Persuasive Writing Lesson

So writing used to be one of my least favorite subjects to teach - until we adopted the 6+1 writing traits.  I love it now!  And the kids do too.  We focus on the traits the 1st semester of school and then writing genres the 2nd semester of school.  With it being the 2nd semester - we are focusing on the genre of persuasive writing.  Because I'm ADDICTED to Pinterest - I found the OREO acronym to be extremely helpful with this genre.  If you're not familiar with the OREO acronym for persuasive writing check out Tracey's blog HERE!  She has made some fantastic free printables that I used with this genre.  Way to go Tracey!!

So I decided to combine Tracey's idea of the OREO acronym with the engaging idea of having the students watch TV commercials and came up with this idea.  I'm very into the "I do" - "We do" - "You Do" gradual release model so this activity is technically done 3 times.  I first showed the students the graphic organizer I made for this activity (see below).  We reviewed the OREO acronym and discussed where we see persuasive writing in our own lives.  The students were well versed enough with persuasive writing that they were able to tell me 'TV commercials' without me having to hint at it!  (Proud teacher moment!)  So we discussed shortly TV commercials and how they're persuading us to go to a certain place, buy a certain item, etc.  We talked about some of their favorite commercials and we talked about how the 'author' or the 'text' (words) are in the script that the actors are acting out.  I told the students that the first OREO was for the 'We do' and the last OREO was for the 'You do'.

With that review in place - we then together watched the 1st TV commercial.  After it - I stopped and did a think aloud to model the thinking process for trying to fill in the graphic organizer.  I thought about how to identify the opinion from the commercial, and a reason and an example that was in the commercial.  Then I did a 2nd commercial and modeled the same thinking - the whole time filling in the graphic organizer (my copy - students don't write) After I modeled 2 commercials we stopped and talked about the thinking process.


Then it was time for us to do some together.  We 2 commercials together - the 1st one without writing anything down - just discussion.  The 2nd commercial they wrote in our answers on the 1st OREO on the graphic organizer.

Then the last commercial we watched twice and they filled in the organizer on the bottom on their own.  When they turned it into me - they received an OREO to enjoy!

They very much enjoyed this lesson.  I didn't take any pictures because it was dark in the room, but I would like to share the commercials I found and the printable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ptlhoV1aLw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNEbuQowSY4

There are multiple commercials on these links so feel free to use whichever commercials you'd like.

Click HERE to get the printable.  I made it at school so it's not amazing with fonts and graphics - but it does the job!!

If you do the lesson, let me know how it goes!!  Have a great Thursday!