Back to the lesson plan builder
Lesson length30 min45 min60 min
Questions🔀 New questions

Print the plan for yourself; the student sheet prints on its own page after it.

English lesson plan · 4th grade (Year 5 in England) · 60 minutes

Author's purpose

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.4.8CCSS RI.6.6England: Y5/6 ReadingEngland: KS2 SATs Reading

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Author's purpose.

  • I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
  • I can explain each step and say why it works.
  • I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Main idea and supporting details

Leads to: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques; Why did the author include this detail?

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 6 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Main idea and supporting details). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. Long ago, people did not have fridges. They kept food cold in cellars, packed it in ice, or dried and salted meat so it would last. What is the main idea? (Fridges are expensive. / Salt makes food tasty. / Cellars are dark. / People once used other ways to keep food from spoiling.) → People once used other ways to keep food from spoiling.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?
  2. Sloths move very slowly. They hang upside down in trees for most of the day. They even sleep and eat upside down. Moving slowly helps them save energy. What is the main idea? (Sloths live slow, upside-down lives in trees. / Sloths eat leaves. / Sloths sleep a lot. / Trees are tall.) → Sloths live slow, upside-down lives in trees.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?
  3. Exercise is good for your body and your mind. It makes your heart and muscles stronger. It can also help you sleep better and feel happier. What is the main idea? (Running is fun. / Sleep is important. / Exercise has many benefits. / Muscles are strong.) → Exercise has many benefits.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?

Hook · 6 min

  • Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
  • Share the objective: Author's purpose. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 12 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Every pupil should learn to swim. Swimming keeps you fit, it is fun, and it could one day save your life. What is the author's main purpose?
  • Step 1: The writer's choices show their purpose.
  • Step 2: So the answer is: to persuade
  • Answer: to persuade
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 12 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. Once upon a time, a dragon was afraid of the dark. Every night he slept with a candle lit, which was a problem, because he kept sneezing it out. What is the author's main purpose? (to give instructions / to persuade / to entertain / to inform) → to entertainPrompt: Is the writer mainly trying to inform, persuade, entertain or explain?
  2. Come to Sunny Farm this Saturday! Meet the baby goats, ride a pony and taste our famous apple pie. Tickets only $5! What is the author's main purpose? (to tell a funny story / to persuade people to visit the farm / to describe the weather / to explain how goats grow) → to persuade people to visit the farmPrompt: Is the writer mainly trying to inform, persuade, entertain or explain?

You do: independent practice · 17 min

  • Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
  • Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 7 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Once upon a time, a dragon was afraid of the dark. Every night he slept with a candle lit, which was a problem, because he kept sneezing it out. What is the author's main purpose? (to persuade / to give instructions / to inform / to entertain) → to entertainPrompt: Is the writer mainly trying to inform, persuade, entertain or explain?

Watch out for

  • Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
  • Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

  • Review first: Main idea and supporting details.
  • Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
  • Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
  • Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

  • Move on to: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques; Why did the author include this detail?.
  • Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
  • Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-4.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

eurekami

Author's purpose

Name

Date

Score/ 8

How to Build a Junk Robot

Do you have a pile of empty boxes and bottle tops? Instead of throwing them away, turn them into a robot! This project takes about an hour. You will need: one cereal box, one smaller box (such as a toothpaste box), four cardboard tubes, bottle tops, glue, scissors and some tape. Step 1: Ask an adult to help you cut a hole in the top of the cereal box. This will be the robot's body. Step 2: Glue the smaller box on top of the body to make the head. Hold it in place for a minute while the glue sets. Step 3: Tape two cardboard tubes to the sides of the body for arms and two to the bottom for legs. Step 4: Glue bottle tops onto the head for eyes and onto the body for buttons and dials. Step 5: Leave your robot to dry overnight before you play with it. Top tip: Give your robot a name and write it on a label. Robots with names are much more fun!

  1. Question 1

    Read "How to Build a Junk Robot". What is the main purpose of this text?

