Teaching students to write opinion pieces can be challenging for a number of reasons. For starters, students may not like having to be vulnerable by taking a stance on an issue, and even once they choose a stance, many will teeter between both sides of the argument, making their writing less impactful. Without the proper lesson structure in place, you will likely not achieve the learning outcome you hoped for, leaving both you and your students frustrated with the process.
To help my students write opinion pieces, there are five steps I’ve found to be helpful.
Step 1: Lesson Hook
Let’s face it, opinion writing can be one of those longer written pieces that your students dread, or it can be a fun learning opportunity for self-expression. To help engage your students in the process, hook them with a “This or That” or “Would You Rather” game by showing different images on a slide presentation. Make the items things that your students would have a definite opinion on like, “would you rather skip your teenage years or start them over?” or “would you rather be invisible or have the ability to fly?”
After completing a few questions, discuss how our reactions to these questions make up our opinions and not everyone shares the same opinion. Differentiate between fact and opinion by providing definitions and examples of non-fiction texts that are fact based like news reports versus opinion based like editorials.
Step 2: Introduce the Genre
When I assign any new writing task, I always start with mentor texts to help introduce students to the genre and provide examples of proper style and structure. For opinion writing, I like to use levelled student responses to opinion questions from the OSSLT Test. First, as a whole class, I ask my students what kinds of things they would find in a good opinion writing piece and record their responses on the board. I then split my students up into groups and give each group six opinion writing samples on the same question. I ask them to order the samples by the level they think it received and provide reasons for their choices. This activity will require your students to think about the aspects of each sample that make it “good opinion writing” according to the list they brainstormed on the board. Finally, I show students the actual order of the samples by level and they are able to see how close they were.
Step 3: Make it Relevant and Relatable
After introducing the genre, I segue into a group writing exercise by posting a topic on the board that is sure to spark debate. Some options are to make the topic pop culture related, such as “Celebrities promote unhealthy body image that affects our self-esteem” or make the topic specific to your community or school, such as, “Extra-curricular activities should be mandatory.” Facilitate students in a think-pair-share to help them develop their opinion on the topic.
Step 4: Model the Process
Once students have thought about the topic, I begin modelling the process of writing a series of opinion paragraphs on the board. I start with a T-Chart where I ask my students to brainstorm three reasons they agree and disagree with the topic. Once this is completed, I ask students which side of the T-Chart they want to see written, and then I begin modelling the writing process – emphasizing how we chose one side and will only argue that side in our writing. I pause frequently to model my thinking process and ask students for their input on wording choices and ideas. I also annotate my writing by labeling or colour coding topic sentences, supporting details, and concluding sentences on my paragraphs. After writing, I refer back to the list of what makes a good opinion piece, brainstormed in step 2 and ask students if we hit on all of the points or if there are any things we can do to improve our writing.
Step 5: Writer’s Workshop
Now that students have had a chance to see various examples of good opinion writing, they will work through their own opinion piece in a writer’s workshop process. First, they choose a topic or I provide one, and then they begin brainstorming their ideas on each side of the topic in a T-Chart. They must then choose one side of their chart to argue in their opinion piece and begin working on an outline. The outline I provide consists of the basic structure of a series of opinion paragraphs – introduction paragraph, 2-3 body paragraphs, concluding paragraph. When students are filling in their outline, I reiterate that they already have the topics for their 2-3 body paragraphs in the T-Chart. Next, students can work on their rough copy before revising and editing according to our brainstormed list from step 2. Once students have their finished opinion piece, they work through a round of peer review by having another student read their work and offer suggestions, and then finally meeting with me to explain their writing process and what they learned about the genre of opinion pieces.
What successful strategies do you have for opinion writing in your classroom?
Join the conversation with the ELA Matters team over on Instagram or Facebook!
