Matthew+Kennedy

Matthew Kennedy’s Persuasive Writing Unit Plan

Title: Comprehending the Art of Persuasion Grade level: 5th Unit: Persuasive Writing

Problem: What methods do advertisers use to persuade consumers to buy products? How are these techniques helpful when developing persuasive pieces of writing?

Goals: Students will identify techniques used in advertising to deepen their understanding of methods of persuasion.

Instructional Objectives: Students will be able to recognize the characteristics of an editorial. They will use essential questions to enhance comprehension of editorials.

Lesson Description In preparation for writing an editorial, students will explore a variety of advertisements to discover the techniques used for persuading an audience. They will learn about four key methods of persuasion and will use these methods to create their own editorial at the end of the unit.

Before Class Prep: Prior to beginning the lesson, the teacher must set up a slide show using Keynote (or Microsoft Power Point) of different examples of advertisements. The teacher should make a SMART board presentation with the different models of advertising so that students can easily copy these into their writing notebooks.

Instructional Practice:

Mini Lesson (15 minutes): I will start of by telling the students they are about to start a new writing unit called Writing Editorials. For now, students need to know that the purpose of an editorial is to persuade an audience to think about a topic in a specific way. I will define “persuade” as convincing someone by appealing to his or her heart and mind. I will then tell them that in preparation for writing in this genre, they are about to look at some familiar examples of the use of persuasion: advertisements.

Next, I will prepare students for viewing and evaluating a set of advertisements. I will explain that most advertisers draw from the same pool of techniques to convince consumers to buy what they are selling. Advertisers appeal to consumers’ emotions, belief systems, desire to be cool or part of the in-crowd, and use humor, facts and figures, experts or celebrities to endorse a product. I will then show them the SMART board page that contains the four techniques on how advertisers persuade their audience.

Simple Solution: Tackle many problems with one solution. Bandwagon: Convince the audience that the majority of the crowd is in favor of your side. Prey upon the fear that no one wants to be on the unpopular or losing side. Facts and Figures: Use statistics and objective facts to prove their side of the argument or sell their product. Wit and Humor: Use humor and cleverness to associate the product with good spirits and intelligence.

Before the students view the different advertisements from the slide show that I created, I will show them a list of questions that I want them to ask themselves.

1. What is the advertiser selling? 2. Who is the target audience of this advertisement? How do you know? 3. What assumptions are the advertisers making about the consumer? 4. What techniques are being used in the advertisement to convince or persuade the consumer to buy the product?

Technology Used: Computer, projector, SMART Board,

Student’s Work Time (25 minutes) Active engagement. Students will turn and talk to a classmate about a product you would like to sell. I will ask one or two volunteers for their ideas to determine if students are on the right track before students begin working independently. Then, students will draft a short advertisement that: sells a product tells the consumer why s/he should buy this product is geared toward a specific type of consumer (young, male, not a lot of money to spend, etc.) uses a specific advertising technique to sell the product.

Monitor

Sharing and Lesson Summary (5 minutes): I will reconvene the class and have one or two students share their advertisements with the class. I will ask students for what purposes they might use these persuasive techniques beyond this class activity. I will then tell students that they are about to start writing editorials, which require the use of effective persuasion techniques. I will further explain how editorials are similar to advertisements in that they are written with a specific audience in mind and must involve arguments that are convincing to that audience.

Evaluate Lesson Reflection and Notes: These will be taken throughout the activity as well as final editorials.

Title: Focusing the Persuasive Topic Grade Level: 5th Unit: Persuasive Writing

Problem: How can you make your editorial topic more specific and controversial?

Goals: Students will continue to work with the editorial topics. As a strategy to focus their topics even further, students need to develop and respond to a series of “should” questions that will help them identify whether or not their topics are sufficiently controversial to be appropriate for an editorial.

Instructional Objectives: Students will select one focus for their editorials by asking and answering a set of questions emphasizing the controversial nature of their topic. Then the will post their questions on their blog for the class to view and respond; leave feedback.

