we transition easily into a short study on opinion writing. Since it’s at the beginning of a new sequence (or unit, if you are teaching a full unit), you will do more modeling and co-constructing than is needed in subsequent lessons. We’ll begin by “noticing” how persuasive writing and opinion writing are written, and what makes them different from other types. I provide text sets for students to dissect: picture books, advertisements, articles, op-ed pieces, sports commentaries, and so on.
Core Practices
Turn and Talk
Reflection
Explicit Teaching
Responsive Teaching
The Lesson
T: Now we’re going to switch gears and instead of reading like readers, we’re going to read like writers. We’ve been talking about point of view in the texts we read and we’ve been discussing author’s intent. Well, when we write, we’re the author, so now we get to share our point of view. We actually are also trying to get others to see things as we do. And how do we get them to consider our take? We provide reasons for why we believe something about our topic, and we back up our reasons with facts and details. This is called writing an opinion piece. Sometimes we call this kind of writing persuasive because we’re attempting to persuade our reader to think the way we do. Have you ever tried to convince someone of something?
At this point, students will be clamoring to share their examples. Either choose a few or have students turn and talk so everyone gets a chance to be heard. Don’t let this become the main point of the lesson—keep it to a few minutes, tops!
T: I’ve brought an example of a persuasive text. Your job or purpose as I read it aloud is to think about what the author wants to persuade others to do or think.
Read the piece you’ve selected. I love to start withI Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff (2010), or The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt (2013); however, any persuasive or opinion text that is highly engaging and you know your students will enjoy is perfect.
Venn diagrams representing both the reading and writing. One is for the two fairy tales. The second compares and contrasts two books on POV.
After reading the text aloud, have students turn and talk with their partners, exploring these questions: What is the character trying to do? How does he or she do this? How does he or she support it—what reasoning is given?
Share student thinking as a whole group and begin to discuss how opinion writing is different from narrative and informative or explanatory texts. Record on chart paper. However, while opinion writing is its own standard, opinion and persuasion are often found in narratives and informative and explanatory texts.
Also, start an anchor chart of “Types of Opinion or Persuasive Writing.” Begin with the type you just read to the students and then model or brainstorm a few more. Have students work independently, continuing to brainstorm examples of opinion writing that they see in the real world, recording their thinking in their writer’s notebooks.
After 5 minutes, share ideas from their lists, either whole class, small group, or with partners. Challenge students to add to this list and to look for examples in their world and bring these in as mentor texts. The important thing to remember, though, is to have the kids do the work—let them search and notice! Students will be contributing to a class set of opinion writing samples that will turn into mentor texts.
Wrap Up
T: Now it’s your turn to think about your point of view, your opinions, and what you care about deeply. I want you to start a list of possible opinion and persuasive topics in your writer’s notebook. This doesn’t mean that you have to write about them; it’s just a way to get you thinking about possible topics. And we’ll keep adding to these as we continue to learn about opinion writing.
With those directions, students work independently on their list of topics. Inviting students in on the search for examples of a type of writing is a staple in my class. It creates student ownership and they find examples I could never imagine (Ray, 2006).
Snapshot of a Turn-and-Talk Peer Conference on POV
Deep discourse about texts and ideas deepens students’ understanding—but it takes plenty of explicit “training” to do it well. Research on the importance of student talk and how to scaffold it is in abundance (Allen, 2009; Allington, 2006; Blauman, 2011; Daniels, 2002; Fisher, Frey, & Lapp, 2013; Gallagher, 2015; Harvey & Goudvis, 2000; Hattie, 2012). Before students can participate in any shared discussions—teacher-led whole group, partner work, or small group—you need to model and teach about listening and speaking skills. Creating class norm charts or expectation charts for speaking and listening in a variety of situations is essential. Providing students with models or prompts of questions they can ask to push thinking scaffolds them. Partner sharing (or turn and talk) allows all students to have their voices heard and keeps lessons lively and interactive.
The following turn-and-talk example occurred after reading the second book, The Wolf’s Story in the reading lesson. Students were to discuss the POV and how they figured it out. Eavesdrop in on one of the conversations to see how the speaking and listening standards are embedded into reading. Prior to this lesson, turn and talk was explicitly taught and students had ample time to practice over a few days. We created anchor charts of what makes good listening and speaking skills, along with prompts and sentence starters to get conversations going and moving to deeper levels.
The class has had time to discuss and I’ve had time to listen in on various conversations, assessing their understanding of POV. If it had been apparent that the majority of the class did not understand, then I would reteach the concept the next day. Informal assessments always guide my instruction—it’s about student needs and understanding! We come back together as a group and I have different partners share their thinking. I have Jose and Carson share their discussion about toffee and other students say they ran into the same problem. This is a great teachable moment of how we can use each other to understand new vocabulary—and use context clues.
Core Connections
Grade 4
Speaking and Listening Standard 1 (b, c, and d)
Students engage in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. They follow agreed-upon rules for discussion, pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others, and review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.
T: Now that we’ve finished The Wolf’s Story I’d like you to turn and talk with your partner about your answer to “Who is telling the story and what is their point of view?” Remember to also share the specifics from the text that support your answer and thinking. Also, remember to follow our agreed-upon norms for sharing thinking with a partner.
These norms are
One student shares her thinking and why
Partner rephrases what he heard and adds to it—either agreeing or disagreeing and why
First student can either expand on the thinking and explanation or ask the partner to share his thoughts
This