One of our favourite texts that we studied is pictured below. Students enjoyed brainstorming points for or against being the "First Kid." The debates were great and participation was high. Would YOU want your parent to be Prime Minister? We practised making a claim and then backing it up with evidence/facts/examples/details. We will do this several times as a group before students are expected to put it into their persuasive writing.
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Our classroom was a buzz of excitement this week as students discovered the Canadian Geographic competition for Canada's National Bird. Which bird do YOU think represents us best as a nation? Students took an initial vote, researched their bird of choice, and gave presentations that aimed to persuade others to change their vote. Students were allowed to give arguments in favour of their bird, but also present arguments against other birds. As you can guess, the debates were heated! My heart is sold to the loon, but at times my vote switched to the chickadee group and the Canada Goose Group. I love how students took a definite stance and then used their persuasion skills to convince others about the merits of their arguments. Read below to see which bird won... Today in class, I revealed the result of the national vote: The students were OUTRAGED! The GRAY JAY?!!? Well, they weren't the only upset ones...
As you can probably guess, we're delving into persuasive writing over the next month!
What was the highlight of 2019? What will happen in 2020? Students this week morphed into newspaper reporters to write about exciting happenings surrounding the New Year. Note: unlike real reporters, I gave them permission to 'make up' this news - let's have FUN with this!
A short 'quick write' like this helps me to see if students are transferring their writing knowledge/abilities from big step-by-step guided projects (where I generally get higher levels of writing) to regular everyday 'quick' writing. We still do modelled and shared writing as a group, and students are still encouraged to proofread and revise, but it all happens more independently in a shorter project like this. |
Mrs JorgensenThis page is written by Mrs. Jorgensen, who loves the smell of a brand new book! Archives
March 2020
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