Opinion Writing from a Single Text

The last two weeks I've been busy teaching students how to write an opinion paper from a single text.

To begin the lesson, I began teaching students how to turn a Weak Statement into a Strong Statement.

Here are a few examples:

Weak Statement: I love recess. I think we should have recess more often.

Strong Statement: Do you have students who can't sit still in your classroom and need to get their energy out? I have a solution! Please consider giving students 20 minutes of recess every day. Recess is beneficial because it allows for exercise, students to socialize with their friends, and for students to get their energy out.

This strong statement became our opening paragraph.

This week I began working with students to add examples, or (supporting details), and personal experiences to support our reasons for our recess topic.

Here is a look at the graphic organizer I use with students.

Then we moved on to writing our opinion paper from a single text using evidence from the passage and prompt to write our opening paragraph, gather our reasons, and supporting details. We used the Challenger Deep from Writing 2 found on Louisiana Pass which is our state practice testing site. 

Monday I will facilitate a lesson on how to write a strong ending paragraph as you can see in the last box of the graphic organizer. Tuesday we will begin publishing our papers to our class Kidblog site.

My favorite go to site for tips and best used strategies for opinion writing is Learnzillion.

How do you teach Opinion Writing?