length, tone), with one reason for each change.

   Grades 6-8 rewrite two or three sentences and may use the starter "Our purpose is to ___, so we ___." Grades 9-12 rewrite the full paragraph and add one sentence assessing which version a reader should trust more for which kind of information.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: Complete this sentence about any text from today: "Because the author's purpose (or the narrator's point of view) is ___, the text includes ___ and sounds ___." Then name one thing the text leaves out.

   Teacher note on the 1868 and 1869 texts: Betteredge jokes about times when "my wife plagued me" and when he has "had a drop too much" (paragraph 3). These are part of his comic self-portrait and reflect the humor of the period. Barnum, in the homework, writes that "Men and women are selfish" and pictures a newspaper reader who "speaks of it to his wife," which assumes the reader is a man; point out the assumption. The homework excerpt leaves out a short anecdote about a drunken man; the cut is marked [...].

   For homework: students read the excerpt below from The Art of Money Getting, a lecture by P. T. Barnum (1810-1891), the American showman who founded a famous museum of curiosities and, later, the circus that carried his name. He gave the lecture many times, and its text was first printed in 1869. The section advises readers on advertising. Just before this excerpt, Barnum compares advertising to farming: a farmer sows first and reaps later. Its paragraphs are numbered 1-6.

   1[...] If a man has a genuine article, there is no way in which he can reap more advantageously than by "sowing" to the public in this way. He must, of course, have a really good article, and one which will please his customers; anything spurious will not succeed permanently because the public is wiser than many imagine. Men and women are selfish, and we all prefer purchasing where we can get the most for our money and we try to find out where we can most surely do so.

   2You may advertise a spurious article, and induce many people to call and buy it once, but they will denounce you as an impostor and swindler, and your business will gradually die out and leave you poor. This is right. Few people can safely depend upon chance custom. You all need to have your customers return and purchase again. A man said to me, "I have tried advertising and did not succeed; yet I have a good article."

   3I replied, "My friend, there may be exceptions to a general rule. But how do you advertise?"

   4"I put it in a weekly newspaper three times, and paid a dollar and a half for it." I replied: "Sir, advertising is like learning--'a little is a dangerous thing!'"

   5A French writer says that "The reader of a newspaper does not see the first mention of an ordinary advertisement; the second insertion he sees, but does not read; the third insertion he reads; the fourth insertion, he looks at the price; the fifth insertion, he speaks of it to his wife; the sixth insertion, he is ready to purchase, and the seventh insertion, he purchases." Your object in advertising is to make the public understand what you have got to sell, and if you have not the pluck to keep advertising, until you have imparted that information, all the money you have spent is lost. [...]

   6So a man who advertises at all must keep it up until the public know who and what he is, and what his business is, or else the money invested in advertising is lost.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A city accident report and a poem written about the same storm both describe its wind. What best explains why the two descriptions differ?

   AEach author's purpose leads to different choices of detail and wording. BOne of the two authors must have reported the storm's wind wrongly. CPoems are not able to describe real weather events with accuracy. DAccident reports always use more words than poems written about the same event.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 3 of the excerpt from The Moonstone, Betteredge names the times he turns to Robinson Crusoe: when his "spirits are bad," when he wants "advice," and when he has "had a drop too much." What does this list reveal about him?

   AHe reads many different books whenever he feels unhappy. BHe treats one novel as his guide for every part of his life. CHe finds Robinson Crusoe dull and reads it only when made to. DHe is writing the story of the Diamond for Robinson Crusoe.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does Betteredge tell readers, "Though turned seventy, I possess an active memory, and legs to correspond"?

   ATo explain why he has not yet started writing the story BTo admit that he no longer trusts his memory of the events CTo assure readers that his account of events can be trusted DTo complain that Mr. Franklin has given him too much work

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which word best describes Betteredge's tone toward Robinson Crusoe in paragraph 3?

   Abitter Bfearful Cformal Daffectionate

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How would paragraphs 2-4 of the excerpt most likely change if Mr. Franklin narrated them instead of Betteredge?

