Last updated: September 3, 2026
Teaching author’s purpose is more than just PIE (persuade, inform, entertain), though pie does sound delicious. In this lesson, you’ll find four student‑approved activities that go beyond the basics, including a hands‑on foldable, a PowerPoint with matching cards, a free Boom Learning practice, and an irresistible doughnut‑themed writing project. Because nothing motivates writing like sugar.
Understanding informational text isn’t just about what an author says; it’s also about why the author wrote it. In this lesson, students learn to recognize an author’s purpose by analyzing real‑world texts, interactive activities, and authentic writing examples.
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Informational Text
Recognizing an author’s purpose helps students think more critically about what they read. Whether the text is trying to inform, persuade, entertain, or share feelings, understanding the author’s intent gives students a clearer lens for evaluating information and identifying how writers communicate their message.
This lesson builds foundational skills students will use throughout Workshop 3 as they analyze nonfiction, evaluate evidence, and strengthen their own writing.
In This Lesson You’ll Learn
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to help students:
✔ identify common purposes for writing
✔ distinguish persuasive, informative, entertaining, and expressive texts
✔ analyze real‑world examples to determine the author’s intent
✔ support answers with text evidence
✔ apply author’s purpose to their own writing
Mini‑Lesson: What Is Author’s Purpose?
Authors write with a specific purpose in mind. Understanding that purpose helps students read more critically, evaluate information, and recognize how the author wants them to think or feel. In upper‑elementary grades, author’s purpose typically falls into one of four categories:
Persuade – The author wants the reader to believe or do something.
Inform – The author wants to teach or explain information.
Entertain – The author wants the reader to enjoy a story or experience.
Share Feelings / Express – The author wants to communicate personal thoughts or emotions.
To introduce the concept, model how you examine a text and ask:
Why did the author write this?
What does the author want me to think, learn, or feel?
Which clues help me determine the purpose? (tone, word choice, text type, structure)
Use quick examples to demonstrate the difference:
Persuade: “Everyone should visit the Empire State Building—it’s the best view in New York.”
Inform: “The Empire State Building opened in 1931 and has 102 floors.”
Entertain: “As the elevator shot upward, Mia imagined she was blasting off into space.”
Share Feelings: “Standing on the observation deck made me feel small and amazed.”
These short models help students see how purpose shapes the way information is presented.
Get the Lesson Handout
Download the foldables, matching cards, PowerPoint links, Boom Learning activity, and doughnut‑themed writing prompts used throughout this lesson.
Four Authors’ Purpose Activities
Activity #1 — Build Understanding with Foldable Organizers
Kick off your author’s purpose unit with two four-door foldables that students will actually want to keep in their notebooks. Each flap is labeled with one of four writing purposes: persuade, inform, entertain, and share feelings (with options for describe or express depending on your standard or lesson focus). Want to go a step further? A second foldable adds additional writing purposes. Inside, students write definitions and add examples—plus illustrations to make the organizers their own.
I break this activity into four mini-lessons across four days, introducing two purposes per day to avoid overload.
Pro tip: The printable includes a version with answers, perfect for differentiation. Let students who need support use it as a reference while others create their own definitions.
✨ Activity #2 — Practice Identifying the Author’s Purpose
Once students understand the basics, it’s time to apply the skill. That’s where the matching game comes in.
Students pair up purpose, definition, and example cards. Then, we move to whole-group practice with Part 2 of the PowerPoint that displays a passage and asks: What was the author’s purpose here?
We start with oral responses, then move to short written responses for reinforcement. It’s a great way to transition from sorting definitions to analyzing real text.
Note: The PowerPoint still contains Tennessee standards. Feel free to delete the slides or swap in your own state’s standards or Common Core references.
✨ Activity #3 — Digital Practice with Boom Learning
Now that students have built a solid foundation with foldables, and matching cards, it’s time to take their learning digital with an interactive Boom Learning deck.
This activity is perfect for reviewing and reinforcing author’s purpose in a fun, low-prep way. Students read short passages—ranging from advertisements and flyers to articles and stories—and determine whether the author is trying to persuade, inform, entertain, or share feelings. Each passage is followed by a multiple-choice option.
Whether your students are just being introduced to these concepts or need targeted review before assessments, this activity helps meet the standards while keeping students engaged.
👉 This deck makes a great center activity, early finisher task, or homework assignment. And since Boom Learning is self-checking, you can keep your sanity intact while students get immediate feedback!
