Common Core Standards

Grade 7

Reading RI.7.6

Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.

Middle schoolers think they're hot stuff, and when they write about a topic, they think they're the first one to have ever have a specific idea. The sad news is, however, that many people have probably already had that same idea and written about it. This Common Core Standard shows students how they should talk about their ideas when others have already talked about it by having them analyze the ways other authors differentiate themselves from people with similar ideas. While analyzing texts, key words students might want to look for are "according to _____" and "this person says _____, but..."

Example 1

Here's an example lesson to use when students are reading African literature, both fiction and non-fiction.

Have students create a wiki page about the readings they have been exposed to that focus on Africa. Subcategories should emphasize how different authors see different issues as most important in the African crisis and reflect on these issues in their writing i.e. conservation, refugees and violence, child soldiers, and militant groups in the Middle East.

Aligned Resources

Teacher Guides

Video

ELA Drills, Advanced: Point of View 4

Aristotle

The observed gravitational effect between Common Core activities results from their warping of Shmooptime.