Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wonder Wednesday: Persuasive Writing and Ownership



As we start back to school this week, I am going to begin to push my students to think differently about the wonder of the day. Today for Wonder Wednesday, we are going to look at a wonder from a different point of view. As a class we are going to examine WONDER #43 Where do Recycled Items Go? I chose this article so my students will think beyond the collection of items. It also connects with our science unit.



  • Where do recycled items go?
  • What kinds of products are made from recycled items?
  • How are recycled items sorted for processing?
Here are some of the focused questions that we will use to examine the WONDER from a different point of view.


*How did the author of the wonder grab your attention (LEADS)?
*How did the author of the wonder raise your awareness of the recycled materials?
*What are the most powerful points of the wonder?


In addition, I will ask the students to become more aware of published media. Students will choose their favorite commercial and write about it. Using the same 3 questions from above just inserting their commercial product. One of my goals is to allow the students time to notice persuasive writing that is all around them. Again connecting school learning with home learning.


Once we have looked at all the different types of persuasive writing, we will design our class rubric for grading their persuasive writing projects. There is power in allowing students to help design the rubric that that they will be held accountable to for grading. It is going to be a very busy start to our new school year.



4 comments:

  1. What a fabulous idea! We will begin persuasive writing soon and I think I will borrow your idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Great thinking once again. Can you view wonderopolis photos and video at school? I am blocked and neither the district ir wonderopolis can change that. I tried.

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  3. Yes we can watch the video only my teacher computer because it is unlocked. The students can not watch the video on their iPods though. Typically when I assign wonder HW I choose a new wonder that connected to the wonder that we looked at in class that day.

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  4. This is "wonder"ful - I am exploring where to branch out with Wonderopolis, and this is just such an excellent idea. Thanks, Maria!

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