Opinion Writing 1
General Topics
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Before we start
Let's look at some modeled texts and compare. Both text sets were written with the same topic, but there are some stark differences. Read them with the class and just have students have conversations about them: Which one is better? Why is it better? Do you agree with the author? Were their arguments strong or weak?
Either before or after, it is important to have students identify the structures of opinion writing. Have students underline or highlight the main idea in each paragraph: (1) Each paragraph of the body should have one reason only, which should be the main idea of that paragraph, (2) The conclusion should mirror the introduction.
Week One & Two
Day One: What is persuasive writing?
(working on this one...)
Day Two: Would you rather?
Just to develop some fluency to start, I give students one prompt from this list. Just show the prompt, talk to partners for about two minutes, and then write in journals for 10 minutes with as many words as you can. I also use some sentence starters and display them while students are writing. Then, we go back and highlight the best parts, cross off the bad parts and share out. This exercise is just to start practicing the format, the structure. This routine can be repeated at the beginning of each lesson, or at the end, just to keep kids writing. This is my modeled text so students can see what it should sound like, look like, etc.
Day Three, Four and Five: Match Reasoning with Evidence
One of the hardest things for students to do is take some information and decipher which things are facts, which things are opinions and which things are inferences, or things they reasoned. So, I made a slideshow with some interesting pictures, like the first bullet-proof vest. Discuss one photo each day with the class, and have them write down their thoughts on the Google Doc. Some of the slides have photos, but some have statements and just words, so kids can practice reasoning in these different contexts.
This activity is also a great time for partner talk because there are no wrong answers: What do you see? What did you notice that your partner did not? What can you conclude? If you wanted, you can print the photo big and put it on a large chart paper and have everyone write different conclusions.
Day Six: Matching
If your students are understanding this, give them this activity: Sorting. Give each group of three kids one copy. One kid is cell phones, one kid is chess club, one kid is art class. They cut out the strips and match the claim to the evidence and to the reasoning. On the this activity, it is not labeled which is which. At the end of the sorting, each kid has one paragraph ready. You can provide each kid with a different colored paper so friends can help each other. They can glue their sentence strips, in the order they want them, to the colored paper.
If you students need a little more support, this is the same activity, but it is color coded and labeled. Students are just matching together three colors, to make a coherent argument.
Whichever you choose, now you have groups re-write the mini-paragraph in their journals or on large chart paper. With the group I have this year, I usually have them copy the first sentence, then add a sentence of their own, like a paraphrase. Then they copy the second sentence and paraphrase that one. And so on. Then, they can read it out. Kids need to see what it looks like, hear what it sounds like, and actually write it for themselves.
Day Seven: Fluency Writing: Teacher Chooses Topic
With six days of lessons done, this is a good time to pause, give everyone to same topic and see if they can form a five body paragraph, looking at the rubric, on the same topic. I like the claim "Recess should be thirty minutes." I show the rubric, preview it, and have students write for 20 minutes. This is my checkpoint for teaching... what you new teachers call "formative assessments."
Getting good ideas
Now, I want to spend the rest of the writing unit getting kids to write on their own topics and just teaching new skills. In that case, students always need to have an idea so they can spend their time writing, not thinking of a topic. Here is the comprehensive list for kids to pick if they can't think of their own topic. If you notice, this is smaller margins than normal. The idea is that for some kids, i glue it in the back of their journals and I want it smaller to fit!
In this slideshow, the first slide is for the kids to reason and think through. The second slide is the hisotrical context of it, or the "right answers," if you will.
Opinion Charts.pdfOpinion Charts 2.pdfOpinion Words.pdf
Day Eight: Check your work against the rubric
Using the modeled texts used in the "Before We Start" section, students are now weighing them against the rubric. Everyone has a copy of the rubric. (1) Students are randomly handed one of the six modeled texts below (Each model has two examples.) Then, each student read it silently and grades it against the rubric. (2) Then, you can go a step further and have them find a partner with the same text and compare how they graded. This whole activity helps students get more familiar with the rubric and how they will be graded. (3) Finally, students can give editing marks in their groups. They can use the model text to make it match the rubric exactly and use their own voice. That's your call.
Week Three
Day Nine: Using experts
First, we got ourselves a partner talk activity. I give students this paper and let them go around the room and ask their classmates what they are an expert on. Before, I model what I mean: Ms Brenner is an expert on American History, doing laundry, genealogy, spelling, Facebook, and RV life. Then, I give a quote about my thing. I would say "Traveling in an RV makes the best memories with my kids."
We brainstorm some ideas, like FortNite, Minecraft, baseball, brushing your teeth, French braids... from the cool to the mundane. We just make a list until they start interrupting each other...
