PERSUASION Australia Curriculum Writing overview Classroom practice »NAPLAN focus »and beyond »ICT

CHALLENGES Planning –Ideas –Can’t elaborate detail –Waffle Generic Time limit Spelling and grammar

REMEDIES Explicit direct instruction (I do) Collaboration with peers (We do) Individual practise (You do) Timely feedback and conferencing Environmental print scaffolds Narrow focus on text type

3 STAGE APPROACH 1) Mechanics and template (7-8 weeks) 2) Extending the creative (2 weeks) 3) Exploring the genre (6-10 weeks)

EXPLICIT TEACHING Tennis analogy – more effective? - ‘’Go play” vs. Skill chunking. Gradual Release -Modelling (I do) -Interaction with others (We do) -Solo practise (you do)

NAPLAN The goal of persuasive writing is to persuade! Engage reader (audience 6 marks) Strong Ideas (5 marks) Plan Powerfully (Structure 4 marks – cohesion 4 marks) Persuade Reader (Devices 4 marks) Spelling and Grammar (11/48)

PLANNING & IDEAS Strong piece of writing is always based on great ideas. Teaching Planning only = 2 weeks Planning to time limit (5 mins)

BRAINSTORMING Creativity can be practised. –Students will struggle at first –Skill comes with practise –Ignore test instructions, analyse the pictures. TEST TIP - Don’t walk around the room –People standing behind you raises blood pressure and intrudes on concentration. –Police interrogation tactic

BRAINSTORMING Class, group, solo practise –Thinking on their feet games –Drama improv. Games Sort and group ideas – Strongest to weakest – Combine or drop Patterns emerge.

COLLABORATION (WE DO) Interaction – Laughter and learning. Emphasis on oral to literate –H.O.T.S Judge/Jury 4 Corners Verbal boxing Group Brainstorming Role Plays

GRAPHIC ORGANISER K.I.S – 4 Square planner –Easiest = no pre drawn boxes or templates Strong plan = excellent marks for »Ideas (5) »Cohesion (4) »Structure (4) »Paragraphing (3)

4 SQUARE PLANNER

PLANNING TIPS - Separate brainstorming and planning from writing. - 2 different timeslots - Thinking = most important

AUDIENCE Imagine writing to a friendly adult or teacher Makes the tone less stilted and generic.

ACTIVITY Draw a portrait of the person you write to. Display these pictures near the persuasive environmental print as a ‘’faces of inspiration gallery’’

ACTIVITY Student ad agencies are in charge of marketing flavoured milk to a particular audience. Use appropriate persuasive devices and language for their audience. –Kids- Older people –Teens- Athletes/Sporty People –Busy mums and dads - Weight Conscious

INTRODUCTIONS vs. SIZZLING STARTS Boring but safe –Scaffolded write by numbers approach –Good as a fall back for writers block Formula –R hetorical question + –O pinion + –P review 3 Ideas + –E ngage Reader (we….)

RISK-TAKING & EXCITING Why write something ordinary when you can write something amazing? Facts don’t necessarily change minds, the 3 E’s do! Engagement + Emotion + Energy

SIZZLING STARTS Before – I think books are better than TV because 1)…2)….3). Let me explain. After –I’m in a fantasy land far away, magical and mysterious. I am a sorcerer, a power, a leader of thousands. Ok, I admit it. I’m in bed reading a book. T.V. just doesn’t compete.

ACTIVITY Three Word Challenge –Pair students. Each person writes 3 words on a piece of paper e.g. soup, racing, invisible –Swap papers – 2 mins to write a persuasive Sizzling Start using 3 words. –Randomness gets kids thinking outside square, i.e. creatively

ELLABORATION Challenge – students can find ideas, but can’t elaborate A- Alliteration F- Facts O- Opinions R- Rhetorical Questions/R- Repetition E- Examples/Experts/Emotive Language S- Statistics T- Rule of Three

ETHOS, LOGOS, PATHOS

QUOTATIONS Students research a good quote on the topic of a persuasive theme. E.g. Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow (Jeff Valdez) Dogs come when they are called. Cats take a message and get back to you. (Mary Bly)

SHOW DON’T TELL Kids tell because it is quick and simple Word pictures = empathise and connect Before – Yes we should help other countries because children in places like Ethiopia are dying without water.

SHOW After – Thirsty? Walk into a shop and pick up a bottle of water. Pay a few dollars, unscrew the cap and drink. That’s if you’re lucky and live in Australia. Now take a close look at that small bottle in your hands. If you lived in Ethiopia, that is all the water you have to live on for three days.

PERSUASION GRAPH

FINAL ARGUMENT Climax – use questions, rule of 3, short words and sentences Before – Finally, plastic bags should be banned because they are not as easily disposed of as some people think. They pollute the land and the sea.

FINAL PARAGRAPH After – You think plastic bags are harmless? Tell that to the dolphin with the plastic bag would around its snout, slowly starving to death. You think they’re light and easily thrown out? Over one million bags a week are buried, ditched and dumped in our country. One little bag blowing in the wind couldn’t hurt, could it? One maybe wouldn’t. A million does.

END WITH IMPACT 3 Techniques –Link to opening –Show don’t tell –Call to action – tell the reader what to do. Create a ‘’do something better’’ ending for these campaigns Clean up your school! Ban exams!

