Planning for a Genre Study

Planning For a Genre Study

Name of Genre: Persuasive Letters/Petitions Grade: 3

What I need to know / What I found out
What is the definition of genre? / A category or type of writing with its own distinctive features, content, style, and form (such as poetry, fiction, persuasive, and research).
What is the definition of the genre you selected? / A short literary composition that reflects the author’s outlook or point of view. Persuasive writing intends to convince the reader of a stated opinion or belief.
What are the critical attributes of the genre? / -  state position in a clear topic sentence
-  organize ideas into main ideas and supporting details
-  provide reasons to support argument
-  use transitions
-  include a clear introduction (lead) and conclusion
Where will I look for the attributes of the genre? / -  Riverside District 96 “Persuasive Editorial/Commentary/Essay Draft Continuum and Grade Level Expectations”
-  “Genre Characteristics” from Writing Essentials by Regie Routman
-  Page 60-61 from The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades 3-8 by Fountas and Pinnell
Who is the audience?
What is the purpose? / Audience – addressee of letter/petition (i.e. family member, principal, friend, politician, government official, peer, other classes, etc.)
Purpose – to create a letter or petition of a persuasive nature to convince the identified reader of a specific opinion or belief
What will I use for models?
(last year’s students)
Suggested read-alouds and/or shared readings: / -  http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/
- “Adopting a Pet From the Pound”
- “Letter to the Editor”
- “Plastic, Paper, or Cloth?”
-  I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff
-  Earrings by Judith Viorst
-  LaRue for Mayor by Mark Teague
-  Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague
-  Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me?) Going to Move by Judith Viorst
-  Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose
-  Can I Keep Him? By Steven Kellogg
-  The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry
-  Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
-  Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
What are some focus lessons that I may need to teach? / Immersion (Days 1-5)
Read several of the examples of persuasive books and/or literature (Read 1 a day for a week). Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo is an appropriate chapter book to read daily during read-aloud in addition to the other persuasive picture books. In the book, Because of Winn-Dixie, the main character, Opal, persuades her father to let her keep a stray dog as her pet. The suggested books lend themselves to beneficial class discussions pertaining to the characteristics of persuasive writing. After reading aloud each text, discuss and chart the characteristics of persuasion as a whole class (word choice, strong verbs, sensory images, catchy phrases, author’s voice, audience, purpose, etc.). Additionally, discuss what it means to “persuade” someone of something/the purpose behind persuasive writing (to convince, peak someone’s interest, provide reasons why they should “do” something) and when/why/how persuasion is used in the real world (to buy a house, to join something, to help you do something, to go somewhere, commercials, advertisements, billboards, newspapers, Yellow Pages, etc.).
-  Day 1: Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me?) Going to Move by Judith Viorst
-  Day 2: Can I Keep Him? By Steven Kellogg
-  Day 3: Earrings by Judith Viorst
-  Day 4: I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff
-  Day 5: LaRue for Mayor by Mark Teague
In addition to the immersion activities, students should be provided the opportunity to engage in daily journal writing to ensure that students are writing on a daily basis.
Modeling of Persuasive Writing (Days 6-8):
Read aloud Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague. While reading, review the structure of a friendly letter with the class (point out the heading, greeting, body paragraphs, closing, signature, etc). As a class, discuss the audience (Mrs. LaRue) and purpose (to convince her to come get Ike from obedience school) of the letters that Ike wrote to Mrs. LaRue. Explain to the students that when writers attempt to persuade the reader, they must have a strong opinion about something. In this book, Ike felt that he should not be in obedience school, and presented reasons why he should be picked up. On the overhead or chart paper, identify Ike’s opinion and the support or reasons (evidence) that he provided to support his opinion. Using a t-chart or persuasive organizer may be beneficial. Select either Organizer 1, Organizer 2, or Organizer 3. (Opinion: Mrs. LaRue should pick Ike up from obedience school. Support: He is mistreated at obedience school, the warden barks orders, it is like a prison, etc.).
Mini Lesson #1 – Organizing Opinion with Support/Evidence
Using Ike’s letters from the book Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School as an example, model creating a t-chart/persuasive organizer (select from the formats above) using a teacher-selected persuasive topic, such as “children attending school year round.” Identify and list your opinion on the topic, as well as evidence/support while thinking aloud in front of the class. Display skills such as considering the audience and purpose, before brainstorming appropriate evidence/support for the opinion statement.
Student Engagement Activity
Students return to their desk and take out their writing journal for a think-pair-share activity. Encourage students to think about their opinion on the length of recess. Should recess be shorter? Longer? Should there be extra recess during the day? Once the students have had enough time to think, they write their opinion on recess (persuasive argument) in a sentence, and attempt to include a sentence or two supporting their argument. Students turn to a partner and share their opinion and supporting evidence.
Mini Lesson #2 – Modeling of Persuasive Letter Writing
Review the t-chart/persuasive organizer created from the previous lesson on the teacher-selected persuasive topic. Explain to the students that sometimes the best way to try to persuade someone to believe something is by writing them a letter. Reference the t-chart/brainstorm to guide writing a letter to the appropriate audience for the topic (Illinois Board of Education). Model revision, identifying the five main parts of a letter, persuasive word choice, conventions, transitions, and pausing to reread what is written aloud while writing a persuasive letter in front of the class. Following the mini lesson, students return to their desk to independently write a persuasive argument, which includes their opinion on a topic of their choice. Students are encouraged to include evidence and reasons to support their opinion.
