I hope you will help me and quick! Tomorrow I need to work with a committee to make up a unit on AUTHOR'S PURPOSE to share with the entire district. I have been hunting the net for a good lesson to bring with me. Can you give me any suggestions of sites or lessons? THANKS SO MUCH!

[NJ Teacher]

At the third grade level, we teach the kids the acronym PIE for persuade, inform, and entertain. We chart this and some examples either of stories/books we have read that fit into those categories, or maybe something like a commerical from TV or an editorial that would have one of the purposes listed. Then, you could try a lesson like this one, once the students have mastered the types of purposes:
www.newton.mec.edu/angier/DimSum/ W.W.%20Auth's%20Purpose%20Lesson.html - 7k -

I also liked this site for closure. It allows the children to interact with the computer to select the right purpose.
http://www.rcs.k12.tn.us/rcs_web/Title_I/author's_purpose_scavenger_hunt.htm

I hope these help you out.

[BetsyC]

Hi! Once students have had adequate practice identifying the three main purposes (PIE), I bring donuts and pair students up for a writing assignment. Each pair must write a paragraph about their donuts using one of the purposes mentioned above. I let them choose their purpose but have to be careful that they aren't all doing the same purpose. Once they complete their paragraph and I have checked it they may choose another purpose and write another paragraph. At the end of the lesson they get to eat their donuts. I usually display their work in the hall and then bind them into a class book. Here's one of the responses I received for persuading:

Buy King Donuts today! They're the best doughnuts I've ever had. They're soft and chewy. If you call now you will get another donut free! If you don't like it you can get your money back guaranteed. Did I mention it only costs 40 cents? King Donuts today!

I "borrowed" this next idea from a coworker. At my school we are constantly passing out brochures for day cares, sports activities, newsletters, and such. Each time I must pass out a brochure I read over it with students and we decide what the author's purpose is. Sometimes, such as with newsletters, the purpose is to inform. At other times, such as with notes about daycares and sports, the purpose is to persuade. Sometimes there is more than one purpose.

One more...this past year I had my students complete a poster project. The poster had to be divided into three sections, each labeled with persuade, inform, entertain. The students had to find examples to glue under each heading. I encouraged them to use the newspaper, magazines, Internet, mail flyers, and anything else they could think of. The posters were great! They were very creative in finding examples of each of the author's purposes.

Hope you get some great ideas!
Betsy

Thank you both for taking the time to help me.

I am a teacher looking for ideas on how to teach author's purpose. The ideas provided were great. Thanks!