Author’s Point and Supporting Evidence Worksheet

Finding what a writer is trying to say, and then proving it from the text, is the reading skill third graders lean on for the rest of school. This author’s point and supporting evidence worksheet teaches both halves of that job at once. The author’s point is the big idea the writer wants you to believe. The supporting evidence is the set of reasons and details the writer gives so you will believe it. Students who can separate the two stop summarizing a text and start analyzing it, which is exactly what the third-grade standards ask for.

The printable opens with an original persuasive article about growing a garden in the classroom. The writer states a clear point in the very first sentence and then builds three named reasons underneath it, each with its own concrete detail. That structure is deliberate: it is obvious enough for a third grader to trace, and specific enough that every question has one right answer. Four multiple-choice items follow on page two, and a written response asks students to state the point and back it up with a detail of their own choosing. The final page is a complete answer key.

What’s Included

• An original 222-word persuasive passage written on a third-grade reading level
• A full-color illustration of the classroom garden the article describes
• Four multiple-choice questions on the author’s point and the evidence behind it
• One written-response item that asks for the point plus one supporting detail
• A complete answer key with a model response

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• It separates the point from the proof. One question asks what the writer believes and the others ask how the writer supports it, so students learn that the two are different jobs.
• The passage is built to be traced. The reasons are signaled by First, Second, and Last, giving students a visible path back into the text when they hunt for evidence.
• It ends with real writing. The last item makes students put the point and the evidence into their own sentence, which is the constructed-response move tests actually score.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

Use this author’s point and supporting evidence worksheet as a whole-class model, a small-group task, or independent practice after a lesson on opinion writing. Read the article aloud first and stop after the opening sentence to ask students to predict the three reasons. Have them underline each signal word in one color and the detail that follows it in another, so the shape of the argument becomes visible on the page. After the questions, turn the sheet around: ask students to write one sentence that argues the opposite, then find what evidence they would need. As a 3rd grade author’s purpose worksheet it also pairs neatly with a science or gardening unit, and the written response makes a quick exit ticket you can grade in a minute.

Related Resources

• Author’s Purpose Worksheet
• Author’s Purpose of Informational Text Worksheet
• Citing Evidence from the Text Worksheet
• Author’s Purpose Song