Identifying Author’s Purpose Worksheet
This identifying author’s purpose worksheet has 3rd graders read a giraffe passage and decide whether the author wants to inform, persuade, or entertain. Answer key included for easy reading practice.
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About this resource
Description
Every piece of writing has a reason behind it: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. Learning to spot that reason is an important reading skill, and this identifying author’s purpose worksheet gives third graders a friendly way to practice it. When children can name why an author wrote a text, they read more thoughtfully and understand more of what they read.
This 3rd grade author’s purpose worksheet starts with a short, fact-filled passage about giraffes. Students read the passage, look at the details the author included, and then answer multiple-choice questions by filling in the bubble next to the best answer. A final written question asks them to explain how they know the author’s purpose using a clue from the text. Print one copy per student and use it during a reading lesson, as morning work, or for a quick check of understanding.
What’s Included
- 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
- Answer key
- A reading passage with 3 multiple-choice questions and 1 written response
This identifying author’s purpose worksheet helps children in three ways. First, the short passage keeps the reading manageable so students can focus on the thinking skill instead of decoding long text. Second, the multiple-choice questions model the three main purposes — to inform, to persuade, and to entertain — so kids learn the vocabulary they need. Third, the written response builds the habit of supporting an answer with evidence from the text, a skill that carries into every subject.
Teachers and parents can stretch this skill in fun ways. After finishing the page, ask children to hunt for the author’s purpose in a favorite book, a cereal box, or a TV commercial and sort each one as inform, persuade, or entertain. Try writing three short sentences about the same topic — one that informs, one that persuades, and one that entertains — and let students match each to its purpose. These playful sorts make the idea stick.
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