Kids really know how to lobby for something they want. Teachers and parents can harness this talent and turn young kids into writers who can write to persuade.
The first step is to find something that is important to a child or a group. Is it recess? A dessert after dinner? A sleep over?
Once the important privilege is chosen, have the child (or class) start to list reasons why they should be allowed this privilege. “Just because,” and “because I like it” quickly become hollow reasons. Students can work together to generate at least three good reasons to support an argument.
Then, have students do some research to gather facts or examples that support their reasons.
Finally, students can wrap up their persuasive argument by summarizing their position.
Need additional resources on the topic? Here are some good ones I found:
From Writing Fix , here’s a lesson that uses the mentor text Otto Runs for President in conjunction with the RAFT strategy. In this other persuasive writing lesson , students assume to the role of a talking fruit or vegetable. Pretending that there’s a “Fruit/Vegetable of the Year” election, the students will create a campaign speech that explains why their fruit/veggie is the best candidate for the job.
Here’s a list of persuasive words and phrases to get your students started.
This lesson from ReadWriteThink uses the Beverly Cleary book Emily’s Runaway Imagination as the springboard for kids to write letters to a librarian urging the addition of certain titles to the library. A Persuasion Map Planning Sheet guides students through steps similar to what I outlined above.
About the Author
Along with her background as a professor, researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
Publication Date
February 24, 2010