Two Challenges- Two Teachers- Fifty Winners: Junior Great Books & Vocabulary Conscious Teaching

I've got a challenge for you. Actually, I've got TWO. Taking part in this adventure is a win-win no matter how you look at it and it's sure to result in increased student learning along the way.  

Is your interest piqued? Do you want to know more? Get a little info before you join in, try something, hop on board, give it a whirl?  Ok, here's the nitty gritty- remember these are TWO separate options for TWO different teachers- or ONE eager beaver who would like to try both. Wowza!

OPTION 1: Junior Great Books Stories  (within Literacy Workshops in grades K-5)

A significant body of research links the close reading of complex text—whether the student is a struggling reader or advanced—to significant gains in reading proficiency and finds close reading to be a key component of college and career readiness. (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 2011, p. 7)

A significant body of research links the close reading of complex text—whether the student is a struggling reader or advanced—to significant gains in reading proficiency and finds close reading to be a key component of college and career readiness. (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 2011, p. 7)

What: Intentionally teach using the Junior Great Books stories and methods that include multiple readings, vocabulary practice, directed notes, shared inquiry discussion, and a short written component. The stories selected would meet the ELA units' standards and coincide with the theme.  At no point would this be extra work. 

How many stories/cycles? FIVE- You would be agreeing to offer JGB experiences FIVE times a year. 

Why: JGB offers direct connections to the CCSS/KCAS.

• A questioning stance that extends ans scaffolds critical thinking
• Text complexity 
• Multiple readings and close readings* of text
• Text-dependent, text-specific questions requiring responses with specific and relevant evidence
• Analytic and narrative writing with the use of textual evidence

*see article from Educational Leadership "Closing in on Reading" by Nancy Boyles http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx

Purpose: To do a little action research to document the benefit of intentional instruction with JGBs and the WHYs listed above. Caveat: We would to need to use assessment data from your class to see the impact of this practice on students within your classroom. 

*Check out this link of a Shared Inquiry Discussion video with great examples of how JGB supports and sets the rigor for finding textual evidence.
Text used The Stories Julian Tells
http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/junior/jgbseries/grade-2/

OPTION 2: Vocabulary Conscious Teaching (10-15 min. 4-5 days/week) 4th-5th grades

Studies and reviews of research over the past three decades have shown that the size and depth of elementary students' vocabulary is associated with proficiency in reading comprehension and that instruction increases reasders' vocabulary results in higher levels of reading comprehension (e.g., Baumann, Carr-Edwards, Font, Tereshinski, Kame'enui & Olejink, 2002; Beck, Perfetti, & McKowen, 1992; Kame'enui, Carine, & Freschi, 1982; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).

What: Intentionally teach and offer your students vocabulary instruction and practice with Greek and Latin affixes (prefixes/suffixes) and roots, thus supporting your readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, social scientists, and thinkers in general. The words selected would come from research-based sources, the ELA units, and/or connections to content in other areas. 

How often and what would we do?    10-15 min./day     The link below is a text co-authored by Tim Rasinski, vocabulary and fluency guru and recent OC speaker!). The authors offer a set of "engaging instructional ideas for the use of Greek and Latin derivations to teach vocabulary and provide classroom-based examples of how a morphological-based vocabulary" implementation can impact students and teachers.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/TRTR.01015/abstract

Other resources may include: Words Their Way, Word Nerds, Word Savvy and other texts you've used.

 
Why is it important to study Greek and Latin word parts?

