Author's Purpose

Have you ever wondered why an author decided to publish a piece of writing? We did! We clipped articles from the Fort Worth Star Telegram and sorted them according to the author's purpose for writing.

Students read their selected article and then made a mini-presentation to the class, giving a short summary and the author's purpose for writing it.

We learned that there are many reasons why an author may publish a piece of writing, but most can be grouped into one of four categories: to inform, to entertain, to explain, or to persuade.


As an extension of this activity, the students became persuasive authors and wrote a piece about whether or not homework should be assigned during the TAKS week. I was astounded not only at their writing skills, but also at their creativity! My three favorite reasons why we should NOT have homework:

1. We may be cranky because we've lost sleep (up late doing homework!)

2. We may become disinterested in school work (because we've practiced so much at home, of course) and become more talkative and less "workative".

3. Homework uses lots of paper, which kills trees. We don't want to aid in destroying the rainforests, now do we?

***It was a tough decision, but I ended up being persuaded to pitch the homework in the trash (well, recycle bin) for the week. Great job authors!