Lesson 2: Teaching Persuasive Writing
Persuasive writing is easy to teach because children are naturally always trying to convince you of something - what story to read, staying up longer, why they should be allowed to go to the mall! That is the basis for persuasive writing. In this lesson, we'll give your students a chance practice their persuasive skills.
What is Persuasion?
Have you ever written a letter to the editor stating your idea about a civic issue? Then you've had a taste of persuasive writing.
Persuasion is both one of the easiest and at the same time, one of the hardest forms of writing to teach. It's is easy because children naturally are always trying to convince you of something - their abilities to convince can be daunting at times. But teaching good persuasive writing takes more that just trying to convince, or get a point across. To write a good persuasive essay, students need to become aware of both sides of an argument, and they need to learn to "argue" convincingly, but not in a negative way. This is generally a skill that is taught in beginning in grade four or five, but I think it can be introduced earlier depending upon the class.
Good examples of persuasion are advertisements, letters to the editor, and "arguments" told from a certain point of view. The debate is also a form of persuasive writing and speaking.