Shared Persuasive Letter Writing (Days 9-12)
Immersion (Continued)
Gather models of student persuasive writing using the website: http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/. Read aloud two or three student samples of persuasive writing (“Adopting a Pet From the Pound,” “Letter to the Editor,” “Plastic, Paper, or Cloth?”). Using one of the samples, identify the opinion stated by the writer, and the supporting evidence outlined in his/her writing in front of the whole class.
Student Engagement Activity
Place students in groups of two or three and hand out copies of the other student samples to each group. In their groups, students read the sample together, circle the opinion of the writer, and underline the reasons/evidence supporting the opinion. Provide time for each group to discuss their assigned writing sample to the rest of the class.
Shared Writing Activity
Read aloud Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose. While reading, stop at appropriate pages to identify counterarguments, and discuss two sides to the same argument. After reading, compare and contrast the opinion of the boy and the ant from the story using a t-chart organizer. Share the pen with individual students while completing the comparison t-chart to decide whether the boy should or should not squish the ant. Explain to the students that when trying to persuade someone to believe something, it is important to have enough support and reasons why he/she should do so. As a class, look at the completed t-chart to determine which opinion has the most relevant support and evidence (to squish the ant or not). Together, begin writing a letter to the boy on the overhead or chart paper to persuade him either to step on the ant or save the ant (depending on which opinion the class chose) using supporting evidence from the book and organizer.
Mini Lesson #3 – Using Persuasive Adjectives/Word Choice
Provide a variety of menus from restaurants and/or advertisements for students to examine. Begin by asking students how they decide what to order at a restaurant or buy at a store. Share the menus and advertisements with groups of students while emphasizing the descriptions for the menu items and products. Which are the most/least appealing? Why? Discuss how menu descriptions with juicy word choice and adjectives can persuade the public/customers. Return to the letter from the previous lesson (Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose). Call students up to add and/or change words to better persuade the audience.
Independent Persuasive Letter Writing (Days 13-17)
Mini Lesson #4 – Brainstorming Topics
Explain to the students that it is important to write about something they care about in order to write a powerful persuasive writing piece. Students take out their writing journals, brainstorm, and list things that they are passionate about. In their journals, they should draw a t-chart and list the things they want/want someone to do, along with the reasons why they should do/have those things. Students turn to their partners and share the items on their list to decide/select which topic of interest could be easily turned into a persuasive letter. Explain to the students that they should select a topic that will make the strongest argument. Students may select the topic they wrote about independently from Mini Lesson #2 if they feel it will make the strongest argument compared to other topics that they brainstormed.
Mini Lesson #5 – Planning and Writing a Persuasive Letter
Review the t-chart and persuasive brainstorm organizer(s) with the students that were used during the modeled writing and shared writing activities to help guide their writing. Students are given 2-4 days to brainstorm about their argument and evidence/support, and write a persuasive letter rough draft. The teacher may decide to pull small-guided writing groups at this time to scaffold instruction. Students are encouraged to write 3-5 paragraphs (introduction, one paragraph for each supporting reason, closing). Provide the students with a choice of which organizer they would like to use during their pre-write/brainstorm activity. Throughout the 3-4 days of writing, encourage the students to identify who would be the best person to send the persuasive letter to in order to get what they want (considering the audience).
Public Conference/Self & Peer Edit (Day 18)
Invite several students up to share their persuasive letter writing. Identify one strength to compliment and one area of focus to work on in their writing. Other students listen, watch, and observe. Following public conferences, students are encouraged to go back and re-read their writing to self-edit. Additionally, students are partnered up to peer edit using the third grade editing/revising “non-negotiable” list. Each student should be doing their own editing and writing with the "pen in their hand" while editing/revising. The other student is present for listening, providing encouragement and pointing out suggestions, such as they may need to stop and go back to the "Non-Negotiable" list that the class created at the beginning of the year. The second teacher takes on the role of the teacher. Students would then switch roles.
Teacher Conferencing/Publishing (Day 19-21)
Teacher meets with individual students to conference and prepare for publishing. After conferencing, students go back and add finishing touches/revisions to their pieces. While waiting to conference, students are encouraged to free write in their journals. Students type their persuasive letters and have the choice to deliver a copy of the letter to the person(s) whom it is written.
Optional Extension Activity
Teacher instructs a mini lesson on how to correctly address an envelope, allowing the students the opportunity to mail the letter to the person they addressed it to.
Celebration (Day 22)
Celebrate the students’ hard work with an in-class “Author’s Tea” celebration in which the students read their letter to the class, and may extend an invitation to the person to whom their letter is written. Students can identify and state some of the strong arguments/reasons that successfully persuaded them to agree with the author.
What are my expectations?
·  Timeline
·  Length
·  Publishing format
·  etc. / Timeline: 4-5 weeks from start to finish
Length of Published letter: 3-5 paragraphs
Publishing Format: Students will type persuasive writing in a letter format to share with their classmates and present to the person whom it is written.
Resource(s) / http://www.pkwy.k12.mo.us/candd/curriculumareas/Comm
Arts/documents/FINAL3WritingPersuasiveLetters.pdf

Unite created by: Dani Mrazek

Re-created from Regie Routman in Residence: Writing for Audience and Purpose Session 5, Page 14