Author's Purpose Intro

Objective

Students will be able to:

• Define author's purpose: to inform, persuade, and entertain.
• Identify the author’s purpose in familiar texts.
• Engage in group discussions to explain their reasoning.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

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Materials

• Whiteboard or chart paper
• Markers
• Printed short paragraphs or excerpts (3 examples, one for each purpose)
• “I Notice, I Wonder” graphic organizer handouts (simple, two columns)
• Sticky notes or small cards for student responses
• Timer

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Lesson Flow (30 minutes)

1. Engage and Set Purpose (5 minutes)

• Teacher Action: Write on the board: Why do writers write?
• Student Action: Think-pair-share: Students discuss with a partner why they think authors write stories or articles.
• Teacher Prompt: Collect a few answers from pairs and acknowledge that authors write for different reasons.
• Transition: Teacher introduces the term Author’s Purpose and writes the three purposes on the board: Inform, Persuade, Entertain.

2. Define and Examine Author’s Purpose (7 minutes)

• Teacher Action: Briefly define each purpose:
  • Inform: To teach or give facts or information.
  • Persuade: To convince the reader to believe or do something.
  • Entertain: To amuse or engage the reader with a story or experience.
• Use Examples: Read aloud three short texts -- one for each purpose.
• Student Action: Use the “I Notice, I Wonder” graphic organizer to jot down:
  • What they notice about the text
  • What clues helped them guess the purpose
• Check for Understanding: Quick whole-class share of “I Notice” for each text.

3. Group Discussion and Application (12 minutes)

• Group Setup: Divide the class into 6 groups of 5 students.
• Task: Each group gets one text excerpt (repeated or different from earlier).
• Discuss: Students use sticky notes to write if the text’s purpose is to inform, persuade, or entertain. They add 1 sentence on why.
• Share Back: One spokesperson per group shares their choice and reasoning.
• Teacher Facilitates: Guide discussion focusing on evidence in text that supports their answers.

4. Quick Formative Assessment (5 minutes)

• Individual Task: On a small card, students write:
  • One new thing they learned about author’s purpose.
  • Which type of author’s purpose they find easiest or hardest to identify and why.
• Teacher collects cards for quick review to inform next lessons.

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Differentiation

• For learners needing support: Provide sentence starters during group discussions (“I think the author wants to ___ because…”).
• For advanced learners: Challenge them to find an example of a text that combines two purposes (e.g., entertain and inform).

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Reflection & Closing (1 minute)

• Recap the three purposes.
• Tell students next class they will dive deeper into how authors achieve their purpose through text features and word choice.

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Teacher Tips

• Use familiar, popular texts (like excerpts from articles, commercials, or storybooks students know) so students can connect with content.
• Encourage students to consider their own reasons for writing to personalize learning.
• Keep pace brisk but allow thoughtful discussion; use timer to stay on track.

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By explicitly connecting to CCSS standards and fostering active discussion, this lesson sets a strong foundation for understanding author’s intent, crucial for reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.