5th grade persuasive essay writing prompts

5th grade persuasive essay writing prompts

The Importance of Teaching Persuasive Essay Writing in 5th Grade

1. Introduction

This study was part of a problem-based learning project on water pollution. The class was divided into six small groups. Each group was given a different on-campus location that had become victim to water pollution. The problem-based project was one of the instruction units, therefore the essay was assigned on a Monday and due at the end of the week. The persuasive essay was the last writing assignment of the year. Each student composed a 4-5 page essay persuading the readers that severe pollution was in fact a major problem in the given location. The essays were used to help prepare a convincing and effective proposal. The goal was to propose an excellent way to bring about a change in that specific location to the Administration of the school. In undergoing this project we wanted to assess students’ ability to influence and request change. This is a skill that is to be mastered by the end of 8th grade. Throughout this study we documented detailed field notes and audio recordings. We assessed various papers as the project progressed and used assessment analysis grids to compare different writing abilities.

This essay outlines an experiment in persuasive writing – the effort to get 5th grade students to write essays that meet one of the 6th grade persuasive writing standards. We wanted to give students an overview of the many ways to be persuasive. This lesson gave students an opportunity to flex their persuasive writing muscles by incorporating advertisements into their content.

2. Developing Strong Arguments

Development of strong arguments is a core reason for writing a persuasive essay. It proves to be the control of how a student approaches the discussion and how the student comprehends the material in focus. A strong and solid argument can attract the audience in an easier way. It must be taught to fifth graders as it is the age where they are beginning to comprehend logical thinking. It is the age where they are able to abstract and apply logical reasoning in daily decision making. According to research, an average fifth grader uses the phrase “because” 12 times a day. This shows that children are already using reasoning for a lot of decisions they make in a day. And it is best to make it a habit to make the right decision with logical reasoning. With the ability to elaborate on points with ELS teaching, it is very likely that a child will develop the ability to create good points.

3. Structuring a Persuasive Essay

iii. Spend time discussing and later writing a few responses to the writing analysis in a journal, applying the technique from the analysis and reflecting on situations when it had worked on them. This step emphasizes teacher and peer discussion as well as self-directed learning. 1. Journals can be read later by peers or the teacher for suggestions and/or positive reinforcement. Students should also use them as an assessment tool to track their progress in persuasive writing and how they are convincing people to change their minds about things.

ii. The teacher should then involve the class in an analysis of a piece of persuasive writing, using a know/do/how worksheet as a guide. The worksheet asks them to write down what the author is trying to get them to know, to do, and to feel. 1. The teacher can use any piece of writing, identifying persuasive techniques used if it satisfies the know/do/how criteria. 2. An example using a door-to-door sales pitch can be quite effective and amusing for the students. 3. The teacher can also use a passage from a children’s book and act as if he is reading to the class, completely bypassing the fact that the children are too young for such a story and that the class has to stop him from reading. The students can use this as a role-play exercise.

B. Body i. The teacher should introduce the class to persuasive writing by reading aloud a book with a persuasive plot; the teacher should stop and question at various spots whether the book would convince the reader to change his/her mind about a certain issue. 1. The teacher should read/research to become familiar with the characteristics of persuasive writing and features of a persuasive story, i.e. What causes someone to change their mind as a result of what they’ve read? This should be done while the students do their reading block using a book the teacher has selected. 2. The students can also work on mini-tasks involving writing that try to persuade, such as story writing, advertisement, dialogue, and role play.

A. Introduction i. Begin the introduction with a hook. Tell a story about three different teachers that got your attention and kept it. (Anecdote) ii. Narrow this down to the one teacher that has influenced you the most. iii. State the thesis.

4. Using Persuasive Language Techniques

Concluding lessons to go through and summarize what has been learned. Create checklists of what to look for when writing persuasive text or when trying to identify it in text read.

Using and exploring inclusive language that involves the reader and allows them to take ownership of the issue and your point of view, e.g. “We know and understand that recycling is an important issue…”

Provocation: using questions to make your audience think about what will happen if they don’t take your side e.g. “Do you really want to live in dread of skin cancer?” This could tie in with a Science unit on the sun and UV radiation.

Consider using language techniques used in particular to the creation of persuasive text. For example, you might use the repetition of a word or phrase, the use of strong emotive words, or the addressing of the reader directly. You may need to spend one lesson on each of the above ideas.

5. Conclusion

The popularity of show and tell in elementary school classrooms indicates that kids love to explain and describe the things in their lives. This is, in general terms, the function of a persuasive essay. A persuasive essay is a written composition for the purpose of convincing the reader toward an opinion or belief. The idea is to make the reader take your point of view on the subject, to understand it the way you do. This is demonstrating to an individual how you feel on a particular topic can one day change the way they think about the issue at hand. This is amazing progress to see way happening today. Public and private elementary school teachers in the U.S. are known to require a little word search spelling or playing with imaginary friends in children’s writing. It’s usually in the form of simple essay. The issue is that simple essay does not usually involve attempt to persuade. Children as young as five and six can effectively learn to endow reason into writing equation. Take the example of two children in a class setting in which they’re discussing a certain field trip location. Child A is for it and child B is not. If you were to ask either child as to why that is, you’ll get a response involving reason and logic. This is no different when it comes to persuasive essay writing. Not to mention the bundle of real world knowledge to be attained from the library and internet research.