Determine and analyze author's purpose and support with text

If you see readers who . . .

• comprehend the text but aren't able to infer deeply.
• don't know authors have many different of purposes for writing.

Readers infer the meaning of text and how to approach the reading of a text based on what they believe is the author's purpose for writing it.

Remember, authors usually don't tell us why they wrote their selections; we have to figure that out by looking for evidence in the text to support our thinking.

We model this strategy, asking ourselves before we start reading a selection some of the questions in the Suggested Language section below. For the next week, each time we pick up any reading material, we ask the students to infer the author's purpose.

On a chart we write “Author's Purpose” as the title and then add three headings: “Persuade,” “Inform,” and “Entertain.” We know authors may have other purposes, but we start with these three. Under each heading, we leave room for a list of descriptors or clues we are discovering for each purpose and add them as we discover them. Once we have a few descriptors under each heading, we begin by asking students to identify the author's purpose for books they are reading. We constantly ask students to support their beliefs by giving specific examples of evidence from the text.

Suggested language:

• What do you know about this author, and how does that affect the way you read and think about this?
• Is this selection going to teach me something, make me laugh, or try to get me to do something?
• What clues can you find in the text that support what you think?
• Infer why you think the author wrote this text.
• How might you approach reading this text, knowing the author's purpose?
• After reading the selection, do you still agree with your inference about why the author wrote this text? If not, what do you think is the author's purpose now?

Possible ways to differentiate instruction:

• The students who need extra support in this area usually need practice inferring author's purpose. Often, they don't have enough information to discern the different reasons authors write text and then to support their opinion with details from the selection. We put these students on our conferring calendar and check in daily. We bring a different book to each conference and ask them, “What is the author's purpose for writing this text? What makes you think that?” Going through this process individually will support the students and give them daily practice until we believe they have the skills to identify purpose and why it is important to their reading.

Reconsider materials, setting, instruction, and cognitive processes.

These strategies may provide support before, during, and after teaching this strategy:

• Check for Understanding; Monitor and Self-Correct
• Recognize Literary Elements
• Summarize Text; Include Important Details
• Infer and Support with Evidence