Teaching Author's Purpose

Welcome back!

This week in reading our focus skill was determining the author's purpose for writing a book. We want our kids to be able to identify the purpose for writing because it aids in reading comprehension and allows them to see what really motivates some authors to write. With that being said, we had a lot of fun practicing this throughout the week!

Introduction 

We started off the the week with an author's purpose rap from Flocabulary. If you haven't heard of Flocabulary, I highly suggest you check it out! They have a rap/ song for almost every skill in every academic area you can think of. I love using them to introduce or review a concept... a bonus is that my kids absolutely love them! They are highly engaging and teach the academic language of the skill in a student- friendly way.

This is the anchor chart I created for the skill. I used it to explicitly teach the concept and the vocabulary for author's purpose. The kids also used this as a resource all week when identifying author's purpose during their independent reading. 

Interactive Read Aloud 

The interactive read aloud I chose to model this skill was Giraffes Can't Dance. I chose this read aloud because it was quick and very explicit as to determine that author's purpose is to entertain. There are SO many books out there that would be perfect for modeling this skill! After reading, questioning, and doing a think aloud, the kids got a post-it note and wrote what they thought the author's purpose was in writing this text  and why they thought that. 

The same day I also read part of a non-fiction text titled Mountains. They quickly could see that the author's purpose in that text was to inform!

Partner Practice 

We also practiced identifying the author's purpose with a partner. We made a PIE foldable beforehand that helped them refer to the three reasons authors write a text.

The partner pair had to read two books and determine the author's purpose for writing both books! I loved walking around to hear the conversations centered around author's purpose and craft- it made my teacher heart so happy!

During independent reading time in reader's workshop they had to jot notes about author's purpose and craft while they were reading their books. During my mini- conferences with individual readers they got to have a conversation with me about what types of books they like to read the most- books that entertain, inform, persuade, or a little bit of everything!

My more advanced readers started to discover that books CAN do more than one thing at once (e.g, persuade & inform.) I loved having these conversations with them!

Scavenger Hunt 

Throughout the week we discussed that we can sometimes determine the purpose of a story before even reading it. We can look at the cover and read the description of the story and make an educated guess about the author's purpose before we venture into the text! 

To practice this I took old book orders and had the kids read the title of the book, look at the cover, and read the description. They then had to determine what they thought the author's purpose would be, cut it out, and put it under the correct category! 

My 2nd- graders really enjoyed this activity. It not only allowed them to practice the skill but also exposed them to some great book titles! 

They each got a book order and a piece of paper which they divided in thirds and then labeled with the three different reasons authors write a text. From there, they got to do their scavenger hunt! 

There you have it! I hope you took away some engaging and meaningful ways to help teach author's purpose (it's as easy as P.I.E.!) 

-Brennan