Carly's plan

408 Overview Carly Wallace
Title: Persuasive Response to Challenged Children’s Books Grade: 5

Purpose(s): 1. Gain persuasive writing skills: Although children work hard to convince adults of their opinions, they often find it difficult to consider both sides of an argument. Exploring many examples of persuasive writing and breaking down the components (introduction or hook, viewpoint, reasons, support, opposing viewpoint, counter argument, conclusion), allows children to see what an effective argument consists of and how they can create a solid argument within their writing.
2. Exploring censorship: Children’s books are challenged for a variety of reasons such as illustrations, content, and many other issues. In efforts to protect children, censorship has become a popular topic, resulting in books being challenged for educated, or possibly foolish, reasons. During the upper elementary years children are trying to push the boundaries and gain independence, so exploring an idea such as censorship would be an appealing topic for this age group.
Rationale: I believe this is an engaging learning experience that introduces children to persuasive writing with an exciting focus. Exploring various examples of persuasive writing, individually and in groups, provides students with useful knowledge on the topic discussed and encourages collaboration. Challenged books deal with important topics that many adults will avoid, leaving children confused and poorly informed. Taking the time to discuss these topics is beneficial for children so they are well educated about current issues explored in our society today. This lesson allows students to explore challenged books and respond by expressing their perspective, stating what they believe should be done with the book in their school.

Familiarity With Text Type- Persuasion:
1. Explore persuasive picture books dealing with persuasion. Some examples:
Grambling, L. (1998). Can I have a stegosaurus mom? can I? please!? New York, New York: Troll Communications.
(A young boy begs his mother for a pet dinosaur; supporting his argument with the benefits it will provide him).

Viorst, J. (1993). Earrings. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.
(A young girl tries to convince her parents of the benefits of piercing her ears).

2. Use class voting to explore different viewpoints/ chart results.
3. Model effective writing by exploring examples of poor and strong persuasive essays on IWB or projector- Examples:
Teacher Web. (2008). Scoring models for persuasion. Retrieved November 20, 2008, from http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/HermosaValleySchool/carolepoertner/ScoringModelsfor Persuasion.doc
Vermont Department of Education. (2003). Persuasive benchmarks. Retrieved November 20, 2008, from http://education.vermont.gov/new/pdfdoc/pgm_curriculum/literacy/ writing/benchmarks/grade_5/grade_5_1_11_persuasive.pdf
4. Break down elements of persuasive essays using writing organizers. Some Examples:
Mead School District. (n.d.). Planning sheet. Retrieved November 24, 2008, from http://mhs.mead354.org/file.cfm?resourceid=14135&filename=Planning%20Sheet.doc.
Read Write Think. (2004). Persuasion map. Retrieved November 24, 2008, from
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/persuasion_map/
Time for Kids (2004). Tfk homework helper: Persuasive Essay. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/hh/pdfs/ideaorganizers/persuasive_ideaorg.pdf
5. Explore role-playing with persuasion with weak and effective examples- Great example:
Read Write Think. (2004). Role-play Activity. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson268/role.pdf

Familiarity With Text Type- Challenged books:
1. Introduce the concept of censorship as it applies to children’s literature.
2. Explore censorship using videos, websites, and children’s books. Examples:
“Top 10 Banned Books 2006- Banned Books Week 2007” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3mGlp4GT6k)
“Katie Couric’s Notebook: Banned Books Week CBS News” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pJMfEMfCHg)
3. Explore examples of banned or challenges children’s books. Examples on websites:
Kennedy, E. (2008). Banning and censorship of children’s books. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/censorship.htm
American Library Association. (2007). Frequently challenged books. Retrieved
November 20, 2008 from, http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/
bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/frequentlychallengedbooks.cfm
N.A. (2006). Through the eyes of a child. Retrieved November 20, 2008 from, http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/censored/child.html
4. Discuss opinions and articles, which reflect opinions on the books.

Capturing Ideas:
1. Explore planning organizers, which outline the format of persuasive essays. Examples above.
2. Each student will pick a challenged story to write a persuasive essay. The essay will ask the student to express their ideas about what they believe should be done with the book in their school and why.
3. Use an essay organizer to model planning with one of the challenged books as an example. Search for arguments against your opinion on IWB.
4. Ask students to search websites and resources to find opposing arguments, choose an organizer and begin recording some ideas.

Drafting:
1. Students will work during class and at home to complete the first draft, referring to examples, handouts, and asking questions. Great reference:
Scholastic. (2008). Writing workshop: Persuasive writing. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive

Revision/ Editing:
1. Students will work through peer conference, using a teacher-developed checklist, to ensure they have included all the necessary elements of persuasive writing. Elements to include:
Scholastic. (2008). Writing workshop: Persuasive writing. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/worksheet_6.asp?topic=Iditarod
2. Peers will also complete a peer-editing sheet including elements of praise, questions they may have, and ideas for improvement.
3. Teacher takes opportunity to complete on the spot conferences, one-on-one conferences with students and mini lessons to address common writing problems.

Proofreading:
1. Use strategies such as colours: Using felts: green-underline capitals, put green boxes around start of sentences. Red- put red box around punctuation at end of sentence. Add up boxes do they match? Orange- circle word “and” to make sure its not used too many times. Strategy online:
Think Quest (n.d.). Write on reader. Retrieved November 27, 2008, from http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/writing%20process/bc_editing.htm

Presenting:
1. Have students present essay to class, describing their book, their argument and have discussion about agreeing comments and opposing arguments.

Useful Resources:

Caine, K. & Angelillo, J. (2008). Writing to persuade. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
(This book includes various samples of children’s persuasive writing in all forms, examples of helpful mini-lessons, revision and editing strategies and much more).

Janeczko, P. (2003). Writing winning reports and essays. New York: Scholastic.
(This book includes strategies and tips for to promote successful writing. Samples of book reports, persuasive essays, personal essays and etc. are included. Written in student friendly language).

Read Write Think. (2002). A case for reading: Examining challenged and banned books. Retrieved November 20, 2008, from
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=410
(I based my lesson upon an idea I found on this website. This website includes great lesson plans for various literacy topics. Each lesson plan includes hyperlinks to helpful resources, handouts and websites that extend the subject area).

Scholastic. (2008). Writing workshop: Persuasive writing. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive
(This website outlines the steps to creating an effective piece of persuasive writing. The site includes links to teacher guides, lesson plans, editing and revision worksheets and great interactive elements that could be used in the classroom).

Orange Unified School District. (n.d.). Persuasive writing. Retrieved November 24, 2008,
from http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/persuasive_writing.htm
(This website breaks down each component of persuasive writing in great detail).