    • A. to give instructions
    • B. to persuade people to recycle
    • C. to describe a factory
    • D. to tell a story about a robot

The Long Wall

The Great Wall of China is not one wall at all. It is a network of walls, trenches and watchtowers built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years by different dynasties. If all its sections were laid end to end, they would stretch over 21,000 kilometres – more than half the distance around the Earth. The earliest walls were built from packed earth around the seventh century BCE, when rival Chinese states defended their borders from one another. In about 220 BCE, the first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered many of these separate walls to be joined together to protect the north from raiding groups. The sections that most visitors see today are far younger. They were built during the Ming dynasty, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ming builders used bricks and stone, which is why these sections have survived so well. Watchtowers were placed close enough together for soldiers to send signals using smoke by day and fire by night. The wall came at a terrible cost. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, prisoners and farmers were forced to work on it, often in freezing mountains or burning deserts. Many died, and stories and songs about their suffering are still told. Did the wall work? Historians disagree. It slowed down small raids and helped control trade and travel, but determined armies could still break through or simply go around it. Today, its greatest power may be as a symbol – of human effort, of history and of a nation's identity.

  1. Question 2

    Read "The Long Wall". Why does the writer include paragraph 4?

    • A. to describe the wall's shape
    • B. to show the human cost of building the wall
    • C. to explain how bricks are made
    • D. to argue that the wall should be knocked down

Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble

In the early eighteenth century, smallpox was one of the most feared diseases in Europe. It killed around three in every ten people it infected and left many survivors scarred or blind. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu knew its cruelty personally: the disease had killed her brother and marked her own face. In 1717, while living in Constantinople (now Istanbul), where her husband was the British ambassador, she observed a remarkable practice. Local women would take a small amount of material from a mild smallpox sore and scratch it into the skin of a healthy person. The person usually developed a mild illness and was then protected for life. This process was called variolation. Montagu was so impressed that she had her young son variolated. When she returned to England, she campaigned to spread the practice, despite fierce opposition. Some doctors resented being taught by a woman; others distrusted a practice from abroad. To win public confidence, Montagu had her daughter variolated in front of physicians from the royal court. Variolation was not without risk: a small number of patients developed severe smallpox, and they could infect others. Decades later, in 1796, Edward Jenner developed a safer method using cowpox, a related but much milder disease. His method, called vaccination after the Latin word for cow, gradually replaced variolation. Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Jenner is often called the father of vaccination, but the story began with the courage of a woman who noticed what others had overlooked.

  1. Question 3

    Read "Lady Montagu and the Smallpox Gamble". What is the writer's main purpose in the final sentence?

    • A. to criticise Jenner
    • B. to argue against vaccination
    • C. to explain how cowpox spreads
    • D. to highlight Montagu's often-forgotten role

Should Our School Keep Bees?

Letter A: Yes to bees! Our school should put two beehives on the flat roof above the library. Bees pollinate fruit, vegetables and wildflowers, and in many places their numbers have fallen. A school hive would give local bees a safe home. It would also turn our roof into a living science lesson: we could study how a colony works, measure how much honey it makes, and plant bee-friendly flowers in the playground. Several schools near us already keep bees, and the beekeepers say pupils are never near the hives, because the roof is locked. Letter B: Not so fast. I agree that bees are important, but I do not think hives are right for our school yet. Some pupils and staff are allergic to bee stings, and even a locked roof is close to open windows. Hives also need an expert to check them every week, and no one at school has that training. Instead, we could help bees in safer ways: plant a wildflower strip by the fence, build a bug hotel, and invite a beekeeper to visit with an observation hive behind glass. If, after a year, we find a trained volunteer, we could think about hives again.

  1. Question 4

    Read "Should Our School Keep Bees?". What is the main purpose of both letters?

    • A. to persuade the reader
    • B. to describe a beehive
    • C. to give instructions
    • D. to entertain with a story

  1. Question 5

    Every pupil should learn to swim. Swimming keeps you fit, it is fun, and it could one day save your life. What is the author's main purpose?

    • A. to persuade
    • B. to describe a pool
    • C. to explain how to swim
    • D. to entertain

Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?