• • Over 60% of the words students will encounter in school textbooks have recognizable word parts; and many of these Latin and Greek roots (Nagy, Anderson,Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989). I'd contend that even if you don't ever use a textbook, students would encounter the words in the articles and texts you provide for them.
  • Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes have predictable spelling patterns.(Rasinski & Padak, 2001; Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2000).
  • Content area vocabulary is largely Greek and Latin-based and research supports this instruction, especially for struggling readers (Harmon, Hedrick & Wood, 2005).
  • Many words from Greek and Latin word parts are included in “Tier Two” and “Tier Three” words that Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) have found to be essential to vocabulary word study.
  • Knowing Greek and Latin word parts helps students recognize and gain clues to understanding of other words that use known affixes and roots(Nagy & Scott, 2000).
  • “One Latin or Greek root or affix (word pattern) aids understanding (as well as decoding and encoding) of 20 or more English words.” 
  • “Since Spanish is also a Latin-based language, Latin (and Greek) can be used as a bridge to help Spanish speaking students use knowledge of their native language to learn English.” 
  • Learning Greek and Latin affixes and roots may help reduce the literacy gap.   
  • source:  http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/common-core-greek-and-latinates/

Purpose: To do a little action research to document the benefit of intentional instruction with vocabulary and the WHYs listed above. Caveat: We would to need to use assessment data from your class to see the impact of this practice on students within your classroom.

So, anyone on board? Anyone interested in collaborating in this effort to increase students' reading achievement? Offer readers opportunities to improve on a number of level?

If you are up for the challenge, please let me know and we'll get started. Remember, it's a journey that setting up the participants for success. 

Pacing, Pulling, and Pondering with MENTOR TEXTS: Reflecting and Planning

Whether you find yourself clocking hours pacing around your room as you proctor your students taking the K-PREP, or you just notice your brain moving from this year to thinking about next year, it's about the time of year to ponder and reflect on the successes and "need to repeat" strategies from past year and the "want to dos" for the approaching August start date. Since you'll be passing by your bookshelves every so often as you pace or digging into them when you inventory books for Jennifer, this might be the perfect time to ponder MENTOR or "Touchstone" TEXTS for the 2013-14 school year.

You know as well as I do how easy it is to collect piles and folders of mentor texts (e.g. books, articles, poems, etc.). Heck, I could probably be labeled your "pusher" at times! And though I've thought it and a said it several times over the last few years, "You really only need 3-4 per type of writing", I doubt I've been successful as practicing it or really preaching it. In fact, I'm pretty certain I could be called a hypocrite in certain circles. But, give me a chance, if you will, to revise my thinking about mentor texts and consider future possibilities with the help of some amazing mentor writers and instructional leaders to back me up. Here goes:

"Most important, I've learned that  we don't need hundreds of texts. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that we do....In my experience, though, there are many, many ways a single well-written text can be used to teach students in conferences....In each of my two collections of mentor texts-- one for primary grades and one for upper grades- I have about twenty-five texts. That's it. In the collection I use for primary grades, I have picture books and short texts: a couple of memoirs, a few list books, several number books and alphabet books, and some nonfiction books. I have one good anthology of poems. In my upper-grade collection, I have four or five memoirs and the same number of short stories. I have several picture books. I have a few editorials and nonfiction feature articles. And I have one good anthology of poetry.  (p.129-130)

                                                        -Carl Anderson, How's it Going?

Should you find yourself wondering about how to select these mentors, Carl does offer some suggestions.

Some of Lucy's Favorites

• Consider Texts We've Already Read to Students- While this advice might  seem "a day late and a dollar short", I'd contend it's perfect timing. All this time pacing or inventorying provides you with the opportunity (while you are monitoring your students, of course) to consider which texts are jam-packed with craft techniques, structures, and content you wish to highlight and use throughout the year. If you find that you absolutely LOVE using Alice McLerran's The Mountain Who Loved a Bird,  and you used it for teaching science concepts later in the year, anyway, why not introduce it in August and let the kids go ahead and fall in love with the story, the structure, the language, the artwork? How much more powerful will it be when you return to as a mentor over and over again (when studying narratives, or beautiful language, or personification, or purposeful repetitive writing). Why not?
• Cast a Wide Net- as Carl suggests, don't limit yourself to long picture books. This is an easy one for us as we have always cut clippings from newspapers or magazines, or downloaded from online sources. The shift may be feeling comfortable using those nonfiction texts, poems, and within our few few weeks of school as we support our writers in Building a Literate Community- as we offer invitations to write from sparks in a variety of forms, as we immerse our kids in ALL kinds of writing.  (situations, forms, audience, purposes, and styls)
• Cut Excerpts from Longer Works- Although it's so temping to feel like we have to use the ENTIRE text when we show students how to write in a certain way, it's totally unnecessary to always feel like we have to have to reexamine the WHOLE text. Carl contends that sometimes just a few sentences will do the trick- show the student the desired craft technique, or demonstrate the complexity of a sentence. The key is that that the child already knows and appreciates the text. Then they will seek to emulate that writer so they can have the same desired affect on their reader. So, consider cutting out a part to have that available for later use.
• Use Student Writing-As a whole, we are successful with

