Friday, February 12, 2016

February 12th post

As I was looking through one of the books at the end of PD, I found a fun way to kick off persuasive writing. Similar to looking at the Derrick Rose commercial, students would kick this off by immersing themselves in a variety of ads – commercials, print ads, billboards, images, etc. We would then talk about what we notice in all of the different ads; then, the focus would be on what are they selling (because every ad is trying to sell something) and how did they make us want the product. After discussing this, students would then create their own ad in groups. What are they trying to sell? How are they going to do that? From this, they would then create their ad in groups. After presenting their ad to the class and everyone trying to figure out what it is they are selling, we would then transition into how does this connect to writing. I want to take this fun ad activity and then have them write about their own ad: what were you selling? What strategies did you use to “hook” in the person looking to buy your product? How does this connect to writing, in particular persuasive writing?

After collaborating with this in groups, and then together, we would then take it to a persuasive piece in our curriculum – how did the Anasazi disappear? We have discussed this, and many students expressed their ideas of how they vanished. So using the information we gathered as to how to persuade someone to believe something, they will write a persuasive piece outlining the above, but with purposeful guiding and outlining.


My beliefs in writing to support understanding continue to grow throughout this process, PD, and my year in general. I continue to find that having examples, mentor texts, or different ways to look at something is really beneficial, in terms of student engagement and also, student work. My mindset definitely keeps progressing! 

2 comments:

  1. What a great way to introduce persuasive writing! Exploring the theories about the disappearance of the Anasazi they have already studied will allow them to make insightful inferences and analysis. It's always great when kids are exploring higher-level thinking when they believe they're just having fun.

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  2. Sounds great! I am sure your students loved exploring the Anasazi and then having them use their knowledge through persuasive writing sounds amazing.

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