“Kabul’s Singing Sensation”

1. “Kabul’s Singing Sensation” Text Analysis: Author’s Purpose Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas and Details

2. Author’s Purpose • Author’s purpose: what the writer hopes to achieve in a particular work • Common purposes for writing: • To express thoughts or feelings • To explain or inform • To entertain • To persuade • A combination of these things • Often a piece of writing will have more than one purpose.

3. Author’s Purpose • Clues about an author’s purpose can be found in…. • The tone of the author’s writing • Word choice • Choice in details included in the story or article

4. Author’s Purpose • Turn and Talk: Discuss the following prompt with your table. Be ready to share! • Based on the title of the article “Kabul’s Singing Sensation”, what do you think is author Tim McGirk’s purpose? • Answer: The title suggests that McGirk wants to inform readers about a human-interest story. • As you read “Kabul’s Singing Sensation” look for clues about the author’s purpose.

5. Identify Main Ideas and Details • Nonfiction writers usually organize their writing around main ideas, or central ideas • Main ideas: the most important ideas writers want to share about a topic • Sometimes main ideas are stated directly, often at the beginning of a section or paragraph • Other times main ideas may just be implied, or suggested • Supporting details, like facts and examples, help to illustrate or support main ideas

6. Identify Main Ideas and Details • “Kabul’s Singing Sensation” contains several main ideas illustrated by supporting details. • As you read the article, you will create an outline similar to the one below to record these ideas and details. Example: • MirwaisNajrabi is a talented young Afghan singer • Supporting detail A • Supporting detail B • Mirwais and his family have suffered hardship • Supporting detail A • Supporting detail B