Knowledge and Skills Statement
Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.
Glossary Support for ELA.4.10.A
Author's purpose refers to an author's main goal in a piece of writing. Students are expected to explain how the author's purpose is reflected in the way an author writes about a topic. For example, if the purpose is to entertain, the author will probably use jokes or anecdotes. If the goal is to inform or teach, it is very likely that the author will include facts, descriptions, and reasonable explanations.
The message of a text is the fundamental idea explored or expressed by an author in a writing piece. Students are expected to explain the main point or idea the author is trying to tell the reader. Sometimes the message is explicit and straightforward, but in other cases the message is embedded in the text and requires that students infer it.
Supporting Information for ELA.4.10.A
Research
Meyer, B. J., & Ray, M. N. (2011). Structure strategy interventions: increasing reading comprehension of expository text. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 4(1), 127–152. Accessed online at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=expository+text&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ1070453
Summary: In this literature review, researchers examine empirical studies designed to teach the structure strategy to increase reading comprehension of expository texts. Strategy interventions employ modeling, practice, and feedback to teach students how to use text structure strategically and eventually automatically. The analysis suggests that direct instruction, modeling, scaffolding, elaborated feedback, and adaptation of instruction to student performance are keys in teaching students to strategically use knowledge about text structure.
