5 paragraph persuasive essay lesson plans

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10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times

Can't find what you are looking for? Contact Us. For seven years, I was a writing teacher. Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts—literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on—but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write.

That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like.

I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing.

I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas. Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves.

Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person.

Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position. This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side. Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time. Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade.

Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three reasons to support that point of view.

Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks. What does this look like? Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on. At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment. Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created or an excellent student model from a previous year to fit the parameters of the assignment.

I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer. I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic. This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers. Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come.

When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them. They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing. Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step.

During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on. I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process. If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them.

To learn more about this approach, read my post on self-paced learning. As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage. Only then do we start fixing the smaller mistakes. Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade. Categories: Instruction , Podcast. Tags: English language arts , Grades , Grades , teaching strategies.

This is useful information. It is a classic model that immediately gives a solid structure for students. Thanks for the recommendation, Bill. I will have to look into that!

What other sites do you recommend for teacher use on providing effective organizational structure in argumentative writing? Graphic organizers are a great tool that you can use in any phase of a lesson. Using them as a prewrite can help students visualize the argument and organize their thoughts.

THANK YOU… mostly for reading your great teachings… So your valuable teachings will even be easy to benefit all the smart people facing challenge of having to deal with adhd…. Thanks so much, Rita! Love it! Its simple and very fruitful. I can feel how dedicated you are! Thanks alot Jen. Great examples of resources that students would find interesting. I enjoyed reading your article. Students need to be writing all the time about a broad range of topics, but I love the focus here on argumentative writing because if you choose the model writing texts correctly, you can really get the kids engaged in the process and in how they can use this writing in real-world situations!

I agree, Laura. I think an occasional tight focus on one genre can help them grow leaps and bounds in the skills specific to that type of writing. Later, in less structured situations, they can then call on those skills when that kind of thinking is required.

This is really helpful! It worked well! Greetings Ms. Please advise. Considering audience and counterarguments are an important part of the argumentative writing process. In the Argumentative Writing unit Jenn includes specific mini-lessons that teach kids how, when and where to include opposing views in their writing. Hi, Thank you very much for sharing your ideas.

I have applied it many times and my students not only love it but also display a very clear pattern as the results in the activity are quite similar every time. I hope you like it.

I looked at the unit, and it looks and sounds great. The description says there are 4 topics. Can you tell me the topics before I purchase? Hi Carrie! Does that help? I teach 6th grade English in a single gendered all-girls class.

We just finished an argument piece but I will definitely cycle back your ideas when we revisit argumentation. Thanks for the fabulous resources! I read this and found it helpful but have questions.

First I noticed that amount of time dedicated to the task in terms of days. My questions are how long is a class period? I have my students for about 45 minutes. I also saw you mentioned in the part about self-paced learning that mini-lessons could be written or video format. I love these ideas. Any thoughts on how to do this with almost no technology in the room and low readers to non-readers?

Thank you for any consideration to my questions. Hey Jones, To me, a class period is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour; definitely varies from school to school. As for the question about doing self-paced with very little tech? I think binders with written mini-lessons could work well, as well as a single computer station or tablet hooked up to a class set of videos. You might also give students access to the videos through computers in other locations at school like the library and give them passes to watch.

The thing about self-paced learning, as you may have seen in the self-paced post , is that if students need extra teacher support as you might find with low readers or non-readers , they would spend more one-on-one time with the teacher, while the higher-level students would be permitted to move more quickly on their own.

My primary goal for next semester is to increase academic discussion and make connections from discussion to writing, so I love how you launch this unit with lessons like Philosophical Chairs. I am curious, however, what is the benefit of the informal argument before the not-so-informal argument? Or, am I overthinking the management?

Thanks so much for input. The main advantage of having kids first engage in informal debate is that it helps them get into an argumentative mindset and begin to appreciate the value of using research to support their claims. My 6th graders are progressing through their argumentative essay. Your suggestions will be used.

Students need to feel comfortable knowing that writing is a craft and needs to evolve over time. I think more will get done in class and it is especially important for the struggling writers to have peers and the teacher around while they write. Something that I had students do that they liked was to have them sit in like-topic groups to create a shared document where they curated information that MIGHT be helpful along the way. By the end of the essay, all will use a fantastic add-on called GradeProof which helps to eliminate most of the basic and silly errors that 6th graders make.

I LOVE the idea of a shared, curated collection of resources!

and resource handouts, students learn about the techniques used in persuasive oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities. oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities. This lesson encourages students in grades 4 and 5 to think critically and write.

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This article focuses on persuasive writing and how educators can help students use it to improve their critical writing and thinking skills. The resources below will assist you in teaching persuasive writing in the classroom!

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plans. Lesson Plan. Have you ever wanted to be that magical rabbit who delivers chocolate eggs to children all over the world? In this fun Easter lesson plan, students will get to do just that, all while practicing their persuasive writing skills. Purposeful Writing: Kindergarten.

Writing a Persuasive Essay

Can't find what you are looking for? Contact Us. For seven years, I was a writing teacher. Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts—literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on—but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write. That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like. I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing. I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas.

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How can it influence public opinion? How can it lead to meaningful action? The second suggests ways for students to discover their own voices on the issues they care about.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan

Dana teaches social sciences at the college level and English and psychology at the high school level. She has master's degrees in applied, clinical and community psychology. How to Write an Outline. Evaluating Reasoning in an Essay or Article. Did you know… We have over college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1, colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level. To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page. Not sure what college you want to attend yet? Log in.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plans

At first I was skeptical in the extreme about using the terms bing, bang, and bongo to represent the parts of the essay's outline. But it's actually a very useful technique, if only so you can avoid saying "the main idea of the first body paragraph" over and over again. This gave my students a stronger command of the same concept faster. The powerpoint is, to be honest, too long I didn't find much of an effective way to get through the objective in a robust way that was shorter. But you should feel free to try that out Also, the way that I've structured the guided practice, a lot of the kids end up right just by labeling parts of the essay based on where they appear--they don't read them or get the feel of the essay's meaning much. So that might bear some restructuring. The objective here is just to be able to label someone else's five-paragraph essay, but the learning's meaningless unless it's tied to the students' subsequent writing of such an essay themselves. I did this in a cross-curricular project, having students write about evolution as they were learning about it in their science classes.