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5th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 3 of 13

Purpose and Structure

Why and how authors write

What your child practices

Deciding whether a text informs, persuades or entertains, recognizing five common text structures and their signal words, and using text features like the glossary and index.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.10(A); 5.10(B) · an author's purpose and text structure

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Authors write to inform (teach), persuade (convince) or entertain.
  2. Text structures: description, sequence (first, then), compare and contrast (alike, unlike), cause and effect (because, so) and problem and solution.
  3. Captions explain pictures. The glossary explains bold words.

Example: A text says you should always wear a helmet because it keeps you safe. What is the author’s main purpose? “You should” tries to get the reader to do something. Convincing a reader is persuading. Answer: to persuade

Purpose and Structure in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 3 of 13 in 5th grade English Language Arts, after Figurative Language and before Context Clues.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Sort each text by the author's main purpose.

    Sort into: 📘 Inform · 📢 Persuade · 🎭 Entertain

    • 📰A news report about a new bike path
    • 🔍A mystery novel about a missing painting
    • 📺A TV ad for a new cereal
    • ✉️A letter asking the city to build a park
    • ⛄A funny poem about a snowman
    • 🌋A science book about volcanoes

  2. Question 2

    How is this text organized?

    When the town planted hundreds of trees along Main Street, the street became much shadier. Because it was cooler, more people started walking there in the summer. As a result, the shops on Main Street had more visitors.

    • cause and effect
    • problem and solution
    • sequence
    • description

  3. Question 3

    Which signal words often appear in a cause and effect text?

    • because, so, as a result
    • for example, such as, looks like
    • both, however, unlike
    • first, next, then, finally

  4. Question 4

    How is this text organized?

    The desert at night is cool and quiet. Sand stretches in every direction, silver under the moon. Tall cacti stand still against the stars, and the air smells faintly of dust.

    • compare and contrast
    • problem and solution
    • description
    • sequence

  5. Question 5

    How is this text organized?

    To make a paper airplane, start by folding a sheet of paper in half the long way. After that, fold the top corners down to the center crease. Then fold each side down again to make the wings. Last, give it a gentle throw.

    • description
    • problem and solution
    • sequence
    • cause and effect

  6. Question 6

    What is the author's main purpose?

    “Who left their socks in the fridge?” Dad shouted. Everyone looked at the dog, and the dog looked at the ceiling.

    • to inform
    • to persuade
    • to entertain

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