1. Author’s Purpose By Jennifer Eubank
SOL(s): 4.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of poetry.
a) Explain the author’s purpose.
b) Describe how the choice of language, setting, characters, and information contributes to the author’s purpose.
Essential Question(s): Will all students be able to explain the author’s purpose of a given piece of poetry?
Will all students be able to describe how the choice of language in a poem contributes to the author’s purpose of a given piece of poetry?
By Jennifer Eubank

2. PIES Chart
I will explain to the students that they have been exploring different components of poetry in the last few weeks. I will explain to students that before we look at another poem today, I will be choosing FOUR volunteers to assist me with a presentation. I will explain that these volunteers will be getting an Author’s Purpose strip of paper. The volunteer will have seconds to share with the class about their specific topic. I will ask the rest of the students to act as detectives to determine the purpose of each student’s presentation. I will show the pie chart to the students with each of the Author’s Purposes. I will explain that the pie chart is separated into four different Author’s Purposes for the four presenters. The detectives’ job will be to write the student’s name in the pie piece that they suspect the student presenting is trying to use. I will give an example to the students to model my expectations.

3. Author’s Purpose Strips
To tell a joke (entertain)
To teach something (inform)
To convince the class to do their homework (persuade)
To share something that happened to them today (describe)
After the exercise, have the students in the class explain what each presenter’s purpose was. I will ask, “How did you know that ______ (student name) was trying to _________ (Author’s Purpose) based on their presentation?” and “What language did the student presenter use to give you the clue to their purpose?” I will give positive feedback for student responses.

4. “Victory”
I will show students the poem called “Victory.” I will ask students, “Why do you think the author choose this title for the poem?” I will ask students to turn and share with a neighbor. I will say, “Based on your neighbor’s responses and your prior-knowledge about what victory means, what can you predict the Author’s Purpose of this poem to be?” I will record student responses/predictions on the SmartBoard.

5. Author’s Purpose
Descriptive: To tell what something looks like, sounds like, or feels like
SHOW/SHARE/DESCRIBE

6. Victory
She gritted her teeth and took a breath as she crouched at the line.
She paused, the sound of her own heart beating beating beating
A quick glance to the right and to the left was all it took. No one would pass her this time.
I will show students the poem called “Victory.” I will ask students, “Why do you think the author choose this title for the poem?” I will ask students to turn and share with a neighbor. I will say, “Based on your neighbor’s responses and your prior-knowledge about what victory means, what can you predict the Author’s Purpose of this poem to be?” I will record student responses/predictions on the SmartBoard.
Introduce Difficult Vocabulary: I will briefly review difficult words in the text for the students. I will highlight the word ‘gritted’ in the text. I will explain that the word gritted means to press or rub teeth together. I will highlight the word ‘crouched’ in the text. I will explain that the word crouched means to lower your body to the ground. I will highlight the word ‘glance’ in the text. I will explain that the word glance means to look at something or someone quickly. I will highlight the word ‘draped’ in the text. I will explain that the word draped means to loosely place or hang something.
I will explain to students that if our prediction of the author’s purpose is _____________ (descriptive: to describe an event), then we have to all become detectives again to look for clues in the text. When we are detectives, we are using a strategy called inferring. Inferring means to take what the author has written in the text and come to our own conclusion using those clues. The clues we are looking for in this poem will be in places where the author has SHOWED us something, SHARED something with us, or DESCRIBED something using the language in the text. These clues could give us information about the characters, setting, ect.
Modeling: I will ask students to follow along with me as I read the first section of text. I will say, “As a detective, I notice that the author SHOWED us information when they wrote ‘she crouched at the line’ here which means the girl leaned down. I’m going to circle this line. I can infer (or come to the conclusion), based on what I know about the title, ‘Victory’, and the author’s detail about the girl leaning down at a line, that the setting of the poem is probably at a race. So, I know that the author included this language and part of her poem to SHARE/SHOW the setting with me. I am going to write ‘show-> setting = race’ next to this section of the text.” I will ask students to also write this next to the text.
Guided Practice:
I will ask students to follow along with me as I read the second section of text. I will say, “As detectives, we now know the setting of this text is at a race. Based on this new section of clues, how does the author SHARE information about the character (girl running a race)? How do we know (*circle the word she)? What conclusions can we make, or what can we infer, about what the character is feeling when the author DESCRIBES the sound of the heart as ‘beating, beating, beating’?” I will write ‘sharing-> character = girl’ and ‘describing -> character’s feelings = nervous’ next to this section of the text.
I will ask the students to follow along with me as I read the third section of the text. I will say, “As detectives, I want you to circle the words ‘this time’. I want you to infer, or come to a conclusion, about why the author included the words ‘this time’ in this section of the text.” I will ask the students to write their thoughts next to the text on their own. We will share out ideas. I will explain that the author SHARED this information with us so that we would understand that the character has ran the race before. I will write ‘sharing -> character = lost race before’ next to this section of the text.

7. Victory
This time would be different. This time she would feel the rush hear the cheers be at the finish first.
She would finally feel the heavy weight lifted from her heart and draped around her neck instead. Joy would fill places where before only worry lived.
This time, victory was hers.
--Anonymous
I will ask the students to follow along with me as I read the fourth section of the text. I will ask students to think back to our author’s purpose (to describe) and ask, “What is the author DESCRIBING in this section of the text (feelings of winning/coming to the end of the finish line)?” I will circle ‘this time will be different’ in the text and ‘be at the finish first’ and ask students to do the same. We will add to what these lines are describing to us to the right of the text (describing -> character = wants to win).
I will ask the students to follow along with me as I read the fifth section of the text. I will ask students to turn and talk with a neighbor about what they think the author means by “feel the heavy weight lifted from her heart”. We will discuss student answers (feelings of being upset, disappointment, ect.) I will say, “Using the clues in the story, what can we infer, or make a conclusion about, what the author SHOWING us in the line ‘draped around her neck instead’ (medal for winning the race this time)?” I will write ‘showing -> character = wants medal’.
I will ask the students to follow along with me as I read the rest of the text.

8. Author’s Purpose Prediction?
I will explain to the students that the language that the author uses in their writing is connected to what they want their purpose of their writing to be. We will re-visit the student’s prediction of the author’s purpose (descriptive). I will ask students if they made a correct prediction to give me a thumbs up. I will explain that when thinking about WHY an author included a piece of information, we must first think back to WHY they wrote their piece to begin with. I will say, “The “Victory” poem was written to describe a memory event about a girl running a race. We discussed different lines in the poem that contributed to the girl’s memory and describing, showing, and sharing what happened.”

9. Practice Why did the author include lines 7-8 in the "Victory" poem?
A quick glance to the right and to the left was all it took.
A. describe the feelings of joy to win the race
B. explain why she is nervous
C. show that the character is determined to win
D. give reasons why the racer would be hearing cheers