Teaching Persuasive Writing

The fourth workshop features the classrooms of two teachers: sixth-grade language arts teacher Jenny Beasley and fifth-grade teacher Jack Wilde. Both are teaching units on persuasive writing that allow students to write about topics that matter to them—topics drawn from their experiences within their own communities.

For Jenny’s students, the definition of community is wide-ranging — it includes their families, their school, and their town. But under this broad umbrella, Jenny encourages her students to think specifically and concretely about issues that interest them. The students begin by exploring a range of possible editorial topics. When we catch up with the class, they already have narrowed their focus to one issue. Now, with Jenny’s help, the students are laying the groundwork for effective and authentic editorials by stating their opinions, identifying their audiences and purposes, and beginning to think about support for their points of view.

Meanwhile, Jack is introducing his students to persuasive writing by asking them to write on a familiar subject—their school community. Using a skillful mix of modeling, brainstorming, and conferring, Jack is teaching his class how to develop and organize an effective persuasive essay. The children’s audience is the school principal and their purpose is to persuade him to go along with a suggested change—letting fifth-graders go home for lunch or giving students more computer time, for example. We see the students beginning their first drafts, well on their way to the unit’s culminating activity: choosing representative essays for the principal to read and respond to.

In this workshop, you will see a number of effective practices for helping students develop as writers, including the following:

• Teachers “invite” writing by leading students to write about matters they know and care about. The reason for writing is to accomplish something students find important: persuading others to bring about a desired change in the school or community. Students are writing for realistic, authentic purposes and are drawing on their own experiences and interests.

• Teachers and students spend ample time preparing to write: brainstorming, talking, reading samples, making a list of features, conferencing, using a graphic organizer, and planning their arguments and methods of support for their ideas.

• Teachers promote student ownership by encouraging students to share their thoughts about writing samples, ask questions, and make decisions about their own writing.

• Teachers foster a positive atmosphere for writing by demonstrating respect for students and their writing, by expecting students to respect each other, by promoting student ownership, by encouraging students to share their thoughts, by offering positive response to students, by arranging for open discussion, and by listening carefully to students.

• Teachers arrange for students to read and discuss samples of writing like those they are preparing to write.
• Students analyze and evaluate samples and form lists of characteristics they can refer to as they develop their own writing. Teachers display model pieces on the overhead projector so students can both see and hear the sample and/or provide written copies for the students to refer to as they think about the writing.
• In discussing samples, teachers use questioning techniques and synthesize students’ ideas to promote both an awareness of criteria for good writing and an understanding of why these features are important.
• Teachers are sharply focused, methodical, and clearly intentional in conducting lessons about writing, such as lessons on building a persuasive argument, thinking about readers, or using an appropriate tone. Students are expected to apply these lessons in completing their own writing.
• Teachers reveal useful techniques for managing a writing workshop, such as mini-lessons, teacher- and peer-conferencing, analysis of samples, sharing of ideas and works-in-progress, and modeling writing.
• Teachers concentrate on helping students develop skills as writers; the emphasis of instruction is not solely on a particular piece of writing.

• “Writing the Real Persuasion” by Patricia Grabill in English Journal, December 1992, pp. 60-62. Copyright 1992 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted with permission. (pdf)
• “Turning Ripples Into Waves: Convincing Kids They Can Make a Difference” by Paige Passis in Voices From the Middle, Vol. 6, No. 4, May 1999, pp. 11-18. Copyright 1999 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted with permission. (pdf)

For more information and resources, visit the NCTE Web site at:
www.ncte.org

Jenny Beasley checks in with students as they brainstorm ideas for an editorial.

Jenny Beasley‘s sixth-grade students spend approximately four to six weeks writing editorials on self-selected topics. The unit begins with a discussion of the various communities to which the students belong—family, school, neighborhood, town. Then, based on their own opinions and interests, the students choose issues confronting one of these communities, formulate positions on the issues, identify their audiences and purposes, and begin developing support for their positions. The unit culminates with polished editorials that reflect the children’s increasing knowledge of effective persuasive strategies and techniques.