🎯 Skill Focus: Identifying the author’s purpose across a variety of text types
🖱️ Question Type: Multiple choice
💻 Format: Digital Boom Cards
✨ Activity #4 — Apply the Skill Through Writing 🍩
This is where things get delicious. For this lesson, I bring in doughnuts (yes, real ones) and place them on the desks to tempt young writers. Then comes the twist: Students pull a writing prompt from a hat and compose a short passage from a specific author’s purpose.
Here are the prompts they might get:
- Persuade me to buy doughnuts.
- Inform me about doughnuts.
- Entertain me with a story involving doughnuts.
- Describe a doughnut using imagery.
- Share your feelings about a doughnut experience.
After writing, students get to enjoy the doughnuts they’ve been drooling over. Everyone wins.
🍩 Student Writing Samples
Persuade:
“For just $1.00 you can get four delicious, chocolaty, marvelous treats. Come on down, and I’ll see you there.” – Kristina
Entertain:
“I peeked around the car to see a doughnut truck. Out of the back of the truck was a cannon that had shot the missile. Pieces of doughnuts flew everywhere.” – Ryan
Describe:
“The sticky, squishy icing smeared all over my fingers as I put it to my mouth. It was the most wonderful thing I have ever tasted.” – Cassie
Inform:
“National Donut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June.” – Christina
Share Feelings:
“Just walking in the shop made me feel like a rainbow of happiness.” – Emma
📸 Bonus idea: Take photos of your doughnut day and create a bulletin board with students’ writing and snapshots!
Teacher Information
Standards Covered
This author’s purpose unit aligns with a range of standards including:
- W.4.1.a, W.4.4, W.4.10
- W.5.1.a, W.5.4, W.5.10
- W.6.4, W.6.10
These activities help students write with intent, reflect on tone, and understand the difference between entertaining and informing—plus they’ll have a lot of fun in the process.
Classroom Tip
Students often confuse the author’s purpose with the main idea.
Remind students:
- Main idea tells what the text is mostly about.
- Author’s purpose explains why the author wrote the text.
Practicing both skills together helps students become stronger readers of informational text.
Differentiation for Author’s Purpose
Emerging Readers: Provide short, simple passages with one clear purpose and ask students to choose between inform, entertain, or persuade.
On‑Level Readers: Use mixed‑purpose texts (ads, flyers, short articles) and have students justify their choice with evidence from the text.
Advanced Readers: Introduce texts with blended purposes and ask students to explain how the author balances informing, entertaining, or persuading.
English Learners: Teach purpose signal words (buy, learn, enjoy, imagine) and pair them with sentence frames like “The author wants me to…”.
Extra Support: Offer a laminated reference card with icons for each purpose and sample sentences.
Common Misconceptions Students Have
Students often:
- think “entertain” only means funny
- confuse author’s purpose with main idea
- assume every nonfiction text is meant to inform
- believe persuasive writing must include strong opinions
- think describing something automatically means “entertain”
Addressing these early helps students make clearer, more confident choices.
Teacher Tip
Students understand author’s purpose best when they see it in real‑world texts. Bring in menus, ads, brochures, and short articles and ask:
- “Why did someone write this?”
- “What do they want the reader to do or feel?”
Authentic examples make the skill click instantly.
Final Thoughts for Teachers
When students recognize why an author wrote a text, they become more thoughtful readers. Instead of simply gathering information, they begin asking important questions:
Is the author trying to inform me? Persuade me? Entertain me? Share feelings?
Learning to answer these questions prepares students to evaluate nonfiction articles, advertisements, websites, and multimedia sources with confidence.
If you’ve ever wanted to see your students write passionately about doughnuts, this is your sign. Whether you’re teaching author’s purpose for the first time or looking to refresh your unit, these activities hit the sweet spot—engaging, standards‑based, and classroom‑tested.
Happy teaching (and snacking)!
Get the links to make all these activities happen. This handout includes links to the lesson PowerPoint that accompanies the TPT resource, the free Teachers Pay Teachers product (including the organizer, matching cards, and doughnut writing prompts), and a free practice exercise on Boom Learning.
See the product that inspired this post.
Are you looking for a fun way to teach writing skills? This series teaches narrative, informative, and opinion writing with animated short films your students are sure to love!
1 comment
Every one of your resources are stimulating, challenging and well presented. Many thanks for your dedication.