20 Yours angrily by Lucy Hewitt - Teachit

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Opinion-based writing

20 Yours angrily by Lucy Hewitt Lucy Hewitt previously taught at a rural secondary school in Oxfordshire and is now Teachit’s English Editor When I started teaching, I’d never really considered the intense ‘writing categorisation’ encouraged by SATs and GCSEs. I was, of course, aware that writing fell into broad categories, defined by who and what you were writing for. But in my mind, triplets were a biological accident, not a framework for hanging types of writing on. As I muddled my way through my NQT year, I discovered that even in the arid climate of SATs and GCSEs, getting students to argue, persuade or advise could be creative, dynamic and fun.

Lucy’s five favourite opinion-based writing ideas

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The good old letter of complaint. Unfortunately, in the adult world of bills and large corporations, writing to complain is rarely much fun. This is where the spoof letter comes in. Think Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Clancy or The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper. Alternatively, spend five minutes googling ‘letters of complaint’ and you’ll pull up a variety of wacky and wonderful finds. Then all you need to do is set students a ‘spoof’ complaint task and watch them go. (12029) Rat o’ burger! works along these lines and sets students up nicely for writing their own ‘yours angrily’ letter.

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Verbal sparring match: feeling a bit bogged down in persuasive techniques or argumentative discourse markers? Then it’s time to give the pens a rest and get students up on their feet. Think of a topic for argument and get them into pairs for a verbal sparring match. Student A gets to state a point; Student B must respond and make another point; Student A then responds and makes another point etc. No repetition is allowed and if a competitior pauses for over five seconds or umms and aaahs, he/she loses the right to respond and their opponent gets another go. While the sparring matches are going on, you could stroll around the class and make some decisions about who’s winning their sparring match. Then pitch the winners against one another and so on, until you have an overall class champion.

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It’s not cutting edge or ground breaking, but it is a tried-and-tested task which (in my experience) always yields good results. Find a really hard-hitting charity leaflet (Oxfam and Amnesty International always come up with incredibly emotive and persuasive campaigns). Photocopy this and get students to annotate all of the persuasive devices, working out why they’re effective. Then ask students to write their own ‘fictional’ charity leaflets in which they persuade their audience to donate money for a worthy cause.

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Dear Gok: get students to write a letter/postcard to Gok Wan in which they seek his fashion advice on behalf of a clueless relative or friend. Once they’ve done this, mix up the letters, re-distribute them and get students to think of an appropriately ‘Gok-ish’ response to the fashion dilemma. Remind students (before they get too carried away) that Gok Wan is, in many ways, the perfect agony uncle because he manages to be unthreatening, reassuring and an expert in his field, all at once. You

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could also show students a clip of former fashion advisers Trinny and Susannah in action and ask them to think about differences in manner/tone/advice between these two and Gok, and why Gok Wan has more current appeal.

Five tips for good opinion-based writing:

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1. try to choose topics that will have some current appeal for your students

Persuasive portfolios: ask students to collect, over the course of two or three weeks, as many examples of opinion-based writing as they can. These can include webpages, leaflets, flyers, letters, newspaper articles etc. Then get them to do a quick ‘show and tell’ of what they’ve unearthed. This could work as a speaking and listening task or, alternatively, students could peer mark one another on their understanding of the use and effectiveness of the persuasive techniques they’ve found.

Whizzy and web-based ideas Syntex: advert for Warwick Castle (Resource libraries > KS3/4 > Skills > Persuasive writing trail). Great as a snappy starter to get students’ brains in gear, the aim of this activity is to explore the word order of Warwick Castle’s advertising slogan. See how many versions of the slogan students come up with, then have a quick discussion about the best/ least effective versions before revealing the actual slogan. If students are struggling, give them the clue: ‘The key is where you put the word ‘just’! Two verbs are contrasted.’

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(7536) Crunched version of ‘I have a dream’ (Martin Luther King). This is useful both for getting students to do a short piece of creative writing and as introduction to the text itself. Before reading the famous speech, students use the words that have been ‘crunched’ (taken out of sequence and arranged in alphabetical order) by Teachit’s interactive Cruncher tool to write their own poems. This means that there is recognition and the possibility of insights into the imagery when the speech is introduced. Alternatively, you could use the ‘crunched’ list of words to help students analyse King’s use of vocabulary (in particular, repetition).