  

  Student Writing -Kindergarten

  this...sometimes. As you support your students in selecting their best writing for this year's SHOWCASE PORTFOLIO, take time to scout the room for that perfect model text for next year. Make the effort to copy or save it on  your drive so  you have access to it in AUGUST! Too often we see it, love it, and then lose it because it gets put into a folder or taken home. What student written texts will you save and use... or pass on for a lower grade to use. (Always consider your colleagues when you search for student models).
  
  
  Enlist the Aid of Colleagues, the LMS, LC (me!), and your future students- though it's easy to get swept away in what we know and love, there are always new idea and perspectives out there. Ask someone else what they have found success with using. Better yet, put it in your plans for the fall (August is not technically fall, I know, but the powerful alliteration called me to use that word.) to have your future students search for mentors they want to have available in the class.

• Write Text Ourselves- Carl suggests that you never underestimate the power of using your own writing as mentor texts. You will have the desired traits, craft techniques, processes, content, and focus, as well as a way for your students to immediately see you as a fellow writer.
• Final thoughts: Consider the kids' interests, the power of variety, the opportunity for emulation.

 Though this list is in no way exhaustive, it certainly offers food for thought. It gets us reflecting on our past year and the mentors we loved and those we wish we'd had. It also offers us some of our next steps- whether that means we copy or pull from this year's collection or student work, or get looking for something we've never had before-we will at least have direction. At this point, you've: taught the new ELA units; know the demands of the standards; better understand the connection of the themes, and experienced much of the variety and types of writing the kids are called to do.  At this point, you're ready to pace and/or check, ponder, pull and list the best little collection of MENTOR TEXTS.

Likeable Links

Franki Sibberson finds literary nonfiction provides rich and varied writing models for elementary students. She shares some of her favorite mentor texts:

 

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=342

 

If you're looking for new nonfiction text models, you might want to explore Choice Literacy'sPinterest board Great Nonfiction for Kids. We add to it weekly, and it currently includesmore than five dozen annotated children's books:

 

http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/great-nonfiction-for-kids/What are your "tried and true" Mentors (models, touchstone) Texts? Please post!

"Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros is certainly on my list!
The Big Rock by Bruce Hiscock
My Worst Day column in Discovery Girl Magazine is a goldmine! (Simply choose a relevant and engaging topic for your new class of kids...when you meet them.)

Resource:
How's it Going? by Carl Anderson (Heinemann)
Other supporters of mentor texts- Lucy Calkins, Katie Wood Ray, Ruth Culham, Ralph Fletcher, Jeff Anderson

Transition Words: Powerful Tools for Developing Ideas and Moving Readers

I had and Aha! today as I delved into some research related to developing student writers and the ELA curriculum. I had been pondering reasons for the lack of development in students' writing. What is the hang up? What is impeding their ability to really develop a topic sentence (idea)? At that point, I saw something on a Continuum for Opinion/Argument Writing- Grade-by-Grade. What I was was the transitions cell that stated:

"I connected my ideas/reasons with my examples, explanation, and experiences using transition words like for example and because. I connected one reason to another (or example) using words like also and another."

