Persuasive Writing, PBL Unit

CORE 21; UNIT PLANNING WORKSHEET

Name: Reham Fakhouri

1. Unit topic: Art of Persuasive Writing (Speeches, Petition, Editorial) 2. Duration of Unit: 6-7 weeks

3. ​Topic ideas:​ Unit Narrative (​Describe the goals/purpose/content of the unit​):​ Bend 1: ​Launching Work on Persuasive Speeches​ students will look at the world and imagine how it could be better and write quick speeches, addressed to the school principal. Bend 2:​ Raising the Level of Persuasive Writing​ students will get a second opportunity to write a speech, taking it through the writing process, ending with mini-publishing. In Bend 3: ​From Persuasive Speeches to Petitions, Editorials, and Persuasive Letters​ students will take everything they’ve learned and transfer it to another type of opinion writing. They will publish a second piece at the end of this bend, having taken it through the writing process. Bend 4: ​Cause Groups​ students will work collaboratively in groups to support causes. They may create speeches, petitions or editorials and they will incorporate research into their writing. At the end of this bend, they will publish their third and final piece.

Big Ideas:

1. Persuasion is a form of social communication that is based on the conviction that exercised from a sender to a receiver.

2. Persuasion can be used for positive or negative purpose.

3. Using the right words and facts enhances persuasion.

4. Opinion writers think of their audience and find ways to convince them to

   do something or think differently; they use reasons and evidence to support their opinions

5. Writers use everything they know about opinion writing to draft, organize, edit

   and revise pieces that will convince others.

4. ​Standards:​ ​These will come either your own state standards or from the Common Core Standards. Include: CCSS ELA Writing

W3.1. Write opinion pieces on topics, supporting a point of view with reasons.

1. Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational

   structure that lists reasons.

2. Provide reasons that support the opinion.

3. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and

   reasons.

4. Provide a concluding statement or sense of closure.

W3.5. With guidance and support from adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
CCSS ELA Speaking & Listening
SL 3.4 Report on a topic or text, tells a story, or recounts an experience with appropriate facts relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

SL 3.3: Ask and answer questions about information from the speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

What 21 century skills will I use in the units:

1. Collaboration and teamwork

2. Creativity and imagination

3. Problem solving

4. Critical thinking.

5. Written communication

5. ​Objectives:

Long Term Writing Targets:

1. Students can compose an opinion piece designed to support their point of view. 2. Students revise argumentative essay/speech to be more effective with support.

Long Term Speaking/Listening Targets:

1. When speaking, students can provide descriptive details and relevant facts that support their opinion on a topic.

2. When speaking, students can speak clearly and at an understandable pace.

3. When listening, students can ask and answer appropriate questions from the speaker

Overall Objectives:

1. Understand that speechwriting is a form of opinion writing that uses reasons and details to convince the audience

2. Develop an idea by seeing a problem and imagining a solution, or seeing trustworthy people, things, places or ideas and help others see them too.

3. Recognize and understand the key elements of writing a persuasive piece.

4. Convey thoughts, ideas and opinions through organized and constructive description of details.

5. Write a persuasive piece using reasons and supporting evidence.

6. Check that the thesis (opinion) is bold and brave.

7. Develop a strong argument.

8. Use convincing words.

9. Define the target audience.

6. Have students discuss what they will be doing and describe what they will be learning?

What should students know?

• ●  Definition of persuasion

• ●  Elements of persuasive writing:

  1. Introduction

  2. Opinion/Thesis statement

  3. Supporting reasons and evidences

  4. Good use of words

  5. Conclusion

• ●  Key terms:

  1. Opinion ( Versus. facts)

  2. Point of View

  3. Evidence and reason

  4. Opposition

• ●  Types of audiences

7. How will you assess your students?​ ​Other Evidence: (e.g., tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples, observations)

1. Pre Assessment

2. Free choice persuasive piece

3. Drafts

4. Pre-writing tools (speech template, future wheel)

5. Self- editing checklist

6. Self-assessment of their writing pieces

7. Developing of rubric for summative

8. Summative Assessment

8. Design all assessments prior to beginning instruction-this is the heart of backward design.

​Grade 3 On-Demand: Opinion Writing Summative ​Grade 3 On-Demand: Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment ​3 Grade Rubric Opinion

• ●  Formative:​ Formative assessment on 3.1b (provide reasons that support opinion)

  1. Have the students mark off in their writing notebook where they want us to look.

  2. Give feedback on post its.

  ​Formative Assessment Rubric

• ●  Assessments (Exit Ticket) Optional Artist:

o You have been nominated by your class to lead a protest in your school about the continuous use and disposal of plastic bottles. Design posters that you will use in this protest to show why stopping the use of plastic bottles will help the environment. ​All posters should show a strong message and examples of negative impact of the increased use of plastic bottles.

