Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

 For more specific genre information, please refer to Genre Guidance (page 4 of the Support Documents.).

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will identify features of different types of authors’ purposes for a text/passage (e.g., tell a story, provide information, share an opinion).

• Students will determine the author’s purpose of a text/passage using features to help identify the purpose.

• Teachers discuss the different types of author’s purposes for a text/passage specifically highlighting each one.
• Teachers read texts/passages that highlight different purposes for writing.
• Teachers point out and model how to distinguish between each purpose by identifying their different features.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to distinguish between each purpose by identifying their different features.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback as students are identifying the author’s purpose and the identifying features of the texts/passages.

Supporting Resources

 Teacher Insights

• The author’s purpose is the author’s specific reason for writing and conveys what the reader has to gain (or learn) from reading the selection.
• Students need to identify why an author wrote a specific text or passage: to tell a story, to provide information on a topic, or to share an opinion.
• Author’s Purpose Clue Words
• To share an opinion: urge, persuade, opinion, should, must, influence, coax, convince, think, believe, belief
• To provide information: instruct, educate, inform, explain, learn, teach, acquaint, familiarize, facts, directions, numbered or bulleted information/steps
• To tell a story: story, poem, fiction, comedy, tale, fun, narrative, humor
• Some students may have difficulty determining an author’s purpose for a fiction book that is not funny. Explain to them that “to entertain” does not necessarily mean to be funny. A sad book can be entertaining as well. Although a story may contain a lesson (or theme) it is still intended to be entertaining.

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Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.