Next year we will be fully implementing Common Core. I decided that I would get my feet wet with opinion writing this spring. I should mention that for almost a week, my kids were calling it “option” writing because they could not help but read opinion as option.
Common Core Standard for 2nd Grade
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
I went to blogging sites, TpT, and Pinterest. I found several resources. We started with Let’s Write an Opinion: A Common Core-aligned writing unit for grades K-2. This was created by Susan Moran from T.G.I.F.
Let’s Write an Opinion! by Susan Moran (T.G.I.F.)
One of the things I loved about this unit was that it started with learning about fact and opinion. She added anchor charts and sorting activities, too. My kids can access the sorting activity in the pocket chart during their Daily 5 choices.
This week I added an anchor chart for opinion sentence starters to our wall. The students were encouraged to make attempts at using these when writing their supporting reasons. I told them that as we continue to write, adding these will become more natural and not seem as forced. You can just imagine that my anchor chart was as bright and colorful as this one I found on Pinterest. (My students decided that we could add I like or I love to the list).
As many of you do, I started with modeled writing. Then we moved into doing a writing piece together. This week we all wrote about one recess activity. Since the writing prompt asked them to imagine telling a new student about the best recess activity, I had the students write it in a letter format to a new student. Here was an example (sorry, no picture this time – the camera battery died):
4-26-13
Dear New Student,
Welcome to (name of school here)! In my opinion, playing on the monkey bars is the best recess activity. I think playing on the monkey bars is great because you can get stronger arm muscles. I believe that when you climb on the monkey bars you can get faster and faster. I know you can have fun playing on the monkey bars because you can play with friends from other classes. Everyone should play on the monkey bars during recess.
From,
(student name)
Are you working on opinion writing? Here are some of the other things I have found:
Any other great resources out there I should know about?
Thanks for the shout out! I love teaching opinions!!
Jennifer
First Grade Blue SKies
Thanks for sharing all your resources! It's like a one-stop-shop for Opinion Writing 🙂 I also love your idea of writing to a new student about the good things about the school!
Angela 🙂
Hippo Hooray for Second Grade!