On to yet another holiday and another new student. Today, my class welcomed another sweet little one, but this time from India. Yes…INDIA! She has only been in the States since Thursday. Holy culture shock!!! I am in desperate need of a Gujarati dictionary…ASAP. Thank the good lawd that I have another student who is fluent in this language. Can I get a hallelujer?!? She is just way too cute and smiled all day long. Love her sweet face already! My kids can’t get enough of her. They love her to pieces. In fact, I had to threaten to take recess if they didn’t leave her alone at lunch. Poor baby couldn’t even eat!
So, aside from all of our newbies lately and all of these crazy holidays, we really have been tuh-rying to learn! This week, we have been working on our power of persuasion. My student teacher {who is the bomb.com} is designing this entire social studies unit about goods/services which is going to be totally awesome…but the kids are going to need to have a thorough understanding of persuasive writing as they begin to market and advertise their products to our firsties {My firstie teacher friend doesn’t know about this little project that they will be helping us with yet…but she will…soon!} Ha!
I began my introduction of persuasive writing by reading an excerpt from Charlotte’s Web. The story opens with Fern persuading her father to allow her to keep the new little pig. After reading, I began a class discussion with a T-chart and the students identified her opinion {argument} and we worked together to list reasons to support her opinion. Then, we moved on to my all time favorite dessert….OREOS! Each letter represents a step in the persuasive writing process.
O = Opinion
R = Reason
E = Examples
O = Opinion
This provided a simple outline for the students as we began writing. After we listed the reasons that the book gave to keep Wilbur alive, we thought of some additional reasons to strengthen our argument. Finally, the students returned to their seat to write a persuasive letter to Mr. Arable to convince him to “save the pig!”
Then, the students created their own little version of Fern. We displayed their letters in envelopes along with their craft.
On to Groundhog’s Day
Today, to continue our practice with persuasive writing, the students wrote to good ol’ Punxsutawney Phil. {The little “punk” who predicted six more weeks of winter…ICK!} The students used their OREO model to convince Mr. Groundhog to either remain in his hole {which would give them six more weeks of winter} or come on out and prepare for spring. These turned our pretty darn cute. One student even lured him in by suggesting that he come on out and find himself a sweet girlfriend! Ha! Then, we put together a little groundhog craft and added a burrow for good measure!
I just had to choose this writing as my favorite for the day. This is one of my precious little ELLs {I have four now} and her improvement is remarkable! I almost jumped up on the desk for a celebration…BUT I refrained! So proud of her!
Then, for a little reward, we celebrated with “shadow or not” cookies {courtesy of Pinterest}. I made the topper for the bag, but Google Docs is KILLING me right now and will not let me upload. Not that you could use this anymore, but I will try to get it up so you can tuck it away for next year!
I am so serious when I say…TGI{almost}F.
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