Get your students excited about opinion writing! This complete opinion writing unit includes daily lesson plans, notebook charts, mentor texts and more. This unit takes your students through the whole writing process. Students will begin with getting ideas and end with a published piece of opinion writing. The opinion writing lessons included can be used in two ways:
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Students get their own ideas for their essay.
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Students write based on a prompt.
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✏️What is included in the opinion writing unit?
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Unit Lesson Plans
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PowerPoint
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Notebook Anchor Charts
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Full Size Anchor Charts
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Teacher Examples
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Rubrics & Checklists
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Sorts
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Mini Word Wall
✏️ About this Product
This opinion essay unit provides basic opinion writing teaching points and resources based on the Common Core Writing Standards for Grades 3-5. The lesson plans are divided into three parts:
1. Basic Teaching Points: Lessons that can be carried from writing a self-selected opinion piece to writing in response to text. These begin with generating ideas and end with a published piece of opinion writing.
2. Bonus (mini) Mini Lessons: Lessons to be used in small group, conferring, or whole group depending on the needs of your students.
3. Writing in Response to Text: Lessons to be used when writing in response to text or a prompt
This unit provides topic ideas and resources for any opinion piece. You could use a text as a basis for the opinion piece or use this unit to simply kick off opinion writing in your classroom. The writing lessons do not need to be taught in the exact order. Also, some of the teaching points you could use as small group lessons if you find that only some of your students need the lesson.
✏️Writing Minilessons:
The minilessons can be skipped, moved around, modified as needed based on your students' needs.
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Study a Mentor Text
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Getting Ideas
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Collect Entries
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Writers rehearse
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Reasons and Evidence
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Structure of Opinion Writing
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Make a Plan Using Boxes & Bullets
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Using Transition Words
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Hook the Reader (Opinion Statement)
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Reason Paragraph (Planner to Paragraph)
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Precise Word Choice
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Expert Words (Domain-Specific Vocabulary)
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Elaboration
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Craft a Conclusion
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Revise: Eliminate Unnecessary Words
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Edit
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Polish & Publish
Bonus Minilessons
18. Strong, Bold Thesis Statements
19. Addressing the Audience's Concerns
20. Address Counterclaims
21. When, Why, How to Use Transitional Words and Phrases
22. Choosing Convincing Reasons
23. Endings: Restate Opinion + Call to Action
24. Strong Evidence
25. Color Code the Text to Identify the parts of an essay
26. Using repetition
Writing in Response to Text
27. Unpack the Prompt
28. Close Read a Text to Collect Evidence
29. Use Charts and Text Features as Evidence
30. What Makes Strong Evidence?
31. Citing Text Evidence
✏️ PowerPoint:
For each lesson above, PowerPoint slides are included that can be used to model and teach the lesson.
✏️Notebook Charts/Binder Charts for Students (see full list below):
For each lesson, a notebook chart is included to support student learning.
✏️ More Writing Resources Included:
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Rubrics & Checklists
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Graphic Organizers
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Mini Word Wall
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Reasons + Evidence Sort
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Teacher Example Essay + Planning
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Mentor Text Recommendations
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Publishing Paper
✏️ Writing Notebook Anchor Charts
The anchor charts included in this product are meant for students to have anchor charts at their fingertips in their Writer’s Notebooks. I don’t know about you, but wall space is always an issue in my classroom. Not only that but storing and keeping track of large chart paper can sometimes stretch our organizational skills to the limits! I have found one of the best ways to support my students is to treat their notebooks like a tool in which they can find the strategies and skills taught whenever they need it. In this way, what we teach our students is not just a one-day occurrence, but they have a “forever tool.”
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Characteristics of Opinion Writing
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Writing an Opinion Essay
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Topic Ideas for an Opinion Essay
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Getting Ideas for an Opinion Essay
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Debatable Topics
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Opinion Vocabulary
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Reasons vs. Evidence Sort
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Opinion Writing Structure (2 Reasons)
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Opinion Writing Structure (3 Reasons)
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Transition Words for Opinion Writing
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Transition Words from Pig Parade Mentor Text
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The Hook
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Paragraphs with Purpose
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Color Code Your Text
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Word Choice
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Opinion Sentence Stems
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Writers Use Expert Words
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Transitional Phrases for Evidence & Elaboration
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Crafting a Conclusion
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Instead of Says
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Using Text Evidence
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Quoting or Paraphrasing the Text
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Using Quotations from a Text
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Opinion Writers Checklist
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Peer Editing
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Thesis Statement for an Opinion Essay
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Planning a Thesis Statement
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Rebuttal, Response, & Counterclaims
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Repeat Your Opinion
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Close Reading Strategies
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Writers Choose Strong Evidence
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Consider Your Audience
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Language & Tone to Validate Your Argument
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Opinion Writing Editing Checklist
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Solving Your Spelling Problems
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Opinion Writer's Checklist
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Sorting My Evidence
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4 Square Graphic Organizer
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Writers Celebrate 3-2-1 Style
Do you need opinion writing prompts and text sets to go with this unit?
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