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Common Core ELA7th GradeReading: Literature

RL.7.6: How Authors Contrast Points of View

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

All 41 7th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 7, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.7.6 Means in Plain English

Seventh graders explain how an author builds two or more points of view and plays them against each other. In alternating chapters, a father takes his daughter’s typing for boredom while she is saving his recipe, and she takes his silence for tiredness.

In 6th grade (RL.6.6) students explained how an author develops one narrator’s or speaker’s point of view. Seventh grade adds a second view and the contrast between them. In 8th grade (RL.8.6) students analyze how dramatic irony, a gap between characters and reader, creates suspense or humor.

RL.7.6 I Can Statements

  • I can describe what each narrator notices, assumes and wants.
  • I can explain how the author makes two points of view differ.
  • I can explain what the contrast between two views reveals.

RL.7.6 Worked Example

One afternoon told twice, in alternating chapters. Each narrator gets the other one wrong, and only the reader sees both.

Read the Story
Dad’s chapter: Every New Year I fold the dumplings, and every New Year Mei sits beside me typing on her phone. When I am gone, who will know how much ginger, how long to rest the dough?Dad’s chapter: Halfway through I stopped explaining. What is the use of talking to the top of someone’s head?Mei’s chapter: Dad never measures anything, so this year I’m writing it all down. A thumb of ginger. Rest the dough until it “stops arguing.”Mei’s chapter: He went quiet halfway through. Probably tired. I saved the note as “Dad’s Dumplings, Do Not Delete.”
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How does the author develop and contrast Dad’s and Mei’s points of view on the same afternoon?
Not Yet“Dad thinks Mei is on her phone, and Mei is writing down the recipe.”It reports what each character does but not how the author builds the contrast or what the gap shows. Nothing explains why the same afternoon means two different things.
Meets the Standard“The author lets each narrator see the same moment and misread it. Dad sees only ‘the top of someone’s head,’ decides Mei doesn’t care, and stops explaining. In her chapter Mei is saving every detail, down to dough that ‘stops arguing,’ and reads his silence as ‘Probably tired.’ Both are afraid of losing the recipe, and each thinks the other isn’t. Putting the two chapters side by side shows two people who want the same thing and can’t see it.”It shows how the author builds each view through what that narrator notices and assumes, then explains what setting the two views against each other reveals.
Question Stems to Use
What does each narrator notice that the other misses?What does each character assume about the other, and why?Where do the two accounts of the same moment disagree?What do you understand that neither character does?Why might the author use two narrators instead of one?

Common Mistakes with RL.7.6

Summarizing each view separately

One paragraph on Dad, one on Mei, and no sentence that connects them

Try this: Require a sentence built on “While Dad thinks…, Mei…” for every moment both narrators describe, so the contrast becomes the analysis.

Siding with one narrator

“Mei is rude for ignoring her dad.”

Try this: Have students argue each narrator’s case using only that narrator’s chapter, then point to what that chapter leaves out.

Leaving the author out

“They just don’t understand each other.”

Try this: Ask what choices the author made, like what each narrator sees or the order of chapters, to create the misunderstanding.

Where RL.7.6 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.6.6Explain how an author develops the point of view of one narrator or speaker.
AlongsideRI.7.6Find how a nonfiction author sets her own position apart from other people’s.W.7.3Write a narrative with a deliberately chosen narrator and point of view.
Comes NextRL.8.6Analyze how gaps between what characters and readers know create suspense or humor.

Practice RL.7.6

Quick Check

  1. Why does Dad stop explaining halfway through?
  2. What is Mei actually doing on her phone?
  3. How does Mei explain her dad’s silence?

RL.7.6: Other Names

RL.7.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.