Are you struggling to get your students interested in author’s purpose? Teaching this important concept can sometimes be dull or perplexing. But fear not! There are plenty of exciting and enjoyable methods to teach author’s purpose that will capture your students’ attention. In this blog post, we’ll explore ways to help your students comprehend the true intentions behind an author’s writing, improving their skills as readers and writers. Get ready for some fantastic ideas on how to teach author’s purpose. Let’s jump in!
Introducing Author’s Purpose
Why writers write isn’t something many young readers really consider. This is probably because children ages 6-7 are really only thinking through their lens. It takes a lot for younger readers to think about another person’s perspective. I stick with the PIE (persuade, inform, entertain) acronym although I have seen others include additional purposes.
One question I have been asking myself lately is “Why do I want students to know this?” besides the obvious “because it’s a standard/required”. Answering this question helps me plan and focus on my lesson purpose.
- Understanding the author’s purpose helps students to look at the text more critically. If they realize that an author is trying to persuade, they can approach the text with a bit of skepticism.
- It helps students understand techniques used within different genres
- It connects the reader with what they should know by the end of the text. This supports other comprehension skills like the central message and main idea
When it comes to planning activities to teach author’s purpose, not only do I want students to think about why authors write, but I want them to think about why they write since they are also authors themselves. Establishing a purpose for writing provides a focus and reason making it more meaningful.
First, I introduce the skill by connecting it to books we have already read. We might brainstorm a list or just discuss them. Luckily, we already made a bulletin board for February with the names of a bunch of books we have read this year so we just referred to that.
Hooking Their Attention
Another way to start off the lesson is to show a kid-friendly commercial. Lead a discussion as to why commercials exist. “What is the purpose of the commercial?” I chose this slime commercial because 1. my students are obsessed with slime 2. it covers all three purposes and 3. Did I mention my students are OBSESSED with slime?
As I introduced the concept using a reference poster, we broke down what “purpose” means. Some students said it means you did something and it wasn’t an accident. I loved that they connected the vocabulary with their experiences. I went through each of the question words and asked “Does purpose answer the question who? what? where? when? why?” Most students knew when I said “why” that purpose was the reason.
Connecting to Text
Next, we take a look at some pretend book covers (some real titles) and sort them into reference posters. I encourage students to use evidence from the cover–the title and the picture–to determine what the purpose might be.
Teaching Persuade with a Mentor Text
The toughest mentor text to find to fit well with is persuade. I scoured Amazon and found a new super adorable, fun, and perfect persuasion text! A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea has a ton of persuasive language but it is also HILARIOUS so it fits entertain, too!
Books to teach Inform
There are so many great nonfiction texts out there like National Geographic Kids and Scholastic News. My favorite part about choosing books for information is that students can and will read above their “level” when a topic interests them. It’s all about finding books to match the reader. Second graders love reading about animals so Slow, Slow, Sloths was a hit!
I try to focus less on having the right answer as to why the author wrote the book and emphasize more on providing evidence as to why the student chose that purpose.
Teaching Entertain
This is definitely the easiest category! It’s hard to recommend just one or two books. I do like to share with students how “entertain” isn’t just funny or silly. I read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane every year even though it makes me cry! How can crying be entertaining? This is a great learning opportunity to share how books that move us to emotion are what makes them entertaining.
I hope you have found these tips for how to teach author’s purpose useful! Interested in more resources for teaching author’s purpose? Click here or on the picture below!
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