D. Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts · Writing with Purpose and Voice

Planning: Purpose, Audience, Form and Ideas

D1.1 D1.2 D1.5 A1.1 A2.5 A3.1About 35 minutes

Learning goals

I can name the topic, purpose and audience for a text I plan to write.
I can choose a form that fits my purpose and explain why it fits.
I can use different strategies to find and grow ideas, including things I learned in other subjects.
I can tell which planning strategy helped me most.

Words to know

topic
What a text is about.

purpose
The reason for writing: to entertain, to inform, to persuade, or to share feelings.

audience
The people who will read, hear or see your text.

form
The kind of text, such as a story, a letter, a report, a poem or a poster.

genre
A big family of texts, such as narrative (stories), informational (facts) or persuasive (convincing).

brainstorm
To quickly list lots of ideas without stopping to judge them.

strategy
A plan or trick that helps you do something.

Remember from Grade 2

In Grade 2 you learned that every text has a topic (what it is about), a purpose (why you are writing) and an audience (who will read it). In Grade 3 you will take one more step: you will choose a form on purpose and explain why that form is the best way to share your message.

Writers plan before they write

Builders don't start a house by nailing boards together. They look at a plan first. Writers are the same! Before you write, ask yourself four questions:

Topic: What am I writing about?
Purpose: Why am I writing? To entertain, to inform, to persuade, or to share my feelings?
Audience: Who will read it? A friend? My teacher? Little kids? A grown-up I don't know?
Form: What kind of text will share my message best?

Purpose	Genre family	Forms you could choose
😄 To entertain	Narrative	a made-up story, a personal narrative, a comic, a poem
📚 To inform or explain	Informational	a report, a how-to (procedure), a fact sheet, a slideshow
📣 To persuade	Persuasive	a letter, a poster, an ad, a review
💛 To share feelings	Narrative or poem	a journal entry, a poem, a thank-you card

Purposes, genres and forms. Some forms can fit more than one purpose.

Why the form matters

The same topic can be written in many forms. Imagine your topic is the school book fair.

A poster in the hallway is quick to read. Big words and a picture tell everyone the date and place.
A letter to families can explain more details, like what the money will buy.
A story could tell about a mouse who sneaks into the book fair at night.

Each form helps in a different way. Good writers pick the form that fits their purpose and their audience.

Worked example

Let's plan a text and explain the form

Leila's class is collecting food for the local food bank. She wants students in other classes to bring a can of food.

Topic: the class food drive.
Purpose: to persuade students to bring food.
Audience: students at her school, from Kindergarten to Grade 8.
Form: a poster for the hallway.
Why this form? "Lots of students walk by the hallway wall every day. A poster with big words and a picture can be read in a few seconds, even by younger kids. It can show the date and what to bring."

Leila chose a poster because it fits her purpose (persuade) and her audience (all students walking by).

The four planning questions, answered for Leila's food drive. The purpose and audience helped her choose the form: a poster.

Worked example

Same topic, different audience

Sam went ice fishing with his uncle on Lake Simcoe. He wants to write about it twice: once for his grandmother in Nova Scotia, and once for his class's "How to Stay Safe on the Ice" display.

For Grandma: purpose = to share his experience and feelings. Form = a letter or email that tells what happened in order, with feelings. Dear Grandma, You won't believe the fish I caught!
For the class display: purpose = to inform. Form = a how-to or fact sheet with numbered safety rules, like Always go with an adult who checks the ice.
The topic (ice fishing) is the same, but the audience and purpose change the form.

Change the audience or purpose, and the best form often changes too.

Just for fun

Why did the mouse sneak into the book fair at night?

It was looking for a good tail!

Finding and growing ideas

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is deciding what to say. Writers use strategies to find ideas:

Brainstorm a list: write every idea that pops into your head for 2 minutes.
Make a web: write your topic in the middle and ideas around it.
Talk it out: tell a partner or a grown-up your idea before you write.
Sketch first: draw a quick picture, then write about it.
Look at your own life: places you've been, people you love, things you're good at.
Use other subjects: things you learned in science, social studies, math or art.
Read like a writer: a book you love can give you an idea for your own story.

An idea web for the topic Hockey. The topic is in the middle. Each box is an idea that could become a sentence or a paragraph.

Worked example

Let's use other subjects for ideas

Jonah's class is learning about plants in science. His teacher asks him to write an informational text about any topic he likes.

