As you know, first graders have an opinion on just about everything and they are
not shy to express it. So I knew we hit the jackpot when we had our opinion unit
in writing.
Instead of just writing a regular old essay for the summative assessment, we
decided to have the students bring in a box of their favorite cereal (empty of course,
as I would be helping myself to any and all boxes of Lucky Charms) so they could
write about a product that was in front of them.
We spent time really working on an introduction that would make the reader really
want to buy or try our favorite cereal.
We discussed strong words to use to explain or convince the reader to try it and
why it was so delicious. My favorite was that Cocoa Krispies has a little extra
treat--it turns your milk into chocolate milk. Such a bonus! And many boxes have
games on the back to keep you busy while you are eating breakfast. I bet these
students win a lot of arguments at home--they are very convincing.
We couldn’t let these amazing opinion/persuasive writing pieces just sit in a writing
folder. We collaborated with our LRC director and she showed us an app called
Green Screen Do Ink. We turned the writing into a commercial! Let me clear,
when I say we, I mean my student teacher. She really did a lot of work on this
project The children had their cereal box on a green screen and the students
read their very convincing writing while we/she recorded them.. I don’t know how
one would not go out and buy their cereal.after viewing these gems.
Authentic writing, writing about food, and having fun, made this writing unit one of our favorites.
I don’t know about you, but I kinda want a bowl of cereal right about now.
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