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2. make sure that the feature identifying/technique learning part is fun. Games like bingo and snap can help with this. 3. spend plenty of time looking at a ‘mixed bag’ of samples before getting students to create their own opinion-based texts 4. keep it fresh. Forget stale tasks like ‘argue for or against school uniform’ and integrate TV/film clips where possible (to show famous speeches/ adverts etc.). YouTube rarely disappoints! 5. factor in plenty of time for teaching how to plan/ structure opinion-based writing. Students are often great with the concepts but fall down when it comes to the execution.

Using www.wordle.net, why not get students to copy and paste a persuasive speech of their choice and create a Wordle from it? If stuck for ideas, (11929) Sequencing George Bush’s 9/11 address to the nation would be a good place to start. Once students have created their Wordles, get them to carry out some analysis. Which words are used most frequently and why? Are there any surprises? How does the Wordle help them with their understanding of the speech they have chosen?

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For homework, get students to respond to YouTube videos or blogs, or drop into forums (newspaper forums are good) and debate a real issue with a broader audience. As evidence that they’ve done their homework, get them to print out the thread for you and agree a username/ pseudonym cut in advance.

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www.readwritethink.org contains some great interactive activities and printables. Navigate to Classroom resources > Student interactives and then in the search box, type in ‘persuasion map’ and you’ll bring up a lovely user-friendly graphic tool which allows students to create a comprehensive plan for a persuasive piece of writing. They can even print it out at the end!

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See the site

Find the editable resources, links, interactive materials and special versions of Magnet, Cruncher and Syntex at www.teachit.co.uk/ takefive

Lucy’s top opinion-based resource

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(4870) Save my dog!

How it works This is a persuasive speaking and listening activity (which could have a written outcome) in which students are told that they are the loving owners of dogs infected with a rare virus. There is a cure for this virus but only two dogs can be given the cure (in the form of a serum). Students must enter a plea in which they try to persuade the panel that their dog should be eligible for the life-saving serum.

Tip!

Get students to analyse their favourite adverts, identifying all of the persuasive techniques. This should help them to see that they are a target audience/ market and that adverts don’t just ‘work’ on other people.

Five things to try

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If you’d like some additional support/scaffolding, try using (9537) Save my dog support. This is a PowerPoint activity created to supplement the teaching of ‘Save my dog!’. It includes pictures of the dogs (for those who don’t know their Chihuahuas from their Shelties!), along with a useful list of persuasive prompts and a sample paragraph in need of improvement.

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Change the topic. It doesn’t have to be ‘Save my dog’ – it could be ‘Save my football club’ or ‘Save my school’ (!). You could even get students to choose what needs saving and bring their own personal interests/priorities to the table.

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Make more of the persuasive writing task. Instead of having the students in role as vets writing to the owners at the end of the task, why not keep the students in their original roles and get them to write one final, last ditch letter of persuasion to the Prime Minister in which they beg him to save their dog. Students could be encouraged to draft and redraft this piece of writing, including as many persuasive techniques and emotive words as possible.

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In groups of four or five, get students to create a set of top trumps cards for the dogs. (For a useful top trumps template, see (18171) Top trumps). Each card should display the name of the dog and a picture of it. Students will also need to decide on the criteria to feature on the cards. For example, they might consider focusing on: skills, obedience, pedigree/ appearance, personal characteristics. They’ll then need to allocate a score out of ten for each of the criteria for each dog. Once they’ve done this, students will also need to decide on an overall rating for each dog.

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Up the ante! Get students to create video appeals for their dog. The simple addition of a video camera will mean that they put an extra bit of effort into their presentations and are more likely to stay on task.

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And four more choice opinion-based resources

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(12664) It’s all in the structure This is a really effective and open writing template which helps students to impose a structure on their argumentative writing without over-scaffolding or cramping their style. You might like to tweak it by enlarging the boxes so that students have more space in which to write, but both KS3 and KS4 students will benefit from being reminded to use discourse markers, thinking their arguments through carefully before committing them to paper. Page 3 of the resource is a colourful and handy sheet of discourse markers which could be laid out as placemats on students’ desks or used during revision lessons.

