Persuasive Writing Unit: Developing Effective Persuasive Skills in Middle School Students, Study notes of Linguistics

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Persuasive Writing Unit Katy Butler, Diedre Sellers, Molly Bohlen, Virginia Barfield Dr. Peter Smagorinsky ELAN 4450 8 December 2005 Table of Contents Description of Context________________________________________1 Georgia Performance Standards_________________________________2 Rationale__________________________________________________3 Works Cited in Rationale______________________________________8 Account of Assumptions ______________________________________9 Task Analysis______________________________________________10 Order of Activities__________________________________________11 State Your Position__________________________________________13 Persuasive Graphic Organizer___________________________________14 Persuasive Outline for Candy Activity_____________________________15 Persuasive Paragraph for Candy Activity___________________________16 Persuasive Outline for Letter___________________________________17 Persuasive Paragraph for Letter_________________________________18 Rubric____________________________________________________19 Persuasive Writing Rationale Educational experts require that all seventh graders learn about persuasive writing. Perhaps this is because persuasive writing can be such an effective tool for expressing oneself, for taking and representing a stand, and a vehicle for social responsibility. Whatever the reason, persuasive writing pieces are staples for students everywhere. This middle school persuasive writing assignment focuses less on the final product and more on the pre-writing instruction that will allow students to practice and develop the thinking and communicating skills that they will need to effectively persuade a given audience. Though traditional writing emphasizes grammar, usage, and form, developing students’ thinking skills better suggests and even fosters long-term success. In Designing and Sequencing Prewriting Activities, author Johannessen emphasizes the importance of such activity-based instruction. He says, If writing were simply a matter of correct usage and mechanics, our jobs might be easier – but much less interesting. Implicit in the process of writing to communicate ideas to an audience is the process of thinking. Therefore, for prewriting instruction to be complete it must teach thinking strategies essential to effective written communication. (1) That means that teachers have the responsibility of teaching students how to think and communicate the persuasive concepts necessary for a solid persuasive piece. To do this effectively, we decided that the most important concepts to teach students about are the following: choosing a position (not wavering somewhere in the middle), assessing the needs of the audience and accounting for those, using appropriate claims and supporting evidence, and developing solid paragraphs. The activities in this unit break down the steps of these central concepts into more manageable pieces for middle school students. By teaching this step-by-step conceptual approach, teachers will help students practice taking a position, forming an argument with sound claims and evidence for an appropriate audience. Developing the skills of these central concepts will enable students to better communicate through strong persuasive writing. First, the students should complete the “State Your Position” handout. This activity should have topics on it that the students are familiar with. The students will state their opinion or position over the statements or questions listed. The idea of this activity is not to debate topics, necessarily; but this activity will introduce the persuasive aspect of taking a definitive side on a particular point. Students cannot waver in the middle, but they must make a choice. In addition, this exercise will require that the students identify their reasoning behind at least one of the decisions that they made. Through the class discussion and the written response at the bottom of the page, students can begin thinking about certain claims that they are making. Even though these answers are likely simplistic, the thinking process is the same for more complicated topics. Finally, as part of this introductory activity, the students will have a chance to discuss the difficulties of choosing a side and how a particular stance was more effective after they explained their position. Next, the students will complete the “Persuasive Graphic Organizer” handout. This portion of the instructional design will require that students work in pairs to further develop their knowledge of persuasive writing. One student will describe a piece of candy (or something equally familiar) to his or her partner and try to entice them to eat it. They will make three claims or statements about the candy (their reasoning directed at the specific audience) and then write the evidence along with each claim. The students will use the graphic organizer to record their information and see the relationships between the audience, claims, and evidence. In Kylene Beers’s When Kids Can’t Read – What Teachers Can Do, she says, “Graphic organizers help dependent readers organize information and see relationships that they otherwise might not see” (194). Students understand the concepts and key relationships better with graphic organizers than without them. For this persuasive piece, the graphic organizer serves two purposes: first, it allows students to put their thoughts onto paper to see the relationship between the information they already have a schema for; and second, it prepares students for their culminating writing piece because it is in the same kind of information that they will need to come up with later. After reflecting on the process that each student used to convince their partner to eat some piece of candy, the students will use the information in a graphic organizer to construct an outline. Teachers should first lead a student discussion concerning how to construct an outline for a persuasive argument – discussing claims, evidence, and where each piece goes. The students will get into groups for this activity so that the students can teach each other and learn from discussions about the information. Each group will convert one group member’s claims and corresponding evidence into an outline (each student should fill out their own outline worksheet). This worksheet will allow students to organize their claims and evidence into the more structured form they will use later. Teachers should also use this activity to talk about opening and Works Cited Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read – What Teachers Can Do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003. Johannessen, L., Kahn, E., & Walter, C. C. Designing and Sequencing Prewriting Activities. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1982. Smith, M. W. Reducing Writing Apprehension. