Unit 3

Bend I: How can writers state their opinion/argument with reasons and evidence? 

Bend II: How can writers write letters in support of their claim, providing facts, evidence, and reasons for the claim? 

Bend III: How can writers use their knowledge of opinion/argument writing, including supporting claims with reasons and evidence, to write book awards?:

Bend I: Books of Awesome

Session 1: Launching Books of Awesome “Today I want to teach you that before getting started, it helps to think of everything you know about the kind of writing you are about to try. In this case, you’d think of everything you know about opinion writing—then you can write, write, write your opinion telling why such-and-such thing is so awesome.”

Session 2: Studying the Checklist to Set a Vision for Next Steps “Today I want to remind you that you can study other people’s writing alongside a checklist to get ideas for things you can try in your own work. You can keep what you learn in mind as you revise and as you draft new writing.”

Session 3: Specific Topics Are Powerful Topics “Today I want to teach you that one way to make writing especially interesting is to write about focused topics. Writers can ask, ‘What small part of this big topic is surprising or interesting?’ and then they can zoom in and write about just that part.”

Session 4: Saying More about Opinions “Today I want to teach you that opinion writers say more by writing a lot of exact, true-to-life details about why they have that opinion.”

Session 5: Using Everything You Know to Write Quickly and Spell Well “Today I want to teach you that you can write quickly and spell well. It helps to think about all the spelling strategies you know, like spelling syllable by syllable, checking for trouble words, and listening for parts you know.”

Session 6: Giving Personal Examples to Support Thinking “Today I want to teach you that when you give your opinion and you say why, you can support your idea even more by giving a personal example. Often personal examples come in the form of stories.”

Session 7: Editing for Voice: Words, Spacing, and Punctuation “Today I want to teach you that whenever you write, you can pay extra attention to your words, your line breaks, and your punctuation, choosing it all very carefully so readers will know exactly how to read it.”