Design for Learning

Instructor: Miss Bisese Grade Level/CT: 5th grade Mrs. Fields

Lesson Title: Teaching Persuasive Writing Date: 04/16/15
Curriculum Area: ELA Estimated Time: 1 hour

Standards Connection:
22.) Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
and information. [W.5.1]

a. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an
organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the
writer's purpose. [W.5.1a]

b. Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
[W.5.1b]

c. Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g.,
consequently, specifically). [W.5.1c]

d. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion
presented. [W.5.1d]

Learning Objective(s): When given a prompt, students will write a persuasive
essay that includes an introductory paragraph with a complete thesis statement, 3
paragraphs one to support each of the three reasons, and a complete conclusion
with 100% accuracy.

Learning Objective(s) stated in kid friendly language: Today class each of you
will be writing a persuasive essay that includes an introductory paragraph with your
thesis which has three parts: states your opinion, states the argument, and gives three
reasons), your three paragraphs to support your three reasons and you conclusion to
remind the reader of your opinion, the argument and your three reasons.

Evaluation of Learning Objective(s): The teacher will use a checklist to evaluate
students essays. This checklist will assess 3 major parts of the essay: 1.
Introductory paragraph 2. (3) Body Paragraphs 3. Conclusion with word choice as a
bonus section. In the introduction students may earn a total of 5 points for stating
their opinion (1pt), stating the argument (1pt), and stating their three reasons (3
points total). Then in the body paragraphs, students will receive 1 point per
paragraph that gives evidence to support their opinion. Finally in the conclusion,

students may earn a total of 2 points by restating their opinion, the prompt and
restating their three reasons. As bonus points, students may receive 1 bonus point
for 1-2 excellent phrases for persuasive writing and 2 point for more than 2 phrases
throughout the piece. Students must receive an 9/10 or 90% to be considered
proficient. Students scoring a 7/10-8/10 will be placed in the yellow category and
students who receive below a 7/10 will need to be retaught.

Engagement: Good morning class, today we are going to continue working on
persuasive writing so that we are all mastering this concept! After reviewing the parts
of persuasive writing, and reviewing an example as a class, each of you will be writing
a persuasive essay that includes an introductory paragraph with your thesis which has
three parts: states your opinion, states the argument, and gives three reasons, your
three paragraphs to support your three reasons and your conclusion to remind the
reader of your opinion, the argument and your three reasons. To start off, take two
minutes to talk with your group mates to brainstorm a topic or an issue that you
would like to try to persuade someone to see your point of view. You could try to
persuade your classmates (about an issue in the classroom), Dr. Florence (about an
issue at Oliver), or your community (about an issue you see outside of your school). Ill
ask for what ideas you came up with at the end of two minutes. TTW ask students for
their ideas and tell students, These are all great topics, you will get to write about
these topics in just a few minutes, but go ahead and write your name at the top of the
packet on your desk and record your idea for your persuasive essay on the first sheet!

Learning Design:
I. Teaching:
Flip to the next page of your packet titled Checklist for persuasive writing.
Now that weve brainstormed some of our own ideas for persuasive writing lets
review the process of persuasive writing or the steps to writing a persuasive
essay. Now the main purpose of a persuasive essay is to what? Yes to persuade,
this means we need to change the mind of the mind of our reader and gain their
support! Will a volunteer please read the sentence in the box at the top that
starts, Their main purpose. TTW call on a student to read. Thank you so you
are trying to persuade your reader which means to what class based on this
sentence? Yes to change their mind. Also, to gain their support. And what else?
Yes to see the issue from your point of view. Now when we think about our
persuasive essay, what have we learned goes in our first paragraph? TTW call
on a student. Yes our topic sentence! And in our topic sentence we should have
three things. What are the three components of a topic sentence? Yes your
opinion, how do we state our opinion, what words do we use? Good! I agree or I
disagree. What else? I believe or I do not believe. Very good! So we need to have

II.

our opinion. Then what else goes in our topic sentence? Yes the argument: We
dont write down the prompt word for word but we have to state the argument
or what part of the prompt we are agreeing or disagreeing with! So then what
is the last part of our topic sentence? Yes we need to state our three reasons for
why we agree or disagree. Now what comes in the paragraphs after our first
paragraph with our topic sentences? Yes, indented paragraphs that each state
one reason and give evidence for why you think this reason justifies your
opinion! Your evidence should be in the form of facts or examples from your
own experience! Then how do we conclude our paper? Yes basically by
restating our introduction with our opinion, argument, and three reasons.

Now lets see an example and check off the parts of quality persuasive writing
that are in this example using this checklist. TTW put the example story
Extending Recess under the Elmo camera so it is projected on the
Promethean board. Now, Miss Bisese wrote this story so lets see how well I did!
TTW then have students alternate reading paragraphs of the story. After each
paragraph she will ask the students to find the necessary parts. IF they find
them, come up to the board, point to them and read them aloud. Then
students will check off that component on the list.

