Standard: 3.W.1b – Provide reasons that support the opinion.
Grade level: Grade 3
Subject: English Language Arts
Domain: Writing
Teacher Overview
This standard focuses on helping students learn to provide reasons that support their opinions in writing. It is crucial as it lays the foundation for persuasive writing, a key skill in both academic and real-world contexts. Students should be familiar with basic sentence construction, expressing personal opinions, and paragraph writing.
After mastering this standard, students will be able to construct more complex arguments and use evidence to support their claims in writing.
Common Misconception 1
A common misconception is that stating an opinion is enough. This is incorrect because persuasive writing requires supporting reasons to be convincing.
Intervention 1
An effective intervention is to use guided writing exercises where students practice providing at least two reasons for their opinions.
Common Misconception 2
Another misconception is that any reason can support an opinion, even if it’s unrelated. This is incorrect because reasons must be directly relevant to the opinion to be persuasive.
Intervention 2
Using graphic organizers can help students plan their writing and ensure their reasons are directly related to their opinion.
Prerequisite Knowledge
Students should have a basic understanding of forming simple sentences, expressing personal opinions, and basic paragraph structure.
Subsequent Knowledge
Students will develop the ability to construct more complex arguments, use evidence to support claims, and refine their persuasive writing techniques.
Instructional Activities
- Opinion writing prompts
- Debate activities
- Peer review sessions
- Graphic organizer exercises
- Modeling and guided practice
