Workshop Wednesday: Opinion Writing

It's Workshop Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with my BBB Jivey from Ideas By Jivey to talk about Opinion Writing!

I wrote about The Spider and the Fly, one of my favorite mentor texts, to use around this season a couple of weeks ago here.

 

We don't really work on opinion writing until the last semester of school, but I love doing this activity with my students! It offers them a chance to be creative and it's the perfect opportunity to teach perspective! After reading this beautifully illustrated book, I showed my students several websites with spider facts and information. I let them brainstorm things they wanted to know about spiders (how they help, how many species, how many are poisonous, etc.). We found some valuable information to support their writing assignment, which they got after all this discussion and research:

They had to take on the role of the spider and tell his/her side of the story.

These are ROUGH DRAFTS, a quick write, but for the amount of time they had to write...I'm pretty impressed and excited!

Here are some samples and I've included a couple of my favorite lines in case you can't see the pics:

 

"I may not be flawless, I may not be beautiful, and I may not be attractive, but I'm extraordinary in my own ways. I'm hurt, I'm mad, and I've almost been killed. Twice."

**What about the effective use of that sentence fragment!!!!!

 

" I can't eat for one second without my leg getting sprayed by bug spray? Ugh!!!...I'm doing my part why can't you?"

 "You know Spiderman? He is a hero (just like me). I am not a perfect insect."

*I know spiders aren't insects, but remember our focus was opinion writing. I will clear up this students' misconception.

"I know it is unusual for spiders to speak, but it is a fact we can speak...Trust me. I spin a web and catch flies for you!"

**I like how he labeled the clipart at the top "portrait of me". :O)

 

Here is my bulletin board to show off our writing!

 

This is a great lesson to teach a different point of view...I think several of my students changed their opinions about spiders!