Scientist:

o You are a scientist working for the Environmental Protection Agency. You have been assigned to write a research paper on the impact of plastic pollutants in the oceans and its effect on the Ocean Animals and Plants. Make sure you use scientific data collected from all oceans studies and the current efforts taken by environmentalists to increase recycle. ​The research paper should include a variety of evidences and examples to support your opinion.

Musician:

o You are a songwriter and a singer. Create a rap song that you will perform in the school upcoming assembly to address the cause and effect of the increased use of plastics in the world. You can also use your lyrics to encourage the school administration to stop allowing the use of plastic bottles in school. The lyrics (Thesis) should be strong and bold to reach most of the students and school administration.

Reporter:

o You are a reporter working for Time Magazine. You are assigned to write an article to address the impact of the increase use of plastics in the world and its negative impact on the environment. ​Make sure the article includes strong opinion statements and evidence of the negative impact.

Environmental Activist:

○ You are assigned by your class to write a petition to the School principal to stop selling disposable plastic bottles in elementary section. Your letter should include a strong thesis sentence on the topic, reasons, evidences and recommendations. Make sure your petition has good use of words that is able to present the class concerns and demands. Your letter should include a strong thesis statement, reasons, evidence and recommendations. Make sure your petition has a good use of words that highlight the class concerns and demands. ​Your letter should include all of the elements of a persuasive writing.​The target goals that I will measure are highlighted in green. ​A progression Toward Mastery Rubric

9. Design rubrics for your assessments for all of the concepts and standards you will be working

• ●  Speech Writing Checklist

• ●  Grade 3 Public Speaking Rubric Contest

• ●  A Progression Toward Mastery Rubric

• ●  3 Grade Rubric Opinion

• ●  Formative #1 (Reasons) Feedback Rubric

  10. Clearly work out and share your unit’s essential questions.

  Essential Questions:

1. How can I structure my opinion writing to persuade my audience?

2. How can I most effectively present my opinion to persuade my audience?

3. How can I use everything I know about the writing process to write opinion pieces that

   convinces others?

Enduring Understandings

1. Students will be able to introduce a topic, state an opinion, organize their reasons, and provide relevant support for that opinion.

2. Students will be able to report on a topic or text with appropriate facts, relevant descriptive details, speaking clearly and at an understandable pace.

What should students be able to do?

1. Develop an idea by seeing a problem and imagining a solution, or seeing trustworthy people, things, places or ideas and help others see them too.

2. Recognize and understand the key elements of writing a persuasive piece.

3. Convey thoughts, ideas and opinions through organized and constructive description of details.

4. Write a persuasive piece using reasons and supporting evidence.

5. Check that the thesis (opinion) is bold and brave.

6. Develop a strong argument.

7. Use convincing words.

8. Define the target audience

11. If you are working on a problem or project based unit (both are known as PBL) design out your entry activity.

Unit Entry document:
● Narrative: Watch a Youtube

​​TeenagerSpeech

● Description of the Entry document:
○ The first day of the unit, I will show this video for the students to watch about the power of

speech. I will engage the students by asking them coming up with curious questions and

observations from what they were exposed to. Moreover, allow them to share their questions with the class and open a conversation about the topic. Finally, I engage the students on the main elements of a persuasive speech with both the writing and deliver parts.

○ At the end of this activity, I will inform the students about the planned speech competition at the end of the unit and encourage them to start thinking about important topics that they can use.

12. If you are working on a PBL, clearly work out your statements of the problem to be solved.

o You have watched a video of Severn Cullis-Suzuki at RIO Summit 1992 on making the world a better place. What would you like to fix in this world? Create a speech, petition or editorial that convinces and moves others to work on it and make a change.

13 Plan your anticipated sequence of instruction for the unit.

Instructional Strategies:

1. Future Wheel:

• ●  I will use this activity in the first few lessons to help students to:

• ●  Develop skills for identifying ideas or issues

• ●  Develop reasons and evidences

• ●  Brainstorming potential solutions.

• ●  Evaluate all possible solutions

• ●  Choose the best solution

• ●  Develop action plans

  Materials:

● Graphic organizer of the future wheel.

Procedures: ​Step l:

• ●  Write the main issue in the center circle.

• ●  Use the following questions to prompt brainstorming of the first-order implications (reason).

• ●  What is likely to happen first if this issue continues?

• ●  What will be some of the immediate consequences if this issue continues?

• ●  Record the first-order implications (reasons) in the second circles and connect them to the center

  circle.

  Step 2:

• ●  Select one first-order implication (reason) for the first round of brainstorming.

• ●  Brainstorm its’ second-order implications (evidence). (What is likely to happen first if this happens?)

• ●  Record the responses and place them in the circles that are already connected with the first-order

  implication.

