English Language Arts and Reading.5.10.A

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The student is expected to

explain the author's purpose and message within a text;

author's purpose strand teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.
Author's purpose refers to an author's main goal in a piece of writing. Students are expected to explain that the author's purpose is reflected in the way the author writes about a topic. For example, if the author’s purpose is to entertain, the author will probably use jokes or anecdotes. If the goal is to inform or teach, it is very likely that the author will include facts, descriptions, and reasonable explanations.
The message of a text refers to the fundamental or basic idea explored or expressed by an author in a writing piece. Students are expected to explain the main point or idea that the author is trying to tell the reader. Sometimes the message is explicit and straightforward, but in other cases the message could be embedded in the text and require that students infer it.

Research

1. VanDerHeide, J., & Juzwik, M.M. (2018). Argument as conversation: Students responding through writing to significant conversations across time and place. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(1), 67–77. doi: 10.1002/jaal.754

Summary:  In this article, the author presents an instructional model that reconnects to the why of writing. The model of information reasoning requires students to learn how to make claims, provide supporting evidence of that claim, and create additional examples of the claim through the use of analogies and stories. In this study, students were asked to write a letter in response to an ongoing conversation that was of particular importance to them. Personal experience helps to develop the students' ability to advocate for a position through writing. The approach requires scaffolding on argumentative writing instruction. This study includes multiple templates to guide the writing of the responses. This approach fosters the opportunity for students to participate in conversations that have a historical background. In doing so, students engage in topics of debate that have continued over time and in various spaces. Students are invited to participate in these discussions through their writing positions as arguing for or against a position. 

2. Battersby, M., & Bailin, S. (2013). Critical thinking and cognitive biases. Virtues of Argumentation. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA) Mohammed, D., & Lewinski, M.(Eds.). 10(16), 1–9.  Retrieved from https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive/OSSA10/papersandcommentaries/16/

Summary: The authors examine how reasoning and fallacies are easily embedded in writing. The article is an overview of a pedagogy that helps students to identify reasoning errors.