Finding Purpose and Audience

Overview

In this second lesson of the three-part unit Reading Texts with Purpose, students investigate why a text was created and who it is intended for. They build on earlier work identifying a text’s topic and key message by using multiple clues, quotations, and specific design features to justify their inferences.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify the purpose and intended audience of a text.
• WALT use language, design, context, and content clues to infer audience and purpose.
• WALT compare two texts on a similar topic.
• WALT support our ideas with quotations or specific evidence from the text.

Success criteria

• I can state what a text is trying to achieve.
• I can describe who the text is aimed at and explain how I know.
• I can identify several clues, such as vocabulary, tone, images, layout, or level of formality.
• I can use a quotation or precise feature from the text to support my inference.

Curriculum links

• English — identifying the audience and purpose for a text.
• English — planning and writing with an audience and purpose in mind, using an appropriate text type, register, and vocabulary.
• English — making deliberate choices about content included or left out, considering how a text may affect others.
• Learning through language: communicating ideas clearly, listening actively, and responding respectfully to different perspectives.

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Review and engage. Teacher opens the review and hook slides and displays two short messages about the same local environmental issue: one aimed at children and one formal public notice. Ask, “How can we tell these messages are for different readers?” Students silently notice one difference, then share with a partner and explain what it might suggest about the audience.

2. 5–15 min · Model a think-aloud. Teacher displays the think-aloud slides and models analysing a short child-friendly information page about protecting a local stream. Think aloud using the prompts: “Who created this?”, “Who might read it?”, “What does the writer want readers to know, feel, or do?” Identify clues such as an informal greeting, short sentences, familiar vocabulary, an illustration, direct address, and a practical action. Emphasise that one clue is not enough; strong inferences are supported by several features. Students record or orally rehearse one inference using: “I think the audience is ___ because the text ___.”

3. 15–18 min · Introduce the comparison task. Teacher distributes the purpose-and-audience evidence chart and explains that students will compare the child-friendly information page with a formal council notice about the same stream issue. Model one row: name the clue, copy a brief quotation or describe the feature, then explain what it suggests about audience or purpose. Students read the task instructions, clarify unfamiliar words, and choose roles: reader/evidence finder and recorder/explainer.

4. 18–35 min · Paired close comparison. Teacher directs pairs to read both texts, first for overall meaning and then for evidence, circulating to ask, “What makes you think that?”, “Could this clue suggest something else?”, and “What has the writer assumed readers already know?” Students complete the chart with evidence about word choice, formality, technical vocabulary, sentence length, tone, images or design, publication context, author or organisation, assumed prior knowledge, and the action encouraged. Require at least three clues for each audience inference and at least one exact quotation from each text.

5. 35–42 min · Evidence-based discussion. Teacher uses the discussion prompt slides to facilitate a class comparison. Invite pairs to share one claim and evidence: “The council notice is intended for ___ because it says ___ and uses ___.” Record contrasting clues on the board. Challenge students to consider whether appearance alone proves audience; discuss how a colourful design could still communicate a serious message, or how a formal-looking text might be designed for a wide public audience. Students listen for similarities and differences, respectfully agree or challenge an idea, and improve one explanation after hearing another pair.

6. 42–45 min · Exit reflection. Teacher displays the plenary and exit prompt: “Which clue was most useful for identifying audience or purpose, and why?” Students complete the final box on the purpose-and-audience evidence chart, naming one clue, quoting or describing it, and explaining what it suggests. Collect worksheets to inform the next lesson on how writers make deliberate choices for an audience.

Resources

• the complete purpose-and-audience slide deck
• the purpose-and-audience evidence chart
• Two short texts on the same topic: a child-friendly information page and a formal council notice
• Projector or interactive display
• Board and markers
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Pens or pencils

Assessment

• Listen during the opening and modelling for students who can distinguish topic from purpose and audience.
• Check paired charts for multiple relevant clues, accurate quotations or feature descriptions, and explanations that connect evidence to an inference.
• Use the exit reflection to identify whether students can justify an audience or purpose rather than simply label it.

Differentiation

• Provide a small-group read-through, enlarged texts, and highlighted examples of headings, greetings, technical vocabulary, and calls to action for students needing reading or processing support.
• Offer sentence frames: “The purpose is to ___”; “The audience may be ___”; “This suggests ___ because ___”; and “The quotation/feature ___ shows ___.”
• Allow students to dictate explanations, discuss before writing, or use speech-to-text where appropriate; pair strategically and assign clearly defined roles.
• Extend confident readers by asking them to identify a clue that could be interpreted in two ways and explain which interpretation is better supported by the whole text.