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Identify and Discuss the Author's Purpose
Examine author's purpose in a persuasive text using this scaffolded plan. You essentially have a verbatim script here, but it can definitely be used as an outline instead. Review questions that readers should ask themselves when...
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What's the Purpose Anyway?
Examine author's purpose in newspaper articles, comic books, cookbooks, encyclopedias and other forms of written materials. Working in groups, middle and high schoolers read teacher-selected articles and write an explanation of the...
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Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
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Author's Purpose
How do you determine an author’s purpose? You ask the author, of course. Invite a local journalist into the class to respond to scripted student questions about his/her writing process. A review of basic classroom etiquette is also...
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Brochure Writing
Have your budding authors evaluate various writing styles found in informational brochures. They look for effective writing, compare and contrast styles, and create an assessment.
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My Name is___________.
Read to gain an understanding of the author's intent or purpose. Learners analyze a persuasive text, identify the author's purpose, and evaluate the claims used as support. They then compose a persuasive essay of their own.
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Why Do Authors Write?
Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.
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Dig A Little Deeper
Here is a great lesson on recognizing events and themes in a story. Students read chapters from a chosen book and then fill out a graphic organizer to further explore the purpose of the chapter. They write the events, themes, author's...
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Author's Purpose
Read each of the three short passages and decide whether the author's purpose is to persuade, inform, and entertain. After they have identified the purpose, fourth graders explain why they believe that each passage fits that purpose. You...
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Author's Purpose: Research Process/Narrative Writing Techniques
Determine the author's purpose in writing a memoir. Eighth graders work in groups to elicit author's purpose in memoirs, taking care to note how subtle the message can be hidden throughout the work. This lesson is a good way to...
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Identifying author's purpose
Why is it important to know an author's purpose? After reviewing the three main purposes of writing, seventh graders write a persuasive letter to convince why summer school is better than taking the summer off. They can then join in a...
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Author's Purpose
Fourth graders read the book Talkin' About Bessie and write a paragraph about the author's purpose. In this author's purpose lesson plan, 4th graders include examples from the story.
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Lesson 4: Author's Purpose
Learners identify the author's purpose in various poems from the book Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art. In order to determine the purpose, pupils first observe as the teacher completes a PIES char...
Read Works
Changing An Author's Purpose
Some write to inform, and others to persuade. Show your class the difference between these two purposes with the instructional activity and sample essays provided here. First, model how you might change a few words in order to present a...
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Changing the Point of View
Fourth graders identify the point of view. In this point of view lesson students compare and contrast the point of view from third person omniscient and first person. Students rewrite a paragraph in an alternative point of view.
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Author’s Purpose Activity
In this author's purpose worksheet, students read a few sentences about a book and then answer short answer questions about the author's purpose. Students complete 12 questions.
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Non-Fiction Texts
Third graders examine different types of non-fiction texts. In this non fiction instructional activity, 3rd graders use different types of texts to gather information. Students work in groups to analyze the texts for author's...
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Word Purpose
Third graders chunk text while reading it. In this language arts lesson, 3rd graders determine the author's purpose for calling certain things the names they are called like spuds for potatoes. Students discuss how words affect the...
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Reading-Author's Purpose
Students review what author's purpose is by understanding that authors either persuade, inform, describe, or entertain with their story. In this language arts lesson, students bring in junk mail and in small groups discuss what the each...
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At Play Long Ago and Today: comprehension skills
In this comprehension skills learning exercise, learners read the book At Play Long Ago and Today and complete comprehension activities. Students complete 5 activities including note taking, compare and contrast, predicting, and...
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Author's Purpose and Point of View Pretest
In this author's purpose and point of view worksheet, students answer 10 multiple choice questions.
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Lesson Ideas to Enrich Student Inquiry into the Holocaust
Students inquire about the Holocaust. In this Holocaust lesson, students read books and discuss their thoughts. Students also collect current event articles from newspapers. Students investigate ghettos, Pearl Harbor and Navajo Code...
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Assignment #5 Sci-Fi Analysis
Class members select a science fiction novel for independent study. To verify they have completed the reading, they write a summary, a critique, and an outline of the plot for a sequel or prequel. They then deliver a five-minute...
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Author's Purpose
Fifth graders determine the meaning of author's purpose. In this author's purpose lesson plan, 5th graders apply the PIE (persuade, inform, entertain) strategy to determine why an author wrote a piece of writing. They examine passages...