Students will work with one or two partners to write persuasive letters, determining a role and purpose, and using the 3 elements of persuasive writing. They will share creative and formatting responsibilities to learn from one another as they write.
Before the Activity
See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.
Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.
Install the LearningCheck™ App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.
Present lesson objectives. Ask students to review their notes on persuasion. Place students in groups of two or three. Group members will collaborate to write a persuasive letter on a topic meaningful to them using the "Persuasive Letter" section of their resource file. An example might be for students to write a letter to their parents asking permission to do something they are not ordinarily permitted to do, offering concrete reasons why the rule should be changed or ignored for this particular instance, and so forth.
During the Activity
Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
Distribute the LearningCheck file(s) to your class using TI Connect™ and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity
Be introduced to three main elements and several strategies of persuasive writing.
Brainstorm a list of situations where persuasive writing skills would be necessary.
Create a written persuasive argument.
Collaborate to take the writing project from idea to product.
Analyze and evaluate peers writing for required elements of persuasive argument.
Make formal suggestions for improvement of the persuasive argument they evaluate.
After the Activity
Collect students' letters using the TI Connectivity cable or TI-Navigator™. Discuss the activity.