VOCABULARY Vocab marked separate to spelling, so have students take risks. ‘’I think toys are good’’……isn’t very persuasive Word walls of emotional vocab Reinforce words in spelling program Explicitly teach high modality words –Use modality strengthening exercises and word cloze

4 SQUARE CONNECTIVES

VOCABULARY

CONVENTIONS Takes a long time to bring a weak speller up to scratch –Work on higher order thinking (planning etc) –More empowering that trying to patch weak spots Practise, practise, practise words and phrases related to persuasive texts –Words that crop up in written work –Words like ‘’extremely’’ ‘’dangerous’’

CONVENTIONS Higher marks for complex punctuation –Brackets, exclamation marks, speech marks –Stronger students use small bits of dialogue to show mastery –Weaker students read work aloud to help with commas and full stops. Last 5 mins to check work –Hard for kids to focus on detail and big picture thinking at the same time.

EDITING Explicitly taught and modelled SWAP & CUPS Peer Editing –S tart with a Star? (What do you like) –W hat do you wonder? (3 questions) –A dvice (How to make it better) –P lans for revising (Written by the writer)

SELF EDITING CUPS C apitalisation U sage and Grammar P unctuation S pelling

CUPS Read own work aloud 4 times –Slows down reading –Ear catches things the eye doesn’t. –Read one time for each aspect of CUPS Different pen for each stage Dictionaries Environmental print Work with a different student

GOALS Integral part of the curriculum Effective communication skills Challenge other people’s thinking

ICT AMAP – collaborative online maps

ICT Wordle – vocabulary word art

ICT Tagexedo – Students type in words or phrases and computer makes a word cloud or image.

Animoto – Creating ads

ICT Xtranormal -Animated Persuasion

Teaching Persuasive Writing – The Bones K-10 Syllabus English Scope and Sequence for persuasive texts First Steps Resource Book – Writing to Persuade (p ) Sentence and Paragraph work – First Steps Writing Resource Book (p ) DET NAPLAN site

Art of Persuasion

Connect to Students Lives Children are natural persuaders?? Variety of genre - TV Commercials Letters to the Editor Junk mail Magazine ads Connect with Literacy – non fiction and fiction books.

BBC The Persuaders

Child’s Persuasive Brain

Monty Python defines an argument

Oral to Literate Hands Game – Three B’s Verbal articulation of H.O.T.S – 4 Corners, Judge Jury Drama – improvised skits, role-play debates. Argument Game

Gradual Release Stephen King – “On Writing” Teacher directed – graphic organisers completed with think aloud statements. Read Write Think – Writing is Fun Timely and specific feedback is CRITICAL

ICT and Persuasion Opportunities are infinite.

Test Triage What are your kids’ problems? - Wyatt Earp Syndrome –brave, courageous and bold - Filibustering -

Writing Scaffolds O - Opinions R - Reasons E - Explanation O – Opinion restated

A FORREST

Spot the techniques

Your Turn Task – Creative a persuasive poster advocating for either as to why a dog or a cat would make the best pet. Use some of the techniques we’ve covered in the presentation.

Recommended Resources

The End Thanks for listening!

What is Persuasive Writing? Definition: persuasive writing… seeks to convince its readers to embrace the point-of-view presented by appealing to the audience’s reason and understanding through argument and/or entreaty.

Persuasive Genres You encounter persuasion every day. TV Commercials Letters to the Editor Junk mail Magazine ads College brochures Can you think of other persuasive contexts?

Steps for Effective Persuasion Understand your audience Support your opinion Know the various sides of your issue Respectfully address other points of view Find common ground with your audience Establish your credibility

When to Persuade an Audience Your organization needs funding for a project Your boss wants you to make recommendations for a course of action You need to shift someone’s current point of view to build common ground so action can be taken

Understanding Your Audience Who is your audience? What beliefs do they hold about the topic? What disagreements might arise between you and your audience? How can you refute counterarguments with respect?

Understanding Your Audience What concerns does your audience face? For example: –Do they have limited funds to distribute? –Do they feel the topic directly affects them? –How much time do they have to consider your document?

Understanding Your Audience Help your audience relate to your topic Appeal to their hearts as well as their minds. –Use anecdotes when appropriate –Paint your topic in with plenty of detail –Involve the reader’s senses in these sections

Researching an Issue Become familiar with all sides of an issue. -find common ground -understand the history of the topic -predict the counterarguments your audience might make -find strong support for your own perspective

Researching an Issue Find common ground with your audience For example: Point of Opposition: You might support a war, whereas your audience might not. Common ground: Both sides want to see their troops come home.

Researching an Issue Predict counterarguments Example: Your Argument: Organic produce from local Farmers’ Markets is better than store-bought produce. The Opposition: Organic produce is too expensive.

Researching an Issue One Possible Counterargument: Organic produce is higher in nutritional value than store-bought produce and is also free of pesticides, making it a better value. Also, store-bought produce travels thousands of miles, and the cost of gasoline affects the prices of food on supermarket shelves.

Support Your Perspective Appeal to the audience’s reason –Use statistics and reputable studies Cite experts on the topic –Do they back up what you say? –Do they refute the other side?

Cite Sources with Some Clout Which source would a reader find more credible? –The New York Times – Which person would a reader be more likely to believe? –Joe Smith from Fort Wayne, IN –Dr. Susan Worth, Prof. of Criminology at Purdue University

Establish Credibility Cite credible sources Cite sources correctly and thoroughly Use professional language (and design) Edit out all errors

Cite Sources Ethically Don’t misrepresent a quote or leave out important information. Misquote: “Crime rates were down by 2002,” according to Dr. Smith. Actual quote: “Crime rates were down by 2002, but steadily began climbing again a year later,” said to Dr. Smith.

Tactics to Avoid Don’t lecture or talk down to your audience Don’t make threats or “bully” your reader Don’t employ guilt trips Be careful if using the second person, “you”

Have More Questions? Visit us at the Writing Lab –Heavilon Hall 226 – – Visit us online at the OWL –

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