Sometimes Teaching

In this taskcard, originally created for a Project CHILD textbook station focused on developing narrative writing in 5th graders, students write their own flash science fiction stories. Students will read about the basic characteristics of the science fiction genre, choose from five original writing prompts, plan a short "flash" narrative, and then write their own science fiction story.

This is a persuasive writing and speaking project that I use with my fifth grade class that can be adapted for a wide range of grade levels. In this project students will work together to prepare for a debate on whether or not the 13 colonies should rebel against England from the point of view of either a patriot or a loyalist. Next, students will work independently to plan and write a five paragraph persuasive essay based on their arguments.

After reading a non-fiction article, students will summarize arguments both for and against a topic using evidence from the text and write persuasively to explain which position they agree with.

In this persuasive writing unit students will read a text about the current debate over keeping Orcas in captivity. Students will then write a persuasive essay summarizing the arguments of both sides of this issue using evidence from the text, then state and support their own opinion as to which argument they agree with.