September 2012
Seven Hills Book of the
Month
Duck for
President
Written by Doreen Cronin
Illustrated by Betsy Lewin
“Running a country is no fun at all,” thought Duck.
Duck for President is a fun book to start off our school theme of loving America and being patriotic.
The book is about a duck who thought that he should be in charge because he did not want to work as
hard as he did. He quickly learned that being in charge is hard work too, so he decided to keep
working his way up the chain of command until he became President. See why even that did not
satisfy Duck.
Reading Skill: Author’s Organization & Purpose
Genre: Fantasy (Fiction)
Point of View: 3rd person
Organization: Problem-Conflict/Solution-Resolution
Purpose: to entertain and teach the lesson that the “grass is not always greener on the other side”
Text Structure/Organization of Duck for President: The story line is a sequence of events with
three separate repetitions of the story line using a different event, which helps reader identify that the
problem/conflict is that duck is unsatisfied with every job he has, and the solution/resolution is that
Duck eventually goes back to his original job on the farm. The repetition of the key event that Duck is
unsatisfied with every job he has helps reader’s determine that author’s purpose of the “grass is not
always greener on the other side” or that things are not always as great as they might seem.
Before reading Duck for President, tell students that this year, we will begin looking at texts to
determine how the author organizes the text, and this will help us also understand the author’s
purpose, or WHY, they wrote the text. Ask students to determine if this book is fiction or non-fiction.
After determining that it is fiction, tell students that the text structure for fiction contains the story
elements of: characters, setting, problem/conflict, and solution/resolution. The STAAR test uses conflict
and resolution so please use this language with 3rd-5th graders and remind K-2 students that
problem/conflict and solution/resolution are synonyms and mean the same thing. Use the fiction
problem-solution graphic organizer to record story elements onto the chart. Ask students if they
noticed that the author repeated an event several times in the story (where Duck gets a new job, but
becomes dissatisfied with it after a while and moves to a bigger and better job). Discuss how the author
uses this technique to reveal his purpose of why he wrote the story, which could be to teach a lesson
about how the “grass is not always greener on the other side” or things are not always as good as they
seem once we start doing something. Use some real life examples to discuss the concept of “the grass is
not always greener” such as being the president of the U.S. seems great, but it is very stressful, hard
work and people are not always happy with your decisions, or some parents letting their kids eat tons of
sugar, but then they get lots of cavities which hurt and cost lots of money to get fixed. So…things are
not always as great as they might seem. Allow students to table talk or pair/share to come up with
other real life examples of this lesson.
Use this lesson as a jumping off point to begin analyzing text structure/organization of fiction and then
of non-fiction as the year progresses. Throughout the year, use graphic organizers to chart these text
structure features and use them to also determine the author’s purpose/lesson.
Tips on Teaching Text Structure/Organization
Text Structure/Organization - Determining how the structure of a text is organized also helps us
determine the author’s purpose for writing the text. Both text organization and author’s purpose are
important for students to comprehend the text at a deeper level. The text structures below, according
to research, must be explicitly taught to students:
Text Structure for Fiction
Story Elements:
Characters
Setting
Problem or Conflict/Solution or Resolution
Plot
Text Structure for Non-Fiction/Informational
Cause/Effect
Sequence
Problem/Solution
Description
Compare/Contrast
Fiction texts typically have literary elements such as characters, setting, problem/ solution, and plot.
Hearing stories told and read aloud helps children internalize the elements of fiction. When they begin
to read, they expect that there will be characters and that some will be more important than others.
They also expect a resolution, a satisfying ending.
One effective way to help students identify nonfiction structures is to teach words and phrases that
frequently signal organization. For example, if students know that words such as like, unlike, and in
contrast are often used when one thing is being compared to another, they can readily spot the author's
intention and they'll be better equipped to understand the text as a whole.
*See Text Structure Graphic Oganizer and Key Word/Phrases Chart attached.
Here are also STAAR formatted question stems to use with open-ended or multiple choice format as you
discuss text organization/author’s purpose throughout the year.
Author’s Organization and Purpose Stems:
Author’s Organization
-How does the author organize this story/selection?
(4th)
-The author organizes the information (or mostly) by- (5th)
-How does the author organize paragraphs 5 and 6?
(5th)
Author’s Purpose
-The author probably wrote this article to – (3rd & 4th)
-What did the author hope to accomplish by writing this article/letter/story? (5th)
-What does (character) hope to accomplish by writing this letter?
(5th)
Grade Level SE’s for Author’s Purpose:
Kinder 9A – identify topic of an informational text heard
First – 13A – identify the topic and explain the author’s purpose in writing the text
Second-13A – identify the topic and explain the author’s purpose in writing the text
Third – 12A - identify the topic and locate the author’s stated purpose in writing the text
Fourth – 10A – explain the difference between a stated and an implied purpose for an expository text
Fifth – 10A – draw conclusions from the information presented by an author and evaluate how well the
author’s purpose was achieved
Grade Level SE’s for Author’s Organization:
Kinder – 10D – discuss the ways authors group information in text
First – 14C - retell the order of events in a text by referring to the words and/or illustrations
Second – 14C – describe the order of events or ideas in a text
Third – 13C – identify explicit cause and effect relationships among ideas in texts
Fourth – 11C – describe explicit and implicit relationships among ideas in texts organized by cause-andeffect, sequence, or comparison
Fifth – 11C- analyze how the organizational pattern of a text (e.g., cause-and-effect, compare-andcontrast, sequential order, logical order, classification schemes) influences the relationships among the
ideas