• ●  Select another first-order implication (reason) and have students brainstorm its second-order

  implications (evidence). (What will likely to happen if this happens)?

• ●  Record the responses, and place them in the circles that are already connected with first-order

implication (reason).

● Continue this process until all second-order implications ( evidence) have been brainstormed

2. Bridging

Earlier the students were exposed to videos sharing the benefits of eating healthy foods and why junk food is bad. Their evidences and reasons were recorded in their journals and shared together.
To help equip them to be ready to write their persuasive piece ( essay, speech, presentation, etc..), Students is asked to conduct a web research to gather more evidence on why eating healthy food is better than junk food.

• ●  Assess prior knowledge by asking the students to take out their journal and answer the following questions:

• ●  Why healthy food is good?

• ●  Why junk food is bad? Materials:

• ●  I-Pads

• ●  List of students friendly websites.

• ●  Books

• ●  Journals Procedure:

• ●  Instruct the students to log in and start their search using at least 2 web sites provided earlier

• ●  Provide students who choose to research from books enough time to gather the needed evidence

  and reasoning.

• ●  Provide the students with 45 minutes to complete their assignment

• ●  Ask the students to record their findings in their journals to be used at a later stage to write their

  persuasive piece.

• ●  To conclude this activity, student volunteers are asked to share with the group the new learnings

  they discovered on the topic.

  14. What will you have to differentiate?

  Group Lesson/Interests:

• ●  Writers will be working in groups to create pieces about a cause they are passionate about. For example, a group whose cause is recycling might have two students writing persuasive letters, one student writing a speech and one student writing a petition (or four students writing persuasive letters, it doesn't matter).

• ●  Students can select from the below list of causes if they chose to:

• ●  Recycling

• ●  Poverty

• ●  Endangered Animals

• ●  They will have four days to work with your group to develop pieces of writing for your cause. You already know how to take yourself through the process of opinion writing.

• ●  Each member of the group expected to produce a piece of at least one page daily to show his or her work.

• ●  Product should include a strong thesis, reasons and supporting evidence, solutions and a clear conclusion.

  Group Lesson/Readiness:

● ● ●

Students will be divided into three groups. Noves group, at grade level and advanced group. Each group will be provided with an article corresponding to their readiness skill level.
Article for advanced students group: Why recycling is so important https://www.earthsfriends.com/why-recycling-important/

● Article for at grade level group: Why Recycling is important ​https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/11/why-is- recycling-

google-answer

• ●  Article for Noves group: Recycling is important ​http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/importance.html

• ●  Assignment:

• ●  Identify the different elements of the persuasive article.

• ●  Thesis statement

• ●  Supporting reasons and evidences

• ●  Audience

• ●  Conclusion

  15. What needs have to be addressed?

• ●  Ability to develop an idea by seeing a problem and imagining a solution.

• ●  Ability to develop an argument.

• ●  How to write a persuasive piece using reasons and evidences and solutions.

• ●  How to identify the target audience

• ●  How to organize to complete work within the time allowed.

important-

16. ​Anticipate potential problems.

• ●  How we will respond when students don’t get it?

• ●  What to do if students need more time to complete assignments?

• ●  How to address low level of engagement between student?.

• ●  How we will enrich and expand the learning of individual students when they get it and excel?

  17. Check the level of rigor.

  ​Students will show higher-order of Thinking by:

• ●  Researching real life problems online and in books

• ●  Planning their writing

• ●  Finding reasons, evidences and solutions to real life problems

• ●  Organizing their writing in sequence orders( thesis, reasons, evidences, solutions and conclusion

• ●  Deciding on real life topic

• ●  Designing Posters

• ●  Creating either a song, a speech , a petition, posters,

• ●  Judging reasons and solutions of real world problems

• ●  Producing speeches, songs, posters etc

• ●  Define their target audience

• ●  Transform information and into ideas

• ●  Construct new knowledge

• ●  Solve real world problems

  Teachers will show higher-order of thinking and preparation by:

• ●  Encouraging students to think more deeply and critically

• ●  Problem solving

• ●  Encouraging discussions

• ●  Stimulating students to seek information on their own

• ●  Evaluating students’ preparation and comprehension

• ●  Diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses

• ●  Reviewing and/or summarizing content

Standards, Objectives, Questions This unit includes:

• ●  Rigorous standards

• ●  Rigorous objectives (high expectations for mastery).

• ●  Rigorous questions and problems to be solved.

  Assessments

• ●  Rigorous pre and summative assessment about writing real life problem and solving it.

• ●  Rigorous project based learning assessment(Speech Presentations Competition)

• ●  Rigorous strength, interest based learning assessment( Exit tickets)

  18. ​What instructional tools do you need?

● Tools for students

19.