That's the moment when I realized that maybe I'd not done enough in the past to support writers with using transition words to further develop their ideas! Maybe I'd just plain forgotten about their importance in "triggering" a supporting example or explanation! If that is the case, than I've cheated my students (and sadly, maybe even your students) from a method writer's use to develop ideas in a paragraph and moving a reader from paragraph to paragraph. (Insert apology here) However, the is hope! We still have time to equip our kids with this tool and support them in AIMING HIGH with those they select. Motivating writers to "write like a 5th grader" can offer your students that exciting goal and stronger language to boot!  While a poster or table papers may suit you just find in your classroom, our 3rd grade guru, Emily Esarey, plans to create bookmarks for her writers. Might be these OPINIONish transitions on one side and NARRATIVE and INFORMATIVE on the other. We'll just have to see what she cooks us and posts on Pinterest! ;) Here's the gist of the Opionionish Transiton Words our writers are expected to use with in their writing.Of course, the list highlights just a few examples of the myriad of possible transitions writers use. Mentor texts provide some excellent examples to add to your class list!

 

Becoming Stronger Writers with Transition Words! (Some Opinion Writing Focus)

Aim HIGH!

5th graders use:

Consequently

Specifically

 

4th graders use:

For instance,

In order to…

In addition

Although...

3rd graders use:

For example,

…because…

, therefore

since

also

Another…
 

2nd graders use:

because

and

also

 

Just one example of how a writer might include transitions to develop ideas and guide a reader. Consider how using a variety and some 4th grade transition words might have added to this writer's writing.

 

This 4th grade writer also attempted to use transitions. As you can see, the most successful transitions occurred between paragraphs as the writer worked to move a reader from one paragraph idea to another. When it comes to transitioning between sentences in a paragraph however, this is where a list of possibilities might really be valuable to this writer. Although the writer does a great job supporting his main idea (video games are bad for your eyes), he/she does not use transitions to connect the support to the further support. Check out the last couple of sentences to see where he/ she might have added a good transition word. This one is certainly on the way to the stars!

 

 

Synthesis with Sentences & Punctuation

 

             We’ve been working on our grammar game for YEARS as a Buckner staff. Many of us have read books, participated in studies, attended PD, and tried a multitude of instructional practices and strategies in our own classrooms. If I were to share the myriad of methods I’ve used over the years, you’d quickly become bored and I’d run out of space to share with you some of the methods that are working here at BES. So instead, I’ll share a most recent successful experience.

Recently, Richard invited me into his classroom to collaborate with Word Study. As is always the case with Richard, we started in one place and ended in another. The place we ended is actually where I’d like to start.  You see, while the concern was with students’ lack and/or inappropriate use of punctuation, the problem was actually so closely tied with sentence structure that we decided to tackle them together. What if, maybe, we taught writers how to craft complex sentences so that they would understand when to use the proper punctuation? This synthesis, this change in our thinking, was the beginning of match made in Heaven- sentence structure & proper punctuation.

                So, our journey began with the commas and complex sentences. Richard first determined which complex sentence structure he wanted to introduce first. The winner was the “Interrupter” –or as Jeff Anderson dubs it, “The Breadbasket Comma”. This complex sentence creator calls for the writer to insert extra details, offering specific information or richer mental image, for the reader. Did you see how that worked? He chose this to share first for its novelty and potentially powerful impact on the kids’ writing. We followed this study (see below) with the comma in a series, AAAWWUBBIS, FANBOY and Introductory commas. While most of these uses of a comma were supportive goals in Units 4 and 5 of the 5^th grade ELA curriculum, writers’ needs dictated a need to add those that were not directly stated in the standards. It did not take rocket science schema to figure out that the way to support students’ in crafting complex sentences was to teach them to notice, name, and use the other commas. We had a simple research based protocol and set expectations for our student writers.

In designing a protocol, we wanted to ensure that our collective efforts would: build students’ awareness, develop their understanding, link reading, writing and communicating with others, and offer accountability on their part. Here’s the gist:

1.       Examine a mentor sentence from a familiar text.

2.       Determine the use of the comma in that sentence.

3.       Students seek and share similar uses in texts.

4.       Share our own experiments with a given comma. Always snowballing our learning and using the ones we’ve previously practiced.

