Author's Purpose | Project Based Learning
Students will identify and explain an author’s purpose—persuade, inform, or entertain—by analyzing short, grade-level texts and creating a quick evidence-based response. The lesson uses a mini project format so students work collaboratively to sort examples, justify their thinking, and present a brief conclusion.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Author’s purpose | The reason an author writes a text. |
| Persuade | To convince the reader to think, feel, or do something. |
| Inform | To give facts or teach the reader something. |
| Entertain | To amuse or engage the reader with a story or interesting ideas. |
| Text evidence | Words or details from the text that support an answer or claim. |
Display three short text snippets or headlines. Ask students to quickly guess the purpose of each and justify with one clue.
Students write or say quick predictions and explain one clue for each text.
Briefly define persuade, inform, and entertain. Model one example by thinking aloud: identify purpose and point to a detail that proves it.
Students listen, annotate the model text, and note key vocabulary.
Place students in pairs or small groups. Give each group 2–3 short texts. Instruct them to sort each text by purpose and record evidence on chart paper or a response sheet.
Students read, discuss, sort texts, and write a one-sentence claim for each text with supporting evidence.
Invite one or two groups to share one text and their reasoning. Clarify misconceptions and highlight strong evidence-based explanations.
Students listen, compare answers, and ask or answer a brief question.
Prompt students to choose one text and write: author’s purpose, one piece of evidence, and one sentence explaining how the evidence supports the purpose.
Students complete the exit ticket independently.
Ask students to complete the sentence: 'An author’s purpose is important because it helps me read more carefully by ___.''
Formative assessment will be based on the group sorting task and the exit ticket response, checking whether students correctly identify author’s purpose and support their reasoning with text evidence.