Exploring Resources: Approaching Persuasive Writing Through Gradual Release Techniques

Real Change Now! (2015, October 9). Liberal Video. YouTube. Retrieved November 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD5FAzvltpI

As the latest election has come to a close, the country of Canada welcomes in a new Prime Minister. For several weeks, the public had been exposed to a variety of techniques utilized by various parties to win their support. The tactics were clever and the images and slogans used by the campaigns were strong and deliberate. Specifically, the speeches were written to persuade and argue the politicians' plans as the best choice for the citizens. Whether you are a politician trying to gain a seat in the House or a salesperson trying to pitch a product, the art of persuasion is a necessary skill. This week, I would like to focus on an area of writing that is perhaps underdeveloped and overlooked in our classrooms today… persuasive/argumentative writing.

Persuasive Writing 

How can we teach persuasive writing to our students?

I explored a fantastic article called, “Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students Writing Persuasive Text” by Read, Landon-Hays and Martin-Rivas, which is found in The Reading Teacher. The authors mention that many studies have shown that teachers tend to neglect writing in their classrooms, and when they do teach writing, they focus more on narrative writing.  The article then highlights a unit on persuasive writing in a grade four classroom.

The authors make use of the IMSCI model for gradual release. This model proved to be highly effective in the grade four classroom, but I also believe it could be beneficial to use in the intermediate classroom as well.  The IMSCI model looks like this (click to see bigger image):

Read S., Landon-Hays M., & Martin-Rivas, A. (2014). Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students Writing Persuasive Text. The Reading Teacher, 67(6), 469–477 doi:10.1002/trtr.1239

When we look at introducing new types of writing to our students it is important to give them examples, analyze the examples to form a set of criteria, and then model how to create a piece of work that is similar. Let’s look at some other resources that can support the efforts to use the IMSCI (or similar gradual release models) in the Ontario context.

Supporting Resources

The IMSCI model is very compatible with the Ontario Curriculum for Language Arts “writing” strand. I will use the expectations in grade 7 as a guide. The ISCMI model and persuasive writing can be used to target many of the expectations.

During the inquiry and modeling processes, educators can look at identifying “2.2 Form” (p131) and “2.3 Voice” (p131), while also “1.4 Classifying Ideas “(p130) using a graphic organizer.

•  Educationworld.com has and excellent article reading activity to use with students to get them started with persuasive writing. The article comes with a simple graphic organizer that helps students identify the audience, purpose and voice.

• Grade 6 teacher Mackenzie Grate, used a mock trial to reinforce “2.5 Point of View”(p131) with her students as introduction to argumentative writing. This resource is really neat and even has a mock trial script included to get teachers started.

Readwritethink.org offers some complete unit plans on persuasive writing. These plans are written to the American Common Core standards but there are many activities that relate to the Ontario curriculum expectations for “writing”.

• Check out this collection of lessons on writing letters to the school principal that makes effective use of shared and collaborative learning in the writing process. 

• This unit plan on environmental issues offers much more time for individual writing but also makes an effort to include peer review through peer conferences.

**Don’t forget to check out Readwritethink’s Persuasion Map – an online graphic organizer for augmentative writing**

When starting a persuasive writing unit it is important to provide topics that are relevant and of interest to the students, such as the most recent Canadian election. If you feel stuck, check out the NY Times list of 200 prompt for argumentative writing to get you started. 

It's a process...

Ohi, D. (2011). The 4 stages of writing. Illustrated comic. Used with permission from http://bit.ly/1WK5M3e

Lastly, remember… writing is a process and therefore teaching writing is also a process. Let’s do our best to give our students the tools to identify and create pieces of persuasive writing in an effort to meet curriculum standards and become thoughtful and expressive humans.

 -AJM

Sources:

Ministry of Education, 2008. The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8 Language. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

Read S., Landon-Hays M., & Martin-Rivas, A. (2014). Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students Writing Persuasive Text. The Reading Teacher, 67(6), 469–477 doi:10.1002/trtr.1239