Lesson Description: Students have already chosen their topics that they will be writing about for their persuasive editorial essays. To make their editorial topics more specific and controversial, they will be creating a series of “should” questions that leaves their topic open for discussion and argument.

Before Class Prep: Prior to the start of the lesson, I will have posted on the class site blog the topic that I chose (art and music in schools) and the should question that I came up with (Should all elementary students be required to take art and music?). The class will need access to the computer lab so that all students can be on computers with internet access. I will also need use of an LCD project, computer, and SMART board.

Mini Lesson (15 minutes) I will tell the students that they can identify the controversial aspects of their topics by asking thoughtful questions that begin with the word “should.” They need to understand that good “should” questions have more than one reasonable answer and concentrate on smaller issues within the topic. The various answers to these questions reflect the different opinions about the topic.

I will then generate a few “should” questions with the class to get started. I need to provide students with two or three examples of “should” questions and the answers they might lead to, clearly explaining that the questions are controversial if there is more than one possible reasonable answer. For example, “should students be required to get flu shots?” Ask students to contribute and justify a few additional “should” questions. I will keep a list on chart paper for reference during independent work time.

Last, I will show them the question that I created for my topic and how I posted it to the class blog. Students Work Time (25 - 30 minutes):

The students will have to come up with at least four “should” questions that they want to research and write about for their editorial. They will then select one that they wish to concentrate on and post it to their blog on their website linked to the class site. Students will then have the opportunity to comment on each others blog as well as mine. This will give them feedback as to what others in class think of their topic, as well as maybe some agreeing opinions and controversial opinions from their peers.

Monitor:

Since I have access to everyone’s website, I am able to update all of their blog posts from my computer by refreshing the page. I can also show individual blogs and how students responded to each other from the LCD projector. I also will respond to blogs with opinions as well as next step suggestions.

Title: Publishing our Editorials Grade Level: 5th Unit: Persuasive Writing

Problem: How can students turn their persuasive writing into a more 21st century learning tool?

Goals: Students will be able to add a twist to the normal writing styles of the 20th century. Essays have been typed for years. Now they will use their final piece to create a digital story “editorial.”

Instructional Objectives: Students will finalize and publish their editorials. Then they will narrate them through digital storytelling and images. Students will use GarageBand and or Comic Life in the school computer lab to narrate their editorials and use Google Images to add pictures.

Lesson Description: Students have already gone through the revising and editing process on their own and in peer groups. They have used sufficient time in the computer lab to type their editorials using columns to make them look like a real magazine or newspaper article. Now, as if reporting the news on television or the radio, they will turn their editorial into a news cast by using digital storytelling.

Before Class Prep: Students have already had sufficient practice this year using GarageBand and Comic Life by Apple. All of their editorials will have needed to be published and printed to carry on with the digital storytelling portion of the project. (Note: If any students have fallen behind or are not finished with their essay for any other reason, students will need to use this lab time to finish typing their editorials.) Materials needed for this will be GarageBand, Comic Life, and headphones with built in microphones for all of the students.

Mini Lesson (5-10 minutes) For this portion of the project, the only thing I need to do is go over using GarageBand, Comic Life, and Google Images. My students have had plenty of practice with both, but it has been a little while so a small refresher course will work.

Using GarageBand, students have the opportunity to add sounds, music, images, and voice to their project. They can even create text and pictures using Comic Life. This way, they can use text to narrate their digital story “editorial” instead of voice.

Students Work Time (60 minutes (Double lab period)):

The students will have a double lab period to work on this project. This will give them a sufficient amount of time to finish their work. They will use GarageBand to record their work and Google Images and Comic Life to create the images and text for their stories. After they are complete, they will be able to publish it, turning it into a video file that can be shared.

Monitor:

My co-teacher and I (I teach CTT) will walk around the room offering assistance to any students that need help. From the main computer station, I am also able to use Remote Desktop to access any of the students computers and help them that way as well.