It’s important to set a purpose for reading before leading a read aloud or when you are introducing the text for the student read aloud. Here are some of the most common purposes for reading informational and literature texts:
Informational texts:
- To learn something new
- To learn more information about a topic
- To compare information from different sources
- To learn about the cause and/or effects of an event
- To learn about a person’s life and accomplishments
- To become an expert on a topic
- To learn about how something has changed over time
- To be persuaded by the author to take on a particular stance or to take action
Literature texts:
- To be entertained
- To get to know the characters
- To learn the characters’ motivation
- To see how characters react to the events in the plot
- To find out how characters change over the course of the plot
- To identify the problem and/or solution
- To find out what happens in the plot
- To examine the author’s use of language
- To figure out the author’s message
- To learn important life lessons