Opportunity for Practice:
Now that weve evaluated one example as a class, you are going to evaluate an
example on your own to show me if you can find what parts of persuasive
writing are in this essay. Using the essay, Dinosaur in the Backyard you will
use this checklist to mark which parts of persuasive writing are evident in the
story and which are not. You will have about 7 minutes to complete this task.
The teacher will formatively assess students by walking around the class and
observing student work. The teacher will then discuss the example and what
parts of persuasive writing are evident in the example.

Alright class, now youre ready to begin writing your own persuasive essay.
You may choose to disagree or agree with a prompt you have written down,
you must have your prompt approved by me before you can begin. Raise your
hand quietly until I can come approve your prompt. If you do not have an idea
for your prompt, you will write about the prompt that is listed on the board.
TTW place persuasive map under ELMO. Ive included a Persuasive Map on
the next page of your packet to help you organize your thoughts before you
begin writing. This will help you make sure you have all the components of
persuasive writing that I will be looking for: an introductory paragraph with
your thesis which has three parts: states your opinion, states the argument, and

gives three reasons), your three paragraphs to support your three reasons and
you conclusion to remind the reader of your opinion, the argument and your
three reasons. The teacher will point out each of these parts on the checklist
and persuasive map. You will start with your what class? Topic Sentence good!
Or thesis statement. Now to come up with this you need to think through what
three things BEFORE you begin writing? Yes your opinion, the argument, and
your three reasons. So after you think about these three things you can write
your topic sentence. Then you should record each of your three main ideas here.
Then under your three mean ideas you are going to provide your what class?
Yes your facts and examples! From your own experience or from what you
know to be true! Finally youll write your conclusion, which includes what? Yes
your opinion, argument, and three reasons! I must check your persuasive map
BEFORE you start writing your essay so once youve finished your map raise
your hand and Ill come check it. If you understand what we are doing raise up
3 fingers near your chest. If you dont understand raise a fist near your chest.
Very good! Raise your hand if you get confused and need help! The teacher will
spend the remainder of the lesson approving prompts, maps, offering
suggestions on drafts, and helping struggling students organize their ideas.
The teacher will stop and show an example of a quality persuasive map one
of the children has filled out and explain why. She will then tells students,
Once Ive approved your map you should begin writing your essay. Be sure to
try to use as many of these phrases (points back to checklist) as possible, and
incorporate as many words from our WOW words wall as possible! When you
are finished raise your hand and I will approve it. We will then pair up with a
partner and use the checklist given to peer review your partners essay! The
teacher will then pair up students as they finish their essays.

Prompt: (For students who cant decide)
Your friend tells you it is better to be an only child than to have siblings. Do
you agree that it is better to be an only child or do you disagree and think
that it is better to have siblings? Which is better to be an only child or to have
siblings? Write a persuasive essay stating your opinion and explain three
reasons to support your opinion.


III. Assessment:
Alright class, now youre ready to begin writing your own persuasive essay. You
may choose to disagree or agree with a prompt you have written down, you must
have your prompt approved by me before you can begin. Raise your hand quietly
until I can come approve your prompt. If you do not have an idea for your prompt,

you will write about the prompt that is listed on the board. TTW place persuasive
map under ELMO. Ive included a Persuasive Map on the next page of your packet
to help you organize your thoughts before you begin writing. This will help you
make sure you have all the components of persuasive writing that I will be looking
for: an introductory paragraph with your thesis which has three parts: states your
opinion, states the argument, and gives three reasons), your three paragraphs to
support your three reasons and you conclusion to remind the reader of your
opinion, the argument and your three reasons. The teacher will point out each of
these parts on the checklist and persuasive map. You will start with your what
class? Topic Sentence good! Or thesis statement. Now to come up with this you
need to think through what three things BEFORE you begin writing? Yes your
opinion, the argument, and your three reasons. So after you think about these three
things you can write your topic sentence. Then you should record each of your
three main ideas here. Then under your three mean ideas you are going to provide
your what class? Yes your facts and examples! From your own experience or from
what you know to be true! Finally youll write your conclusion, which includes
what? Yes your opinion, argument, and three reasons! I must check your persuasive
map BEFORE you start writing your essay so once youve finished your map raise
your hand and Ill come check it. If you understand what we are doing raise up 3
fingers near your chest. If you dont understand raise a fist near your chest. Very
good! Raise your hand if you get confused and need help! The teacher will spend
the remainder of the lesson approving prompts, maps, offering suggestions on
drafts, and helping struggling students organize their ideas. The teacher will stop
and show an example of a quality persuasive map one of the children has filled
out and explain why. She will then tells students, Once Ive approved your map
you should begin writing your essay. Be sure to try to use as many of these phrases
(points back to checklist) as possible, and incorporate as many words from our
WOW words wall as possible! When you are finished raise your hand and I will
approve it. We will then pair up with a partner and use the checklist given to peer
review your partners essay! The teacher will then pair up students as they finish
their essays.