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1984. Wiggins G., & McTighe, J. “Thinking like an Assessor.” Understanding By Design. Alexandria, VA: ADCD, 1998. Account of Assumptions Throughout the course of the year, the students have been writing something everyday, anything from a short journal entry to a five-paragraph expository essay. Journal entries are typically not graded but looked at for effort and completion of assignment. Their journals best reflect where they are in their writing. Since the journals consist of personal opinions and experiences, they do not put forth an extra effort to write correctly or creatively, because they are more concerned about content than correctness. Therefore, the journal entries run ragged with spelling mistakes and grammar problems. They have fabulous content, but getting to the meat of their writing is often difficult because of the sloppy grammar and poor spelling. They are familiar, but not comfortable, with writing an essay, mostly due to the fact they have only written one essay. Based on their first five-paragraph essay they completed in the previous unit, they do not understand the concept of staying on topic throughout the entire piece of work. The students understand and know the importance and placement of a topic sentence for each paragraph. Their sentence variety, syntax, spelling, and vocabulary are gradually improving. Grammar lessons are an essential part of every day. They have learned about each part of speech, capitalization, punctuation, the structure of sentences, and the spelling of commonly confused homonyms. The only audience for whom they have written has been the teacher and each other. Writing in the first person point of view is all that they have learned and done. We are going to teach the students how to write a persuasive essay, which includes presenting an argument, backing up that argument, and anticipating a counter-argument. For this assignment, they will be writing a persuasive letter to their parents, their new audience. We will strive to continue their attempt to improve their writing skills. Their audience, objective, and format of writing will be different from the previous essay. Their grammar will be looked at more closely than before. For this assignment, they will be required to use a variety of sentences and vocabulary words. Spelling must be pristine. We will give them time to work on this assignment in class, so plenty of resources will be available to help them perfect their spelling, including, but not limited to, the dictionary, spell check on a word processor, and the teachers. Task Analysis To produce an effective piece of persuasive writing, students must first know how to take a particular “side” (or stand) and be able to explain their decision for choosing one “side” over another. In order to develop any sort of persuasive argument, students must be able to choose a topic that is both arguable and defendable. They also need to be able to identify specific claims, or reasons, that justify their stand on a topic, and be able to provide sound evidence for these claims. Using their claims and corresponding evidence, students should also be able to create a structured outline that organizes their information into an orderly paragraph and/or essay format. Furthermore, students should know how to form appropriate persuasive paragraphs; these paragraphs should, at the very least, include a topic sentence, one claim, two pieces of corresponding evidence, and a concluding sentence. In addition, students must be familiar with how to construct persuasive writing that is formatted similar to a traditional essay. They need to be able to produce a piece of writing with at least four paragraphs, including an introduction, two (or more) body paragraphs, and a conclusion. State Your Position Directions: For each statement, choose one extreme position or the other. Write three sentences about why you chose that position. YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE! 1. Vanilla OR Chocolate? 2. Burger King OR McDonald’s? 3. Pop Music OR Country Music? 4. Jessica Simpson OR Britney Spears? 5. Football OR Basketball? 6. Pen OR Pencil? 7. Read aloud OR Silently? 8. Cold weather OR Warm weather? 9. Man President OR Woman President? 10. Rent movies OR Movie Theater? 11. Bottled water OR Water from the faucet? Persuasive Graphic Organizer Directions: You and your partner will be given two types of candy. Your goal is to persuade your partner that your piece of candy is the best and to eat your piece of candy. Make three claims or statements about the candy to persuade your partner and state evidence to support those claims by using the graphic organizer. Candy: _________________ Audience: _____________________ CLAIMS EVIDENCE 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. Persuasive Outline Directions: As a group, organize one group member’s Persuasive Graphic Organizer into an outline format. Create an introductory statement that explains the line of argumentation - why someone should choose your particular candy. This statement should introduce the three main claims. Next, arrange the three main claims and the corresponding evidence into a logical order. Finally, the group should come up with a concluding statement that relates back to the introductory statement and sums up the main claims and evidence. Candy: _____________________ Audience: ______________________ I. Introductory statement ________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ A. Claim #1 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ a. Evidence _____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ B. Claim #2 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ b. Evidence ______________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ C. Claim #3 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ c. Evidence _______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ II. Concluding statement ________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Persuasive Paragraph: Persuasive Letter Assignment Directions: Use this worksheet to write one (or both) of the body paragraphs for your Persuasive Letter assignment. Remember, each body paragraph should include one claim and two pieces of corresponding evidence, as well as a topic sentence and concluding sentence. Topic Sentence Claim #1 Evidence #1 Evidence #2 Concluding Sentence Topic Sentence Claim #2 Evidence #1 Evidence #2 Concluding Sentence Persuasive Letter Rubric NOVICE APPRENTICE PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED Audience It is not clear that the audience is writing letter to a parent or guardian. (20-22 points) Demonstrates some understanding of the potential reader and uses arguments appropriate for that audience. (23-24 points) Demonstrates a general understanding of the potential reader and uses vocabulary and arguments appropriate for that audience. (25-27 points) Demonstrates a clear understanding of the reader and uses appropriate vocabulary and arguments to respond to potential questions and concerns. (28-30 points) ____ 30 Organization Many of the support details or arguments are not in an expected or logical order, distracting the reader and making the essay seem very confusing. (20-22 points) A few of the support details or arguments are not in an expected or logical order that is both confusing and distracting for the reader. (23-24 points) Arguments and support are presented in a fairly logical order that is reasonably easy to follow. (25-27 points) Arguments and support are presented in a logical order that is easy and interesting to follow. (28-30 points) ____ 30 Details and Support Evidence and examples are NOT relevant and/or are not explained. (20-22 points) At least one of the pieces of evidence and examples is relevant and has an explanation that shows how that piece of evidence supports the author's position. (23-24 points) Most of the evidence and examples are specific, relevant and explanations are given that show how each piece of evidence supports the author's position. (25-27 points) All of the evidence and examples are specific and relevant. Explanations that show how each piece of evidence supports the author's position are given. (28-30 points) ____ 30 Grammar Usage Mechanics Spelling 9 or more errors (3-4 points) 6-8 errors (5-6 points) 3-5 errors (7-8 points) 0-2 errors (9-10 points) ____ 10