82 Lessons in Persuasive Writing: Why We Must Run with Scissors

Writing powerful persuasive prose begins by stirring up voices deep within the writer. As readers, we remember some of these voices of passion, humor, hope and chutzpah. We forget all the bureaucratic, jargon-filled position papers that mask real voices with dead words pinned in paragraphs on the page. There have been many great books on teaching the rhetoric of persuasion, but few tackle the complex art of liberating the dynamic voices of the student persuaders themselves. Why We Must Run With Scissors-- Voice Lessons in Persuasive Writing shows teachers how to approach persuasive writing from the inside out, teaching not only the craft of persuasion, but also the wild and crazy art that informs it.

Composed of 83 practical, classroom-ready lessons with examples of student writing from grades 3 to 12, this unique and user-friendly professional book provides teachers with an idea-packed curriculum for sparking a class of creative and savvy persuaders. Inside you will find lessons on:

* Exploring your personal persuasive power

* Imagining your audience

* Finding persuasion in all forms of literature

* Mining passionate opinions from the real world (fix size of dot)

* Using humor and parody to teach persuasion

* Digging beneath an entrenched position

* Finding your own distinct voice, even when writing to a uniform prompt

* Dressing as the Enemy

* Crafting beginnings and endings

* Learning the secrets of elaboration

* Acing the state persuasive writing test without ?. . .

* Assessing our arguments and efforts with sample student papers

* Using rubrics and other tools for student self-evaluation

..........and much, much more.

What do overworked, frazzled English teachers need more than June, July and August? This book. Why We Must Run With Scissors is a practical, usable book filled with ideas that beg to be used by real kids in a real classroom. They were written by a real teacher who has used them, perfected them and presented them in one of the most user friendly formats I have encountered in years. While this book is touted as a writing text, it is really a literacy text because it is filled with reading, writing, connecting and extending ideas. I love this book, and I would recommend it to any teacher who wants to bring joy and laughter back to the teaching of reading and writing.- Catherine Entremont