So, what is your opinion? In this 10-week class, students will learn how to brainstorm, research, and write a multi-paragraph opinion paper trying to persuade their audience to agree with their opinion. The teacher will use many resources such as graphic organizers, Internet searches, and sample opinion papers to guide students through the opinion writing process. During each class a mini writing lesson will be taught. Then students will have time to try the skill on their own and ask for help as needed during class. Students will keep all of the parts we work on and use them to write a final opinion paper. 

Week 1 What is Opinion Writing? We will explore how we use opinion writing to persuade an audience. Students will brainstorm topics for their own opinion essay. 

Week 2 Students will pick their top 3 opinion topics from our brainstorming session and begin to outline their reasons for their opinion. 

Week 3 Students will pick the 1 topic they want most out of the 3 topics they outlined in the last class. Students will be shown how to search for facts about their topic on the Internet. Next, they will begin to search for facts on their own to support their opinion.  The teacher will instruct the students how to use safe search engines for kids. 

Week 4 In this class, students will learn how to state their opinion and write a good lead that will hook their reader. 

Week 5 Students will write their introduction paragraph.

Week 6 We will discuss how to write a topic sentence for each of our reasons and start writing the paragraph for reason 1.
Students will be given the opportunity to ask questions about grammar, spelling and punctuation in their writing.

Week 7 Students will write their body paragraphs for reasons 2 and 3 with support from the teacher. Students will be given the opportunity to ask questions about grammar, spelling and punctuation in their writing.

Week 8 In this session, we will discuss a good concluding paragraph and students will write their own concluding paragraph. Students will be given the opportunity to ask questions about grammar, spelling and punctuation in their writing.

Week 9 Students will put all of the parts together and write their final drafts. Students will be given the opportunity to ask questions about grammar, spelling and punctuation in their writing.

Week 10 In our last class, the students will share their final drafts.