TEKS Talk - SLA Authors Purpose 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.

Mientras se lee un texto en voz alta, use una tabla guía para ilustrar la organización del texto. Empiece la tabla ejemplificando ideas y luego anime a los estudiantes para que compartan sus ideas, de tal manera que vayan elaborando la tabla guía como grupo. Una vez que la tabla ha quedado terminada, pídales a los estudiantes que analicen la estructura de la información en la tabla y consecuentemente en el texto. Luego, pídales a los estudiantes que expliquen por qué el autor pudo haber decidido organizar su texto de la forma en que lo hizo.


Further Explanation

Esta actividad de evaluación requiere que los estudiantes describan cómo un autor organiza ideas en un texto para lograr un propósito particular. Los estudiantes deben ser capaces de explicar de qué manera la estructura del texto le ayuda al autor a lograr su propósito.

Students are expected to describe how the author’s purpose has a specific effect on readers. An author writes for diverse reasons. If the purpose is to inform the reader of the history of their local community, the author might select a sequence structure. However, to convince a reader to believe that one course of action is better than another, the author might use a compare/contrast structure.
Students should determine and describe how an author organizes ideas in a text to accomplish a specific purpose. For example, in an informational article about soil formation, the author may use a cause-and-effect structure to organize ideas. By doing this, the author may want readers to understand that soil is formed (effect) by weathering of rock and the decomposition of plants and animals (cause).

Research

Meyer, B. J., & Ray, M. N. (2011). Structure strategy interventions: increasing reading comprehension of expository text. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education,4(1), 127–152. Accessed online at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=expository+text&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ1070453

Summary: In this literature review, researchers examine empirical studies designed to teach the structure strategy to increase reading comprehension of expository texts. Strategy interventions employ modeling, practice, and feedback to teach students how to use text structure strategically and eventually automatically. The analysis suggests that direct instruction, modeling, scaffolding, elaborated feedback, and adaptation of instruction to student performance are keys in teaching students to strategically use knowledge about text structure.