Thoughts for the President

Grade Levels: 5 - 12

Persuasive writing can be tied into any current event or issue in the news. Encourage students to send persuasive writings to public officials such as the President, the Vice-President, the spouse of the President, state or national senators and representatives, presidents of large companies, and others.

Objectives

Students will write a persuasive paragraph to the President stating their opinion on a topic. To do this, they will:

• Start the message with a topic sentence such as "War is _____." The blank will contain
  a word or phrase expressing the student's opinion about something.
• Follow the topic sentence or opinion sentence with at least two sentences of evidence
  or reasons that support the opinion sentence.
• Write reasons that are convincing.
• Indent the paragraph.
• Capitalize the main words in the title.

Motivator

Inquire whether students have been watching the news or reading the newspaper lately. Share several newspaper and magazine articles that you found on current issues or events. Ask students what they have heard recently about the fighting in _____, for example. Accept students' thoughts and ask them to elaborate.
Involve students in deciding to send their thoughts to the President.

Key Questions

1. What is your opinion of war or another situation? What are some words that describe your thoughts about war? (As students reply, respond positively and write their ideas on the chalkboard. Note: You need to recognize student’s opinions, but you also need to act impartial so that students feel free to be for or against the topic. Here are two examples of positive feedback: “Yes, 'it's necessary' is one view that many people have about war.” and “Yes, 'senseless' is another opinion many people have.”
2. Which opinion should we use in our paragraph? (Use the majority opinion to work with as a class.)
3. Now let's try to support the opinion that war is senseless (or another chosen opinion). What is some evidence that proves war is senseless? (Allow plenty of wait time. Coming up with evidence requires higher level thinking than giving one's opinions does. Accept each reason impartially and write it on the chalkboard. Continue until several reasons are listed.)

Group Composing

Invite students to put their opinion and evidence together in a paragraph to convince other people that war is senseless.

1. Help students to compose a sentence stating the chosen opinion. Ask what they need to do to let readers know they are beginning a paragraph. (Indent the first line.)
2. Explain that since they have an opinion or topic sentence, they now need to add the reasons to support it. Ask what reason they think is the strongest. Suggest that students might want to put their strongest evidence first or last.
3. As students suggest an order for the evidence, number the sentences on the chalkboard. When they are satisfied with the order of their reasons, write the sentences in the paragraph.
4. Tell students that they need one more sentence to conclude or tie their thoughts together. Elicit a sentence that sums up or repeats the topic sentence.

Tell students that they are now ready to brainstorm their own opinions and evidence and write their thoughts to the President.

Responding to Student Writing

1. As students compose their thoughts to send to the President, walk around the room. Visit individually with students who are having difficulty coming up with evidence that supports their opinion. Give positive feedback and ask questions to extend or strengthen students' evidence.
   • Opinion sentence
     If a student has stated an opinion (not a fact like "war costs money"), make a comment such as "Your topic sentence, 'War is death', really tells me your opinion of war."
     
   • Evidence in support of the opinion
     If a student's evidence supports the opinion, make a comment such as “Your statement 'Families are split up' is evidence to show that war is useless.”
     If a student is stuck, ask a question such as “What is another piece of evidence that you can add to prove that war is awful?”
     If a student needs help ordering the evidence, ask a question such as “Out of all your evidence, which is the strongest?” or “Where in your paragraph do you want to place this evidence?”
2. As students finish, ask them to find a revising partner. Explain that they should read
   their message to the President aloud to each other to see if their evidence really supports their opinion.

Publishing

Remind students that you are going to send their thoughts about war to the President. Explain that they need to rewrite their paragraphs on the school's special letterhead stationery. Encourage students to use their best handwriting so the President can read their thoughts. Share that their thoughts about war will perhaps influence the decisions the President makes.

Modifications to Encourage Beginning Writers

• Ask students to write one or more opinion sentences about war. A pattern sentence such as "War is ______ because ______," can be provided.
• Show students how to reorder their reasons by numbering the evidence or cutting their paper into strips.
• The day before you teach this lesson give students a homework assignment:
• Listen to the nightly news to see what is happening with a particular current event, or
• Find and read an article in the newspaper on the event.
• This may help the students be more able to contribute (and be positively reinforced) during the motivation discussion and group brainstorming.
• After students have rewritten their paragraphs on the school's letterhead paper, ask a student who needs peer recognition to collect all the paragraphs. Help this student address one large envelope, affix the stamp, and carry it to the office to be mailed.

Modifications to Challenge Advanced Writers

• Require students to write three persuasive paragraphs. For example, if a student thinks war is cruel, wasteful, and necessary, then this student would write one paragraph with the topic sentence “War is cruel,” one with the topic sentence “War is wasteful,”and one with the topic sentence “War is necessary.” Each topic sentence should be supported with two reasons.
• Contract with students to use one to three transitions words to signal a shift to a new piece of logic.

Beginning Reasons

One important idea is
First of all
The best proof is
The strongest evidence
To begin

Follow – Up Reasons

Some more evidence is
In addition
The next piece of evidence is
Finally
Lastly
Similarly
Besides
Nevertheless
Also
Furthermore
Accordingly
Another reason

Restating the Main Idea

Therefore
Thus
As a result
In a summary
Since
In conclusion
Otherwise
In view of those
For there reasons
It is evident
Unless

• Suggest that students include an opposing point of view in their thoughts to the President and give proof that the viewpoint is faulty. Give students a list of transition words to use to help state another point of view.

Words Signaling an Opposing Point of View

But
While
Although
However
On the other hand
In contrast
Unless
Yet
Conversely