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(persbngo) Persuasive techniques bingo This has long been one of my favourite Teachit resources. As an NQT, this resource helped me to teach/entertain/contain two sets of lively year 9 students and embedded the persuasive techniques well enough for them to come up with some pretty impressive pieces of persuasive writing at the end of the module. The resource is also accompanied by a well-thought out Tweakit of suggestions for how you might like to adapt it.

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(14473) Got a problem? Let me help you! For a creative approach to writing to advise, try this resource. After finding examples of advisory features in a newspaper or magazine problem page, students are then asked to write a letter from a character in a text that they are studying, explaining his/her problems and asking for help with them (e.g. Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet). To give the activity broader appeal, you could let students apply this to a wider reading text/their favourite book. Once they’ve written the letter, they then need to create the expert’s reply and offer specific advice for solving the various problems.

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(11999) Monster hunt – writing a persuasive letter This is a lovely, fun task, perfect for introducing year 7 students to persuasive writing. The brief is to: ‘write a letter to the Real Monsters Committee, persuading them for funding to allow you to go on a monster hunt’. The vibrant writing mat supplies plenty of prompts for helping students to structure their work and reminds them to include key features such as descriptive adjectives and connectives. If you wanted to tweak the task, you could get students to persuade the committee to give them money for monster-hunting equipment or to fund a ‘monsters are real’ advertising campaign aimed at sceptical adults. Alternatively, if you wanted to follow on with a creative writing task, why not get students to create their own monsters and team up with the art department to produce plasticine/clay/papier-mâché versions?


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The photocopiable resource – (4870) Save my dog! Save my dog! The scenario is that each of the dogs has become infected with a rare virus. There is only enough serum to cure two of the dogs. More serum is being produced, but it will not be ready in time. The aim was to guide the pupils through a scenario which required them to develop their skills in discussion, particularly as advocates – skills which may eventually serve them well. Thus, the specific learning objectives were: to plan a persuasive speech; to present the case, in role, to a group; to take part in a discussion; to develop criteria for making a decision; to write formal letters; to reflect on the various elements of their contribution. Procedure Depending on the size of the group, distribute role cards – there are ten (each pupil should be given a role card, so for a group of twenty pupils there will be two parallel groups established) – and ask the pupils to write a speech to present to a meeting of vets in support of their dog. At the meeting the pupils should appear in role and plead for their animals. After the speeches have been made the pupils should take part in a discussion as to the relative merits of the different cases. Pupils should be given time to reflect and think about the rank order they would put the dogs in and why (they should be encouraged to establish criteria for their choices). Pupils should re-convene, make a final plea for their dog, and a vote should be taken. Formal letters from the pupils as vets to the owners could be written. The pupils should be given a framework to enable them to evaluate their performance.

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Owner Mrs Margaret Smith: Margaret is an 80-year-old widow who lives alone in the house she used to share with her husband, who died five years ago. Margaret’s children have grown up and left home years ago. Her grandchildren visit her occasionally.

Dog Peachie: Peachie is a nine-year-old Chihuahua. She is very well behaved and affectionate. Peachie sits on Margaret’s lap and rarely leaves her side. Margaret relies on her for company. Margaret is a little deaf and she expects Peachie to let her know when there is someone at the door. Margaret feels safe with Peachie.

Owner Harry Johnson: Harry is a 40-year-old builder who has been troubled by vandals climbing into his yard and wrecking very valuable equipment. He employs 20 men but is worried his business will have to shut down if he cannot protect his machinery. Vandals once loosened the wheel nuts on his digger which made it very dangerous. Lives were at risk.

Dog Sam: Sam is a three-year-old Alsatian who has been trained to guard Harry Johnson’s yard. He is very obedient and has never hurt anybody. Since Harry bought Sam there has been no trouble at the yard.


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Owner PC Ryan Lee: Ryan is a 30-year-old police officer who works with Beano, his police dog. Together they have caught many criminals. Last month they captured a terrorist who was plotting to blow up a train.

