Kindergarten · English Language Arts and Reading
Quarter 3 · Week 5 · TEKS
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This lesson introduces kindergarten students to the concept of an author's purpose for writing a text. With adult assistance, students will explore why authors write stories or texts and how the way a text is organized helps communicate that purpose. Through shared reading, discussion, and guided activities, students will develop foundational skills in understanding author intent and text structure, supporting their listening, speaking, reading, and thinking abilities.
Students should be familiar with listening to stories read aloud and participating in simple discussions about stories and texts with adults.
The author's purpose is the reason why an author writes a text. Common purposes include to entertain, to inform, or to explain something to the reader. For kindergarten students, it is important to introduce these ideas simply and with examples. For instance, a storybook might be written to entertain by telling a fun story, while a simple informational book might be written to inform about animals or weather.
Text structure refers to how a text is organized. In stories, this often means having a clear beginning, middle, and end. This structure helps the author share their purpose by organizing ideas so the reader can follow along easily. For example, a story that entertains will have characters and events that happen in order, while an informational text might be organized by topics or facts.
Kindergarten students benefit from adult support when discussing abstract ideas like author's purpose. Adults can model thinking aloud, ask guiding questions, and help students use evidence from the text to support their ideas. This scaffolding helps students develop critical inquiry skills and understand how authors communicate meaning.
- Entertain: A story about a silly animal doing funny things. - Inform: A book that tells about different kinds of weather. - Explain: A simple text that shows how to plant a seed. Using these examples, teachers can help students identify the author’s purpose by discussing what the text is mostly about and how it makes the reader feel or what it teaches.
- Students may think all texts are stories and written just to entertain. - Students might confuse the author's purpose with the main idea or the moral of the story. - Students may not recognize that text structure helps the author communicate their purpose. Teachers should clarify these points by providing clear examples and repeated practice.
After reading a story about a playful puppy, ask: Why do you think the author wrote this story?
The story is fun and makes us laugh, so the author likely wrote it to entertain readers. The story has a beginning where the puppy starts playing, a middle with the puppy's adventures, and an end where the puppy rests. This order helps the author tell the story clearly.
The author wrote the story to entertain us by telling about the puppy's fun day.
After reading a simple book about weather, ask: How does the way this book is organized help the author?
The book is organized by different types of weather, like sunny, rainy, and snowy. This helps the author share information clearly so we can learn about each kind of weather.
The author organized the book by weather types to help us learn about each one.
Read aloud a short picture book or story with clear author’s purpose. Ask students to listen carefully to why they think the author wrote the story.
Listen to the story and share initial thoughts about why the author wrote it, with adult prompting.
Engaging students with a familiar story helps them begin thinking about author’s purpose in a concrete way.
Guide students through identifying the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Discuss how this helps the author tell the story.
With adult help, students point out parts of the story and describe what happens in each part.
Understanding text structure supports comprehension of author’s purpose by showing how ideas are organized.
Explain that authors write for different reasons and use text structure to help share their ideas. Use examples from the story to illustrate.
Repeat or share ideas about why authors write and how stories are organized, with adult support.
Clarifying the concept of author’s purpose and text structure helps students connect their observations to the lesson goals.
Read a second short text with a different author’s purpose (e.g., an informational text). Discuss how this text is organized differently and why.
Compare the two texts with adult help, noting differences in purpose and structure.
Comparing texts deepens understanding of how author’s purpose influences text structure.
Ask students to share or draw about why an author might write a text and how the text is organized. Use simple prompts or questions.
Respond orally or with drawings about author’s purpose and text structure, with adult assistance.
This assessment checks student understanding of the lesson’s key concepts in an accessible way.
With adult help, students point out parts of the story and describe what happens in each part.
Why do authors write stories or texts?
Authors write to entertain, inform, or explain something to readers.
What are the three parts of a story?
Beginning, middle, and end.
How does text structure help the author?
It helps organize ideas so readers can understand the author’s message.
Give an example of an author’s purpose.
To entertain by telling a fun story or to inform by sharing facts.
How can adults help you understand a story’s author’s purpose?
By asking questions, explaining ideas, and helping me talk about the story.
Provide sentence starters to help students express ideas. Use pictures or drawings to support understanding of story parts. Offer repeated read-alouds and discussions for reinforcement.
Use visuals and gestures to explain author’s purpose and text structure. Pre-teach key vocabulary with pictures. Encourage students to use their home language to discuss ideas before sharing in English.
Encourage students to explain how different text structures help different author purposes. Have students create their own simple story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Discuss multiple reasons an author might have for writing a text.
Encourage families to read stories and informational books together at home. Ask parents to discuss with children why the author might have written the text and how the story or book is organized.
In this lesson, students learned that authors write texts for different reasons, such as to entertain or inform. They explored how the way a text is organized helps the author share their purpose. With adult assistance, students practiced identifying parts of a story and discussing why the author wrote it, building foundational skills in understanding author’s purpose and text structure.
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