My students always seem to struggle with author’s purpose. There are so many author’s purpose activities, but it can be hard to find engaging ones. If you have been taught like me, you know that author’s purpose has been taught with PIE (Persuade, Inform, Entertain). I still love to teach with this concept! However, those pesky common core standards have some hidden gems in them that can be easy to miss. Sometimes, you will come across texts that don’t always fit into the PIE categories. My second grade team and I have spent endless hours deconstructing the common core standards. We came across the author’s purpose standard for second grade (RI.2.6), and decided to start teaching it in a slightly different way. The standard states: Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
How can you get the most out of your author’s purpose activities?
How do you get these author’s purpose concepts to stick? I introduce to you . . .
The Author’s Purpose Lemonade Stand!
This ADE anchor chart really helps students break down and analyze a text. I use it with all author’s purpose activities. It helps them to ask, “What is the author really trying to do here?”
Now, I still believe in the ole author’s purpose pie! So here are some materials I use to teach my kiddos the difference between persuading, informing, and entertaining. I love using this graphic organizer for with my author’s purpose activities. I usually read three types of texts and fill this out with the students. You can grab this graphic organizer and sample texts by clicking HERE!
I also love using an author’s purpose flap book. Read a text with the students and write text evidence under the correct flap.
Celebrate Your Author’s Purpose Activities
To wrap up our author’s purpose unit, I do this writing with my students. They choose a type of pie as their topic, and then decide if they will write to persuade, inform, or entertain their readers.
Of course, I bring in pie to eat and celebrate the end of our unit. These author’s purpose activities will stick with your students all year!
Have you checked out my blogpost on reading fluency? It has some great activities to do with your students so they can be ready to read on their own and identify the author’s purpose!
