Persuasive Writing Grades 6-12 Central Virginia Writing Project

Introductions Amy Hale ●CPS/Assistant Principal ●6 years high school Social Studies teacher ●Member of CVWP since 2011 ●originally from Rustburg, VA Maureen Jensen ●ACPS / GRT / AVID ●15 years middle school LA teacher ●member of CVWP since 2012 ●originally from Philadelphia

From the VDOE ● Move students away from 5 paragraph, formulaic writing ● Conferencing, guided writing, revising, sharing, and using mentor texts builds skills ● Writing portfolios support student growth

From the VDOE ● Teach writing; don’t merely assign it ● Teach peer revision/editing; putting students in groups is NOT teaching peer editing ● Focus on purpose and audience ● Provide opportunities for students to change voice and audience

From the VDOE ● Every piece of writing does not have to be graded! ● Do incorporate writing into every lesson ● Don’t correct every error in student papers ● Use VDOE Resources including anchor sets and writing checklists

Today’s Agenda Morning - A Workshop Cycle ❏ Quick Write ❏ Overview of the Workshop Cycle ❏ Mini-Lesson: Counterarguments ❏ Choice Boards, Planning, and Drafting ❏ Break ❏ Mini-Lesson: Revision ❏ Mini-Lesson: Conferring ❏ Sharing ❏ Lunch Afternoon ❏ Choice Activity ❏ Planning

Quick Writes ❏ Promote personal connection ❏ Assess student knowledge ❏ Summarize reading or lesson ❏ Reflect ❏ Encourage critical thinking ❏ Make predictions, inferences, hypotheses

Idea Generation You could use: ❏ RAFTS ❏ Choice Boards ❏ Newspaper/Magazine ❏ TV/Radio ❏ Discussions or Debates

Workshop Flow Chart 1.Idea 2.Peer Conference 3.Draft 4.Conferencing 5.Revision 6.Peer Conference 7.Revision 8.Publish

Mini-Lesson: Counterarguments Article: “To Fight Ebola, Create a Health Workforce Reserve Force” Resource:

List Possible Counterclaims in Article

Using Mentor Texts Mentor texts - Anchor texts ❏ help students envision possibilities for their own writing ❏ provide a model ❏ inspire and ignite ❏ encourage students to take risks by trying something new ❏ This is how real writers work – they look to other writers for ideas, craft, and structure.

Mini-Lesson Ideas for Persuasive Writing Things that Bother Me Turning Lists into Paragraphs Finding an Audience Using Humor to Persuade Writing a Thesis Statement All Reasons Are Not Created Equal Writing Quickly and Continuously to Find First Thoughts Loaded Language: Positive, Neutral, and Negative Some Might Think: How to Write Counterarguments Rhetorical Questions: Statements in Disguise Leads that Capture the Reader’s Interest Smooth Transitions Cut It Out! Deleting Unnecessary Words Call to Action Mini-Lessons: short lessons that focus on a skill or concept that will relate to larger lesson

Choice Boards Choice Board #1 ●Appropriate for students in grades 6-12 Choice Board #2 ●Appropriate for students in grades 9-12

Planning Pick one graphic organizer to use to organize your thoughts once you have chosen a topic

Drafting

Revising vs. Editing A.R.M.S. Add Remove Move Substitute C.U.P.S. Capitalize Usage Punctuation Spelling

A couple of thoughts about revising and editing... ●It’s important to teach the distinction between revising and editing, but note that it is nearly impossible to focus on only one skill when looking back at your piece. ●Hold off on the peer revising or conferring for a while. We’ve got to get kids used to really combing through their own work again and again and again.

Mini-Lesson: Revising Reverse Outline A reverse outline is a map of a paper-in-process made by labeling/summarizing each paragraph into a single sentence. When you are writing, you are necessarily zooming in to work with details—sentences, words, and punctuation. It is easy to lose sight of the argument as a whole. A reverse outline enables you to zoom out, like a painter stepping back from a large canvas to see the big picture.

Revising

Writing Conferences Questions for teachers to consider: ❏ What are the goals of a writing conference? ❏ When should I confer with students about their writing? ❏ What will conferring look like in my classroom? ❏ What are the teaching moves in a writing conference? ❏ What should I teach in a writing conference? ❏ How do I teach conferring procedures?

Mini-Lesson: Conferring “It’s the writer’s prerogative” ●Writers should determine the direction and type of feedback for a conference. ●The writer stays in control of the piece. ●The conferring partner is very clear in purpose.

Sharing ❏ One Sentence Whip Share ❏ Author’s Chair

Sharing: Author’s Chair Author’s Chair Feedback (Categories and Stems) Quote Back “My favorite part was…” “I like your use of the word…” Question “Why did you decide to…” “How did you come up with…” “Where do you plan to go with…” Connect “Your writing reminds me of…”

LUNCH

●RAFT ●Analyzing writing prompts ●Rubrics and scoring ●Thesis statements Choice Stations

PLANNING TIME