Craft & Structure How is this text written? Why?
BENCHMARK
TIP TO SUPPORT
Use context to understand unfa- miliar words and phrases in a text, and explain how certain words affect meaning. Explain how a particular chapter, scene, stanza, paragraph, or section fits into a text in a way that helps develop the ideas, theme, or plot. Determine the point of view of a text, and describe how the author develops it.
Look out for words and phrases in a text that your child doesn’t know. Ask him or her to try to figure out what they mean by reading the sentences around them. Ask your child why the author chose to use that particular word or phrase.
Point out a specific sentence, paragraph, or chapter in a storybook or nonfiction text and ask your child to explain to you what makes it important and how it helps develop the text.
Ask your child who is telling the story, or who is making the argument, in the text he or she is reading, and what the author or narrator might have been thinking while writing it. Then discuss what details in the text show this.
Integration of Knowledge & Ideas How do the different parts of this text connect to one another? How does this text connect to other texts?
BENCHMARK
TIP TO SUPPORT
Discuss the differences between a presentation of a story and reading it. Use information from both media and text to understand a topic. Identify which points and claims in a text are supported by reasons and evidence, and which are not. Compare and contrast how a theme is used in multiple stories, and two authors’ nonfiction accounts of an event.
Compare and contrast a book your child has read to a movie based on it. Watch a movie on a nonfiction topic your child is studying. Discuss everything your child knows about that topic when you’ve finished.
Ask your child what points an author is trying to make and whether there is specific evidence in the text to directly support each one. Ask if the reasons an author gives make sense.
Discuss how themes such as “kindness is rewarded” appear differently in different stories. Ask your child to explain how one author’s presentation of a nonfiction event is different from another author’s that he or she has read.
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Family Guide to Literacy | Grade 6
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