   AThe talk about Robinson Crusoe and Betteredge's view of himself would mostly disappear. BThe excerpt would include more of Betteredge's private thoughts about his own abilities. CThe narration would become more chatty and would speak to "you" more and more often. DBetteredge's love of Robinson Crusoe would be described in even greater detail.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which fact appears in the historical society's newsletter but not in the city's press release?

   AThe new bridge has lighting along its deck. BThe old bridge's railings were sold for scrap. CThe old bridge was first built in 1911. DThe work finished two weeks ahead of schedule.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the press release most likely leave out what happened to the old railings?

   AThe city had no way of knowing what happened to its railings. BPress releases are not allowed to mention a bridge's history. CThe railings had already been saved for display in the museum. DThe fact would not help present the project as a success.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Both texts mention the bronze plaque from the old bridge. How does each author's purpose shape the way the plaque is described?

   AThe release presents it as an honor; the newsletter stresses that few people notice it. BThe release calls it new and modern; the newsletter says the city itself made it. CBoth texts describe it in the same words because it is a simple fact about the bridge. DThe release says it was lost; the newsletter says it hangs at the west entrance.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 3 of the newsletter begins, "No one disputes that the old bridge had to close." Why does the author include this sentence?

   ATo show that the Society now agrees the new bridge cost too much BTo admit the city's strongest point before making the Society's complaint CTo blame the city's inspectors for closing a bridge that was still safe to use DTo explain how the Society first learned about the rust in the supports

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which phrase from the newsletter reveals its point of view most clearly through word choice?

    A"This spring the old bridge came down" B"The inspectors found real rust in the supports" C"exactly like a thousand other bridges" D"on their way to the textile mill"

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The press release quotes the director: "Residents can now cross it safely for the next seventy-five years." What does this quotation add for the release's purpose?

    AAn official voice promising lasting safety, which makes the cost look well spent BA personal memory of the old bridge, which honors the town's long history CA warning about the bridge's weak supports, which tells residents to be careful DA complaint about the old bridge's closing, which answers the historical society

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The newsletter ends: "It is all that is left of the bridge your great-grandparents knew." Why does the author use the word "your"?

    ATo show that only the Society's members ever used the old bridge BTo make the loss feel personal, part of each reader's own family past CTo prove that the author's own family built the old iron bridge DTo tell readers that the new bridge will last only one generation

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A lab manual says: "Rinse the probe with distilled water before each reading." A science article about the same lab says: "Rinsing the probe keeps one sample from mixing with the next." What difference in purpose explains the difference in wording?

    AThe manual describes an experiment's results; the article lists all of its materials. BThe manual tries to entertain readers; the article tries to persuade them. CThe manual instructs readers to do a step; the article explains why it matters. DThe manual gives a personal opinion; the article reports a historical event.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A school newspaper column says: "What a triumph: the new parking lot has room for every car and not a single tree to get in the way." What is the writer's real point of view?

    AThe writer is proud that the parking lot is now large enough. BThe writer wants more cars to be able to park at the school. CThe writer thinks the trees were blocking the drivers' views. DThe writer is unhappy that the trees were cut down for it.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how Betteredge's point of view shapes the content of paragraph 3 of the excerpt from The Moonstone. What does he include that a narrator focused only on the Diamond would leave out, and why does he include it?

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one fact that appears in both the press release and the newsletter. Compare how each text treats that fact, and explain what the difference shows about each author's purpose.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Grades 11-12: The newsletter says the Society "asked the city twice, in writing," to save a section of railing and "never received an answer." Evaluate this claim. What evidence does the newsletter give, and what would you need to know to judge it fairly?

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write two or three sentences about the reopened footbridge for a new purpose: a safety notice for cyclists posted at the bridge. Use only facts from the press release. Then explain one content choice and one style choice your purpose required.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Apart from its first sentence, paragraph 1 of the newsletter describes how people used the old bridge. Identify two choices the author makes in those sentences and explain how each advances the Society's purpose.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Besides what Betteredge says directly about himself, name two ways Wilkie Collins develops Betteredge's point of view in the excerpt. Quote an example of each.

    Show model answer

These are the grade-level standards that carry anchor CCRA.R.6 in grades 6-12, plus closely related anchors.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.