Dog Beano: Beano is a well-trained 10-year-old police dog. He is completely obedient and shows great intelligence by sniffing out trouble.

Owner Jim Perkins: Jim is 47. He has been blind all his life but has worked hard and has a good job in a call centre. He is married with two children at school. He completely relies on his dog to guide him whenever he goes out.

Dog Sally: Sally, a Labrador, is 11 and has been Jim’s guide dog since she was a puppy. Sally takes him to work every day. She even knows the way to the pub and finds Jim a place to sit!

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Owner Natasha Kendrick: It is Natasha’s 13th birthday next week. She loves her dog for a special reason. Two years ago she was out walking with the dog when she slipped, broke her ankle and was trapped under a bridge with the water level rising. Maisie ran away to raise the alarm. She brought help to Natasha, who was rescued just in time.

Dog Maisie: Maisie is 11 years old and has been the family pet since Natasha was a baby. She loves the family dearly. Maisie is a Mongrel. She is intelligent, gentle and loyal.

Owner Ed Stockwell: Ed is a shepherd who farms on the moors. He needs a good dog to guard and herd his sheep. Madonna is Ed’s best-ever Sheepdog and is more like a family pet sometimes, being so friendly and devoted.

Dog Madonna: A five-year-old Sheepdog, Madonna works every day up on the moors. She follows her owner’s whistles and herds the sheep, also driving away foxes and wild dogs that might worry the flock. She is obedient and intelligent.


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Owner Penny Dee: Penny, who is 50, lives alone and just loves dogs. Six years ago she bought a pedigree Sheltie that turned out to be a very special dog indeed – he has just won ‘Top Dog’ at Crufts Dog Show. Penny is completely devoted to her dog and has given up work to look after him.

Dog Stan: a champion. This six-year-old Sheltie is now worth a small fortune, having been awarded the top prize at the most important dog show of all. This dog is excellent in every way and any puppies that he might sire would be worth thousands!

Owner Chris Taylor: Chris is 14 and has had a hard life. Perhaps that is why she hates to see animals treated badly. Chris lives with parents who adopted her when she was abandoned. Since she was 10 she has been interested in saving animals that have been mistreated.

Dog Hector: Hector is a brown Mongrel. Nobody is sure how old he is. He was saved from cruel owners by the RSPCA. When Chris adopted Hector he was a very disturbed and frightened dog but, slowly and surely, he has responded to the love and attention that Chris has given him and is now obedient and able to go out for walks.

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Owner Tiffany Dunne: Tiffany is a trainer who specialises in dogs for show business. She has several dogs and looks after them all very well but she knows that Larry is one in a million.

Dog Larry: A seven-year-old Collie, but not just any Collie, Larry is a film star with millions of young fans all over the world. Major films like ‘The Adventures of Larry’ have been successful from America to Japan. He gets thousands of fan letters every week. Larry is funny and brave and seems to smile when the camera is on him.

Owner Lee Travers: 30-year-old Lee is an international rescue worker who travels the world with his dog, searching for survivors from disasters. He is married with a two-year-old daughter, but is often away from home with his dog.

Dog Oscar: a Hound. Oscar is 13 and a very experienced sniffer dog. When there is an earthquake, a collapsed building or someone trapped underground, Lee is paid to bring his dog and search for survivors. Oscar puts his life at risk searching for people using his great sense of smell. Over the years, Oscar has saved the lives of many people.


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Here is a list of the dogs: Peachie (80-year-old Margaret Smith’s Chihuahua) Sam (Harry Johnston’s guard dog) Beano (PC Ryan Lee’s police dog) Sally (Jim Perkins’ guide dog for the blind) Maisie (Natasha Kendrick’s Mongrel. It saved her life) Madonna (Ed Stockwell’s clever Sheepdog) Stan (Penny Dee’s very valuable champion dog) Hector (Chris Taylor’s Mongrel. It was badly treated) Larry (Tiffany Dunne’s film star dog) Oscar (Lee Travers’ sniffer rescue dog) Put them in order, starting with the one that deserves the treatment the most. Be ready to explain why you put them in that order.

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Name of owner Name of dog Age of dog Breed of dog Reasons why your dog should be saved


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