Dear Parent/Guardian,

Your child is currently working on the literacy strategy, Determine and analyze author's purpose and support with text, which helps with the overall goal, Comprehension.

Every time an author writes, they writes for a reason. As readers it is important for us to understand why a piece was written because we infer the meaning of the text based on the author's purpose for writing it. Identifying why the author wrote a text deepens our understanding for how to read and comprehend the text. Although there are many different reasons for writing, we mainly focus on the following:

  • Persuade i.e. editorials, advertisements, commercials
  • Entertain i.e. short story, poetry, drama, novel
  • Inform i.e. news articles, textbooks, biographies, non-fiction

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
  1. When you sit down to read with your child, begin by looking at the book and having your child predict what they think the author's purpose is. Is the author trying to persuade, inform, entertain, or is there another reason the author wrote the book?
  2. After your child states what they believe to be the author's purpose for writing the book, ask your child to look for clues in the story that support their conclusion. Use the following prompts to encourage their thinking:
    • Do you know anything about this author? Some authors write specific genres.
    • Is the selection going to teach you something, make you laugh, or try to get you to do something?
    • What clues can you find in the text that support what you think?
    • How might you approach reading this text, knowing the author's purpose?
    • After reading the selection, do you still agree with your prediction about why the author wrote this text? If not, what do you think is the author's purpose now? What in the text made you change your idea?
  3. Have your child practice predicting author's purpose by selecting different books off of the bookshelf and asking your child to predict the author's purpose. Always have your child explain their thinking to encourage self reflection. Then, after reading the text, revisit the prediction. Ask the author's purpose again after reading the text.
Thank you for your continued support at home!

—Mrs. Boushey

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