Jonah thinks about science: "We planted bean seeds. Mine grew roots first, then a stem and leaves."
He thinks about home: "My grandpa grows tomatoes in his garden every summer."
He puts the ideas together. Topic: How a tomato plant grows from a seed.
He makes a list of what he already knows and what he wants to find out: What does a tomato seed need? How long until there are tomatoes?
Afterwards, Jonah says which strategy helped most: "Thinking about my science class helped me, because I already knew some facts."

Jonah found a topic by joining what he learned in science with his own life. Then he named the strategy that helped him.

Name your strategy

When you finish planning, ask yourself: "Which strategy helped me most?" Maybe the web helped you see all your ideas at once. Maybe talking to a friend helped you say it in your own words. Knowing what works for you makes the next piece of writing easier. These planning skills help in every subject, not just language!

Hands-on activity

My writing ideas notebook

You need: a notebook or a few pages stapled together, a pencil and crayons.

On page 1, write "Places I know". List 5 places (the rink, Grandma's kitchen, the library, a lake, the bus stop).
On page 2, write "People and pets I care about". List 5.
On page 3, write "Things I learned in other subjects". List 3 facts that surprised you.
On page 4, write "Things I want to convince someone about". List 3 (a later bedtime, a class pet, a new park bench).
Choose one idea. Under it, write the topic, purpose, audience and form, and one sentence that starts "I chose this form because..."

Keep this notebook! Whenever you need something to write about, open it.

Your turn

What are the four planning questions a writer asks?

Your purpose is to inform younger kids about how to brush their teeth. Name a good form.

Your purpose is to entertain your class. Name two forms you could choose.

Ava wants the town to fix a broken swing at the park. Who is her audience, and what form could she use?

Name three strategies for finding ideas.

You learned about soil in science. Give one writing topic that comes from that.

Finish this sentence for a poster about a bake sale: "I chose a poster because..."

More practice: warm-up

What is the audience of a text?

Is a recipe written to inform, persuade or entertain?

Is a joke book written to inform, persuade or entertain?

What do we call writing every idea quickly without stopping?

What goes in the middle of an idea web?

More practice: on your own

Mo wants to tell his cousin in Iqaluit about his first day at a new school. Which form fits best: a poster, a letter, or a fact sheet? Why?

Kiara's purpose is to persuade her family to go camping instead of to the city. Name her audience and one form.

Your audience is a Kindergarten class. How should your writing change?

Make a mini web for the topic Fall. Give 4 ideas.

After planning, Eli says, "Drawing a picture first really helped me." What is Eli doing?

Challenge

Your topic is beavers. Write a purpose, audience and form for an informational text, and a different purpose, audience and form for a narrative text.

A store wants to sell a new snowboard to teenagers. They could make a 30-second video ad or a long letter. Which fits better, and why?

Jada brainstormed 10 ideas but can't choose one. Give her a strategy to decide, and explain why it helps.

Check your understanding

Quiz

What is the purpose of a text?

Which form is best for teaching someone how to make a bird feeder?

Owen wants to convince his principal to start a chess club. Which is his audience?

Which is a strategy for finding ideas?

Why might a writer choose a poster instead of a long letter?

Mia learned about bridges in science and decides to write a report about the bridge in her town. What strategy did she use?

For parents and teachers

Big idea (D1.1, D1.2, D1.5): Grade 3 writers name the topic, purpose and audience, and now also explain why the form they choose helps their message. They use different strategies to generate ideas, drawing on their own lives and other subjects, and say which strategy helped (a first step in thinking about their own thinking). This connects to Strand A: transferable skills (A1.1), how form, message and audience fit together (A2.5), and using language learning in other subjects (A3.1).

How to help at home:

When you see a text together (a cereal box, a flyer, a birthday card, a road sign), ask: "Who is it for? Why was it made? Why do you think they chose this form?"
Before your child writes, let them talk first. Ask questions like "What happened next?" or "Who is this for?"
Keep the ideas notebook somewhere handy and add to it after trips, visits and school days.

Common difficulties:

"I don't know what to write." Open the ideas notebook, or ask about one small moment from today.
Choosing a form without a reason. Ask, "Who will read this? Will they have time for a long text?"
Mixing up purpose and audience. Purpose answers why; audience answers who.