Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes – Part A: Lesson Introduction
10 minutes – Part B: Teacher Modelling
30 minutes – Part C: Student Activity
10 minutes – Part D: Share Time
5 minutes – Part E: Reflection

Part A: Lesson Introduction

Step 1. Write the learning intentions and success criteria (detailed above) on the board for students to see and invite students to read them aloud. These have intentionally been written in the first person perspective to assist students to internalise them as their own goals for the lesson.

You can then pose the following question to students:

What do we mean when we talk about author’s purpose when reading?

Invite students to provide responses and write them on the whiteboard. Throughout the discussion, ensure that the class understands that author’s purpose refers to the reason why the author wrote the text.

Step 2. Project the text from Page 1 of the Watercolour Techniques booklet and read it aloud to the class. Pose the question:

What topic is this text is about?

Ensure that students understand that the focus of the text is water colour pencils.

Step 3. Explain to students that you will now model how to figure out the Author’s Purpose. Inform them that you will read each paragraph of the text and figure out the main idea. You will then look at all the information you have found and work out what the main point of the text is.

Note: This takes the form of a think aloud introduction. The think aloud approach involves a teacher verbalising their internal dialogue so that students are able to experience and build their understanding of the internal thinking process applied when analysing a text. Notes on what the teacher should say have been included to help ensure the strategy used to identify the author’s purpose is clear to students. Project a copy of the Identifying Author's Purpose Worksheet so that you can add notes to it while examining the text. This demonstrates for students what they will do independently after you model the process.

Read paragraph 1 aloud and then state:

The main idea is often in the first or last part of the paragraph. The end of this paragraph says ‘you will be delighted with the results’ so I can see that this paragraph is telling us that watercolour pencils are a good thing to use to create great art work.

In the paragraph 1 section of the Worksheet, write “watercolour pencils help to make great works of art.”

Read paragraph 2 aloud and then state:

The first line of this sentence says that watercolour pencils are flexible. I think this means they can do a lot of things. Yes, it says they can be like pencils or paints. It also says you can add detail, and blend colours. Oh, but it also says they aren’t messy, don’t take up much space and you can carry them around. This paragraph also tells that they are convenient. There are two main points, they are flexible and convenient.

In the Paragraph 2 section of the Worksheet, write:

“Watercolour pencils are flexible.”

“Watercolour pencils are convenient”

Read paragraph 3 aloud and then state:

This paragraph is about colours. It’s saying that it provides enough pencils to create almost any colour. This paragraph is telling me that the watercolour pencils kit will let me make any colour I want.

In the paragraph 3 section of the Worksheet, write:

“The watercolour pencil kits lets you make almost every colour possible.”

Read paragraph 4 aloud and then state:

This is saying that anyone can create interesting and original art. With these pencils, anyone can be a great artist.

In the paragraph 4 section of the Worksheet, write:

“Anyone can be a great artist with these watercolour pencils.”

State:

Now I am going to look over the list I have made to show the main points in this text. Paragraph 1 tells how watercolour pencils help to make great works of art. Paragraph 2 explains that watercolour pencils are flexible and convenient. Paragraph 3 explains how you can make almost any colour and paragraph 4 says that anyone can be a great artist with these pencils. Hmmm… The whole text is making the pencils seem really good, like we should all have them. I think this is a persuasive text which is trying to convince us to buy the pencils. That must be the author’s purpose to try to convince people to buy the watercolour pencils.

In the Author’s Purpose section of the Example Worksheet write:

“To persuade or convince people to buy Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.”

Part B: Student Activity

Step 1. Ensure that all students have a copy of Page 22 of Faber-Castell's water colour techniques booklet and the Identifying Author’s Purpose Worksheet. Explain that they will do the same thing that you demonstrated:

Read the text.
Go back to each paragraph, find the main point and write it on the worksheet.
Look over the main point of each paragraph and decide what the author was trying to do.

Assign students a partner of like ability to work with on this task. Any student who may have difficulty reading and interpreting the text should be included in a group with the teacher. Read the text together and discuss each paragraph to determine the main idea. As a group discuss what the author’s purpose is.

Step 2. Assign a new partner to all students (including those from the focus group) to share their thoughts and ideas with. Each student takes a turn to share what they have written down. Students can add further notes to their sheet or change their ideas if they feel convinced by their partner.

Part C: Share Time

Project a blank copy of the Author's Purpose Worksheet and invite the class to share their ideas for each section. In the author’s purpose section, include any ideas for the author’s purpose that students can justify and can be seen on the answer sheet provided.

It is important at this point of the lesson to emphasise that we cannot always be absolutely certain that we have interpreted the author’s purpose accurately. It could be argued that the purpose of this text is to explain how to do stamping using watercolour pencils. It could also be argued that this text is contributing to persuade the reader to buy the pencils by giving another example of how they could be used.

Reflection

Give students some time to think about their learning from the lesson and how they could use it in the future by asking (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What skill did you learn in this lesson?
How could this skill help you in the future?

Place students in new pairs and have them share their reflection with another member of the class.

Differentiated Learning

Extension – When working with a partner, students will have to be able to communicate their ideas to a partner in a manner they understand. If they have a different idea or perception to the person they are working with, they will need to be able to justify their view using evidence from the text.

Provisions for Learning Support – The teacher will have a focus group to support students who may find it difficult to access the reading task independently.

Teacher Reflection

What's the Point? (Reading Skills NAPLAN)

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson guides and printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

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