Persuasive Writing

We are beginning a new unit in writing this week! We will begin learning about Persuasive Writing. Our unit is based on writing persuasive letters to friends and family, so our first step is teaching our students how to writing letters. Today we began by choosing our favorite book by Eric Carle and telling why it is our favorite in the body of our letter. Tomorrow we will learn about adding things to our letter such as the date, greeting, salutation, and signature.

As our unit progresses, we will begin using our letters to convince people of our idea. For example, we may be writing a letter to our parents asking for a new toy and explaining why we think that we deserve the toy. We will be stressing making our request and including detailed support in order to convince our reader.

The book I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff is great for show young learners what we mean by persuasive writing. The book is about a boy who writes letters back and forth to his mother trying to convince her to let him have an iguana. We hope that this is the direction that our students' writing will be headed during this unit! So, get ready, I hear the postman heading in your direction!