‘Order in the Court! - A Strategy for Introducing Persuasive Writing!’ (Week ending 23rd October, 2020)

Court case no.1: Dispute between students and persuasive writing.

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Persuasive writing- a critical skill that is seen as intimidating to primary school students.

From past experiences, some students easily tune out when it is time to write a persuasive paper.

 Is it because it requires them to use up more brain cells? or are they just afraid of the term

persuasion?

 

As educators, we ought to be very creative when introducing this genre of writing to our

students. Additionally, we should help them to understand that the art of persuasion is an

important aspect of our everyday lives.

 On Tuesday 20^th October, I had an aha moment. The lecturer was very skillful in helping us to bridge

 the gap between students and their fear for persuasive writing.

She did not simply tell us how we can help the students in our classroom. She made us act the part.

Furthermore, a wise man once said, 

     “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”

                                                                                -(Benjamin Franklin, 1986).

Bingo! We were involved in a mini debate. 

For this session we were tasked to work in cooperative groups of three to brainstorm ideas and organize

 them into a cohesive paragraph to be presented to the class. Topics were given to us. And guess what? 

They were current or trending topics. What a way to get students excited about persuasive writing. 

Moreover, we were asked to use some of the techniques we learnt in the previous session to enhance our

 paragraphs.

 

These are the topics we worked on. Interesting right?

            

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Below is the product of my group’s persuasive paragraph on closing the Maurice Bishop International 

Airport.

I must say Kudos to Mrs. Laz! She really deserves a trophy. This experience will certainly stay vivid in 

the minds of my colleagues and I. Proud I am to be a beneficiary of this technique. I can now return to 

my classroom confident enough to employ this effective strategy that will encourage my students to 

enjoy writing persuasive pieces.

Also, this technique will encourage collaboration and teamwork among the students and most 

importantly, it will give them a boost or a drive to write. Students will no longer struggle to get ideas, 

but they will be able to unlock knowledge they never though they had.