Two other experiences happened each day, (1) Students worked to write using that kind of comma--even if it only for a few minutes. (2) Students shared their experimentation as they wrote in a new way. They offered one another feedback and worked to revise their writing so as to clarify their message and edit their work. Of course, with Richard, it never got dull- challenges were extended (ask a student in his room about “oral punctuation” A.K.A. “voice texting”), games were played, and authentic writing opportunities were offered. All the while…the children learned, sought an understanding, and tried to write in a way that showed both complexity in their sentence structure and proper punctuation.

While our efforts have not transferred into a classroom of distinguished writers, our efforts did show evidence of transfer in students’ writing-and not just “writing workshop” writing. The kids now know that writers craft complex sentences and use punctuation to clarify meaning for the reader. In addition, they also realized that writers work to write with a variety of sentences that include punctuation- regardless of the situation, form, audience, purpose or topic. Kenneyd Park, 5^th grader, summed it up best when she wrote [excerpts], “I feel like I am a stronger and more detailed writer now that I’ve spent some time developing my writing.  …. In my writing, I tend to use breadbasket sentences because they aren’t run on sentences, but still add in extra detail. … I feel that I can use commas and a larger vocabulary (that’s we’re we originally started our journey) to improve my writing.“ This girl’s getting it!

Though your journey may not be the same, due to different standards, different units, different kids, and different methods, what everyone does have in common is a desire to support our kids in crafting complex sentences and using the right punctuation. For our Ks and 1s, this may mean spending time looking at how complete sentences start and how a writer uses “and“ as a connecting word, rather than a starting word (99% of the time). For our 2^nd and 3^rd graders, this may translate to time marinating in using transition words that call for writers to use commas, as well as complete and compound sentences that add support and further support to a topic sentence. For all of our grades, this may mean carving out specific time to introduce, inquire, and practice with students- all the while integrating in authentic opportunities and expecting it…All. The. Time.

Who knew that a simple collaboration could harvest so much synthesis with sentences?  

 

