Determining an Authors Purpose (Location & Access) 1.

Lesson Title and Grade Level Title: Determining an Authors Purpose: To Inform Grade: 6 2. Lesson Duration Day One- 30 minutes (Introduction & Guided Practice) Day Two- 30 minutes (Review & Team Practice) 3. Learning Objective Students will be able to determine an authors purpose by identifying textual evidence located in a news article. 4. Performance Task/Assessment Criteria Students will read and summarize a news article by locating three facts and identifying the main idea. Students will explain how the facts and title of an article support an authors purpose. 5. Tool to Assess Performance A Graphic Organizer will be provided for students to locate three facts and the main idea, as well as to complete a self-assessment checklist. 6. Standards for the 21st Century Learner Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge. Indicator 1.1.5- Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context. 7. Content Standard/Common Core Reading Informational: Key Ideas and Details o 6.RI.1- Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. o 6.RI.6- Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. 8. Resources Used News articles from Honolulu Star Advertiser: Star-Advertiser Staff. "Kauai Students to Set Free Fledgling Seabirds." Honolulu Star-Advertiser. N.p., 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. Star-Advertiser Staff. City Set to Deploy 18 New Buses. Honolulu StarAdvertiser. N.p., 24, Oct. 2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. 9. Collaboration with Teacher Loertschers Cursory Planning should have taken place with each 6th grade teacher in order to understand students ability to read a news article and

complete a graphic organizer. However, for this lesson, collaboration was not involved. ! 10. Lesson ProcedureIntro: Begin Power Point slides Over the next few weeks we are going to be talking about the news and the different reasons authors/journalists write articles. Before we read an article together to find the authors purpose, I wanted to ask you two questions. o How do people hear or read the the news? (Newspaper, online news, radio, tv) o Why do people listen or read the news? What is their purpose? (current events, entertainment, hear others opinions or views) Not everything in the newspaper is fact. We can find out an authors purpose by determining the reason why the text was written. Three main purposes for writing are to: (P.I.E.) o Persuade- tries to get reader to agree with authors opinion (often with facts) o Inform- wants readers to learn through facts o Entertain- reading for enjoyment Other questions we can ask ourselves to determine the authors purpose in writing an article are: o What is the title of the article? o Did the author give me facts? (Elaborate on fact vs. opinion) o Did the author try to make me laugh? o Did the author try and convince me or change my opinion about something? Today we are going to be learning about an authors purpose to inform. This means, we are going locate textual evidence (facts) in a news article in order to determine the authors purpose. Guided Practice Pass out news article. Pass out graphic organizer. We are going to be reading a news article together, and as we read it together, we will be highlighting facts to help us understand what this article is about. After we read the article together, we are going to be completing a graphic organizer together as a class to help us determine the facts and main idea as well as the authors purpose. Display news article with document camera and read aloud to students. Underline/highlight facts together with class. Model and think a loud why you underline certain facts. Team Practice Pair students up into teams of two. Pass out news article.

11. Sample of Student Work/Assessment Results Exceeds: This graphic organizer exceeds based on the student finding three facts and ability explain the authors purpose in their own words.

Meets: This graphic organizer shows that student located three facts and knew the authors purpose to inform by stating information and facts.

Approaching: The student knows how to put ideas into their own words and is not copying article word for word, however, buses are equipped with better stuff and it will save the environment are not facts located in the article.

12. Reflection Lesson Effectiveness Based on the completed graphic organizers and class discussion, students walked away from the lesson understanding an authors purpose to inform. I am not sure, however, that this was the most interesting and motivating lesson. Because it was just one isolated lesson, separate from a unit study, students did not seem connected with what they were learning. When we started the guided practice of reading the article and completing the graphic organizer, students appeared to be bored. What worked The structure of the lesson and reaching students at their ability level was right on. There were a few students who needed additional assistance, but overall, students knew how to complete the graphic organizer and understood the concepts. Students were engaged in opening discussion. This is the part of the lesson I enjoyed the most- hearing students thoughts and ideas when talking about the news with the PowerPoint slides. Areas for improvement This lesson felt rushed due to the limited time in the library. I knew that I needed to have students complete the graphic organizer and that I only had a two-week window to complete these lessons, therefore, the lesson felt rushed. This lesson needed to be a part of a bigger News study unit, as it felt too isolated. ! Looking back, instead of creating a completely different lesson with authors purpose, I should have developed a lesson that fit with the 6th grade library unit on Ancient Egypt. This would have kept students interested in the lesson as they were already invested in their research topic. !