What's the Doggie's Purpose: Author's Purpose Freebie

Hey friends! I'm a little busy this Tuesday grading benchmark assessments in reading, so I'm sharing a guest post that I wrote on my friend Denise's blog a few months ago.  Yes, the Denise of Sunny Days! :)  
 

Keep on reading this post for a fun freebie inspired by my sweet pups, Moss and Maddie! :)

My school has a big push on student engagement this year, which I am thrilled about because it gives us a little bit more freedom than normal to stray from our adopted curriculums.    A few weeks ago, instead of using a lesson from our Treasures reading series to review author's purpose, I decided to review author's purpose with two sweet and furry things that are close my heart.  

Aren't they precious? My students LOVE when I talk about my two dogs, Moss and Maddie.    So I had Moss and Maddie, plus my parent's dog, Daisy, dictate letters to me addressed to my class to use to use in a lesson.  

I shared these letters with my students on my Smartboard and we went through each one and discussed what the author's purpose could be and then looked for keys words and evidence as to why the purpose could be to persuade, inform, or entertain.  Then they recording their thinking on the accompanying graphic organizer.

Oh my gosh, my bigger kids LOVED this! They were so engaged and into the lesson that I was kinda hoping one of my adminstrators  would walk into the room for a pop in observation! :)  Since the lesson was so memorable, they used the doggie's letters throughout the week when determining the purpose of other texts that we read!  I overheard things like "Well, Maddie's letter was to inform and she taught us all about making her favorite treat, so this book must be to inform too because we learned something," and "Moss' letter shared a story that made us laugh, this book is also funny, so the author must have wrote it to entertain."  

If you would like to do this activity with your class, I have shared it with you as a freebie at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Just click on the picture above to check it out! :)  If you use it with your class, I'd love to know what you think!