20.

• ●  Graphic organizer of the future wheel

• ●  I-Pads

• ●  List of students friendly websites.

• ●  Books, journals

  ​What vocabulary do you have to teach? Key terms​:
  1. Opinion (Versus. facts)
  2. Point of View

  3. Evidence and reason 4. Opposition
  5. Types of audiences

  ​If you are working on a PBL students will have to make a final presentation. Plan your audience.

• ●  Public Speaking Presentations Competition: Mandatory

  Public Speaking Rubric Contest

  Description of activity:

• ●  At the last week of the unit, students will be asked to pick one of the speeches they have worked on during the unit to enter a competition where students will be asked to deliver the speech to a judging panel of three judges (School counselor, learning support teacher and a Green Team representative). We will declare 5 winners from the class of 20 to deliver the speech in the school auditorium in front of 3rd grade teachers, parents and the judging panel that consists of the elementary principals and school superintendent. The judging panel will use the Public Speaking Rubric shared above to chose the winner of the competition.

• ●  Assessments (Exit Ticket) Optional Artist:

• ●  You have been nominated by your class to lead a protest in your school about the continuous use and disposal of plastic bottles. Design posters that you will use in this protest to show why stopping the use of plastic bottles will help the environment. ​All posters should show a strong message and examples of negative impact of the increased use of plastic bottles.

  Scientist:

• ●  You are a scientist working for the Environmental Protection Agency. You have been assigned to write a research paper on the impact of plastic pollutants in the oceans and its effect on the Ocean Animals and Plants. Make sure you use scientific data collected from all oceans studies and the current efforts taken by environmentalists to increase recycle. ​The research paper should include a variety of evidences and examples to support your opinion.

  Musician:

● You are a songwriter and a singer. Create a rap song that you will perform in the school upcoming assembly to address the cause and effect of the increased use of plastics in the world. You can also use your lyrics to encourage the school administration to stop allowing the use of plastic bottles in school. The lyrics (Thesis) should be strong and bold to reach most of the students and school administration.

Reporter:

● You are a reporter working for Time Magazine. You are assigned to write an article to address the impact of the increase use of plastics in the world and its negative impact on the environment. ​Make sure the article includes strong opinion statements and evidence of the negative impact.

Environmental Activist:

● You are assigned by your class to write a petition to the School principal to stop selling disposable plastic bottles in elementary section. Your letter should include a strong thesis sentence on the topic, reasons, evidences and recommendations. Make sure your petition has good use of words that is able to present the class concerns and demands. ​Your letter should include a strong thesis statement, reasons, evidence and recommendations. Make sure your petition has a good use of words that highlight the class concerns and demands. Your letter should include all of the elements of a persuasive writing.

The target goals that I will measure are highlighted in green.

​A progression Toward Mastery Rubric ​3 Grade Rubric Opinion

Unit Resources:
Entry Document Resources: YOUTube:
Teenager Speech

Read an Article

Why Breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/most-important-meal#1

Watch two Movies:

● What is persuasive writing? ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD9arWXIddM

● The Journey of 3 Plastic bottles. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8

Listen to songs

● Why we should eat healthy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iS8h0J_Ows

● Healthy food versus junk food ( Opposition) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE8lezHs19s

Watch video

​

● Can lying be good? ( Dilemma)
​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzTltBl99Lw&t=35

Books and Videos:

• ●  Synergy and Synthesis for teaching in the 21st century Core 21, Dr Joan Della Valle and Sherrye Dotson

• ●  Ted Talk Video

• ●  School of Rock Movie

  Powerpoint and Google Slides:

• ●  Rigor and Relevance Framework- online PBL

• ●  P21- Framework and PBL

• ●  P21- Essential understanding for the 21st century student by Dr Joan Dellavalle and sherrye Dotson

• ●  The brain and learning

Assessment and Rubric Resources

1. Grade 3 On-Demand: Opinion Writing Summative

2. Grade 3 On-Demand: Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment

3. 3 Grade Rubric Opinion

4. Formative Assessment Rubric

5. Speech Writing Checklist

6. Grade 3 Public Speaking Rubric Contest

7. A Progression Toward Mastery Rubric

8. 3 Grade Rubric Opinion

9. Formative #1 (Reasons) Feedback Rubric

10. Public Speaking Rubric Contest

Articles Resources:

o Article for advanced students group: Why recycling is so important https://www.earthsfriends.com/why-recycling-important/

● Article for at grade level group: Why Recycling is important
o https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/11/why-is- recycling-

google-answer

important-

● Article for Noves group: Recycling is important

o http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/importance.htm Instructional tools Resources:

• ●  Tools for students

• ●  Graphic organizer of the future wheel

• ●  I-Pads

• ●  List of students friendly websites.

• ●  Books, journals