Setting a Purpose
by
Arleen Stuck
What is setting a purpose?
Setting a purpose for reading includes formulating and articulating the reason for reading. There are many different reasons for reading including:
- For enjoyment
- To perfect oral reading performance or use of a comprehension strategy
- To increase knowledge about a topic by linking new information to that already known
- To obtain information for an oral or written report
- To confirm or reject predictions
- To perform the steps in a scientific experiment or to follow a set of instructions
- To learn about the organizational patterns and authors' techniques
- To answer specific questions
For maximum effectiveness, setting a single purpose for reading, especially for struggling readers, helps avoid cognitive confusion from the overload of multiple purposes. The purpose should be fairly broad in scope and sustained throughout the entire selection, not met after reading only a small portion of the materials. Purposes should be formed carefully, because poor ones can misdirect the students' attention by focusing on information that is not essential to the passage. Purposes should help readers differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information. Responsibility for setting purposes should gradually shift from the teacher to the students.
Where is setting a purpose discussed in the Ohio Academic Content Standards?
The importance of setting a purpose is implied throughout the standards and is a prerequisite skill to meeting the intended learning expectations of the following standards:
Reading
- Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
- Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
- Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
- Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
- Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
- Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
- Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Writing
- Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
- Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
- Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Speaking and Listening
- Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
How can setting a purpose be taught so that it supports reading comprehension?
As discussed in Row and Smith (2005), students who read with a purpose tend to comprehend what they read better than those who have no purpose. This result may occur because the students are attending to the material rather than just decoding words.
Purpose-setting activities can help students activate their existing schemata (background knowledge) about the topic of the material. Providing specific purposes avoids presenting students with the insurmountable task of remembering everything they read and allows them to know whether they are reading to determine main ideas, locate details, understand vocabulary terms, or meet some other well-defined goals. As a result, they can apply themselves to a specific, manageable task.
Think-Aloud
Through a think-aloud, model reading for a purpose. Tell the class about a selection you have chosen, and explain your purpose for choosing it. Then read a portion aloud, and show how your purpose is guiding your reading.
Make a class chart with students that lists different purposes for reading. Students are likely to suggest:
To find out information "just because they want to know"
To learn how to build something
To laugh
To find out how to solve a problem
To get information to write a report
You can add to the list as students come up with new purposes.
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
Have students predict what will happen in a story, thus helping them set their own purpose for reading to find out if their predictions are accurate. Be sure to follow up with the students on their predictions in order to reinforce the importance of setting a purpose for reading.
Skimming a Reading to Make Predictions
Setting a purpose and predicting go hand in hand in many activities. Take advantage, and teach two strategies in one lesson by having students skim a short reading selection, looking at headings, pictures, table of contents (if there is one), to predict what they will be reading about. Some of the National Geographic readers seem especially well suited to this activity. As a class, write down the predictions. Then have the students read the selection to see if their predictions were accurate. Review the predictions with the class.
Anticipation Chart
Use an anticipation chart where students answer questions about a topic and then read to find if their answers are correct. For example, for a lesson on falcons in Ohio, provide students with a graphic organizer such as this:
Before Reading
Agree or Disagree
What is your reason for your choice?
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After Reading
Agree or Disagree
What is your reason for your choice?
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Falcons are furry.
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Falcons lay eggs.
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Falcons can fly very fast.
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Group Investigations
The purpose of this activity is to have the students read for meaning so that they can convey the most important parts to other classmates. Begin by having students work in groups of two to six members. Each group selects a subtopic to research. Each student in a group does a part of the group's research, and then the students share their information within their group to assure they have covered their individual topic. Each group then presents its information to the entire class.
How can setting a purpose be used to teach vocabulary?
You can have students search for words that describe a setting, character, or event. If, for example, the students are reading Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (1996), you might make a class chart to record responses, or the students could fill in the following two-column chart:
| Things to be described |
Words used to describe |
| Mr. Slinger |
Sharp as a tack
Artistic shirts
Said, "Howdy!"
Wore glasses on a chain around his neck
Wore different colored tie for each day of the week |
As one of their purposes for reading, students can choose to find new or unusual words. During reading, students can complete a chart like the example below, which also uses Kevin Henkes's Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.
| Word |
What I think it means |
What clues about the meaning are in the text? |
What definition does the dictionary provide? |
| glittery |
fancy |
The glasses were so glittery. There is also a picture of fancy glasses. |
"Having glitter, shine, sparkle, showy, attractive, bright." |
| considerate |
thinking about other people |
When Lilly was interrupting Mr. Slinger's story, he said, "Let's be considerate of our classmates." Lilly had a hard time being considerate. |
"Having or showing regard for others and their feelings; being thoughtful." |
How can setting a purpose be practiced in a literacy center?
- Students can put Post-its on the front of the books that they read in the Library Corner stating why they chose to read that book. After ten or so Post-its have been collected, students can compare the reasons and/or graph the results.
- Students can interview other students about their purposes for reading and record their responses using the following organizer:
| Name of interviewer: _____________________ |
| Name of student |
Response to the question, "Why are you reading ____________?" |
| Kaya |
I am reading Knuffle Bunny because the teacher read it to us and I liked it. I liked the pictures. |
| Hassan |
I am reading The Color of Home because it reminds me of where I used to live. |
| Karen |
I am reading The Very Busy Spider because I want to learn about spiders. |
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How can instruction for setting a purpose be differentiated?
Your purpose for having students read a particular text may be the same for all students. However, that purpose must be internalized for each student as a personal purpose in order for the reading to be meaningful to the student. You can tell the students your own purpose and then have students tell what their purpose is as well. The goal is for students to become increasingly proficient at formulating their own purposes for reading.
Using a KWL chart before reading can help students identify what they already know and what they want to know about a topic. They can then use this information to guide them in selecting texts that will answer their questions and meet their purposes. Provide a range of texts that all students can read. Have students return to the KWL chart to check their purpose and complete the chart. Giving students many opportunities to choose texts for their own purposes increases motivation to read.
How can assessment be integrated into teaching the strategy of setting a purpose?
Students can self-assess how well they achieved their purpose by completing the following chart:
| What I am going to read |
Why I am going to read it |
Did I accomplish what I had planned by reading it? |
How do I know? |
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What are some additional resources pertaining to setting a purpose?
Blanton, William E., Moorman, Gary B., & Wood, Karen D. (1986, December). A model of direct instruction applied to the basal skills lesson. The Reading Teacher, 40, 299–304.
Dowhower, Sarah L. (1999, April). Supporting a strategic stance in the classroom: A comprehension framework for helping teachers help students to be strategic. The Reading Teacher, 52, 672–688.
Hoyt, Linda. (2005). Spotlight on comprehension: Building a literacy of thoughtfulness. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Zimmermann, S., & Hutchins, C. (2003). 7 keys to comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it! New York: Three Rivers Press.
References
Henkes, Kevin. (1996). Lilly's purple plastic purse, New York: Greenwillow.
Row, Betty, & Smith, Sandy. (2005). Teaching reading in today's middle schools (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).
Arleen Stuck teaches elementary education courses at Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, and serves as Field Faculty for Reading First in Columbus Public Schools. She retired from Columbus Public Schools as a teacher and administrator.