Moving Our Mindset: The Shift to Opinion Wriitng

Argumentative, Persuasive, Opinion, Oh My!!!

Getting ready to teach a unit that asks kids to share their OPINION, rather than persuade? The shift is not only a movement in your mindset, but an evolved sense of voice and emotion. Gone are the days of heated letters, sassy tones, and bargains. Check this link to gain more schema for our mode: OPINION.


The Common Core has many teachers and literacy coaches pondering how to teach students to write in ways that mix fact and emotion. In this essay from the archives, Jennifer Burton looks at the difference between Argumentative, Opinion, and Persuasive Writing in the Common Core with her colleagues, and tries out some lessons with students:

We use many of the teaching points from our former "Persuasive Unit," now known as the "Argumentative or Opinion Writing Unit." We just make sure we leave out that emotional appeal and add a counter argument. What we're most concerned about is how to make the writing meaningful and authentic for students. We don't want to give everyone a prompt, but instead are helping students find topics they are interested in that lend themselves to this type of writing.

  http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1192   Finding mentor texts can be a challenge. While we'd probably seek some higher level models than this site provides, we certainly can appreciate the efforts the children are making to support their opinions.   Good luck and may the mindset of opinion writing guide you and your students. :)