1. Opinion Writing in Pre-K and Primary: Introducing BECAUSE Jean Wolph Louisville Writing Project

2.  2 WritingReading Argument MINI-UNIT Emphasis # of Lessons ARGUMENT SKILLS PRODUCT ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT CLOSE READING STRATEGIES RESPONSE TO READINGS TOPICS Draft, Feedback, Revise, Reflect Close reading strategies Writing & talking to develop knowledge on topic or issue Backing up an opinion 3 Lessons Entering Skills: Understanding the difference between fact and opinion Foundational Skills: Generating reasons to justify an opinion Product: Sentence produced through drawing and/or writing Using a reason to explain why Listening to Read-aloud, reading pictures and chiming in Scaffolded writing: I like ___ because ___. Or I don’t like _____ because ____. I like __ because 1 shared Reading Mini-Unit Overview

3. Writing Standards Emphasized in the Mini-Unit Write opinion pieces in which students state an opinion (giving reasons).

4. One-Day Mini-Unit Read aloud the poem, “Things I Like,” helping students join in using the picture cues. Model the addition of a reason. Return to some (or all) of the slides and talk about why people do or don’t like these things. Give students a page with sentence stem and ask them to draw and/or write what they like and why (or don’t like and why). Mini-Unit Instructional Sequence

5. Inquiry Question: What do you like? Why?

6. Exploring Our Opinions  While we read a poem together, let’s listen for what the writer likes.  Do you like any of these things? A little later, we’ll talk about what we like and why we like these things.

7. Things I Like I like… ice cream,

8. funny dreams,

9. dusty moonbeams.

10. I don’t like… brain freezes,

11. multiple sneezes,

12. scabs on knees-es.

13. I like… friendly dogs,

14. ants on logs,

15. morning fogs.

16. I don’t like… mean looks,

17. polluted brooks,

18. or mistreated books.

19. Best of all, I like a river view,

20. a sky of blue,

21. friends like you.

22. What do you like? Do you like these things, too?

23. Introducing our new friend BECAUSE! BECAUSE helps us tell WHY. I like ice cream because it melts on my tongue. Who else likes ice cream? Why do you like it?

24. We like ice cream because _____.

25. We don’t like brain freezes because _____.

26. We like friendly dogs because ____________.

27. We don’t like friendly dogs because ____________.

28. We don’t like mean looks because _______________________.

29. We like a sky of blue because ________________.

30. We like friends because ____________________.

31. Let’s Draw and Write Our Opinions! I like ___________________ because ___________. I don’t like _______________because __________.

32. I like ____________________________________ because __________________________________.

33. I don’t like ________________________________ because __________________________________.