What Is the Author Trying to Say?


ELAR-Grade-4 Author's Craft What Is the Author Trying to Say?
Students identify three purposes of writing—to persuade, to inform, and to entertain—and they read samples of each type of writing. Then, they examine text features and determine how they help the author convey purpose and meaning. Finally, they read various excerpts and practice identifying the author’s purpose and meaning.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

1:1 Devices
Teacher Pack

The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.

Here are the teacher pack items for What Is the Author Trying to Say?:

Preview - Scene 1
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Engage


Overview

In this experience, students identify three purposes of writing—to persuade, to inform, and to entertain—and they read samples of each type of writing. Then, they examine text features and determine how they help the author convey purpose and meaning. Finally, they read various excerpts and practice identifying the author’s purpose and meaning.

Objectives

  • Explain the author's purpose—to persuade, to inform, or to entertain.
  • Identify text features and why authors use them in a text. 
  • Analyze how the author uses text features to achieve purpose.

Duration

Two class periods. Students will read an excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit. You may assign them the entire text (provided in the Student Pack) to read at home.

Vocabulary Words Used in This Experience

“Babe Ruth”

  • monk: a man in a religious community
  • guardian: someone who looks after a younger person


“Sally Ride”

  • degree: a certificate received after completing various levels of college
  • NASA: the government agency that runs the space program in the United States


The Velveteen Rabbit

  • succession: a series or sequence
  • mechanical: motorized or battery powered
  • boast or swagger: brag
  • fender: a guard in front of a fireplace


People write many kinds of text—from shopping lists to reports to adventure stories. Each kind of writing has a different purpose. What is the author’s purpose in writing what he does? In this experience, you will learn about three different writing purposes—to persuade, to inform, and to entertain—and when authors use them.

Objectives

  • Explain the author's purpose: to persuade, to inform, or to entertain.
  • Identify text features and why authors use them in a text. 
  • Analyze how the author uses text features to achieve purpose.


Why am I writing? For whom?

What is something that you wrote today or will probably write later? To post more than one item, separate them with commas, like this: book, newspaper

Post your answer

Student posts may include diary entry, letter, homework assignment, SMS, Twitter message. Ask students: Choose one kind of writing that you do and tell us what is your purpose in writing it?


When everyone is ready to continue, unlock the next scene.

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The Complete List of Learning Experiences in Author's Craft Unit.
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