The First Opinion Writing Unit for Beginning Writers

The First Opinion Writing Unit for Beginning Writers

Hey, y'all! One of the first writing units we do at the beginning of the year is opinion writing. We do a little narrative unit, then we jump right into opinion. We rotate through those two and informational all year long so that the kids get a taste of everything. But one road block we run into each year is that the kids don't know what an opinion is. They have lots of them. But in their minds, their opinions are facts. 'Cause they're six. 

So...we gotta fix that. 

The first thing we need to do when teaching opinion writing is to teach what an opinion is and how it is different from a fact. This gets tricky for little people because if they agree with it, they usually think it's a fact. It's tough, I know. But that's why we practice. 

We define facts and opinions, we try to decide which sentences are which, we sort them whole class, and then on our own. All the while, trying to make it engaging and fun. We put on our metaphorical detective hats and sleuth out all the different opinions. 

When we start to get a handle on that, we dive into opinion paragraphs. We talk about what a paragraph is, how we structure a simple opinion paragraph, what topic and closing sentences are, and how we can support our opinions with reasons. We do this whole group, with partners, and on our own. It's a whole thing. 

Because, kids can't write a decent opinion paragraph if they've never seen one. We can't just throw a graphic organizer at them to fill in. They need examples! 

We take some time to look at opinion paragraph structure: the topic sentence goes first, then some reasons (I aim for 2-4 depending on my writers), and a closing sentence. Sometimes our topic and closing sentences sound pretty similar, but this unit includes lots of varieties of each so they don't all sound the same. 

Once kids can identify all the parts--topic sentence with opinion, reasons, closing sentence--we put pencil to paper and start writing our own. (You'll do a whole class example during this unit, so they will see the entire process before writing their own.) 

You can decide if you want everyone writing about their own topic or if you want them to pick a category like seasons, colors, food, pets, etc. Some classes, I let them choose, other classes need more structure and direction. It's up to you. If your admin wants more advanced opinion topics, you can use this same setup but with one of these writing prompts. 

You can find this beginning writing unit in my TPT store here. It's the beginning of a series of writing units (only this narrative unit comes before it) with several more units to come. Be sure to follow me on TPT so you'll know when they hit the store. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you found some valuable ideas for your writing time. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,