Author's Purpose

My students were having a tough time understanding Author's Purpose. I decided I needed a hands-on way that my students could sort persuade, inform and entertain.

Let's be honest.... there's always old Scholastic Book Orders left over. So my students first sorted the mini-passages into the PIE categories.  Then they had a blast in cutting, sorting and gluing the clippings from the book orders.

I also do a STOP! GRAB YOUR BOOK! My students quickly grab their book and I have them tell me the Author's Purpose of their book. Using the sentence frame... The author's purpose of my book is to________. I know this because ( and they give a few reasons why!) This is a quick win-win as a teacher... I get to assess for speaking and listening standards, the other kids get good ideas of what book to read next and it is a perfect way to effectively use those 5 minutes before recess.