A student expectation is directly related to the knowledge and skills statement, is more specific about how students demonstrate their learning, and always begins with a verb. Student expectations are further broken down into their component parts, often referred to as “breakouts.”
A knowledge and skills statement is a broad statement of what students must know and be able to do. It generally begins with a learning strand and ends with the phrase “The student is expected to:” Knowledge and skills statements always include related student expectations.
Demonstrated Proficiency of ELA.6.9.A
Ask students to work in small groups to read the same text and explain what they believe to be the author’s purpose and message in the text. Require students to provide text evidence to support their responses. Allow for dialogue in which students ask each other questions and refine their perspectives based on the group discussion. By the end of the discussion, the group should come to a consensus response.
Further Explanation
In this assessment, students should be able to justify their understanding of the main point or idea being conveyed in a text. Once students understand the message of the text, they should be able to analyze how the author’s purpose has a specific effect on the reader such as to entertain, convince a reader to believe an idea, share an experience, or provide information.
Glossary Support for ELA.6.9.A
Author's purpose refers to an author's main goal in a piece of writing. Students are expected to explain that the author's purpose is reflected in the way the author writes about a topic. For example, if the author’s aim is to amuse, the author will probably use jokes or anecdotes. If the author’s goal is to inform or teach, it is likely that the author will include facts, descriptions, and reasonable explanations.
The message of a text refers to the fundamental or basic idea explored or expressed by an author in a text. Sometimes the message is explicit and straightforward; but in other cases, the message is embedded in the text and may require that students infer it. Students are expected to use evidence to justify their understanding of the main point or idea being conveyed to the reader.
Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of multiple inference intervention strategies that were designed to increase inference-making and reading comprehension for struggling readers. The study focused on using text clues, activating and integrating prior knowledge, understanding character and author's purpose, and responding to inference questions. Details and lesson examples are available in the Appendix.