Prompt: (For students who cant decide)
Your friend tells you it is better to be an only child than to have siblings.
Do you agree that it is better to be an only child or do you disagree and
think that it is better to have siblings? Which is better to be an only child
or to have siblings? Write a persuasive essay stating your opinion and
explain three reasons to support your opinion.

The teacher will collect the essays and assess them using the checklist given
to students to see if they will be considered proficient. In the scripted portion
above, the teacher tells the students exactly what she will be looking for in
her assessment.
IV. Closure:
The teacher will close with the following questions:
Alright class, who can tell me what are the three parts of an
introduction?
What goes in the three paragraphs after the introduction?
What are the three components of a quality conclusion?
How many of you read a peers paper that had all each of these?
(Correct Introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion?)
Id like for two people who read a paper that has all these components
to stand up and tell us why this paper is a good example. TTW call on a
student. First tell us whose paper and read it aloud. Wow thats pretty
good! Lets see why, read their topic sentence. TSW respond. Now does
this topic sentence have all three parts? How do we know? What about
the following paragraphs? What are they about? Does she/he use facts
or examples to support their argument? Give us examples! Finally, read
us the conclusion again. Does this contain all three parts of a quality
conclusion?
Very good work today boys and girls, I look forward to reading your
essays, now please pull out your things for math today.

Materials and Resources:
-Student Packets:
-Persuasive writing checklist
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishD10.htm#persu
asive
-Persuasive Map
-Sheet for writing essay
- Persuasive writing checklist: to evaluate peer!
-Checklist ON CHART PAPER!
-Elmo camera
-Promethean Board
- Recess Extended Completed Brainstorm map
- Recess Extended Persuasive Essay
-Highlighter
-Pencils

Differentiation Strategies
Extension-

Re-Teaching-

Data Analysis:
Out of the 13 students whose writing samples I collected, I had six students earn a
perfect score 10/10 on their essays. I had 2 students who wrote quality essays but
earned a 9/10 because they didnt restate their three reasons in their conclusion. I
had 1 student who wrote a quality introduction and one paragraph who scored a
6/10. Then I had two students who got a 5/10 because they only wrote a quality
introduction. Then 3 students who scored a 0/10 because they would not do their
work and didnt finish the persuasive map and didnt start their essay. From this
data I found that I need to provide more scaffolding for some of the students who
scored lower on the assessment.

Reflection:
What went well:
I felt that my teaching was clear and concise
I thought the examples were helpful for students. Students had not been able
to see many of these
Overall, students were proud of their work and wanted their work to be held
up as the example.

What I would do differently:
I didnt have time when teaching to allow students to evaluate the one essay
on their own and to evaluate a peers essay. I think this wouldve helped
solidify the content for them.
I also would make my checklist less wordy and have students write
examples on the checklist to make it more interactive.
I would add more fun blurbs to the lesson because it felt pretty dry.

Additional Resources and Ideas:
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-
guides/persuasive-writing-30142.html?tab=2#tabs
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/persuasive_writing
Modified Sample: https://dickesryan.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/picture-
2.png
Persuasive Prompt game: (Pint rest) with dice ideas, cards: see who can
come up essay outlines for as many prompts as possible with group, then
each pick one to write out a whole essay.

My Ideas for my Persuasive Essay:

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Checklist for Persuasive Writing

Their main purpose is to persuade the reader to see an

argument from their point of view and change their mind,
buy or support something.
An introductory paragraph:
o States opinion I Agree or I disagree that
o States the argument: READ the prompt: ex. 5th graders should
switch classes because
o R States 3 reasons:
Reason 1: _____________________________
Reason 2: _____________________________
Reason 3: _____________________________
Each indented paragraph states a reason or opinion and then is
followed by 2 or 3 pieces of evidence to support it.
Includes a strong concluding paragraph: that sums up the main
argument by:
o Restating opinion
o Restates argument
o Restating three reasons
Uses words like: (Circle any of these words used)
Opening:
Some believe that
In my opinion
I feel that
Throughout & Last Paragraph:
First
Just think about
Secondly
This needs to be dealt with.
Another reason is...
We can solve this by
Therefore
This will cause
I am sure that
Is it worth
Surely
This will cause.
How could we possibly
How unfair!

My Persuasive Essay:

By: ______________________________
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Checklist for Persuasive Writing

Their main purpose is to persuade the reader to see an

argument from their point of view and change their mind,
buy or support something.

