Week of May 1st

In class this week, we began to understand the art of persuasion and the art of persuasive writing. We looked at several stories that helped us see characters trying to persuade someone for something important to them. "I Wanna Iguana" by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow is a great example. This story is a series of letters between a mother and son. In his letters, the son tries to convince his mom to let him get a pet iguana. In her letters, she makes counter-arguments against his reasons for getting an iguana. Some arguments are good, and some aren't as good. But, in the end, Alex's reasons prevail, and he gets his iguana.

We discussed what the word "persuade" means, and as a class, we brainstormed topics that we could write a persuasive argument. Here are some examples: 

-Being allowed to get a puppy

- Extending our recess time

-Staying up 15 minutes later in the evening

-Getting a new set of golf clubs

-Having a swimming pool built in your backyard.

-Going to Disneyland for a vacation 

While reading the story, we pulled out specific language and talked about the authors' techniques to persuade their audience. We brainstormed other ways to influence a person or audience, like offering a gift or incentive, using humour, appealing to a person's emotions, or using logic.

We also talked about when we have seen examples of good and poor persuasion in our lives, such as Social media, magazine ads, and commercials, all using the art of persuasion.

Before we could start our start writing, we needed to plan.

First, we started with recognizing the audience, for instance, trying to convince parents to take you to Disneyland, convince your brother to help with your chores or convince your teacher to do more art.

After planning the writing, the students wrote rough copies and edited their work. We then used this task to learn how to write a proper letter that included a greeting, a body, a closing and a signature.