Prewriting+Persuasive+Practice+for+11th+Grade

**Class:** 11th Grade English **Teacher:** Sarah Essay, Elm Creek High School **Unit**: Persuasive Writing Pre-Writing Exercises **Materials:** Article from [] for the teacher (excerpt below will suffice) Loose-leaf paper for students Pens/pencils

**Duration**: 3 day process

**Instructional Objectives:** Students will begin pre-writing techniques for persuasive writing. They will become familiar with the persuasive writing process before beginning their own essays.

**Standards:** LA 12.2.1 Writing Process: Students will apply the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit and publish writing using correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other standard conventions appropriate for grade level.

LA 12.2.1.a Select and use appropriate prewriting tools to generate and organize information, guide writing, answer questions, and synthesize information

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">LA 12.2.1.b Generate a draft by: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Constructing clearly worded and effectively placed thesis statements that convey a <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">clear perspective on the subject <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Structuring ideas and arguments in an effective and sustained way, following an <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">organizational pattern appropriate to the purpose and intended audience <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Applying standard rules of sentence formation, including parallel structure and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">subordination

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Set:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Begin writing these words on the board: "Unplanned pregnancies. HIV infection and AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases. Cigarettes, alcohol and drug abuse. Eating disorders. Violence. Suicide. Car crashes."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> As students begin questioning what these mean, read to them: “The 21-word lead-in to a **Washington Post** (12/22/92) report sums up today's media image of the teenager: 30 million 12- through 19-year-olds toward whom any sort of moralizing and punishment can be safely directed, by liberals and conservatives alike. Today's media portrayals of teens employ the same stereotypes once openly applied to unpopular racial and ethnic groups: violent, reckless, hypersexed, welfare-draining, obnoxious, ignorant.” (from //Bashing Youth: Media Myths about Teenagers//, 1994, []) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ask them if they fit these stereotypes. Does this describe all students at Elm Creek High School? If a future generation were to look back at this place and time, is this how they would remember all teenagers from 2011? (Hopefully they tell you no.) Ask why this is not true? It seems true – just look at all those crazy teenagers on Jersey Shore! Or pop singers like Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, the teenagers on Teen Mom! How can you tell me that //you// don’t fit these stereotypes? Convince me that you’re not like them. – With partners, have students make a T-Chart of the ways they do not fit these stereotypes (5-10 minutes – just let them start the chart). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teaching:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Day 1:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Explain that when you try to convince someone to see your side, you are using persuasion. Explain that there are three ways to persuade people. Ask which type they were using in their T-Chart (most likely “rethink a position, since the position was already stated in the article).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tell them they will take their T-Charts into a persuasive essay, but we will do it together in class. Have them create new note T-charts for the Characteristics of a Persuasive Essay, p. 5 in the “Persuasive Essay” insert. After they are done with notes, have them join with two other groups, bringing their Teenager Stereotype T-Charts with them. Have each group make a master T-Chart with at least 3 big ideas and 6 tell me more sentences.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Day 2:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After they have made these new T-Charts, make a master T-Chart as a class. Then, explain that there are three types of argument – have them add this onto their Notes T-Chart: logic, emotion, and expert credibility. Have them identify which types of arguments we are using on our master T-Chart, and if we need to add some, ask them what type of information they would need to research to meet each argument type.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Day 3**: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Discuss topic sentences, explaining the six types (p. 24 in “Persuasive Essay” insert). Create a topic sentence organizer. Break students into groups, have them write topic sentences for our master essay. Come together as a class, and discuss introductory paragraphs (p. 26). Brainstorm a few hooks together, write them on the board. Break them into groups again and have them write introductory paragraphs. Have them share their paragraphs for the class. Then, discuss conclusions, and have them each pick one of their topic sentences to use as a conclusion.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Closure:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Share the persuasive essay pre-writing as a class. Read through the introductory paragraph, the three big ideas with tell me mores, and the conclusion paragraph. Explain that we have the makings for a persuasive essay, and as long as you can get these first steps down, you are well on your way to writing a multiparagraph argument to convince anyone. Have them put the topics in their binder, and continue with the same process one or two more times before you let them loose on their own topics.