It’s no secret that young students struggle with writing, especially opinion writing! Whether they are having a hard time differentiating facts from opinions or they don’t know where to start, these tips will help your students become better writers, and more importantly, will make your life easier!
The Structure of Opinion Writing
To begin with, over the years, I’ve found that a 5-day lesson plan works best for most teachers and students alike. For the first day, I use an Oreo Graphic Organizer that outlines the structure of opinion writing. It starts with an opinion, followed by two reasons and explanations, then ends with the opinion restated. I choose to introduce students to this concept on Day 1 but hold off on having them use it until Day 2. Often, students retain the lesson more this way. Afterward, I pair this with a quick Fact or Opinion Task Cards Activity to help students understand the difference.
Anchor Text Activity
Secondly, on Day 2, I follow up the next day with my Anchor Text Activity. This activity is a color-coordinated guide that helps students identify and analyze each part of the anchor text. This fun graphic organizer is silly enough for kids to love while still being educational and functional for us teachers! To finish up the day’s writing lesson, the students finally get to make a Writing Oreo of their own!
Introducing Your Opinion
Thirdly, Day 3 is all about introductions! Many students, and adults alike, have a hard time finding the right words to start their paragraph. Teaching the 7 Hooks makes this task a lot less daunting. The seven types on Hooks are:
- Interesting question hook
- Strong statement hook
- Amazing fact hook
- A metaphor/simile hook
- Story hook
- Description hook
- Question hook
The hooks will help catch the reader’s interest in the very first sentence!
Supporting Reasons for the Introduction
Most importantly, Day 4 focuses on Reasons and Examples. This day is crucial to helping students understand the WHY of opinion writing. The activity centers on giving evidence through facts, examples, and explanations. The students then have a chance to state their opinion and reasons for it with this form. Students love this part because who doesn’t love to talk about their opinions?
Opinion Writing Conclusions
Lastly, to appropriately end the week, we tackle conclusions! Many students end up being repetitive in their conclusion, so that’s why Day 5’s focal point is rewriting their opinion. It is important not to introduce new information in this step, which is a common mistake. To make the writing more engaging, I suggest ending with a warning or something to ponder. Since students struggle with this, using this technique is a foolproof way to help students navigate their conclusion!
An Opinion Writing Unit (Sports Themed)
I hope you have enjoyed reading these tips on teaching Opinion Writing, but if you find yourself wishing it was all done for you already, it’s your lucky day! And don’t worry about the format. I’ve included Google Slides and PDF. My Teachers Pay Teachers Opinion Writing Unit (Sports Themed) or Opinion Writing Unit (Superhero Themed) is available to you!
It includes:
- 5-day lesson plan
- Fact or opinion task cards activity
- Anchor text & graphic organizer
- Color code the anchor text activity
- Linking words/transitions lesson
- Introduction lesson
- Opinion hook lesson
- Reasons & examples lesson
- Conclusion lesson
- Rewriting opinions activity Edit/revise checklists.
- AND much more!
- Google Slides & PDF included!
All this is waiting for you at my Teachers Pay Teachers store, The Teaching Q! Thanks for taking the time to read and check out my other posts too!
Are your students struggling and making very little progress in writing? Or maybe they’re unmotivated or a reluctant writer? If so, I’ve got your back.
Yes…I…Do!
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–Melissa