Every evening, in homes across the country, the same battle takes place: tired children, frustrated parents and a worksheet that nobody wants to finish. It is time for primary schools to ban homework. The most important reason is that, for young children, the evidence for homework is weak. Several large reviews of research have found that homework has little measurable effect on the test results of pupils under eleven. Older students may benefit, but for younger children, the hours spent on worksheets do not seem to pay off. Second, children need time to play, rest and be with their families. Play is not a waste of time; it builds creativity, problem-solving and friendships. A child who has spent six hours concentrating at school deserves an evening to explore, read for pleasure or simply be bored – which is when imagination often kicks in. Some people argue that homework teaches responsibility. This is a fair point. However, children can learn responsibility in many other ways: feeding a pet, helping to cook dinner or practising an instrument they have chosen themselves. Finally, homework can be unfair. Some children have parents who can help them every night and a quiet desk to work at. Others share a small space with siblings or have parents who work late. Homework can widen the gap between these children instead of closing it. Schools should replace homework with something simple: read every day, for fun. That is one habit worth taking home.

  1. Question 6

    Read "Should Primary Schools Ban Homework?". Why does the writer open with a description of an evening 'battle'?

    • A. to argue that parents are lazy
    • B. to give statistical evidence
    • C. to describe a real war
    • D. to grab attention with a situation readers recognise

The Vault at the Top of the World

On a frozen island in the Arctic Ocean, between Norway and the North Pole, a narrow concrete doorway sticks out of the side of a mountain. Behind it, a tunnel leads deep into the rock. This is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and it holds more than a million packets of seeds from almost every country on Earth. Why keep seeds in a mountain? Farmers all over the world depend on many different varieties of crops, such as types of rice that survive floods or kinds of wheat that resist disease. If a variety disappears because of war, natural disaster or simple accident, it may be lost for ever. The vault is a back-up copy, like saving a precious file in two places. The location was chosen with care. The vault is high enough above sea level to stay dry even if ice caps melt. Inside, the seeds are kept at about minus 18 degrees Celsius, cold enough to keep many of them alive for decades or even centuries. The surrounding rock is permanently frozen, so even if the power failed, the seeds would stay cold. The vault opened in 2008. In 2015, it was used for the first time: scientists who had lost access to their own seed bank during a war in Syria withdrew samples, grew new plants and later sent fresh seeds back to the vault. The back-up had worked. No one hopes the vault will be needed often. But like a fire extinguisher in a school corridor, it is reassuring to know it is there.

  1. Question 7

    Read "The Vault at the Top of the World". What is the author's main purpose?

    • A. to inform readers about the seed vault and why it matters
    • B. to persuade readers to become farmers
    • C. to give instructions for planting seeds
    • D. to tell a funny story

The Shark on the Motorway

During a storm last spring, a photo exploded across social media. It showed a large shark swimming beside cars on a flooded motorway. Within hours it had been shared more than 80,000 times, often with captions such as "Stay indoors — sharks in the streets!" Fourteen-year-old Amira Haddad saw the photo in her family group chat. Something felt wrong. "The shark looked too sharp compared with the blurry water," she said. "So I decided to check." First, Amira ran a reverse image search. She found the same shark in a wildlife photo published years earlier, on a website about ocean animals. Next, she checked two local news sites. Neither mentioned sharks; both reported flooding and road closures. Finally, she found an article from a fact-checking organisation explaining that the image had been edited and had appeared during several different storms in different countries. Amira posted the fact-check in the group chat. "My uncle had already shared the photo," she laughed. "He was embarrassed, but he thanked me." Fact-checkers say edited images spread fastest when they are shocking and arrive during real emergencies, when people are anxious and want to warn others. Their advice is simple: pause before you share, look for the original source, and check whether reliable outlets are reporting the same thing.

  1. Question 8

    Read "The Shark on the Motorway". What is the writer's main purpose in the final paragraph?

    • A. to criticise Amira's uncle
    • B. to give readers practical advice for checking images
    • C. to make readers afraid of storms
    • D. to describe sharks

Free from eurekami.com

for the adult only

Answer key: Author's purpose

  1. 1. A. to give instructions

  2. 2. B. to show the human cost of building the wall

  3. 3. D. to highlight Montagu's often-forgotten role

  4. 4. A. to persuade the reader

  5. 5. A. to persuade

  6. 6. D. to grab attention with a situation readers recognise

  7. 7. A. to inform readers about the seed vault and why it matters

  8. 8. B. to give readers practical advice for checking images