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Unit Plan
Have Fun Teaching

Identifying Author's Purpose

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
The multi-lesson, 47-page packet contains everything you need to ensure kids can recognize the clues provided to identify the type of text, the intended audience, and the author's purpose in writing the passage.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Author's Purpose Lesson Plans

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Why do we practice identifying the author's purpose? Read this article to gain a better understanding of this reading strategy, and then peruse the attached lesson plans! 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Determining Author's Point of View: The Sneeches

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Determine the author's point of view in a text. Young readers read Dr. Seuss' The Sneeches and identify the author's purpose in the story. They identify persuasive techniques in writing, asking and answering questions to better...
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Activity
Gourmet Curriculum Press

Author's Purpose

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Who knew determining author's purpose could be turned into a game? Four teams compete to correctly identify the author's purpose for writing a series of passages.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reading-Author's Purpose

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
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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Activity
Florida Center for Reading Research

Comprehension: Text Analysis, Persuade, Inform, and Entertain Sort

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards
Why do authors write? Practice determining the author's purpose with a categorizing activity. Learners sort twelve short passages into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain.
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Organizer
Student Handouts

Why Does an Author Write?

For Students 1st - 6th Standards
To get to the heart of a writer's purpose, just remember to have some PIE (Persuade, Inform, or Entertain)! And appropriately, here is a PIE chart that leaves room for pupils to identify each letter of the acronym and any other ideas or...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reader's Theater, Get Ready

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students recognize what features make a play. In this reader's theater lesson, students read the play Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria told by Aaron Shepard and determine what features make this a play and what the author's purpose was.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Language Arts: Awesome Authors Website

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students examine the writing techniques of professional authors and apply them to their own work. In pairs, they email authors to discover the tricks of the trade. Students create their own Website for their work.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dominant Impression: Writer's Workshop Mini Lesson Based on the book: The Empty Pot by Demi

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students investigate folk and fairy tales. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students review the concept of author's purpose after listening to "The Empty Pot" by Demi. Students also explore descriptive words and dominant...
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Lesson Plan
Jessica Winston

Gingerbread Friends Lesson Plan Guide

For Teachers 1st - 3rd Standards
Full of activities for Jan Brett's story "Gingerbread Friends," this resource will get your kids in the mood for some snacks, fortify their need for vocabulary, and fill their minds with story elements.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy instructional activity focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I'm a Changed Pig

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Introduce your class to fairy tales with this lesson. After reading the fractured fairy tale, "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig," third, fourth, and fifth graders write a personal narrative as a response to the fairy tale....
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Activity
Novelinks

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Writing Response

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Prior to reading chapter 15 of the book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, examine the painting, Shipwrecked by Edward Moran, and respond to the feelings that arise within and how it relates to the characters of the novel. 
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Activity
Whitewater Valley Railroad

Teaching and Learning with The Polar Express

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Use a series of extension activities to enhance your class reading of Chris Van Allsburg's holiday classic, The Polar Express. From a biography of the author to filmed book reviews and research about the railroad, kids can take their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigating Langston Hughes

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read and appreciate the writing of great American Authors. use technology to garner information about famous American authors. They have selected sites to explore. The information they save be used for a future Powerpoint.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Author, Author!

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders, in groups, select and research a favorite studenT author or illustrator. They answer questions about the author, conduct research and prepare a PowerPoint presentation with their findings.
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Practice sequencing events using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem about the famous revolutionary hero. Learners read Revere's own account of the event, and compare/contrast the two texts using a t-chart. Finally, they imagine...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan # 2: Forest Poems

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students read and write poetry.  In this poetry writing lesson, students read and discuss several poems with a "forest" theme, and then write their own forest haiku. Possible publication in the Natural Inquirer is described.
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Lesson Plan
Novelinks

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Magic Square Vocabulary

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
After reading chapter one of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, take part in a magic square vocabulary activity in which scholars match the term with its definition and insert its corresponding number in to the magic square...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cartoons: How Have Society's Views of Women Changed Over Time?

For Teachers K - 4th
Learners explore women's rights by viewing cartoon images. In this women's history instructional activity, students view several images depicting women in a certain way while discussing the meaning of the imagery among their classmates....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Globe Trotting Cinderella

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students explore the fairy tale genre of literature. In this Cinderella lesson, students read fairy tales and discuss their attributes and cultural background. Students examine and write their own fractured fairy tales.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jack and the Beanstalk

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read a story and grow a beanstalk. In this literature and life science lesson, the class reads "Jack and the Beanstalk," then lists fairy tale elements and write a puppet show. The students plant pinto beans and observes...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Folktale Unit: Johnny Appleseed

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Young scholars participate in a shared reading of Steven Kellogg's, Johnny Appleseed and discuss the meaning of folktales and legends. They watch a video of the same story for comparison purposes. They journal about their favorite...