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Opinion Writing for 2nd Graders

May 6, 2015

If your second grade students are working on opinion writing or persuasive writing, you may be looking for a few tools to get started. Here are some resources to help.

Ready to try opinion writing with your second graders, but not sure where to start? I'm sharing my favorite books, anchor charts, and tips for getting started with persuasive writing.

Opinion Writing Resources

Back when the Common Core was first being implemented in our state, I was diving into opinion writing without a road map telling me where to go. I turned to Pinterest and found this anchor chart. The original source was Live, Love, Laugh, Learn First Grade, which no longer seems to be an active blog:

My next stop was Teachers Pay Teachers to see what was out there.

Most of these were created for first grade, but I needed to start somewhere.

#1   #2   #3   #4

 


Opinion Writing Books

Like all of my other writing units, I begin with picture books that model the text features I want my students to include in their own writing. Here are a few choices to get started:

  • Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots
  • I Want a Dog: An Opinion Essay
  • I Wanna Iguana
  • Hey, Little Ant
  • Can I Be Your Dog?
  • Stella Writes an Opinion
  • A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea
  • One Word From Sophia
  • Don’t Feed the Bear
  • The Big Bed
  • Duck! Rabbit!
  • The Perfect Pet
  • Dog vs. Cat

You can find even more book options for opinion writing by clicking the image below:

Books are a great tool to help teach writing. Here are some of my favorite books to share when teaching opinion and persuasive writing.
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Opinion Writing Anchor Charts

After reading some books, I talk about what second graders are expected to do according to Common Core. This is when I introduce our anchor chart. When first introduced, all that is showing is the title and the CCSS, not the example paragraph.

After talking about what the standards mean, we begin stating our opinions using sentence frames that include the word ‘because’.  In order to do this, I also introduce sentence starters (inspired by the original pin above):

I like _ because _.

I prefer _ to because ___.

I believe _ because .

In case you’re wondering, they are not allowed to say “because it’s cool”, “because it’s the best”, “because they’re great” or anything along those lines. It must be a specific reason! To really drive this point home, we use thumbs up or thumbs down in the whole group. A student will state an opinion using a sentence frame. Students will give a thumbs up or thumbs down letting their peers know if the reasons are specific or not.

Once my students have the frames down, it’s time to start building on it. At this point of the year, my students already know and understand topic and conclusion sentences. This is when I go back and write a sample paragraph (the bottom half of the standards poster). Since they are used to 5 sentence paragraphs, this doesn’t really shock them.


Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer

Then I introduce a prewrite. I’m sure many of you have seen the OREO idea. It really is catchy! The plan you see on the right is what we use when first starting out (once my kids catch on, they don’t need a formal plan sheet, but can create their own in their writing notebooks). The topic goes on the top line. The first rectangle is for the topic sentence. The three rectangles with cloud bubbles are for the reasons/examples. The bubbles are there to remind students to choose sentence starters. The bottom rectangle is for the conclusion sentence.

When we start writing, I choose the topics and prompts for my students. However, later on they can choose their own topics. Here is what my anchor chart tends to look like. FYI – I tend to stick more to the top two tiers, but the real-world category motivates many second graders!


Opinion Writing Examples

Since we tend to do this unit in the spring, you can incorporate your writing into Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts!

Thanks for sticking with me.  Here are your freebies:


I hope this has given you a new idea or two for opinion writing! If you missed out on the other writing posts, no worries.  Click below to check them out!

  • How-To Writing
  • Friendly Letter Writing
  • Daily 5 Writing

Happy Teaching!

 If your second grade students are working on opinion writing, you may be looking for a few tools to get started. Here are some resources to help.
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Related posts:

Writing Ideas for January Spring Writing Ideas (with Freebies) If your second grade students are working on how-to writing or procedural writing, you may be looking for a few tools to get started. Here are some resources to help.How-To Writing for 2nd Graders Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Idea Jar Activities
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Filed Under: freebies, writing 6 Comments

Comments

  1. Suzy Q says

    May 6, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    We use the oreo model, too. Found with this year's group I needed to make our graphic organizer very explicit or I would get only a reason or only an example. Thanks for some additional ideas!!

    Reply
  2. Susan K. says

    May 8, 2015 at 12:11 am

    Thank you so much for sharing this easy to understand and follow ideas. I teach 3rd grade and need to teach this writing skill, too, and you've given me the incentive to try.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says

    November 19, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    Thank you for the wonderful resources! 🙂

    Reply
  4. Emalie says

    April 6, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    This is a very helpful page. Thank you!

    Reply
  5. Melissa Kelly says

    March 18, 2023 at 11:19 pm

    Thank you for the awesome resource! It will be just right for my students.

    Reply
    • Storie Belden says

      March 19, 2023 at 9:15 am

      Of course! I hope your students enjoy the activities.
      Storie

      Reply

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