BIG Ideas In Fiction

“ Life” Story “ Book” Story (THEME) Fiction = Stories of Life

© Maiers, 2007

BIG IDEAS in Nonfiction

Signal Words Point the Way… © Maiers, 2007 Text Structure & Signal Words Description/ Hierarchical List Cause & Effect Compare / Contrast Problem/ Solution Question & Answer Sequence For instance For example Furthermore Such as Also To begin with Most important Also In fact In addition And to illustrate Since Because This led to On account of Due to As a result of For this reason Consequentially Then…so… Therefore thus In like manner Likewise Similar to The difference between As opposed to After all However And yet But Nevertheless On the other hand One reason for the… A solution A problem Where The question is One answer is Recommendations include How When What Next Why Who How many The best estimate It could be that One may conclude Until Before After Finally Lastly First…last… Now…then On (date) At (time) First, second Meanwhile Not long after initially ©Maiers, 2007

Clearing Things Up! Authors Purpose : To inform (Reason for Writing) To Instruct To entertain To persuade © Maiers, 2007 Decided By… Features Structures Organization Author’s View Point/Pt of View Position, attitude, beliefs about The topic they are writing about Text Form Tone Opinions Background/Bias Style Words Choose Perspective Author’s Credibility/Craft Identified By… Validity Objectivity Relevancy Types of Support 1. Topic of Writing : (What or Who Am I Writing About) 2. Audience (Who Do I want to Say Something To?)

Authors Purpose : To inform

(Reason for Writing) To Instruct

To entertain

To persuade

Lesson One: The Orange

BIG IDEA (Whole text) Main Idea ( Section Level)

M ain Idea vs . B ig Idea

© Maiers, 2007 Big Idea: Author’s Purpose: Why did the author write about this topic? What did they want to accomplish? Why do you think that? Organization/Text Features After previewing the text, what features did the author emphasize and why? How is the text organized? How does these support the author’s goal? Text Critic Observations Did the author make their point clearly? Do you agree/disagree? Was the author’s opinion about the topic evident? Did you detect bias in the tone or language used?

Author’s Purpose:

Why did the author write about this topic?

What did they want to accomplish?

Why do you think that?

Organization/Text Features

After previewing the text, what features did the

author emphasize and why?

How is the text organized?

How does these support the author’s goal?

Text Critic Observations

Did the author make their point clearly?

Do you agree/disagree?

Was the author’s opinion about the topic evident?

Did you detect bias in the tone or language used?