Your next great Lessn starts here.

Identifying the Purpose of a Text – Why authors write stories – To entertain, inform, persuade, or express feelings – Types of author’s purposes – Persuade, Inform, Entertain, and Express (PIEE) – Examples of each purpose – ‘Charlotte’s Web’ entertains, a science book informs – Activity: Guess the purpose – We’ll read passages and infer the author’s intent | In today’s class, we’ll explore the various reasons authors write texts. Understanding the author’s purpose helps students to connect with the material and enhances comprehension. We’ll discuss the four main purposes: to Persuade, Inform, Entertain, and Express feelings (PIEE). Provide examples of each, such as ‘Charlotte’s Web’ for entertainment and a science textbook for information. Conclude with an interactive activity where students read short passages and guess the author’s purpose, fostering critical thinking and discussion. This activity will help students to apply what they’ve learned and prepare them to identify the purpose in their future reading assignments.

Understanding the Purpose of a Text – Every text has a creation purpose – Common purposes: inform, persuade, entertain – Texts may teach, convince, amuse, or clarify – Author’s purpose influences writing style – A persuasive text argues; informative text educates – Recognizing purpose improves comprehension | This slide introduces students to the concept that every text they read has been written with a specific purpose in mind. Understanding this purpose is crucial for comprehension and critical analysis of the text. The common purposes include informing the reader about a topic, persuading them to adopt a certain viewpoint, entertaining them with stories or humor, or explaining how to do something. Highlight how an author’s intent affects their choice of words, structure, and content. Encourage students to think about the purpose of texts they encounter daily and how recognizing this purpose can enhance their understanding and engagement with the material.

Understanding the Author’s Purpose: To Inform – Authors aim to educate When reading, authors may want to teach us new information or facts. – Examples: textbooks, news articles Textbooks explain subjects; news articles provide updates on events. – How-to guides inform on tasks Guides give step-by-step instructions on how to do something. – Look for facts and clear details Statements in informative texts are backed by evidence and data. | This slide is focused on helping students recognize when an author’s purpose is to inform the reader. It’s crucial for students to understand that informative texts are meant to educate by providing facts, instructions, or explanations about a particular topic. Examples like textbooks, news articles, and how-to guides serve as clear instances of informative texts. Encourage students to look for factual statements, statistical data, and specific details that support the information presented. Discuss how these elements help distinguish informative texts from other types of writing, such as narratives or persuasive texts. In class, consider exploring various texts and identifying the informative elements together.

Understanding Texts: Purpose to Persuade – Authors persuade to influence – They aim to change your mind or behavior – Examples: ads, opinion articles – Like commercials or editorials – Look for strong opinions – Words that show conviction or belief – Look for calls to action – Phrases that urge you to do something | This slide focuses on texts with the purpose to persuade. Persuasive texts are written to influence the reader’s thoughts or actions. Examples include advertisements that want you to buy something or opinion pieces that try to sway your view on a topic. Teach students to identify persuasive language by looking for strong opinions and words that aim to convince. Also, highlight the importance of recognizing ‘calls to action,’ which are direct statements that urge the reader to take a specific step or action. Discuss with students why understanding the author’s purpose is crucial in analyzing the effectiveness of a text.

Understanding the Author’s Purpose: To Entertain – Authors aim to amuse readers – Examples: novels, comics, poems – Stories like ‘Harry Potter’, funny comics, or beautiful poems – Engaging plots draw us in – A mystery to solve or adventures to experience – Characters and language come to life – Heroes we love, villains we dislike, and words that paint pictures | This slide focuses on one of the author’s purposes when writing a text – to entertain. Students should understand that when an author’s purpose is to entertain, the text is likely to include elements that make the reading enjoyable and engaging. Examples of such texts include novels that take us on exciting journeys, comics that make us laugh, and poems that touch our emotions with their rhythm and imagery. Look for clues in the text such as a captivating plot with twists and turns, characters that are relatable or intriguing, and the use of expressive and descriptive language that evokes vivid images and strong emotions. Encourage students to think about their favorite stories and discuss what makes them entertaining.

Understanding an Author’s Purpose: To Explain – Authors explain processes or events – Examples: recipes and science articles – Like how to bake a cake or how volcanoes erupt – Look for instructions and explanations – Steps to follow or reasons why something occurs – Descriptive details help understanding – Words that paint a picture in your mind | This slide aims to help students identify when an author’s purpose is to explain how something works or why something happens. Use examples that are relevant and engaging for fifth graders, such as a recipe book that explains how to bake a cake or a science article that describes a volcanic eruption. Highlight the importance of looking for clues in the text, such as step-by-step instructions, detailed explanations, and descriptive details that help the reader visualize the process or event. Encourage students to think about the structure of the text and the language used, as these can be strong indicators of the author’s intent to explain.

Identifying the Purpose of a Text – Look for clues in the text – Titles, headings, topic sentences give hints – Ask: What’s the author’s goal? – Is the author informing, persuading, entertaining? – Practice identifying purpose – We’ll read a paragraph and determine its purpose together – Share our findings as a class | This slide is aimed at teaching students how to discern the author’s purpose in a text. Start by explaining that titles, headings, and topic sentences often provide clues about the main idea and purpose. Encourage students to think critically about what the author is trying to achieve: Are they providing information, trying to convince the reader of something, or simply telling a story for enjoyment? During the practice activity, guide the students through a paragraph, asking targeted questions to help them identify the purpose. After the exercise, facilitate a discussion where students can share their insights and understandings. This will help reinforce the concept and ensure they can apply this skill to other texts.

Class Activity: Purpose Detectives – Break into groups for reading – Read and analyze your text – Determine the author’s purpose – Is it to inform, persuade, entertain, or explain? – Present findings to the class | In this engaging class activity, students will work in small groups to practice identifying the author’s purpose in different texts. Each group will be assigned a text, which they will read together and discuss. The teacher should provide guidance on looking for clues in the text that reveal the author’s intent, such as the use of facts for informative texts, emotional language for persuasive texts, or colorful descriptions for entertaining texts. After the analysis, each group will present their text and explain how they determined the author’s purpose to the rest of the class. This activity fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and public speaking skills. Possible texts for the activity could include an informative article, a persuasive letter, a fictional story, and an explanatory how-to guide.

Wrapping Up: Text Purpose & Homework – Review text purpose identification – Homework: Analyze a text’s purpose – Find any text like a book or an article – Write a paragraph on text purpose – Explain why the author wrote the text – Share your insights next class | As we conclude today’s lesson, let’s recap the strategies for identifying the purpose of a text. Remember, authors write with different purposes: to inform, persuade, entertain, or express feelings. For homework, students should choose a text from home, such as a book, article, or advertisement, and write a paragraph explaining the author’s purpose. Encourage them to use context clues and evidence from the text to support their reasoning. In the next class, we’ll have a sharing session where students can present their paragraphs and discuss the different purposes they’ve discovered. This will reinforce their understanding and allow them to learn from each other’s insights.