Editorial Unit (pdf)

• Slicing the Pie (pdf)
• Defining the Writing Task (pdf)
• Analyzing Your Audience (pdf)
• Types of Support (pdf)
• Survey Form (pdf)
• Ways To Organize a Problem/Solution Piece (pdf)
• Things a Writer Might Do in an Introduction (pdf)
• Possible Purposes of a Conclusion (pdf)
• Editorial Scoring Guide (pdf)
• Reflections (pdf)

On writing for authentic purposes:
“The emphasis on writing in the state of Kentucky is, in my opinion, pretty unique… .”

On moving from personal writing to community exploration:
“We started out small with writing personal pieces and thinking pretty much about ourselves, and we’ve grown from there.”

Description of the editorial unit:
“We started out just brainstorming together some things that you could write about after we talked about what an editorial is.”

The importance of prewriting
“Prewriting activities could be, in my opinion, the most important step, because if they pick something that they are not passionate about, no matter what they’re writing, they won’t do a good job, they can’t.”

On using models
“I’m very fortunate where I teach that we have an hour and a half block for reading and writing.”

On using textbooks to teach grammar:
“With the editorials, for example, we’re about to talk about how to use quotation marks correctly.”

On planning instruction:
“Middle school students can’t sit still very long and listen to a teacher.”

Read the transcript of Jenny Beasley’s reflections.

Editor’s note: The sample student papers have been reproduced exactly as the students wrote them, including mechanical and grammatical errors.

“Is it to Late” – Sample editorial (pdf)

“Shoe Strike” – Sample editorial (pdf)

“Safeguarding the Internet” – Sample editorial (pdf)

“Final Copy” – Sample editorial (pdf)

“Cell Phones in Our Schools” – Sample editorial (pdf)

Sample of student reflection on persuasive writing (pdf)

Jack Wilde and his student review an early draft of a persuasive piece in an informal conference.

Each spring, Jack Wilde spends four to five weeks teaching his fifth-grade students to write their first persuasive essays. The pieces the students write concern things they would like to change at their school. Not only does the topic put them on familiar ground, the audience is always the school principal, someone whom they can readily analyze. In this way, Jack limits the students’ concerns about content so they can concentrate on what is new to them: developing and organizing an effective persuasive piece.

When the students complete their pieces, the entire class decides which essays are the most persuasive. These pieces are submitted to the principal, who visits the classroom to talk with the students about implementing their suggestions. Often, an idea that originated with a student becomes a reality at the school, underscoring for the children their ability to implement change through their writing.

Persuasive Unit (pdf)

During the portion of the unit featured in Workshop 4, Jack uses the following classroom materials:

• Numerous samples of persuasive writing, both student and
  professional examples (for example see “Pets Please!”) (pdf)
• Evaluating a Newspaper Editorial (homework assignment) (pdf)
• Comparing Student Persuasive Pieces (homework assignment) (pdf)
• Parts of a Persuasive Piece (pdf)
• Evaluation Form for Persuasive Pieces (pdf)
• Writing Reflection (pdf)

On introducing students to non-narrative writing:
“The reason that I want my kids to do the persuasive writing is because I want them to have an experience writing non-narratively in fifth grade.”

Description of the persuasive unit:
“The way I start that, the persuasive writing piece, is that they write about … how they’ve gotten their parents to go from saying no to something, like having a sleep-over or getting to buy something, to saying yes.”

Reasons for rank-ordering arguments:
“The reason that I have my kids rank-order their arguments for and against is twofold.”

Read the transcript of Jack Wilde’s reflections.

Editor’s note: The sample student papers have been reproduced exactly as the students wrote them, including mechanical and grammatical errors.

Various stages in one student’s piece, “Can We Go Out Back?”

• Sample pre-writing exercise: a list of potential topics (pdf)
• Reasons for the proposal (pdf)
• Reasons against the proposal (pdf)
• Possible solutions to the argument (pdf)
• Alternative introduction (pdf)
• Early draft (pdf)
• Final draft (pdf)

Additional Samples:

• “Drama Class” – Sample persuasive writing piece (pdf)
• “Let Us Get An Ice Rink” – Sample persuasive writing (pdf)
• “The Van” – Sample persuasive writing piece (pdf)

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