Second, I release them to wander around the room, finding partners, interviewing each other and writing quotes.
Third, when everyone is back at their seats, we make a chart of what makes an expert. I like to make a bubble chart, like a brainstorm with the word "Expert" in the middle. Let's students just say what makes an expert, such as college, trade school, earning certificates, earning degrees, taking a test to prove expertise, which can include a physical test, like sports try-outs. This chart works well if you want kids to have a general idea and you have lots of students who want to contribute ideas.
For the class I have this year, I have lots of disengaged kids. So, I made a t-chart: One side is all thirty kids names and the other side is what they tell me that are in expert in. I add five or six kids every day until every kid has a topic next to their name. It helps :)
Finally, we end the lesson with a this commercial on Farmer's Dog food. How are you being persuaded? With logic? With reasons? Who is the expert in this commercial?
My last part of this is to directly tell students (and show it on a poster): In your writing, when you use an expert, it needs to have each one of these: (1) Quote from the expert (2) Name of the expert (3) short introduction of the expert (4) Date of quotation (5) Optional: Publication of quotation (6) Optional: the phrase "According to"
According to Ms. Brenner, an educator with over 18 years experience in California's classrooms, "You are the best student I have ever had. (2025)."
That's it for day eight, no writing today.
Day Ten: Using experts: Edit texts with expert's opinions
Read this article about cursive and note the expert opinion used as evidence. After reading it, have students look back at the chart about experts. By the end of the week, they are going to choose a topic, research it, gather some experts, and write their first five paragraph graded draft. Tell this to students before you read the cursive articles... in case they want to choose cursive to write about! So, read the article, have students re-tell their partners the parts of a persuasive paragraph, tell their partners the parts of a sentence using expert opinions as evidence, review the ideas of claims, evidence and reasoning... This is a big review day, because the draft starts tomorrow!
Day Eleven: Find Something Interesting
First, students need to choose a topic and start researching. Today is very simple. Just look for a good idea and find some experts you agree with. Later, we will learn how to properly research. Today, just let me them explore.
Here is the sign-up sheet.
Here is the Graphic Organizer as they gather research.
Kindly remind students that they are allowed to change their opinions, change their claims, after they gather data and evidence. They don't have to already have an opinion! However, they can not change their topic after they sign up. Students need to make sure it is something they can write A LOT about! Also, the last column is for student questions about the topic or the expert. These questions should drive their research further.
Second, students need to know that they can't just click around online. After letting them explore for a bit, I introduce the four different types of research, using this worksheet.
Day Thirteen: Free Writing
Let's be honest here: This is writing class and students haven't actually been writing in about three days. They've been researching. Researching as a valid part of writing, yes. However, we still need to be writing. Today is the day that students is going to take their notes for the research, and just have a free write about it. I use the white prompts to the right here to just get them writing, just get their brain flowing about their ideas. We can come back to this later if we need more reasoning. But just give the students about 15 minutes today to just kind of journal in free write about their topic.
Day Fourteen: Structuring the Draft
This is the hardest part. Now, students need to take their notes, their thoughts, their ideas... all messy and chaotic... and turn it into three pretty nice little paragraphs. I use this graphic organizer to the right. Use the examples at the bottom, box by box, to see if the student agrees.
Examples with Zoo Ethics: Pro and Con
Example of Thomas Jefferson: Pro
Modeled Writing
Bulldogs Student Examples through the grades
Draft!
Give every student a copy of the rubric, let them have all their notes and paper, give every student a blank piece of paper or a Chromebook… (I prefer the blank piece of paper at this point because otherwise they'll never stop researching and clicking and copying and pasting.) and just go! Thirty minutes of independent writing time!
I also have this other rubric that focused more on the claims and the evidence. My class this year really needed to focus more on using strong pieces of evidence... they continued to use opinions to prove their opinions... so I altered the rubric to correct this errors...
Extra Support
The following links were created to support students who struggled to create paragraphs or struggled to find research or just get started. I used these during our American History unit. I supplied the facts for students, I supplied the research. Students work to sort the sentences into paragraphs, and then copy them onto their papers. Sometimes, this was done as a group activity, to introduce someone like Thomas Jefferson or Deborah Sampson. Other times, I used it as support for students who struggled to create a paragraph on their own, or to even find research. The idea here is to print the sentences, have students cut them out, organize them into paragraphs, copy the created paragraphs. This is your back-up plan for kids who can't come up with their own topics or can't work on their own. You can also use this with small groups.
Extensions and More Support
If you need to keep going and do another round of persuasive writing, here are more ideas
The Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.
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