Words, Words, Words...and Phrases

"So much to say, so much to say, so much to say." Dave Matthews Band It happened tonight. I read with Carson Ann and stumbled upon a word I'd never in my life (nearly 40 years of it) encountered. It was in a children's book- a book about horses. She's become quite interested in horses these days and so we checked out a few books, a few fiction stories, on horses to read at home. So, at bedtime she began to read from one of them and came upon the word "forelock". Even with the complete sentence, coupled with the context of the  words and sentences before and after it, in addition to the illustration...we still had to infer its meaning. I relied upon my understanding of the prefix "fore" (meaning before) and my schema for my "forehead" and my previous experience with the word "lock" related to "locks of hair" (Thanks, Goldilocks.) to come to the understanding that maybe it related to the hair on the front of the horse's head. And even with those ideas in my mind, I was still not 100% certain I knew the meaning. You might already have guessed that my experiences and schema for horses is very limited- even being a born and bred Kentucky girl.      Regardless of the exact meaning, we did our best to infer and moved along. The mental image in our minds worked and the story continued. A few minutes later we ended that chapter and switched books so I could read the more complex text to her and she began to fall asleep. I bet we made it three pages into the story before the word "forelock" popped up, again. This time the author offered more descriptive and explanatory sentences, and a more detailed illustration so that we did confirm our original thinking about the "forelock" being the patch or tuft of hair on or just above a horse's forehead--or as Carson Ann called them 'bangs'. Our new horse-related vocabulary word immediately became part of our new schema and a permanent mental image stuck.     It was at that point that synthesis occurred for me related to the KCAS. Aha! I get it. I now understand the need for the standard related to the understanding and use of general and domain or content specific and vocabulary, along with Greek and Latin roots and affixes! How many of us (and our kids) would have just skipped over that word- figuring it didn't matter and banking on the fact they'd never see it again...only to encounter it again and again as they studied or read about a particular subject or topic? How many are "okay" with a general or basic understanding of a words and phrases and don't search for multiple or deeper meanings (as explained below in the Literacyhead example)? What value do specific words have? Believe it or not, words convey more than meaning. They convey the author's perspective, tone, and even subtle suggestions. Just as you determine and select specific words to use (for different purposes, audiences, and topics) so do authors; and it's worth our time and effort to support our students in STOPPING to make meaning of those words, or deepen their understanding of a possible single-dimension understanding. Why? Because we all seek deeper understanding. Why else? Because when we stretch our schema as readers and thinkers, we also extend ourselves as effective communicators and writers. Who knows how many books I'll be reading about horses in the next few months. If it is as many as I read when my son was on his "squid kick", I am sure that I'll be banking some new vocabulary words and phrases, thus growing in a field I never thought I would. I say, "Bring it on!" because when it comes time to transfer my learning through reading, oral communication, or writing, I'll surely have "So much to say, so much to say, so much to say." Check out these sites below for more insight into the power of intentional vocabulary work. Choice Literacy: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1506 Though it's a podcast, it's totally worth listening to or reading the transcript. He talks about everything from the need to purposefully teach vocabulary (and refers to the three tiers) to the including of small group work based on assessments.  Doug Fisher talks about Vocabulary, Comprehension, and the Common Core in this podcast:   http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1198   www.literacyhead.com: Goodbye, memorization. Hello, memorable vocabulary lessons!  The more words children know, the more texts they can read and understand, and the more they are likely to learn.  In fact, vocabulary knowledge is the strongest predictor of reading success across content areas. When a text presents challenging words, we stop and ask students to think about what they know about the word. We encourage children to turn and talk about the word, which they do obediently, but when we listen closely, what they’re saying is, “Do you know what it means? Me neither.” They shrug and dream up a definition based on imagination or loose connections. Not very productive. Rather than using the collective knowledge of students in the class to come up with a pieced together definition of a challenging word, we have begun to extend our directions, saying “Turn and talk to the person next to you about the word endless. Look at these two pictures for some clues. What can you figure out about endless?" Desert Ride by Jeff Mahorney Globe (detail) by Justin Richel Or, as an alternative, before or after reading a book, we might say, “Let’s try to figure out the word endless. If you don’t know what it means, consider the way it is used in these examples and try to come up with a definition: The endless rain filled the yard with water. I was eating an endless lollipop; it lasted the whole movie! The book felt endless as I tried to finish the 400 pages for the book report. Finally, we might show students a picture of the opposite of endless. Curiouser and Curiouser by Yann PENDARIES By the end of the lesson, students who knew nothing about the word endless, will have a working understanding of the word. Students who already knew the word endless will have deeper understandings. Asking students to work through vocabulary in these ways forces them to practice reading closely and work to use additional text resources to build background knowledge. It invites students to deeply process the word based on text as opposed to grabbing at straws. The kids are doing the work, but their efforts aren’t random. Instead, images and sample sentences (other texts) serve as scaffolds (rather than us!). Don't have to extra time to build the image-filled lessons we're describing? We've done it for you in Literacyhead's vocabulary lessons. Subscribe Now We are listening. You've told us that our vocabulary lessons are your favorite and we're giving them their own special place on Literacyhead. Look for new vocabulary options, coming soon! Learn more.

Learnzillion Is Worth a Million-Looks

Ok, so I've been busy clicking away and this site www.learnzillion.com is awesome and free! Whether you are looking to teach about :

• sentence structures and conjunctions (click on 3rd grade)
• how to use the writing process to answer a constructed response (4th grade)
• how to add transition words to their body paragraphs (4th argument prompt writing lesson). Um, 5th, we are so on this one!
• read a poem fluently
• MATH- hardly ventured to that whole section, but I hear it's pretty good.
• ...and on and on and on!

I am not saying the lessons are perfect, but they are pretty well done. And the grade level lesson can be shown above or below it's posted "level", so don't be afraid to check out lessons from adjacent levels.

Use with kids. Build your own schema. Post on Edmodo for reinforcement or enrichment. (great idea, Heather!)

But before you naysay, click away. 

(Oh,and the passages are timely for your units...I dare say these curriculum maps are used by many in our nation. Unit 4 here we come!)

Happy clicking,

Sarah 

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. :)