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.

Use a checklist or anecdotal notes during small-group discussion, one-on-one conferences, or learning-center time to keep track of whether students discuss the author’s use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes. While reading a text, listen for student’s ability to converse about how the author uses print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes. Consider using prompts to assist students.

Example of an adult prompt:

A teacher might say, “On this page, there is a diagram of how a pumpkin is created. It shows us the pumpkin going from a seed, to a plant, to a pumpkin. Why do you think the author included this diagram instead of just telling us with the text?”

An observational rubric can be used.

Sample rubric:
1) The student does not discuss the author’s use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes, even with adult assistance.
2) The student inconsistently discusses the author’s use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes, with adult assistance.
3) The student consistently discusses the author’s use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes, with adult assistance.

Print and graphic features are parts of a text that draw the reader's attention to important information. Print features involve the use of words to explain something in the text (e.g., titles, bold and italicized font, headings, subheadings, captions, glossary, and table of contents). Graphic features are pictures, visual aids, or other images within a text used to support that author’s purpose and message (e.g., graphs, diagrams, charts, timelines, and bullet points).