With the new Common Core
Standards, Kindergarten Writing is much more than writing letters, writing their
name, drawing a picture, or writing a sentence. This year, we have wrote true
stories, narratives, and how-to books. Our last writing unit is Persuasive
Writing. Once Spring Break passed, it was time to get started on our Persuasive
Unit.
Here is how I organized
my weekly lessons:
Week 1: Discussion on
‘What is persuading?’ Then, I read The Lorax. We talked about convincing
people to do things or buy things. What should you tell them? What can you do?
The students tried their first attempt at this and we continued this practice
through the week.
Week 2: Earth Day
happened to fall during this week. We discussed taking care of our Earth and
what to do when you see someone being wasteful and littering. The students
wrote posters and notes telling others to take care of our world and what they
should do instead of littering. We continued this practice throughout the week.
Week 3: We moved to
writing letters to others. I explained that writing a letter is a good way to
convince people to do something. I used an example of mail I had received
trying to get me to donate money. I also read, Click Clack Moo, Cows that
Type. The students were motivated and excited to get writing. (They finally
understood the words, ‘convince’ and ‘persuade’.) They really enjoyed writing
letters to others. They still write letters when they have free time. :)
Week 4 (final week of
unit): I started the week by reading, I Wanna Iguana. In this story the
little boy, uses letter writing to convince his mom to get him a pet iguana.
The pictures and humor are very engaging; it became an instant classroom
favorite. The students then wrote their final pieces. I told the students that their
writing had to explain exactly what they were asking for and why they wanted it
or deserved it. Each student made a poster to illustrate his or
her writing.
In the Final
Presentations, each student presented their writing as a ‘commercial’. I video
recorded each student with a PowerPoint slide behind them illustrating what they
were asking for. I emailed these to their families. (Some students even convinced
their parents and got what they asked for!)
Overall, this unit was a
lot of fun. I know my students understood and were excited to write persuasive
pieces (many high school students are not excited for such a task!). I learned a lot and am excited to do this unit
again next year!