PEER REVIEW:
An introductory paragraph:
o States opinion I Agree or I disagree that
o States the argument: READ the prompt: ex. 5th graders should
switch classes because
o R States 3 reasons:
Reason 1: _____________________________
Reason 2: _____________________________
Reason 3: _____________________________
Each indented paragraph states a reason or opinion and then is
followed by 2 or 3 pieces of evidence to support it.
Includes a strong concluding paragraph: that sums up the main
argument by:
o Restates opinion
o Restates argument
o Restating three reasons
Uses words like: (Circle any of these words used)
Opening:
Some believe that
In my opinion
I feel that
Throughout & Last Paragraph:
First
Just think about
Secondly
This needs to be dealt with.
Another reason is...
We can solve this by
Therefore
This will cause
I am sure that
Is it worth
Surely
This will cause.
How could we possibly
How unfair!

Miss Biseses Persuasive Essay:

Dr. Florence tells you that she thinks that 30 minutes for Recess is an
appropriate amount of time. Do you agree or disagree that 30 minutes for
recess is an appropriate amount of time? Write a persuasive essay
stating your opinion and explain three reasons to support your opinion.
Have you ever thought that recess seems to be too short? I believe that
afternoon recess needs to be extended because it does not allow students enough
time to go to the restroom and get water, students should have more time to be
able to learn team sports, and students should have time to eat a nutritious snack.
First, when recess is short, students do not have enough time to go to the
restroom and get water. Students then have to interrupt the teacher and leave
class in order to take care of these needs. When students have to leave class, they
miss lesson and the teachers instructions. For example, a student on my project
team left to the bathroom when the teacher was explaining how to do an activity.
When he came back, I had to explain everything to him again and we did not have
enough time to finish our project. Therefore, if students have a longer recess, then
they will have enough time to get water and go to the bathroom without missing the
teachers instructions.
Secondly, with a longer recess period, students are able to play team sports. In
fact, students will build and develop team skills by playing team sports. In addition,
students can relieve stress and energize themselves. For instance, students can get
bored and sleepy and have a difficult time listening and following directions.
However, after they have had time to unwind during recess, they are more alert
and ready to learn in class. So, to improve attention in the classroom and build team
skills, students need a longer recess to play team sports.
Another reason is that students need more time at recess is so that they can
eat a nutritious snack after recess. After eating a nutritious snack, students will be
less hungry, distracted by the thought of food or tired. However if given a
nutritious snack, this will cause students to pay better attention in class because
they will not be distracted by hunger, food or sleepiness.
Therefore, I believe that recess should be extended because it does not allow
students enough time to go to the restroom and get water, students should have
more time to be able to learn team sports, and students should have time to eat a
nutritious snack. This would be a positive change for both students and teachers.

Taking Care of a Dinosaur- A Persuasive Essay

Imagine you found a dinosaur in your backyard. Your friends say you
should give the dinosaur to the zoo. Do you agree that you should give the
dinosaur to the zoo or do you disagree and think you should keep the
dinosaur? Write a persuasive essay stating your opinion and explain three
reasons to support your opinion.

Some believe that dinosaurs belong in the zoo. I however, do not! If I woke
up to find a dinosaur in my backyard, I disagree that the dinosaur should be
given to the zoo. The dinosaur would have a much more enjoyable life at
Samford because I would have more time to take care of the dinosaur than the
workers at the zoo, the dinosaur would have more space to live at Samford than
at the zoo, and the dinosaur would have lots of people to play with.
First, I would have more time to take care of the dinosaur than the workers
at the zoo. With all of the animals that live at the zoo, how could we possibly
expect the workers to take care of another animal? Not to mention when that
animal is a humongous as a dinosaur! I would be able to take care of the dinosaur
after teaching Mrs. Fields class. I would only be gone for the morning so I could
come back and look after him again in the afternoon and at night.
Secondly, the dinosaur would have more space to run and play if it came to
live at Samford. The zoo is full of animals, buildings, and people! Samford has a
large open quad that it could run around in. The dinosaur would not be caged in
by four walls and could walk to Target.
Another reason is that the dinosaur would have many people to play with.
The dinosaur would never be lonely because there are lots of people walking
around campus for the dinosaur to talk to and play with. It could play Frisbee
with people on the quad and talk to people as they walk to class. At the zoo, the
dinosaur would never be able to talk to people because they would always be
passing him by.
In my opinion, I disagree that the dinosaur should be given to the zoo and
believe that he should come to live with me at Samford. The dinosaur will
certainly be happier here than in the zoo because I will have time to care for
the dinosaur, he will have more space to live than in a zoo, and he will never be
lonely with all of the friendly college students to stop and talk to

Student work: