My work partner and I are always on the lookout for activities beyond the typical pencil and paper to help reinforce skills our students are learning about in school.  My 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders learn about author's purpose in their readings as they learn about types of literature.  Author's purpose gets a student thinking about why a particular author chose to write a certain way and also about the specific words and vocabulary the author chose to include. 

We saw these Author Purpose cards in a teaching catalog and ordered. Leveled to a general reading level of 2.0 - 3.5 (Second Grade to the Middle of Third Grade), these are a perfect tool for our younger and older students.  Though we have students up to the 5th grade, they frequently read below grade level in order to qualify for our services, so this "Red" set is perfect for us! 

The cards claim to: "build critical reading skills, are ideal for test prep, and are perfect for independent, take-home, and group work".  They come housed in a red cardboard box that can hang up, much like a typically deck of large playing or flash cards.  They can be opened from the top and the cards slide out.  There are 54 cards in the deck.  They cards feel laminated and a little slick. 

Each card has a typed, short reading passage printed in black lettering on a while background.  Each card is numbered.  Then a line is drawn, followed by the same multiple choice question underneath:

What is the author's purpose?
a) to persuade
b) to inform
c) to entertain

The back of each card says "Author's Purpose" in large, colored lettering and in the bottom right hand corner of this side is the letter "answer" printed in small font and upside down. 

The cards can be used a variety of ways.  A student can read the passage independently, take a guess, and flip the card over to see if they are correct. They can be asked to record their guess as well and either self-check or have a peer or adult check their answers.  The adult could read the passages orally and require the students to answer orally as a class or individually. Students can be partnered up to read the passage and guess an answer. 

Overall we really like and get a lot of use out of these cards.  The cards are a nice format from having the students filling out a worksheet on a skill that consistently only requires a field of 3 possible answers.  Typically we use them for teacher-directed instruction. We really like them because they have a wealth of stories in them and they are short passages that keep our students' attention easily.  We like that we don't have to think of our own stories that fit each purpose and that there's nothing to print or copy.  There's a large enough variety to pull out a few cards a day and work on this skill over the course of several weeks, as clearly each story could only be used by a specific child once.  Also, we like that there is a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction, and letter formatted readings.  The fiction is a variety as well, including fantasy, realistic fiction and historical fiction. The non-fiction includes science and social studies content, as well as less thought of readings like directions and recipes. 

The only possible downfalls we can see is that the cards are a little slick and there are many of them.  At times they will slide out of hands and fall, especially when having a large stack of them. 

Overall, this set of practice cards was a really good value and well worth the price paid. 

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 10.00
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens