Teaching opinion writing tips and activities.
Today, you’re going to get a bunch of teaching opinion writing tips. I’m going to what best practices I think you can follow. I hope that you’re going to walk away with a clear understanding of what is expected when teaching this standard. I also hope you walk away with some fun ideas and activities to add to your lesson plans! All of the images you see below (except for the read-alouds) are part of my ELA writing units. The links to all grade levels are at the bottom!
Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, narrative, and today’s topic OPINION WRITING! It begins kindergarten and each year, gets progressively more in depth and detailed. Here is a look at K-5’s expectations for opinion writing, according to Common Core.
If you teach opinion writing broken up in parts like this, your students can focus on each part. That way, they can get a true grasp of what each piece requires and how to write it.
Every single part of this blog post will include mentor texts. Each time you teach your students about a component of opinion writing, use a strong example! Mentor texts are great because students can see what they’re learning in engaging or familiar books. Then, it can help them with their own practice. Each of the book links below are affiliate links to Amazon.
When you begin your opinion writing unit, you of course need to start with teaching them what it is. You will be showing them the framework of an opinion writing piece. First, create an anchor chart (or use one provided to you in my ELA units). Then, as you explore texts, examples, and activities, you can refer back to this anchor chart to teach opinion writing framework.
Now, it’s time to get the students talking. Give them an engaging partner talk game, such as Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up or Mix-Pair-Share. When they’re with a partner, ask them questions about the actual framework. Ask them the purposes of each component. This will help strengthen their writing when it’s time to start writing independently.
After that, you can start showing them real-world examples. Start with read-alouds and mentor texts. See if students can identify the introduction, opinion sentence, support, and conclusion. Then, give them examples that aren’t tied to a picture book. Above, you see two different activities. One of them asks students to put a puzzle together of sample sentences for each component. The other is a cut-and-glue activity where they have to sort sample sentences. (Links to all resources are at the bottom of the blog post.)
Next, it’s time to simply teach them how to state an opinion. If you’re in kinder or first grade, you may have to take a step back and teach what an opinion is and how it’s different from a fact. But… once that’s determined, you can start teaching opinion sentences.
Make a class anchor chart or display a stem poster in your classroom. This will help trigger their ability to form an opinion sentence. Then, give them a few engaging partner activities. For example, the image above shows a partner game where students are shown an Opinion Stem chart and one picture topic card at a time. They will form an opinion sentence about that topic using a different stem each time.
It’s also important to teach your writers the difference between strong and weak opinion sentences. There is a big difference between “I like pizza” and “Pizza is my favorite dinner”. One way to practice this is to have students sort different sample sentences into the strong and weak categories.
Then, it’s time to let them practice! Try using one of the templates in the ELA unit like the one shown above. It gives students a collection of sentence stems and a topic. They will have to form an opinion sentence using a mixture of all these options!
Once you get into second, third, fourth grade (and above), you’re going to be required to teach students how to support their opinion. The big thing that can really help is just the word ‘why’. This helps trigger students to think of the reasons behind their opinion. Once they get to 2nd grade, they have to be able to give reasons why they like or dislike something. Try using an opinion writing anchor chart explaining support.
Now that you’ve taught your students HOW to support their reasons, it’s time to practice. Give them lots of opportunities to try supporting opinions with reasons. There are two activities shown in the image above. First, you have a picture card with an opinion sentence. Students will work with a partner to try to create a strong reason to support this opinion. Next, there is an opinion sentence strip that students will draw and try to create a strong support.
One of the biggest pieces to teaching opinion writing is the introduction. This is the hook. This is where your students are going to try to draw their audience in. First, teach introductions explicitly using an anchor chart or poster from my ELA units. Then, choose one or two mentor texts to show how they’ve used introductions to hook their readers.
It’s a great idea to show students what a strong introduction looks like with modeling. Another way is to give them a matching activity where they have to read introduction sentences and sort them.
Here is another game example for students to participate in. They will match three cards together. First, they will match the topic card and a sample introduction. Then, they will match a strong opinion sentence to follow up their introduction sentence. While playing this game, students can get a strong sense of what an introduction paragraph will look like in a multi-paragraph paper.
Next, you’ll teach conclusions explicitly. Just like you did with introductions, conclusions need to start with an anchor chart or discussion of a poster. Students can learn conclusion stems, reasons for conclusions, and why they’re used. After teaching opinion writing conclusions explicitly, show students examples with mentor texts from the list above. Read one or two mentor texts and discuss what conclusions were used.
Give your students lots of practice with writing conclusions. Hands-on writing activities and matching games are two ways to give them practice singling out conclusions. Above, you see a flip book. They will fold and snip along the dotted edges. Under each flap, students will write an example of each type of conclusion (such as final facts, repeated opinions, personal experiences, and offering a suggestion.
In my ELA units, I also offer 3-4 final writing pieces. They’re presented as lesson plans, so you can still walk students through these steps. First, they’ll be presented with their prompt. The prompt shown above asks which living condition would be worse: Arctic or desert. Then, the steps of the lesson plans walk students through brainstorming, pre-writing, and drafting their papers.
Finally, you’ve taught all the pieces of your opinion writing unit. Therefore, it’s time to practice, practice, practice. Once you teach students to write an opinion piece from start to finish, give them different prompts to write about in their journals. Or they could even write about these as a final opinion writing piece! Choose high-interest and engaging topics for students to write about.
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A table of signposting stems: These should be used as a guide and as a way to get you thinking about how you present the thread of your argument. You may need to adapt certain words and phrases for your own purposes. You may also wish to add your own sentence stems to the list below: Signposting stems for an introduction
34. Let me state my opinion… 35. I believe one can safely say… 36. In my opinion… 37. On the other hand, I think/find/believe… 38. I am of the opinion that… 39. As far as I can understand… 40. I must admit that… 41. That is why I think… 42. I discovered that… 43. The best idea… 44. I am convinced that… 45. If I am not ...
If you want to start writing terrific sentences (and improve your essay structure), the first thing you should do is start using transition words. Transition words are those words or phrases that help connect thoughts and ideas. They move one sentence or paragraph into another, and they make things feel less abrupt.
5. Track progress: Monitor the students' use of sentence stems over time and provide feedback and reinforcement on areas where they may need further assistance. 60+ Sentence Stem Examples for Every Subject. Mathematics: 1. "I noticed a pattern when I saw…". 2. "The formula changes if we…". 3.
Sentence starters, transitional and other useful words We can help you to succeed in your studies on or off campus. Just contact us. Learning Support @ Student Success [email protected] 0800 762 786 It can sometimes be difficult to start a sentence to express ideas, or find words to show the
Be sure to model them for kids, showing how to fill in the blanks. Practice both out loud and in writing, providing your own example and then asking for their take. It's OK if they simply fill in the blanks when they first start using these stems. But over time, students should use them more as a jumping-off point, to delve deeper into the topic.
Using paragraph frames is an even more useful scaffold when teaching opinion writing. Frames help your upper elementary students better understand not only how to share their opinions, but how to support their opinions with effective arguments. Paragraph frames also help students become more comfortable using transitional words in their writing.
Don't forget to fix these before you submit your final draft! This Peer Review Guide was created by researchers supporting CBALTM, the Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning; ETS' long‐term research and development initiative in which assignments are aligned to the Common Core and focus on writing from sources.
Sentence stems and sentence frames are powerful tools for helping elementary school students, particularly English learners, learn academic language. ... What are some sentence frames for opinion writing? Opinion writing is a key component of many types of essays and assignments. It, along with the examples of citing evidence above, helps ...
Sentence stems are scaffold tools that serve as bridges connecting ideas, thoughts, and discoveries in a structured and engaging manner. We have recently started a series of posts on sentence stems covering various pedagogical aspects of these pedagogical tools. In previous installments, we've delved into the nuanced distinction between sentence stems and sentence frames, illuminating…
Sentence Stems for Better Academic Writing. Over the past week or so, I've been experimenting with providing my students with sentence stems to help them develop their academic writing. The idea is that they either use or adapt them. A messy process, no doubt. But one that, eventually, will be beneficial.
2. If you want to know the structure of a good essay paragraph, check my post here. Informal English Phrases. These phrases are suitable for language tests such as TOEFL or IELTS. In an academic essay, these phrases will probably be too informal because they are too personal. "In my opinion, + [your sentence]"
In my opinion … I can empathise with … Alternatively, this could suggest that … On the other hand … The writer might be trying to convey … Additionally, this suggests that … Another point to add is that … connotes expands manifests conveys foreshadows portrays demonstrates foretells signifies denotes illustrates symbolises
Ways to vary your sentence starters * The author [verb]s... The author suggests that oranges are 'juicier' than apples, highlighting their thirst-quenching properties. The author highlights the thirst-quenching properties of oranges, by presenting them as 'juicier' than apples. * [Verb]-ing, the author...
This is always one of my 6 anchor charts for opinion writing because the "OREO" acronym is very helpful! This is an easy way for students to remember what to include in an opinion writing piece. The first O is the introduction (which we will talk about later in the post). The introduction will need to include the writer's opinion.
Captivating Opinion Sentence Starters for Compelling Arguments. These opinion sentence starters will help to get your students… well, get started! Set them out on the right track with these strong opening statements. Give your students a copy each of their books or display them around your classroom. An editable version is available for you ...
Strategy OverviewHow This Strategy Supports Language DevelopmentSentence frames and sentence starters are a helpful way to support students' academic language development both in their writing and speaking by prompting students to discuss content with more complex structures and thinking. Using these structures allows students to focus on the content concepts or skill without providing the ...
Expressing Opinion. 18 different ways to express your points of view in English other than "I think". Intermediate and upper-intermediate students are supposed to use varied structures when speaking and writing. This worksheet can be used in discussions and debates. Students should learn and use them in speaking or writing activities. English ...
Variations. Sentence Stems Roundtable. Prepare a list of unfinished sentences and give one copy to each student in class. Allow 10 minutes or so for students to complete the sentences in writing, using true facts from material they've read or learned about recently. Students then partner up and share responses.
Make a class anchor chart or display a stem poster in your classroom. This will help trigger their ability to form an opinion sentence. Then, give them a few engaging partner activities. For example, the image above shows a partner game where students are shown an Opinion Stem chart and one picture topic card at a time.
This resource includes sentence stems and reference sheets for students to use in their narrative, informational, and opinion writing. Use the sentence stems on the whiteboard with magnets, or on a writing center word wall. Students can paste reference sheets into their writing journals to have easy access during independent writing time.
Description. This graphic organizer includes sentence stems to help support students during each part of writing an opinion essay. Students can use this as a planning tool for a rough draft. They can write the sentence stem or simply circle or highlight them for when they write a rough draft. This resource was made with ESL students in mind ...
Browse opinion writing sentence stems resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.
Many will howl that Charles Murray is an elitist ("The Roots of STEM Excellence," op-ed, Aug. 31). They'll be right. Mr. Murray exhorts us to find and develop the elites. But the word ...