Adrian F.

Drake
March 31st, 2016
Authors Craft Persuasive language
4th Grade
ELA
40 Minutes
Common Core/ New York State Standards:
RI.4.1 Reading: Informational Text, Key Ideas and Details. Refer to details and
examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
RI.4.8 Reading: Informational Text, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas. Explain how
an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.
Central Focus and Rationale for the Lesson:
The students in the class have been examining Authors Craft through various texts.
They have learned that an author writes to entertain, inform and persuade. This
lesson introduces persuasive language to the student so they can identify and write
persuasive text. It also demonstrates that an author can use more than one craft in
a persuasive text to support the authors main purpose.
Academic Language:
Authors Craft
Persuasion
Authors Purpose
Persuasive language
Opinion
Prediction

Objective:
The student will be able to derive the authors purpose of a text as well as
differentiate the main purpose of a text from supporting purposes using a
persuasive text with a summative assessment.
Materials Needed:
Reading passages; Dogs Need Each Other, Seat Belt Text, School Board may
vote to change Name of Columbus Day and Is Columbus Sailing Away in
Southampton?
Summary Assessment page
Flip Chart
Authors Purpose PIE poster
Persuasive Words and Phrases Poster
Technology Integration:
Laptop
Document Viewer
Screen
Voters for Active Inspire
Multiple Assessment Strategies:
Direct Teacher Observation
Formative Assessment of group work
Summative Assessment of Independent Text Questions
Instructional Procedures:
o Introduction/Motivation
Bring students to the carpet.
Read a portion of the seat belt persuasion text. Ask: What is the
authors opinion on this topic? Have the students summarize it
in their own words. Ask them to find the reasons or examples
the author gives. Ask them if they found the argument
convincing? Why or Why not?
Introduce the topic of persuasive language as one of the three
categories of writers craft. To activate pre knowledge, have the
students state the three forms of Authors craft or purpose.
Refer to the PIE poster up on the wall.
Write three sentences on the board; Project MOST meets every
day. The students waited impatiently for their turn to jump into
the refreshing water of the pool. Everyone should support
Project MOST. Have the students identify which writers purpose
belongs to which sentence.
Have the students identify the purpose for the seat belt text.
o

Development/Developmental Activities
Explain that today we will be looking at the authors purpose of
persuasion.

Complete anchor chart of What is persuasive writing?, Why do

authors try to persuade their readers? and How do authors
persuade their readers?
Refer to the Persuasive words poster and point out a few key
words and phrases that are considered persuasive language.
Say While an author may have one purpose for writing the text,
they may have more than one purpose for including some
details.
Model by reading aloud Dogs need each other. Place a
question mark at the end of the title. Say Im not sure from the
title what the authors purpose is. Is it a fact or an opinion?
State that you will skim the first paragraph for clues of
persuasive language.
Model identifying an opinion by reading the word should, and
underline the phrase it is in. Model highlighting other purposes
such as to inform. The author includes them to provide
reasons/examples for his/her main idea of persuasion or opinion.
Highlight any other examples that inform or entertain.
Remind the students that while these purposes/crafts are in the
text, the main purpose is to persuade.
Have students return to their desks. Place School Board may
vote to change Name of Columbus Day. on the document
viewer and hand a copy to every student.
Have the students work in their table groups. Have them predict
what they believe the purpose of the text will be by looking at
the title.
Pull and work directly with the students that need extra reading
assistance by using the vocabulary page.
Have them look for clues in the text about whether their
prediction was correct. They should underline the examples of
persuasion and highlight examples of a second purpose.
As a whole group have them share their findings. Ask the
students how well did the author support his opinion?
Hand out Is Columbus Sailing Away in Southampton?
Conclusion/Closure
Have the students independently read Is Columbus Sailing
Away in Southampton?. Have them underline the examples
given to support the authors opinion (persuasive language) and
highlight any examples of another purpose given to support the
main purpose of persuasion.
Have them independently complete the questions at the end.
Bring the questions up on the SmartBoard Voters flip chart.

Hand out assigned voters to all the students and have them
enter their answers on their voters.

Differentiation:
The Instructional procedures of this lesson are differentiated because it uses the
document viewer for visual learners, read aloud of text for auditory learners and
both group processing and independent learning opportunities. Scaffolding from
other classmates will naturally take place during the group work, as the students
will be talking to each other to derive the main purpose for the text as well as
identifying other purposes used in the text to provide supporting examples. For
students that are having reading difficulty, have them work with a teacher to listen
orally to the text to answer the questions during the independent segment.
Evaluation/Assessment:
The summative assessment for this lesson will come from the annotations made by
the students in the independent text as well as the questions they need to answer
about the text. Formative assessments will also be made during the lesson by
direct observation of the students answering questions as well as the work
completed during the group portion of the activity.
Extensions:
The following lesson will continue persuasive language. The students will be using
the information gained from the two texts on indigenous day as well as a short
video on Columbus day vs. Indigenous day to form their own opinion using multiple
sources and write their own persuasive text utilizing persuasive language taught in
previous lesson.
Resources:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/NfRatmMfMr0/UnxWGvyHUaI/AAAAAAAABuY/t4Iu1cCRYio/s1600/persuasive+
writing+hooks+mini-lesson.017.png
https://www.bing.com/images/search?
q=authors+purpose&view=detailv2&&id=2C0B95C30384FC6EBDFD8F92BDA
62218D302FCE9&selectedIndex=8&ccid=3ETsgwvD&simid=6080493829991
96642&thid=OIP.Mdc44ec830bc3cf788de6ba90e04b1d85H0&ajaxhist=0
https://www.bing.com/images/search?
q=non+fiction+reading+test+seat+belts&view=detailv2&&id=FD51
3AA5AF6A28EDF64C9EC83287F72DC1A384EB&selectedIndex=17&cci
d=BPxLEHs3&simid=608051010791147032&thid=OIP.M04fc4b107b3
7f8030ee18144e90f0eddo0&ajaxhist=0
file:///C:/Users/afdra/Downloads/cp_gr4_ap_persuade_model_passage.
pdf
https://www.readinga-z.com/comprehension/comprehension-skillpacks/?
f=site_and_dist/nonbooks/comprehension_passages_grade_4_authors
_purpose_persuade/cp_gr4_ap_persuade_model_passage.pdf

Wood, C. (2007). Yardsticks: Children in the classroom, ages 4-14 (3rd ed.).
Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.

Considerations of their cognitive and emotional learning abilities at this

age:
The students in this age range, primarily late 9 year olds and early 10 year olds, are
mostly now reading to learn instead of learning to read. They also are interested in
themes on race and ethnic diversity. This focus on Columbus day or Indigenous
Peoples Day relates directly to the town next door and the diverse population found
within their own community. This age group works well cooperatively in groups and
are expressive and talkative so the group component of this lesson is ideally suited
to them. (Wood, 2007)